Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 636 | Jase's Strategy for Avoiding Lusty Women & Phil Was Glad to be Persecuted

Episode Date: February 22, 2023

Phil gives some insight into the struggle he experienced being in the public eye. Jase was married as a virgin and remains committed to Missy – he even has a formula to keep other women away! Zach let the public in on the wild days he and Jep went through before they chose Jesus. The guys inspect the instructions for intimacy laid out in the Bible for both romantic and spiritual intimacy.  In this episode: 1 Peter 4; 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17; John 4 "The Blind" hits theaters this fall. Get updates, trailers, behind-the-scenes moments, and special opportunities here: https://theblindmovie.com — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. Is that back in the house? It's always good the man of large words and large intellect. Well, I'm just now figuring out after 15 or 20 minutes that that was Latin. So it appears that Mr. Dasher... He's a lover of Latin. No, it appears that Mr. Dasher is an educated man.

man hey you got to admit though you used the tool absurdism abnozzi without nausea absurdism after talking about all this valentine's day and did all this we had our wives on and i can see zacks quoting some latin phrase that jill has no idea what it means and she's like, what does that mean, Zach? And he's like, are you wearing a bustle? Zach, you're going to play a little Frederick Chopin for your wife tonight. Yeah, you got to give, you got to explain your pop culture references. All right, that was all from the movie Tombstone.

So for everybody wondering where this went off the rails, that holiday. Yep, that was it. Which is my favorite character of all movies of all times. So that's he, Val Kilmer. Yeah. I mean, it's a good one. And they didn't say it in that particular movie, but in another, when I did a little research on the Kate, you know, which was the, she was a prostitute, the woman he ran with. She was called hook-nose Kate in real life.

So I'm not sure she looked quite as good. Yeah. As the actress who played. I mean, her name in history was hook-nose Kate. Hook-nose. Hook-nose. Yeah. I don't exactly know how she got that name, but that's an old, by the way.

Random fact. Well, to push the argument to its logical conclusion, Doc Holliday did, he did all the things here to the end. The carousal, the sensual lust, the drunkenness, the drinking parties. that's how he lived his life it did not work out well for him you're right that was a foreshadowing of our text today was there was he was reluctantly

absurdy so Zach dropped a Latin a Latin phrase on us in the last podcast for those of you if this is your first time to ever listen to us Zach so you weren't on the podcast for a little stretch there and we started a new in your absence

I felt like because there's such a great synergy between you and Jace when you drop these large words, that we started a Jace's word of the week. Yeah, I protested this. Because I just felt like we were missing something. You do it just naturally because it just those big words or Latin phrases just fall out of your large brain. And so, you know, I have to get part of our crack staff to look things like this up.

Well, let's hear it. And so we've got a Jace's word of the week. I have no idea what it is. He doesn't know. This is all just an e-sacist's word of the week. This week, the word is is is exegesis. As opposed to exegesis? Exegesis, which you know that one.

Well, I know what that one is. Okay, that's good. Exegesis, of course, the explanation or interpretation of Scripture. Okay. The writer's intent, right? So, isogesis would be an interpretation of scripture that expresses the interpreter's own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text. So the isogesis of a text would be what a person thinks about it as opposed to what the writer's intention was.

It's what you do. When we get in biblical arguments, I use exegesis and you use isogesis. That's what he's trying to say. I knew what this was headed. I would say, based on hearing the definition and it used in a sentence in Zach's commentary, that I would just say, say no to ISIS Jesus. Isis Jesus. Isis? Yeah. Any time you have ISIS.

See what I did there? See, to me, that's talent. That's good. That's clever. Yeah. Exegesis is to read, what are you reading out of the text? Issa Jesus is to read into the text. What you're putting into.

That's right. Well, what I would recommend is take the. XA off and take the ISO off and just focus on Jesus. I can do this all day. Yeah. I don't think I don't know. Hard to argue with Jesus. It's always right.

It's always true. And so meanwhile, when people get into these words, I'm the guy in the audience saying, you know, why don't we just focus on Jesus here? Actually, that's one of our instructors as we're in the school. He said, you got to watch it even. with exit Jesus because you don't want to exit Jesus. I remember him saying that, which was a pretty good line. Well, in the

spirit of my dad, since y'all brought this up. In the spirit of dad, who brought up Colossians 2, talking about St. Well, I'm going to bring up first Christians 1. Again, I'm going to revisit that Christ didn't send me to baptize. I explained this in the last

couple of podcasts. But to preach the gospel, there's Jesus. Not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. So there. Can I add on to that? Do you mind? If you add on to it, that would be an iso-geesis.

I'm not adding my words. I'm just going to read further into the text. Yet we do speak wisdom. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away, but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age had understood, for if they had understood it, they would have not have crucified the Lord of glory, but just as it is written,

things which no eye has seen, an ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God is prepared for those who love him. So we do speak wisdom, and we just don't speak human wisdom. I see that. Look carefully, when it begins the whole context of what he's fixing to say, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. That's chapter 4, verse 1 and 2.

But if you keep going, by the time you get to verse 12 in all of this, don't be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happened to you in other words and he ends it all up you know if you suffers a Christian don't be ashamed but praise God that you bear that name and I think basically that's the whole thing in a ball of wax it's suffering is a good thing yeah if it's a Christian if it falls in the Just think you're on top of thanks when you're being belittled for pointing people to Jesus. We see it all the time in our culture. It's a constant battle all the time.

And people who speak about Jesus factually, let's face it, Al, it's not embraced by our culture 100% at all. Which is why when you get to verse four, when you get to verse four in First Peter, it basically gives instruction. Don't be surprised if people, you know, don't run. Basically, they are surprised by us if we don't run into the same things that they're running into. So the world is not going to understand this because they don't have a framework for, I think, true intimacy. They're saying we're the strangers. In other words, they think it's strange. that you do not plunge with them in the same flood of dissipation.

And they heap abuse on you. But they're going to have to give an account to him as ready to judge the living into the dead. That's reading the gospel of the preach. We're trying to help them out by pointing them to Jesus. He's the only one that can save them. Well, I think it's good for us to understand when we read a passage like this, and not everybody can speak to this, but a lot of us can say, man, we indulged.

And this isn't like a thing where we don't like we've indulged in some of these things. I mean, I'm looking at some of the these things mentioned here. And I'm like, I'm guilty of indulging in those. And I always try to ask the question because I had to ask this of myself when I got to that place in my life where I was like, man, there's got to be more, you know? It's really just a pragmatic question. How's it working out for you? You know, how is that working out for you? Is it really promising the freedom or whatever the, the, the,

the peace or the wholeness or the fullness of whatever you're searching for, whatever the thing is it entices you that pulls you into whatever the thing is, like is that is it delivering? And when I lived with your brother, Jepp, your son, Jep, and we were living like this,

you know, I would drive to tech every day because we had a, I had a 15 minute drive to Louisiana Tech because we lived in between Louisiana Tech and University of Louisiana Monroe where Jeff went. And we were having a great time. But every day, I always had this thought that would pop in my mind. I would think, man, this is what we're having the time of our life.

We're having a ton of fun. But I kept thinking, if this is as good as it gets, that's pretty bleak. And I think that's the cistern that we were talking about earlier. Like I had a, I had a framework to hold my reality in. And but I kept had this nagging truth that was saying, hey, it's not enough though. Is this really enough? I mean, this is as good as good as it gets. Is that going to sustain you?

Is that going to hold you? Is that going to lead you to something? I had that inner longing that C.S. Lewis talks about when he says that if you find yourself longing for more than this world can provide, perhaps you are made for another world. But I wasn't letting myself really contemplate that. I think that's what is good for us when we read scriptures like this is to just allow ourselves for a moment to contemplate and say, you know, how is this working out for me?

is my current pursuit delivering on what it's promised to deliver on. Well, look at it now, that's almost 25 years later, now in this season of where you are today, as a mature man with a daughter and now almost a son, the same age you were at that time, would you say you feel more fulfillment as a life being led by the will of God, versus that human flesh part of what you had then? Because like you said, there's no doubt there's some fun involved in terms of the fun of the moment. But is your life more fulfilling now than it was then, would you say? Oh, yeah.

I mean, 100%. I mean, in fact, I would say that the things that I struggle with, the temptations that I struggle with at 24 years old, for example, or 23, 22, like in that time frame, you know, like those things are not struggles for me anymore. In fact, when I see people in like how I was at 21 years old, like my first thing that pops in my mind is, you idiot. I mean, I'm just like, that's what I think. I'm like, but I was that guy. Right. But when you are progressively sanctified over 25 years of walking with Jesus and being led by the spirit, then, you know, one of the promises of Christ in our sanctification is that over time, you know, when I just saved from the guilt of our sin, over time, we will be saved progressively from the power or the grip that's sent. has over us and that there will be things in your life as you walk with the spirit as God

reveals more truth to you or rather you accept more God's revelation to truth, that you start to see his beauty and his glory and what intimacy is. I mean, the conversation we had in the last podcast about intimacy, I didn't even know what that was 15 years ago in my marriage. I didn't know. And so I'm in this performative marriage and I have all this guilt and shame and anxiety that's a result of me thinking I got to be performing or whatever, be this guy. be this thing and I'm hiding from Jill and all this stuff.

And I didn't even know what intimacy was. So I think the healing that comes progressively, it's offered to all of us. But what we want a lot of times is we talk about the will of God. What we want is an instant. I want to be healed right now. I want to be totally whole right now. And that's just not how it works. I mean, you have to walk with him to know him.

You have to spend time with him to know him and to taste the Lord and to see that he's good. So that's a long answer to your question. but I'm a different person, 100%. If judgment begins with us, he's going to end this whole thing up by saying, what do you think about the ones, what would the outcome be for those who don't obey the gospel of God? It begins with us first.

We'll be judged before the world. The world will have to give an account to him who's ready to judge the living and the dead. That's the reason the gospel is priests. If judgment begins with us, and then to the other, unsaved, you say, what kind of people are you to be? It's a scary thought. I mean, very much so. Well, Zach Jill spoke to, when she was on the podcast, she spoke to you guys in your relationship

growing to a place of open confession and, I guess, security in each other to have authenticity and reality. Would you speak to that son? Because she was very, I mean, she did an awesome job just describing how that had transformed you guys over the course of your marriage and how now that was a place where you guys had that security now in each other to be able to have that sort of transparency with each other. Yeah, I mean, we got to a place where I think that I was living under this burden that I had to be her.

Um, fulfillment, you know, I had to provide her with fulfillment. Yeah. And what's mean, other words, I had to be her God. And, um, and then she had to make me feel good about myself or whatever it was. And, and so there was a lot of hiding on probably both of our parts. A lot of hiding. I didn't feel, yeah, I didn't feel free to confess anything to her because, uh, she struggled with jealousy. So I'm not going to like go tell her.

Hey, yeah, you know, I'm battling lust or so I'm, I mean, because then she's going to feel like, you know, less than or like, well, I don't measure up. And then, you know, so it's kind of like the perfect storm coming together. And we just got to a place where I finally was like, you know what? I'm, I was just ready to burn it down. I said, yeah, here's the deal. Just I just full fled just vomited out to her. But it was confession.

And so, you know, James 516 says confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed. You know, we're wanting to get, which is a, again, a form of suffering, right? Like, if you confess your sin, especially to your spouse, especially if it's like a like pornography or lusting or, you know, adultery or anything like that. Like if you confess that to your spouse, I can promise you one thing. There will be suffering. But as you know, Al, having gone through, you know, infidelity and things like that, you can never get to intimacy if that's hidden. And honestly, you can't hide it forever anyways.

It's all going to come out in the wash. And you always say something that resonates with me. You say detonates your on time bomb. And that's really what confession does. It's a detonation of your own time bomb, but you have to be willing to go into a season of suffering so that you can experience a resurrection. I mean, it's just so biblical. And that thing repeats itself. You know, the death, barrier and resurrection of Christ repeats itself over and over and over again in our life.

You know, it's not just a one-time event that happens at our baptism. Roman 6 says it, it's ongoing too. Yeah, it's a one-time thing that gets us in and we're justified. but then it's an ongoing perpetual progressive process of continuing to confess sin, suffer, and then being resurrected. Confess sin, suffer,

resurrected, which leads to life. And that's the process over and over and over again. I think that's what Peter is pointing out. You know, whenever we were doing a class called dynamic marriage, there was one of a guys that had a big influence on Lisa and I named Joe Beam. And he illustrated it.

He had three circles. in a line and they overlap. So if you imagine a circle, a circle, a circle, and they all overlaps. They have a little... Like the Olympic circles? Yeah, like the Olympic circles. And the first one had an eye in it. The middle one had a C and the third one had a W.

And the eye was intimacy. And of course, we were talking about relationships, but you could use this illustration with God as well. And if you had this eye, intimacy is obviously what you strive for. But most of us live in that little overlapping circle, between intimacy and conflict, right? Because you have conflict. It's natural. It's normal. But you should always go trend back towards intimacy because that's what God called us to. But when you begin to trend more toward conflict, the relationship becomes dangerous, right? Because we're constantly in conflict. So then

when you're in that place in the middle of that C circle, you have a choice. Do we go back towards intimacy or do we go towards the W, which is withdrawal? And so then you get into that circle where it goes together. And he talks about once you start withdrawing, then you start not caring anymore. Once you firmly get over there, then the relationship becomes doomed. Because once you live and withdrawing, because you're hiding. Yeah, exactly. And the problem is, drawing is hiding. It is hiding. And the problem is when you're in the W, when you're fully in that circle, the only way to get back down to intimacy is to do what, to go back through conflict. Yeah, go back to the pain. And that's what we don't want to do, is go back to, and that's

suffering is what we're talking about. You could say suffering, put that in the seed as well. So I think that's exactly what Peter is talking about here. When we get withdrawn from God, whether it's this list of sins in verse three or whatever it is, we have to go back through the difficulties of understanding who God is to get back to a relationship with it. Peter makes a point. Be clear. minded and self-control so that you can pray above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. So, you know.

Right. I thought the same thing, Phil. When he said, prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled. He said that in 113. Yeah. Then here he says the same thing. And then 580s, like, be self-controlled and alert. Yep.

Because you look at the opposite, a lot of people try to numb pain by using whatever so you don't have to deal with then. Yeah. But so when you sit down and you're having this prepare your mind for action, well, that's going to be, that's going to bring suffering. And it may be from somebody you love, but at least you're getting it out there and having a conversation. Yep.

But yeah, but I think it's when you, when you read like this passage in First Peter, and he talks about these, I mean, these are like more visceral sins. that I think that, you know, these are the visceral sins of the Gentiles. So he's making a point here particularly about, I mean, he says it here. You know, for a time is already passed, for the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desires of the Gentiles. So he's kind of talking about a particular culture here, having pursued a course of sensuality. And I think that's the hard part about what Peter's calling us to when we enter into suffering. Because our default is to be on a course of sensuality.

That's kind of your default position because it's easier. You don't have to like do anything. You just get carried away by it. Just go to what's naturally. Yeah. You go to what's naturally. It's like if you're in a drifting down, I've heard McElland used to use this analogy a lot, something about you're going upstream in the boat.

And, you know, as soon as you're, turn off the motor, what does the boat do? You're an idol. You think you're an idol. You're not an idol. You're drifting back. I mean, when you're not moving forward, then you're drifting back. You're, you're, you're moving in a direction.

There is no like static position. That's why the strangeness comes in when you, because like most people in the world, because I'm around worldly people a lot, most people when their wife comes up, nothing positive is coming out of their mouth, whether it's jokes or, It's nothing that the world would view that as harmless. But I would never say anything negative about my wife. In fact, I would say what they don't realize is it's so destructive what they're doing. They're not even realizing how to struggle.

Well, they don't realize. It's just it's a stereotype. Because they're tearing down their wives and their husbands, they can't imagine. And I've done, you know, sometimes I've made comments in a worldly setting, you know, playing cards or whatever where, you know, people are saying things. And I've said, I said, well, I love my wife. Well, they laugh. They think I'm kidding.

You're not joking. Yeah, I'm not joking. That wasn't a joke. Because it's too strange. Yeah. It's too strange for someone to actually say and believe that. That's what took me off guard is like, they thought that was a joke. Yeah.

Yeah, because in their world, you know, in the eyes of the world, old, the wife or the husband is the old ball and chain. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I've, it's, I've said it on here several times, like, you think you're escaping freedom, which is, we're going to find out in the next and, uh, second Peter, that, you know, they promised themselves freedom, freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity. And it's second Peter two, but you think of this idea, as Bob Dylan said it right, that you got to serve somebody. There is no such thing as just complete autonomous freedom. Like, we just, I just do it. You're going to serve.

You're going to be a slave to somebody or something. And that's a fact. And so what we think is, that's a ball and chain. No, it's a ball in chain because we don't understand the nature of intimacy and we don't understand the nature of freedom. But what's ironic, what's ironic, though, Zach? Let's take another break. It's outside of even the biblical narrative of this, I just saw a poll this week.

Every time they do these, it comes out the same way. The people who are conservative-minded in terms of political or just the way they live their lives, typically will always, in a poll setting, will come out saying they have a happier relationship by limiting their sales to one wife, to a conservative view of life, to a household that basically loves God or believes in God. Almost every time they consider that they think of themselves as being, basically having a happier life than those who don't, that have a supposedly freer view of the world.

Well, right. Or a more liberal view of the world. Well, it's just upsetting since we've gone to this road. You know, because when we talked about when we had all our wives there, and Missy and I was done it many times, you know, we talk about our wedding night because we were both virgins. And, you know, it was what it was. but it was God's way of doing things,

and there was no shame. So people, though they respond in the Christian world, they're like, you know, that's W-T-M-I. Way too much information, you know. And I'm like, meanwhile, if you have kids and you say that, you don't realize, especially in this, in our phone world, their number one thing with them is this instant access to nudity and sex, and that's all going to distort the way they're thinking.

I mean, all you got to do is check their phone. Yeah. I mean, it is a problem. And I'm like, I do not enjoy sharing that most vulnerable time of my life that I was nervous about. But I'm doing it because I want other kids to think who were living the life I was because I was getting so much abuse from my friends. And I shared this in overtime. Oh, malign is an under.

The most persecution I've ever received in my life was being outspoken when I was in high school about me being a virgin. Because I didn't hide it because we'd all be standing around and my buddies were not believers. And they would all be saying whatever they did Friday night, which I found out later, was all a lie. They were just trying. It's not even true. It wasn't even true or what they did with this girl. and that girl. Or highly embarrassed.

Highly, at the very best, it was highly embellished, but most likely it was completely untrue. But it was 100% filthy. And, uh, you know, and they knew that I was a virgin and I didn't run away from that because I didn't care what anybody thought. I was like, well, I've never been with a woman. And they, I think it was the scorn from, because I think they were just trying to break me down, which it really didn't bother me.

But. They felt guilty for what they were doing. Yeah, I mean, who knows? I was young. But what I'm saying is now, what's crazy is I actually get ridiculed from Christian people for sharing that because it makes a lot of comfortable. Which I do not get. I'm just the opposite because what I said about, because I mentioned it, Jason, when I was speaking at our marriage refresh. Because I'm like, look, none of us can do anything.

We're all married here. So all of us are already been married. However you went into your wedding night, you went into it. But all of us here were kids. grandkids, do we not want that for them? That's why I'm holding the line. I mean, I'm like, do I not want that for my grandchildren? You know what's funny?

This is true. I mean, it's the idea. It's what I want from my grandkids. But that was my point out. I can't win. I was really killed in the world. I'm really killed in some church settings. Yeah, but you're making it.

People need to hear it. Yeah, they need to hear it. Well, I'm not going to stop talking about it, obviously. And my wife is, we believe we're doing this. You are doing. There's one, I know everybody always says this in the church world, but it's really true. If there's one young person who is like, you know what, I'm going to do it God's way, they did it. Because to me, I would have liked to have heard that when I was a teenager.

It's a testimony. It's a testimony. It's not get that support. There was no one telling me, this is good. This is good, because I really wasn't telling y'all. And they don't, people don't have a framework for it. On a little different angle, I know this sounds absurdity. What do you say?

Relucto Reulcto What was it again Is that? Reductio. What are we going to do with? And it'll be up to y'all because I've scratched my head on it

for several years. When Peter's given us all this lesson about suffering coming our way, they'd love each other, be aware of who you are, judging regarding the men and the body,

but live according to God. But then in chapter, In verse seven, the end of all things is near. Well, in tornation, is he trying to say because he's the one who said, if I turn a page or two, he's the one who said, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day, he's not slow and keeping his promise, his understand, some understand, slowness. I tried to cover that. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the end of all things is near.

I'm thinking, well, to God, it doesn't make any difference. A thousand years is like a day. So is it just that simple? Well, it means a lot of things. We went down that road a couple of podcasts ago because people disagree on, you know, some people believe, well, he's referring to the end of the Judaism era. Because this book would have been written with just maybe three or four or five years left before the destruction of Jerusalem. He could have been saying that.

I did make the point. That makes sense. But I did make the point. But I do make the point because I defend our brothers who do not believe us what this is. I do make the point that technically, no matter how you view this, the end is near to all of us. because we only live one generation. And so it doesn't matter what you believe, that judgment is coming.

We will stand before God. Well, because the two prior verses before that verse, he had just been talking about people who are dead. Yeah. So the idea is that everybody's end is near in the sense that you're going to die soon. Exactly. And I think there's some truth in that.

And if your lifespan's 70, 80 years, whatever, it comes pretty quick. And they're all under severe. Well, the key point, though, is Jesus' arrival, him coming back, coincides with your death. Because at your death, it will be, we get back into this argument about time ceases to pass. It's literally like you were asleep. Not that you were, it's just, as far as time is concerned, it coincides with that. You know, you die, and then next thing you know, which is a famous saying, in these parts.

Well, here comes Jesus. So technically the end was near. Yeah. So, but we're trying to relate this to an eternal being where there is no end. So that's where the conflict is. Yeah. What perspective are you looking at it? But I think the key point is when we look at this,

the opposites of having a mind that's sober-minded and clear-minded and prepared for action, when you look in this list of sins of the earthly human, evil human desires that we all wore at. And he actually mentioned that member in chapter 2 and 11. He said, I urge you as aliens and strangers. Well, the reason you're viewed as a stranger is just what he just got through saying. Don't be surprised that they,

that they're surprised that you're acting this way. They think it's strange. Remember the verse in Corinthians? You don't launch into the same flood of dissipation. There's your word. that's negative. You don't want to be a dissipator. I don't know if that's a word, but you get more point.

And it says you abstain from these sinful desires which war against your soul. And the reason they're so hard to get around is because like for a man, for a man, since we're talking about, you know, it says lust and drunkenness, which is you don't have to deal with pain and suffering, you know, if you're drunk. But lust is another easy way out. It's way easier to do that. because you're not in a confrontation. It's way easier.

It's what it is an escape. I mean, I think all these things are escape. It's an escape from reality. It's escape from suffering. It's escape from pain. All this is. And I think that it is strange, though.

Like what we're called to, we have to admit this, that it is very strange to think about what we're called to abstain from things that are pleasurable. They will, why would I do that? And the answer is, is because there's a bigger picture involved. And there's something more pleasurable.

The problem with it is that we don't have a framework for intimacy to understand it. And so we go in, a lot of times in churches, what we preach is we're preaching a better version of this. In other words, what Christ offers is a better version of drunkenness, debauchery, sensuality. And that's not true. It isn't offer a better version. he offers a bigger. It's bigger. It's a whole other paradigm.

It's something that you can't understand. That's what the passage we were jokingly when I was reading about the wisdom and the wisdom of God that we preach. That's what Paul was getting at in 1st Corinthians chapter 1, that this is something that no ear has heard and no eye has seen what God has prepared for those who love him. But he says that he has revealed this to us through the spirit and continues to reveal it to us.

So I always thought about it like that C.S. Lewis quote where he says something to the effect of we go on fooling about with sex and drink. And I'm probably demolishing this quote. But we fool around with that. He said because we are half-hearted creatures. It's not that the Lord finds our desires too strong. He finds them too weak. And we go about settling for mud pies in the slum because we can't fathom a holiday by the sea. And I think that's the picture here of this. We're settling for these very visceral things because we cannot. It's like that's a mud pie because we can't imagine what God is prepared for us. And if we would lean into the suffering on the other side of the suffering through the resurrection of Jesus, there is immense joy and peace. And it's, by the way, a peace that surpasses all understanding. So you're trying to paint a picture for people. And they're like, I don't know what you're talking about.

you know and that's odd it is strange it's very strange but it's not but it's true i want to say this so but now i think peter's point here to get back to the point so since jesus suffered in his body arm yourselves with the same attitude as a result which is another form of therefore he doesn't live like this so just go to this one instance let's just apply this in john four he runs up on a woman Now he obviously knows that she's been married five times and she's living with a guy. And instead of offering her a drink, an adult beverage, he offered her a spiritual form of living water. Because he actually says when the Samaritan woman came to draw a water, Jesus said, will you give me a drink? and the Samaritan woman said, you're a Jew, you know, so we have an association issue.

So he's already torn down that barrier. But if you're with a woman in this setting, most people would think, well, he's making a move here, especially if he knew or passed. And he turns it around and says, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. start having this conversation. They get into her lifestyle. Then he starts talking about spirit and truth.

And my point is, what he's doing is very strange here. Because most of the time, when you're alone with a woman at a well with a woman with this kind of past, you're not going down this road. And my point is, you're less likely to do something sinful

if you're approaching her in this frame of mind. That's correct. He was being, he was preparing his mind for action in a spiritual way, which is every time I've been hemmed up in some sort of, you know, situation that could go wrong with a woman. You know, I either start talking about my wife or quote scriptures. Because that usually, or usually every time, has worked. That ended the whatever we thought was where this was going.

You're clearing the air. I'm clearing the air. Because that's what he did. He had an intimate conversation, especially about her past and all. And in a way, was offering her to be a spiritual husband, because that's what we all eventually are in Christ. And I just think that's, if you wrap your head around that. So it's like if you're being offensive-minded about sharing Jesus with other people,

you're less likely to be thinking about what she's wearing or how it looks on her. if you're actively having a conversation about these types of things in a public setting. It is a form of a trap. You know what I'm said? Yeah. It's a form of the trap. To your point, Jason, the end of all things is near. And I would agree.

I think that's probably more about the destruction of the temple in 80, 70. But you go back to that woman at the well passage. Jesus is kind of talking about the same thing there, right? He says, because she asked, she asked him the question, where do we worship on the mountain or in Jerusalem? He said, a time is coming. In fact, it's not going to take place at either one of those places. And if you drink the water that I give you, it will be a spring in you welling up to eternal life. So I think that the big thing here that I think is the, like the victory that we can have is understanding that we are the new temple.

As spirit-filled believers, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God lives in us. And so we can actually have, you know, I mean, you want to talk about like God being present, Emmanuel God with us? Well, how much of the more so is God with us? Go ahead. Yeah, that's why persecution and all, you just take it all in stride and keep moving forward. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, you lean into the presence of God because God is present with you as a believer. And I think that's like there's something like in that. There's not something. There's everything in that. And it's hard for us to get it. We never fully get it, but we can start scratching through it. And we see more and more and more of the depth and the beauty of this. And it's that peace that surpasses all understanding.

There's something else out there that, and it's bigger. And when we start to allow the Holy Spirit to foster in us and imagination for what this is, that's worship. Worship is this imagination of James K.A. Smith calls it an imagination station. It's like you start to contemplate the bigness and the glory and the wonder of God. Then all of these sins that we struggle with, they start to seem really, really, really, really small. Like whatever the temptation is, as I walk in the spirit, the temptation just seems little. And I'm like, it just seems, it seems like child's place.

Why would I go that route? And I think that's what we're moving towards, but we have to be willing. have to be willing to suffer with Christ if we're going to taste the glory with Christ. Yeah, which is why he wound up this chapter by eventually getting back to his will, which is where he starts in verse 2. We went through all the other places. He mentioned he said it over and over. You know, he gets to 19.

He says, so then those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful and creator and continue to do good. But he had just said this part about the end is near. and he says, you know, judgment begins with the family of God. And for a while, I was like, well, why would he bring that in here? Because I think we usually think of the next phrase, which it says, well, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those that don't obey the gospel? But you get persecution and you get suffering in various forms.

You know, before I was a Christian, I mean, before I was outspoken as a Christian, I just got persecution from the world only because I was in high school trying to live a Christian life. Well, then I became outspoken to my unbelieving friends. Well, I really got persecution. But as I've matured in the faith and my audience became more of, you know, where I'm speaking or it's not just on a daily basis at school or whatever, I've gotten way more persecution from believers. And I do think that that's part of this thing. And you are going to suffer for doing right even from the believers and it doesn't matter i mean i do think that's why he he viewed these two camps because you're it's not going to be just from the world you're gonna you're gonna

be persecuted even among believing people your motives are going to be questioned they don't agree with you arguments happen they say things they should you know so it's just part of it wrote a bible verse and the heat comes well exactly from all sources. It always is. Let's take our last break. So. By the way, when you get persecuted, by the way, I literally rejoiced in it.

I rejoiced with the persecution. I said, now we're getting somewhere. Well, I think all I did was quote a Bible. It comes down to why you're doing this. And when he said that you have a clear conscience, you know, if you're, if you're saying, where is the Lord in this? You know, I brought that up. Your number one go is what's God's will for me to do?

and it's to suffer for him and to totally relinquish whatever my motives, accolades, arguments. I mean, you're trying to be like Jesus. And so you look at what he does and you're trying to insert that. And that gives you a clear conscience. If you're concerned about what the Lord thinks about this situation, so when you're maligned and ridiculed or misjudge, which is going to happen almost every day, especially when you're being active and trying to help, That's where all the problem is.

That's why I said the biggest thing the evil one wants is for you to be comfortable. No fire. That's the ultimate way to get people. It's just make them comfortable. Let them put their trust in broken cisterns. And then you got them. I mean, God is the one putting you in the trials to test your faith and refine. Back to that text you read in Revelation, lukewarm is not where you want to be.

Oh, I think that's hilarious when Jesus said. need to buy some gold from me that's been refined. I mean, what a, what a illustration. I mean, he's like, well, he was telling him, you need to go into the fire. Come on. And we, when we studied that member, because that was Laodicea, which was a neighboring community of Colise. When we studied Colossians, we made the point that they were wealthy. That was part of the problem. They were comfortable in their wealth. That's why he brought up all these things about hospitality. Look, when you, when you're hospitable, you're basically creating a fire. Because when you have people in, guess what? They're going to get mad or things are going to

get broken. Especially when you have confronting conversations about lifestyle as it relates to Jesus, which is why I brought up the Samaritan woman. So in our remaining, we only have a few minutes left in this, and then we'll have overtime. But I want to read this text all the way through so we can talk a little bit more about in the overtime and then also in our next podcast. Because we've kind of jumping around. So let me start in verse four, because we talked about this, but I'm going to read it all the way through verse 11.

They think it strains that you do not plunge with them in the same flood of dissipation. By the way, Jace, I looked up, dissipator. Let's see if I can put it up right quick. It's not what you think. It's not a root of this dissipation. But dissipator is a word, a part of a glacier in which the loss by melting

exceeds the gain by the accumulation of snow. So it means something totally different. But it does mean that it is a word. That gets back to the broken cistern, you're putting your faith in a lifestyle that is melting. There you go. That's withering. That's good.

That actually does apply. No, it does apply. Yeah, it melts away. That's why I said anything other than God will not. So what happens when the fire hits it? Well, it really melts. Right. No, that's good.

I like that. The same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached, even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit, which we'll talk a little bit about that in the overtime, some of the thoughts about it. the end of all things is near, which we mentioned, what that might be, and it could be several things,

or maybe all those things together. Therefore, be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray, which I thought was interesting. Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. It's the best weapon we got, by the way. It is. In any situation, when you're like, I don't know what to do, what I should do, love is a always a good, we just need to love them. It's always a good answer. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling, as dad is noted, each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve

others faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. There's that idea of worship that Zach was talking about. To him be glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. So that's kind of his conclusion. I love that phrase faithfully administering God's grace. Yeah. Because it's usually not what happens when things go south or arguments arise, tempers, flare. It's usually insult for insult, which he referenced in chapter three. Plus, how many times do we associate the word administration with grace?

Hardly ever. You know what I'm saying? That's almost an oxymoron from a human perspective. If you think administration, you don't think grace. You think law. You think, you know, anything but grace, you know, this administration says, whether it's politics, school, whatever, he says we should be administrators of grace. which is really what God is all about, right?

Yep. Which is pretty powerful. All right, well, we're out of time. We're going to talk a little bit more about this, and there's so much to unpack in overtime, and then that'll lead us into our next podcast as well in First Peter Chapter 4. So it's blazed.com slash Unashamed, if you want to follow us over. Not only do you get our overtime segments that we do for the Unashamed podcast,

but also everything that Blaze has to offer, including 800 episodes of In the Woods with Phil, which was a little show we did for about four years of dad's musings in the woods. So check it out, blazesthiv.com slash unashamed. 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.