Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 691 | Jase Uses His Truck as an Alarm Clock & Jep’s Laundry List of Injuries

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

Jase had a terrifying moment when he wasn’t sure if Jep was asleep — or dead! So he came up with a creative way to find out. Jep lists his various recent injuries, and it’s a wonder he’s still upright. Phil has some good advice for a listener who wants to know how to build a community of believers around her. The guys list their favorite verses and how they open up dialogue to share the gospel with strangers and friends alike.  In this episode: Hebrews 3, verse 4; Matthew 19, verse 20; Hebrews 13, verse 8; James 1, verse 27 https://philmerch.com – Get your “Unashamed” mugs, shirts, hats & hoodies! "The Blind" hits theaters on 9/28/23. Get sneak peeks, updates & insider exclusives: https://theblindmovie.com — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Well, I'm not sure what happened, but somehow we all, this has been quite the morning. I'm dialed in via hotspot because my internet went down. Ows out. We have Jepp on the podcast, but I don't know. We're about 20 minutes late. Phil just walked in. I'm not sure what all happened this morning. Now, what happened was somebody in management. said, hey, let's do a bonus podcast because we have some trips coming up where we're not going to be able to do our normal routine. So we'll do the bonus podcast.

So I don't know how Jep got involved, but I think he volunteered. No, Al called me. Okay, I'll call you. So Jep said, I mean, so Jep comes over and eats at my house last night. And I cooked fried rice with a little filet. Very good. Very good meal. Very good.

Better than good. Better than good. Better than good. It was good. So we talked about, now we're going to meet. Yeah, let's meet at 8.20. Well, so at 8 o'clock, I get a disturbing message from Jep's wife that said,

I don't think Jep is up. And I thought, well, it's 8 o'clock. And I don't think Jessica was there. So Missy and I started having a conversation. So I called Jeff because we had the little one this morning. And so, you know, he's our alarm clock. And she said, well, just go down there. I was like, I don't go into a grown man's house when we've agreed the night before to meet at a certain time.

I said, there's two possibilities here. He's either overslept. I said, or he's dead. And Missy was like, oh, I was like, in either case, I'm not going in. Well, she said, well, if he's, I mean, if he's dead, you don't want to go in? I was like, what can I do about it if he is dead other than have a memory? You could call my wife and say, hey, sorry to tell you. That's a Jesus issue at that point.

If you're dead, there's literally nothing I can do about it in the short term. So I said, I'm not going in that house. So what I did was I pulled in his driveway and I laid on the horn. So anybody else in our neighborhood who was sleeping, I woke the neighborhood. Woke them all up. And so no sign of Jep. I gave it the courtesy two minutes after that. And then I left.

Well, Jep called me like 15 minutes later. He's like, hey, was that you blowing the horn? No, actually, I didn't say that. I didn't hear the horn. Or I would have got up. How do you not hear a truck horn? Hey, I'm not. Here's my problem.

I have trouble going to sleep. I've had that forever. I've taken different medicines. Nothing works. I did last night. I mean, same thing, had trouble. And then I set my alarm and my phone died, I guess. I woke up and it was completely dead.

But I did set my alarm and I tried and I'll say, oh, no. Well, look, I'm not, Jeff, I'm not a doctor, but I can give you one piece of medical advice. on what will help you go to sleep. For those of you who aren't watching the podcast right now, you're listening to it. Jeff is slamming about a 24-ounce monster energy. What is? I can't see what it is.

Prime. I never heard of this. I don't know. It was in my fridge. Prime. Yeah, so he's slamming an energy drink right now. I don't know how I mean. And if I,

and you love caffeine too. So I don't know, man. It could be, you may be slamming too many of those during the day. No, I don't. I don't. It says 200 milligrams of caffeine. Oh, my gosh, 200 milligrams. It's a lot.

That's more than a Red Bull. Well, here's my take on it. I mean, when a man's over 40 years old and the conversation reminded me of like conversations I had with my eight and 10 years old, you know, kids when they couldn't get up. I just, I don't know what to do. I don't know how that's my. It's not like we were getting up at the crack of dawn. I mean, it's nine o'clock in the morning. I called because I call Jason and I said I may not be on the podcast day because we have an internet outage and I may drop off at some point because I'm on a hot spot right now and I didn't know if that would work but we were just easy I don't know what's going on with Jeff and we're like going through scenarios I said well he could be dead he goes well I mean what can I do I can't go in there if he's dead and said we're having that whole conversation he said you know what I'm going to do I'm just going to lay on the horn I'll pull up there let me let me do that I found out you did lay on the horn didn't make a difference.

But you got up, Jeff. You got up, you're here. Yeah. I mean, that was my thought, Jeff. The B story of this whole conversation is if a man blowing a horn in your yard doesn't wake you up, why come up with the excuse that that alarm was going to do something? My horn was way louder than that little pesky alarm. I mean, you could be right there.

So I don't know what I'm saying. You weren't getting up. I had the right calculation. But I woke up and was like, oh, no. Like I knew, I didn't see a clock, but I was like, I'm going to be late. Whatever I was doing, which I kind of forgot was this. I knew I was going to be late. Well, I thought this was podcast 681.

Yeah. 5-2-23, I wrote on top of that 10 o'clock. You wrote 10 o'clock? Yeah, I see that, but that was wrong. So somebody told. your clocks back, Phil? I wouldn't have written that down. I said, unless somebody said 10 o'clock.

No, no, I just... Well, we just did the spring forward. Well, no, I guess that's been a few months ago. But we're here. But we are here. We made it. Yeah, it's been, wow. I don't know where Al's at.

He's somewhere. I would predict on a beach somewhere. On a beach. We can throw him under the bus because he's not here. So, well... Yeah, so that's it. So, yeah, I thought today what we could do. um well first of all jeb how how's the i haven't seen you and i guess i saw like the wedding briefly

but uh how's the filming going how's the show going it's good um yeah but what jep you're not saying what the what happened this morning is pretty much yeah the common because i'm with yep okay i'll just break it now i'll give you the last few things that have happened i fell down a flight of I saw that. It was incredible. I'm surprised you lived over that. I mean, it was like I fell down a flat of stairs. Like on my back.

Like, like, this was... We were... South Louisiana. He actually... It's like he was on the top step, and he took one step, and it was almost like some kind of supernatural force

made him parallel all of a sudden. And it's like everything slowed down for me. Like I just saw him. Yeah, he was just laid out. He was, he was just complete sideways. Yeah. And then he just went, boom, boom, boom, all the way to the ground.

Hmm. And so everybody looked at me because I was up standing beside him when this happened. I said he'll never walk again. But he did. Yep. So that happened. So more recently, we were in Kentucky, and my stomach got to hurt so bad. You know, we're filming, and they're like, hey, can you dig that hole again?

And I said, look, be honest, I can't bend over. And they were like, you can't bend over. I was like, my stomach has gotten to be really bad. Well, somebody was like, you know, you need to get that checked out. So when we got home, I was in a lot of pain that night. I told Jessica, I was like, I got to go to the doctor. She's like, okay, Monday morning. This was like Friday, maybe.

Well, that Friday night at two in the morning, I woke her up. And I scared her really bad, and I felt really bad about this. But I didn't know. I was like, I woke her up, and I was like, I think I'm dying. That's it. I went to the bathroom. And I mean, when I'm saying, like, it was really bad. And my stomach was hurting really bad.

Go to the hospital at two in the morning. and the dude's like, yeah, let's do a scan. He was like, man, you got diver. It's diver. I thought it was diaper, but it's with a V. Diverticulitis,

which I know Mama's had that before. I didn't realize the pain involved in that. Basically, your intestine is like infected and swollen. Like, it's like really nasty. There's like pus in there. Well, maybe that's why you've had notorious bowel problems. And it may,

no, this is, I've learned that I got diverticuli, which means my intestine. Testins have pockets in him that I'm sure I inherited from mom. I say all that to say. They could have cut out parts of your intestine, it can get so bad. That was a rough deal.

I'm just getting over that. I did lose. I've lost like 25 pounds. That was the start of it. I'm on an all-dairy diet. Yogurt. I'm telling you. It's a new thing, yogurt.

Yeah, when he told, I saw Jeff at the wedding. At first, I noticed he had lost a lot of weight because you've lost about 25 pounds, right? Mm-hmm. And so he, I just went and he said, what was your line? He had a line. The best, he finally found the best diet. Oh, yeah. Dary and that's got a Dairy Dye.

My whole line. No, no, that wasn't the diet. The diet was diverticulitis. Yeah, I'm like, you get a case of that, you'll lose weight. Well, then one night, so we go to remote places, and so they try to set us up, you know, with an Airbnb or whatever, but some of these places is difficult. So one night, we're literally on the water. and it wasn't a boat house but it was like it was a house

that where the dock was part of I think it was a big river I forgot the name of the river and so Jeff like wakes up in the middle of the night because he couldn't sleep see problem

that's a problem and he just walks off the dock I mean that's what he said I mean look he wasn't like I know it's most of the time when you hear stories like this you know there was some kind of drinking involved

No, he just got up, walked outside, but, you know, it's dark. And we had never been there, obviously. And he just, I mean, I'll let you tell the story. No, that's basically it. No, it wasn't in the middle of the night. I was going to bed. And I said, I'm going to walk outside and relieve myself. And it was real pretty, and I just wanted to see the water at night.

And I just, whoop, just step, looking at it. next morning I could see how I did what I did. That was fine, though. I didn't get hurt. I was soaking wet and really embarrassed, but that was just the, that wasn't. Well, I mean, I think if you, it was a big river. If you walk off into a river, there's a sign that you're either accident prone or you're just not real bright or. Because, look, when I walked down there the next morning, I thought, how could a man do this?

But you heard you up, he said, when I want to know, I could see how you could do it. Oh, yeah. At night, it looked different. It really did. And so then your latest venture is... Oh, yeah, is this one. Did you see my... Do you all have anything positive to say this morning?

Well, we're just going over Jep's injuries. Look at Jep's fans. Did you see my... Did you see this? I just got the stitches taken out. Look right here on my finger. Yeah. I had six stitches right there.

A little slice there. Oh, yeah. So he just did that. Yeah, I cut it to the bone. That's when the knife stopped. It went funk bone. hit and I was like oh that'll stop you put the camera people in a very precarious situation because he did that while they were filming him so then you're in that situation do we stop and help him or do we

zoom in yeah I think they zoomed in first it may be the the pressure of being stars in a hit series on tv I don't feel like maybe that's maybe that's the price you pay you know you get a little You get delusional. I don't know. Something. I will say one thing about that injury, and I do want to put this out there for any medical professionals that are listening. So it wasn't that, you know, whatever, a cut in the finger, it hurt, but, you know, whatever, it wasn't that bad. Here's what's bad.

You go up there, and I'm like, hey, something, they look, the girl's like, yeah, I'm going to have to clean that out. They should deaden your finger before they do the cleaning. of the finger. When this girl got a brillo pad, I would say, or something like that, and just in a open wound is scrubbing it like, if she don't scrub it, it's, I'm going to die. Well, that really hurts when you have a cut down to the bone. I would think. Oh, I was crying.

Like tears were coming out and she smiled. And I was like, yeah, I'm not crying. It's just, it's just really painful what you're doing. in there. Why didn't she just deaden it first, then do that, then put the stitches? That's the part I wish I could have watched. I wish I could have watched that. That sounds like you guys are having good time, though. I'm alive. That's all I can say. That's good. Well, so today we've got, I've got a group of questions from listeners, which we don't do this very often.

We don't typically, well, first of all, Jason will not read comment. I do read comments. Phil, of course, is not going to read comments either. So I don't think Al does either, but I've put together a group of questions from our audience that today is going to be an audience response day. So I'm going to work, we won't get through all of them, I'm sure, but there's some good questions in here. So I'm going to ask them. And then you guys can pontificate on them, Jay. Are you okay with pontificating on?

Well, I mean, I just told you, or you just said, because I've told you, I don't read the comments, and now you're forcing me to read the comment. So I'm not sure how I feel about that. All right. Well, we're going to go with it. Proceed, sir. I will proceed. The first one is from Heather, and Heather, here's her question. I love how your extended family lives close together and is very intentional about helping raise the next.

generation. Any advice for those who live far from family in their hometowns. We have been a part of a church for seven years, but it's been a challenge to make meaningful connections. That's from Heather. Well, how would she know that we're all together? Social media, I'm sure. She sees the pictures. I thought I was uncovering a spy. What's your advice? What's your advice to somebody who says, I'm trying to find connections. I don't have quite the family structure you guys have. I'm in a church. seven years. I'm never worried about not being connected to anybody. But you have John the Baptist tendencies.

Well, I think you look at your life, I mean, you guys have opened up your home. So y'all are the point of connection. You're not worried about getting invited. I mean, you just open up your home. That's correct. Yeah.

I mean, it's amazing what will happen. If you allow your home to be a place of community and you feed people, I mean, honestly, I can't, I mean, there's a lot of times I know people come down to y'all's house for the food. That's probably the primary motivation. But once they get there, they do experience community and family and those things. So I would encourage you to just open up your own home, you know, if you don't have community anywhere else and you open it up. And I mean, people are, people are, if you feed them, they will come.

I've learned that truth. No, I agree is. So like one of the things we used to do, is we would cook the best meals that we have to offer and invite our children's friends. And so we did that every Wednesday night for years and years and years. What's weird is some of those people are now our friends. You know, our kids have all moved off and scattered around the country,

but those relationships that we made. But I think you just, it's hospitality and Jesus. Those are the two connecting factors. But it's not easy to be a good cook, though. So I was watching Jep last night when I actually saved that. Missy was cooking because I was taking her nap. But she had so much on the grittle. We had so much rice that it was not breathing enough to get crispy.

You know, the rice, it was gummy when I approached. She was like, I don't understand why this won't get done. And I said, well, there's too much rice on the griddle. And she's like, well, what do you recommend? I said, take some off. So Jep's son, adopted son, Gus came in at that time. And so I just took a big, I said, are you hungry? He said, oh, I'm starving.

So I just took a big hunk of it off. And I said, here, try this out. of course he wouldn't try it until I ate something. I felt like, he's actually kind of picky. Yeah, he was looking at it, looking at me. And I took a spoon and grabbed some and ate it. And I went, oh. And so then he started.

But then by doing that, it, you know, created more space. It created more space. It immediately heated up. And then I cooked the steak on the back side of that. And no, it turned out well. It was really good. Well, there's another lesson there, too, if you think about our family, the kids get the crumbs and the leftovers.

You know, a lot of families, it's like the kids that go, it's the elevate the kids. The way we grew up, it was the, until you're like, yeah, if you're a kid, Jeff, I mean, we were the youngest of all the cousins. So it was kind of just like survival of the fittest. You just get in where you can get in. Like Gus comes over, he gets the, he gets the gummy rice and then the good stuff. you reserve for the for the adults so there's probably a lesson in there as well yeah i mean on a more you know to the question that was asked i mean a better response would say i think you seek the kingdom first in decisions when it comes to moving most people seek career first and i think that's a terrible

model yeah i think you should seek the kingdom and and family those should be the two There's quite a few texts that encourages and pretty well demands it practicing hospitality. So, you know, if somebody comes by or whatever, you just out of the act of Curtis there. Yeah, come on by here. We're going to have fish right tomorrow. Come on by. We're going to do this, do that, you know. So we just invite a lot of people to come on in.

You know, sometimes we don't, but most of the time we are practicing hospitality. It is, you know, the two little words of that without grumbling. So there is something about connecting with people. Once the connections start, you begin to know who they are and all that. I mean, it can be yeah, yeah, yeah, if you're not careful. Yeah, it's true. We had six or seven college age girl, me as friends and count counselors. They, I think they were there a week.

The last couple left this morning. And it was lots of spiritual conversations. And, you know, it was just, I think when you open your home up and you feed them well and you have spiritual conversation. That is a connection. Kids are drawn to that. And I say kids. I mean, they're college age. Then they invited some of their friends one night,

and one night there was 25 of them, you know, male and female. And, of course, I always say the same thing when they come in. I'm like, look, we love Jesus here because I just want to see their response. But it was all positive. But these are Jesus-loving young people who are just as upset with the current course of the culture as we are. Yeah, but the key is food, I think. I mean, we started, when we moved here, we didn't have community. And, you know, brand new, didn't know anybody.

We started a house church and food was involved. And at first, some of the people that would come, they would bring food. And it was like they'd bring like a dessert, but it'd be like one of those packages that you get from the grocery store with the pre-made little cookies in there or the muffet. And they're just horrible. Right.

Yeah. So what I did was, then I tried to create a healthy competition among the families. The hey, and if you come, you got to bring your best stuff. And so the food game, as the food game elevated, I noticed that the attendance elevated as well. And so I do think it's, you said it cook your best, which Phil, you've always, you guys have always cooked great food. And another thing that I've noticed about y'all, and I learned a lot of this from just being around you and K. is you always cooked plenty of food. Even when there wasn't a lot of people there,

it's like you always cooked more than you would eat because someone always shows up, it seems like, unplanned. So you always had enough. You always had enough. You never know when somebody else is going to drop in. No, you don't. All right, this next question is a little bit deeper,

but I think it's good. This is from Jeremy, and he says, I'd like to know how I can let go of the things that I've done in the past. I have guilt and shame that I've struggled with. I'd like to know especially how Phil let go of what he did pre-salvation, which that's timely because, you know, we're talking about this movie right now, the blind, which is Phil's kind of pre-salvation story before Phil met Jesus.

So Phil, maybe you could take a stab at that way. How did you let go of just kind of the guilt and shame of who you were before you knew Jesus? Wow. out there. A good turn to Romans 12 and every day read little sections of it if it's possible as far as it depends on you. Live at peace with everyone. So don't take revenge. Leave room for God's wrath.

God, you know, don't be judgmental about people. Bless those who persecute you. You know, you make mistakes. That's all right. don't hold it again. Live in harmony with each other. Don't be proud. Be willing to associate with people of low position.

In other words, if you think you've got a lot of problems, just start helping your friends and the ones you grew up with and some of your kin folks and step into their lives and start just interacting with them. It's pretty surprising. Stuff begins to fade away on the way. way it used to be just living a sinful life. Look, if every day you get up and you know that love must be sincere and you want to hate what is evil and you want to cling to what is good,

be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honor one another. If you just start putting those things into practice, everything falls into place. You just practice being good. And it's to get to where you make a habit out of doing good, and then you can look in the mirror and say, I'm a lot better. Yeah. Because you're connected with the spirit of God that was given to you when you were baptized,

and you became a Christian. So take advantage of that, the power that lives in you. Get out there and intermingle with them, reach out to them, convert them, do God's work. There's all kinds of things. Let's see. How many things? Let's see.

Just as we, same function. Not everybody has the same function in Christ, but we here are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts. You say, well, I need some connection here. We have different gifts. Some prophesied. speaking the word of God, let him use it in proportion to his faith.

If it's serving, let him serve. You get connected with God by doing what he says, and everybody is good at something. I mean, they really are. You'd think somebody, you know, out there, but everybody I've seen as a human being, they had some type of gift. If a man's gift is prophesied him,

let him do proportion to his faith. If it's serving, if it's encouraging, you wouldn't think encouraging somebody else, but it might help you not to be down in the dumps all the time. Encourage others. Contributed to the needs of others, let him give generously. You know, it's better to,

Ms. Kay has got in her head that you need to get rid of every dime that you have. Give it away and then die and be done with it. That's her motto. I said, why do you spend so much money for this? But she said, you can't take it with you. So I mean, spend it all. And that way nobody's fighting over it. Nope.

We spend it all. And I'm sitting there listening to that thing. How do I get around that? I said, I just slow down, honey, on the way you're spending money. I mean, good night. Jeff, what about you? Because I was there for a lot of your dark days and you were there for a lot of mine. You know, our testimonies are very intermingled.

So have you? You all around together, BJ, you know, before. Jesus. Yeah, I remember y'all. We're buddies. Yep. Why didn't y'all just say, I mean, look. What are we thinking here?

Yeah. I mean, that didn't come up because that is weird that, because y'all both knew better. Yeah. This is back during the days when you all had the other. I tried. Well, the truth be told, the way we got into the conundrum we got into was I actually went to the jump. and when we moved in together and confessed something I was struggling with

and Jeff looked at me with the biggest grin on his face. It was like, well, me too. And then it was like off to the races. It was like, it wasn't, be careful who you confess to. So we should not have been holding each other accountable because we weren't in that right spot. I mean, you know, some things are hard to forget. I mean, that's back to the question. And you know what, though, I try to do is when I meet somebody, I guess that's maybe that age or not even, you know, that I was at when I was really struggling.

But I try to remember and try to, if I can see that they're going through something similar or, you know, and I'm like, man, just telling my experience. You know, I mean, you can use what you've been through, even though it was hard and, you know, it's hard to forget it. But you can use it for the glory of God and tell that, tell a person who's going through something similar, like how God rescued you. I mean, it's hard to forget is what I'm saying, but you can use that what happened to help somebody else. One of the things that helps me is I just try to hone in and feel. focus on verses like there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's no condemnation there. And that's a promise from God.

So I rest in that. But then sometimes you still think, well, yeah, but I know what I've done. And I know what's in my past. And so philosophically, what I try to, I do an exercise where I just meditate on verses like, for all had sin and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace. And so when I think about, you know, myself, and I know that I know, I know that I know that I'm a wretched center, you know, but when you compare yourself to, to other people, I think that can be dangerous because you're thinking, well, they weren't as bad as me. Or maybe they were, maybe they were worse than me. And so you convince yourself that you were better than you are. But I try to compare myself to Christ. And, and when I see that comparison, then it really doesn't. I mean, we really all stand equally. guilty and fallen before a holy God, like before a holy triune God who was perfect and sinless. Like nobody can stand up and say, look at how good I am.

Nobody. Because, Jason, I mean, you lived a fairly virtuous life by the standard of the world, but yet, I mean, you're in the same predicament. Yeah, the we're in when you look at it. So, I mean, how do you do that? My quick answer would be, and people are offended when I say this, because I would say, Because I would say that's probably the number one question I get is, you know, how do I let go? You know, and it's like usually something terrible that they want to share. And used to, I would listen.

But now I'm like, I don't want to hear it. And I say, it's not about you. And just like me not living, you know, some wildlife before I was a Christian, it wasn't about me either. And just to give the proof of the text and to answer the question, how do you let go of those things? I think you've got to realize that it's not about you, and it's about God using flawed people while we're on the earth right now. He uses us to point people to him. And I'll just give you the text I thought of is, you know, 2nd Corinthians 3.

It says, and we with unveiled faces, we are who we are. But with our unveiled faces, we reflect the Lord's glory. we're being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord which is the Spirit. But it's kind of like a process. It doesn't happen. There's a process. But it's not about you getting over it. It's about you being transformed into the lightness of his son and reflecting, even though your face, you may not like your face or you're reflecting God's glory through you.

And then you can go to all the examples. You're not worse than Paul. Because people say, yeah, but I just did something so bad. Were you out there murdering other Christians? Well, no, it wasn't that bad. Well, yeah, and look what he did. He wrote how many letters. There's still hope for you.

Well, I mean, you can go down that road with anybody, but the point is the same. Because then what does he go on to say? He says, we don't lose heart in chapter four of sacred Corinthians. We have renounced secret and shameful ways. So I think that's one thing is that we renounce it. We abandon it. Yeah. And, you know, because a lot of times I've been to these groups and you've been there too, Zach,

where it's almost like everybody's talking about what they used to do as in they miss it. Yeah. And I'm like, so it comes just, we don't share our story. I don't know who came up with that. we share God's story in us. And so when people always say that to me, they're like, come share your story. I'm like, you don't want to hear my story,

but I'll share God's story because that's what it is. I mean, so he says by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And then verse 5 is what I was trying to get to, chapter four for we do not preach ourselves but jesus christ as lord and ourselves as servants i mean i didn't come up with this i read this that's what we're supposed to be doing so letting go of our past is really something that i think if you're even contemplating that being a struggle then you're doubting the promises of god because he said i've forgiven you that's why i went to a cross and you're

like yeah i just don't know well that that's on you that's not on him he's not on him he made a promise and it's impossible for him to lie and he's going to use you in spite of that so you own it you sometimes uh you know can laugh about it or i like that our family does that uh but that doesn't mean it wasn't wrong and sinful and but you just have to move on there's nothing you can go back and do it do to take care of it that's that was god's job so that's what i would that's what i would say that's good yeah and i just and the encouragement is is that it As you do walk in the spirit, as Phil said, it's a progressive thing as you, you know, progress, progress in your faith. And that faith deepens and you experience the transformation that you mentioned, which is from one degree of glory to another with the unveiled faces.

And as you walk in that, what I've been a Christian for over 20 years, when Jeff and I were being idiots, I mean, I don't even, I mean, I don't sit around and think about who he used to be anymore. Now, there was a time that I did, you know, for years after that. You got to remember we don't either. No, but some people love to sit around and say, well, I remember, you know, maybe. Some people love to wallow, you know, in their past. And what I was, what I, my point was, it's just another way to be selfish. Because really selfish ambition is the root of evil. That's what James says.

Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder in every evil practice. So it's just the way the evil one tempts us. It's another way to be self-absorbed, talking about your past life. We're all familiar with it. We hear people. And I don't have a lot of, if you feel like, well, you don't have a lot of sympathy. No, I don't. Because I think it just flies in the face with what God is offering.

He's offering you his son, forever, eternal life. And you're like, yeah, but I just can't. I don't know if I'm really sure. sure if I'm forgiven. Oh, come on. And if you're, well, if you're not sure, you'd say, well, how can I be sure? I think go back to Phil's point at the beginning. It's the habits. It's the, it's the daily, do the daily stuff. Read the gospel. Yeah, read the gospels a hundred times. Yeah. Eventually, you're going to, like the word of God's powerful, you're going to believe that God is who he says he is and that he's good. And you're going to believe that Jesus Christ, his work is finished. If you've been bad,

as everybody has at some point, some worse than others, and you say, okay, there's a path that will lead me to immortality. And I can be take suffering and never bat an eye. Once that's put into practice and that becomes habitual, you're on your way. to some extent you say well what about the ones who are a year old in the faith you just wait and you'll see them and they'll grow when they'll grow in the faith some obviously don't make the cut they just never never make the change you know you know life and immortality's mine what am i going to do about it not don't not even thank the lord and never tell somebody about it what are you talking about you become part of it you become part of of the movement. It's a great movement. Jersey Joe came and brought his family down. They were looking at these podcasts and whatnot,

decided to get out of New Jersey. And they came to Louisiana, built them a little house over here, about 15 minutes from here. He comes by just about every week. He puts into practice showing us how to not Louisiana food. He brought. Italian recipes with him from New Jersey, from his grandmother, and he cooks Italian almost once a week. And all you have to do is just sit down, thank him and the Italians. And he has all kinds

of Italian foods that he fixes for us, just being generous. Just saying, check this out. Of course, we're all eating, you know, Louisiana food. He's eating New Jersey. Jersey food. So it's pretty cool. Interact with the people. They've all come to Jesus, his whole family. So if you're messing around in the middle of New Jersey and you want to get out of their old Jersey Joe, we call him, get in touch with him. He'll point you to the way. Downtown New Jersey, some get it, they just can't take it anymore with this city life. So he came to the woods and where it's a little more, got his little house in the woods over there, So they're doing great.

Yeah, Google Jersey Joe. If you can just get in contact with Jersey Joe. All right. Last question. This is from Aubrey. This is a good one. Maybe we can go around the horn on this one. Jay, let's start with you.

What's your favorite Bible verse? And then how do you share the gospel with others when you're not sure of where or how to start? Those are really two questions. they're good. I mean, my Bible favorite Bible verse is a revolving door. You know, Jeff and I get noticed everywhere. I usually put a verse or I put the, what I usually do is put the arrow coming down. I'll sign my name and I'll put the arrow coming down. I'll put a cross. I'll put a tomb. I'll put the arrow going up and I'll put the arrow coming down. So to answer the second question, when I write that, everyone says, what is that?

Well, I just created the perfect introduction to share Jesus. It's a great way to get involved. So I usually do that, but I mean, just a few of my favorites, Hebrews 3, 4 says, every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. I like putting that verse down because most people will say, what does that mean?

I'm like, well, you can tell someone built this. You see God in the things that are built. So Matthew 19, 26, another one, which is similar to Luke, you know,

or in Luke, with man, this is not possible, but with God, all things are possible. So those are the usual ones I get Hebrews 13 8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever But on getting the gospel out, I used to think like the person who asked the question, which is like I viewed it as something I have to go do or it's a ministry or It's like oh, let's go be, you know, what they call evangelistic, you know, let's go out

But I realize that and I realize this from reading the gospels Jesus was a conversationalist. He just had an ordinary normal conversations, and he always found a way, whether through metaphors or illustrations or stories to get to things that matter. And so that's what I try to do. Like, if I go to something where like everybody's just plastered, you know, and if they ask me, you know, because it's not wrong to drink, but it's wrong to get drunk, I mean, the way I read it.

But if everybody's doing that, well, I'm not going to do that because I want to be different. And I'll say, if somebody will say, you know, what do you have? And I'm like, oh, no, I'm good. You know, I'm high on Jesus. Well, by saying that,

it breaks the height. They're like, you're what? I said, I'm high on Jesus. And usually a conversation follows about that. So I just, I like to put the pressure on other people instead of feeling pressure myself that I'm different or, you know, and I'm in this situation. And that was just one example I wanted to give. Or you could say, and I've said this before, and it's actually kind of funny. Say, yeah, I want a jack and Coke and they're like, okay.

But then you say a virgin. And they're like, wait, you just, you just want a Coke? Yep. That's pretty funny. Jack and Coke, hold the jack. Yeah. But I like to get it on Jesus. my point i like to because i don't want to quibble about things that we do i like to i think jesus

everything starts begins uh the middle and ends the story you know you got to have a begin the middle and the end it's all about jesus so i try to get into a conversation about jesus so if it's taking social or moral issues or somebody asked me a question i try to figure out a way to get in the conversation about Jesus, because he's the image of the invisible God, and he was God's way of reaching people. But you have to purposely, you know, do that. So, because I don't want to have an argument or a discussion about, well, you think it's wrong to drink or whatever. And I'm like, well, Jesus turned the water into wine. So that would be my response to that. That's the last thing they would think a Christian would say. Yep. And they're like, well, why did he do that? And I'm

I'm like, well, it was a preview for having a party in heaven. They're like, do what? There's going to be a party in heaven? I was like, yeah, you're going to miss it or are you going to be there? You're invited. Pull that barrel of wine. How do I get the invite here? Well, let me show you something.

I mean, to me, that's the way I would have that approach. No, I mean, just as far as favorite verses is, Dad, you would know this, James 127? James 1.20, pure religion. Pure religion. Because it kind of goes back to what Jay said. That right now helps me not think so much about myself. Because you can get very, in a lot of people's favorite verses, I can do all things through Christ. It's like, it's all about, it's a lot of topics about me, what I can do.

And they're all good. They're all good things. But sometimes I'm like, but I'm not thinking about others. And I don't know where else in the Bible, it says true religion. I don't know those two words put together. Well, true religion. Religion that God our father finds pure and blameless, is that was it? Faultless or blameless, yeah.

Faultless. Is too. Keep going on. I don't want to mix up a word. It's to look after orphans and widows in their distress. And keep oneself from being politely. by the world. Yeah.

Do you know that's the only place in the Bible that the word religion is used? Is it? I was going to ask that. Because I haven't, like, researched this or anything, but it always helps me. When you think of religion, you don't think of that. That's right. No. That's a great verse.

Yeah, it is. I mean, too, I mean, you think, and I mean, that's why I mean, you're involved in orphan care and what you guys are doing, at all God's children. And so that would make sense. But, yeah, that's a good point. We do tend to make it about us a lot. And that's a, that's a convicting verse because it's looking after people who can't help themselves. You know what I mean?

Yeah. What do you do, Jeff? When you, somebody says, man, I don't know where to start. I don't know how to share the gospel. Like, I don't even, like, what, like, you know what I've said recently? And this is kind of crazy, but I mean, I don't know. You know, somebody's like, what can I do? I'll say nothing.

there's nothing you can do but i'll recommend this you get down on your knees and you lift your sorry no good hands and say god i got nothing to give you but this is all i got i got this is it but it ain't nothing yeah i think if you start there that's a good starting place but you got to get to that place and i and really god it's got to bring you down to that place so Nothing you can. Yeah, because a lot of times we want to put the responsibility on us that somehow, you know, our savviness, our theological knowledge, our doctrinal knowledge, whatever. If we know enough, if I'm, if I just know it, and I'm not saying you shouldn't study, you should study, you should know a lot. But if, but it's, that's not going to be what convict somebody's heart to turn to Jesus.

It's going to be the Holy Spirit. And I, I agree, Jeff. I mean, I've noticed that people who are, who just have pure hearts, that they are led by the Spirit, and you can just see the Holy Spirit evident in their life, that those people are more effective. I see more power in their gospel presentation than the greatest theologian in the world, because it's real, it's tangible, and it's not about them and their ability. It's about what the Spirit is doing, which is, I think what Paul says, you know, I didn't come to you with wise and persuasive words, less to cross-stableness. be empty of its power, but I came to you with a demonstration of the spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom, but on the wisdom of God. I probably butcher that whole thing, but it's that it's that idea that it's, it's God in us doing it, not us doing it for

God. Well, let's let Phil give his in the overtime because we're out of time. I would simply, I would simply say, you know, we are said to be unashamed for good reason. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God, for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel, a righteousness is revealed, which is by faith. Therefore, you know, we live by faith. It's just about that simple to me. Getting the good news, the gospel, from my mouth to their ears. Let God work with them and do what he will. So our task is just to tell them, tell them about Jesus. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast.

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