Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 618 | Phil Forced Terry Bradshaw into a Blindfold & How God Tipped Him $150

Episode Date: January 22, 2023

Phil recreates the time he forced Terry Bradshaw into a blindfold to keep him from stealing. Phil witnesses his own miracle that ended up putting some money in his pocket. The guys discuss eternal life insurance, and Al lays out the qualities all fishermen have that Jesus was drawn to. Jase examines the most underrated miracle in the Bible and confesses that he and Phil would probably have ignored Jesus’ advice if they’d been there. Plus Jase details the bombshell he dropped on Missy during their first date!  In this episode: Introduction to the book of 1 Peter -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? With clothing on your butts, girl. That's what it means. Yep. Don't show your butt. Yeah. It's too much flesh. That should just be a rule, Phil. Good, great bumper sticker.

I mean, if I got in some kind of wardrobe and my buttocks were protruding at any point, you'd say that's repulsive. I'd say, read the bumper sticker. Don't show your butt. That has a double entree or untrida. Double untronday. Untronday. I got to try to figure. I got to figure out how to pronounce that first before I use it. Yeah.

Wasn't as bad as the cessationism. Oh, my gosh. You never read the one you found, Jais. You thought you had what he was talking about. I love that one. the sensationism. I'll use that. Sessation.

No, I'm saying the, it was way better the one I found. I never did. You like that one better. Yeah, I like that one better. Sin. And it's not sin as an as an asin. It's sensation. So you've heard, like, use your sensations.

So sensationism is a system of psychics. based upon sensations as the constituent as the constituent, constituents of all conscious experience. I thought that's what you were talking about. So you were having these experiences. It's sort of it. Yeah, that actually sort of applies. That's funny.

Well, that would be the opposite of cessationism. so that they may, if you've, if you've, well, this is just the psychology of it. I thought you were getting into the mind of it is what I'm saying. No, I was, I was talking about more of a biblical, like, Oh, yeah, I said, I mean, who comes up with these words?

Who comes up with these words? I think it's what's wrong with religion. They come up with words. No, it's not. Think about it. No, it's a way to redo, you do it. We all do it. It's a way to reduce, like, big ideas into, in the, like,

small things. Yes, you can discuss more easily. I don't do that. No, I don't do that. Look,

because you know why? I'm going to go charity gale on you here. My take on it is I'm all about the name of Jesus. I speak the name of Jesus in all doubt, in all confidence,

any scenario in life. When I get back into a corner, I'm going to speak the name of Jesus. I'm not going to say, you're a cessationalistic person. They're like, would you call me? I've never heard that word in my life. And it was right.

I'm like, how do you know that? That's the most impressive grammar I've ever heard. Not grammar. A vocabulary. Your vocabulary is it knows no bounds. It knows no bounds. But to me, when you say that, Every time you say that, you probably lose a dozen listeners.

And you have a lot of meaningless facts in your head that you need to get out and make room. Actually, it was a very meaningful fact. No, it was great. But the fact you know it is disturbing. Well, this is one of those things where you say, where you say, I agree to disagree. Yeah, you're just smarter than that. No, it's not about intellect. No, you are.

Take that credit. You have more vocabulary in your just pinky size portion of your brain that I do in my entire brain. But I got the name of Jesus, buddy. Zach is an educated man. All right, Maddie. Oh, they ran this long time. Our timer's just ticking now. These are all bonus material.

What does your timer say? Are we recording now? That was all. Someone should have told me. I would have been a little more polished. So the debate continues into the next podcast. So Jay's, I had a, you know, when you get older, I was trying to get some life insurance. And now they send a nurse to your house when you want life insurance.

Because I guess they have to assess how big of a risk you are. Take your blood, take your blood pressure, you know, do all these different things. So this woman comes to my house. And I think Zach was there. And Shane and Shane were there. And so, you know, she comes in. She starts asking me these questions. Well, the first thing she said, she sits down.

She was from, like, east of us about our good old country gal. And she said, do you have an ID? And I said, about what? And it was, it was crankus. She didn't laugh. She didn't laugh. And so I told. took out my driver's license. I gave it to her.

She starts through her thing. I said, you didn't get my joke. Did you not hear it? She said, what was that? I would call that joke a form of Christianese. Yeah, it was. It's corny. It's definitely, but I thought it was. I thought it was humorous. Well, let me give you this. That's not a joke. The next time you need life insurance, I'm going to say he has. has risen, which is the synopsis of the book of Mark that I said, if you don't get anything else,

that was in our bonus time of our last podcast. Yes. If you want a nice synopsis, he is risen. There's your life insurance. And it's free. No, I like it. You know, but I just found it interesting because when I was younger, all I had to do was go to an insurance agent. you know, I'm 40, 35 years old.

I'm in good shape. It's obvious when you look at me and they're like, oh, yeah, sign right here, start sending us a check. Now you get a little older, overweight, you got some issues. They're like, we're sending a nurse to your house. Yeah. To assess how much you're going to have to pay. Well, I said this, Al, because when our life insurance agent came and visited us,

it's a fellow we all know. And up until that time, I never was interested in buying life insurance because I had no money. And so, I mean, it was a great idea, but I literally had no money to give the person for it. It just, it wasn't there. And so when he came, I tried that at every turn, every question he asked me about life, since I knew him, I would say some form of he has risen. That's my real life insurance. He's like, yeah, yeah, I know, because he's a believer. But he's like, but you need to take care of your family. You know, we want to take care of that.

I mean, God forbid something were to happen. You know, but if it did, you want to take care of your family. And I'd say, he has risen. He is in control. They always have that caveat. God forbid something happens to you. You know, like we said, I know, I hate the worst case scenario, you know. Yeah.

well, that was my take is he's using God for bib, but I would be like, but God's in control. So it was funny for about 10 minutes, and after a while, I could tell he started getting frustrated. And I was like, and so when I waited until he got frustrated, and I said, look, I'm going to give you the money, and we're going to start this. But I just want you to know where my heart is. I'm trusted in God. That is my life in church.

But I'm going to give you the money. I just wanted to be clear. But, you know, it's funny, Jay, nobody wants to be around. Like, so this woman, we're sitting in my kitchen table, and Shane and Shane and Zach are in the living room. And she starts asking me questions, like, have you ever been convicted of a felony? Do you have HIV? And all of a sudden, I'm looking over at them in the living room. They're getting, like, real nervous.

Like, they look at them. You didn't see what you're having a notebook, did you? Well, they just look like I shouldn't be here. So Zach all of a sudden, he's got to make a call. Somebody's got to go check out the cowboy games. Somebody's got to go take a nap. And I look up, it was just me and the nurse after about two minutes of interrogation. Yeah, it got awkward real quick.

I felt like we were violating some HIPAA privacy law or something. Let's just get out of here. It was pretty funny. Did you get insured, though? Are you good to go now? Oh, no. I still hadn't gotten the results. We'll see.

We'll see what they want to. I'm sure it's not going to be cheap in the current shape I'm in. But I'm working on it. So we'll see what happened. So, Jace, you mentioned in the last podcast, in the overtime, we wrapped up the book of Mark. And one of the things we mentioned in the overtime that we didn't mention or get into in the other one.

But I think it's a perfect transition into where we're headed next was in Mark 16 in verse seven, the angel is at the, you know, he's at the tomb and he says, don't be alarmed to the women, you know, he says, you're looking for Jesus. The Nazarene who was crucified, he has risen. That's the point you were just making. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell the disciples and Peter, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. And so we had made the point in our overtime that, that there seemed, the angel knew there seemed to be some kind of separation there between Peter and the other disciples. And our assumption was that it goes back to his denial of Jesus.

And so there's kind of like a chasm there probably brought about by Peter himself. Because we know when we get to John 21 in John's account, we see that he's out fishing with him when Jesus shows up. And then there's kind of that reconciliation passage, which. kind of then prepares him for where he's going to go. But we talked to tell a little bit about, because you talked about grace, Jay said I thought it was really good in the overtime, because we're going to be talking about Peter as we now transition to first and second Peter.

A Ceyla moment. Remember you talked about it being a moment of grace? No, it was. I mean, because why single him out? I mean, you got to remember he swore himself in when Jesus said, look, you're all going to leave me. And he said, I'll never leave you. I mean, if everybody else, I'll die with you.

If I have to go to prison, he basically swore an oath, said, I will not leave. And then how many hours later did he? Not long. It wasn't long. It got real. And so when Jesus re-initiated him, I guess, I mean, I don't know what you call that. he basically asked him the three questions, do you love me?

Because he had denied him. And it was probably, I mean, Peter probably felt as low as a human being could feel. You just denied a person who you loved and trusted. And then you abandoned him before his death after you said you were not. And all these miracles he performed. Well, and then the catalyst was, then this guy, who you denied, comes back from the dead. I mean, this has got to be most embarrassing and bad calls ever.

And you said, Peter, this will never happen. And it'll never happen. And you denied him. You said, I don't even know him. But now that he came back from the dead, this is a guy you want to know. Now, Jesus knew he wasn't Satan, but he addressed him when he said, get behind me. Yeah, exactly. But what Alec was referring to is, even in all that, you see God's grace here because he said, you go tell my followers.

What was the exact phrase? He said, you go tell his disciples and Peter. Why didn't he just say tell his disciple? and Peter. He's risen. I mean, so I thought it was it. Yeah,

it's a powerful moment. So it's interesting. So what I want to do is kind of take a little bit of a hard look. And some of we've already talked about, some of what we haven't, at Peter himself, because we're going to study first and second Peter, and I think it's always advantageous

when you have kind of a rare opportunity in the Bible to see the person's life that 30 years later is going to write these words that are so good and rich really kind of understand where they come from. So obviously we've established the fact he denied Christ and he was reinstated. But if you go back really to the first time we see Peter, you remember when we studied John, his brother Andrew, was it Andrew and Nathaniel? The two that Jesus first, and they had been followers to John the Baptist.

And so they're kind of having interest in Jesus. And so they're the first ones to sort of notice him. And then him noticed them. But it was interesting because Andrew, who was a fisherman, and then Peter's his brother, he immediately says, you know what, I got to tell Peter. So there's something already that, to me, you see about Peter that his brother recognized that if we're going to, like, do something drastic, then Peter needs to be a part of this. So I don't know if that spoke to his personality or just because the brother knows him.

And obviously Peter was the right choice because of what we're going to see later in the book of Acts. But I did think it was interesting that his brother said, I got to get Peter in on listening, you know, meeting this man. And so he does, which takes us to Luke chapter 5, which is the first time we sort of see Peter and how he came to be a follower. And it's a really interesting scenario because Jesus is there in Luke chapter 5 and he's preaching to people. And he's right there at the shore. And it says that there was some fishermen standing nearby who were cleaning their nets. And I don't know about y'all, but the minute I read that, it just took me back in my own mind to all those years when we were kids, Jays. And dad had hoopnets strung out, you know, all over the property.

and would be cleaning nets and repairing them, you know, or maybe having a trammel net strung out on, you know, going through and cleaning it. I mean, it was a necessary task to clean your nets, right? And so we see this in the Bible, and I just find it fascinating. Dad, would you speak to that? Why you had to clean your nets as a fisherman? Nets are kind of, they won't catch fish if a scum develops on them.

They'll get scummy. You have to take them out in the sunlight, let them dry out. And you have to do that probably every week, every week, I take 20 up, put them on the bank, bring them to the house, string them out, let them sit there. I go around them looking for holes, frayed pieces of string. because of one little hole all your fish would get away so you have to look for holes patch the holes

as they dry out in the sunlight Peter and then was on the bank on the bank of the lake that's where they strung theirs out but I've done that so many times I have a hundred I had a hundred at that time so you take 20 clean them

20 the next week clean them 20 the next week clean them then get back 20 in the next neck, then get back to the original ones. They need it again. You raise a net and nothing's in it. You either got too much scum on it or some of the strings are broken.

It's up to you to find them. It's like three inch squares and just a solid all 12 feet long, 10 or 12 feet long, you know. So it was a job. Because the bottom line was if you had a net that wasn't performing, then you're losing money, Right? Because if the fish ran while you had it out there, let's take a break. So I even remember, Dad, you had a plastic tool. It was sort of like a needle.

It kind of came to a point, but it was flat and plastic. And you would have a string inside of it. And that's how you patch the nets. And it's just growing up that way, watching it. It just fascinated me to read this text because when Jesus comes here, he's speaking to the people. But obviously, he already knows that he's. He's targeting Peter, James, and John, who are over there cleaning their nets. But it's one of those kind of directional dialogue moments where it's almost, he's speaking to one group, but he's really speaking to the other group, right?

Because he knows the potential of what's going to happen. And so I just love the fact that Jesus introduces himself to Peter in a setting that Peter was most comfortable, which was him just basically cleaning his nets on the bank, you know? which I found pretty fascinating. So as the story goes forward in verse four of Luke five, he tells Simon. Well, first of all, he's used, you know, asked Simon to use his boat, which I think was another ploy to be able to get Simon to listen. But he tells him in verse four, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.

So he's telling Simon how to fish. Simon answered, master, which is interesting that he addresses him as that. We've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets, which I always found fascinating because to me it's like he recognizes something great about Jesus, but he doesn't know what. But then he says, but then he's like, I know we're not going to catch any fish. when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so full they began to sink.

So, you know, again, a way to impress commercial fishermen is with a giant catch. And so now I can imagine the frenzy of running around. And again, it takes me back to my youth. Whenever there was a big catch, everybody was fired up. I mean, if you caught a boat full of fish, it had an impact, right? I mean, don't you remember that, Dad? It would be a powerful, powerful. If someone told me, put your net right there, you'd catch them right there.

Would you have done it? I'm like. Be honest. I just picked this net up. I mean, nothing. To be honest, we'd probably say, hey. Yeah. Look, go back to your.

You're going to catch them instantaneously when I tell you. You know, y'all wouldn't have obeyed that. I'm confessing our sins, Phil. We would have said, hey, some people are carpenters and some people are fishermen. And you go build you a catfish trap, and we'll try that. But I know what I'm doing on this lake, and I know where the fish are. But go try a catfish trap because that's what a car, that would, for you who don't know. Put your net right here, move at 10 yards from where you have it, and I guarantee you to be full of fish.

I guarantee you it would have taken a lot to get me to do that. You'd have brought up the fact that he was only skilled in building a catfish. Probably would have. Because that's the only wooden net you can use. I'd say, you want me to do what? Yeah. I'd argue with him. That's why I think this is the more underrated miracle in the Bible

was when he gets to John 21, because it's almost like a mirror image of what happened here. Correct. But there's a couple of differences that only fish, them and appreciate. And so when you read Luke 5, it said when their nets began to break, because they did what he said, and whether they were being sarcastic or doubting, you know they had some problems because in Luke 5 when they did catch them, when Peter falls down at his feet and starts

confessing his sins. But Jesus said, don't be afraid. They were afraid after the miracle. Jason, you're a good man for this particular story. I put out a net, and when I tried to raise it, I had some. so many fish in it. Yeah. The weight of the fish in the net were at least 1,000 pounds.

I had them in the net. Nobody was there but me. I dragged up my tail line because when I got it up, I just put about three or four of the, it's a hook net. It's got about six. But you had tell the backstory. You had, you thought if I have a bigger. net and catch more fish.

Yep. And so you built what I think was the world's largest hoop net. Big hoop net. And because it took everything in you to run it. It was so big. It was very hard to run. It was taller than I was in about

20 feet long. And what's amazing, it either caught nothing? Yeah. Or it caught everything, which was kind of strange. I couldn't get the thing up, so I cut the tail line and now my boat's like that and my fish are hanging down beside the boat and I'm sitting on about three of the hoops and the thing just runs out so I've got them in the net

I'm drifting down the river because I cut my rope put a put a bottle on it from the next time I fished it I got around at that right where it goes into my house and I got as close as the bank jumped out and the fish when they got in water about four or five feet deep it was just I mean, some catfish like this. I mean, just a load. Well, I went over and got a bucket, come over there to my boat, where the net was,

dipped down in there with a smaller net, and started taking about 40 or 50 pounds at a time, probably why I got a bad back. So I went up there, my trucks like this, and I dumped them in the back of the truck. I'd go back to the river, dump them back in the back of the truck.

I had my truck just backed all the way down. I literally the bed of my truck was mounted up with a thousand pounds of catfish I put her in a low gear four-wheel drive and I creeped up out of there tied my net out to dry

and when as soon as I got up there and parked the truck I looked up and here comes Jase he walks up there what was your thought when you first saw them fish it's a miracle because I thought So the most fish I've ever seen.

70 cents a pound in my life. 700 bucks. No, no, Phil, the backstory on that was... Too many to sell. Yeah, they wouldn't take them because we told them we had, you know, 1,000 pounds. And so we came up with this scheme. We've told this story before, probably 400 podcasts ago,

but I wound up draft. I thought, man, I'm fixing to make a million dollars, is what I was thinking, because I said, I'm going, I'm going to sell these. one by one. Direct marketing. Yeah. So I went to the first store I found and I was like catfish for sale.

But I noticed that it turned into kind of a tent-like setting where you're just, you know, not as many people were running up there trying to buy fish that weren't clean because that was their number one answer. Are they clean? I was like, no. In the rough. So while I sat up there for about 30 minutes, but, you know, time's wasting because I'm using all my, my sales for ice because it was it was hot and uh so i sold quite a few individuals but i realized

this wasn't going to work and so i went on up to town and i saw a bar that the door was open and there was about seven right cars in front of it and i thought why not and so i pulled in there stuck my head in the bar and the average age of there of the people there were about 75 and and I said, who wants some fish? And they just nothing. Not a word. I said, I got a bunch of fish. And somebody said, are they free?

And I was like, no. But I'll make you a deal on them. And so when I went back, I went back to the truck because nobody moved. So I said, well, that's all that. And so I was fixed to crank up, and they all came out. I was like, well, they're going to take a look at them. So I lifted the tarp over the fish. And everybody was just looking at them.

Nobody's saying a word. And somebody said, well, how much for all of them? And just at that point, I was ready to move on. So I said, $100 bill will do it. And that's what he gave me, $100 bill. And so for the next few weeks, every time I pass by that bar, it said, fish fry Friday and Saturday night, $8.99 a plate. So that guy's one.

He made millions. Only in Louisiana. Only in Louisiana when that happened. That's what happened. Kay had one load of them. She went one direction. She sold hers. But Jay's had the bigger bunch.

He said, but we ended up. Oh, I mean, I think you made, I mean, I made $4,500 and Kay made probably that as well, you know. So, I mean, we made a lot of money over the one catch. But what I was going to say, well, I was going to say on the John, because this is the most underrated miracle in the Bible. So fast forward to when Peter's falling on his knees in front of Jesus saying, you know, I'm a sinner, which is what happened in Luke 5 after the big catch. Before you make the comment, I have one comment that's always struck with me.

In other words, if you, one thing is to look into the mind of human beings and you know every thought that 7.2 billion people know. You can mind read them, all of them. Authority over the 118 billion that's died. You show up and you prove that not only do you control the minds of human beings and you know what they're thinking, that same talent is with fish. You control the mind of fish.

Now they say we came from fish, we all came out of the ocean. And Jesus said, when he made that statement to Peter, moving it right over here, catch him. He brought them fish together. He had the power to force them into that net. And I've always, to me,

the thrust of the whole story is that good night I mean he he controls the mind of everything he created including fish well if you can do that you can raise people from the dead it's another benefit if you want to be a good fisherman you need to be in good standing with the one who can

control the minds and mouths of fish yeah that's where I am so Luke this is uh hang on Let's take a break. I'm getting this out because it's an underrated miracle. So Luke 5, he calls the first disciples and he tells them to throw the nets on the other side of boat. And they're so astonished that Peter falls down, confession of sins. You fast forward to John 21, John 21.

By the way, I'd have done about the same thing Peter did. I would have been just, if you should move it right there and you'll catch them. So fast forward, and Peter has denied him, and now Jesus is resurrected, and so he appears to his disciples. Now, this is after he had died on a cross, but he appears to him, and they were all there, and Peter says, I'm going out to fish, and they said, we'll go with you. So they went out, got into the boat, but that night they came. caught nothing.

He called out, so all of a sudden, early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. So you just think I think it's interesting, because we just read in Luke 5 what happened when he called him for the first time, and now it's like it was a shadow to post-resurrection. And Jesus said, friends, haven't you any fish? And they went, no. No, it just says, no, they answered. well throw your net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some well this sounds familiar

so when they did they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish then the disciple whom jesus loved said to peter it is the lord so then peter he he heard him say it's the lord and he wrapped his outer garment around him and jumped into the water the other disciples followed in the boat i think that's funny he's swimming which is why they're all in the boat and peter swimming which is why mark 16 the angel said go tell all the disciples and peter because you know he was just different and i think this is a really good example of that and so the other disciples followed in the boat for they were not far from the shore, about 100 yards.

When they landed, they saw a fire burning. And then Jesus said, bring some of the fish you have just caught. I mean, I think he actually caught them. Yep. But the reason I'm bringing this up, so then he gets specific. And he says, Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153 because fishermen count. You count.

How many? Yep. How many? We had a famous story about. Phil kept trying to get us to share how many ducks we had shot. And we were so excited telling him the stories. And finally he just went, how many? I mean, he wanted to know the number.

But even with so many, here's the underrated miracle. The net was not torn. And so, look, I want to bring up a point that's probably never been brought up in any religious. It's just pre-nylon all you fishermen are pre-nilion. This point has never. been brought up in the history of religious discussions. So we got a moment here. In Luke 5, the net began to break because that was pre-resurrection.

Post-resurrection, the miracle was because only a commercial fisherman would really appreciate this miracle. There was not one mesh torn. Almost impossible without any fish. Mm, something's happened. This miracle has some undertones to it that the resurrection was trying to put a little exclamation for. Especially if you're a fisherman. If you're a fisherman, that is impossible. Follow Jesus or die?

Even today, how much more the nets are probably durable than it was 2,000 years ago. I mean, we've come a long way. If you catch 153 large fish in any net today, there's going to be a mesh broken. No doubt about it. No, that's a good point, Jay's. And in fact, to go back to Luke 5, whenever that happens and they signal their partners and they get the fish, look at the reaction here, which is how different it is from the reaction in John 21, post-resurrection. When Simon saw this, he fell at Jesus's knees and said, now here's a reaction

to this huge catch of fish the first time, go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. That's an interesting reaction, right, in the moment of this great catch that he recognizes his own sinfulness and basically tells Jesus, you don't want any part of me. He knew he could read not only their mind, but the mind efficient or create them in an instant. Yeah, I brought this up there, Mark, over and over. The difference was, and nobody really brings it up, that every time Jesus did a miracle, it terrified everyone. Yeah. Because what does this mean?

And that's why it still should, for us today, you realize the ramifications of believing in a God with these kind of attributes. I mean, you're not going to, there's nothing you can do to outwitting or to try to have a secret or, you know, live, if you want to live in a hypocrisy. Yeah. Yeah, most people who had an encounter with Jesus in the New Testament, or a lot of them, rather, they were, there was a fear attached to it, particularly post-resurrection to. You think about John's encounter on the Alapapatmaus in Revelation.

You think about the Apostle Paul when he was Saul on the road to Damascus. But I think in our culture, we tend our default position when we think about Jesus is more of the cosmic bellhop version of Jesus, you know, the friendly, nice guy. But it is important to recognize the power and the sovereignty of a, of a person who can control the mind of a fish and say get in the net and the fish gets in the net. That's important. We should take a moment to just consider, you know, the one we're talking about. It does change things, especially when you see his incarnation now a little differently because we see as bigness. You can't see Jesus' love until you see his bigness.

Yeah, after I was converted and during the years when I was fishing, sometimes we'd fish instead of webbing, woodfish chot lines, we call them. It's nylon string with hooks hanging down off of it, about every three or four or five feet. And I put it on the roadbed that separated Arkansas and Louisiana. It was all backwater, all water. It goes across the Washington River bottom. And I started tying that net out, and I told him boys with me, both of them, neither one of them that I know of. I don't know whether they became Christians or not or what happened to them,

but I said, you boys are fixing to see something you've never seen before. And they said, what? I said, we're going to load this boat down with fish on these shot lines. They started, the fish started hitting them hooks. Even before I was baiting them, they were going up there, that hook. I guess they might have smelled it from the night before I was fishing somewhere else. But I just told them, I said, you fixed to see something. We're going to load this boat down with fish.

$750 worth, and all I did was set it out. When I ran it, I just run it, and the fish just started throwing them over in the boat. And we almost got down to where we were going to sink the boat if I had kept catching them. So I just caught $750 worth pretty quick. It was about a thousand pounds on hooks. And they said to me, my buddies, we've never seen anything like that. And I said, me either. But the one I trust in, he can do this and much more.

So I was trying to get a little gospel preach to him, you know. So let's take another break. Which is why I thought it was interesting, Dad, because that's how our family and you in particular, being our dad, can relate so much to this story. And Peter. Because all these things that were happening. I've been there and done that. Once you had made a decision to follow him, right? I mean, you recognized his power and gave him glory.

So I want to read this passage back in Luke 5 because here's Jesus' response to Peter who says, go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. Jesus says to Simon, don't be afraid. Jays, to your point, he said, you're fearful of you not being able to cut it, but don't be afraid. From now on, you will catch people. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything, and they followed him. And I love it in that moment.

He's saying, you don't have to worry about your sinfulness. What you have to do is follow me, which I think is powerful. Now I sit on my porch, and I remember when all those nets were tied out out there, and I were patching them all the time. And like this story, these big catches, I never caught fish before with you like that, ever. So we survived. I mean, we literally survived. And every time we think we wasn't going to put it off,

I had a banknote to pay when I got that 750. The banknote was 600. Well, I caught $750 worth of fish. I come home, I walk in MSK, I put the money in her hand. She was like, good night. So technically God. You got more than 600, I said. Well, technically God gave you a tip.

Give me a tip. I was just kidding. Well, they said, well, you're just lucky. Well, maybe so. Well, I think the reason it scares people when God works is that, you know, in Luke 8, which is not very far after Luke 5, when after Jesus was talking about the different hearts and he basically put them into four categories, but, you know, that three and two and three in there was worried about the deceitfulness of wealth and life. life's worries.

And he makes a profound statement. It says in verse 817, it says, for there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Well, I think that's the scary part of realizing when God is God. And he, like you said, controls the minds of fish. but not only that, but just the whole earth itself and making man from dust and, you know, name your supernatural activity that he does.

It is overwhelming in that moment to realize he knows all, created all, he's in all, he moves through all. I mean, and I think that's why they were so overwhelmed and with fear. Oh, no doubt about it. But it mirrors in John 21 what happened in Luke 5, because then after, After the big catch, after the breakfast, you've got to realize they're all thinking this guy was dead. They're eating fish on the riverbank with a guy that was dead. And, I mean, Peter, you know, he's thinking, I just denied him. Because now I do think they're thinking back to all the times he predicted that he would come back, that he had to die.

And it's all making sense now. But because of their abandonment and denial, just the... They're not, I mean, you've got to still be mixed with fear because you're like, we deserted the son of God. And so then Jesus reinstates him, which I think was almost a shadow of what happened before where he was repentant. Yeah, which is, I think a great, I was trying to, because I think we've spent a lot of time talking about Peter and you maybe ask him why. And because I think here's the, here's the crux of the whole point is that, and from our perspective, God chose the wrong person to write the first to second Peter. I mean, and that's how God works.

That's why that connection with the, when he installs Peter, it's like, that that's what he does with us. You know, it's not based on our abilities and our integrity, our merit, our loyalty, just like it wasn't with Peter. I mean, he was not the right guy from our perspective, but that's the point. It's not about being the right guy. It's like the song Shane and Shane sang, you know, we're fighting a battle that he's already won. He's the one that finished it, not us.

And so it puts the responsibility back on Christ in terms of accomplishing his kingdom. And I love that because it allows, you start to read what Peter wrote, and particularly in this time, which we didn't really get into on this podcast, but. But there's a lot going on culturally in Rome when Peter is writing this as a way to encourage believers who are under fierce persecution. I think it's incredible. When you read first and second, Peter, which we're going to go into it. Now, you just look at him. You would say he's too rash.

He's way too quick-tempered. He denied Jesus. He has too many sins. Because in the book of Acts, they said they were shocked that they were listening. to ordinary unschool men, Peter and some of them and his traveling buddy there, they were ordinary unschooled people. They weren't highly educated. And that's kind of a point that Zach would like.

These people, they didn't have any degrees and they didn't use big words. But when they did use big words about the end of the world, you say, how in the world would Peter know about, you know, the atmosphere just disappear? I'm saying, knowing Jesus makes you smart. I've said that before. I'm telling you, just a fact. Let's take our last break. It's a consistent theme throughout the entire Bible is that God chooses the lowly things of the world.

That's right. To despise the positions of power and the things that you think are the way that God would come through and accomplishes. Even Christ himself, even the way that God enters into the world, was very humble. That's what these boatloads of fish are all about. And I saw it myself with my own eyes when I used to fish. And I'm thinking they were biting on that trot line. They were biting on these bare hooks before I even baited them. The fish were on them.

And I'm looking at them. I said, they said, you hadn't even baited that yet. They're my boy's with me. And I said, I know it. By the time we bait them, can you imagine what's thinking they happen? They're hitting bare hooks right now. They were just grabbing the hook. And I'd go up right there was another.

They'd be grabbing a hook. And most of them were like two to four pounds. pounds, five pounds a piece. One thousand pounds strong. Got my pay, got my money, got my bill. Jayce, I came up with some reasons. Because, you know, Jesus picked four out of 12. So a third of his disciples were fishermen,

which was by far the largest number of any occupation of the 12. I was running with good company there, Al. Absolutely. So I came up with this, and you may have something to add to this or disagree, but I came up with at least five or six reasons why fishermen qualities would go a long way towards being the disciple of Jesus. One is fishermen tend to have hope and faith in the unseen. Because you know, when a guy goes down on a lake or a river, you're on top of it in a boat. but your hope is is that down below that water that there's going to be fish that you can catch. And so every time whether you're a commercial fisherman or a recreational fisherman,

they're pretty hopeful people that they're going to get them. Which is why. Feeder and them were commercial fishermen like myself. It wasn't I like Rod and Rio and that all that playing around? Right. This was hard work. That's why Jesus came 2,000 years ago, because now, Al, they've ruined fishing,

because now they've got all these sonars, and they're looking, and they're like, oh, there's 14 fish in this brush top. Let me, they've taken all the faith out of it now. So, to point one. That's a good point. True. But back then, they didn't have sonar or radar.

They had to use some faith. Exactly. So the second one is that they tend to be either PC In other words, the reason you get away and choose this line of work is you're seeking some sort of peace of mind to be out on the river to be out. Or that's positive. Or the negative is you're an escape artist. You just don't want to be around people. But either way, whether a fisherman tends to either be looking for peace of mind or looking to get away from people.

That's exactly where I love. Well, Ann, I think it's a way to be self-employed. I mean, I mean, there's some freedom to that. Or are you in your mind? I had two degrees, but neither one of them were ever used because I just said, I want to go somewhere in the middle of nowhere down on the riverbank and just, I'll just fish for a. You wanted to be your own boss, though. So that'd probably be a negative thing.

But it's true. Well, that that takes me to my third one. Y'all took me to my third one. Fishermen tend to be work-oriented. In other words, if you're commercial fishermen for sure, Because we talked about all this. But even even recreational fishermen, I mean, you got to have your tackle. You got to get up early.

You got to get out on the water. I mean, it's not like you're just sitting around, you know, eating bottom buds. It doesn't feel like work if it, if you, because it never felt like work to me. Because fishing is fun. Right. Even though we made my, and look, it was work. And, I mean, we did the same thing with crawlfish, though. And you remember how that went.

Yeah. Man, that was the most fun I've ever had for two weeks. and then all of a sudden, I thought, this is not fun. I mean, there's only so much crawfish you can eat, but after a while I was like, this is not fun anymore. This is, this is not fun. It was too much.

All right. Here's another one. They tend to not be offended by the elements of nature. Now, that could be weather, blood and guts, stench, inconvenience. True statement. I mean, all those are present. The first thing I told my lovely wife on our second date is I said, look, the fact that we're going out again is a positive sign. And I said this before she got real close to me because she was fixed to get in my truck.

I said, but I'm going to have to warn you about something. I stink. So you look bewildered, you know. It's like it's hard to tell your date that, look, I stink. And she was like, what do you mean at what? She thought I meant some quality that I had that I was not very good at. I said, no, I smell. You're fixing to smell me.

I literally stink because I smell like fish. But every time you smell that, just remember, that's money. And I got that from my dad. That's right. Which is funny because, you know, I've been. walking up to a seafood restaurant before. And if you had to park around on the side, when you walk past the side of there, which is close to where everything comes out the back door, you smell that smell that

we all grew up smelling. Now, to a lot of people, that's offensive. They're like, oh, my gosh, we're not going to eat at this place. This is going to be terrible. But I'm like, ooh, yeah, these people, they got something going on because if it's delicious inside, it'll be smelly out back. Yeah, that's it. Oh, yeah.

That'll preach right there, Al. I know. That's a pretty good sermon. Well, I've even seen, you know, when we were dating and then eventually married, so when I would smell like that, when somebody would come over to our house and say, what's that smell? She would say, what Jay says, that smells like money. But if you want to know the real food. The most place always had a little, well, guess what?

I fish for 20 years, you know, and I mean, I stunk. I could smell myself. And sometimes, look, it was. would gag me? That's why the Almighty finally took my smell away. I can't smell nothing. Let me tell you, when you get, I don't want to be graphic here. I don't want to be graphic because we probably have some sophisticated people listening

now that Zach has been dropping all this vocabulary on a weekly basis. But when you get a dead gar out of a net, it is impossible not to stink the remainder of the day. I don't care. You can have gloves because you're just, it's impossible. And so you're going to smell like that because it's a gag reflex while you're getting him out. It was for me. I would just, I would gag, I would gag, and get him out.

And then the remainder of the day, every time I got around somebody, I noticed they quickly got away from me. Yeah, your audience would like to know you're saying a gar. That means four or five, six footer. Oh, yeah. Huge gar. It looks like an alligator. but it's a fish.

Yep. When they die, it has probably, it has some of the sharpest teeth on the planet when you say, I mean, they, you can cut yourself so easily. Yeah,

really reds. The next one I have was that fishermen like to pass along their knowledge of fishing, but they don't like to tell you where they're catching them. So what's the spiritual, what's the spiritual application of that? Well, the spiritual application is they have opportunity and motivation to tell about what they're doing,

which I think is good. They just don't like to tell you where. And I hate to give away one of the scenes that may be in the movie, but this is a true story. Phil, you did that. There's a legendary story that Terry Bradshaw, I think he writes about it in his book, where you hid your fishing hole from him, right? Yeah. Made him wear a tow sack over his head.

Yeah. It wasn't just personal. He did it. He did it to anybody. I mean, that was like an understood thing. That was catching bass with rot and reels. I didn't want him to tell these buddies they move in on their holes. So I just blindfolded him.

He would leave and then would come out through the woods and he didn't know where we caught him. So, which is a perfect way, I guess, the end of this podcast. He ended up playing football. I ended up, you know, building duck calls. It's a toss-up. You got the best deal. I don't know. I think you did pretty well, Dad.

So I've got one more, but we're out of time. So you're going to have to follow us over to overtime to get my last observation. Cliffordier. We'll do that. We'll be on blazTV.com slash unashamed, not only for overtime, but also for everything Blaze has to offer. So thanks for being on the podcast today. We'll see you in overtime. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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