Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 57 | 'Doctor' Phil and Jase’s Sermon Prep

Episode Date: February 26, 2020

Phil will operate on other people, but when it comes to his own injuries, he calls the professionals. Jase shares the sermon he’s working on: From the Water to the Wilderness. See episodes of "Unashamed with Phil Robertson": https://bit.ly/2J4XsiX   See clips from Phil's TV show "In the Woods with Phil": https://bit.ly/2PNM6k1   To take a FREE 30 Day Trial of Phil's TV show and the rest of BlazeTV: https://www.BlazeTV.com/Phil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? I had a really exciting moment. You know, when you're raising teenagers, it can be challenging. And so any bit of good news, you know, you see a report card with all age. You're like, hey, all right, what's going on? Yesterday, my daughter, she gets a letter in the mail, and she's like, I see her she kind of stopped in her tracks as she's reading it because I got the mail.

gave it to her. She's like, I won. I said, what did you win? I was thinking, you know, this publishing, clearing how, whatever. Yeah, I bet you won. She's like, no, at my school, you know, there's 2,500 students at her school. She said, you could submit an essay about why history is important. And it's a national competition.

And they picked two kids from each state. And she said, I'm one from Louisiana. I was like, are you serious? Let me look at that. It wasn't like I didn't believe her. And when I read it, it was like all expense pay. I knew it was legit when it said all expense paid. You know, we will pay you to come to Washington, D.C.

with the other 99 students. Yeah. And I said, well, what did you write the essay? Where is this essay? And she said, well, I basically wrote it on why? that we need our historical monuments despite the people who we made the monuments of or the situations, despite them not being perfect. It's part of our history.

It's what built America. You know, I was like, well, I got to read this now, which I never did get a copy of it. She was like, well, I sent it all. I was like, well, where's your notes? You know, she said, I'll get it for you. But anyway, I thought that was exciting. And I was thinking, now that is awesome. She said, well, I kind of came from a spiritual angle in that, you know, we all make mistakes.

But when you think about how great America is, you celebrate the process by which it came to be. You see, why? Yeah. And so I was like, good job here. That's amazing. I never did notice she had that in her. I've never had a conversation. I mean, she's very musical.

You know, she reminds me. of re where she can play she plays the piano you know and it's uh-oh and i love it you know when we took her cell phone away a while back when she was going through a you know who am i going to be she really flourished with i guess writing as well as you know playing the piano and everything it's amazing when you give kids the opportunity and you give them more time that they were just wasting on a cell phone that what they'll do and so i which by the way that's a good little parenting advice. I've raised teenagers, dad's raised

kids, Jason is almost three raising his is with this interference now of phones and internet and tablets and all that stuff, you really should. I mean, typically we do it now as a punishment because that's the one thing they appreciate the most, but we really should just have some time where

you just say, you know, we're not going to do phones for X amount. Oh, well, look, all her friends and every kid if they're below 18, we have an 18, year old rule at my house. When you walk into my house, it is a no cell phone area. You're getting there, Chase.

You turn it in. You're getting there. And look, now I don't even say a word. He's getting there, Al. Phil, I never said that you didn't have a point. You've been telling him all along. But cell phones can be useful, you know, but they can also be a detriment, especially to an immature mind. You can't just hand it to them and say good luck.

You might. I mean, look, you know, we have this new, I know we can talk about something else, but I have to tell you this story. We have these new roundabouts at our town. That I love. Well, I do too, but our society, let's face it, where we live, I'm going to try to be nice. I love where I live, okay, and I love the people.

But let's face it, that roundabout, there's three of them right in the row. It's taught me something about our culture that we, we currently live. They're not the brightest bulbs around. Well, they're like scared of them, which is so crazy because, look, the Europeans have missed it on a lot of stuff, but they got it on the roundabouts because have you noticed how there's no traffic now? It's so much quicker. But look, I'm coming up the other day. You got to remember it's construction. Once it all gets finished, I think it will be easier for everybody. But I come up there, and there's two lanes that you can go in the roundabout. Well, there's a person stopped. You know, you're supposed to yield.

someone's coming. Well, there's no one coming because I'm looking way up as driving. I'm looking at the situation. That's what I do, too. I have a person stopped in my lane, so I'm going to go to the other lane. There's somebody coming, so I have to slow down. Well, I'm a, hornblower because they gave the horn to you for a reason. You know, a lot of people now, they're scared of road rage or whatever, so they don't blow the horn. I blow the horn. Because I'm like, we have a person who stopped at a roundabout where it's a yield, and there's no one coming. So I just laid on the horn. Well, the person passed, they're not moving yet. So then I thought, well, maybe the cars

broke down. So I finally squeeze around them. And look, it's a woman. She's looking at me, she's on her cell phone. And she's looking at me like, why are you blowing the horn? And I'm like, live as I went by. All I said was live. Her life. And stop. And I'm like, live. And I'm like, live. And I'm like, live. And a roundabout checking this message and then is offended because I could tell by the look she's like how I'm on the phone here and you're like drive woman I mean live just sit there I'll be true at a minute you're not you're no longer living when you pull up and just you say I'm in a dangerous intersection I have a phone call I'm stopping right here the power of the cell phone And then when the horn is, when the alert goes off, her response should have been, oh, what the heck am I doing?

I could cause a rat. I'm on the cell phone. But no, she's looking at me like, how dare you? Look, I'm on the phone. So I don't know. I just don't know where that came from. I don't know. So what have y'all been up to?

You had to get it out. But I am happy about it, but I'm very proud. That was awesome. It feels like Peter. He's following the cell phones. at a distance. So, Dad, you need to tell us about your... Yeah.

You know, we've had a... For the last few months, it's all been about dad's ailments. Now you've got something new to show off. Yeah, you know, you hit about 74. I'm nearly there. So... It's just a number, Phil. So I get my waiters out during duck season.

They're in a closet in a barn. Remember, barn being the key word. It's kind of like... It's a barn. I have my waiters. They've been in there since last year. We've seen this before when you get your waiters, and we've got it down out a little bit of a sign.

You shake your waiters just in case a black widow spider is not in your waiters before you put your feet in your waiters. Or wharf rat. Or wharf rat and other... Congo. Brown recluse, who knows, copperheads. Scorpions. I slid into my waiters

and some time between then and a couple hours later I felt a slight, just a slight sting right here. Uh-oh. I hadn't heard this story. Yeah, I had a slight sting and I thought, ooh, wee. I said, a fire ain't. I figured a fire ain't got me. So I'm trying to wad up the waiters

to kill the fire. To kill him because I'd have to come out of my waiters looking at my brist. So what transpired from that is, is, this is the result of the sting on my leg. You see that? But have you identified what stung you? No.

I just told one of our duck cutting, buddies, I'm sitting there in my chair, and this thing, a knot came up on my leg. Oh. As they would say in the business, probably something like Sabre, CIST, whatever. But there's a knot there that came up.

It doesn't have a head on it, but it's just a, you can roll it around. It's up under the skin. It's like a hunk, a fatty hunk of meat right up under the skin now. Is there a sting or fang mark under that? It would just sort of purplish right on top, but it never came out to be a head. So I first just said, okay, I've had enough of that. Give me a good needle and I put a little alcohol on it. Have you had any fever?

No, no. And I stuck the needle down in the thing. I said, well, let me see if I can relieve that pain and maybe it's infected down in there. So I insert a needle into it. All I see is blood. That was phase one. Phase two was I said, I called the war that married. going to be history.

Yeah, I know. And I'm getting to the doctor. So I call up and I stone the board that married, your daughter. I know him. So he's my son-in-law. Who has no medical skills whatsoever? That's right. However, he told me the guy that we've been duck hunting with.

Oh, the nurse practitioner. He is a nurse practitioner. To me, a nurse practitioner is right under a brain surgeon. I mean, he's there. So I call Stone up. I said, call the nurse practitioner. I called him nurse man. I said, call the nurse man up and ask him, did he get any training during his nurse practitioner format?

Did he get any training with sebaceous cyst, possibly a black widow bite? It's a ball. So he calls him up and he says, Phil wants to know, or you train to do minor surgery? That's what I want to know. Well, the nurse practitioner said, tell him that I do have the training to do that. He said, get a cell phone, get somebody's cell phone, get the eunuch with the cell phone. So I said, take a picture of it and send it to me. And let me look at it before I go further.

Now, see, if you hadn't had a cell phone, I told you. I'm out of luck. So I said, Dan, you got that black. It's perhaps saving your life. I said, Dan, you got that black box on you. I'm talking to the eunuch, who's Ms. Kay's Butler, who. hangs around the house working. So he takes a picture of this, sends it to the nurse practitioner,

and he said, I'll be down there, I can take care of it. I'll be down at 8 o'clock on Thursday morning. So he rolls in there, and he said, put your leg up on the dining room table, and I say, I'll lay my leg up there like that. Oh, that makes me feel good. Did he like shaving out or did you shave it? I said, before you start, let me go over one little point that I asked Stone about. you said you had been trained for a little minor surgery.

He said, that's correct. I said, did you do your training on a mannequin, some kind of plastic body? How do you work on that? He said, no, I got my training from the ER room with the drunks and the meth heads. He said, that's who I practiced on. I said, that's a lot of practice. He said, oh, listen, I've cut them every way you can cut them. So I said, good training.

But where's the diagnosis? I don't even know what this is yet. Well, it's just a knob, a fatty, sebaceous, he called it, cyst up under the skin. Did it come from something biting you? Well, it came from somewhere and it won't leave. This is the most disturbing thing I've ever heard. It came from somewhere. I don't know the cause of it, but I'm like, I've got it there.

It's bothering me, and it's getting bigger. I said, so. Did he say, did something bite you? I told him, I felt a sting and he said, huh? He said, well, now it's a sis. And look, the first thing he does, which is pretty cool. Did you agree not to sue him? You see where this is?

He took a magic marker and he looked at. Hold on. Keep in it. Look, he goes, he takes a magic marker and he draws a circle about that big up here. And I said, so you're starting out with a magic marker. doing a circle. I said, what's the, I know I'm, I'm watching my surgery takes place. I said, via the circle there. And he said, that's where I'm going to cut.

I'm like, and I look down, I see, whew, pretty good size circle. So he takes a little knife, it's not that long. And I'm looking at it. He said, should I deaden it? I said, how long is it going to take? He said, not long. I said, I don't need any deadnet. He said, let me give you a little bit.

I said, whatever you think. So he took a needle. and stuck it in about four or five different places around that thing. Took a little knife. The knife was about this long, a little bitty thing, but it looked sharp. And look, he just took that thing, and he just made a circle where he had put the line, and he just picked it up and said, hmm, he's a pretty good size. So he puts that on the napkin, folds the skin back up like that.

So it was just, he bore it out a hole all the way down to the... It would look like in a... a mini Grand Canyon, just a volcano with a hole. A mini grand canyon. Well, a mini volcano. So now I'm looking and there's a hole in my leg. He squeezes the skin up like this. I'm going through the procedure here.

And look, he began to take a needle with thread. And he put about five stitches on that. And he said, don't worry about putting anything on. And he said, I'll be back in about a week. I'll take the stitches out, rock and roll. So I said, the only difference between right now and 150 years ago, I said, 150 years ago, the doctor would have come riding up on a horse. He'd have been on a horse.

He had got his bag. He had walked in that. He said, okay, what do we have here? And that's the way they did it. I said, the only difference is you drove up in a truck instead of riding up on a horse. Horse power. I said, we're old school. You know what I'm saying?

I said, what's this going to cost me? He said nothing. I said, there you go. Well, he wants to go duck hunting again. Well, that's a friend. Well, that's price. I trusted him. He's a friend.

He took it out. And let me tell you something, I have felt no, not a twinge of anything since. It doesn't hurt. But we don't. Still don't know what it caused it. Whatever caused it. Who knows? He just kicked out.

How long ago was that when you felt the steam? That was during duck season? Three or four months ago. Oh. Well, that's, I mean, it took a true. That would have helped the story. Well, how did the thing get that big so quick? Three to four months, it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

And I finally said, you know what? How long am I going to wait here? Somebody said, well, why didn't you go to a, you know, up here? The guy, he's been trained. So I just. Well, Phil, I've seen you and I saw this. This was quicker, for sure, cheaper. I said, hey, you want me to do.

Send me to bill on it. If you can avoid going to medical outposts, as you call them, then you just didn't do that. You know what I noticed? Sometimes your living room is the outpost. Well, I've noticed I've had an epiphany here by you because I saw you do something one time. I've seen you perform surgeries on dogs. I've done minor surgery myself and on people.

Well, I know, but I noticed something. When it was on you, you called in a professional. Because look, I saw a kid get a double horse, a treble hook called in his hand. and deep. You remember this? Oh, yeah. And he went up there and was like, what am I do? You know, I mean, it was just buried.

And we, anybody's fish, we've all had this happen. And Phil was like, absolutely no problem. I've done this a hundred times. Like, oh, yeah. And I could tell you it was relief, you know. So he tried to push it through and he was going to cut the end of the, you know, the barball. But he tried that. That didn't work.

So he just couldn't. The guy's hollering. You know, he feels like, oh, you'd be all right. And so Phil said, well, if that don't work, he said, Then what you do is he took that hook. He said, you form a mountain. And he just pulled the hook up. And I'm telling you, like, his hand.

He's coming up. His hand is just like coming up. And he said, you form the mountain. And then Phil grabbed his knife real quick and said, then you cut the top of the mountain off. When it went back down. Presto. That was just a hole. And blood was just pouring out.

By the way, that got infected on that guy. And he went to a doctor about it. And the doctor said, who did that? He said, well, my buddy said he could handle it. And the doctor said, don't let him get a hold of you again. But why didn't you do it to yourself as what's, you know, concerning to me? He wanted to get this person right under the brain surgeon to handle it on the kitchen table. But I'm just saying, I'm telling them the audience's story.

It worked out for me. It's great. I had a little cataract surgery here. so I'm falling apart. I've got the cyst on my leg. I got my eye. I'm going blind. The eyes healed up great.

That's been about two weeks ago. You never did reattach your basket. By the way, I have 2015. 2015. There's no time what you're getting into size. You're getting in the size. The dial man said, man, you still got your unicep arm without the, you know, no longer. Yeah, the old muscle bound up on me, tore this loose, but it got purple.

and stayed that way about a week, but then it just went away. I said, can y'all tie this back together? He said, is it bothering you? I said, nah, it's all right. I said, it didn't hurt. He said, I'll let it go. Work it out in the resurrection. Sure.

So I'm just saying for the people who live in the subdivisions and the major cities in America, our audience, just remember, I mean, simplicity, nerve presidsticking, you know what I'm saying? Cheaper, a lot quicker. You don't have to go up there. and people want you autograph and sitting in the clinic. Yeah. Yeah, most people, that's not a real big deal.

I'm preaching Sunday, and I'm going to do something I've never done before. Because, you know, it's, I've been speaking every other week here lately, but I go around crowds, they're awesome. But you come back home, and it reminds you of that verse that a prophet has no honor in his hometown when Jesus said to it. Because people know you, because I'm telling you, it is. you know, our home city at our church, it's just, it's a tough crowd. Yeah.

Would you agree? Because you spoke there last week. I did. It's like the jokes are not as funny. Any stories you tell, they've already heard it. I've been there 34 years, you know. It's hard to speak to the same audience. Yeah, it's hard.

So I was going to give you all what I'm thinking, and then you all tell me. Yeah, try it out on us. And then we'll see. Well, I don't really have it yet. But we're going through the book of John. pretty much. I mean, you went off into marriage last week. I kept waiting for the, you know, we're all married to Jesus and then tied in with John somehow.

You know, because a lot of times we're trapped into our series. But you just said, nope, taking a week off to walk to marriage. We didn't go to the book on. Just let the pie cash. You never know where we're going. That's right. So in John 1, when John the Baptist ran across Jesus as, okay, he, He's the one.

And we've talked about this before. But in verse 32, it says, then John gave this testimony, I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. Now, he's talking about Jesus' baptism. And it says, I would not have known him except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me the man on whom you see the Holy Spirit come down and remain.

Is he who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit? And we talked about that before. where he poured it out, Acts 2. Okay. I have seen and I testify, which I like this declaration. Here's another bumper sticker from John the Baptist.

I have seen and I testify that this is the son of God. By the way, when I was studying, you know, I was talking about John the Baptist in his bumper sticker quotes. I found another one in John 3 in verse

35. he said the father loves the son and has placed everything in his hands. You just think about that statement. You know, Jesus, who we follow and serve as Lord, he has everything in his hands. It's a pretty awesome thought. So anyway, here's what I'm going to do with this. Because we're in, John, that's where the thought came from.

I said a few weeks ago that I went to a worship conference, and I heard this guy preach a sermon. called from the water to the wilderness. And I gave a little bit of it in a podcast we talked about. And so that comes from John 3, I mean on Matthew 3 and 4. You have the baptism of Jesus that John just described, but Matthew 3 goes into detail. And when you combine it with Mark's account, Mark has a key phrase.

Right when John baptized Jesus, it says the Holy Spirit comes on him. God says three things, which I'll have this part of my lesson. This is my son, whom I love, and with him I'm well pleased. Because I believe the same thing is uttered since we die. We're crucified with Christ. God gives us the spirit. I think that declaration is made. And those are the beliefs that we have that's going to carry us through in our faith.

When you get into tough time, you think, well, God loves me. I'm a son of God. I'm a daughter of God and I please him. That's right. And I have the Holy Spirit of God in me. These are all things I've said when I've been nervous or I'm in a situation, even in high school, you know, when I was getting peer pressure or whatever. I was thinking, I got the Holy Spirit of God. I'm not taking a lip off this guy.

You know, I'm a son of God. These are those declarations. So I'll go through that. But in March version, it says at once the Holy Spirit immediately, the Holy Spirit, immediately, the Holy Spirit. led him to the wilderness. Because we have these chapter divisions in our Bible, we tend to think, oh, that's at a later date. As soon as he was baptized, the Holy Spirit carried him to the temptation in the wilderness. Well, when you read through that temptation in Matthew 4, here comes the evil one.

Here's where I'm at in my study, and y'all may help me. the evil one begins to tempt him and he says in verse three if you're the son of god tell these stones to become bread well i went back in my mind to genesis three when the evil one was in a garden and he tempted adam and eve and you remember the first thing he told eve he said did god really say and this is kind of the same. He's going down the same road. Well, if you're the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

And he was telling Eve, did God really say that if you eat, so the first thing he wants you to question. Well, Jesus answers, it is written man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up, He quoted Deuteronomy 8.

Well, when I went over there and looked at Deuteronomy 8, it was basically talking about the Exodus where Moses, you have the Red Sea moment. Because remember, this is from the water to the wilderness. Well, the Red Sea, something spectacular happened. They have this awesome moment like Jesus had receiving God's Holy Spirit. And then what happened? They went to the wilderness. I mean, same concept, you know.

And so Deuteronomy 8, of which he quotes here, basically talks about why God sent them to the wilderness, that they would trust him, that they would depend on him, that they would realize that true wealth and success comes from him. You can read it. It's a, I don't know how I missed it. So going back to the Genesis parallel, you have the next temptation, which is he says, the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you're the son of God, he said, throw yourself down. For it is written, here's the evil, quoting scriptures, you know.

Well, when I went back to Genesis 3, I see another parallel. You know, first he asked Eve, did God really say? Well, then in verse 4, he says, of Genesis 3, he says, you won't die. Remember he said, you won't die? But he's basically saying the same thing to the son of God. Throw yourself down. You won't die if you're the son of God. It's the same concept.

Of course, Jesus said, don't put the Lord, you know, your God to the test. And then the last temptation, he says, again, now this is one I have more trouble with, but it says, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and all this I'll give you if you bow down. Well, you would think, well, why would that be a temptation of Jesus? Because he already has everything.

That's tender what we think. But the more I got to thinking about it is what he was offering him is you didn't have to go through the pain. You know, just look at what Jesus had to go through the humility of being a human, being trapped as a man, going through the pain, putting up with other humans, going through the process, he's dying. You could just, of course, it's a temporary solution, which is what the evil one does. but that was the temptation. Well, that compares to Genesis 3 where he says, verse 5, for God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil. By the way, Judge, all this Satan talking to Jesus, I will give you. In other words, you know, throw yourself down, if you will bow down and worship me. Right. And then Jesus said, worship the Lord, your God only,

and serve him only. He said, no, I'm not bowed down to you over for anything. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, but my point is the temptation was the same. He was telling Eve, you can be your own God. And he was basically appealing to Jesus in the same way. Same way. You know, let's do this together.

Do what I say. You don't have to go through the process, which is my point about the water in the wilderness, is that fast forward to us. What does this mean to us? Well, once you declare Jesus as Lord, and you can read this from 1st Peter to Ephesians where you get to put on the arm of God or 1st Peter at the end where he says, don't be surprised if you're insulted in the name of Christ, when you declare Jesus as Lord and you receive God's Spirit and you're on the top of the mountain

and he says, yeah, you're my son or daughter, I love you, I'm pleased with you. Well, now you're headed to the wilderness. It's coming. And the same reason that's described in Deuteronomy 8, which the point is, and the point I'm going to make, and I'm finishing up, then I'll get your, this is the overall philosophical view of what I'm given, is what he was conveying in Deuteronomy 8 is that it doesn't really matter where you're at. You know, I'm using this wilderness, just like the Israelites, and just like Jesus in the temptation, it's who you're with.

That's what, when you go, whatever your wilderness experience, he was face to face with the evil. With us, like with me, I was in high school when I came to the Lord. Well, my wilderness is day one after baptism when I went back to that public school. Yep. Oh, it was the wilderness then, because now. I have to start making changes in how I'm operating and what I'm conveying. And when I did that...

And all you needed to follow the crowd, all you needed was to bow down and worship Satan. And you'd have been one of them. There's a mighty throng. All this I will give you, showed them all the kingdoms. If you'll bow down and worship me, Satan said, well, once you went back to the school were they bowing down to the father? It was two years of wilderness. Yep.

Because I wasn't strong enough, or I didn't take Jesus' charge here. I wasn't using scripture because he quoted through scriptures as a weapon. I was just trying to get out of there without screwing up, which, you know, I admit. But it was a two-year wilderness process. And basically, where I'm getting that is, is in Hebrews 3, 4, which I don't know how to use this, but two chapters that I've never really hung out in much, but it's an illustration of Moses leading the Israelites through the wilderness to what Jesus offers. And about the second or third verse, you can read the whole thing on your own time, and I know

y'all are familiar with it, but in Hebrews 4, it's a... is verse 1. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, because he's comparing it when the Israelites were going to go to the, you know, promised land, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preach to us just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard it did not combine it with faith. And here's my point. When we hear the gospel what Jesus did and we respond we have our water moment

we're baptized we have the Holy Spirit of God we're on the top of the mountain well what is faith faith is being sure of what we hope for well the wilderness is the are you sure which is what happened with Jesus you know this is my son

it's the son of God we're going to save the world and the spirit took him out there to the evil and basically if you wanted to sum up what happened is are you sure and that's what happens to all of us. And so I think if people know that, then they're more prepared. Because look, my first two years of my Christian life was miserable.

You know, I was attacked, I was persecuted, I had no friends. You know, it was like the exact opposite of what I thought was going to happen. I'm like, oh, you know, I come to Jesus. All my problems are going to be solved. Well, it really, I was pretty comfortable up until that point. And I felt good for a couple days. No problems were just beginning. Just beginning because I didn't realize the evil one met me there in the wilderness.

And it's different for everybody, but the good and evil, what happened in the garden, replicated itself with Jesus, but then it continues to replicate ourselves. That's why I brought up Ephesians. He talks about you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. We're all coming together. There's one Lord and one faith and one baptism. and, you know, don't live like you used to. Live a life of love.

And he talked about marriage, you know, and you're married to Jesus. And then he gets to the end and says, put on the full armor of God, take your stand against the devil schemes. He's coming. And that's where I think the are you sure moment is what a lot of people are not prepared for. So that's the gist of it. That's very sound teaching. Well, yeah, and what's interesting is Jesus was 30.

when this happened. Yep. So it is interesting that, and we don't read much about what happened. And he had not performed any miraculous act up to this point. Well, I thought about that. It wasn't based on his performance. He hadn't done anything. That's right.

That's right. But the one thing that changed was the moment, the recognition moment that he and John had, obviously. Well, and the Spirit. And this Holy Spirit. So to use your own analogy, if you come forward to us, you know, until we sort of, for lack of a way to put it until we get on the clock until we get in the game until the Holy Spirit shows up. You know, I don't know the evil one, you know, he's obviously working, but we're not as much on his radar until we make a decision.

That is true. To take the stance. Do I'm saying? There's no doubt. See, I think in, look at John the batterers. I think it's interesting. I got on a zigzag of a course when I first repented. Yeah.

Zigzag. I mean, zag's not good. Zig pretty good. I'm a exact, no. Because you went from the water to the wilderness. Water to the wilderness. No doubt about it. Look at John, look at the pole of where I had been stayed with me for the first year,

the strongest couple of years. And it was like five years later after walking. I looked around one day. I said, good night. I haven't been drunk in years. Three, four years now. First year, first I'm going out, you know. I'm tail getting drug.

It took me a while to. set my course. That's right. Let me tell you this. John the Baptist, now he came baptizing with water, but he was a voice calling out in the wilderness, right? Pretty good point.

Well, but look, and then, so what happened? Well, John the Baptist continued, we've already documented this. He continued just pounding on the spiritual principles out in the wilderness. Well, you know the evil one came to him, and at first I'm sure he tempted him, But, you know, John, the Babbers had the Holy Spirit from birth.

And so what did he eventually do? Well, Satan has two tactics. He tempt you like he did Jesus and like he does us. If that doesn't work, he'll just kill you. That's what it said he was a murder from the beginning, which led to John the Baptist having his head cut off. Well, Satan did the same thing with Jesus. He tempted him here.

That didn't work. So what did he do? Phase two. Well, I'm positive he was in the workings. of the leaders, and that's why the first that says the leaders, rulers didn't understand it, because if they had, they wouldn't have killed Jesus. Remember that the, remember at the last supper, whenever Judas is there, and it said, Satan entered him.

In that moment, I mean, that was the deal. He said, who's going to betray you? He said, the one I hand this bread to, and when he handed the bread to Judas, it said, at that moment, Satan entered him. Which is to your point, Satan thought, oh, well, I'll just wipe him out, just like John the bad or anybody else. What he didn't know was that Jesus had already decided he was going to give his life

and so he played into the plan never knowing. That's right. Which it shows you that people rightfully should fear the power of the evil one because certainly he's powerful. And there's many, many verses to tell us look out, watch out, he's powerful. But remember,

he's not more powerful than God. He's not immortal. No. I don't know how all that works. That's why I said that temptation, that third temptation, Because the evil, he's not immortal, but evidently in that world, you can live longer than our measly 70 years. Well, right. He's not human, so, yeah. Well, right. And you can be, you know, multiple places, you know. John made an interesting point.

They're not bound by the laws of gravity. That's right. The same John that Jesus had been quoting from, we're looking at today when he wrote 1st, 1st John, second and third John, first John over toward the back of your Bible. you dear children are from God and have overcome them the world because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world they're from the world therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world the world listens to them we're from God or whoever knows God listens us but whoever is not from God does not listen to us that's why you can find out the spirit of truth or not but it's a pretty good good thing.

point in that once you receive God's spirit, going back to the water moment, you say, one greater than Satan is in you. Well, that's the only way you could survive. I think of how we prepare. I mean, it makes sense if you go back and think of all the things Jesus said when he said, the guy said, hey, I'll follow you wherever you go. And he's like, foxes have holes and birds have nest, but I don't even have a place to lay my head. It's basically that concept. Are you ready for the wilderness? Because I'm living in it.

You know? Or he said, hey, you know, you want to follow me? You better bring your cross. Yep. It's the same concept. Let me throw this little morsel in and see what you think. In Matthew 17, you have a situation happened where Jesus, Moses, and Elijah come together with the disciples. and they call it the transfiguration just because we don't have a word in our society to describe what happened. What happened? It says he was transfigured before him.

But now, getting back to my water to the wilderness, you had Moses who led the Israelites in victory by God's hand from the Red Sea to the wilderness. You had Elijah, when I looked up his situation, He was involved in this, it was about 42 months of famine there, and I read the story. But you had Moses 40 years in the wilderness, you had Elijah in this 40 months of the famine that he was a part of, and you can check me out on that. Then you have Jesus, who had the 40 days with the evil one himself,

and they're having a powwow up here of some capacity with God. but I want you to notice what happened from the terminology. You know, Peter comes up and says to Jesus in verse four, Lord, it's good for us to be here. You know, I'll put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and while he's still speaking, a bright cloud envelop them, and look, here we go again. And a voice from the cloud said the same thing

at what happened at Jesus' baptism. This is my son, whom I love, with I'm well pleased. And you got these other two characters who had similar experiences for Jesus was here. Elijah with the famine, 40 months, Moses with the 40 years. And then he added one thing, listen to him. And I think that's what we realized. The reason Jesus was quoting scriptures,

because he was listening to his father, that he was going with the plan in the wilderness. Well, that's the same thing we do. you know, we get in the wilderness, whatever the situation is, then you have a choice. Am I going to listen to what God says and now prove it in the face of evil? Or am I just going to crater? I mean, I just think it's weird that those, it happened to be those two guys.

Well, look, I got another interesting tip bit about that. So another thing that draws those three together, Moses, he didn't go into the promised land. And so he went up on a mountain, Mount Horrib, and it said he died there and God buried him, whatever that means. And no one ever found his body. And then Jude, there was a kind of behind the scenes moment where Jude talks about a fight with the evil one over the body of Moses. Yeah. So that's interesting. And then Elijah is just walking along and a big wind picks him up, and it says those flaming chariot, and that's how he left the planet.

And then, of course, Jesus was resurrected. So that's another thing the three had in common is they had very unusual ways. It wasn't a typical like all the rest. Their bodies were in question. There's no body. It's like these murder case, you know, deals like, where's the body? That's my point about the resurrection.

And for them to show up bodily on top of a hill, standing Jesus talking and over, you're like, you. And you wonder about it because the disciples that were there that saw it. I mean, how would they know? These people lived thousands of years before they did. And yet somehow they knew. I may add that point. It's not like they had name tags.

Well, I said that before. Somebody said I was in some debate or something. There's like, no, no. I mean, just give me one reason why you follow Jesus, you know, but they were saying it sarcastically because we were in the heat of argument. And I said, because they couldn't find his body. and they're like, what does that mean? No, I mean, there was a crime, someone was killed,

and you could search the entire planet. All atoms, molecules, the ground, you're not going to find the body. There is no body. That's why I'm following it. And every other person that people follow is went to the ground somewhere. As I says, it ain't there, boys. It ain't there.

I said, that's how when he told me, he's like, the body, it ain't there. I was like, oh, okay, I got you. Well, let me say this, because I know we're out of time. You know, Peter was standing there watching this, and here's, you would think that he got it, but he went on to deny Jesus. You know, and Jesus reinstates him, but I can't help but think this water to the wilderness that Peter didn't get it at some point, because when he wrote his letter, you know, in First Peter, you just think about what he started off in verse six, he says, chapter one, you know,

you rejoice. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. He understood the wilderness concept now. These have come so that your faith, which is, are you sure, of greater worth than go, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. He finally got it. And the reason I know that is, is because he writes that letter and he gets all the way to the end to chapter 5 in verse 8,

and he says, be self-controlled and alert your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring line, looking for someone to devour, which is just a few short verses right past when he talked about baptism and it's the pledge of good conscience towards God. I was like, he got that principle. That's what made me really want to do this because I thought it's more than just a happening with Jesus.

There's a principle there. This is why we're here. God calls us through Jesus. We surrender. He gives us the Holy Spirit. We're on top of the mountain. It's awesome. I've been saved.

Well, guess what? The Spirit's fixed to take you to the wilderness. But remember this. Matthew 1621, Matthew 2017, Mark 8, 31, Mark 1032, Luke, Luke 1831, Matthew Mark, Luke. John 12.3. You say, what did Jesus tell him? You say, he told him he was going to die. The Pharisees are going to take him up to rule him, be buried, raised from the dead.

he told them all what was fixed to happen. As he went through the wilderness, he said, here's what's fake to happen. Well, when you get to Matthew, Mark, Luke,

and John, well, what happened? What he said, what happened? Just like he said it. Yeah. But,

Peter, he's running for the high hills. He's like, everybody deserted him. You say, it wasn't like they weren't told this. I just gave you the ones. So what did he tell him?

I'm going to die, be buried in three days, be raised from the dead. He told him that over, over and over. The time came for it to happen. They hit the road. Jesus did what he said,

and no one knew, including these guys, that he's going to save the world. They just didn't get it. Two things happened, which is to ironclad your point. He saw a resurrected Lord. He witnessed the gospel, and the Holy Spirit came for a visit when we get to Acts chapter one. And that's what changed him.

And then all of a sudden he turned into a preacher. That's right. He also had that conversation with Jesus where he realized that he was going to risk his life. You know, at the end of John in 21, he said, you know, one day you're going to be led where you don't want to go. Because that's our problem. Peter didn't follow Jesus or he denied him

because he didn't want the consequences of the wilderness. He didn't want to face the music. Think of the mighty throng of individuals who have heard that same story. It's everywhere. Jesus died was buried and raised from the dead. You're like, how many people receive that and stand on that and not budge.

The disciples didn't. They all hit the road. You're like, that shows you. And they witnessed it first down. They tell you it's no cakewalk. It's not easy. We were saying this, I said this my sermon this last Sunday. Just because things are simple doesn't mean they're easy.

That is correct. This is not easy. That's my whole point. Look, the wilderness is coming. It's part of it. And guess what? You don't even have to go there. The Holy Spirit is going to take you.

So get ready for the wilderness. I will say this as we sign off because we talked a lot about spiritual warfare today. One of the best books that I've read on spiritual warfare was a friend of my name, Joe Beam. It's called Seeing the Unseen. So if you want to look that up on Amazon and get it, and it's scary, you know, because he does a deep dive on evil spirits and what the Bible says about evil. Well, but he starts the conversation. That's what you got to do.

It's a mean world. You've got to pick a side. That's exactly right. So that's a good resource. I appreciate y'all letting me. I can't wait to hear the service. practice my sermon. That's it. So if you don't, if you didn't, if you were thinking about coming. Good sermon, because y'all won't be there. I think this is a layer after, so you'll get to, you get to be careful. Don't be raised any voice too much.

I'm not a holliver, Phil. But you get excited. I get excited. I'll have an occasional, you know, outbursts. But, you know, I'm a mumbler by nature. If I had any kind of homiletical problem, it's, I used to be a mumbler. And I didn't like making eye contact. So, you know, if you're mumbling and you're looking the other way, it's probably not going to be a good speech. So this Sunday, this last Sunday I was speaking in second service. You weren't in there. So they have this little podium thing. It's real lightweight, you know. And I was going along with something.

And for some reason, I mean, I pulled a dad. I just slammed my hand down on the table. I was emphasized. And it left. It didn't leave, but it was a loud pop. Well, out of the corner of my eye, Tara Foster was sitting there. And I saw her jump. I said, well, I just woke Tara up.

Everybody started laughing. But I mean, I didn't realize when I hit that thing. It was hollow sounded. And it just like a rifle shot went off in there. So I thought, you know, that's what happens. Pretty good sound effects. We'll see you next time. So we're so glad you guys were with us today.

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