Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 627 | Jase’s Doggy-Doo Debacle, Why It Ticked Him OFF & Uncle Si’s Favorite Conspiracy Theories

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Jase’s recent encounter with his neighbor made his blood boil, but it makes the rest of the guys laugh till they cry! The guys debate the dichotomy of being free from sin while being a servant of God and how to thrive within the restrictions of God’s commands. Plus, Al and Jase reveal some of the crazy conspiracy theories that Uncle Si subscribes to! In this episode: 1 Peter 2, verses 4-12; 1 Peter 2, verses 13-25; Hebrews 2:11; Acts 10:34; 1 Corinthians 9, verse 9; Romans 6, verses 19-23 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? It's funny that we just spent about three minutes, three to five, trying to figure out. Phil said that what's this thing? And he was doing his fingers. He started doing letters. It was one time in my life I remember the fastest way to do something.

I was thinking calculator. The fastest way to get information. Somebody in the crew said telegraph. I heard telegraph. I said, I remember that, but that's not it. And I was like, what could it be? I mean, fingers on a keyboard. S, S-F-A-C.

And then finally, I was like, ASD, a typewriter, Phil, with, that's it. Where have we come in our society? It literally took three minutes to come up with a typewriter. We were so far away. I could type so well. I could type so well that the typing teacher turned the class over to me to help the students learn how to type. But for some reason, I just had quick fingers. I don't know why you didn't pass that down to me because when I took typing in high school,

I think I finished last in the class. Dear kid. I did finish and they did pass me. Yeah, I just. I just would punch you. You were index finger only. Yeah, pretty much. You were using your, well, you know, they don't even teach that anymore.

No one had ever, they had never dreamed up the computer, the, the, the, all this, all this high tech, none of that was there. None. One of our producers there said, uh, 60 through 64. She held up a phone and said there is more technology in the phone than what went into us flying to the moon. moon. Yeah. Just think about that. I know I was.

I'm still, can't wrap my head around that. Of course, I doesn't believe we ever went to the moon. Well, that's true. So that's a whole new thing. But he also thinks O.J.

is innocent, so I don't know that you can. And that there's just thousands of people being abducted by Panthers and Cougars. Yeah, on a daily basis. So I guess that was a bad example is that the only

the point of they don't even they don't even teach typing anymore I don't think that's not even a thing it's like the technology I mean the keyboard most people don't even use a keyboard anymore now it's the it's the scroll you know it's just a screen you touch oh I guess so well and voice

activated right I mean because now most people just speak text in because I get text but of course half the time the words are wrong Oh, I don't know. On the last day of duck season, Missy was sending me text. What time she was trying to organize, you know, the meal when I get back.

And somehow another, because it was pouring down rain. So I'm, I triggered, or the rain did, the voice analysis. And all of a sudden, I just started sending paragraphs of debris her way. and she was getting angry because the rain was pelting on it and it just kept rescinding the rain it was rain activated it just kept coming and everything i was trying to say while we were hunting was coming in bits and pieces well high-tech stuff is a bummer in my opinion but more shocking than that that Hebrews two down at the bottom

I find it difficult to view myself as royalty we're not sure what text that is but we know it's down at the bottom I want to look it up and see if it's at the bottom down the bottom left hand side on my Bible which Phil

you just proved their point about technology According to the bottom of page 641 in the NIV. Oh, why is that so funny? Left hand side down at the bottom. But y'all don't have a rassal or a little bit of, what's the word, a little bit of shame maybe, to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, of people belonging to God.

It just, yesterday we covered this, but it didn't hit me until this morning. And I got up and I got my Bible and I looked at that. I said, let's see what I was trying. I think I was trying to say, I don't think I deserve that.

No, well, we definitely. I mean, royalty? No. Yeah, that's, that's right. I mean, I'm looking around to the left, right. I just, I'm having a difficult time viewing myself, Al. you're my oldest son maybe you can as royalty no i mean i'm embarrassed right i mean i'm embarrassed i'm kind of fearfully embarrassed that no it's it's the old what's the line that smith used on you

it seems too good to be true and and what did he say it it it does seem too good but it is true it is too good it's too good for us all which which by the way well i probably shouldn't give you all this but i will for our listeners, a little spoiler. That conversation is in the movie that we did. And it is a powerful scene when you come to understand the truth of it. I mean, you're like, you hear it and you're like, it sounds too good to be true.

It's a perfect response. Oh, it's too good for all of us, but it is true. And, you know, you, now you'd mention you were talking this morning about the mercy part in Ephesians 1. I was like, man, that's exactly the answer, though, when you move into, before you understand that you're a royal priesthood, you do have to understand that it's completely a result of God's mercy and not your own doing. That's what I was going to say, Dad, I recognize the same thing as you. I woke up this morning looking back at this text because I knew we were going forward. But when I look back, Peter came to the same conclusion as you because he says in verse 10, right after that verse. first once you were not a people.

Yeah. But now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So he came to the same conclusion you came to. It's not about you. There's no way you deserve this. That's right. I mean, I think the verse you were referring to, Phil, correct me.

I mean, I just don't think, I don't feel worthy of being called having royalty. Well, let me get this verse. because a lot of people are looking at the left-hand lower corner of their Bibles. I hate to leave a cliffhanger. Maybe on the left-hand corner of Hebrews, too, at the bottom, mine says, both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. I mean, which text.

You know, maybe Zach, because Jesus had so much trouble and John the Baptist, alerting people that the kingdom, which would be royalty, was at hand. So I think maybe if we've, I view myself as a member of the kingdom without any problem at all. I just never had thought about the kingdom making it a person available to be a royal, be in together with a royal group, royal priests. Oh, yeah, I love it. I mean, you're part of the royal family. It's the ultimate kingdom.

I'm not worth that kind of wordage. I mean, it goes back to that Daniel, too, when he said he'd set up a kingdom that would crush all other kingdom. You're part of the royal family. Maybe that's what it is, because maybe I'm not appreciating the fact that normal, poor people of all descriptions with dirt floors but they can become a royal priesthood through obedience to the message here they said they they they stumble because they disobey the message it's simple and being added to it but maybe that's what i think that's

what it's all about it's about making people who are considered by cultures just nothing you know, black, rednecks, this and that and other. But then he makes it a royalty available. It is kind of amazing. Yeah, it is. It's a cultural. It demolishes the walls and culture. Listen to this, because I was thinking about this last night.

We're actually, our church, we're about to be moving into a series on Ephesians. And so I've been kind of preliminary, you know, getting into that, studying Ephesians. And last night I was in Ephesians 2. And then I went all the way through 3. But, you know, do you think about what we talked about yesterday? I think, man, Paul is on the same page with Peter in this discussion. And I think it's hard for us to get it sometimes because when we, we're not looking at the scripture through the grand, I think there's a grand narrative. And we, I mean, I think a lot of people think that, but we debate over what that grand.

narrative is. I think a big part of it is what Jace just mentioned in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 and just this idea that there's a kingdom that's going to come. And when it comes, it's going to it's going to be something that's going to crush all of the kingdoms. And so when you get in the book of Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 6, it gives this interesting verse that I think gives a lot of context to what we're talking about. It says, talks about the mystery of Christ. It says, this is the mystery. So Ephesians 3-6 defines what the mystery is. This is the mystery, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

So you start there, you think, what's the whole thing about? And I think this is connected to it. And I'll show you how you go back to Ephesians 2. You know why I think you're on to something there? That's why I think just after this, he starts talking about how slaves are to behave because their royalty, but the owner of the slaves,

that he has no idea that he is talking to a royal priest in the kingdom, and he's being mean. and Peter just showing you how to respond if you're, in words, we're talking about,

you know, you can be, I'm embarrassed for being called royalty. But what about the people who were under slavery at the time and then suffering through that? You just think of how they viewed it. I mean,

they were thinking, man, or even under, or even under an oppressive governmental power, you know, and Peter had to remind them. He said, hey,

if you suffer for doing, good, hey, go ahead. That's what you do. You suffer for doing it? So the thing about Peter's argument in chapter two is he's talking about there's a new building that's being built, right? The old one, we know what happened to the old one. It was destroyed in 80, 70.

And so that's coming. And here he's like that there's a new building, new stones. There's a cornerstone whose name is Jesus. And so when you go back to Ephesians, two, it mirrors that same language, but it gives it a little bit more of a context to the purpose of it. He says, therefore remember that this is Ephesians 211, which I was just in the first part of Ephesians 2. This is the last half.

Therefore remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcumcumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you at one time were separated from Christ, alienated from the cross. alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel. So we're thinking here, when you hear commonwealth, I mean, you're thinking like kingdom, right? You're alienated from the kingdom, strangers to the covenants of the promise,

having no hope and without God in the world. You are in bad shape, Gentiles. But now, in Christ Jesus, you, who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both, So he had the one and the many here.

But it's both Jew and Gentile one. So you have diversity and then you have unity and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of two. So making peace and he might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross, therefore killing hostility. and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. Through him, we both have access to one spirit. So here's the part that mirrors the First Peter two language. Hang on that. Hang on that.

Before you read that, let's take a break. So this is the part that mirrors the First Peter two language. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens but are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. God. Here's the language. Built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So he's the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows. I love this. This is, what are we talking about every week here? We come back to this. It grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This is the point of, I think it's the overarching theme of the Bible, that God wants to dwell with his people. He wants to dwell with his people. It was in the tabernacle.

It was in the temple. The temple got destroyed. That's over. And now it's in us. Like, we are the temple. I mean, we cannot over-emphasize. I think that's a hard thing for human beings to grasp. I really do.

Well, you've stumbled up on the beauty of what Christ did. And the reason why a lot of people don't accept. this because the people who deem themselves successful or have a high pedigree or some kind of royal lineage from an earthly viewpoint they don't like the fact that somebody dirt poor who doesn't look like them who's from another country can have the exact same benefits of what God offered. There's the rub right there. Just to just to just to power. Just to on what you're saying. It's the same thing Paul said with all the problems at Corinth when he got to 1st Corinthians 1212. He said the body is a unit. Though it is made up of many parts and though all its

parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we're all baptized by or into one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we're all given the one spirit to drink. That's the test right there. To this day, they have difficulty, a lot of people with putting that in. Because I think they have difficulty because it's, we're self-absorbed. I mean, humans are self-absorbed because of our sin. What Jace just described in scripture or read in scripture,

is a reflection of the nature of who God is. And when we get to second Peter, there's a phrase in second Peter, the first chapter that says that we are invited to be, I think the phraseology is, participators in the divine nature. So we're not just spectating, going back to our conversation yesterday about church, and we're not here just looking, spectating. We're invited to participate in the divine nature. You say, what is the divine nature? And there's people that have pushed back on this, but I'm telling you, I don't know how you get away from it. The divine nature of God is that he's triune. He's father, son, and Holy Spirit.

He's three persons, but he's one being. So you have diversity, three persons, and you have one being. He's one. Unity and diversity. It's what's happening here in the text. That's what he's calling us to. He said, there's a lot of different cultures, a lot of different people, and we can celebrate all that stuff.

That's great. But I'm calling you into one body. What is it Paul saying? Galatians is that there's neither Greek nor Jew. There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female in the kingdom. And so in the kingdom, it is the great leveler because there is a participation in the divine nature of different personalities coming together and living out this onness. It's the whole book of Ephesians.

It's what when he says it to the purpose of the church is to make the manifold wisdom of God known. That's how that happens because people look at that and they say, man, this doesn't make any sense. when this guy's hanging out with this guy, they should not be in the same community, but they are and they love each other. That's what the kingdom looks like. It looks really strange to the world because of it. And the beauty of it is,

the beauty and the symmetry is that Paul is to these brothers in Ephesus, who are of Gentile nature, but he expresses the exact same truths that Peter does to the scattered of the Jewish Christian brethren. See, all the ones that Peter's talking to are of Jewish heritage. But the message is exactly the same.

In 1 Peter 1, what was it? The triune God. 1st Peter 1 2, right? It's the father, the son of the spirit. It's the same gospel message. But the idea is you are part of this. You are the people of God. And it was really interesting.

And in both cases, Dad, you don't deserve it. Yeah. And that's why in Ephesians 2, 1, through 10, he says, it is by grace in verse 8, you have been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

That helps. And Peter's going to have the exact same message when he says, live such a life and abstain from sinful desires. And when people look at you, these pagans, even though they will. want to condemn you, they can't because you're living in such a way that they have to give God glory. So that's the whole point is that one is viewed from a Jewish perspective, one from a Gentile. I mean, the symmetry here is so amazing. Yeah, it's a different perspective, but it's the same message. I have understood more after looking at this about being in a royal camp. I mean, it's just a shocker.

I think the reason is, I mean, I think one of the ways you knew this is, difficult to wrap your head around is because Jesus set the tone in this by telling a lot of parables. If you go back to some of the things he said about, you remember the one where he said, you know, a guy was hiring workers and he hired three different sets of workers at three different times of the day, but he paid them all the same. Well, look, most people on the planet, when they hear that story, they would rant and raid. They're not going to like that. No. Okay, if you're in church or you're at, you know, golf course. You're like, well, wait a minute now. He got paid. I, I work longer than him.

I deserve more. Yep. Well, why is Jesus telling the story? Because when it comes to the kingdom, we're all going to be on the same level. And they agreed to work or whatever the way. Well, you can make the arguments, but still people are not going to like that. Because if you were the guy. But think of the context there, that the Gentiles arrived to the, basically, they're the, they're the laborers that came in later.

We are. We came in later. Oh, yeah. So if you think about to Al's point, how. similar the message is. And there's some nuances. You get to Acts 17 and, you know, you see Paul and, uh, um, at the Ariopagus and, and, you know, he's, that was a little different like argument than he would make in the synagogues. But in Ephesians, uh, two, I thought, I thought it was interesting that when he's making, he's talking to Gentiles and he's basically telling

them here, you know, hey, it's good for you that the, that the law, hey, you're in now because we got, we got rid of the law. You would think. So if I was Gentile, what does the law got to do with me? You know, like that's a Jewish problem, right? They could not fulfill the law. So for them, I can see that would be good news. Why would that be good news for me? It has nothing to do with me.

And I think Paul's point is exactly, it had nothing to do with you. And now you're getting in. Like it was like, you were out. Like you were out. They were out because they couldn't fulfill the law. You were out because you weren't ever even a part of it. That's all gone in Jesus. And now Christ is reconciling all things.

thinks he's he's bringing the kingdom in. And it is an incredibly diverse body, but it's not diversity alone because it's diversity that gets pulled into unity and oneness. And it's kind of a view of like marriage as well when he gets to Ephesians 5. Marriage is kind of an example that Paul uses of what that looks like. You've got two people coming together who got all kind of different baggage and backgrounds and, you know, family structures and all that. But they're coming together and they become one flesh, which is the ideal going back

to Genesis 1. You got to remember, too, some of, we'll head on. Let's take, yeah, let's take another break. You got to remember some of Peter's perspective. I mean, we realize he's being carried along by the Holy Spirit. But like when you read Acts 10, and you remember this situation with Cornelius, you know, just to pick out a few high. points. In 34, Peter began to speak, and he says, I now realize how true it is that God does not

show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know, and he goes on as he's preaching, and he goes back to, you know, them being eyewitnesses and talking about John's baptism and revisiting the death, barrel, and resurrection of Jesus. And then And in 44, it says while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. So, I mean, he's remembering these moments where he's like having these aha moments of, oh man, God came down for the entire world, every single person. and I'm looking at it, and I have miraculous events confirming that. Which is the same Peter, which is the same exact Peter that Paul said when I saw that he was not acting in line with the truth of the gospel that I rebuked him to his face because he was essentially siding with the Judaizers and kind of distancing himself from the uncircumcised.

So it's interesting that that guy who struggled. I mean, he, in his own personal, like, life and what he was bent towards, I mean, he struggled with just like probably a lot of Jewish people that they struggle with the inclusion of the Gentiles. I mean, he struggled with that. And he, and he was like, didn't want to be seen with them, at least in the context of Galatians. And to know that that was going down in Acts 10, to know that he's the one that's writing this right here about this royal priesthood, this holy nation of people for God. own possession. So the, I mean, like, this is coming from a very flawed individual. Remember, it seemed to take three times to get things through to Peter.

Because, you know, three times he denied him, three times Jesus said, do you love me? And then God had to let the sheet down three times before he would eat out of it. So it took three times to get through to Peter, whatever the command seemed to be. You know, he was a three-time guy. Maybe he had a hard head, too. you think. Y'all had that shirt. I've listened to y'all do this at these wild beast feasts and stuff,

the whole arise, kill, and eat, you know, the whole the sheet coming down, which is hilarious when you guys do that. But think about what he's saying even in that. When God brought that down, what was the point of that? It wasn't just to open the diet up. I mean, he's making a point. Like, I'm about to call people into this thing. and if I call them clean, guess what?

They're clean. It is about the inclusion of the Gentiles that was happening. If you go back and read the context of that whole sheet coming down and all the animals on there, it's an example and a foreshadowing of what he's doing in accomplishing, bringing in things. Don't call something unclean that I've called clean. That we're done with that. I mean, I'm opening this up for the world, which to me, when we think about

being missional. I mean, that's the, that's the call. We can go to the world and say, God wants you. He wants you. I think there's another subtle point in this text as well about the idea of if you understand that you don't deserve this and to dad's point that we don't deserve this and yet it's given to us by way of mercy. And I think there's a modern illustration. So we don't have a lot of royalty to look to in today's modern culture, but there is a little bit. So you got the Brits that are still holding on right to some bit of royalty. And so we got, you know, one of their princes has fled to America to escape his royal responsibility, right? He's basically said, I don't want to be a royal anymore.

He married an American girl. And he's like, I don't want the responsibility of my royalty because supposedly he's royal by birth. And so they're supposed to spend a life of service to the. crown. That's their responsibility. It's in his bloodline. This is what he's supposed to do. And they've got all these things lined out there, travel around. They go to Africa. They do this. They do that. And he's like, no, I want to go and make reality TV shows for Netflix. That's what I've decided I want to do. And so he doesn't have a responsibility to the crown. And so there's been all this back and forth and conflict and tell all books and blah, blah, blah. And there's all this unrest in their kingdom. And so in some

ways, this is what happens when you don't receive your kingship or your royalty with mercy. It's, you walk away from the responsibility of it. And in some ways, I see that in this. If you can't understand that it's given you in grace, if somehow you think first I deserve it, and then I don't want it, and then I walk away from it, then you never really understand why I was given to begin with. And so I think even in a practical way, we can see that. illustratively, even in the modern example of what happens when we can't receive something by grace. That's why he sets it up at the beginning of that, just to reiterate, he says that Jesus is, it says the stone which the builders rejected became the cornerstone. So in the Ephesians passage says the same thing that Jesus is the cornerstone and it's on him that the whole thing is built.

You know, so I think that it's, yeah, that is the mercy, right? I mean, the mercy, that's it. It's saying that mercy is saying it's not about my accomplishments. It's not about my work. It's about the finished work of Christ. That's why he is that cornerstone because he's the one that finished the work on the cross, not me. He did it. Everything is built on what he accomplished, not on what we've accomplished.

I'm not a prince because of the blood that runs through my veins. I am a son because of the prince of peace and the blood that runs. through his veins that covers me. That's the difference. That's the difference. That's what makes us, that way I can be a pauper. I can be a whatever, but I'm still royalty. And back to the original point, that's what makes us different. That's why it's an upside down kingdom. That's why we serve.

That's why he says we live such a way that people are going to give God glory on the day he visits because they've seen us, no matter what the circumstances, give him glory and give him praise. even to the point of death. That is downright cool. It is. It really is. It's a beautiful, wonderful picture. It sure is.

And it really sets up kind of a difficult text that we're going into because when we talk about suffering, there's nothing beautiful about that. I mean, you know, trying to live up to a difficult circumstance or difficult situation. But if we realize who we are, you can do that. And so, yeah, because it's hard. It's hard when you get into some of these texts because you're like, well, what is the, is the Bible condoning this or condoning that? I'm like, man, that's, you're, we're missing the point. Yeah, really.

I mean, when we ask that, I mean, it's not the point of, you know, these texts. They're not like, okay, this is the Bible condoning this or that action or this or that practice. What it's about is it's about a spirit that he want, that God wants his people to embody as reflected, as reflected in Christ. As you mentioned, we're not priests and we're not royalty because the blood that flows in our veins. We are royalty because the blood that flowed out of his veins. And I was thinking about that song we used to sing, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath the flood cleanse all their guilty stains. And I think I got the verse right.

But it's the idea that Christ, his veins are open. And it's just a flow, an infinite flow of the blood of God. You know what I mean? And it's in the way that we are made holy, the way that we are made brought into this royal priesthood is our guilty stains are removed, not by what we've done, but by sinners, you know, plunging beneath the flood. I mean, that's it. That's what baptism symbolizes. We're going to get to that in the next chapter, chapter three. But I mean, it's, it's, it's, you're, you're going down under the blood. You're clean, you know, because of what he did.

It's not like he hasn't been setting this up. You know, when he started the letter, when he, in verse three, it said, in his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope. I mean, his mercy was, was the birthplace of our birth. And then when he goes on to say in verse 18, you know of chapter 1 that it was not with a perishable thing such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you, but it was with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, what was revealed in these last time. So when we get to chapter two, and he makes that same reference, verse four, as you come to him, the living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house. And the point I want to make is that, because we're going to get into this difficulty about seemingly a contradictory statement where it's like, live is.

free men live as servants of God. Well, wait a minute, wait, what? But when you think about where this foundation is in Jesus, our cornerstone, I would say that he was the most free person in the world, because he was above the world. Just think about how free Jesus is eternal. Well, you're not going to get any more free than that. So what did he do? based on love for us, he put restrictions on himself by becoming human.

So somewhere in that foundation, you're going to find what true freedom is. It's not free from all restrictions. It's finding the liberating restrictions that you were designed to adhere to. And I think that's going to set the tone for understanding that. Because when you think about any relationship that's meaningful, you know, I committed to my wife. Well, what does that mean? Well, there's some restrictions there. But there's a freedom also in that that God has designed a man and a woman to have this experience.

So, and you say, what do you mean restrictions? I mean, well, if I really love her, I wouldn't, you know, go off and sleep with another woman. There's a restriction there. And so even when you read 1st Corinthians 13 and you start defining love, it's a beautiful passage. But there's also a lot of limitations there. And you're like, well, I thought we were free. Oh, we're free. Everything about what Jesus did liberates human beings.

It's the most free place to be. But I do think that sets the tone for having, you know, once you're reading the entire letter that he wrote, when you get here, you're starting to say, oh, oh, wait, there's a freedom that's very difficult for me to wrap my head around. Yeah, I think that freedom is in, I think that's, yeah, we look at freedom and we think that's some kind of libertine freedom, which means we can just do whatever we want to do. Which doesn't exist on the planet, by the way. You know? Yeah, you're going to be limited, right? Well, I mean, think about the biblical principles that you're a slave to something.

So really the idea, when you start attacking this head on, it's people like, well, I'm going to be free from all commitments. I'm just going to do whatever I, you know, I want to. No, you're a slave to something. There's something that's driving you. And really, when it comes down to it, it's just a, it's a lie for being selfish. That's all it is. Yeah, you could do whatever you want to do until you run up against somebody else who's doing whatever they want to do. And they're more powerful than you.

And then what you want to do is limited, you know, and we're limited by just the fact that we're finite creatures. I mean, it's such a good point. you go to Romans 6. I think this is a good context of what you're talking about. Roman 6 at the end of it, you know, we've always preached Roman 6 about baptism, which is partly about that. But, man, you know, Roman 6 is a whole lot more about sanctification than it is your justification. And so it gets into that. I says, for just as you were, just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity, you want to be, you don't want to slavery.

you find someone who's in bondage to impurity and drug addiction and pornography addiction. I mean, it will enslave you. You know what I mean? That's slavery. And to lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness because it just keeps going deeper, he says now, because that's what you used to be. But he says, now presents your members as slaves to righteousness. So to your point, you're going to be a slave to something. You can be a slave to wickedness and you can be a slave to depravity, which would

end in your own destruction or you can be a slave to righteousness, listen to this, resulting in sanctification, which means being healed, progressively healed from the power of sin. He says, it goes on to say, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, which is not a good thing. Therefore,

what benefit were you deriving from the things which you are now ashamed of? Phil talks about being ashamed of what he used to be because there's no benefit. He didn't get the benefit of, righteousness. For the outcome of those things is death. So you're free to pursue your way all the way to death. But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit. And this is the benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And you go to John 17,

It tells you what eternal life is. It's intimacy with God. It's knowing the father, the son, and the spirit, and then the incarnation of the son and Jesus. That's eternal life. So we say they're free. I'm a slave to God. Yeah, but that's a good thing because that's leading me into true life. Yeah, his freedom is based on grace and truth.

So you know that the restrictions that come with being a son or daughter of God born again is living in the design. that he intended us to live. And I heard a really good sermon on this by Tim Keller. It was called, let me see what is this called, the freedom of submission, which sounds contrary. It sounds like a contradiction, right? It was from First Peter, too. And the first thing he read was an essay by Martin Luther in the sermon.

And no, look, it's a deep concept to wrap your head around. But I really like this quote that he read from this essay. Hey, Jay, before you read that, let's take our last book. And in the Martin Luther's essay, which you can get it online, it says the freedom of a Christian, it starts off saying this, a Christian is a perfectly free, Lord of All, subject to none. The next sentence says, a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all. And you're like, wait, what? And so, and he used the example, Keller did a First Corinthians 9, where, you know, when Paul said,

although I'm free, I make myself a slave to everyone that I may win some. And so he goes through this concept of free through submission, you know, service, obedience, because Christ set the example. He was most free and he came down for us based on love and all of us. of a sudden, like the opposite of this where people say, oh, I just want to be free and I don't want any restrictions. And they go from one relationship to another. And whenever commitment starts to happen, you know, they run. Well, when you look at their life and what happens as a result, it, they're led around by their emotions and impulses. And it ends up looking a whole lot

like it ends up looking a whole lot like slavery. Exactly. Exactly. And it doesn't produce peace, joy, contentment. And so he made an illustration I thought was great. And he had read some book from the 50s where the same concept was being promoted, this freedom and restrictions that God designed us to be like, which is the context when you go back to grace and truth,

him being the wise all knowing what's best for us and the trust that we have for him. But it was a story all about a fish who wanted to be free because he was in prison by all this water. He was like, if I could just get to the land because I'm trapped here and I want to be free. And so obviously you see where this is going. You know, he had gills. He was designed for the water. This is his is his world. So he finally jumps out of the water, he's on the land and what happens? He starts gasping for air, uh, literally dying. And the very thing that he thought would bring freedom brought the opposite. Misery and event gasping, uncomfortable, uh, you know, and death. And his point was,

he wasn't designed. He was designed to be in the water. And so when you look at spiritually, when we're not living, you know, as God wants us to be, spiritually, what happens? When you separate yourself from God, well, you're gasping, you're dying. And it was just a really fascinating lesson. And he tied in with a text in Jeremiah, too, talking about broken cisterns. And, you know, I read it. It was really interesting. And basically, it was anything that you put your faith and trust.

in besides God, the living water, is a broken cistern, even if it's good. And he made this incredible example about even if your spouse was where you put all your hope in and all your trust in, well, what do you do when you're staring at them in a casket? Because basically your God is now, how do you move on? And he was like, it's a broken cistern. Even though it was a good thing, it's going to lead to nothing that is fulfilling. Then you're done because you're like, well, there's powerful. So, yeah, it was really, really powerful. So it's not like something you can just say, oh, we're free.

We have, you know, I famously have said we have no rules because Christ nailed them to the cross. But that doesn't mean that we're not trusting God in us being created as he knows what's best for us. And that's why in the middle of all this, which we're not really addressing, but like in chapter two, he's like, rid your cells of all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander and every cat. Because that's not what God intended us to be doing. So eventually you're going to get to love. And with love comes restrictions. But it also comes motivation to trust God in trying to allow him to be the standard to live by the way he designed you.

Yeah, we skipped over that first, those first two verses, or three verses, which are super powerful that I think you're hitting on what you're talking about. You know, there is a call to holiness. There's a call to putting to death the misdeeds of the body to quote the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 of life by the Spirit. And it's for a purpose that you may grow in respect to salvation. You know, well, salvation. I thought that was a one-time event. No. Salvation is an ongoing process.

It is a one-time event at your justification. but your sanctification is ongoing and its continual growth. And I love how your roots to this, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And so I think that's the thing. When you think about somebody, and we know, because the church that we all grew up in was there was a lot of people that came through, primarily because of Phil's ministry and Mack Owen and celebrate recovery.

And there's a lot of people that have come through that, that, you know, just said, I'm just going to, my life is going to be, I'm going to follow pleasure and passion. Like, we've seen that. And everybody, every single person without fail, which is hundreds that have come through that has said, I'm going that route to, I'm going to, I'm going to go with the freedom route. I want to be free to follow my passions and my desires and what I, I want that I'm going after that. every single one of the people that went that route wound up being enslaved to it, which reminded me that second Peter, I think it's second Peter two passage where he says, they promised, they promised themselves freedom or promised them freedom while they themselves are slaves to depravity. You know what I mean? It's like this idea that we're promising you freedom. But yeah, but once you get into it, it's like it's not, I don't feel so free. Like I'm completely consumed by it. And I'm, I'm not even present in the world, really. I'm in this to carnal, just, you know, like,

bowling the rut kind of mentality. I can't even think of anything else other than whatever the passion is that I'm going after. That's why I said there's two assumptions that everybody, or premises that everybody's going to have to agree to, because it's just a lie to say you're going to be free from everything. You're just going to live a, because how many movies do you see, how many books, you know, I just want to be free.

I want to go out and travel and, well, your number one premise, everyone is a slave to something. And number two, any commitment brings restraint and restrictions. It's just two facts. And the Bible goes over it over and over again. But the beauty of that is when you find love in that, in the commitment itself or in the promise, putting your trust in, you. you know, the promises of God, it makes you not be fearful of making promises. Because, I mean, look, if you love God, that's great. You love your neighbor.

You're going to be let down. If you make that promise, I'm going to love my neighbor. That's going to be very, very difficult to pull off sometimes. Yeah, I mean, I had something that's really silly happened just, you know, not too long ago. But it made me so mad because, you know, my neighbor's dogs, they'll come down. they don't like my dogs. And so they'll come stick their head in the doggy door and they bark at each other. And they'll do it in the middle of the night, you know.

So that's one thing. But we should say that owls your neighbor, are these your dogs? Al, these were not his dogs. It was on the other side of the family, the married end side. But I'll tell you this. So about at 4 o'clock in the morning, I had my alarm set for 405 because I'm fixed to go duck hunting. At 4 o'clock, my dog, my alarm goes off.

which are my dog. Well, the wind was blowing. And so what, no, it took me a while to figure this all out. But I didn't know what happened. I thought Jay had come down and was like wanting a ride or something. I didn't realize it was a dog. But I go duck hunting and I come back. Well, I have a bathroom in my little cubbyhole where my dog stayed.

Well, when I walked into the bathroom, I slid and realized I stepped in dog poop. That was way too big for my little dogs. And I thought, how did this get here? Because the door was open. When I walked in, my door was open that morning at 4 o'clock. I thought the wind had blown it open. But what happened was the neighbor dog stuck his head in my doggy door, and the door just went open.

So he then comes in my house, the neighbor's dog, goes to my bathroom and poops on the floor and leaves. That's the ultimate disrespect. Let me tell you. If somebody said, you got to love your neighbor, it's as mad as I've ever been. Love comes hard. It doesn't say you have to love your neighbors now. It's a silly story, but look, because at that moment, I was wanting to go over there and declare war. Right then.

Dead dog, leave a trail of dead dog. Yeah, I mean, I was infuriated, but I realized something in that. I got to commit to that. and there's some restrictions. So you know what I did? Nothing. I got over it, but it took three days. Well, I may have had to passive aggressively at least lay the seed that, hey, your dog dumped in my house.

I mean, we're out of time, but it sounds like we're going to need some therapy. And so we want you to join us in our overtime segment as we give Jason a little bit of dog poop therapy. I needed to get that off my chair. How did we end with dog poop? I don't know. I apologize. I apologize. The whole dog trip to our story started when I said,

I don't feel like I ought to be called royalty. Then he said, let me see. I kill dogs. No, I'm a... I'll leave a trail of dead dog behind. I'll tell you why we got there, because of 2-11 where it says, I'll urge you to live as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul.

I've been at war of the desires that cropped up over the. that occurrence. It has been a war. So we're going to set up this 213, a little bit more in our overtime. BlazTV.com slash Unashamed if you want to come check out. Yeah, let's get out of here for you. It's worse. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else. Subscribe to Blaze TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.