Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 60 | Phil Is Under Water, Jase Gets Hypercompetitive & the Secret Key to Living a Life in Christ

Episode Date: March 8, 2020

Phil's property is 95% flooded, and unlike most people, he couldn't be happier. Phil, Jase, and Al tackle a BIG listener question: How do I surrender to God? The guys discuss why we have a hard time surrendering, what happens when we surrender, what baptism is all about, and why even Jesus was baptized. Jase wraps it up with the secret key to living a life in Christ. -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unashamed Podcast Nation, we got good news. If you kiss can't get enough of us, we're going to three podcasts a week. Right now we're releasing on Sunday, Wednesday. We're about to start releasing on Friday next week. So more Unashamed, more Jase, more Phil, more Al, more of everything. So get ready. I am unashamed. What about you?

Down here, I noticed as I'm looking out the window. that the river is still coming or is it still coming or is it i mean it looks like because it's almost across your complete it has crested and it is 20 feet higher than it was when it started from the low point to the highs you say the river is 20 feet high it is now in my yard i can still drive in and out just a little puddle but but if it keeps coming it's calling for rain uh tomorrow the next day, but then it might slack off for another week or so. Do you go to Belgium an art?

Huh? That wouldn't be fun. Very rarely does the water fall out once it gets this high, this early, February, going into March. Usually it's a problem all the way to make, right? Usually it lasts through June. What's weird is this is the fourth year in a row.

Fourth year in a row. Which, I mean, Jason I grew up here. I don't ever remember four years in a row of water. I saw seven in a row. row where we had no backwater. Right. But I've seen four in a row now, backwater every year. But you just get all your equipment, move it to high ground, move everything to high

ground. You're a little bit limited in your transportation because you have to go by boat everywhere. We own a lot of land. You say how much of it is underwater right now, 95% of it. That's right. Which, you know, happened to us last year. Well, why in the world would you want that land? Ducks, fish.

Yeah, you think it's a paradise. Yeah. I tell everybody, I was like, my dad, I mean, he's surrounded by water. It is right. So it's a good thing. And it's funny because this is four years in a row. So all the deer get pushed out because of the high water, but then they all come back. They all come back.

I mean, it's not like you lose them. I mean, it's just kind of. But every other critter consolidates the land, which is a problem. Mankind has been fighting the control over water ever since mankind has been on the earth and God made it. You're not going to whip it. Somebody sent us an interesting email. You forwarded that about water. But I thought it was really good.

Well, it was from your sermon on from the water to wilderness. But then they were pointing out about the qualities of water, which is really interesting, as much as it shows up in the Bible, and you really can't do anything with it, was his point. In other words, you have to have it to live. You think about it. But you can't do it. I mean, they try to dam and block it. But the government, how long have they been trying to control the river system

went through the Corps of Engineers? And they really just made a mess. Since the founding of the country. Right. And for a lot of different reasons, commerce, most of it get barges up and down. But it never works. It always creates five, everything you say the government will fix. It creates five new problems.

They built a $6 million dollar bridge in about 1935. Six million bucks. Now it costs $60 million. Oh, it's probably more. and it was a newfangled thing but when the wind started blowing the thing got to rocking and they're all sitting there filming

it kept rocking, rocking, rocking, and finally the whole mess just collapsed and fell back in the river. I mean, so... You don't want to the saying if this bridge is rocking, don't go knocking. I don't want to be on that bridge.

Did you remember your... You all looked at it and, whoop, that didn't work. You remember your buddy that we took duck hunting, what was he, an astrophysicist or whatever? He said the earth was the only planet Of course, he studied all the planets and has named a couple.

This guy was smart. He said the earth was the only planet ever seen that has water. That's right. Which I thought was interesting. Yeah. I mean, that's why you don't have any water. Well, you ain't going to be there long. Well, you've got to have life.

You have to have water. That's it. They're still trying to look for life. They've found none. They always claim they might have found it. Might have found it. They haven't found it yet. And the interesting thing is we know from the Genesis 1, we talked about.

we were back there, that the whole Earth was water, you know, which was really interesting. A ball of water. Yeah. You remember that guy talking that day, he gave us that presentation, and he had gotten this software from the government. He's like, you can, you have to buy a router or something to use it. He's like, but they offered it as a public service. I mean, we thought it was, I was like, this is the greatest thing of it, of all the planets and the cosmos. But our government is actually, hey, they're looking at all these planets.

But remember him telling about some of those planets you could actually fly through it? Sure. That is the most fascinating thing. You'd think if it's a planet. Because you land on it. Various gases. Some of them, you just, the consistency of it, you actually can just go through it. All the far planets, that's pretty well what it is.

Just balls of gases and all kinds of materials. But no dirt to stand on. Right. And they have the rings of stuff that's like, you know, orbits around. It's really interesting. I think just the first four, you know, Venus, Mercury, Mars, I guess Mercury, Venus, Earth, and then Mars, those, you know, you have actually. There is something you could. You could stand on, but the other two, the first two there, close to the sun, 850 degrees in the daytime.

850, that's pretty hot. Mars is too hot. Remember the one he said, there was one that you could, only one, that you could actually go there and land. but you would have to move, like, at a rate that you were not fast enough to move around the planet to stay alive. Yeah, that's a little bit of, like, you got to move, like, whatever it was, 800 miles an hour. We make some great claims, but as far as us going somewhere and visiting other planets, trust me, it's not in the works. Well, he was a believer, and his whole point was that God made this planet special.

and look he had a pretty powerful argument. It took him four hours to explain it, but I saw a documentary I think it was called the, I don't know, something about the blue planet or whatever and it was really interesting to show all the unique nature of Earth,

you know, which we know when you're a believer, you think, oh yeah, because God created it to put us here and like, of course that makes perfect sense, but in the scientific world if you don't believe in God, to them is such an oddity of how does it just, you know, how's it so perfect, such a perfect recipe. A lot of things had to come together.

I mean, yeah, exactly. I think that's why God chose baptism, too, you know, when you think about being born again. Which is the guy that sends the email talked about. You know, the water and life. And I thought about that verse in John 7. You could use John 4, you know, the well with the conversation with the woman. Down 4. But, you know, in John 7, he said, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this, he meant the spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. But even he used the Holy Spirit to represent what we understand, living water. Yeah. You know, I just think it's an incredible illustration, and I don't believe Jesus does things by accident. No.

And you're right, and it's all the way through, you see it over and over. Well, it's interesting you say that, Desk because we get a lot of emails from you guys, and we appreciate you guys, and a lot of other ways of kind of letting us know what you're thinking, questions. And there's one of our listeners is a guy named Al, which, by the way, great name, Al. and he sent us a note and I told him I replied to him I said look I could send you a long email and answer this but I'd rather just talk about it on the podcast because I'm sure if you're having this same issue that other listeners are as well I thought it was really interesting it kind of goes you made me think about it when you said that about the concept of baptism in his let me just read to you what he said and then we'll talk about it says something I hope

you'll address in your podcast is how do we surrender So that's his question. How do we surrender? I'm personally having immense trouble on this myself. I think part of the problem for myself is that I grew up in a very small church, very reserved, very planned out services. Run by a couple of families, mine and another one, which many people have that experience. I did ask to be, here's interesting, a couple of things he says here. I did ask to be baptized. I think I was 12 or 13, but I don't think I ever really learned how to surrender. So it's interesting. He kind of links back to the concept of baptism. Now he says, I'm 50, I'm having a ton of trouble letting go. I'm married. I don't run around acting like a fool or chasing wild women, you know, because we talked about that on the last podcast. I hunt, I fish, I work, and home is my life. And then this was a phrase I really wanted to talk about today

because I think a lot of people think this. And I think this is part of the problem out. Adding Jesus to it is my goal. So he's got, I was got his life. And it's a good life, but he knows it could be better. And he's like, I don't want to add Jesus. You're like me. When I hear that, a red black goes out.

Right. I even highlighted it out. I think religious people tend to compartmentalize Jesus, which is a really bad thing to do. Yeah. You know? And I think that's that view is part of the problem. So I wanted us to talk about it on the podcast, not just for Al, because I know you're listening to in because you told me you were going to be checking it out. Let me give him about four or five texts.

Go for it, Dad. I knew you would have some text. Al, are you listening? You got too many things ahead of Jesus, my man. We have much. This is Hebrews, Al. This is going to get weird. Because he's Al.

I know. I just act like a Al. I'm sitting in as Al. Hebrews 5, verse 11. We have much to say about this, my man, but it's hard to explain because you're so slow to learn. You're 52 now. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again.

You need milk, not solid. food. Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. Your question was, how do I surrender? Solid food, Hebrews 514, is for the mature, and here's the key, who by constant use have trained themselves, not me training it, not I'll hear, not Jace, you train yourself to do something earth-shattering to distinguish good from evil. It's that simple as you go forward. Like this. Now that's that one.

Romans chapter 2, verse 6, God will give to each person according to what is done. Make this your goal, Al. To those who by persistence, who by persistence, in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality. Remember the Hebrew text said, you know the difference between good and evil, and you do good. Well, this says you have to be persistent in doing good because you want glory, honor, and immortality. Well, God says he'll give eternal life to you.

But, and here's where you're struggling, for those who are self-seeking, you are. get yourself in the way of your Lord, who reject the truth and follow evil. Stand on the gospel, my man. Jesus died for he was buried and raised from the dead. Life and immortality is yours for the taken here. Just think of what that's going to be like. You can hunt fish and do that forever. There'll be wrath and anger for those who reject the truth and who are self-seeking.

There will be trouble and distress, and you sound like your little trouble. and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, but glory, honor, and peace, which is what you're hunting. I can tell by the way your letter read, glory, honor and peace for you, Al, for everyone. Look, it's this simple who does good. It's not earth shattering. It's not something that's not right in front of you. You say, but I think his point is he's doing some good.

good, you know, and he's doing something bad. But he's like this whole idea of surrender, that seems, what would you say, a little drastic? Extreme. There's a confession you make, and we all know it. Jesus is Lord. That's a mouthful. This is how we know. Which means you're not.

I'll finish with this. First John, chapter 3, verse 10. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. It's real simple. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God. Neither is anyone who does not love his brother. So when you get up in the morning, I'll all go and tell you, as you say, I need to make it my ambition and my goal while I'm on the earth.

Get up, do good, and love my brother. If you do that, you're good to go. It's not complex. It's not rocket science. It's just a question of, have you decided to just do good, be good, and love my fellow man? I think it's not that hard. It's not. But I think that's why I want to talk about it.

Because a lot of people like Al, you know, it's easy to compare yourself to other people because the comparisons you made out, the same ones we all do. We say, well, yeah, I'm not perfect. And I don't, but I don't do this, this, this, and this. but I do this, this, and this. But if you don't first surrender, and that's what happens, I think, and what he's talking about,

is that the first step is surrender. Not the 15th step, not the, I'm pretty good guy, but it's the first step. I agree. If you've never surrendered. You decide to do this. Well, I mean, you hear who Jesus is. Right.

You know, I was the last event I did, I got up there and I said, look, I want you all to quit listening to the preacher. Well, the preacher's in the audience. That's scared him. I'm sure he went. I said, and go home and read the book of John and see what Jesus is like. And then make a decision on whether you want, and that's the word I use, on whether you want to surrender the entirety of your life and everything, all compartments, all departments.

and say, I'm going to, I'm going to go with him. Walk as Jesus did. So I said that, which I thought was interesting at the end of my speech, it wasn't the most exuberant crowd, although they were good people. The first person to stand after I was finished was that preacher. I did notice that. He, because he understood, this is not about me. At some point, every person is going to have to surrender.

I wanted to read Philippians too. because it says verse three do nothing out of selfish ambition and we know what happened because of that the verse in James it says where's that it says for where you have enviant selfish ambition there you find

disorder and every evil practice so you think what is sin it's when we selfishly set aside what God what we know in our conscience God wants us to do and for selfish reasons which is the opposite

of surrender, we sin. Then it says, do nothing out of vain, I mean, concede or self-sum ambition, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interest of others. And then here's the key verse. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. And then you have this quote, who being in very nature of God did not consider equality of God something to be grasped but made himself nothing. He surrendered. Taking the very nature of a servant being made, that was part of his surrender was becoming a human.

I mean, the equivalent to me would be like me if I had the ability of becoming a roach and like crawling around with the roaches. That would be, well, I don't want to be a roach. I think, but Jesus did that for us. And being found in appearances of man. And he humbled himself again, surrender, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, which is why he ultimately defeated Satan because, look, I'm very competitive. That's my biggest struggle.

I mean, I am competitive. And the reason I married a woman who's not is because I knew that was going to be a combustible thing if I had a wife who was competitive because I'm so competitive. You know me. I'm not competitive about anything. I'm but so it's hard for me to it would be hard for me to surrender in any kind of competition because I want to win so I think that's why Jesus how he overcame the evil one because the last thing in this war with the evil one the last thing the evil one thought on how he would be uh you know how Jesus would obtain victory would be surrender He never considered that. You just think about that.

In any game you ever play or any competition, well, when you surrender, that's that you lost. And I think that's why people have a hard time doing it. Like if I'm playing a game and I'm getting beat by 30, let's say we're playing basketball. In my feeble mind, I'm like, oh, no, but I'm going to turn it on. You know what I mean?

I'm going to come back. Wait until I get hot. You know, I'm just not the white flag type of guy. I'm always thinking, yeah, but if I get hot, buddy, if I, it's over. You'll never see it. It'll be the greatest comeback ever. You just wouldn't think the way to win this game is for me to say I quit. But in Christ, I think that's why he's having such a difficulty, you know, understanding this.

That really is the way to obtain victory because that's how Jesus obtained it. Now, I think that's what baptism is all about. I really do. I think it's a, you may, because at some point you have to do something. It's a pledge to surrender. Yeah, you're saying, okay. Somebody has you by the nap of the neck. Yeah.

And you're just. Actually, because you hear people say, well, I got baptized like they did it. But actually, you surrendered to someone else baptized you. That is correct. Which is the nature of it in and of itself, which is probably why God? It's a humbling experience. Well, why was Jesus baptized? Let's just analyze it.

And remember, we talked about it. John didn't want to baptize Jesus. He said, whoa, of course not. I mean, he says, you need to be baptized at me. Guess what? Because Jesus is surrendering. He's like, whoa, I don't want to be a part of this. I should be surrendering to you.

That's right. I mean, that's, if baptism is surrender, that's what that conversation seems like. Well, that makes sense to me. Right. Because you're like, well, you don't, you haven't even done anything wrong. But Jesus was showing his humility.

It was a baptism of repentance. John's like, you don't need to repentant. repent of anything. Don't need to repent. So it comes back to my quote. Why is he being baptized? It's the humility. That's right.

He's surrendering to the Godhead of which he's a part of for the good of us. Right. But then those three things happen where God said, you know, this is my child, this is my son, whom I love, and I'm well pleased. And then he received God's spirit. Yeah. And he takes off with what? The same surrendered.

approach to life. So I think that's what happens to us. I think when you hear what Jesus did, that's what saves you. His death on cross. Well, I meant the actual salvation, though, is blood, is grace. If he didn't die on the cross, it don't matter if you believe or not. There was no way to be safe. The resurrection. So when you fast forward and go to Galatians, I think I did this earlier but my point is if your attitude is going to be that of christ jesus then galatians make sense when it says i have been crucified with christ and i no longer live well what is being crucified with christ if that's not surrender i don't know what it is you're on a battlefield and you just threw your hands up guess what got shot that's surrender you fell over but it says i no longer lit but christ lives in me

well you came up off the battlefield you died you surrendered and got shot and died they could even buried you then you came back you're like i'm back then he says but christ lives in me well i just read what christ he was all about surrender and humility the life i live in the body i live by faith in the son of god well now you're in a surrendered state you're living for the will of god You died on a battlefield who loved me and gave himself up for me. Then I like this, I don't set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness could be gained through the law, my performance, Christ died for nothing. So you said, what's I got to do with baptism?

Well, the next chapter, he says, now that faith has come, we're no longer under supervision of the law. It's not based on your performance. And so why would he make a statement like that? You're all sons of God through faith in Christ. Jesus, for all of you who were baptized, and let's just replace that with surrender. Surrendered into Christ, look, have clothed yourself with Christ, which goes along with 2.20.

I've been crucified with Christ. I'll no longer live. So you gave up, you surrendered, you go under some water, you die. Gone. buried and then Christ lives in you. Then it says there's neither, you know, Jew or Greek, slaying a free, male and a female, you're all one in Christ Jesus.

So we're all on the same common ground. Probably what happened here to our man who wrote the letter. He mentioned the fact that he was a pretty young person, like 12 years old. He probably at that age did not have anything to surrender to or from. He's just too young. They baptized me at 12, the one who wrote the letter. Look, they baptized me at 12.

Trust me when I tell you, it didn't take. Not only did I not surrender, I rebelled against God. So I went back when someone said, well, what about your 12-year-old baptism? I said, it didn't take. At 28, it took. I surrendered. So he might consider that. Well, it's possible.

And here's the other thing. you don't always, when you surrender, that's why we're saying surrender first, you make the proclamation, you believe it, and you make the decision. I am all in on Jesus, which is, it's really just saying I'm going to do it in the start in the process. And you don't always know immediately. Remember the disciples, they left everything to follow Jesus. They surrendered. They were fishermen. They had these jobs, and they'd left it all to follow him for three years.

They never got it. They saw the miracles. they watched him. They missed it. They all left at his cruiser. All of them deserted him. So my point is, even when you surrender, sometimes it takes a while to get it. It's okay. I mean, this is a process. It's a lifetime. Which is why I wanted to talk about it because I know people feel that way. They're like, man, I feel like I've made the surrender, but I'm still struggling with the idea of understanding exactly what God wants for my life. None of us have ever reached the point on where our Lord himself was. All we

can do is aspire to be like him the best we can as we go stumbling along as we do and he's there to lift us up we just keep going it's so i love jason's analogy about the idea that surrender seems counterintuitive to most people because it feels like you're waving the white flag but you are because what happens is you're taking your own control out of the equation exactly it's the exact opposite of what you think i know you know a lot of people struggle with trying to figure out what exactly baptism is all about and why did God choose to use that. But I think it's a camouflage for victory because you would never equate, you know, God always has these a way of saying, if you want to be first, be last. You know, if you want to

win, surrender. It's the same concept when you look at it because you're like, when you think what you're surrendering to it makes sense you remember paul when he was saul in his encounter with god i mean he's going around in his mind doing what he feels is right which is the exact opposite of what he should be doing he's killing people who follow jesus yep well he's walking down the road and all of a sudden boom here comes a light and a voice sa saul why do you persecute me well you remember his first line. Who are you Lord? Because whoever has this power, their Lord. I'm surrendering, which is what every other human being would do. Whatever I'm doing, my bad. Okay. Obviously, there's no weapon to fight with here. This, I'm str- I'm blind. I'm blinded. I'm hearing a voice

from heaven, there's a light. I'm on my hands and knees. I can't even see the ground. That's right. And there's some giant speaker from heaven coming out of somewhere saying, and he says, I'm Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. What a statement. You're on the wrong side of things here.

And so then we go through this scenario where he says, here's the key verse, because the next statement he makes is verse 10, he says, well, what shall I do? do, Lord. Because now he is saying my bad. He not, I mean, this, his encounter has happened not through faith. It has happened in reality. And he is down on his knees. So, so the Lord says, get up, go into Damascus, and there you'll be told all that you have been assigned to do. Well, he's had to humble himself. Jesus is forcing him to. He's like, you go down there and see what happens next. But your reign of tears over. So they went down there.

He met a guy named Adam, a nice, devout observer, you know, and then, you know, this went on for three days, and then they healed him of his sight. But he gets down to verse 16, and he says, and now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on his name. Well, he's had this encounter with Jesus. He's now ready to humble himself.

but Jesus still lets him be blind for a few days. Then he's healed. And then the statement comes up, what are you waiting for? You know, be baptized and wash your sins away. So he obviously understood now who Jesus is completely, because Anonais explained it to him. And I'm like, well, there's his opportunity to start over.

But so how is he going to do it? It's the same thing that happened when he called him on the route. You surrender again. I just think it's humbling the physical act. we've already explained what happens to you spiritually, but the physical act, it's just, it's humbling to go down there and say, yeah, I'm a sinner, dunk me under some water, because I believe Jesus is real. And you're right. And what's interesting about Paul, we have the advantage of them being able to follow him because he wrote most of the epistles in the New Testament. So we get to see his, you know, he spent, you read it over and over and over again in his letters. he was like having to reassure them.

You know, I'm, this ministry, you know, you can believe it's because he was having to reassure these people because he looked like this guy could have never been the guy. And so over and over and over again, he doubted that. Remember in the 2nd Corinthians 12 where he's like pleading with God, take away this, you know, thorn in my flesh? And God's like, no, because you have to understand that everything depends on me. When you're weak, that's what I'm the strongest. your life. And so that was, all those are great points for us, I think, and, and what I was talking about

to realize that we have to continually surrender. It's a, you remember the old song, I surrender all. Oh, I thought about that. We, it was actually, we were working on our set for next week's worship. And that we, it was on the docket from. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I surrender all. Because I was thinking. It's a great old, it's a great old, you know, you mix all the emotions. You say, you surrender because you fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. So he began to wise up when you say, I'm going to surrender because I fear him. He has my soul, my destiny, and he and he alone can save me or obliterate me.

Then you say, and I love him because of what he's done for me. So it's fear, mixed with love, mixed with knowing that a lot of your fellow human beings, that you associate with that you see, they don't know, well, who's going to tell them? You say, well, part of your surrender is, I'll tell you what, I'll step up and tell them. I'll suffer some like Jesus did. I'll take a cussion. I'll be insulted. Fine.

Let it rip. And you just go forward and you don't veer to the right nor left. And you end up, as it turns out, walking like Jesus did. Yeah. Take the insult. You're going to be persecuted. all right, what else is new? But you don't really realize that until you do, in fact, surrender.

Until you surrender, you'll never really get the wrath of the world put upon you. Nope. You're like them. They're cussing and so are you. They're up to no good and so are you. Well, I thought you mentioned Paul. Remember Roman 7 where he has that great back and forth about struggling with sin and sin and sinfulness?

And he really lays out a beautiful picture of kind of what we've been talking about today about what it looks like, like, man, I want to do it, but I want to do it, I can't do it. You know, the commandments brings to life. I used to be pretty good. And at some point, I'm realizing I'm not good. And so he just gives us that great human picture. And then what is he said at the end? But thanks be to God for rescuing me from this body of death, you know, because of Jesus.

And so by the way, he called himself a wretch. What a wretched man I am. Yeah. Well, that's where you end up if you don't surrender. That's right. Well, yeah. And you had that internal struggle. I like it.

I read Saul's conversion to Paul, and then he writes in Colossians, you know, chapter one, he just starts talking about Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation. I mean, and he didn't even mention, oh yeah, and I had a conversation with him while I was on the road. I mean, because he's now writing this letter to the church there, but he says, once you were alienated from God, verse 21, and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, which is exactly where he was.

But now he has reconciled. He's brought you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. So here, can you imagine the accusations that he had? I mean, now Paul's going around writing the letters to churches where people are there, family members of people he killed. I mean, they're like, you're talking about being free from accusation, meaning something to him.

But when he got to chapter 2, he said, in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in Bali form, you know, in verse 9 where he says that. But then he says, but you've been given that fullness, and look what he goes to. In verse 12, having the circumcision done by Christ, he cut off that sinful self. Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your. faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead, which is what happened with him with Anonis. He said, what are you waiting for? Because now he's got a new perspective on his evil behavior, his old life. And the point I want to get to is the next chapter, when he gets to chapter three, it says, since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, which is

what Al needs to do. Set your mind, not on earthly things, for you, died, there's a surrender again. And your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also appear with him in glory. So he says all that. And then he says in verse 5 and through 10, put off the old self, put on the new self. He goes through with all the evil practices. And then he talks about the new cell.

And the reason I went through that whole long thing is if you try to just tell Wow, okay, you need to put off the old cell, quit doing these bad things, and put on the new cell. But if you don't understand where it all started with your surrendering, you're never going to get to that point. Correct. You're introduced to Jesus, and you see that he humbled himself as God becoming flesh, and he died on the cross for your sins, and he was resurrected. Once you understand, that's what saves you, his love and mercy and grace. Well, once you say, I'm surrendering to that, cut to the heart, that God would do that for me and his love. well then there's a process that that happens just like saul although his was a lot more volatile

you know he's struck down by god himself you then have to decide well am i going to surrender to the point of where i'm dying to my selfish wants needs desires and then you come to baptism and you say oh yeah i'm really doing it you know i'm putting my faith and trust in jes and i'm dying i no longer live he's going to send me the spirit and then I'm going to wake up every morning and say, all right, Lord. Surrender. Surrender is proven. The same one struck down on the road.

He said, I'm sending you to open their eyes, turn them from darkness to light. That's your job from now. Instead of killing us, you're going to go preaching about who I am. Where are you at? I'm in Acts 26. I'm sending you, Paul, to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God. This is where he had been, by the way, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Watch. He's talking to the king of Judea,

first to those, verse 20, in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and all Judea and to the Gentiles also. He said, here's what I've been doing and where I've been doing it. I preached that they should repent which is a form of mental surrender. Yes, surrender. And turn to God and prove, here it is in action, their surrender, prove their repentance by their deeds. So instead of worrying about I'm having a difficulty cursing and I'm having a difficulty surrendering my life,

it's not a real good way to look at it. You say you need to look at it like this is a proven process That's right. As you feed on the word, obey what God says. You said, you move forward. People on both sides, your enemies and your friends will say, I've never seen such a change in a man. When they start saying that there, Al, you know you're on the right track. And I like the fact that others, including Al, understand this is a, this because this sound, we were saying as a simple thing, it's a difficult thing.

because this is this is a decision to offer your whole life. I mean, it should be. Jay, you remember we used to, we had a group we shared us with a lot of your high school friends and people we knew. And during that period of time, there was one guy, and we still know him. He's a good friend. And finally, he surrendered. But I remember the first time we shared with him, he was like, because most of people were like, man, I got to get on this. And they're watching other people's life change.

And they're like, so it was a good, a coup of people like coming to Christ. but this one particular guy, and he's young, he was probably a teenager or 20 years old. He said, he looked at it and he was like, man, I see how serious this is. I just can't do it because I got to try to do better. I know I can't live it. He was like, so he wouldn't even surrender. He backed off. He said, let me work on myself for a while.

But he totally missed it because he thought he could get better. And then, therefore, when he became a Christian and then surrendered, He would already be a good guy, so it would be easy for him. A lot of them would say, I just need to get back in church. Or I just start reading the Bible more, as if that's going to do it. But it's not that. All those are good things, but they're not what saves you. The surrender saves, and it changes everything.

Plus, you've got to have the Holy Spirit to help you as well, and that's where you get him. People just don't want to do. It's a pride thing. It is. It's hard. You know, people, when they ask me about struggling with a specific sin, you know, I'll go to 1 Peter 4-1 because it's kind of a not a riddle, but it's something that people can't figure out.

And I like reading verses that make people think. But what it says is it says, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude. And here's the riddle part, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. It's a good one. Now people are like, well, wait a minute, there's something I can do where I'm done with sin, just done with it. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's what it says, isn't it? What does that mean?

And you can prove it. They're like, well, what is suffering in my body? What exactly? I said, well, let's back up. I said, now you see that number four there because it's chapter four and one? That actually isn't there, you know, humans post, it was just a letter. Post interpretation. This was a letter.

I said, they put that four there and they put that, you know, a one there because they thought it was a new thought. Incorrect in this case. They should have left it attached to 32. Because in 321, he makes an assertion right after he kind of goes through the gospel and always be prepared to give an answer for Christ. But he says, and he starts talking about Noah and the ark, only just to get the analogy of what we talked. about earlier, we're surrounded by water on the earth. And so was Noah. And this water, any kind of water, remember the water came up out of the springs and it rained 40 days and 49. This is H2O. Yeah, the water, this water symbolizes baptism, which I'll stop there because we're

trying to get an explanation of 1st Peter 401. But we stopped there because a lot of religious people, they'll say, well, baptism is a symbol, and they get it from this verse, but it actually says that water is the symbol, according to this word. Water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also not the removal of dirt from the body. So he was being clear saying, you're not washing your sins away like you would take a bath and literally physically. It's not about that. Yeah. Here's the key. No power in the water.

Yeah. But it's the pledge of a good conscience. Now, we've already said what we think the pledge is. The pledge is that you are surrendering to Jesus. That is the pledge. That's what pledge means. But then it even clarifies more saying, it baptism saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Because inside that surrendering, of what you're surrendering to, you'll find the death barrel and resurrection of Jesus, which is why Paul said that in Roman 6. Shall I go on sinning? Oh, no. Don't you know that all of us who are baptized? We're baptized when it's death. We died to sin.

Here we are back on the battlefield. You surrendering. Bomp, you're dead. Buried. He's gone. Whoop. Came back because of the power of Jesus. There's just too many verses that explain it to miss it.

So my point is, though, then he gets to 401 and says, therefore, well therefore is an implication of what he just got through saying based on what i just said since christ suffered in his body which is right where i started in philippians too remember he said he your attitude should be that of christ jesus who being in very nature you know god humbled himself he became obedient even to death on a cross so there's the surrender because once you have that surrendered spirit and you start representing Jesus, it's amazing how the less sins you commit. It's not that you're not trying to sin.

It's like now you're having the attitude of Jesus where you're humming yourself every day. You just quit sending as much. Once you're done with it as a result, you say, what will we see? And what is the results? Right. He does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will God, that is surrender. There you go. So anyway, I want to say thanks, Al, for sending us your email,

because obviously it's giving us a lot to talk about, not just for you, but there's so many of us that need to hear this on a consistent basis of what it looks like to take that first step, which is the most important one, that then makes us better and stronger. So. Yeah, and it's a secret. I feel like it's a secret component. Yeah. To live in a life in Christ's understanding 1 Peter 4.1 and what a surrendered spirit. And that's why the first step is the most important one, because that's what opens the door for everything else. And you're right.

The stuff we've talked about with profanity, people are like, I don't want to cuss as much. Well, when Christ is in you, and you begin thinking differently, and you look at the word differently, it affects what comes out of your mouth. That's where the invitation song and the altar call came from. You're turning yourself in.

That's right. You're just surrendered. And by the way, people come here every week and turn themselves in, and we get to see a lot of it. all the time. Aaron yesterday. You made that you made. Aaron from Florida. From Texas. Was it? Yeah. I think you. But always remember it's who you're surrendering to. That's what saves you. That's right. So good stuff. Always enjoyable to talk about on the Unashamed podcast.

We want your lives to be better. And from what we're hearing from you, it's working. Amazing stories where this has really sparked a lot of people to do. People have been baptized that saved every week. That's right. Which is incredible. Not just here, but everywhere. So we're glad guys doing something and you guys are along for the ride. So tell other people about it because the more people that listen, the more impact is going to have, which is great.

So we're so glad you guys are with us today. You can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or YouTube or Facebook. And be sure and rate us on iTunes so that other people can know about the podcast.