Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 675 | Jase Witnesses a Gruesome Highway Event & Phil’s Roughneck Past

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Jase recently lived through a crazy dangerous highway event while traveling, and Phil recalls his past as a well-paid roughneck. He doesn’t even realize it’s his birthday – until Jase and Al tell him! Jase reimagines the birth story of John the Baptist as a popular daytime soap opera. The guys guess at Luke’s motivation for writing this book in the way he did.  In this episode: Luke 1; Luke 2, verses 1-52 https://philmerch.com – Shop now for your “Unashamed” mugs, shirts, hats & hoodies! "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? All right, welcome to Unashamed. We're back. We're back in the lair. It feels like we're just barely got here, Jason. I'm glad to be. I mean, the last pike as I did, I left and went straight to the airport. Which I'm doing today, by the way. So it's just like the cycle continued. I come rolling in yesterday on few years. Yeah, we're 800 miles apart, Al. I know it now, but tonight we will dine together. We'll dine together. And Lord willing, tomorrow when we do a couple of the next couple of podcasts,

I'll be with you, Zach, zooming into here with y'all here. It's just. You're all going to be like sitting beside each other? Yeah, we'll be right there together. And Zach's library layer. You can see the couches that are in front of me, which will also serve as a place for out of sleep. Yeah. So, the difference in Zach's student.

studio is he's got a nice, it's kind of like this one, it's a nice little apartment, but, but he's actually got sleeping quarters. And so I'm actually going to be staying in, in studio. Maybe I could do some time lapse photography of, you know, sleeping and. Nah, well, I think we're, so. So, look, it's not, but it's not, it's a Monday, so we've got a lot to travels, I'm sure, to talk about. But I have to mention it, because I know dad would be, so hurt if we didn't mention that today is his birthday, which... It is. I know when you woke up this morning, Dad, you were just...

Well, it hurts more when you find out it is your 77th birthday. Well, happy birthday. But you did get a year back recently, right? Yeah, because a few podcasts ago, he thought he was going to be 78, but you're only... He picked up a year. Yeah, give or take a few, you know. So you've got big plans. You're going to have a big party and...

No, no, no. I know, this is not your normal Robertson birthday. I said, you know, get off the birthday because we got so many, the family has grown so large every week of somebody that that's the month they were born. Oh, I know. Yeah, I know. I mean, they celebrate them with, I mean. Oh, yeah.

It's a cake a week around my neighborhood. I figured y'all were having a big blowout down here. Yeah. Cattle. I had one race. Cattle and one set. Except I'm from. No, you're way off.

Size is three days from now. He just had it. No, he just had the party early. They called that intervening because I said, I'm taking a trip. So if y'all want to help me celebrate my birthday, do it a week early. It was a hint, hint. So Phil's like, don't tell me happy birthday. Cyes on the opposite.

Oh, size's all about the big party. Where's the party? What are we eating and what are we doing? Did you go to size party? Ow, I've been in parts unknown. I was invited, but I was out of town. I've been gone a week. I know they had crawfish and he had some of his poker buddies there.

And look, I thought yesterday that I was not going to be here because when I, we got delayed, just to show you how the weather changes, we got delayed because there was frost on the airplane. So they had to spray it off. I mean, it was cold where I was. It's like, well, we're not going to make it. And so when we landed in Dallas, dealt was like, well, do we run or? You know, we were like, as we're de-plaining,

we're getting a strategy because it's like 15 minutes before the next one takes off. Oh, boy. I was like, I'm not running. I'm done with running. Because the one time I did run, they were closing the door. And then they're like,

doors closed and they wouldn't open it back up so i'm like no never again and so uh jep said we're i'm running we had her producer there she's like i'm running and so me and murray we're like we're walking so we were looking up on where the gate was so we pulled in at like b 29 well the gate for the next departure to monroe was b 28 i looked over there and people are going through the line we just walked 50 yards and got on the next plane. That's a, that's, got on the plane and 10 minutes later, we were in the air. I said, I've never had that happen before. That was pretty fortunate.

And it was in a moment where it had to happen for me to be here. That was to get home. That was to get home. Wow. So, uh, dad, just so you know, um, Alex found this yesterday. We're talking about your birthday. So the minimum hourly wage, the year you were born, 1946, was 40 cents an hour. Whoa.

That was minimum wage back in the day. I remember working in the oil field, the Robertson males in our close-knit family then, that we broke out working as men when we were sick. 16. Yeah. 16 means. Time to bring some bucks. Get ready to hit the road and, you know, working in the oil field.

And to your point about the price, $1.86 an hour. Oh, so you were doing quite well then compared to. Rough-necking and that was a little later than $46. I thought it was good money. That would have been the $1.86 an hour. Late 50s, early 60. Wow. I thought, man, I've hit home run here.

Of course, at that age, you're 16. but that goes into, I just handed it to my dad. Yep. Now, he was the driller over the crew. The crew was three people in it. Derek, man, a couple of floor hands, and dad ran the rig. So he was getting about two bucks, a little over $2 an hour. I mean, the ram ride.

Just think about that. Well, salary, the average annual income back then was $2,600 a year. A house costs five gram. you know, for I guess a new construction home. A new car was $1,000. Yeah. See, all this was happening with me, if you go back to 46 when I was born. Right.

It goes in the 50s. Yep. It costs 55 cents to go to the movie. And the gas was 21 cents a gallon. Yep. In 46. I remember it well. It was $420 a year to go to Harvard, Zach,

in this time. But here was an interesting one. So a computer, which they had made some comparisons to this list of 2006, a computer, which was about $300, you know, a few years ago, in 1946, the only computer that was around cost $486,804. Yeah. The price of computer would come down. That's good.

I was saying, I was saying amen to that. And now also. Yeah. But there was a computer, there was some kind of supercomputer. Right after World War II, and it had a lot to do with it, right after the war ended in 45, the most peaceful time we've had in, it was a long time. Oh, yeah. It came about after World War II.

Well, that's the baby boomer. That was the idea that came along there because it was a great time. I was one up. You won up? You know, my mama was carrying me in her womb in California. Dad was working out of a big naval station. Shipyard, wasn't it? Shipyard.

So I've always said that my mother carried me. I was, I came on the premises in California. And it marked me for life. And actually, Granny told me that she was in California. for the war effort. She was out there working in a riveted on airplanes. She worked on airplanes. So, I mean, like, that was back in the day where everybody was in on the effort, you know. That's correct. Everybody did their part. Yeah, which is pretty incredible. I just got a text. This is live. This is live. Breaking news? Breaking news. So, Phil, I hate to spoil your birthday. But there's a whole rabbi will be ready after this podcast for Phil's birthday.

Oh, boy. You're a birthday. whole ribba. Oh, that's what I looked out there and I saw someone out there rummaging around. And now that's, it was stone. That was him. So I like the fact you didn't check it out. You just left and thought, huh? Oh, I went out and see what was going on.

That's a big deal. He's getting ready to smoke the meat. And he had a big, whole, beautiful looking ribeye out at his house. That would be fine to have a birthday like that's your kind of birthday, right? See? Oh, I'm in on that. I'll be following you down there. Yeah.

Unfortunately, I'll be getting on an airplane pulling the same movie you did last. We'll let you know how it goes, Al. Sorry. I'm going to miss out on that. So tell us a little bit about your travels. What you can tell us, because I know you were filming. Well, you know, we've been reading Luke. And my prep time was in airports, airplanes, which wasn't a lot.

But I went to Missouri. Then we went to Kansas, so we filmed a couple of episodes, just the actual treasure hunting part. And so they asked me, you know, not to tell them about anything, y'all, meaning you, the listeners. But there was a couple things that happened. Now, one, this wasn't filmed, but I had landed in St. Louis at some part in all this during the transition. And I had to get a rental car because I was buying a same. I guess that was after the podcast. Because everybody else had filmed without me.

And so I'm not sure what they'll do. Jace's busy, I guess, was day one. I wasn't there and they filmed. But I saw something I thought was incredible. So there's eight lanes, four going one way, four going another. I'd never been to St. Louis. Have you ever been? A few times.

Okay. Well, something catches the corner of my eye, and it looked like something. supernatural, but there was a deer that said, I'm going for it. Across eight lanes. Not one road, eight. And the deer was jumping at supernatural looking levels. Yeah. I mean, it's wall to wall cars.

And I'm like, how is this happening? How is that? Because you just seem jump, because I'm looking way off, you know. and about 10 cars ahead of me because I would just see him go up and it was kind of hilly I mean it wasn't like I was on hills but I would lose the deer

and I'd see the deer it was just riveting action how it was in a hundred-far pile up I'll never know but then it jumped one time and then I never saw him come up and I was like and it looked like a NASCAR race

in front of it's like once the wreck happened, it was everybody for themselves in every conceivable direction. And I never saw the deer. I mean, it's like, I know he got hit. But it just, you were just, and I look back and I was like, oh, my goodness, that just happened. And so I went about a mile down the road. and now everybody's zooming over, zooming over. I look, there's another one.

Dead in the road. And I'm like, what is going? It was one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen. And I thought, there's a mix of cultures here, you know, in the outdoors. But these deer, I mean, it was just an incredible, it made me reflect on, you know, there's just some things not worth it. Yeah. Choose a new trail.

The poor deer. That was one. That had nothing to do with anything I want to talk about. I just couldn't believe it. It was like, we're so civilized people, you know, and a deer. It was just crazy. We see a ton of them here hit on I-20, but you would expect that because we're pretty real. I would beg to differ with you that the culture is civilized.

Well, yeah, maybe that way. Oh, we're not civilized at all. Maybe that one. I meant. That whole story. That's the one. We just got through talking about what was going on in the mid-40s and 50s. Well, I was talking about the industrial revolution, I guess,

instead of the spiritual side of things. I thought it was pretty the day that key deal on that one word. So introducing our text with, and I want to tell another story that happened. So, you know, I was, you usually only hear Luke two, and you only hear that during Christmas. I mean, the end of Luke 1 and Luke 2, right? Yeah, birth of Jesus. It's a very, very well traversed Christmas text, no doubt about it.

And so really, really is Luke 2, not even chapter 1 much. Right. That's why we spent a couple podcasts just on Luke 1 through 4. Because when you think about where they started, and Zach, you weren't with us, but to bring you up to speed to be interested to hear your take on this before I tell my story. Luke seems to be, didn't seem, he really made this, this thought of like, I didn't just dream this, this was it just willy-nilly fantasy book of fiction. I mean, he started off saying, look, many have undertaken trying to draw up an account of the things that were fulfilled. And it was based on eyewitnesses.

And then he's like, I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning. And so I could write this account so that you could be certain. Because you think, why is he starting off like that? Because I think we're so familiar with this story, especially in Christmas, that you forget how powerful it is and how supernatural this is. I mean, this is just not some story. We're talking about this is like a supernatural soap opera. Just the first chapter.

When I asked the college professor, his brother, when I asked he, his job was a college professor, now he's retired. And I ask him to come up with every kind of power, the rise and fall of all the powers. I said, go back as far as you can go and find the first power. He, it was somewhere, you know, I don't forget where, but all these powers leading into who is now the most powerful, America, Russia, China, India. These are powers that have been, but, but if you look at them, May old say tongue was running around in 1970. I mean, the Chinese were nothing. I mean, we built China in 50 years. And now it's a powerhouse of the world.

They're about to overtake us. Yeah. But one of the things you read in Luke, he says he has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. And look at this. the very thing I sent the college professor to look at the empires that have risen and fallen. He has brought God Almighty. He has brought down rulers from their thrones.

Yeah, well, that was Mary's. So I would wonder. I don't feel we're losing your mind. Why these empires rise and fall read books like Luke. Well, that was Mary. That was Mary's song. So how's this teenage girl? teenage girl.

That's my point. Well, to your point, Jay's, when I read this, I had the same thought. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's way more than a story, you know, it's, it's not a, you know, I watched a interview with Ben Shapiro and one of my favorite. Apologist, probably no, not one of my favorite apologists, this guy named William Lane Craig, absolutely dudes like brilliant. And so he interviewed William Lane Craig. on his podcast recently, and somebody sent it to me because they knew I've read everything William and Craig's ever written. And they got into the whole thing.

They got into a lot of apologetics. Some of the stuff we got into earlier on how do we know God exists. And he went through the arguments. But then when they got to the person of Jesus, it was interesting. That was such an interesting conversation. And, you know, Ben's really open to have those kind of dialogues on the show, which I really appreciate him. He doesn't have like softball interviews.

He brings in people that really challenged his worldview. And so he asked Dr. Craig, you know, but how do you, why Jesus? You know, what, what, and Craig was awesome. I mean, you guys got to check that podcast out if you get a chance. But he basically said that the whole thing stands and falls with the person of Jesus. And, and Shapiro was like, yeah, well, one of the reasons why we don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah was because he did not fulfill the nature of these Old Testament prophecies, you know, know, the Jewish people realize that these were, these were political prophecies, I'm paraphrasing here, but these were political prophecies about a political kingdom. And they, and so Jesus didn't

come to do that. And Craig's response was like, yeah, exactly. You know, that's the same thing that they missed beforehand. And I think, though, it hits what Jason is saying here, it's more than a story. It's more than a political kingdom. It's more than, I mean, read the book of Hebrews. It's more than Moses. It's more than the tabernacle. It's more than the temple. It's more than. All these things, these Old Testament prophecies and this old way, they're just, those were like precursors. So when we get into the text of that, all my notes are kind of centered around that same idea, Jace. I know I wasn't here for the first four verses, but I, but what you said resonated with me.

The context of it really hit me. And I read this like I'd never read it before because I just thought, you know, when I was a kid, you know, our grandma and grandpa, you know, every day after lunch, they would walk. watch what was the soap opera as the world turns days of our lives and days of our lives and all my children was the only time that we had to be completely quiet and they were on the edge of that couch every day just riveted and it was always just seemed so just fake to me I thought why are they this is not real but it was just you know the music boom I'm not your husband or, you know, I'm not, it was just, boom.

I thought, why are they watching this? It's good. It just seemed. But when I put that in this, you know, he starts off talking about we investigate, we're eyewitnesses, and it starts off with here's a priest and his wife who are old, and we did read this. They were well along in years. And the Lord heard their prayers, and I just put it in soap opera, It's like here he is in the temple and he has this he has this encounter with an angel.

I mean, that's pretty riveting if you could capture that and watch this story. And it's like your prayer has been answered. So this miracle's going to happen. But he doesn't believe it because he's like, he's basically doing an anatomy check and realizing how old he is and saying, Oh, we're going to have a son? Right. I don't believe you. Which, Jace, let's think about this.

Before you move forward on this, because this is a thought that popped in my mind when I read it. Number one, where did it, the place that he went to receive this revelation was the temple. So he goes into the temple to meet with God and to burn the incense. And then God speaks to him through the angel Gabriel in the temple. And he tells him, you're going to have. have a kid. And then his response was this age thing, which, you know, the first story that popped to my head from the Old Testament.

It was Abraham. Yeah. I mean, there's so much here of, that's, that's reminiscent of Abraham's story. And so, like, say, if you didn't know anything about Jesus coming on the scene, you're just in this moment and you're, and you're thinking about this. I mean, to me, this is almost like he's a, I mean, this, this one that's coming. I mean, this may be the moment, you know, he's in the right place, which is the temple, to receive this communication from God. I mean, God himself shows up.

You know, when he sees Gabriel and I guess the representation of God, he was so fearful. And I thought about when I read that part, I thought about John the Alapapamus. I thought about Saul on the road to Damascus. Like you're starting to have an encounter here with something much bigger and more powerful than yourself. and he receives this revelation. It's like, you're going to have a kid. And I was just thinking, man, like, if I was in this moment, the story would have been, oh, this is, this is the one.

This is the one that was talked about with Abraham because of the similarities. And then the very next part of that is when he gets to Mary. And the way that he talked to Mary was completely different because he went, he didn't do it in the temple. He did it in, and he went to Nazarene, which John 1 says nothing good comes out of Nazareth. Nothing good comes out of Nazareth. And that's the place, that's the actual place where he went to bring the Messiah forth. And I was just thinking about her response was, she was also very reluctant because what did she say?

Well, true. But before we get to her, because there, you know, if you looked at this, I mean, if you titled this, maybe the old man and the teenager, because they have a similar instance. And the drama in Zachari's case was in verse 12. You know, when Zacharias saw the angel, he was startled and gripped with fear. This kind of goes on with my soap opera theme.

You know, all of a sudden he's just, because there's an angel. You know, if it's a true soap opera, when that happens, then we go to commercial. Exactly. And the reason I'm saying this, because a lot of people who will watch modern-day soap operas that's called TV and enjoy it.

But they'll go to the Bible here and they'll say, oh, it's just, you know, somebody, they made this up. But the more you look at the details, it makes way more sense than anything the Hollywood mind can conceive, is my point. So in verse 18, when Zachariah asked the angel, how can I be sure of this? Which is a different,

question too then Mary asked but we'll get to that exactly but he said I'm an I'm old but but the angel pretty much tells you his heart because when the angel said in verse 19 I am Gabriel I stand in the presence of God don't you think it by the way he states his name it's almost he's a little offended in his answer like wait a minute I am Gabriel yeah but here was the key in verse 20 and now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day day this happens because now here's here's the heart because you didn't believe my words so no matter even though mary's response seems to be similar than zachariah just didn't believe it now one is there's a lot of reasons for that and i think the main one is now this is just my opinion but i think it's pretty obvious

even if you look at the conversion rate to to jesus across Christianity, I think over 40 is like 4%. And so I'm getting back on my, you know, the older you get, the harder it is to believe anything, you get your mind made up. Because you got to put yourself in his position. Him and his wife have been prayed. They had been faithful. They were considered blameless.

They had done, these are high character people. And they had prayed. But at some point, they said, you know what? God just said no. But think about it too, Jay's Zacharize's mindset is good a man as he is. He has the same mindset that Jesus kept running into. Every time Jesus would do something, they'd say, well, now, what's the sign that we can know that you're really who you say you are?

And Jesus comes to say, that was the sign. And that's almost what Gabriel was like, wait a minute, I just told you what was going to happen. You know, what do you mean? How can I know this? It's a good point because it's like you say, well, how come Mary, you know, believe? it during the, well, she experienced it. Right. When you're talking to an angel,

here's your sign. This is it. We don't need another one. It just shows you how stubborn people can be. Look, I really think it's a lesson in being open-minded. I mean, my biggest takeaway from this was that. I thought, you know, I'm over 50. I need to have an open mind.

Really? About things that you just think, oh, you get set in your way, or you think something's a certain way, because here's a teenager who had a different response to a same kind of encounter. So that's where we left off was in verse 21, before we get to Mary. So we got Zachariah,

he comes out of the temple doing charades, which is another soap opera moment. I mean, that's hilarious. They're like, so meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zachari and wondered why he had stayed so long in the temple. He was talking to an angel. When he came out,

he could not speak. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. That's why I called that charades. Did you get it out? Mm-hmm. I thought that was funny.

That's pretty good. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this, his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion, which I think is kind of interesting because, I mean, do you just not own this? that you're old and you're pregnant.

They just get done. So anyway, something beautiful is going to come out of this. But so the Lord, but you talk about a soap opera. Now we have a grandma who's pregnant. Yeah. Just picture that. She comes out and she's like, hey, I have an announcement, family. I'm pregnant.

Dun, done, done, done. And we got a husband. And he's doing charade. He's doing charade. He can't say anything. What happened to him? I don't know. He only has.

You know, he's like. If you saw this, you'd say, oh, this is completely made off. This is amazing. This is really. So then the Lord said in verse 25, the Lord, I mean, the Lord has done this for me, she said, in these days, he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. because she felt disgrace because she could never have a child. So we get to our next section.

Hang on. Before you move on, I want to make one point. Okay. Because we didn't cover this. I just wanted to touch on it. One of the things I think, to your earlier point, is that Luke does,

remember, he's writing to a Gentile audience. All the other gospels, John the Baptist just kind of shows up because everybody knows about John the Baptist. They know his role. They know all these things. But Luke,

I think, goes into such, detail about his pre-birth, birth, who he was, because the Gentiles aren't going to know who John the Baptist was. They don't know, you know what I'm saying? They don't understand that. So when he said that about the spirit and power of Elijah, in the Jewish mind, that meant something very specific. But the Gentile mind, they would have had to understand what that meant. And so he's catching them up to speed. He's catching him up to speak. And I think it's even deeper than that. I was going to get into this in the next section. Whatever, just to show how powerful God is.

Right. Well, and also look how practical. He didn't, because look, to expect Mary to believe all this is kind of hard to ask for here. Why? And to endure it. So he actually, and you have somebody's got to be, you know, who's going to baptize Jesus, because that's going to happen. It's like this plot line gets deep.

the more you analyze this, God created a family dynamic here, which I think it's a practical application to us. Because Mary didn't write that song that you referenced until she visited with Elizabeth. Why'd she visit with Elizabeth? Because the angel subconsciously recommended that. Because you just think how difficult that would be.

You're a teenager. I mean, have you seen a teenager lately? And all of a sudden an angel comes to this teenage girl and it's like, guess what? You're going to be the mother of the son of God. Do what? Go through all your drugs in a trash can. I mean, it's just, so you have John Nabab, who's this family dynamic of them being able to go through this process together. And you're like, well, why is that in here like this? Because anybody, that's why. That's why I say, said, this is more realistic than you think because it wasn't just him writing, oh, here's what happened. There was a girl who magically had a baby.

No, it was all wrapped around a family experience, a forerunner of Jesus, Mary having this community with Elizabeth, so they could actually share. I mean, how would you even relate? You have no one to relate what you're going through with, but God provided that. And the fact that they brought that community together. Let's take another break. I love that, Jay's. And that's why I want to bring this up about the idea of Elijah,

because Jesus is the most prophesied about in the Old Testament, the Messiah. But then the second most that you would see was the forerunner. And so, I mean, I love it that Luke takes the time to build the case that while Jesus is the most important human ever born, because he was also God, I would argue, and Jesus said, there's no one greater among men than John the Baptist. I would say he was one of the, if not the second most, a pretty important guy because he pointed all of Israel to who Jesus was. Just think about what this family did, you know,

think about what this family did. I think it should be a model of how God use his family, just ordinary families, you know, to bring about great things. But that was my point earlier of how reminiscent this is of Abraham because this is like what's happening here with John the Baptist coming on the scene. I mean, the, I'll put to this point, we don't know about Jesus yet, right? All we know about is, whoever this guy is that's coming through, through Zachariah here in the temple.

Like, we're talking about on the magnitude of an Abraham. I mean, we're, this is, what's going to happen? Like this, this child that is, you know, your wife is, is carrying. Like, we're, he's going to have such a prominent role in the kingdom. I mean, even superseding Abraham. I mean, this is, I mean, no one's greater than John the Baptist. I mean, I think that's the point here. And as high as you can elevate this, this, this, this, uh, interaction here and the significance of what that is, as we're going to see in a moment, the very next section is just it blows everything out of the water.

To Phil's point, I mean, it is the power. This is a, this is a, a crescendo moment of the power of God coming to earth. And the last, this is, and the last spoken word in the book of Malachi. before all this happened, almost 400 years earlier, was, I will send you the Prophet Elijah before that great day. He's the type, John the Baptist, when he rolled in, love him or hate him, they all feared him. You know what I'm saying?

They really did. Yeah. And we know now why. And he had no fear whatsoever. No, we know that he was a special vessel. And thank you, Luke, for taking the time to show us how special he really was. All right, so I wanted to get that in before we got to the next. So in 26, it says in the six month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,

to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, greetings. You who are highly favored, the Lord is with you. So Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of, of greeting this might be. So that's where we're making the reference that, you know, Zachari, John the Baptist's future dad, was you seem to have the same thing happen, but a different result.

And you notice that Mary, maybe I never thought about it at a better age, Jace, but for whatever reason, Mary is one of the few people in the Bible. When she encounters an angel, most of them are terrified at the sight of them. Now, she could have been, and it just didn't tell it here, although every other. Angel says don't be afraid. But it says she was troubled by what he said more than what he looked like. It seemed to bother that he spoke highly of her. Well, exactly.

Don't forget the place, though. Don't forget the place. I think this is important. That's a good point I hadn't thought about. Yeah, the place where he met with Zechariah was in the temple. Think about that. I mean, this is the last really important, like, meeting in the temple. temple. And then when he goes to establish the son of God, the coming of the son of God,

he does not go to the temple. Where does he go? He goes to Nazareth, which that was the whole point. He went to the lowliest of places. He went to the place. I don't want to say any names because we could all talk about certain areas of the country or cities that, like, whatever the worst you can imagine, it's like he went there. He didn't go to the epicenter of the temple, which you would have thought, it may be. Man, the coming Messiah, surely that's going to have something that's got to happen somewhere in the temple, right? And that's not what happened. With John the Baptist and the coming and the end of that age and John the Baptist being the last one, the forerunner of the Messiah,

that was the close of that temple and then, or at least the signify that. And then boom, there's something new happening. There's some kind of new, more Hebrew writer calls it more perfect temple or more perfect tabernacle coming. But he went, just like Jesus does, went to the worst of the worst places, a place where nothing good can come from that place, Nazareth. Another thing to your point, Zach, I hadn't thought about this. You said it was, and we'll read this at the very end when John the Baptist after he was born. You know, once this all happened in this prediction in the temple, you know where he spent all of his ministry out in the desert, in the middle of nowhere. Yep.

He wasn't in the temple courts, John the Baptist. That's why Luke reminded everybody, nothing is impossible for God because there's a lot of people that would say, for that to all come together and to bring children out and the son of God, while you're at it, coming out of the wombs of these kind of people, you'd say, no, no way. That's asking too much. It helps the reader to say, by the way, I know you're saying, ain't no way all that could come together. Nothing is impossible for God.

That's what it's all over. Nothing. To your point, to your point, you know what's more difficult, as difficult as it would be for an old man and an old woman to have a baby. You know it's even more difficult than that. You would say impossible, right? Well, near impossible. Near impossible unless we feel.

figured out a way, you know, okay. But you got all the anatomy parts. You got all that. You got the male, the female. I mean, you got the parts are there. Now, you know, so maybe there's some kind of medicine or something. Now, you want to talk about like a next level of possibility. Next level impossibility is a virgin birth.

Yeah. So it's interesting in the temple. He gets something crazy. Yeah, you're going to have a kid. Yeah, I'm old. I'm too old. That's that's one level of difficulty. Another level of difficulty is to say,

oh, I'm a virgin. Now it is literally impossible. There is no possible way under any circumstance that a virgin could have a could be could be impregnated. And I mean, that to me is the, he goes to the worst of the worst places to announce. To Jason's point at the beginning, it's such a bigger story. It's not just a story. We're talking about something here that's so big.

And in this moment, in this direction from Gabriel to Mary, I mean, we're seeing the power of a God that nothing, I mean, absolutely nothing is impossible for this God. Yeah, that's why I wrapped it around a soap opera because at first glance, you think, oh, this is crazy. the more you look at it, you're like, this is really powerful. Atheists would laugh at this. If they only glanced, but the more you dig into this, which is why Luke had such a profound introduction, because he said this is based on the eyewitnesses. And when you start putting it all together,

it actually makes sense in such a clever way, way beyond the years of when this was written when you think about how scholarly this is, because now you're fixed to see a picture of the most high becoming the most low for humanity. Right. Because that's a theological fact. It's like if you're just foolish,

or an idiot, or, you know, uneducated or however you want to say it, you can't, if you try to act smart, you're never going to pull that off. But you can be incredibly smart and play dumb. Yep. You can do it. And so really, that's in that line of thought is what happens here. You know, God in showing his love becomes low, because he is the most high, because he has the power to make man from dust to create a virgin birth. I mean, but you really see Mary by end of that, by into this as this goes on. So I'll keep reading.

Mary was greatly troubled as words as verse 29 and wondered what kind of greeting that might be, but the angel said to her, don't be afraid. You have found favor with God. That's the second time the angel has said, you have found favor of God. You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are, to give him the name Jesus, which means God saves. Yahweh saves.

That's what his name means. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. That's why I thought, you know, that Most High is going to be born in one of the lowly places of the earth. And basically compared to who God is to come through a birth canal. There was no... That's about as humble as you can get. There was no parade with the... No.

And we're at. Was in a stable and a barn. Yeah. It even became more humble because of the circumstance, you're right. And when you look at this through the soap I broke, eyes, you're like, what? I mean, here she's, you know, in a barn, you know, pregnant. Later, he comes riding up on the donkey and you say, yeah.

All right, wait for it. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will rain over the house of Jacob forever. He's never going to die. His kingdom will never end. I think this is a valid question. If you heard all this, not only are you going to give birth to the Most High,

the son of God, he's going to reign forever. How will this be? So that's not a, I don't believe, you. It's just, how is it going to happen because I'm a virgin? That's what I took of this. Yeah. I'm a virgin. It was more of a statement of like, and I think it was more of an insinuation on when do you want me to get married? Do you want me to get married now? Or, you know, because she was engaged to be married, which is, because the implication is she could have gotten married and gone through this process, but he's going to explain that, you know, is in the next segment. And I think you realize that just

because you're dating doesn't mean you're a virgin. But she just said, hey, I'm a virgin. Just to let you, in case that Angel Land didn't know. I think that's... In case they didn't tell you guys this. I'm a virgin and I know that's not possible. So what are we? Do you have a guy?

I mean, because I got a guy, but he's not the guy yet. I mean, that was basically the fill in the blanks. The angel answered, I mean, of all the things that you thought, He was going to say. Yeah, this was the shocker. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high. Dun, dun, da, because now Mary says, I'm going to marry a spirit. Yes, I'm in love with a ghost.

This is like... I mean, this is beyond anything Hollywood has ever conceived. The closest thing that came to this was ghost, but... Yeah, yeah. Well, that's why I was going to say. the end of the day, they take all these same principles and make their little movies about it. You know? Yeah. This was the manuscript where it all came from. The power of the most high will overshadow you.

Before you leave that word, that word overshadow, same one used to describe the cloud over the tabernacle and the glory, you know, the one that where the glory of God descended on Earth. And also, Jays, the cloud that developed the transfiguration. That's that word overshadowed. We only have three minutes. I'm never going to get to my story. I'll do that and over time. So let me read the end of this. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative is going to have a child. So here's the suggestion. That's breaking news right there because she probably didn't know that. In her old age. Oh, it's like a twist. Then you show Elizabeth. She's over there grinning. You know, Zachariah, he's doing the emotions.

He's doing a Charette. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And it's like, so, I mean, this is just getting even more and more unbelievable. They're going to have a child. And I do think this was the hint-hant suggestion that maybe y'all should hang out. And she who was said to be barren is in her six months, for nothing is impossible with God. Other translations I noticed on this, and I wanted to make mention of this before we move on.

says something to the effect of the word, every word from God, the word from God is always true. I mean, it's like a totally different translation. I don't know if you've ever noticed that. So, but either one's fine with me because it goes back to because this is what the Lord said. So same principle.

So in verse 38, now here's what I love. And this is the difference in Zachariah. And what, look, you've got to remember. remember Zach O'Reill was favored by God. He just got testized a little bit where he couldn't speak. And, Zach, while you weren't here on those, I made, I think God was given husbands just an overall view of your role in the birth process, especially in the first one. You need to show up and shut up. Because his speech did return, but we've all learned that.

That's a lot of children, Zach, because that's a pretty good policy, Zach. That's what I call good advice. So 38, but look at our heart. Because really, look, I'm going to tell you something profoundly. This is what we all do when we come to Christ. When you understand the presence of Christ, she said, I am the Lord's servant. I mean, she surrendered right here. Yep.

May it be to me, as you have said, then the angel left. after. I mean, what a heart. I'm talking about humble. Of course, then she goes and sees Elizabeth. If we had translated what she said in Redneck, it would have been get her done. I just think, you know, I think her heart was right and she surrendered. And you're not, as crazy as this is for a teenage girl to have the spiritual maturity and humility to say, because she's going to be disgraced.

I mean, she knows that. And I thought of something else, I mean, because it doesn't talk about Joseph. And so they, he was going to dismiss her. Yeah. Because of the public display. The Matthew account gives his account. But then, and they never had sex, you know, until Jesus was born. But it just told me that when you know the presence of Jesus is there,

you can really make good decisions. You can do good things. Yeah. So in your dating relationship, there's your, there's the bar and it's high. So we're out of time. And in overtime, Jay says a story for us. Also, I thought we should name the soap opera.

So I've got one, my name, and so I'll hear everybody's name for the soap opera in the overtime. If you want to follow us over, blazedvary.com slash unashamed. A reminder before we go, the week of May 7th,

we will no longer be releasing Unashamed on Sundays. That's going to move to Thursday. So it'll be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So be looking for that on the week of May 7th. What was the name? we're going to do it in overtime. Oh. See you there.

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