Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 738 | Phil Is Miffed About His Steep Yard Bill & Jase Offers Cold Comfort to His Dad

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

Phil is incensed by the abnormally high bill from his landscapers. Jase attempts to comfort him, but it’s clear that comfort is not one of Jase’s strengths. The guys conclude that making their wives happy with their yards is worth the price! The guys discuss the “Good Samaritan” parable and why it made such waves during that time. Jase is glad that God is long-suffering, since humans tend to struggle with loving their neighbors.  In this episode: Luke 10, verses 25-37 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? You all at the shame cap was just cheap? Well, I mean, I spend the long more. I will say this, I spend a lot of money on my yard. So, you know, I'm not the kind of, I'm not going to work. I don't mind what somebody else does to theirs at all. I know.

I get it. So if we're welcome to the podcast. We're trying to get over. Literally amid discussion. The Robertson family has a problem with. cutting whiskers and cutting grass. It always, it always, it always, the old joke, wait till the fall comes, it'll lay down.

So Phil, I'm going to make you feel that. Used to be a joke. The women have a different, they have a different way of looking at yard stuff. So Phil, just to catch you up on this, I'm going to make you feel better. I'm going to, I'm going to minister some. I bet you are. No, I am. So they were helping a guy who, who,

who mows you. Jason's counseling today, Dad. They're helping a guy out who was, you know, a missionary at one time. That makes sense. Yep, that unfortunate. I didn't get that info. They say they gave it to him, but I didn't get that one. And your wife wants to do something about your yard, you know.

So it was actually the two burns and one stone. So here's my comfort to you. So my wife comes in there and says, look, our sprinklers are not working. It's 117 degrees or whatever. It literally is 104 feels like 117 in Louisiana. That's not a exact. That's not a robbers suit. Now you've interrupted my train of thought because I cannot stand this feels like feature that we have.

We made up the number anyway. Fahrenheit and Celsius, we just made it up. So why not just call it what it feels like? Why do we have to say it's 104 and it feels like 117? Just call it 117. Well, that's a point. I mean, apparently, I know weather, man, but apparently there are other factors, humidity, blah, blah, blah that go into this.

No, I know. So it's not an actual temperature. It is just a number, right? It is a number. Somebody comes in there and says, hey, guys, it's 104. But it feels like 17. No, it feels like 117. What do you want me to do about this?

It may be subjected. I got news for you. I'll tell you this. It's hot. That's it. That's what I'm going to say. I haven't announced it. It's hot here.

Too hot. So she says. Well, you acclimate too, though. You acclimate to whatever it is. When we moved from Louisiana and North Carolina, it was 81 degrees here, I was like, man, this is amazing. Now, if it's 81 degrees, I'm like, it is incredibly hot. So your body, your body acclimates to wherever you're at. over time.

We would, I would literally sleep outside, Zach, if it was 81 here. I would feel so cool. You can't get your house on. The lows, the last week have been 89 and the highs have been 104. Just think about that window.

It's 89. And so, you know, what led to this sprinkler conversation, because every time I go through the house, I turn everything down three degrees. Then my wife comes through and she turns it back up. It goes,

72, then I looked up, my man, it's hot in here. Just turn that thing down. I look, what's back? Somebody put it up 72. There's somebody, there's only one other person living here. That's just to say, I think I know who there's somebody is. We've been doing this for 33 years. So I said, well, okay, she's come to me.

I'm making you feel better feel with this story. Yeah, it ain't kicked in yet. No, I don't, I'm getting it. He's still when the feel good comes in. So far, it's a bunch of bull. Everybody knows I'm not, Mr. Fix It, but I thought, how hard can it be? You know, how hard can it be? That's the worst question ever for a sprinkler system.

The sprinkler on. So I go out there, I find this tool, first of all, and it's like a big iron thing. Then I realized that this is to turn the water off and on. So that's not it. So I don't need that. So I put the tool back. But I spent 20 minutes looking for the tool. Then I realized what I need that for?

This turns the water off if in case there's a... So I find the little sprinkler thing where it's coming out of the ground. And I thought, all right, well, there's two levers here. So evidently, it's just the water's not on. So I got missing. I said, go turn the sprinkler on. She knows how to turn the little box on. Yep.

And we'll fix that because I'll just move the levers. We'll get the water flowing. So she's at one place. I'm at another, I'm like, all right, I turn one of the levers on. I said, try it now. Nothing. I turned the other one on. Try it now.

Nothing. So that was it. I said, well, that's all I got. So you feeling better, Dan? So, hold on. That's it. No, here's the part that make you feel better. Still waiting on the water.

She's like, well, you didn't help, you didn't help fix the problem. And I said, but I tried. So I said, well, look, I have another idea. So I went, so she's still at the box. So I went and got the water hose, screwed it into the little thingy, turned it on, and I just start watering the grass. She said, what are you doing? I said, I'm fixing the problem.

So you went from automatic to you walking over. human sprinkler system. I said, I'll try to put this on my schedule while I'm around and I'll water the grass. That's going to be great. Here's where the parts can make you feel better. Until you call a professional to figure out how to get this sprinkler up, which led to the, so now this is my responsibility. And I was like, well, it's not really anybody's responsibility, but I thought we could work together.

I'll do it autonomously, you know. But this should make you feel better, Dad, because what he's saying is, at the end of the day, it's not going to bother Jay's whether that grass dies or not, but it's going to bother Missy. Exactly. And it's the same with your situation and mine. I used your line. She said, well, what is your long-term plan? And I said, well, if it dies, it'll grow back.

Yep. And so, no, we called the professional, and I'm sure it'll be $1,000 just to $1,000. just to turn it on. I'll be shot if it's less than that. It's a lot. Yard stuff is high. There's no doubt about it. So there you go.

It's just, it's part of having a wife that wants pretty grass in a neat yard. And they want it now. And they want it now. Because it's hot. And they want to help people, which is, that's not a bad thing. So. Now, to help people, the people who do that kind of work, you want to help them. financially business is not good.

I could see it. All right. I'm saying your situation is way better than mine. Yeah, I could see it. I'm not helping anybody except my wife. But as far as walking outside saying we need to keep the water level just perfect on this, the grass here and coming in the driveway, I would say it's not worth the money. Well, I would agree, but to our wives it is.

It's not worth it to me. Yeah. Wait a while, and if you wait long enough, usually in the state of Louisiana, we have an average rainfall that's above average. It's good. Yeah, it's usually good. This time of year is not just. But I'll ask you this, Dad, did you even know?

Did you even realize? Because I've noticed it because I'm in a neighborhood now, so I notice stuff like this, that mom had had some landscaping done. You got plants. I mean, you got some nice area there now. Have you even noticed it? I mean, or to use it just not really, but I do. Well, that's what I'm saying.

You're not looking for. I noticed it. So I noticed when these guys came and did the work, it looked really great this morning. I walked around. So both of you will know, I have not analyzed either one of your water hookups and had to get water on anything. I just don't fool with what you've got going in that area. I know it.

It's not my yard. I thought it'd make you feel better. You want to spend thousands of dollars on the yard or go ahead. I just don't see the merit in it. Well, I don't either. Somebody said, well, if somebody's struggling financially and this crew would like, you for you to help them out. That's good.

Most things. They told me that. I'd have said, well, I'd have taken it. Well, that is part of it. That's true. Because I know these folks, they've done some work for me, and they are great people. They're missionaries. They do great work for our church.

So, yeah, it's a win. Billis's husband fell off a roof. Yeah, this happened since we had a week ago. And he broke, I don't think they broke any bone, but it kind of shifted some around in his lower back. and he's got a body suit on that's a so he's he was a good injury I told him he looked I had injury I told him this morning he looked when he had his brace on I came in I took him some chick-fil-a he tried to make him feel a little bit better

and I told him he looked like a pregnant iron man yeah which is really not a great he was very fortunate I mean it was about a 10-foot ball can he walk I mean, walking around? Yeah, but he's in a lot of pain. He's in a lot of pain. But the point is, you know, you reach a certain age where you need to stay out of the flower beds. This is back to the original discussion. You're exactly right.

Off the ladder. I hit that age. Off the roof. You start crawling up on tall ladders at our age. Yeah. You are asking for children. You're not doing that again. I used to hang the Christmas lights.

Oh, yeah. Don't do it. Don't do it. But when I fell off the roof, which I did, I didn't fall off the ladder. I fell off the roof. Yep. I realized that in that moment, I thought, if I can get up. How old were you when that happened, Jace?

How old was? I wasn't that long ago. Is that made years ago? I didn't wait on a mishap. I waited until I turned 55. At 55, I walked up to a big tree, and we needed somebody to climb it for what reason I don't know, but we need to get up the tree.

And I had red the redneck with me. He was about 30. I said, red, I've just made a decision. And he said, what's that? I said, from now on, you'll do the tree climbing down here, not me. I'm giving it up right here today in front of this oak tree. I don't climb trees anymore. I'm too old for it.

So I quit climbing them, and he kind of took over the tree climbing, you know, plying up ropes up there for whatever reason. Yeah, I quit climbing trees a long time ago, but I've quit the ladders as well. So when I came in this morning, Jay's dad had gotten stung by a wasp, and I thought it was in here, but it turns out he brought the wasp in with him. The good news is when wall sting me, it's about like a, just a little more than a mosquito bite. And I'm now looking at where he stung me. Around the finger.

A little red mark. So I never did even find out what kind of, I'm glad there was just one, one insert going into my finger than two. Two would have, I didn't see what stung me. But I was thinking, brown recluse, you know, he'll probably leave a mark. So I have to mention that yesterday, I preach yesterday, and I had mentioned on the podcast that I joked about the state of Arkansas. We love Arkansas. I was just joshing. I was just joshing about.

And so yesterday I had a apology to the state. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't know where you were doing. You were a track. But Maddie, who's our producer, is from Arkansas. So she told me she and her husband loved it. So I've now friends with Arkansas. It was like a tribute to Arkansas.

It was a tribute to Arkansas. All right. Last week, the week before, they were just one in the group that came from Arkansas. A lot of young people in there. But they brought, it's probably 30 or 40 them. Well, yesterday. I saw you baptizing somebody. Yeah, when I walked in.

Well, yesterday, I met at least 20 people from Alabama, and they had a bunch of ball players with them. They were all playing in the World Series somewhere around here. No, it's in. Rustin. Is that what it is? Yeah, it's a 10 to 12 year old with their hosting in the town I was born, the Little League World Series.

Okay. That's fine. At Tech, is that where they're hosting? It's in Rustin. Must be a Tex field. That's how best. Isn't that cool? There were a bunch of them yesterday at WFR.

Man, it was exciting. Those kids were. I've told you all my Little League stories, so that's always fun to me. I mean, it's a fun venture. I've noticed that ESPN has started covering way more games, Lisa and I love to watch it. They had Louisiana and Texas on yesterday. I think those are the 13 of them.

Yeah, they were older. They were bigger. Maybe. We'll have to check on that. I think it's the high, the top end of it. Let's, let's take our first break. All right, let's get into this. So, Jason's ready.

He's raring to go, Zach. I love this sex. I spent more time studying this than usual because it was so good. So we, let me just kind of reset us to get us, we're going to be talking about the, they call it the parable of the good summary. Mariton, but you could call it a lot of things. Would you agree? I thought about this, how to depict this.

I think this is the most second famous parable. Behind the prodigal son. Yeah, or the loving father. Yeah, Harry. You're right. I mean, that's what I think. I think you're right. And I think it's, you know, when we first started the book of Luke, we talked about him

having unique parables from the other gospels. and both the ones you just mentioned are unique. And so I think he zeroed in on some things that was interesting. The other writers didn't. But just to catch us back up to where we were, because for us, has been a few days since we did a podcast, we talked about this expanding a missionary when Jesus sent out the 72 or 70 or 72. And if you remember, I wanted to mention, go back to Luke 951,

Remember the Sons of Thunder, James and John wanted to fireball the Samaritans because as they were going by there, they were rejecting of the message. And so we had talked about that previously, but we're back to a Samaritan stories. I thought it was interesting. But I wanted to bring one thing up that I don't think I'd brought up in either of the other podcast, is that there's always a mindset that, and Jesus shows you that when he said, no, we're not going to fireball the Samaritans because he's, you know, Luke's about to tell us. story of how Samaritans are as deserving as anybody else's salvation. But there's always been a mindset of God to want to save people, even in the worst possible situation. I mean, like, he's shown that consistently. And sometimes God gets a bad rap because it's always like, well, he's, you know, you serve this God you claim and all he wants to do is judge people.

And it's like, you know, just waiting to kill people. But you read stories like Jonah and a lot of other, in Sodom and Mark. It's the opposite of waiting on you. to make a mistake and then he'll judge you. That's right. Under the new covenant, which is coming fast, it's coming near, and it's at hand. And he says in Luke 9 there, but they did, he said, listen carefully, what I'm about to tell you, the son of man is going to be betrayed now and fall into the hands of men, betrayed by the hands of men. And they were like, they did not understand what this meant.

It was hidden from them so that they did not. grasp, grasp it. And they were afraid to ask him about it. There was just a lot of confusion. The kingdom is near. John the Baptist's rant on his rant. And I mean, you brood of vipers, you bunch of snakes. And he's identifying the ones who are going to be unleashed on the savior of the world.

it's just a lot of material that flowed before. Jesus actually died, was buried, and raised from the dead. He was getting them ready for it. But how do you get somebody ready for that? Say, look, let me explain something to you here. Jesus, we've been following, they fix to kill him, string him up like an animal. I mean, on the sidelines, when they're talking about it, they're saying, what do he say? Right.

Something about raised from the dead. They still didn't get it at this stage. Right. No, which I think it's a perfect. And a lot of them don't get it at the stage we're in. I'm still missing. 2,000 years later. It's a perfect point to illustrate, though, what happens in Luke 10.

If you put this into three categories, the message of the kingdom, just think about what he's doing. They're going around saying the king is here. He then gets into loving God with all your heart. heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yep. And love your neighbor as yourself. And, of course, then the debate's going to come up because...

Against such things, there is no law. Yeah, the expert in the law is like, well, who's my neighbor? So really you're seeing the work of the triune God in this because when you think who's my neighbor, eventually, spoiler alert, I'm going to give you the answer. Anyone. Yeah. God loves everyone. He wants this father's son relationship with every human, male or female, you know, to quote Galatians 4.

But so I think it is, this is a moment here because it's a model that we're going to reproduce post-death bell and resurrection. Because you think about what do we do today? That is correct. We go around and say the king is real. His name is Jesus. We share Jesus. We do mission work, kind of the way God was, you know, using Jesus and Jesus. He was speaking here before it happened.

We're looking at it 2,000 years later. Looking bad. Same story, but it just... Well, I think we've missed it, you know, in the church or religion, is this act of, you know, loving God with all your hearts, whole, mind, and it's not just about the ministry. All of these things matter. It is about, you know, I heard one writer call this neighbor gossiping, you know. It's like, this is part of it.

You can't, it's not about, well, let me just. Give your neighbor the good news. Yeah, well, even more than that, though, you help them out. You look for opportunities. It's like somehow another we divide this into categories. Because you've got to remember the priest and the Levi, which we're going to read about. It wasn't like he chose bad people that walked by. He picked the people who were conscious of people in need.

Right. Well, why did he do that? It wasn't unlike anything we would do. I mean, this was a dangerous scenario. Are they going to risk their life? They could justify walking by. But we'll get into that further. But I'm glad you brought up the Samaritans, Al, from the previous chapter,

because somehow we've got to capture the hatred that they had for each other because the story loses its weight if you don't realize these are their enemies. They're mad, they're big. bitter at each other. And that's why they're wanting to rain down fireballs on them. And so I've told the story before, and I'll tell it briefly, the northern part, there were 12 tribes in Israel, and then 10 tribes got taken away in 721 BC by Syria. And when they were repopulated, it was just a hodgepodge group of everybody.

In other words, they were intermarrying with Gentiles and idolatry. And so what happened was this is over. 700-something years before we're reading this. So these people in the minds of these other two tribes that are left down in Judea and Jerusalem, they look at these people as the scum of the earth because at one time they shared the same DNA in their minds, but now they don't. So that's why there's so much. And they would even probably look as even more favorably on a Gentile than they would on a Samaritan

because they were mixed. And so they saw them as false, idolatrous, all that. So that explains the background of why it's so bad. Yeah, and you can read a lot about it in the Old Testament, but the Assyrians came in, and basically, I mean, they called them the Samaritans half-breeds. Right. Because while they were off, I forgot the circumstance,

rebuilding the temple or, you know, they just a certain amount of these people started having sex with Assyrians, and their crew began to grow, and then the Jews called them half-breeds, and so they were out. So eventually, when I was reading through history, and Phil, you'll appreciate this, Josephus recorded that the Samaritans at some point,

you know, they built their own temple. Yeah, temple and synagogue. On another mountain, their own mountain. Which is the one that the woman at the well asked Jesus about, our forefathers worship on the mountain. up here, the Samaritans, your people worship in Jerusalem. Where do we worship? Exactly. And do you know that I looked at, so current day, there's about 850 Samaritans still here, and half of them live on that mountain right now. You go over there. So I just thought

that was so strange when people think that the Bible is just some collection of fairy tales. you know it's and yet there's people still saying the same thing oh they're still that it's still going on this is like the hatfield and the mccoy's times 10 million they still hate each other yeah and uh you know there's a lot of differences in what they believe but there's a lot of similarities you know the samaritans they're like because they kind of come from the same judaism model except they their bible has five books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. That's it.

And so the Jews, you know, they go on to Malachi. They stop right there. They miss the Jesus' His Coming text. And then Bowles was telling us, because, you know, he studies with so many Muslims, that they still embrace

those same five books, Jayes. And which I didn't really know that until I talked to him because I haven't studied with a lot of people in Islam. So it's interesting how those five books, the Torah, what an impact they have on a lot of different people in a lot of different ways. So I think we should read the John four passages though where it said, four nine says the Samaritan woman. Because that's why you've got to realize people, for I read it, they got so upset at Jesus. Because they're like, how dare you start associating with Samaritans?

I mean, this is what made them so angry. Yeah. Because even in that story, it says, Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. Well, for us, that doesn't mean anything. She was like, so. How can you ask me for a drink?

Well, then in parenthetical, it tells you, for Jews, do not associate with Samaritans. This was, I mean, Jesus broke a lot of cultural rules here. You're not alone with a woman, you know, in public. she's a Samaritan. They're our enemies. We hate them. So there's a real...

She had a sorted past. I mean, there was a lot of bad stuff going on there. Unless you're Jesus. Exactly. All right, so let me read this text, and then we'll jump into it. So, and remember, he had just told his disciples, as Luke records it, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see,

but did not see it. This is Luke 10, what? 10, 23, and 24. But did not see it and to hear what you hear, but didn't I hear it. So, you know, he has this big blessing moment for the disciples. And then we get to 25. On one occasion, so Luke is interjecting thing. I'm not sure how everything's happening in a timeline.

But he puts this story in right here in this book. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, which whenever you see it written like that, you already know we probably got a heart issue. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Same question the rich young man had asked about, remember? Yeah, I think there's a couple other. Yeah, it's two or three times.

He did it Luke 18. He said, which is, this camp here for a second, because this, I think he's actually, this is the bigger picture. The question that they all asked is, what do I do? what do I have to do? He asked it. The rich, young ruler asked it. And then Jesus said,

in Luke 18, he says, what are you talking about good? I mean, who's good? And has that whole, another time that it's asked in a different kind of way is in John 6th, when they're talking about,

he just fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. And then these people are like, you know, give us a sign so that we'll know you're the guy and we'll know you're the one. And they said, he said, and he said, and he doesn't understand this whole concept of bread.

They said, what do we got to do? to get this bread. So I think one of the reasons why he's particularly addressing the Samaritan here and this idea of loving your neighbor is because this was the, this was like such a provocative thing. He's trying to build a bigger picture that you don't, like you're not bringing anything to the table.

And they're asking, well, how can I add this to what I? Because they're, they're Pharisees, you know, and they're, and they're Jewish people and there's an attorney and all that.

So he's thinking, and what do I got to do so that I can earn this and possess this thing called eternal life? It seems a bit of an oxymoron around the bat. What must I do to inherit? That would be like me asking Dad, Dad, what must I do to inherit part of your, you know, what you have? That's a better thought. Because I thought that too when it said. Because inheritance is a gift.

It's a gift. What could I do to inherit it? Let me do something good. Tell me what's required. and I'll impress you and then you'll give me in your will something spectacular

like living forever. This is like the genie his prayer life was like a genie you get three wishes. What do you call it? Is that the Cosmic Melhot? Yeah. Yeah. But you know what Jason? You brought up John 4. I just thought about

this as interesting because here he's talking to someone who would not like the Samaritan. And in John 4, he's talking to the Samaritan. and they're really both asking the same thing, because he's asking what I've got to do to have eternal life. She's saying, where do I worship at? Like on a mountain in Jerusalem?

Jesus's answer is neither. A time is coming. In fact, it's now here. You'll neither worship the Father on that mountain nor in Jerusalem. And I'm probably going to butcher this, but he's looking for worshippers who will worship him in spirit and truth. And in both of these texts and the same thing in Luke 18, and the same thing in John 6, it's like all arrows are pointing to something.

No, all arrows are pointing to someone, and that's Jesus. But it's like he's the answer to the question, but we're all trying to figure out how can we box in the spiritual life so we can contain it? I can earn it. I can contain it. I can control it. And Jesus is like, no, paradigm shift, I'm going to blow that whole thing out of the water. I think that's where he's headed with that. Which is obviously what he does.

Let me finish it. So 26, Jesus answers this question with a question, which he does a lot. What is written in the law? He replied, how do you read it? He answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. So he quoted Deuteronomy 6, 5, and Leviticus 1918. You have answered correctly.

Jesus replied, do this, and you will live. but he wanted to justify himself. Uh-oh. So he asked Jesus. Here's the attorney coming out of you. Here's the lawyer. And who is my neighbor? So in other words, we're going to go a little deeper here.

So in reply to that, Jesus said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes. They beat him. They went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same. road and when he saw the man he passed on the other side so to a levite when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side but a samaritan as he traveled came where the man was when he saw him he took

pity on him he went to him bandaged his wounds pouring on oil and wine then he put the man on his own donkey took him to an inn and took care of him the next day he took out two silver coins gave them to the inn or look after him, he said, when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these, now another question, back to the guy. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The lawyer replies, the one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, go and do likewise. It was a lot more simple than this guy thought.

you think except except i don't think this guy was happy you know it's it's uh it's very similar to he's given this tangible way of basically embody embody me embody what i do do what i follow me when he when he talked to the rich young ruler in luke 18 it was a different thing right but it was it was he said i've done all the things that i'm supposed to do um he's oh yeah then jesus there's that one thing you got to do that you haven't done yet. He said, what's that? He said, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me. And I think that what this description is here in Luke chapter 10 is, this is who Jesus is. This is what he looks like and what he smells like. And I think

what he said, you want to be, you want to have eternal life. Well, come follow me. Come do what I'm doing. Which at the time, this hasn't been extremely difficult. You know, he asked that question. Who's my neighbor? He probably shouldn't ask that question, honestly. But that's the part that we got to explain. So why would he ask that? You know, just think about it. Why is he asking, well, who's my neighbor? Because really.

He doesn't want to love everybody. Well, I think at this point, you got to remember, this is gone after the rail, off the rails, because you have a scholar, not a, he's, you are referring to him as a lawyer, but it's not a civil attorney. No. He's just an expert in the law. But he's having a he's challenged this guy Jesus to a debate and what he doesn't realize is Jesus actually wrote this And everyone including this dude is guilty as charged on breaking it.

Well, and I think that's the underlying point. There's not, you know, if you're not really getting in this indefinitely you miss. Because Jesus actually, which he did a number of things that none of us. would do, which makes you realize that we're always worse than we think. Because he asked him a question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? If anybody asks us that, the last thing we would do is then ask them two questions. I just guarantee it. If somebody said, well, here's what you need to do.

And we'd sit them down and, you know, you asked me the question. So he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus responds to two questions. what is written in the law, and how do you read it? Well, this guy got it right, because he gave a summary. It's easy for us to know what the law was pointing to, but it would have been difficult for someone back then to cut through all the whatever, at least the Ten Commandments.

Is he answer what Jesus answered when someone asked him, what's the greatest commandment? Exactly. It was a very impressive answer. I mean, he got it. The point of it was to love God and to love your neighbor. So just look at the, if some of you are new to the Bible study, just look at the Ten Commandments. The first few are about loving God and the last few are about loving your neighbor. You don't, you know, when you get to the end where it says don't steal from them, you don't kill them, you don't sleep with their wife.

Yeah, right. So he got that right. Where it all went off the rails for the expert is he's like, Jesus said, well, go. do it and you'll live. There's where you've got to read between the lines because then he realized I can't do that. You can't love God with all your heart,

with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, and love your neighbor. He recognized he had fallen short. Exactly. He recognized it. And that's why it says, but he wanted to justify, he probably felt pretty good about his heart, loving God, maybe like the rich young ruler,

who said, look, I've kept these things. So he says, well, who's my neighbor? Because let's get it down to what the, let's get more specific. Then I'll let you know. Because you can't expect me to love everybody. Well, yeah, surely not the Samaritans, which is why Jesus chose a Samaritan. Exactly. As the hero.

And look, you notice what he did in here, what I think is subtle, that makes Jesus a lot smarter than everyone else. if he would have just told the story where he had to help a Samaritan, oh, he would have never continued to listen. If it would have been him, he's like, you have to help Samaritans. That is your neighbor. He's like, hey, that's going off the rails. But he wanted to soften his heart. So what he did was he basically put the expert in the law in the ditch

who had been beaten and robbed. Because he said a certain man, and he didn't describe. who the victim was. And he had the hero as the Samaritan, because then he realized, let's say you were dying in the ditch. Would you rather this Samaritan who you hate help you so you could live or do you just want to die?

So the debate, Jesus won right there. Because everybody on the planet would say, even if it was your enemy, if you were fixed to die, you would want the mercy. You would want to live because he appealed to a survival instinct. That's right. And we would all in that moment, you're like, wait a minute here, I'm dying here.

They're like, oh, well, I thought you didn't like me. You're not thinking that in that moment. You're thinking, please help me. And you don't care who it is, where they're from. So I think that's the point. No, it's like I saw this video recently. This woman was drowning. Of course, there's somebody filming it, you know, which, again, put your story.

stupid phone down and go help the drowning woman. But anyway, I'm watching it. And this guy swims out there and saves her. And I thought in that moment, I thought these two people, she was a black woman. He was a white man. And in the world we live in, a division where there's racial, political, whatever, you could have a lot of different things going on that they probably disagreed on. But in the moment when you're literally drowning, when someone jumps in to save you, none of that other stuff matters. No. What matter was somebody saw a drowning woman and jumped in and saved her.

And it doesn't matter what party you belong to, what your race is, your gender, anything. Which is a big, I mean, that's a big part of, I think the whole kind of, I think it's a key part of Jesus's ministry. I mentioned this on a previous podcast, but in Mark, whenever he cleansed the temple, which we always want to make it about, you know, that they were selling stuff in there, which I know that's part of it. listen to know what he says when he rebukes them. And he was teaching them, saying to them, this is Mark 11, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? So there's the ideal is that my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. So even in this culture, this is an Old Testament verse that he's reading that he's quoting here.

There is the picture, even in the Old Testament, of Samaritans, Jews, Gentiles, black, white, all the different people groups in the world. God wants to bring all of them into his house of prayer. So that was the ideal. And instead of doing that, this is what they did. But you have made it into a den of robbers. So even, which I don't even know if they understood the shocking nature of such a claim. you know, the Israel thought they were God's chosen people. And Jesus was basically telling them, I'm breaking this thing wide open.

It's always been for everybody. We're opening this whole thing up to everybody. And so when you get to Luke 10, it's the same concept, right? I mean, he's basically saying that, no, I'm the God of every human, not just a certain group of humans. Which is why when we first started this, I referenced 2 Peter 318. which was the idea that God wants all people to be saved, you know, as the way Peter put it. And that's true. He's always had a heart for all of his creation. He just worked primarily through the Jewish people to bring Jesus about to come to the earth

because of their meticulous nature, to keep track of things, to everything they did to bring us the Messiah. But he's always loved everybody. It wants everybody to be saved. Well, I think that's the pattern he's laying out. So in Luke 10, when you back up when they say, 72 returned, you know, and he kind of rebuked them saying, don't rejoice because I've given you these gifts, but that your name's written in heaven.

And then all of a sudden he introduces this idea of how the Trinity works in 21. It says at that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, which is the guy he's debating with right now. and revealed them to little children, yes, father, for this was your good pleasure. So this is eventually, in Luke's account,

going to get to teaching us how to pray in chapter 11. But it's all wrapped around, loving God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you know, him using us in our mission to declare that Jesus is king. And loving your neighbor as yourself. Well, when you think about this from a relationship, father, son, and kids. You know, kids can be way more radical.

I thought about this as I heard a sermon that tied what happened at the home of Mary and Martha into these lessons on prayer. I mean, you think about it, a kid is the only person who can wake you up in the middle of the night with just a crazy request, and you'll do it. Yeah.

Because, you know, if you've, anybody else, you're like, well, why don't you do it? But your kid's like, can I have some water or, you know, I'm scared of the dark or whatever. And you see that type of, especially in prayer, you know, with the childlike spirit. But you also see it when it comes to this idea about racism and putting people in a box. All kids, you know, when they're born, they love everybody. They're colorblind completely. And so you start seeing why Jesus is giving you this analogy, part of being, you know, true sonship.

and understanding who God is and what he desires, you hear stories like this because you then realize God is trying to get you to see. The only way you're going to realize to love your neighbor is if somebody else shows you that kind of grace, which is what he did. I mean, in actuality, Jesus is representative of the Samaritan here also because he was rejected.

He looked like he was from the wrong part of town. You're claiming to be God. What did he do? he stopped and he did that for every one of us. So I think there's a double meaning here because then it's not based on a law or moral because that's why he chose the priest and the Levi. Because you know they thought about what was right, but they weren't willing to suffer the cost.

Because this was a dangerous highway that he chose. They're like, look, well, that old boy needs help, but I'll, you know, I'll send somebody. later or but Jesus he he he did it he I like your I like your illustration too about the child a couple weeks ago our grandkids were staying over and our youngest one pearl she cut it's like five in the morning she comes in there and of course Lisa wakes up and which woke me up and she said what's wrong because she's assuming you know she's sick or something's on she said nothing I just thought we might need to snuggle but you know exactly

Jack was staying over the house and Zach comes in at five of the morning and says, well, can I snuggle with y'all? Get out of here. You waste of space. That would be a little strange. Yeah. It's funny. You said that, Jay's, we had a friend over a few weeks ago who, you know, we adopted a child who's biracial.

And this particular guy that came over was Asian American and it was adopted by white family. And of course, he's all right my age. And so he was just, I was just like picking his brain. And what was like growing up as an adopted kid and what, like, you know, just wanted to know what like what pitfalls and things. And one of the things he said, he said, I didn't even realize that like, because his parents didn't tell him that he was adopted. And I'm like, well, how do you get away with that? Because you're Asian. They're white.

And he's like, yeah, that's the thing. They didn't tell me. And he said, it's weird. I didn't even consider it until I was like eight years old. And then the kids at school started to make the distinction. So he didn't even see that there was a racial difference between him and his parents until he was eight years old. And I started thinking about like Ruth right now. I mean, she's biracial.

She has no clue that she looks different than us or that she's a different race. And at some point, she'll become aware of that. But, I mean, I think about kids. And there's like these really cool little memes that you see out there with a white kid and a black kid walking down the street holding hands. And they don't know the things they're not supposed to do or, you know, or even like political differences and things that we devise. divide over and we don't just divide over them. We're like, you're subhuman because you don't, you don't view the things the same way I do. So I think it is when he says that he has hidden these things, but he's revealed them to children.

I mean, we all see that to be true with our own kids. We see that. We see that in our own kids for a moment. It doesn't last long, but we do see it. Yeah, that's why he's eventually going to get to 1113 and then says, You know, he has this illustration about prayer because I know I'm jumping ahead, but I really think that's a point. This is where he's going toward when he tells his disciples, not the crowd, you know,

not a bunch of unbelievers, he tells his disciples, starting in verse 11 of chapter 11, which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Because he's talking about prayer, you know, how you pray, which is a famous, you know, the Lord's prayer and he says here's how you pray but he said or if he asked for an egg we'll give him a scorpion and to his disciples he said if you then though you are evil which is quite a statement know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father in heaven and watch what he says give the holy spirit to those who ask him so that spirit of sonship that you see you know in Galatians chapter 4 chapter 3 and chapter 4 that's where we're all but that's where we all end up but we're

seeing the beginning of this that's good the repercussions of Jesus you know saying the kingdom of is near you're you're going to be able to have this father's son relationship with the almighty god and have his holy spirit which is going to produce the peace patience kindness goodness faithful and self-control, all the things that you need from this radical act of love and grace that's going to happen. So then you can look at everybody in that childlike spirit. Yeah. Which makes sense why he's using that illustration. It also makes sense of what I mentioned earlier in Mark 11 when he talks about, you've made my tent, the temple that was supposed to be a house of worship for the nations. You turned it into a den of robbers. So what Jesus ultimately does with that temple,

as he says, that's coming down. I'm building a new temple, which is, us, what makes you a temple? You house the Holy Spirit. You invite the Holy Spirit in. When the Holy Spirit enters into a human being, then that human becomes the temple of God, the temple of Christ, or God dwells and lives in His presence is in us. And it's for all people. It's for everybody who would freely come to Christ. It's offered to everybody, all the nations. I think that's so good. Well, and I think that's why Luke does such a nice job having a unique voice coming from his perspective in his gospel to give us that broader picture. And again, back to the beginning, remember he was writing it to Theophilus, a Greek, to share with him this Jewish history, but how it was available for all men. So we're out of time for our podcast, but we're going to talk a little bit more about this in overtime.

I've got several things I didn't get to. I'm sure Jay's does. so we'll continue this discussion in our overtime. If you want to follow us over, it's blazedtiv.com slash unashamed. Not only do you get our bonus segment for today in this podcast, but you get everything that Blaze has to offer. So check them out. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast.

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