Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 558 | Jase's Zoning Out Explained & What Do We Do When God Doesn't Give Us What We Want?

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

Jase says he's built for the outdoors, so being in a windowless room is really tough for him. And he explains why, yes, he sometimes DOES zone out during the podcast recording and why retreating to the outdoors is even biblical, following the example of Jesus. Zach says we've separated the secular from the sacred, so why is anyone wondering why the secular hasn't been transformed by the sacred? Jase points out that every human is possessed by something — whether it be sin or the Holy Spirit. Al shares about an event he attended where 46 Louisiana legislators were given awards based on the bills they brought forward that rely on biblical values. Jase explores what we do when God doesn't give us what we want.  - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So I'm still in Baton Rouge for the podcast today. And last night I met some, one guy came up and he said, hey, I just want you to know, I'm unashamed. And I was like, that's what I like to hear. So a lot of different people that listen to the podcast came up and talked to me. We took some pictures.

And Jace, one of them, he said, he said, I just got a question for you. He said, where does Jace go in his mind when he just zones out every once in a while? And I said, you know, we've really talked about that a lot and we don't know. We think he's someplace is the third having. I was really playing it up. And he said, I just see him every once in a while. He just looks down and it's like he just goes away. So since that was asked, Chase, I figured somebody else probably that listens to the podcast wants to know.

So where do you go when you just zone out? during the podcast. The short answer, I guess, would be in the spirit. The long answer would be, I've been asked that. I was asked that by my mom, I would say, the first seven years of my life every day once I understood the English language or the form that we use. Then I was asked that in school because I would stare outside. And so my wife has asked that several times.

I think what it is is when I get inside a structure, I feel like that guy, Kevin Costner, when he had spent too much time in the ocean, and they were trying to sell this that we evolved from fish. And all of a sudden he started getting, what do you call them, voices gills

yeah gills you started forming gills you know it's terrible maybe and I didn't even make it to the end you're talking about

water water world yeah water world don't if you get a chance to see that pass but I've never heard of it

yeah good good for you so what I've said is when I get in a structure I feel like Kevin Costner in the terrible movie water world

because when he got on dry land, he started getting dizzy and he would zone out because now that he was becoming a fish, well, I don't like being indoors. So every few moments, it's a anxiety issue that I need to go outside. And Al knows, I quit my job because they tried to, you know,

they gave us an internship after we went through the school. And I realized this just wasn't for me. but the reason I gave them for my resignation is I said, you don't have a window in my office. It's just not right. Was this at the church? Yeah, they put me in the middle. They put me in the middle office.

And I read Mark 1, Mark 2, Mark 3, and I assumed that I should be working for Jesus 24-7. So most of my Bible studies were happening. after dark, and I read this to him in chapter one, when the evening, that evening 32, 132, after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all these people, and Jesus healed them and drove out many demons. And then early in the morning, you know, he got up while it was still dark and he left the house and went to a solitary place. So they said, well, you're not Jesus.

It's true. And this, we have a solitary place for you. I said, but I don't like your solitary place, which is the equivalent of a prison cell with someone in solitary confinement. I'm a man of the outdoors. That's a true story. That conversation happened. Do what is that?

Did you tell them no pull, Pets needed. No, I was before the Phil's disdain with pool pits came up. I don't really agree with Phil, but I think it's okay to have somewhere to put your stuff and to have it where the crowd can look at you. But I don't know. I'm not a... You know, I think somebody listening right now may think that that was intentional, the whole setup

so that we could end up back in Mark, but it really, I'm a little bit dumbfounded at how you, how you went from that question, and we wound up in Mark chapter one, first 32. That's right there. That's good, Jace. Jase was participating in the age old question, the statement, everyone is looking for you. Well, what had happened very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, got out of the structure, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and they found him. When they found him, they said, everyone's looking for you. Hard to find. Jace didn't like the idea of being like imprisoned in a little small room.

From eight to five. Because they always know when they open the door whether he's there or not. He wants to be a little harder to find than the common man. No, look, they wanted me to be in from eight to five without a window. So I would zone out and slept. I'm a slept most of the time in the office. I just slept. And they would, you know, old Carl, you remember he would knock on my door while I'm asleep.

You're going to do more than that to wait me up. So then he would walk in and say, hey. and I would raise my head. He said, are you sleeping? I went, yes, sir. He said, how come you didn't get enough sleep last night? I said, no, I was sharing Jesus with people into the night. He said, that's great.

Let me get you some coffee. I thought, I don't want coffee. I want to go home and sleep in my bed. Yeah, but that was a, he would, Carl was a tough man. I mean, all those guys, they were, that was another breed right there, man. They didn't play around. The best is yet to come.

I'm just saying you can't put Jesus into an eight to five job. That doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for me. I'm out. And plus, I'm an outdoors person. So this is a weird form of torture by making me sit in a room without a window for hours at a time. So occasionally on the podcast, I zone out and I'm thinking about trees and the wind and grass, ducks.

It adds credence to the well. And if anybody is asking on where your background, who sired you, that would be probably one of the things that they would notice. What? Don't put me inside a structure. Yeah, I don't. I don't like being, you know, I don't like being enclosed. Yep.

The apple did not fall far from the tree. It's like a form of claustrophobia. Al, what were you going to say? No, I was going to say that Jace brings up a great larger point about sort of modern church in America, about what you expect out of your pastor or your church leadership, because there was sort of this idea that came along in the last probably 50 years of this sort of corporatization. of the church. And so it's like the, you know, he's the CEO and you got the people and you got to spend the office hours and, you know, there has to be this high profile and professionalism.

And, but really, I mean, all that was not, that's not biblical or anything that we read about in like Jay's properly did it. And look, I loved my mentors. They were great. But they were just locked into that idea that you had to be in the office for a certain amount of time. And the question was why? Because most of the ministry, Jason's right, went on outside of there. It's the same with me. And, of course, the difference in me and Jay's is I just, you know, stuck with it because I can sit inside a room without zoning out. But at the same time, I was just like, Jay's, most of my stuff was done not in the building. That's not even where I like to study. Well, you know, it's interesting.

Yeah, they got off that after I left and, you know, they quit doing that. But while I was there, remember, there was like filling out forms. And I was like, I don't even remember. But we baptized him. You know what I can't, I can't fill out a form. It just didn't seem right to me. And so I just said I'm out of here. But I told them, I was like, you don't have a window in that office.

And they were like, what? I was like, you can't, how would you expect a person to live there eight hours a day and not go completely insane? There were a lot of, well, I remember back in the late 90s, there were a lot of baptisms and Bible studies after midnight. That's what most of that happened. Which was cool. I mean, those were days.

I look back on those days, and it's like there was a time period. I probably started from about the time Mack Owen, which was before my time, but when he walked that aisle and confessed his drug addiction in front of the entire church, which had never been done of anything of that scale, who, by the way, later went on to become a very influential shepherd at our church and now runs celebrate recovery globally. But he walked that aisle and confessed, and then the church surrounds him. But then I think, Phil, when you guys started coming to church there, it was like the kingdom kind of went outside the building.

And I mean, the Sunday morning sermon was not, I mean, that was not the focal point. In the best days of Vice Fair Road, I mean, the focal point was what was going on in the Bible studies and the equipping of the priesthood of believers. To me, there was about a 10, 20 year run there that I look back on as like formative for my life and understanding that the kingdom is made up of a bunch of priests and they're not professional clergy. They're just regular guys like us that would go out and share the gospel and just the fruit of that and the community that was built in that time period.

I'm friends with John and Paula God. And like they're like, even if I would ever talk to them, I mean, they're like family. I may not see them and talk to them for four months. But when I do, it's family. And it's because of those bonds developed in that time period. Yep. Yeah, that's why I think I was misunderstood in a previous podcast when we were talking about, I said I wasn't a leader.

And the people who read my emails told me that a lot of people sent emails about that. I was like, well, I meant I'm not a leader in an organization. with like Al, even though he doesn't get paid, he is a leader. You know, and you're the same way. I'm not a declared leader. But do I try to leave my family to heaven? Yes. Oh, yeah, I'm a leader in that.

And do I try to lead other people to Jesus? Oh, yes. I think we are leaders in that capacity. And I consider myself that. But I'm not a leader in that. I'm in an organization where, people are holding me accountable of like a local base, you know. And, I mean, because I walked away from that.

I mean, I was kind of kidding about not having the window, but I really was, I was serious. I was like, I'm just, I'm built for the outside. When you spend eight hours a day inside a little office, it's hard to make that square with plant seed. Yeah, I don't know what they do in there. There's no ground in the plant. And I can't do it. So like when I, now I did work,

you know, an eight-hour job for Duck Commander for years, but we had windows. And at any moment, I could walk outside and blow the duck haul. And I did many times. And people would say, what's Chase doing?

He's like, he wanted to be outside. So, well, one of my favorite things to do, that's why I'm glad to discover metal detecting. Because if I get in the right field in the right place at the right, moment, I'll just, I'll just collapse and just lay there in the grass, you know, look up at

this guy, and I like that moment, right? You're talking about peace of mind. I'm going to heaven. I got Jesus. I'm outside, especially on a river or something. I mean, I just, I feel, I feel comfortable in that setting. If we want to have a conversation or if I want to study or I want to reflect, or like Jesus, when he left, and spent some alone.

time he usually went up on a mountain and so I'm like it's biblical it's it's Jesus like let's go up out in nature and we're just from reflecting let's take a quick break um you know it's interesting though because I think about how many pastors and this I'm not knocking into these people some of these people have done great work but I do think that like thinking about as a as a in the role of pastor or shepherd or elder which is I would argue this is this is the same term. It's kind of hard to pastor sheep, though, if you're not with them. And so many people think that that Sunday morning sermon, that's the thing that's going to do it, right? If we just give them the right sermon, they'll spend 30, 40 hours a week on a sermon. Is that what they're doing?

Well, some of them are. Yeah. And I think that, I think it's, I think it's, I think the church is in a place now, though, where we've kind of, we've kind of gone through the scamming on this thing. And I think people are looking for authentic community now that's gospel centered and spirit-filled. And so it's like, you know, you got to see, you got to, like, if you want to be a part of transformed lives, you got to be a part of people's lives. It's like what I was talking about, you know, when Lisa shared, you know, her story, you know, which is powerful, but it's even more powerful when you know her, like I know her and like we know her.

And then like you were there for a lot of this stuff. It's like, man, you start to see that unfold over a lifetime. And there, man, there's not a sermon in the world that's going to, hold that kind of power. You know what I mean? They're doing life together. You know. All right.

Well, y'all brought it up. So I'm going to give you a sermon. I'm going to give you a sermon now before we get in tomorrow. Well, it just hit me because, now look, I was young and immature back then. But I think I was right on the issue, which was we were sharing Jesus with a lot of people. And we were meeting every night either in our house or somebody else's house. And it was more of discipleships. It was like, because these people were coming to Christ, they didn't have anything to do.

And we were young. We were like, come on. You know, this is four even had kids. But when you read an Acts 2 after Peter shares Jesus 3,000 respond, there's one verse I want to read. Because, you know, and this is basically what I filled out in the report. There was all these sections out. You remember those things? There were all these, like, outlined form one, one.

A, B, and I just at the top of the page put, I quoted this, it hit me. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. So I'm like, every night I'm in the word with people. I'm in the word. We're studying the Bible. We're fellowshiping, we're having meals, and we're praying. together. That's what I'm doing. And I'm going to do that tonight, and then I'm going to do it tomorrow night.

Then I'm going to do it after the night after that. But at some point, I got to sleep. And so if I come up here from 8 to 5, when am I going to sleep? So I was just sleeping in the office, which was a bad look. Outreach became laborious. Well, but your sermon, though, it's in, line with where we're at and Mark, I was just underlining this as you were talking. Yeah, verse 12 and Mark 1, it says immediately the spirit impelled him to go out.

So think about the language here. He's going out. Verse 14, Jesus came into Galilee, so then he came. Verse 16, he was going out. Verse 19, going on a little further. 21, they went into all this language, verse 29, they came out of the synagogue. They came into the house. And so what you're seeing here is a disruption of what now we would call a secular, sacred divide that there's, you know, we've been told that there's supposed to be a divide between the secular world and the sacred world.

And they're not to collide. And the sacred world, that's what goes on in our church buildings. That's what goes on in our institutions. And whatever you do in there, that's like, that's your Jesus time. whatever you do, do not bring the sacred into the secular and don't bring the secular into the sacred. These are two divided categories. And I think why this is so important, you kind of ended, we kind of ended in Mark I kind of tongue and cheek, but it is true. That story that you told is so true of the problem with the church today is that we have separated the secular from

the sacred and we're wondering why the secular is not being transformed by the sacred. because we bought into the lie and the kingdom of God does not make the distinction. The kingdom of God says go into the world. Like go, move, act. Go outside the camp. Yeah, go outside the camp. You know what's interesting you bringing that up? Because I wasn't going to bring this up when we were in Mark I, but since you brought it up,

I was fascinated that the same phrase in the Greek language that when it says at once the Spirit, Mark 112, at once the spirit sent him out into the desert was the same phrase used when Jesus cast out the evil spirit out of somebody else. And it was fascinating to me because I thought in that moment when I was reading by myself, I thought, we're all possessed by something or someone, you know, in our mind. Yep. And what you want to have happen in your life is the spirit guiding you in the right direction. even though it doesn't look like the right direction, which in Jesus's case, he went from the water, declared as the son of God, Jesus's son, into the wilderness.

But what do you do? Fill with the spirit, and he has this confrontation with the evil one. But then the next paragraph, he gets into the same confrontation, and he casts the evil spirit out, which we know why, because he wants to move in. And that process repeats itself in all human beings' lives as adults. You either got to get the evil, selfish spirit out so he can move. And then it will carry you, but you're on the move. And that's why I think Mark, if you want to sum up his take on Jesus' life, it's action. I mean, this is action. I mean, he skipped over the baby years.

He's like, no, we immediately hair on the chest. Here he is. And we're on the move. It's, it's, I love it. Now, I was just going to say before you made that comment, Zach, what I participated in last night here in Baton Rouge was exactly what you were talking about, Zach, and I wanted to mention it. So I agree 100% in this idea of the separation of the sacred and the secular.

Last night, we were in a building. And it was in the name of the. group that meets there is called Healing Place, which I like that because it's like we're here to help people find healing, spiritual healing. But inside this structure, there were several hundred people. And we were talking about God. We were talking about life. We were talking about how important it is post row. But there were 46 Louisiana legislators, senators and legislators from our state government, they were a part of this proceeding. And they were getting awards for coming up with bills and voting on things that mattered to family and God. And so that line was

blurred last night in a powerful way to me because I thought, man, this is what we need. We need people in government being impacted by men and women of God. And that's exactly what we participated in. So the more you blur those lines, the more you start looking at kingdom and kingdom of God. So I mean, I literally participated in just what you were talking about is that last night, a crossing over of those two that say, oh, you can't do that. You can't cross those over, but you can, and we did. Yeah, I was thinking about, go ahead, Jase. Well, I was just going to say, you know what's funny is when we get to chapter three, which we're in chapter two now, you're going to really see that because you have two unlikely groups of people. You have the

Herodians, this is in chapter three and six, they go in cahoots with the Pharisees, So supposedly the sacred and the secular get together because both of their narratives do not have a place for Jesus in how he's operating. And so it's like, I mean, most people point out the Herodians because they had the power, you know, to execute people. I mean, they were basically these Jews who were operating under Roman control. But they throw in cahoots with the Pharisees, but I thought, how would that be to be a part of that Pharisee group? where you're literally betraying what you know to be true. Because they were like, we believe the God of Israel should rule everybody. And we believe the Messiah is going to come and destroy powers like Rome

so we can be back in control. And they're literally sacrificing what these Herodians are doing from a political, they're just a political group. Because their narrative of Jesus, because he's eaten. with tax collectors and he's not going by a schedule and he's doing things that are almost in their minds making fun of their laws

because he's healing people on the Sabbath and it just to me I'm like I cannot believe a religious person would literally portray the creator of the universe who was on planet of earth because it just because his teaching just doesn't fit in your narrative

I mean it's just amazing to me. Yeah let's take a quick break I love how you phrase that, you use that term narrative. Because that, I mean, that's the problem. Yeah, 100% agree with you. Like with Jesus, think about this. Well, Jesus is arrival.

It's the intersection of truth and experience because they're experiencing him. And he is the truth. And he's right there in their midst. And he's talking to them. But they had this narrative that they've created. They've created some narrative about reality. And really, it's the narrative that they've created. for their own self-preservation and self-exaltation.

And what Jesus, he's coming, he's disrupting all of that. And in the case of the Herodians, yeah, they had a political, everything was political for them. It was about political power and posturing. Okay. Now, I was having a conversation with one of our pastors just about kind of the dichotomy of our culture right now, which is hyper political, and that everything is like a political fix.

And I think why we want that is because if we, We can have, in our narrative, what we've created on both the right and the left is there's this snake that is the opposition. And if we could just go in and cut the head off of that snake, then we'd be okay. Everything. And we just, on the right, it's like, if we could just take George Soros out. Then, what the truth is, the problem is so much deeper than the head of a snake. It's a, it's, these are movements. These are, this is the ethos of a culture.

This is, and you start to look at what, what the task in front of us, just like, And what's going on here in Mark 2, man, if you're looking at it, it's like, man, how in the world are we really going to have true victory in this? It's just the problem is too big. It's everywhere. It's a spirit of something that's a death work, as Carl Truman says. It's anti-culture. It's everywhere. There is no head of the snake.

It's everywhere. So how do you infect that? How do you permeate that? How do you change that? And that's what Jesus is doing. When he came, he completely. disrupted everything. And how did he do it?

He went and got a bunch of rogue fishermen, a bunch of rogue disciples. Well, how many did he get? Like 12, 12 guys, random dudes that like, he turned the world upside down through this type of kingdom manifestation that it just grew. And I think we, as we participate in it, and we think about this sacred, sacred, secular divide, too. it's even more than just going to the top of our power structures, it's actually probably much more going down to the bottom of just where every,

where we all live and just impacting the people around you, going into a tire shop and being ready, you know, to have a conversation with 20 other people sitting around there and it's kind of awkward. Well, you know what? You have the conversation anyways and who knows what is going to come out of that, what kind of kingdom expansion. Does that make sense? Oh, I agree.

And I mean, we're jumping ahead. but just because this is so good to us as believers, you're seeing Jesus come down and just upset the apple cart, and we know how this all is going to end, obviously. But, you know, he's healing people, he's caring for people, he's driving out demons, everything's great. And then when you get to that chapter 3 and verse 6, it's like, then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians

how they might kill Jesus. Well, what's this in response to? It's in response of, healing people. You're like, what? And that's the way they did things back then. If anybody was a problem with their narrative, they just called the Herodian and they said, hey, this guy's causing some political...

It was a power thing. It was power. They thought they had the power and they looked up and they said, he did what? He did what? Well, all the people were following him. They're like, this guy's, he's creating a... quite the following here. Yeah.

Well, to be fair, though, he didn't just, he wasn't just healing people. He did do something pretty provocative in Chapter 2, and he said, your sins are forgiven. And then they start reasoning. And they're like, wait a second. It's like this thing clicked in their mind. They're like, wait, how does he have the power to forgive sins? Well, I wanted to read this. And I wanted to read this story, because I do think it is, this one.

was a moment that he chose that caused political unrest and religious, what's the word, panic. So a few days later, when Jesus entered Copernum, this is verse one in chapter two, the people heard that he had come home, which is an interesting verse because they think maybe he had a house there, but Jesus said he didn't have a place to lay his head. So who knows what he meant by that, but so many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Oh, so many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Now, I think this is key. He preached the word to him, which I said that last time. Jesus was going around sharing the message of the kingdom, and he was preaching. He did miracles to confirm what he was saying.

But when you think about what we do today, we give people a word, you know, that saying in church that a Christianese word, you know, give us a word. We give people a word, but Jesus is the word. He wrote the manual. It's a living word. It's living and breathing. You don't just read his word. It reads you. It's a person who wrote and created the word and is now embodying it and sharing it.

So I think that's a key point. But then some men came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four of them. Since they could not get him in to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof about Jesus, I mean above Jesus. And after digging through it, lowered the mat, the paralyzed man was lying on. So it's a great visual here. I mean, all of a sudden you're listening to Jesus. They tear a hole in the roof.

And all of a sudden, you start seeing debris. for all and you're like, what, is there someone on the roof? I mean, and then, so you go through that. When Jesus saw their faith, which I find that's fascinating, not the guy line, when he saw these friends faith, because these are the greatest friends in the world. You need people who are friends of yours who would do this for you because they believe we have an option here, and they were willing to do that. Awesome friends.

When he saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, and I will, I will just, I will intervene here and say, this is a record scratching moment. Because he sees their faith and he says something that you never thought he was going to say. He said, son, your sins are forgiven. Well, it's like, right? And you said, why is this a record scratching moment? Because if I was the paralytic, that would not make me happy. I'd be like, what?

What about my leg? I can't walk. I can't walk. What this sin? Some sins. I mean, okay, you forget my sins. What does that matter? He didn't put two and two together if he could do that.

Well, I wouldn't have it either, Phil. I'm like, they didn't lower me down here for you to forgive my sins. They lowered me down here so you can fix my legs like you're fixing everybody else. So I do think that's important. Because like, you know, I heard of us. sermon on this one time and the title of it was uh i wrote that down somewhere where did i write this down hang on standby this is really good oh he got more than he asked for that's right when you think about that and the repercussions of that it's powerful so i'll read the rest

of it so now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves well why does this fellow talk talk like that he's blaspheming so this is record scratch moment number two the first one was from the guy who's paralyzed he's like what he's not happy number two is these guys saying he's a blasphemer who can forgive sins but god alone immediately which is a common phrase action in mark immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat and walk. But that you may know the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic,

I tell you, get up and take your mat and go home. Now he's happy. Which to our point in the last couple podcasts, he just gave you, in that last verse, he just told you one of the main reasons why the miracles are performed. Exactly. To testify to this is the guy that can forgive your sins. That's where I was going with this,

because you remember a couple of podcasts ago and we turned into this huge argument about the, definition of the word miracle. And if you missed that podcast, I was basically saying everybody claimed miracles. Everybody in the church, you know, come in and get your miracle. But on advertising, they're like, miracle cream, you know, you put this on your face and it does a miracle. Now, what that is is the NFL.

They actually have a play called the Hail Mary. Hold on one second. Before we get into the miracles, let's take a quick break. The NFL came up with a play called the Hail Mary. And when it happens, I saw it four times last week. They say, it's a miracle. There was a hockey team from the United States. And what they call it?

The miracle on ice. So what we think a miracle is, what I interjected, was it something like this. this is a guy paralyzed and Jesus did something in front of people with just a word. Not a procedure, not a ceremony. His word, he fixed this person and made him whole. Made him where he could walk. That's a miracle. And none of the crowd knew what he was going to do.

None of them knew it. And it was in front of everybody. There was witnesses. He got your little crowd together and said, Watch his. He didn't leave and come back. Oh, he was faking the whole time. And they looked at me, you know, you're reading in between the lines, but he was, if you're lowering him down the man, it's obvious the man is paralyzed.

Because you're risking his life anyway to get him down down the route. Yeah. Well, think about we, I think we've gotten to this in Hebrews, that Hebrew 6 passage where there's kind of this scary thing about rejecting truth and Hebrews 10 as well. when you reject truth. There's no sacrifice for sin left, but only willfully keep on sinning. There's all those passages that are so scary. I think this is the point that right here,

is what the Hebrew writer was getting at and what Jesus is going to get at later on. What it says that the reason why he performed the miracle was what, so that you would know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive your sins. Now, if you don't know, if you don't believe that Jesus has the power and the authority and the ability to remove your sins, then here's the problem. There's nothing greater. There's nothing greater. And so when you see this kind of thing unfolding here with the Pharisees, ultimately we know what happens.

He's performing miracles to testify to this fact that he alone is the way, the truth, and the life. And nobody comes to the Father except through him because he alone has the ability to forgive you of your sins. and he's confirming it through the miracles. And the Pharisees look at that and they say, that's the devil doing that. We need to kill him. We need to kill him because he's doing it in the devil's name. And Jesus says to him, that is the essence of what blasphemy is.

They're charging him with blasphemy. But in actuality, by doing so, they are committing the ultimate blasphemy against the spirit. And against that, he says that you can't be forgiven of that. Not because you've gone too far. It's because it's the ultimate rejection of truth. What truth is it? The truth that the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. If you don't believe that, if you reject that truth right there, atonement,

atonement that comes only through Jesus, the point is ain't nothing left. That's it. You've rejected the only means by what you'd be saying. That's the point I was going to make. I agree 100%. Jesus was declaring that he was the son of God, had the authority. He's a son of man, but he's a son of God. And the whole point was forgiven those sins because that was invisible.

We talked about this earlier. That's an invisible thing. It takes faith and trust in the person declaring that. So he does something visible that they've attributed to the reason that this guy is paralyzed is because he's done a bunch of sins. So I think that's why Jesus did it in the order, but it made me think in a practical way. I wrote this down. Hold on.

Hold on. Before you go to the practical, let's take our last break. I thought about this practically. What do you do when Jesus doesn't do what you want him to do? Because we have that happen even in our life. When you think about our prayers, you know, fix this, fix this, fix this, fix that, fix this. And I think that clarity when your experience doesn't measure to your expectations, it makes you miserable. Because that's what we do in our life.

We have experiences. And without Jesus, look, they're never going, you're never going to meet your expectations. That's why we fight with each other. And, you know, unmet expectations. I want this. I want that. And when it's not there, it causes chaos and strife. But it happens in the church also because God is famous for having wilderness moments

to provide some clarity to what he's going to do in your life. And so I think you see that in this form. And the reason I'm really getting practical on this is because I think there's another record scratch moment in this is when he says, pick up your mat and walk. because I know the Bible doesn't do things on accident. And there's been stories where he healed people on the Sabbath and he said, pick up your mat. And I think he was trying to make a point that, oh, he's going to break the Sabbath by picking up that mat.

But the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. But in this case, it never says it's on the Sabbath. And I believe that the reason he said that is because he wanted. to remind him of where he had been. He doesn't need the mat anymore, is my point. But he said, pick up your mat and walk. Because look, think about this. Put yourself in this situation here.

Jesus asked him to do something that he didn't think he could do. He knew he couldn't do it. It wasn't that he didn't think. He knew he couldn't do it. He couldn't walk. He's paralyzed. But Jesus said, get up. I think that's a moment right there.

It's a moment for everybody. Because when you come to Jesus, I've had so many Bible studies, and people are like, well, I just don't think I can do it. Yeah, he's asking you to do something that you know you can't do. That's what this is all about. And so instead of chasing a miracle and having to have this proof, you read this story and you realize that that's what he asked all of us to do. Not even in a miraculous way, just by faith saying, you know what, I'm going to put my faith in trust in Jesus. But it's hard for us to do that because we know, I can't live this life. My past is too bad.

Whatever the argument or excuse is. But to this fellow's credit, you know what he did? He obeyed. He got up. So I'm going for it. And he said, take that mat with you so you don't forget. And Jay's, that's a great point. And you're right, it's a record scratcher.

And, you know, I preached this text a long time ago. I call it the hole in the roof gang. Because the heroes of the story really are the four friends that they got him to Jesus, whatever it took to get him to Jesus. A lot of people think this might have been Peter's house. You talked about that about him coming home because we know Peter had a house there because remember earlier, he heals Peter's mother-in-law. So it may have been Peter's house, which I, oh, if it was, I like to laugh and think, what did Peter's wife think about the hole in the root? You know, she probably wasn't too happy about it. But this crowd of people that's there, and I think this happens a lot.

today. So they're there and they're listening to Jesus. So that's all good and he's preaching and your teachers and laws and all that. But they're also because they're a crowd and they've blocked an entrance to get to Jesus. And, you know, I really think that happens. Sometimes people get so swept up in their own experiences when it comes to where there's meeting together or whatever that sometimes you can block people getting to Jesus simply by being a crowd and not being aware. Because, you know, the last verse, Jason, you didn't read the last verse, but it says he got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone. And they praised God saying, we have never seen anything like this.

What they should have said is we've never seen anyone like this. See, they were still marveling just in the miracle and not in the man. And we know they missed it because it's the same people that later on are going to reject them. So I just thought it was interesting that the crowd itself. created a barrier to get a man who needed his sins forgiven from Jesus. And I think we have to always be aware of that. People need Jesus, and our role is to get them there, not just to be a crowd, but to be somebody that's going to go the extra step to get him in the roof.

Well, I was going to say, because I had three points in response to the experience of Jesus, is that you get up. So that's the, even though it doesn't, the circumstances may not seem, and you may not believe it and you may have doubts and you don't think you can do it, but that's what faith is all about. You get up. And you pick up your mat

because that's going to be a reminder of where he came from. And I think at some point, his faith probably was thankful for the years that he was paralyzed because it provided him some clarity to have this encounter with Jesus. And then what did he do? I mean, what did Jesus tell him to do? He said, get up, take him.

your mat and go home because you can imagine what his home life was before Jesus while he was paralyzed and now what's he going to do at home well there fixed me some changes there can you imagine his wife you know he didn't tell him to go home I guarantee you the people were in the home that's who he was telling him to go back to I mean and well how's this conversation go I mean this has been a complete transformation. But to Zach's point and to Mark's point, it was all about the bigger picture that God is here and he has the power to forgive your sins, therefore connects you back to a relationship with God. Now, granted, at this point, he didn't understand about the resurrection, but him being paralyzed was not going to be a problem as far as living with God forever. I mean, trusting in God

not only the sins behalf, because we know the end of the story. Whether he had healed him or not, this guy is going to be raised from the dead. And trust me, his feet will be functional in heaven or whatever that is. So I just think it's an incredible story. It is a shadow to the gospel, really, of his death, burial and resurrection. He has the power to heal, and he has the power to forgive. Oh, well, that was that. Dong show.

He was going to make a point that was not biblical. That's a great. And it just, Bump. No, he's back. You're back. Zach,

I thought you got gonged. I thought somebody put out the thing and just nipped me off. No, I love what you said. The last thing I heard you say was that these things are a shadow of the gospel. And then my, and then my software said,

you are not being recorded. You need to refresh your browser. And I was trying to talk. And because I was, before you said that, I was like, I was thinking, Yeah, that was the devil trying to shut us down here.

But I thought the same thing about Shadow, these miracles going back to Alice Point. Because I didn't bring that up earlier, but when I was thinking the same thing when you're reading this, and you know that the people here that later are the blasphemers of God and the Holy Spirit, particularly are the same people that are like, oh, this is amazing. You know, he's looking at what he's doing. Man, we've never seen anything like this. And I love that point that Al made. They should have said we've never seen any one like this to repeat what Al said.

And I think that's what you're getting at too. These miracles are shadows. There are reflection of the ultimate one. Jesus. It's a big finger pointing. The miracles are a big finger just pointing. That way, that guy, him. And I think that when you go back, that's why I love this Mark, chapter one.

verse 17, which you had brought up when we first started, Mark, which is what? What do you say? Come follow me. And so all of the miracles, all of this stuff, it's all, if it does not ultimately result in us following Jesus, becoming an apprentice of Jesus, becoming a disciple of Jesus, becoming like Jesus, being transformed into the image of the sun, if that's not the ultimate in of what we're doing being in his presence and being with him, then it's just another, it's not enough.

It's got to result in transformation. That's why I said he started, what was the purpose of being at this house? It wasn't, it wasn't to heal this guy. He was there preaching the word. That's what it says. They were all gathered. He was sharing the message. Then an opportunity came up.

I mean, God probably designed it, but he's got four friends who are saying, we got to get this guy healed. And what does he do? He's like, your sins are forgiven. Why? Because that goes in with the message on why he was here. He died for everybody's sins. He won't save everybody.

Not only can he forgive you, you can live forever. And they're like, well, we don't believe you. We don't believe you. And so he says, well, to show you that I can do that, what's this? Bam. Now what do you think? And so you would think everybody would be jumping up and down the Messiah's here. No.

Pharisees and the. Herodian said, we got to kill that guy. Yeah. Yeah, and we're out of time here. We're about to go to overtime, but to answer your question in another way, what do we do whenever we, God doesn't give us what we want? We have an expectation, and God doesn't give us what we want. And I had a few answers to that. We put our faith in politics.

We put our faith in pleasure. These are all peas. We put our faith in popularity or relevance. We put our faith in prosperity, financial security, or whatever the, whatever that, you know, that is for you, it's essentially boils down to the same problem we have here. We mentioned earlier, we create a new narrative, but here's what we should do. Whenever God doesn't give you what you want, here's what we should do. We should maybe recognize that we're wanting the wrong thing. Yeah, so you guys who aren't part of overtime, it's blazedtv.com slash unashamed, blazedtv.com slash

unashamed. You don't just skip the overtime stuff with us. You get access to the whole Blaze network, We'd love to have you guys jump in with us.