Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 742 | Jase ‘Survived’ His Anniversary Dinner, but Missy Was in Tears by the End of It!

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

Jase reveals the cause of Missy’s tears at their 33rd anniversary dinner, and It wasn’t because he did something right! Jep brings his newlywed daughter and son-in-law for an introduction to Unashamed Nation and to get some fresh faces in the studio. The guys discuss their own parenting successes and failures that have led their children to be the next generation of Jesus followers.  In this episode: Matthew 6, verses 19–24; Deuteronomy 30, verses 1–20 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So, Jase, I don't know where are y'all? That's a... Phil, that's a question I've been asking myself for about 30 years. Are you just sitting there musing about what's going on? Are you half a bubble off? Oh, he's half a bubble off? True.

Also true. No, I'm in Columbia, Tennessee, and this is my bunker that was created before I bought this place. Columbia, Tennessee. And I have no air where I'm at, so it's about 90 inside, and it's about 80 outside, which is not, 75 or 80 outside. It's not bad. But my son is living here, and part of the reason he lives here is for him to make sure that there's air. and, you know, to clean up. So we're going to have to have a meeting after this meeting.

Well, we could just add another Zoom window. Have we ever done this? We've got four windows open. This may be a first for us. It may be a first because we got Zach of North Carolina. I'm at the Southern Laird. Jace is in the Nashville area. And Jays, I have to say, just for those watching,

if you're listening, you won't be able to see this. But with Jay's having the green sort of military look, the American flag is behind him, it's obviously he's in a bunker. It's like he's in a militia somewhere, just planning for future problems. Well, ironically, ironically, the guy who lived here before I did, he built this bunker because he was a treasure hunter. And he had all his treasures in this bunker. I mean, there's a literal safe door that you, with the little round ring. It's like a bank vault that you enter this bunker. And it's rated okay for tornadoes and storms.

But he had all his treasures in here. That's pretty cool. And also, we got Jepico, Jep, is on the podcast. Welcome, Jep, Tom of Shame. Hey, you could be on a movie, Jase. You know, that's what happens, the safe rooms. Something bad is going to happen. You better get in that room, buddy.

Get your gun handy. What would be ironic is if I die of dehydration being in the safe room. Because the air's not working. Because the hair's not working. I'm like, I'm gasping for air, but we'll see how it goes. The plot for every movie in the safe room is it turns out to be not a safe room. That's right. It turns out to be a very unsafe room.

No, I came up here because it's my anniversary, which was yesterday. and I survived. You know, it gets tricky. Hey, why are you laughing? Who says that? It's my anniversary. I survived. That's a dangerous.

Who survives their anniversary? Well, because you get the gift and what if the gift goes wrong and what are the expectations? You got to remember, it was only a few years ago when my wife said, hey, let's not worry about getting each other anything this year for our anniversary, which for all you, young married people, that means go get something really nice. Yeah. That's right. So when she gave me her gift, I said, I thought we weren't giving gifts this year. She's like, what are you talking about?

Don't you love me anymore? I was only kidding. So I quoted that obscure verse in proverbs where it says, don't tell your neighbor. I was only joking because you're a fool. So I learned what that meant. But so we went out and it was, it was really nice. I got her some cross-shaped earrings because we have been married 33 years. So you see what I did with that?

Oh, Jesus was 33. 33. So I just thought that was, so I think that went over well. And then, so last night we go out and eat at our buddy's place, Adam LaRose, he has a E3 restaurant in the Nashville area. And look, don't go there unless you're ready to spend some money because it's very expensive. So here's what happened. E3, free, Jays.

That's their motto. I mean, it's the best food you're going to eat anywhere. I mean, it is top of the line. And so my whole family was going to go. And usually when our whole family goes, that means let's go celebrate your and then I pay for everyone's meal, which is substantial at this place. But they decided they wanted to all come together out to our little farm tonight. And my oldest son's going to a new church and he wanted to bring his pastor.

And so we're doing that tonight. So it wound up just me and Missy. So we went in there. I'm like, I was planning on ordering for eight people anyway and paying for it. So we were just getting, I'm talking about steak, lobster, king, crab, legs. I'm like, okay, whatever we just did here for the appetizer, do that again. So I did that. So I'm telling you all this to say.

So when we get to the end, they said, how about desserts? I'm like, yeah, let's both get a dessert, you know. And I got a cheesecake that was on top of some banana bread. and a man came out and lit the whole thing on fire. It was incredible. So you got like a floor show with your dessert. It was fantastic. So then it got awkward because, you know, we're done.

And I kept waiting for the bill. And so our waiters kept walking by with no bill. And finally I said, excuse me, ma'am, we need the bill. And she said, oh, you didn't know. And I said, know what? She said, your meal has been taken care of. And I thought, what in the world is going on? And so I'm looking around.

Zach Nash, rides again. Zach showed up. Jack is so generous. I mean, you just need to stop doing this. You can end the story here. Let's just stay long. No, it was not Zach Dash. So I'm looking around thinking, did some, did some, you know, fan or whatever, pay for my

meal, which was very self-absorbed to even think. And she said, no, Mr. Reed Robertson paid for your meal. And of course, your son did. Immediately, Missy just broke down and started crying, just tears flowing. I'm trying to imagine what that would be like. One of my kids paid. Zach, can you imagine that? That's not right to me.

I'm trying too, Jay. That's a big. Well, I went into sheer panic because I said, we just broke the bank with this meal because I was thinking I was ordering for eight people and now it was just two. And I was like, look, go get it and we'll split it. And she's like, no, he said if they try to pay for this, absolutely not. So it's probably one of the nicest things. So, Jay, to make a point, and Jeff and you got it too. All I asked was, where are you?

And you got the answer. It was on a 30-minute rant. I didn't pay for it. I didn't know where it was a cheesecake. You know, the kind of. In other words, Phil, you're sorry you asked, right? I wonder what all of y'all doing going around. I don't know, you know.

It makes your man wonder something. Oh, man. Well, I hate to tell you this, Phil, that was only half the story. I hadn't even told you the rest of the story. That's what scares me. So the short version of the rest of the story since I'm on the clock here with Phil. Oh, take it time, days. This is too good.

I did a scouting trip for maybe a future episode with a guy that Jep introduced me to. who ironically looks like he's part of our family. I mean, his beard puts all our beards to shame. And he loves Jesus. His name is Ben. And so we, during the day, I've been scouting for potential locations, treasure hunting, metal detecting. And then at night, I've been celebrating an anniversary

and spending time with the grandkids. So that's what I'm doing. That's pretty awesome, Dad. Dad, what a great lead-in question to get us into the podcast. Maybe the best cold open ever, which was really, it's what you said, though, it's so powerful for what we're going to be talking about today on the podcast because we're talking about generational blessing and building a legacy in your family. And man, when you, when your kids are paying for your anniversary meal without you knowing

it, I'd say that's a good sign, Jay's that you did something right in the process. So kudos. Well, we'll see how it goes. When he recognizes that bill, there's going to be a shock. But Jason, if he comes to you like in about a month and asks for a loan, you'll know exactly why he needed to love. Yeah, I'm looking at the menu. It's not a nice place you went there, right? Zach's pulled up the menu while we were talking.

I'm looking at all kind of goodies. Yeah. Let me know. Let me know next time you're in Nashville paying for people's dinner, and I'll come join you. To give you a spiritual principle, the cost was high. He paid the price. He paid the price. I like it.

It's pretty good. But the food was good enough. You'll probably go back, Dave. Phil, it is one the greatest places I've ever eaten as far as food quality. It is high quality. Does all the meat come from his, because he's got a bunch of cow. It does. You got a ranch, right?

Yeah, it does. I feel like I'm doing a commercial. And you got to remember, every time I see Adam or I go there, I send him a picture of me being there. And then he calls me usually two to four weeks later and says, well, why didn't you let me know you were there, man? I would have taken care of it for you. And so then we just keep repeating this process. But unfortunately, he should. just saying he will take care of it and it actually never happens.

Was that your second thought? Did you think at any moment Adam is taking care of this? That's what I really did. I said, how in the world did he know? Because I hadn't sent him my customary picture yet, but I thought, how did he know I was in here? That's what I thought happened. Well, he should pay for your dinner at this point. I mean, because just off of this story alone, I'm going to eat there.

I'll eat there now. Next time I'm going to Nashville in two weeks. I'll eat there. I guarantee you we'll have. He's going to make some money. He's going to make some money off this. I'm just warning you, the food, you won't eat any better food, but you will pay for it. So.

Unless your son pays for it. I'm going to invite Reed to come with me when I go. That's right. Tell Reed you want to meet him at E3. So, Jason, I was just reading a magazine about the top, like, I don't know, 10 restaurants in the Nashville area. And E3 was on the list. So just to back up what you said. I could have told you that.

I mean, it is fantastic. Some kind of travel person. Let's take our first break. So I wanted to kind of camp out in Duteronmi 6 today. And that was one of the reason why I wanted Jep to come on the podcast too. Of course, we always love having Jep on. But Jep being the youngest and also being the latest in our family line to start marrying off his children. And we talked a little bit about that, Jeff, the last time

you were on the podcast, just you were talking about the wedding and you were nervous. But I wanted to talk a little bit about that because it's such an important topic, especially for our audience, as you're raising your kids. Because the thing about it is you can't wait until like you're ready to walk down the aisle with them or, you know, if it's a son, to be there and watch them, you know, marry somebody. If you've waited that long, It's way too late. I mean, you've got to start the process for them to be in the right situation for that moment, way back, you know, when you first begin. And so that's the most important part is to get them ready for that moment because then all of a sudden, real life starts for them, right?

So it becomes such a huge thing. So it's kind of what I want to talk about today in this podcast. And I want to read Duna Rami 6. And because this is written, I mean, this is way back. This is in the first, you know, it's in the Torah. We talked about this in the past on the podcast. This is several of the world's religions, you know, except the Torah. They may accept later stuff in our Bible, but they accept this.

And these are principles that are time, you know, time honored. And people have been doing this for a very long time. So this was, this is Moses writing and this is the basis for Israel. And it said in verse one, these are the commands, decrees and laws, the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you were crossing the Jordan to possess. So they brought them out of slavery, out of Egypt. They've been wandering around. But now they're going to go into this promised land, this land that God has promised them hundreds of years earlier.

And so here's what he says you need to do, this most important thing. So that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God, as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands. that I give you and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear O Israel and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors promised you. Hear O Israel. And we talked about this recently in the book of Luke. The Lord our God, the Lord, the Lord is one. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. So that was the first and greatest command.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. And there are literally, even to this day, some Orthodox Jews, especially that I've seen, that actually still, you know, tie the scriptures onto their head with these little leather straps. I mean, they literally do what this text is talking about. So again, time-honored traditions. We built one of our houses a few years ago and were able to build it from the ground up. We had a house church at that time that was meeting.

And so we met there with the, when there were no walls up, it was just a, naked studs. And I had all my friends, part of our house church, going and write scriptures throughout that house on all the two by fours, on, you know, places that, you know, would be there. And so even, even me and, you know, the 20th century back then, still practicing this idea that you want your home to be blessed by God. So, Jace, you want to open us up and get us going with this? You got a thought? Yeah, I read this. And so it led me to a, to a, to a, sermon I heard from Tim Keller and I thought it was fascinating, which then led me down a whole study of the book of Deuteronomy, which was actually, you know, more enlightening than I anticipated.

It had been so long and it was really encouraging. But he made a notation here about that, you know, when you think about the spiritual aspects of, you know, in the home and on the road, she said so obviously that's in private and in public on the head and on the forehead you know on the forehead and on the hand which is what you're thinking and how you're acting when you lie down and get up it's every day it you know this is your whole life it it's your routine you know on the doorposts and at the gates that's in your home and in your community and in your society and so point being that you know when you think about loving god with all your whole heart, that is your whole life in every corner, every aspect. It's just not some thing we're a part of is,

you know, like we attend church and then go out there and live how you want to. And I really think that's the picture he was trying to draw up in the relationship, you know, with our, with our children. Because they're like sponges. I mean, they just take up everything we do, everything we say, how we act one place, how we act another. So I really think that's the point. But, you know, I looked at when it goes on at the end of the chapter, and he gets to verse 18 of chapter 6, he says, do what is right and good in the Lord's sight.

Because that's really what it's all about. You know, the Lord's always watching so that it may go well with you. And so then he gets to verse 20, and he's like, in the future, when your son asks you, what is the meaning of this? stipulations and decrees and laws the Lord God has commanded you. And it's something we can all identify with because, you know, our kids ask us all these questions. That's what we were talking about in Luke chapter 11.

You know, we're this shameless audacity of asking questions even that are uncomfortable. And so most people go to verse 24 and say, you know, when your kids ask you these questions, they quote 24 of chapter 6. because he basically says the Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees. And so the obvious answer is, you know, because the Lord says, that's why we do this. And a lot of times in our parenting, when we don't know the answer to our kids or they don't like our answer, we'll say, well, because I said so. And we're kind of basing that on this same principle.

But Keller brought up a very interesting point because in verses 21 through 23, he basically told a story. And his point was, you know, Deuteronomy is way long before Jesus ever liberated us through grace. And the underlying depressing nature of Deuteronomy is that

human beings learned a lesson that we're not good enough. Our problem is we're never going to be able to keep this law. I mean, it shows our weakness. And so even today, human beings, we don't need more books about, you know, how to fix our life or how to do it. We need a power that can transform us, which is eventually what led to Jesus being here.

So in those verses of 21 and 23, 323, he tells a story, and he tells the story about how the Lord liberated them, the story you just told out, because we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes, the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders, great and terrible upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his household. And so you see where I'm going with that. It's a shadow of really the grace that was offered later when Jesus would come. And that is the power that transforms us. That is the power we have to have to move in so that we can, you know, be the righteousness of God. I was thinking, and if you read that verse you read, the Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord, our God.

And I think one of the big problems we have as humans with that is we're misunderstanding the nature of why God wants us to obey the commands. I think we, if you grew up in the church that I grew up in, that that meant that God laid out a list of commands for you to, then they were arbitrary commands that he gave us to prove our, loyalty to him of some sort. And if we were good enough, then God would approve of us. But if you read the rest of the verse, he gives us the motivation of why he wants us to obey all of these decrees of our Lord. And it's so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And I was thinking that that's so much in line with what Jesus accomplished to kind of your point, foreshadowing the coming of the cross, the coming of grace. And when John, kind of talks about this idea of obeying commandments, same idea of Deuteronomy 6.

In 1, John 5, he says, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born to Him. So, again, establishing the centrality of Jesus in all of this and His grace. By this, we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey His commandments, for this is the, love of God, that we keep His commandments. And I love this next line. And His commandments are not burdensome.

So I think it's a reframing here. You see it in the Old Testament, though. Before grace, even, you know, before grace was manifested in Jesus, you still see this idea of what true obedience is not burdensome. Obeying the commandments of God are not burdensome. The reason why they're not burdensome is because they're not just some arbitrary command that God gave us. These are actually instructions for how we can be connected with him in an intimate way

and how we can find unsatisfying. by all the hungers of our heart. And I think that's the vein that why God says, you know, bind these on your doors and teach these to your children. Like, like, teach them who I am. Psalm 34, to taste the Lord and the seed of these good. Yeah, to me, that was a big transformation for me, understanding that. And I didn't get that until I started to have my own kids.

And then I understood how much I loved them. And I was like, man, if I love my kids this much, I can't imagine how much my Heavenly Father loves me. Which is kind of the point that he makes at the end of the Luke 11th passage we were doing earlier when he says, how much more, whether your father love you than even you, because you still, you know, are part of having to deal with you. Jeff, I was curious because you were, like, we've decided, I guess, as a family that this idea of doing this together, building a legacy. I mean, we did have a business together as well. that kind of allowed us to kind of do it all together, even though I was in full-time ministry.

But you were a part of that as well as the show. And then you moved away. I think kind of when your kids were at a critical age, I mean, you're older to going to high school. And you kind of had developed some stuff, I think, on your own from the spiritual standpoint. And now you're back. So I talk a little bit about that because I don't know that ever asked you about that on the podcast, but kind of in this more general discussion.

about raising up our kids and trying to show them the right way. What was your experience with that? Because you kind of could rely on all of us, and all of a sudden you're kind of over there in Texas doing your own thing. As dad would say, it was a bold move. You know what's funny is, too? I don't know if you can really kind of see it there. I took that literally, me and Jessica, when we moved to Texas,

both got matching tattoos, which I don't think dad was crazy about, but it says I surrender all. And it was funny, too, because we did that. We moved somewhere new. We're like, all right, we have to have Christ at the center. And we just kind of thought about that one day after church.

And I started going to a Bible group, which really helped me first moving there. And the pastor said, he said, you know what? You should mark a line right through all and put very little. And I was like, and he was right. because I was like, I don't surrender all. But he was like, but it's a good reminder. But if you ever want that to tell the truth, just mark out all and put very little. And I was like, it's a good point.

But yeah, it was hard. It was one of those things. I asked our kids, I just said, we got done with, you know, the show. I said, what do y'all want to do? I mean, do y'all want to stay here? And kind of everybody was like, no, we'd kind of like to go on a an adventure and I mean you know long story short it was a it was an adventure I mean I had a failed business pretty much I had a food truck that was it did okay for a while but it was just that was

hard I've never worked so hard my life um but we found a school there that I really loved and I think that really helped my kids they had been homeschooled for several years leading into this and it was important for them. And what I say about our whole Texas experience is, is they're sitting over here, they'll be on a minute, but is if I wouldn't have gone, we wouldn't have gotten Austin or Tyler,

my future son-in-law, I think, would not be a part of our lives. I'm just like, I couldn't imagine us not having them. It's so weird. It's like, I think we moved for certain reasons and we want to do our own thing,

But in the end, it's where my kids, especially my girls, really thrived and found Christ themselves, which, I mean, I'm like, that's why we went, really. You know, I didn't know at the time, but. Well, and that's it. That's it. I mean, like, that so much describes the journey. And Zach said it beautifully. It's the journey is for you first and your spouse and then your children to find. their connection to the Almighty, to find their connection to the God and the Lord of all. And when that happens, you know the rest of the journey is going to work, even though there will be bumps along the way. And so the journey is not necessarily the place, but it's certainly the relationships that

go with that. You know, and I think about that exactly. You guys kind of have done in North Carolina because you were here, part of the family was here. You guys made a decision that, hey, we're all going to go up into a beautiful place and we're going to do life together, you know? Yeah. And I think that God has blessed you in that.

And you guys have thrived, you know, as part of that process. Well, you were talking about, and it is first with your wife. I was thinking about Malachi when God says, I hate divorce. So he says in Malachi chapter, I think chapter two. And then he gives the reason. He said, because I'm seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself. I want the reason why God gave it, one of the reasons why he gave his marriage,

maybe the predominant reason is to procreate and make more godly offspring that could be joined into the eternal community of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And so I think that that's a, that's what I think about like, I mean, me and Jeb, when we lived, both lived in Monroe, our kids were all running around. Lily and Layla the same age are running around together. We kind of went off and did our own thing in different parts of the country. But, but I look at our lives and I think, man, there's been a lot of times in both of us that I'm like, man, we probably didn't live up. to what we wanted to live up to. Like you mentioned, Jepp about, I want to surrender all. But that's more of, I sing that song.

I say that because that's what I want to do. But that's not what I'm doing. And I think when you're raising kids, you know, there's a lot of, you can, you're never going to look back at it and think, man, I crushed it. I mean, I just really crushed this thing. You know, you're not, you're not going to feel that way at the end. You're going to always have regret. You're going to always see areas you've got done better.

You're going to, there's all, there's all that stuff that's there. And I think, man, what is the, what's the overriding thing, though, that that produces the godly offspring? I think it's just that continual coming back to the cross, continual, just repentance, your kids seeing that. Their spirituality is, I think it's a lot more caught than it is taught. You know what I mean? They just catch that from being around you. I mean, I guarantee you, I mean, we could, we could sit here and look at Phil's life as a dad. You think, what was so, why did all of his boys turn out to love Jesus?

And it wasn't probably from the nurturing conversations. It was just from being in the, like, he just lived it out, embodied it, the Bible studies, the, I mean, it was just, he lived it. He lived it. As a sinful man, him and Kay, a sinful, they just lived it, but he lived out the life of Jesus. And y'all didn't just catch it. A lot of us caught that. A lot of our friends, Jeff. I mean, think about all the, all of our good friends that came to know Jesus.

just from being around that. That makes me feel really comfortable because, to Jason's point at the very beginning, we don't possess the ability to produce any of this in our own merit anyways. And so, thank God we don't. I mean, this is God. He produces it in you despite your sin, despite your, you're in adequacies and failures. And so I just want to encourage people out there that you may think, like, doing it right. Well, yeah, you're not.

But it's coming back. And everybody will see it. the ones who have offspring children it is amazing when they come out of the womb their mother's womb it is amazing it's like this just a like a snap of the fingers they're of marrying age it seems like they went from the diaper to ready to go marrying age, can have children of their own. It was, I've never seen anything happen so fast. Man, it is, did it seem fast to you? Very fast.

That's moving. Very fast. It's the thing about time. You look up one day and you're like, you know, they'll be burying your children. your children's children. Yeah, so I wanted to say, I think it is a definition of the heart. I mean, I heard all of you all mention, you know, what's in your heart. And, you know, reading that Deuteronomy 6 led me to chapter 30.

And just to read a couple verses in chapter 30, he starts off in verse 1, saying similar things, saying, before I've set before you who come upon you and you take them to heart, whatever, wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations. And when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul. Then in verse 6 it says, the Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul. He mentions it again in verse 10.

and then he gets down to verse 17 after he kind of talks about the blessings and curses of the blessing of trusting God and the curses and it's pretty much life or death it says but if your heart in verse 17 turns away and you're not obedient and if you're drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them I declare to you this day you'll be destroyed

you will not live in the land of the living verse 19 this day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. And I love this verse. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give your fathers.

So it made me start thinking about, you know, the whole. heart and how we define it because it's very hard to define and i wrote down a quote that keller said it says the heart is what you love the most it's the control center and what the heart most wants the mind finds reasonable the emotions find desirable and the will finds doable and obviously it was a definition of what it means to love the lord your god with all your heart's soul mind and strength But it made me think of all these other passages, you know, Proverbs 3, 5. Provert in my mind slip. Proverbs 3.5.

Oh, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Well, the heart is what can trust. In the negative light, you remember in Genesis 6 where it said, when the world was evil, it said every inclination of their heart was on violence and evil. Because that's what it can do. It's the control center in your being. And so then it led me to Matthew 6, 19 through 24, you know, which is right, Matthew's version right after the Lord's prayer.

It says, for where your heart is, there your treasure will be also. So, you know, it's your ultimate hope. It's the thing that prioritizes. It's what you're going to face daily. You know, it goes back to the same thing. So I said all that to say this. when he said that in Deuteronomy 30 about the Lord circumcises your heart, it brings the light those passages, the one at the end of Romans 2 and the one in Colossians 3,

where it's where us post-Jesus death, brown resurrection, he circumcises our hearts. And so you see that shadow of what it is, you know, circumcision in the Old Testament is so awkward and even awkward to discuss. I remember the first time I heard that in Bible class, as a kid said, what is circumcision? And, you know, I realized it was gross. It was painful and bloody.

But then I realized that it was, it was representing being cut off from God. And then what Jesus does, you know, in Colossians, through baptism, that reenactment of Jesus' death, bone, resurrection, it's really all about your heart so that his power can move in. And I just thought, man, what a wonderful stuff. study how this reveals the transition for pre-Jesus where you're hopeless and you can't pull this off. And it is, you know, the rituals you're doing, it is kind of gross and gory, but it just, it puts you in a place to realize that you're never going to be able to do this. You're never going to be able to pass this onto your kids without a recognition of God being the

absolute center of your heart. No, that's, that's a good point, Jay. because you're right. Circumcision is another sign to Jep's tattoo about surrender because it's not your ability to procure your future, which is a lot of the Jewish mindset. Well, I tell you this. Look, a tattoo would have been a lot better than actual circumcision. Well, that's right. Yeah. But he wanted to paint the picture. That's right. One of the things, this book I read, one of my favorite books, this is it here, but you can't see the title called You Are What You Love by James G.A. Smith. I was trying to find it in here.

The way he defines the heart in this book is, he says it, but probably a better trend. I think the word he uses is Cardia, which may be a Hebrew word. I'm not sure I can't remember now. But he says it's better translated, though,

almost like the gut. It's what, it's what's just coming out of you naturally. It's like what's, from the, from the heart outflow of the mouth from the heart. And it's this idea that, that it's what your,

it's what your gut reactions are. That's why you fill it in your gut. And I think that's important. His point in this book is that when we talk about discipleship, which I think what we're talking about, Deuteronomy 6 is about discipleship of your kids. He said one of the greatest tragedies in Western Christianity is that we've turned discipleship into primarily a cognitive exercise,

meaning we teach you to think the right way, and then you'll be okay. But that's not true for any of us. I mean, anybody that's had like any issue with like pornography addiction or or lust, which is like most people in America, right? I mean, look at the stats on porn addiction and who's been exposed to porn. I mean, we all have if you're under the age of 45. And you think, man, why would you be tempted to do that? Are you tempted?

Do you know what's wrong? Yeah, I know it's wrong. Do you know it's destructive to your marriage? I know it's destructive to my marriage. Do you know that it's a lie? I know all the right things. But why do I still want to do it? And so it's not enough just to teach people the right thing to believe the right way.

We have to, when you're raising kids or even our own discipleship, it's much more about the curation of our heart because we need to teach our kids to want, we need to help help them want different things. And you want whatever you're consuming the most. So you can actually change your desires about what your intake is. And I think that's what the core of this text in Deuteronomy 6 is. about when he says to obey him, he's not saying obey me so that you can gain favor of my sight. What he's saying is when you obey my commandments, when you live out the life that I've commanded

you to live, then what happens is it curates your heart. It changes what you desire. You begin to want different things. And I know this is true of my own life because when me and Jeff were hanging out together and we were smoking dope and acting like idiots, when we got out of that lifestyle for a while, I really wanted to do it. Like if you had put like a joint in front me, I would have been very tempted to do it. But after 20 years of walking with Jesus, if somebody put that in front of me today, I could pretty much say I'd have virtually zero temptation to do it. Why?

Because my desires have changed over 20 years by obeying God. And I have other things I'm dealing with. But that's the, it's the, it's the, how do we curate our hearts to where they're indexed and they're pointed to this incredibly beautiful father that wants a relationship with us through Jesus and wants to send his spirit to indwell us. That's the thing. It's that imagination. Yeah. I feel like I have to read this verse after you said that because I couldn't agree more. But that last paragraph in Romans 2 in verse 28, it says, A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcernic. is a circumcision of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God, which is exactly my point. That was, you know, when Paul was writing that, it was all about, well, what if, what if people had never heard of Jesus and what, you know, he was talking about the Gentiles and how could they be held responsible? I mean, if God is fair, why is he going to judge the world? So, and his point is, you know, Paul makes the point about that even if you used your own standard of judgment, and I heard a really cool illustration on this, it's like if God took every time, let's say you hadn't heard of Jesus and you hadn't, you know, you didn't know the moral code.

Nobody had ever explained it to it to you. But if you just recorded every time in life that you said, well, you ought to do this or you ought to do this. or you ought to do this. And then you stood before God, and he played back the tape recording and said, I'm going to judge you based on every time you said, this is what you should do. He said, I guarantee you every human would fail. Yeah. Because we can't even do our own standards that we come up without God in our life,

which shows you the point, which is to go back to what Jep said, I think was very poignant by the pastor. You know, we surrender little. I mean, in reality, our biggest problem is that we can't do this. We know we should surrender all, but we don't. That's why we need a circumcision of the heart only done by the supernatural Lord. So I feel like we've got a perfect illustration. Jep, teased to it earlier.

So our last segment, we're going to take a break. And out of that break, we've got two special guests for the rest of the podcast and our overtime that we're going to share a little bit about. what this looks like in real people. So let's take a break and I'll introduce our guest on the other side. Welcome back. We've got two very special guests. Jeff, do you want to introduce our guest to the Unashamed podcast?

This is my oldest daughter, Lillian May Robertson and her husband, Austin. I don't know your metal name, Stahlbom. Oh, boy. Epic pale. I just realized that. I was like, I don't know your full name. Maybe I should know that. I just think I'm a miss Texas.

Yeah. Tex. Oh, Tex. So Austin, Allison, Lily, welcome to Unashame. You guys are the newest newlyweds into the Robertson family, Lily. Congratulations to both. We've actually talked about you guys quite a bit because Jay's did your wedding. And Jace likes to tell stories.

And so we've talked about you guys more than you know if you don't listen to the podcast. So we're glad you guys are here. And you've been listening to what we've been talking about. We've been talking about legacy, family, kind of, you know, how we bond together and go forward. And you guys, it's interesting because you got married back in May and because you still got to wait until this fall to go back to school, you decide to spend your first few months of your marriage here. And you guys have been living next door to mom and dad out in the, and the boondocks where

we all spend a little bit of time as well as back and forth, of course, with Jeff's family. But what's that been like, you know, being next door to mom and dad? Lily, what's it to live next door to MMO K for your first few months? What's that been like? I think it's been really fun. I, we really wanted to do it because we just wanted to see what it would be like to live here, especially after we get out of college, like where do we want to go. and he's never, like, lived in a place like this.

He's lived in Austin all of his life. So it's definitely, like, fun for him to be out in the woods and on the land. And we've had a lot of fun just going and visiting with M.LK and Pepo Phil and just being with the whole family. It's a great vat of wisdom to be able to get that. Now, Austin, were you literally named to then live in the city of Austin? Was that, did your parents give you that name because they knew you especially? into most of your lap. No, funny story. My parents did not name me. Um, so I was born about two months early, so my parents hadn't picked my name out. And, uh, my mom worked at the hospital. So all of her

co-workers, uh, came up with a list of names and they picked it from that. So, that's how I got my name. And I was born in Boise, Idaho. So, uh, yeah, Yeah, my parents weren't even planning on moving back to Austin when they had me. But we ended up there about two or three years later. So, Austin, Austin, it could be worse. Uncle Si named me. So go ahead. And if people can't see this, Austin is a big boy.

So I couldn't imagine if you would have went full term, how big you'd be because it's good grief. That's right. So, also, what's your middle name since Jeff has left us hanging there? It's Garrett. What did the hospital staff name your middle name? Yes, it's Garrett. Yeah, Austin Garrett. Austin Garrett.

So I got to ask you this, Austin, because we don't have a ton of time left. We're going to continue this discussion in overtime. So what was it like? Jet mentioned the Christian school. You guys were both at, and that's when you met. But you found out, I assume, pretty quick that Lily was from a fairly famous family. What was it? Were you intimidated kind of coming?

into that. Did Lily just smite you so much that that didn't matter? What was your mindset going into this kind of crazy world that you're now fully in? Yeah, I mean, I kind of knew about the show and stuff, but I mean, I never really watched it or anything. So I kind of just approached it as, you know, just, I mean, me and Lily hit it off really quick and we became good friends. So, you know, I kind of just always saw her as that.

not really. I never really, like, looked at their family as like, oh, they're famous. And what he did was, I thought was incredibly cool, is he texted me and said, hey, can we meet for coffee? And then at coffee, he just said, hey, I really like your daughter. I'd like to go on a date with her. So before they even went on a date, he asked me if he could go on a date. And I was like, I like this kid. You know what I'm saying? Like, I was the exact opposite. This last thing I'd do when I was his age. I thought I don't trust them. Well, he set my mind at ease because I was like, ooh, he's not an idiot like I was when I was his day. Well, Jell, we've talked about this a lot of the podcast.

We all have rejection issues because all of us have been rejected by people's parents, you know, in the initial until they got to know us a little bit better. So, Lily, you did how quickly did you, you know, obviously you and Austin were friends? Did you know that you were going to spend the rest of your life of this guy at some point? What was that like when you kind of knew? No, I did not think that. Oh, shocker. Okay. I originally had the plan of I'm going to go to college as pre-med.

I'm going to go into medicine. I'm probably not going to marry anybody I date in high school. It just wasn't going to work out that way. And I just was kind of a realist. and I thought, well, it's never going to work out like that. I just, you know, normally you don't get to marry the person you date in high school. But, I mean, as we dated and senior year came, and we had been dating for over a year, we were like, this kind of feels like it's going to end up, like, us together forever.

So it just like, I think at the end of senior year, we kind of figured out we would. Yeah. I love it. It's like God had this plan for you. I never actually saw. all, I looked across the way where they are. And up to now, I haven't seen any smoke coming out of the kitchen good or bad. So I thought, well, just suck it up and live with it, I guess.

I said, I wonder what they're eating on. I think they're figuring that part out. So we're going to talk more. Modern-day marriages, they're not worried too much about, hey, who's cooking the grub tonight? No, no, no, no. They're not worried about stuff like that. So before we go to overtime, Jeff, you wanted to thank folks and give us a little update on the last time of your own folks donated to All Guys Children. Tell us how to do you just definitely wanted to say a big shout out.

Thank you to you guys are awesome, Unashamed Nation. We 75 kids are sponsored, have hope now because of you guys. So our goal is 100. So we have 25 left if you're still willing to give. Still be awesome. Yeah, AllGySchildren.org. But honestly, just want to say thanks. You guys rock.

It's amazing. And Jay's, what were you going to say about the guy you met? Well, yeah, the guy that I met up here that we went around and scouted, he came from listening to that podcast. And he told me the story. He said, I heard Jep talking about helping those kids. And I pulled over on the side of the road and called my wife and said, we're fixed to support one of these kids.

And fast forward a little bit, Jep met him. And I've been hanging around him for the last couple of days. He loves Jesus and he loves to hunt. and he's helping those kids. I just thought it was neat that we have a friendship now because of that. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you guys for doing that. So we're going to head over to overtime and catch the rest of the story of Austin and Lily

and also how this fits into this idea of generational blessings. So if you want to follow us over, it's blazedivet.com slash unashamed to catch our overtime with Austin and Lily. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to blazed TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.