Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 707 | Phil’s Fumigation Issues, Jase’s Baseball Trash Talk & the Life of Joseph

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

The rivalry between the guys and their favorite college sports teams heats up when the College World Series of baseball is on! It seems like all the critters in Louisiana have taken up residence at Phil’s house, so he and Miss Kay had to take some drastic measures. Jase confuses one of Zach’s big words with a kid’s cartoon that no one expected him to remember, and Larry Bowles gives a breakdown of God’s adoption process and the life of Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. In this episode: Psalm 2, verse 7; John 1 https://philmerch.com – Get your “Unashamed” mugs, shirts, hats & hoodies! Show Hollywood we're willing to show up for great movies with a strong Gospel message. Get your tickets to "The Blind" TODAY: https://www.fathomevents.com/theblind — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. I'm coming to you from the Southern Lair. Jason, we were talking before the cameras rolled about you not having a lot of sleep the last few days because you've been kind of crisscrossing the country and running around. But would you take you a good nap today, but you're going to have to wake up tonight because LSU's playing a big game in the World Series. by the time this thing airs, all that would have already happened. But I did want to bring it up because Zach is, of course, he's been busy too,

but he's a huge Florida Gator fan. And it looks like hopefully we're on a collision course with Florida and LSU. So hopefully if that happens by next week, we'll be. We're saying hopefully. I don't think you should be saying hopefully. Oh, we're looking forward to it. Are we going to do some trash talking here? I mean, the last time I recall this went down that road, I think it was in football,

that did not work out so well for you. Hey, I've always said that Florida's a baseball school. I've always said that. Yeah, he said that since 2017. They finally made the World Series. Yeah, Florida is an baseball school. Everybody knows it. But I did want to at least bring it up because we will have some good rivalry among the unashamed crew if that happens.

And it may not because we still got to beat weight for us tonight. So we'll see what happened. Wow. There's that storm. Is that what that was? Yeah. That's that storm, dad, that was there last night. It's here.

It's made it to Alabama. There's actually an old boy plays for Florida. Wyatt Langford is his name. He's their home run guy. He's a beast. He is a, he graduated from the same high school I did in Florida, Trenton High School. So I'll use Trenton High School alumni that listen to the podcast, which there's a few. I just want to give a shout out to Wyatt.

Does he have a... He'll take us the whole way. So I'm assuming he has the same vocabulary as you. I've never met the guy. I probably know a lot of his uncles, probably went to school with his uncles and aunts, maybe his parents. I don't know who he's related to. I know a lot of Lankford's. So I don't know, but you want to throw me into the bus again like you did in the last.

I did not throw you onto the bus. I just thought maybe y'all went to the park and talked about the latest hegemon that is coming through the worldly powers. For you that missed our last podcast, Zach was like... It was the overtime segment. I was getting... But you actually mentioned it at the end of the regular podcast. I was getting chills and being inspired to the...

You know, our Jesus is the king, and we're part of the greatest kingdom ever. And then he dropped hegemon, and I forgot everything he said before and after. And I had to look it up. But he used it correctly. So thank you for that. I did use it. Well, I actually got a message. I get quite a few of these now.

And I think they're tongue and cheek. I hope they are. This one has a smiley thing, like the laughing emoji. And it's Zach, during a message. podcast. And this is from Wendy. And it says, and Jesus said, unto the theologians, who do you say that I am?

They replied, you are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being and the Kyrgyma of which we find the ultimate meaning in our interpersonal relationships. And Jesus said, what? So apparently you're

creating a little bit of an army. Of course, I've got a little army too, but of those who are sending me stuff, on Instagram. No, it's not an army. It's just called common sense. Because look, I don't, I don't, I want to be humble. And I want people to understand because look, I'll confess my ignorance.

When you said Hegemon, I thought you were referring to maybe some sister group that came from the Pokemon world. And I thought, that guy, because it's like a, it's a virtual cartoon, a kingdom that they do battles with Pokemon. And all the reason I'm memory because when I had my kids were little, they would watch it. Yeah. So I thought, he's bringing up, there's a new Pokemon, Hedge of him. And that's where he's going? I mean, I was, I was thinking it was a poor reference because I thought, I'm talking about the real world here, dude. I'm not talking about it.

Zach, you see Jay's reference to vocabulary. He's down to things that rhyme. That's how he bases the understanding. Well, what else do you have when a word is stated that you've not heard and you're 50, how long have I been on? I'm 50 plus years on the earth. Yeah, but I didn't just throw the word out there. I did surround it with about four other adjectives that would describe the same word

or synonyms, I guess you would call them. Which is why whoever rode in, what was her name again? That was very clever of her. Yeah, that was clever. It was clever. I couldn't even pronounce one. I can't see really well. These lasses on up close, but I couldn't even pronounce. I did see, Zach, I did see one of my memes as well.

It's right as that wasp was stinging me on the neck. Yeah. They show my hands up like this and I pull my hat off. You know, I was trying to like get at that was. and it said something about being slain in the spirit you were man the holy ghost was moving that day it was moving that day in the form of a purple tail wasp

which is embarrassing now because I mean you you're taught at a young age here to never be frightened or do anything sudden when a wasp goes to sting you and the reason being because when you climb up in a deer stand it's not if you think there might be a wasp there, they're there. Yeah.

And so you're taught in your mind, you never can't panic because if you panic in that moment and jump out of the dearest dam, well, you either break your back or you're dead. So when you look at how that compares to being stung by a wasst, you should just take it. Yeah, but I was in the supposed safety of a pigriest. podcast studio talking about godly kingdom matters and i was attacked by this insect so i was a long way from a deer's dead that should be yeah that should be your illustration and segue into luke six because when you get comfortable you're vulnerable in this part of the world i'll there's a it's like day before yesterday we were asked to leave our abode where we live

wife and I, Miss Kay, we were instructed to get out of your house, go to the trailer next door. You got evicted? We were told to leave them temporarily. So we go over to the trailer and we wait until they click back on and say it's now clear. So they went in. So they gave you a walkie-talkie? They went in and there's all kinds of, you just don't know the half of it. You know, we kill scorpions on the way.

Brown recluse is here. Black widows are here. Scorpions are here. I've never seen a scorpion in Louisiana until our last podcast when I walked out. And a critter came aggressively toward my foot. Trust me, there's far more varmets out there. However, we, in our house, we fumigated, I guess would be the word, the entire house. You got an infestation?

Infestation of whatever was there that shouldn't be there. they died. So cleaned it out. We're allowed to come back in now. So we go back down and we're back in our boat. That's where we live. Where we go is we go over to the woods stretching for a couple of miles that way. And in that track of land, there are cotton mouth motteskins, a lot of them.

There's things that will sting you, the spiders. Ground bumble. And the wasp would be natural, normal, to come. come in one end of the duck line and you have to spray about 15 or 20 waltz nest. Some of them this big around with purple tails just sitting there waiting. You bump one

without, kiddle them, and you get stung on the way out. I mean, you just got to get out of there. Danger lurks. I'm just saying around here, there's a lot of things that, you know, that we have to deal with in order to build up calls and duck that's why they got that special

ops training facility around Shreveport, because if you make it out of that place and you are you're ready so jays i sent my my guy in i got a guy i got a microbe guy and i sent him in he was really busy back during covid about killing all the microbes in your house so he did that for mom and dad so we're hoping that will bring some health mom has a pretty nasty bacterial infection so we're trying to kill all the microbes oh ironically the the guy that came you need to give him a plug because i said well i I really appreciate y'all taking care of all these critters inside the house that could harm us. And I said, send me the bill on it.

And he said, oh, no, we're doing this as an example of love. Well, we're not. We're glad we're brothers here and sisters in Christ. So I thought, I said, you know what? Oh, wow, over there. Yep. Did a good deed. So they did an outstanding job, by the way.

He's definitely a good guy. He's got a great business. Rick Coles, his name. super good guy. I want to mention before we take our break that Father's Day was this past Sunday. And so, Dad, I started to put it on social media. I wish you a Happy Father's Day, but since I knew you'd never read it, I just decided I'd wait and tell you on the podcast, Happy Father's Day, which was, we had a great day at BFR that day. I looked up and Willie was there inside the little building next to the big building. All we do is preach the gospel.

Sunday morning. Same thing. We point people to Jesus every, every Sunday morning, before the actual the rest of the, what would you call it, the format. Yeah, our assembly, yeah. But Willie, Willie showed up yesterday, you know, he said, congratulations, Father. I said, okay. That was it. A little passing Father's Day. Well, that was nice of him to come down. Very nice of you. So we had a, we had, it's not really a guest speaker anymore, but we had one of our favorite old pals, Larry Bowles from Oklahoma, who's a regular contributor on our podcast. We had him in at WFR to preach yesterday, and so he's still in town, and we're going to have him on the podcast. So we come back for our break.

We'll bring in old Larry and talk a little bit about this sermon because it was really a good one. Great sermon. See you after the break. So welcome back. We got our old pal, Larry Bowles from Oklahoma. Hey, brother. The guy who claims to not be a preacher, but he's one of the best preacher. I'm not.

I am not a preacher. No, that's why I said. I said, now how did you get the Lord on board with cueing the thunder? As you brought the thunder of the, because it was almost like it was choreograph. You would say something and just roo. Yeah, Kellett kind of prayed me in there, and then we could hear the thunder. and I just went, wow, that's... I think it's a good setting for a sermon when there's thunder in the back.

Oh, yeah. I hear the rolling thunder. It's a little scary, though. Is it an affirmation, a thunder of affirmation or a thunder of disagreement? Yeah, that's the thing. Well, that's the amen and the well that I brought up many times. Amen. Well, we have the amends at our church, but I want that well.

I think you should have the freedom and right to do when you hear something that you don't agree with. Just let me get it out. Let me just say, well, you know, the first time that happened to me, I was in North Carolina, I think it was. And I was just following my notes. And then one lady from the back just went, weep. And I just stopped.

What does it mean? Were you familiar? And then it happened again. And then it kind of, you know, and then by the time it went on a little while, I took my notes and threw them and we had church up in that place because it got busy. Yeah. So we just, we just did it. Did you, were you aware that that's a statement of I don't necessarily agree with? No, not at all. Yeah. I learned that somewhere. I didn't, I don't think she meant it that way. No, I think what it affectionately means is I love you, but I disagree with you. And at a later point,

I'm going to bring this back up with you when we can talk about it. Okay. That's what I was She didn't do that because those turned into shouts and jubilation and joy. All right. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I never interpreted it that way.

I thought it was like, come on, give me more. No, that means, well, I have a difference of an opinion. But I love you. Yeah. We'll talk later. That was not the context of this particular. Yeah. I was trying to bring that back.

I like that principle. Yeah, that is. You know. Yeah. So then, supposedly when you. then have the greeting, you know, in most churches, like the preacher going in the back. Yeah. Well, then that is your moment of the explanation of the well.

Okay. Yeah. That's what I was told. So then they say, you remember that point? And they think, I think, you know, and you're supposed to do it just in a minute. Yeah. They're saying, I read this or I read that. Well, the text I hated when Jesus is talking, cursed and mistreated, slapped on both sides.

And so it can get, well, it could. It can get rather rude. I don't think, well, is a nice way to say I have a difference of an opinion. And do you think that's regional? Because now I'm thinking it was Parkersburg, West Virginia, is where it was. I think it was introduced. If you're in North Carolina or in West Virginia. I think it was introduced in the African American churches, really.

Yeah. And that's where I was standing. Yeah. So, and I think that's acceptable. I support that. I think it's a great idea. I do too. But you're right, that could be different in different regions.

That's right. So Larry, so you and I, well, so I was, because I do most of the sermon planning for our church, along with some other folks. And so I happened to be up on Mother's Day. And I had this idea, because, you know, you're always, when you preach a long time, so every year's got a Mother's Day and a Father's Day. So you're trying to kind of come up with kind of a different approach on these holidays, special days. You don't have to preach about that topic, but you know people are going to be recognizing moms and dads. And so I looked at that and I thought, you know, it would be really cool because of where we were in a current series. If we just kind of bookended a look at Jesus and on Mother's Day, since, you know, he was tied to Mary and her humanity because she had him, you know, born of a woman, we would look at the humanity side.

And then when we got to Father's Day, because he references the Father that, you know, we would talk about his deity. And so that was kind of the concept, right, that you and I kind of came up with this idea. And so I preached my half, and you were preaching your half this last Sunday. Yeah. And I'm overseas, you know, thinking about this. And so then when I get back, we, we visit maybe for just a little bit. And so I don't know. Am I hearing your thunder now?

There's thunder again. Yeah, the guy speaking, speaking, I see a pattern developed here wherever he goes. I feel like you're bringing the presence of God and it's causing a little fear. It's definitely not here. That's down in the southern layer. So, yeah. So Larry preached in Westminster yesterday and literally brought the thunder.

And now he's on the podcast today and is bringing the thunder. He's bringing it to Al in Alabama. So I'm thinking Al may be the guilty party of this. That's right. I may need to repent. Anyway, so Al's take on this was our brother from another mother, kind of looking at the humanity, son of man kind of a thing. And so I kind of took the tack that we're going to look at at Jesus' relationship with his earthly father, Joseph,

with his heavenly father, and then his relationship to us. and so I entitled this, Son of Man, Son of God, Everlasting Father. You have to admit, no one can have those accolades. No. Except Jesus. No one. They don't even come close. That's exactly right.

Yeah, well, tell us about, I thought that was interesting by Joseph, because I've said once before that I felt like he was one of the more underrated people in the Bible. Yeah. Because there's very little said about him, but when you think about what he was asked, to do. Yeah. It was pretty incredible. I mean, I didn't appreciate it until I had, you know, took in a child, you know, into my home,

but I really realized how tense and stressful and awkward will add to it that this is the son of God. It's quite an honor to be chosen to do that and then to really receive no accolades after that. That's true. Yeah, it's, you know, I said, what do we know about Joseph? And we don't know a lot. But actually, scripture never, never says, or quotes, a single word that the man spoke. Yeah, I thought that was incredible thing. I'd never noticed that. Yeah. And so he, what he does, you know, and I made kind of a big deal, is it, you know, in the early church, second, third century, starting there, we see Mary, every time, Jesus is pictured. She's there in artworks and frescoes and paintings and sculptures and stained

glass and all that. Joseph, not so much. Some even bowed to her. Yeah, exactly. And she is, she is critical to the gospel narratives, all four of them, from the beginning all the way to Jesus ascension, Joseph, not so much. Actually, the last time that he appears in scriptures when Jesus is 12 years old, and he's at the temple. And I read that. And, you know, he says, he introduces this idea that why were you searching for me? And I thought it was really, you brought this up in your sermon now, is that, you know, they lost Jesus for about three days. It was home alone, Jerusalem. It was.

And, you know, they've got to be totally flipping out because they've not just lost a child. They've lost the son of God. You know, it's like, God, I gave you one job, you know, and here you are. And so they are pretty simple, don't you know? Yeah, yeah. Should be here. And then he says, I had to be in my father's house. And then in verse 50 of that, he says, Luke gives us this little insight that says they did not understand what he was talking about.

Yeah. So he went with him back down to Nazareth and obeyed them and grew in wisdom and stature with God and man. And Mary treasured all these things up in her heart, you know. So that's the last appearance. that we see that. But man, there's just so much about Joseph that we can understand, even though we don't have the level of information,

the glimpses that we do have into this man's character is that it is just, the one thing that you could point to is immediate obedience. It's unreasoning obedience. And I'm always talking about, every time I've been on this podcast, we've talked at some level about moving from faith, which I feel like it's something I control into trust.

You know, there's a big difference in having faith and then having trust in the character of God based on who he is. And this is exactly what he does. And so, you know, at Christmas time, Mary receives this angelic visit and there's, you know, this whole thing. And then her response. and she says, how can this be and all of that? And, you know, Gabriel, it's just a beautiful thing.

And then her response to it, her prayer, this song, comes out of her. But where she gets one visit, Joseph gets three. And we've got to, you know, skip over that. But we see this idea that Joseph is immediately thinking, okay, so this woman that I'm betrothed to is pregnant. And I know that I didn't have anything to do with this. And so he makes this plan that he is going to take the hit in that, that he is going to, he's going to put her away quietly. He's not going to expose her. He's not going to make it public.

He's going to protect her. Yeah. Okay. Which is not the normal integrity of normal human being. But the angel says, do not be afraid. Take this woman home to be your wife. And, you know, what is in her is of the whole. Holy Spirit. This is God. It wouldn't take many come-togethers, but when the angelic beings begin

to talk to you, kind of get you lined out, it sort of changes your, you're like, whoa, this is bigger than I thought. Okay. But even then he had no union with her during the whole process. Exactly. He was just, he would just stood up. Yeah. And so he did, he didn't question that. He immediately obeyed. Zachias, I mean, Zachariah, not so much. And then he couldn't talk for nine months, you know.

That's a difference there. And then the second visit is that they're there, they're in Bethlehem, and Herod's coming to kill them and wake up. It's in the middle of the night. There's no pack in a bag. There's no book in a hotel. They get up

and they run. And it's 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. and we talk about that journey all the time at Christmas. Well, it's 470 miles from Bethlehem all the way down to Egypt where they would have been. And I don't know how long it would take to walk through a wife, a desert with a wife and a brand new baby in the middle of the night through a desert. But they did that. And then they were there for three years. And I made the point that this is a refugee family.

And it reminded me of when Jesus said, you know, that foxes have holes and birds have nest, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. And so being kind of in the refugee environment that we're in, you know, I'm always looking for those things in scripture. But, yeah, Joseph, if you had to define him, he was a man that cared more about obeying God than he did about his own reputation, his own plans, and anything. else in his life. Let's take a break. Okay. So, Larry, you brought out a point. That's why I love your preachings because I always get something.

I learned something I didn't know every time you preach. Well, I learned something every time I prepare to preach. And that's the point. There you go. That's the point for all of us. So I've talked about the genealogies before, and you did this too. And I want you to bring that out while we're talking about Joseph. Sure.

Because I agree 100% that the Matthew genealogy is more the legal line lineage. Right. And is an example of Joseph. And then the Luke one, which we looked at just a few weeks ago on our podcast here because we're in the book of Luke, is Mary's. Right. And which is his physical connection. But you brought out something. I didn't know about the adoptive side. And it made perfect sense because it was a question. I've always had and never really figured out. It hadn't read anybody. When you said it, it made perfect sense. And it also made a huge bigger point about this idea of us being adopted as sons and

daughters, which was very powerful. So talk a little bit about that, about the idea of the genealogies. Yeah, everybody's aware there's two genealogies, one at the beginning of Matthew, chapter one, and then one in Luke in chapter three. and they kind of work differently. And there's a difference in between them because in Matthew's Gospel, you'll look, and Joseph's dad is listed as Jacob. Well, in Luke's Gospel, he's listed as Heli.

Okay? And so people have looked at that in the past and say, well, this is obviously a conflict. It's an error in Scripture, and it really couldn't be. Further from the truth, the reason for the two differences is in these two genealogies is that Matthew is recording Joseph's genealogy and Luke is recording Mary's genealogy. And so Matthew's following this line that runs from Joseph. Joseph is Jesus' legal adoptive father through the son, David's son, Solomon.

while Luke is following Mary's line because they both come out of this Davidic line. And so Mary comes out of David's second surviving son with Bathsheba, Nathan. Okay. And so in this sense, Matthew is proving that Jesus genealogy as the son of God, and Luke is proving Jesus genealogy as the son of man. And so tracing genealogy through a mother is unusual in Jewish history, but what else is unusual is a virgin birth. It's like the only one. And so what Luke is taken into account is occurrence of something that was absolutely, that we see in Matthew 22 and 24, the Sadducees come to Jesus.

And they say, okay, okay, we've got a question for you. here's a real stumper, you know, how they're always trying to stump Jesus. So let's say that there's this guy and he's got seven brothers and his wife, you know, he dies and then his next brother, you know, has... Who's your married to? Yeah, exactly. In heaven, yeah. What's the end of all?

You're just like, you're missing the whole point. But this is a thing called Leverett marriage. And what Leverett marriage is, is if a man died without having a son, and so you remember that that Abram was going to, you know, he didn't have a son and he had already picked out a guy and he was going to give his money to this guy and the Lord says, no, that's not what you're going to do. And I talk about that later in the sermon, but it was a tradition for a man's brother to marry the widow and to have a son who would carry on that deceased man's name. And so that would make Heli in Luke 323 and Jacob in Matthew 115 half brothers. Okay. And so Heli then died

without a son. And so his half-brother Jacob married Helai's widow who gave birth to Joseph. So Joseph would have been legal, adoptive son of Heli, but biologically, the son of Jacob. Oh, wow. And so Joseph himself was adopted. But at the same time, you know, he would have been, yeah, the, yeah. Which to me, Larry, that it brought out so much I never thought about. Because, you know, we always wonder what was it like for Joseph to be a dad but not really a dad because, you know, it wasn't his biological son.

He had other children that you mentioned. Right. And so there's always that family tension that goes with that. But, you know, if he had the understanding of what it was like to kind of come in a way that wasn't like everybody else, he probably had a completely different understanding, which probably means. which probably made him a great dad to Jesus. Exactly. He himself was in that same adoptive environment. And so I have an adopted son.

My first son is adopted, and I have an adopted grandchild. And I used to, before I went into missions, again, I'm not a preacher. I was a worship leader. And so I'm leading worship one day, and I'm sitting on the front row, and they started this adoption fund at our church. And so the preacher's up there, and he's talking about the adoption fund. He said, everybody that's got an adopted son, you know, stand up. Well, I'm sitting down on the front row, and Kathy, my wife, is running sound in the booth.

And so I turn around because I want to see who's got an adopted son. Well, I see Kathy stand up, and I went, oh, I have one. You know, I mean, you forget that you've got them because it's my child, you know. And so then, you know, my grandson is just another, another grandson. So, I mean, you know, your children are your children. Yeah. And, you know, I think if we could, if we could help people understand that those kids that are in foster care systems and that sort of thing, you know, man, you know, you're talking about, you know, abortion and all that kind of stuff, if we can change the mindset of understanding that an adopted child is just as much your child is. There was any, you know, exactly.

I mean, look, I was just, I was just having the same discussion. And just trying to, you know, figure out because it is a difficult road to go down. And because ultimately you want the child to be reunited with his real mom and, you know, in the foster care. But I said something very profoundly. And it took the people I was talking to a second to register that. But I said, you know, with this foster baby, I was like, this baby is, it grew to a place to where it's just like all my other kids where I said the prayer. Yeah. If I would give my life for this kid.

You know, I love everybody, but there's just a certain inner circle that I would say that. Yeah. You know, it's like if me giving up my life would mean this child would make it to heaven. and I've prayed that for all my kids. Yeah. But I noticed just without thinking about it that he entered that arena somewhere in there in my mind because I thought that is my goal. And because I do think there's something that happens in that when you're parenting.

They just become your, yeah, you're not thinking, oh, you know, one day I may have to give this child up or whatever. You always want to look up their welfare and have that attitude. And I think that's... To not see a burden, but see a blessing. Yeah, exactly. I'm not thinking, oh, because people say, boy, it's good. I think they're looking at it like it's babysitting.

Yeah. But when a child is in your house 24-7 for a long period of time, that becomes your child. You're mentoring, you're parenting, you're loving. It's not, you know, I'm changing his diaper and sticking food, you know. I think my point was that... is that no one becomes a child of God except through adoption. That is the only process. Everybody thinks that every person on the planet because God created them is a child of God.

That is not what Scripture teaches at all. They are created in the image of God by God. But if you look at John 1, I believe it's 11 through 15, is that when Jesus, when the word became flesh. What he did is put us in a position for those that believe in his name he gave the right to become sons and daughters of God. I think what you're saying, it's like the reason the Bible uses the word beget, because God begets, which that word is one and only, you know, God.

Right. Men beget men, you know, I've heard that illustration about, you know, a bird begets birds. But a bird can make a nest. You know, you can make something else. But as far as that word, it's a, that's how God could come down here. Because you have a virgin birth, well, all of a sudden, we've lost the laws of nature here. Right. A woman can't have birth without, with being a virgin.

That's so something, so God begat, God, that's why, so I asked you the question before we started, because one of the brothers who heard your sermon. This is the core of that question. He sent me a text and said, so is God a 100% man and 100% God? That was the question based on what. Jesus. I mean, it's Jesus.

Yeah, sorry. Is Jesus 100% man and 100% God? Absolutely. Hang on. Hang on. Before you answer that, let's take a break. Yeah. When you accepted the K-Love Award

for the podcast. You said a phrase that really profoundly touched me, and I know many others, but you said, you prayed for those who cast their nets in deep water. Yeah. Yeah. And that's really where, you know, we're talking about preparing for a sermon like this. I really felt like I was, I'm out there in the deep water because when you're talking about the nature of God, Isaiah 40, God says, to what would you compare me? I'm beyond anything in your universe that you could use as a comparison. So we're talking about the nature of God and the doctrine, the biblical basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.

There's no analogy. You know, people try to use, you know, apples and ice cubes and all these things and to try to wrap our mind around it and they're all imperfect. They're usable and they describe things, but they all end up either in partialism or modalism. No, I agree 100%. Because everybody that's gone to this at a deeper level have heard, well, we have three dimensions. There's three as a human. You can go three directions.

Y'all probably heard this. You can go up or down. You can go left or right. And what was the other? Up or down, left or right. What's the other thing you can do? Up or down, left or right, front or back? Yeah, front or back.

Okay. So there's three axes. Yeah, there's three. So that's why they call it three dimensions. Yeah. And so then they try to relate that because if you have a straight line and you add a second dimension, you can have a square. And I mean, this is basic scholarly, you know, debate. But to your point, they're trying to figure out how God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit could function as one.

And yet three dimensions. Right. dimensions of the same person? Well, that's when our mind starts saying, well, wait a minute here. Yeah. Now, I can accept that as truth because you read it. But wrapping my head around it. It's a whole different.

Yeah, it's a little more different issue. So I do think it's a good, fair question. Oh, absolutely. The implications of it is, and you're going to eventually read that Psalms. Yeah. Where here comes David. I mean, David saying, here comes Jesus. And it's all these qualities, you may remember it off the top of your head, wonderful counselor, prince of peace.

Mighty God, everlasting father. Well, then all of a sudden, everlasting father, it's like a record scratch moment. Yeah. You're like, now I've read that before, but I've never, we need to find exactly where that verse is. Okay, yeah, it's Psalm 2 verse. Let's see. I can look it up. But I've got it. I've got it. But that's going to be. verse seven. Yeah. But that goes to your point that the implications of God begetting God. Right. And Jesus coming.

Yeah. And you made the illustration or, you know, Jesus made it, but you referred to it. In Luke 15 on Jesus being accused of eating with tax collectors and sinners that he tells a story about a lost son and another son who's lost at home. But, and then here's the father running. Yeah. But Jesus is actually telling the story about a father who he is. Right. And that's, that was the point I made is that we, we have historically looked at that.

It's like, okay, here's, you know, we, I don't know how many times. Well, they call it a prodigal son. It's really a great father and son. But I have, I've made the point on here many, many, many times that Jesus is not God junior. Yeah, you know, and we treat him like he is, like there's this hierarchical view of God, you know, and the idea that he is God. And so I went back to John 1, and the reason I went there, Alan, is because you had opened, and I referenced your, the primary text that you used was Philippians 2.

And so your mindset should be exactly like that of Jesus Christ in your relationships with another, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God, the fact that he is God, something to be held onto at all cost or used to his own advantage. Instead, he made himself nothing and took on the very nature of a servant. And so back to this guy's point, is that when the word became flesh, John 114, did Jesus lose any of his divinity? And the answer is absolutely not. What he did is take on a second nature.

And so when you look at the doctrine of the Trinity, there's one God with three distinct persons of this Trinity. But yet there's one God. Well, when you look at Jesus Christ, this incarnation of the word becoming flesh, he did not lose his divinity, but he took on a second nature. And so this is one person with two natures. So every question you would have to ask of Jesus, you have to ask twice. Did he get tired?

Well, in his human nature, absolutely. Yeah. But not in his divine nature. And so, you know. And in his limitation of knowledge, in his incarnate state as Jesus, he's limited of certain things like when is the final judgment day coming? He said, only my father. Yeah, I think that makes sense, Larry, too,

when you read like a verse like John 17, 3, when Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the one God. And then he says, and Jesus Christ, his son, whom he sent. So you've got the one true God, father, son, and spirit. Right. And then the incarnation of that son who has that dual nature. Yeah. That manifests itself in different ways. depending on the realm that's it that he's inhabiting.

Hang on. Let's take our last break. Well, I brought up a C.S. Lewis quote, the last podcast. I don't think I said it was a quote, but it was. But he made the point. I was going to get your thoughts on it. He said that, you know, here you have us, as we read the Bible, being called to surrender or submit or suffer or even die,

you know, carry your cross or, you know, we died our old self, all these things. And he said, the problem is for people who have not put their faith and trust in God, is when you explore the nature of God, he doesn't seem, when you look at God as in the father, having those qualities or that process. He's not, he's all powerful. He's, you know, he's not weak. He's not surrendering.

He's in control of everything. And so he goes through this long list. Now, look, I'm not quoting him. I'm just given a paraphrase. of what he said. But then there's a sentence in there that, and this is in mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. He's a great book. Yeah, he says, but if he became a man, and it's like, it almost, you know, that's why he's such a good writer, because when he wrote that phrase, you know, you literally, it makes a hair stand up on the back of your neck, because then you see,

from his love, which is a godly principle, there was a way to do this. He, as a man, he could suffer, he could surrender, he could humble himself, he could die. Right. And he could do it based out of love to rescue humanity, and then by his resurrection would destroy and defeat death itself for the humans. Right. So then you see the reason he became a man, and you see the reason he's God, because then he finishes up with a line, but he could do all that perfectly.

And so I think it's a different illustration of exactly what you're saying. It is. I guess we're in our last portion of this segment. And if I had to describe this in five minutes, I'd go to John, Chapter 1. So can we get, we'll just go there. Just go there. You started this, Alan, so here we go. Go there.

Go there. I really think people, this is a hard thing to press. Even as a believer, you're like, no, wait a minute. And this illustration, as I was preparing for this, really helped me. And, man, I've been in John 1 for 45 years looking at this. But every time you look, this is the nature of Scripture. When you get deeper and deeper and deeper, things are revealed to you in Scripture. But something that is really cool is that what John does here is he takes us back to the beginning, in the beginning.

And so it takes us back to the point in time. when God was. Okay? And I couched this in the idea of what was the relationship between Jesus and his father before Jesus came to Earth, before the incarnation. Has he always been Jesus? Has it always been a father-son relationship? Was he the son of God? And so when I began to think, these are kind of things that keep me up at night, okay?

But John 1, in the beginning was the word. Okay, and so we know who that is. And the word was with God. You see? And the word was God. And he was with God in the beginning before anything was made. And through him, everything was made that has been made. And without him, nothing would have been made without him.

And in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. In the beginning, God said, let there be light and there was light. And so the Word is the creator of all things. All right? And so the Word is God and the Word is light and the Word is life. And so we have the Word and we have God in the beginning. But then in verse 14, something very dramatic happens.

the word, and this is where we're talking about this begetting, the word became flesh. Something changed in that relationship. And in verse 14, if you'll look at it, John introduces this relationship language. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen this glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father. This is the first time in the Gospel of John that those two names are introduced. Okay. And so he came from the Father full of grace and truth.

And if you skip down then to verse 18, no one has ever seen God. But the one and only son, who is himself, God, has now made Him known. And so there's, we've always, we've not always known what God is. God looked like. But now we do. And so in John 10 and John 14, Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. I and the father are one. If you ever wondered why he can say that is because there's one God. And they are in God. They are with God together in the beginning. But this father-son relationship was introduced. When did that change? Well, when something became flesh. The word became flesh. And I made a reference to, was there a point in time in Old

Testament scriptures when that occurred? And that is Psalm 2. Absolutely in verse 7, is that today I have become your father. You are my son. And so this is a Davidic Psalm. And I said the last time I was on the podcast, we see Jesus quoting Isaiah all the time. And we think Jesus is quoting Isaiah. well Jesus is the word he is the voice of prophecy and so if we see Jesus quoting himself quoting Isaiah who's quoting himself he's doing the exact same thing in Psalm 2 and verse 7 he says I will proclaim the Lord's decree the Lord said to me and this is Jesus speaking in that moment today I have become your father you are my son and so that there was a change in the relationship. And then I went back to Isaiah 9, and I said, is there every, I mean, nobody called

God Father before Jesus came and said, this is how you pray. Okay. And he introduced the idea of calling God Father. And so in Luke 5, they're wanting to kill Jesus all the more. This is 5, 17, and 18, because he's calling God, his own father, making himself equal with God. Well, nobody called God father at all, ever, ever, ever, ever. That was, they were afraid to say Yahweh, you know, or Jehovah or Adani or all these other names of God. And I said, is there a Old Testament precedent that the name father was ever ascribed to God anywhere in there?

And absolutely it is. It's in Isaiah 9 and verse 6, for unto us a child is born. For unto us a son is given and his name shall be called. Yeah, that's powerful. Yeah. And when you realize the implications of this, here's God coming to earth so we can have a relationship. Because unlike trying to have a relationship with a rock or an animal or, you know, to be friends, it has to be mutual. Right.

And so if he hadn't revealed himself, how would we have ever known? I think that's what sets being a disciple of Jesus. The danger in having a discussion. Hang on a letter. We've talked ourselves right out of time. Yeah, that's what I, and what I was going to say is the danger in having a conversation, not having the time to finish it is. Well, we got 15.

We do have 15 moments. We have overtime, see. This is why the seasoned, unashamed podcast listener knows that there's always a little more time, if we will. We have to tell this story about this Afghan girl in the overtime. I want to tell that in overtime. It's so powerful. And God's still got some theatrics going down here.

I've been having to mute by Mike the whole time. It's powerful. So if you want to follow us over, we've got to talk about this a little bit more, blazedtv.com slash unashamed. And there's a fantastic story that Larry told the beginning of his sermon that's so apropos to what we're talking about. So it's well worth your time.

Check us out. Follow us to overtime. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribe 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 blazed TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.