Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 772 | Willie Robertson Has All the Bigfoot Proof You Need & Uncle Si Weaves a Shadowy Conspiracy

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

Jase’s thoughts on the mythical Bigfoot shift a little when he beholds Willie’s eerie resemblance to the famous creature. The debate rages on over other creatures in the Louisiana swamps, but Si has surrounded himself with a crew of believers. The guys recall their first encounters with "Unashamed” contributor Larry Bowles and explore the difficult concept of money and wealth as a follower of Jesus.  In this episode: Luke 16, verses 1-14; Matthew 5, verses 17-20 & 31; James 1, verses 7-8 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. We got Zach back in the house with us, Zach. He's going well in North Carolina. They are. It's about the third, what, third and fourth day of fall? Leads are changing. Weather's crisp. I noticed Jason is on his phone. Well, here's what happened. Something's something's happening. Ten seconds before we started. a guy that I don't usually text with.

I met him at a poker game. We won't get into that. And he's hilarious to play with, by the way. When he wants to. Does he have a farm animal name? Because most of the people you play poker with are named like fox and pig and all these. I'm not sure what his nickname is. But he has a number.

of of slogans that that we use because he's just funny he's a he's a great white perch fisherman so that's why we kind of hit it off we talk call him perch uh yeah well my favorite he does two things that I really love when we play cards one is whenever he raises he always he'll take whatever the bed is and he's fixed to put it in the pot and then he'll hesitate and he'll look around and he'll go to race. So it doesn't seem very funny, but he does it every time. He's sending you a message like, I am really happy about. I don't know why that's funny.

But he's... I don't know why they break out in fights. Yeah. Yeah. So look. You're up against. I haven't seen this. I haven't seen this guy in six months, but

Si knows him and we play together. And he always takes up for Sai when Cy brings up his latest Black Panther sighting. And so I went to him while we were, you know, taking a break or whatever outside. I was like, I said, quit taking up for Cy because. Because he, you know, you're just creating a monster with these Black Panthers. And so he's like, hey, there are cougars and panthers roaming around in Louisiana. I said, you believe that? And so he just sent me three pictures 10 seconds before we started.

This last one, I'll let you look at it. and he said they've got multiple cats and dogs missing in the neighborhood that's what the text says multiple cats and dogs missing in the neighborhood and there's three pictures of a critter entering the woods what do you say phil what is it it's not a black panther but it is a big mountain line but he's not in the mountain so yeah so anyway i had to And that's in Calhoun. Wow. But you know, they've said. I've never seen one of those so fat. That's the missing of the cats and dogs in the neighborhood.

That's what I was thinking about looking at it. That's what happens. Dogs and cats missing in neighborhood and he has three pictures. That's why this guy is funny. Dad, you've heard of the phrase fat cat before? the euphemism fat cat now you know where that comes from well you know in sys podcast on the duck call room they actually have a panther siding section to their podcast and sai is actually selling t-shirts with the face of a of a black jaguar and it says i believe there's a lot of mountain

lines in texas south texas out there and that's rocky country well phil this is right up the road and this guy just sent me that picture and you saw it so what are your conclusions of that my conclusion is i spent a lot of time in the woods my almost 80 years here now a lot of time i don't have a a sighting some of y'all have but i've seen one i've seen things that i said boy what was that yeah well you're in the minority i mean look i don't believe they're there and I actually took you to where I saw a cat cross the road that was a big cat. But I said, I wasn't sure what it was, but it was a big cat. And we, we, I showed you the Paul print.

Yep. Are you saying you don't believe in a mountain lion or you don't believe in a black panther? I don't believe in the black panther. I do believe there's mountain lions. There is a little further west. And evidently there's one slightly west. And every once in a while, right, they can, they can, because their, their grounds can spread out pretty far.

Jason said it looked like a large cat. We went over there to verify that and I found the tracks where he was. Yeah, unlike other stories, Phil, unlike other stories, I did produce a track on my story because we found a track that was very large. What do you guys think about Bigfoot? I've been a big brother to Bigfoot my whole life. I think his name is Burley and he lives in great. Grand Junction Colorado.

No, I mean, one time we were hunting with Willie, and we were looking for a down duck. In a certain way, his hands, Willie's hands separated, because he was, you know, Willie's a slow walker. I just thought, I see where somebody got the idea there's Bigfoot, because that's what he looked like in that moment. And so after I saw that, I realized that there's a lot of people that look like Bigfoot. Look like Big Fat. But you made the point, Jay, is what size is doing with the shirts and all that. So people make sort of, there's always like a cottage industry that will rise up around some kind of weird sighting. Because I went up to Oklahoma and to some lake we were camping at.

And there's these, I mean, their whole thing, they got restaurants. They got everything's Bigfoot, Sasquatch everywhere. And so they built a whole thing. So apparently somebody claims to have seen something up there at that lake. Where is this at? It's one, some, maybe, I don't know, some lake in Oklahoma. I can't remember the name of it. Well, they actually had a show, you know, I've never watched it because they're just too embarrassed to even try.

But they had a show that evidently went multiple seasons, and the name of it was Finding Bigfoot. Yeah. And I'm actually working on a Bigfoot concept back now. I really am. See what happens. You see what happens when you get into the movie world, Jason. Let's get this right. You don't like having spirit-filled zombies on a positive,

but you'll entertain the thought of going and finding Bigfoot. Well, see, here's the situation. I was on the set of the blind, and this lady, she pulls up in a pickup truck that had like a to popper on the bag, her and her husband, and they drove all the way from New Hampshire and found out where we were filming, which I was a little nervous at first, but she said, hey, I've been trying to get a hold of you.

I have to tell you this story. And I don't know why. I said, I'm going to listen. I did. And so she's like, my dad was from Texarkana, Arkansas, which is about where we were filming at. We were filming the blind. It was filmed right south of Texarkana in Louisiana.

And which, by the way, is where it took place. It's where Phil, my mom and all of them grew up. And she said, my dad did a movie in, I want to say, 1972. I saw this movie. The Legend of Boggy Creek? Yep. I saw that movie. So she is like this cult classic for Bigfoot.

And it inspired a lot of movies like the Blair Witch Project and all this. So she had spent the last, I don't know, 12 years, like trying to find, like get to hunt down the rights to this thing. All these bootleg copies are out there. No one had an original copy. And so she spent 12 years of her life trying to get the rights to the film, get all the bootleg stuff off the internet. I mean, she was just so passionate about it.

I was like, man, I just, I don't know a cat. That story is what captivated me. But we, the more we got into it. It did create. So the reason I saw the movie, I was, I was captivated by this thought because mom is from Ida, which is just south of where you guys were. And dad, you remember Falts, Arkansas, which is just. just across the line.

And so that's where all this supposedly happened. You know, there was this man, beast, monster, and they call it Boggy Creek monster. They call it the Falks monster. So when I was a kid, because we would go and spend a couple of weeks every summer in Ida, I mean, I was right there. So I was like looking around every corner, you know,

that's back when it was hot and heavy as like a thing. Yeah. And so I saw the movie when it came out because I was all things. But I thought someone had come. out and dad, I don't know if you remember this or not, that someone was actually, because they had these tracks and that they had proved it was a hoax because someone was like putting shotgun holes on their toes and going out. So it looked like a part foot, part claw. And I thought I remembered that that had kind of been debunk, but I don't, you know, who knows? I mean,

I just remember as a kid, I was like infatuated by this monster that was living close to where I was staying every summer. So I was, I was petrified. But yeah, it's an interesting thing because it's built up this whole kind of cult following that I guess is still going on. I didn't realize. Oh, that's huge. It is. Yeah. So we'll see what happens, by the bit.

Yeah, it's funny. All took place right there around where the blind was filmed. Yeah. It was interesting. Well, according to this, there was 11 seasons to finding Bigfoot. Did they find him? Did it end with the prenupt, the, the. main situation.

Animal Planet recently aired the finale of its popular series Finding Bigfoot, which lasted 11 seasons, despite never making good on the promise of its title. Never found him. So when something is lost and is found, you have joy. So what happens when you never find what you're looking for? you wind up you look you wind up playing as your closing song you play that tune from you too i still haven't found what i'm looking for what i've been but let me make let me draw a parallel jace duck dynasty was on for 11 seasons and we were neither duck nor dynasty so there you go

i mean jace have y'all located the treasure yet i mean have you located the yeah what about that what about duck family treasure has it had you delivered on the promise of the of the title well let me tell you what i did do this is uh this is a spoiler alert and i'll probably wind up in court over what i'm fixed to say but i don't care i've been pushed further than i want to be pushed you've been challenged jays but we have had a a couple of finds, one being finding a tooth off an animal that's depending on your definition of how long it took for creation. But so either thousands of years, if you're a Phil, how long are you a 7,000 year man?

He's about a 6,000 year man. So we found a tooth off a creature thousands of years old. If you're a billion-year person, I would say millions of years old. So that happened. And then I found a bear tooth off a black bear that was 350 years old. How do you know how old it was? That's why you got to watch the show. But I have that I will not reveal.

But I know for a fact that it is. It was 350 to 367 years old. And I found it. A bare tooth. Jay's just provided the best tease for Duck Family Tresual we've had so far. He did. I mean, I want to watch the episode. It's very impressive.

Let's take our first break. So just, that's good, Jay. You might all stay in your lane, bro. Leave reality TV to me. You keep doing movies. Just keep that in mind. If you found a dinosaur tooth, I will say you didn't use the word dinosaur. He didn't use that word.

No, he did not. I will say that you delivered on the title if you have, in fact, located a dinosaur tooth. Well, check the mail. It's happening. It's one of the few times in my life that I was speechless. Well, that's worth watching an episode. That was probably, he probably just gave you all the season finale. The whole thing is, I mean, you know, you probably, you probably.

will be sued for this. That may, he may have just given us the series for that. Yeah. I haven't given you the series finale because we got four more episodes to film. So that's Y, TBD. Okay.

But, oh, they're good. I told you it's the best show nobody's ever seen. It's an excellent show. I enjoy it. It's, it's definitely,

I like the, all the stuff y'all do and the whole thing. I'm intrigued, but I'm a fan, so you need to check it out. So you want to, get to the book of loot was that our we started we started out what do we have a cold open and here we are well i said do y'all have a story 20 minutes it's 20 minutes later no it's 15 minutes

but uh the segue because when zack started talking about finding bigfoot and all this kind of stuff i thought we were looking for uh or spending 12 years whatever was i thought we were going to do 101 ways to waste your life you know but evidently we're we're going to go to who's better, which is Jesus. Yeah, which is good. Good segue. Yeah, so we're in Luke 16. We introduced the last pike.

Well, I guess we did a little more to introduce it. We read the first 13 verses of Luke 16. And it was kind of a unique parable that, you know, don't see anywhere. I didn't say this last time, Jason, but it's also unique to Luke. And the reason that matters is Luke always has a little bit different perspective than the other gospel writers because he was a Gentile. And he was a physician.

And so you can just tell from reading this book, and we've been studied for a while now, that he just has a little different slant. So the things he puts in his gospel, he has the most unique parables of the other three. in terms of how he uses them. So I think, you know, he obviously did a lot of research and had a lot of conversations about things Jesus said. And so he's going to bring out some things in an interesting way. And so this parable, what makes it unique is it's Jesus uses it. And in his parable, there are some, there is a dishonest slash shrewd, depending on your wording you use, person.

Lazy. Lazy. Yeah, exactly. He got fired, as Jay said, the apprentice. So you had a lot of elements here that you would normally see. And so the controversy about it is Jesus seems to be complimenting the way the man did business. And so that bothers a lot of people, especially religious people. But as we discussed last time, he had a purpose in what he was saying.

Yeah. So the take was the reason Jesus was compliment him is he was just saying, even the world. recognizes survival and what's the next chapter. What about the future? This was a future-looking situation. This guy's losing his job. He's been a terrible employee. He's dishonest.

But he'd come up with a plan that he would cut all these debts in half, which I'm not sure what the master really thought about that. plan because he's only getting half his money back but he recognized the shrewdness of the manager who then was going to use those relationships his new best friends are all the people that he gave this discount to it's a it's a fire sale he basically invented uh what do they call it when there were clearance sales yeah so that's where you get that just take what you can get and then he would have relationships to start a new venture moving forward. And so then Jesus applies that to why wouldn't we as people of the light, as he referred us to, even though we're not very shrewd in the business

world, which I made a point to say, the reason we're not as shrewd as worldly people is we usually don't lie cheating still to get what we want. And I'm constantly bashing heads with people in the industries that I work with because they don't play by Christian rules. they'll just lie and cheat. It's hard to deal with people like that. So Jesus's application was, why wouldn't you use this earthly success as money, possessions, relationships, friends,

for heavenly business? Why wouldn't you use every resource you have? I mean, use it all up to get people to heaven, relationships that matter. So here was my, I didn't read these, on the last podcast, but being a preacher, I tend to lump things together in threes. So I have three principles from the story. One, kingdom followers should be eager, just as eager, and ingenious and relentless in their pursuit of kingdom advancement as the world is for money, possessions, and self-interest.

That was one thing. It was a link. He said, you should at least be as eager as they are about kingdom pursuits. Number two, how much we are able to handle in terms of little determines how much we were handled in terms of much. So he makes that point. And it sounds like he's making the point that both in kingdom living here as well as the next life. And then the last one, which is very clear in the text, and that's in verse 13, you can't

fully and devotedly serve God and money. And I think money in this context is a broader, you could broaden that out to, worldly gain, I would say. I mean, he focuses on money here, know that about it, but it could be anything that's worldly gain, I would call it. So that's, that's kind of this inevitable clash that's going to come at some point when you're a kingdom person between what's worldly and then what you know to be is what's godly and what's kingdom. There's always a clash at some point in our life that we're going to face, right? Where we have to make a decision, do I want to pursue that? or do I want to say no, I'm going to stay here and do something from the spiritual perspective instead of the worldly.

Yeah. So that's the three points that I got up. Well, I usually don't share. Yeah, I don't want to share this to act like I'm bragging or whatever. But I just think I thought about this in the last podcast and I didn't. But I think I'll share it because everybody's familiar with Larry Bowles because he's our only, what do you call him now? He's a contributor. He's a podcast contributor.

Yeah, I don't know what that means. That doesn't mean he gives money. No, I mean, he contributes his skills and his Bible knowledge, his content. That's right. Yeah, I knew you were going to say that, but I was tricking. So, look. You tricked me, Jay. Well, because when you say he's a podcast contributor, you're thinking, oh, well, how much does he give?

No, he's contributing things besides money. That's right. I just wanted to share the first time I met Larry Bowles. You probably are unaware of this, Al. The first time I met Larry Bowles. So I'm sitting at Phil and Kay. I always call it Feeling Cage Church. I'm not sure why.

So I'm there. And he was a guest speaker because they've always worked with him through the years as like a missionary. You know, he's a fireman from Oklahoma. This is kind of before his role got elevated. And look, I've had a terrible attitude sometimes when they have missionaries get up because I'm like, oh, here we go. You know, and now if they preach a sermon, I love it. But if it's just trying to get money. Well, yeah, trying to get money.

I thought, yeah, what do we need money for here today? And I'm repenting of it. You know, I shouldn't have that attitude. But old Larry got up there and shared Jesus in a powerful way. and mentioned what his ministry did. So I leaned over to Missy, and he didn't ask for a dime. They just said, here's a guy we're supporting, you know, and he preached. So I said, you got your checkbook there, babe.

And she said, you know, like typically anyone would, said, well, I don't think they're taking up contributions. I said, oh, I know. But I want to meet that guy because I really am inspired in what. what they're doing with because i liked how his mind thought he thought here's a place athens greece they have a refugee crisis he's coming in there and helping these people from all over the world and then sharing jesus with them oh i mean and the fact that he didn't ask me for any money i said that's why i want to give him some and so so she said well i mean i i think

that's awesome well then she was like well how much I thought, well, that's a really good question. How much? And I said, well, Matthew 28 going to the whole world. Of course, this is our conversation in the pew. Preach the good news to the whole creation. I said, then the next thing that happened, Peter shares Jesus and 3,000 respond. So I say, that way if he says Y-3,000, I can say, Acts 2 and, you know, 40.

Hey, let's start here. see where we go. So I'm not bragging that I gave, but in my mind, I heard something that it, and I heard the guy preach Jesus, and those two things connected with me. And I thought, here's an opportunity to do something, to gain a friend. And of course, eventually years later, I went with him to Greece. But so I just walked down there. As soon as he come down, he sat down, He sat down. I just walked and sat right beside him. I said, I'm Jayce Roberts.

And he said, I know who you are. I said, yeah, but I don't know you. I said, but after what I heard, I'm proud to meet you. And I want to, my wife and I want to support your ministry. He was surprised, wasn't it? Let's take a break. Why didn't you read? You should have thought about Exodus 12, 37 and 38.

I finally do a random active time and something I'm proud of and now I'm getting rebuked because my method was lacking. All right, go ahead. I want to hear this verse because I have a feeling that's going to have some more zeros on it.

Then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramsey to Sukketh about 600,000 men on foot besides children. So let me tell the good ones that. So let me tell, so the first time I met Larry Bowes, I think you were there, Jay.

So I didn't know that story. story, but it was probably later than that because he was at WFR. We were in the main room and he was teaching like a combined Bible class. It wasn't a sermon. It was a Bible class. And I'd never met him. I'd heard stories about him. I knew what he was doing.

I was kind of impressed with him without having met him. And so I'm sitting there and he gets up. And I'm kind of, you know, I love listening to people teach, but I mean, I've heard a lot of classes, you know, through the years. Well, he starts into the deity of Jesus. And in five minutes, I'm captivated. So I pull out my notebook and like I typically do, I start feverishly taking notes because I'm like, we need to do this on the podcast because this is some of the best stuff I've ever heard

in the deity of Jesus. And then he explained even why he teaches that in particular because how it impacts the Muslim world is establishing Jesus as the son of God. Because, you know, we have a shared history up until, you know, Abraham with these guys. So it's really interesting. But so I was so super impressed by his teaching ability that I began from that day to work in the process of having him more, which is what we have now. And also podcast contributors. So it was his, it was his theological approach that got me.

And of course, we've been supportive to him. By the way, there's a bunch of you out there in a shame nation because he told me every time he comes on. And he doesn't ask for money from you guys either, but that you always seem to find a way to. contribute to what they're doing. So we appreciate you for doing that. Yeah. And I wasn't trying to brag, but I was just trying to bring this point home in a practical way. I mean, when you look around even what's going on in Israel today and, you know, radical Islam is at war, you know, with the people of Israel and, you know, here's a guy down where he's dealing with all these refugees and the consequences of these kind of radical movements,

that are trying to kill anybody that's a Christian or kill anybody who's not with them. And all these thousands of people are pouring out of these countries. Well, here's a guy down here from Oklahoma who's a fireman. And trust me, when I went to Athens, Greece, it's anything but comfortable. I mean, it is an overpopulated, dirty, big city for a guy who's a country guy, who's 100% just doing that and risking his life. for the sake of Jesus. And to try, you know, the best way to combat these kind of radical ideologies is to share Jesus and convert them.

And look, they're converting them by the, you know, tons. And so I just really appreciate something like that. And I want to put my money behind it because to me that's something that's eternal that he's doing. And I think, you know, in a small way, it's a reflection what Jesus is saying. Because even in, you know, in worldly environments, if you can gain friends and gain trust and use those kind of ventures where money is involved or whatever to try to make Enrose into the kingdom and expand the kingdom and do something about the spiritual forces of evil at the same time, these are things I want to use my money for.

Yeah. Now, that's actually a great illustration, and it is exactly where we are in this context, because that's the point Jesus is making. You can't, and the key word there, he says it twice in verse 13, is you can't serve. You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and money. So the question then is that he's, again, remember it starts out? He says he's saying this to his disciples.

So he's telling him, you can't be dual. You can't be double-minded was the way James put it. James 1-8, James 4-8. He said, you have to be singular-minded on what you're going to do. And money is just a means, as you said, Jay, is to advance kingdom mindset and kingdom thoughts. I mean, that has to kind of us as disciples. So here's where we got to in the text, which will lead into what we're going to talk about today.

We get to verse 14. And so the Pharisees are listening. He's not talking to them, although to Dad's point earlier, it could be. be a directional dialogue moment because he knows they're listening. And so they immediately take offense because he's talking about them in sort of the negative way, at least from their perspective. It says the Pharisees who love money. And I can't have to think about Paul in 1st Timothy 6th when he says,

the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The Pharisees who love money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. And that Greek word there for sneering means to turn your nose up. It's a look of like disdain. And so that's what they had for him when he makes this concept about money. And so, Jay, you made this point in the last podcast. It obviously there's a link to the Pharisees about their view of money, which is very different than what Jesus led out.

And you articulated it well. They thought that when you had a lot of money, that meant you were super duper spiritual because God was just pouring it on. Where is this poor person over here? The reason they're poor and don't have anything is because they're cursed by God. They'll never have anything. That was their mindset as they viewed the world around them. So let me read this other verse.

And then that's going to set us up into why he comes up with kind of a strange interjection of a couple of things he does later. He says to them to the response here to the sneering. Remember, that's the wrinkled, crinkle nose. You are the one. ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's side. So I think he's taking on that exact notion that you mentioned.

And so then in the next context, he's going to deal with what they really believe and why that they do what they do. Let's take a break. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like what First John 215 says. I mean, we keep getting into this same principle. Are you obsessed with the temporary joys of life, the deceitfulness of wealth? You remember the parable of the sower, that third heart. These things choke it and make it unfruitful.

But we don't recognize it because we in our human minds are thinking, oh, boy, God thinks I'm one of the special ones, or I wouldn't be so successful. or you've just attached yourself from God and think you are a God. Because really kingdom, I mean, what does that mean? It means where the king is reigning. And so it's like for a practical illustration, if someone comes into your personal kingdom and you come home and there's someone in your house that you didn't invite

and they're rummaging through your stuff, Well, what happens? There's an altercation here because they have entered your domain without permission and they're dealing with stuff and taking stuff that doesn't belong to them. Just like, you know, if somebody grabs a woman's purse, what are you doing? That's mine. This is my kingdom. So you have a choice to make that illustration from a spiritual way to think this is all yours

or to look at it, you know, God's giving us everything, to go back to that quote from Luke 15 when he told the older brother. He's like, I was giving you everything and you don't realize it because you think it's somehow yours. And so that's how we got to view God as far as the heavenly. And if I read this 1st John 2.15, it explains it where it says, don't love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

for everything in the world the cravings of sinful man the lust of his eyes and then in this case this third one the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father but from the world the world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of god lives forever so basically you see that you're using the stuff of the world for things that will last forever I did note one thing. I've been poor. I mean just, I mean poor. For about half my life, and I've been rich on the other half.

We weren't like down to without food, but, you know, I'm commercial fishing. 30 cents a pound on the buffalo and goo and gar, and 70 cents a pound on. the catfish you got to catch a lot of fish said 70 dollars a tub full so at the time I didn't think we were poor we were eating we ate a lot of fish but but who were you really but who were you in that moment of your life who were you really trusting in above all else oh I trusted the almighty you said it a thousand times that I did that makes it he makes it he makes

makes a beautiful point because his kingdom mindset never changed. No. Whether he had the little or the lot, dad, you're this exactly the same. You're still living in the same house. You're still right by that same river. It's other than the menu. It doesn't seem a lot different. I think that if you read kind of this underlying thing, Jason, great, great parallel.

Was it John 2 you read? Yeah, 1 John 2. First John 2. that was great. But I was thinking what Paul said in Romans 1, kind of the same thing that the issue that they had was that they were focusing on the things that were created rather than the one who created them. So you think about in the context of these Pharisees,

I mean, he's really kind of addressing legalism here, which is really what is legalism? Legalism, all it really is, I mean, So it's trying to earn favor with God through some legal mean or performance-based metrics or whatever. But really what legalism is and the way it manifested itself in the Pharisees is that it was an emphasis on the superficial instead of what was underlying the superficial. We're going to give the appearance.

So the surface layer is going to look holy, but really we're just whitewashed tombs. We're not actually holy. And that's why when you, because you think about this whole thing here about this verse and this about marriage, I'm like, where did that come from? I mean, it kind of looks like out of context when he just randomly throws in this, oh, by the way, you know, what's the verse say right after that? So, yeah, let me read it because it's in context to your point, Zach, it makes perfect sense. If you aim this at being double-minded, he says he follows up that thing about them justifying themselves by saying, this way. The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. So he's talking about John the Baptist. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom is being preached, and everyone is forcing

his way into it. And I think he's talking about all these new people that are coming into the kingdom. So he's just done a huge thing right there. He's given them two eras, the era of everything before John the Baptist came, and now the era of everything that's coming next. And then he makes a point. it is easier for having an earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the law. So they've been rejectors of law from early, early on. Because remember I told you, these Pharisees go back 700 years. And then he brings up divorce and marriage, as is illustrated. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery.

And the man who marries a divorce woman commits adultery. And so he makes a point with that. But the thing about why that point, that point is because that's the one that they would, that was the, that was the one they were all violating, basically. That was the one that was just, oh, we're overlooked that. I think it's a mistake to read some of this stuff is, I say it's a mistake to read that only as, hey, what is the, what does the Bible say about divorce and remarriage? And then we go to a verse like this, we make a whole like, like doctrinal point out of it. We're missing what he's doing here. That's not, this isn't, I don't think this is Jesus giving us instructions about marriage.

marriage. I think what this is is him taking something that he knew these people had put all their hope on keeping the law superficially. And what he's saying is, you're not even doing that. I mean, like, you're, you people, you're the ones that are divorcing your, you're just throwing your wives away as soon as you find another woman. And like, he's just up in the ante. He's just saying, you're not even, you're not even keeping the law, first of all. Like, you come in here with your, with your superficial holiness, and even that you're not doing. And I think it's indicative that the law, or I should say legalism in the superficial mode of attaining righteousness, will never, it will never do anything to restrain the flesh.

It just will not work. And I think that's why Jesus is talking about a different kingdom here. And he's saying, what you guys are doing, that's not the kingdom of God is not a surface superficial virtue signaling. Let me look holy in front of everybody else, which you're not even going to do that. He's, it is much deeper. God wants to transform you into the image of the sun going back to a couple podcasts ago. That's the thing he's building towards that. And he's showing the futility of the superficial legalism that was so indicative and characteristic.

of the Pharisees. Jesus acknowledged on the Pharisees, you know, in the passage we read earlier in Luke, where he said, you give a tenth of everything you have, but then he like criticizes their justification.

Because under the Old Testament system, that was the norm. You gave a tenth of what you have, which is when you think about it, a pretty good deal from a godly perspective. If God gave you, you everything and he's asking for a 10th well if you had that business transaction you know i wouldn't mind that with the federal government if they just said everybody gives you know who's making

whatever over 50,000 dollars they give a 10th well everybody'd sign up for that twice on Sunday you know so it's not not like he was asking for the moon that's right they were even taking that and using it as a way to justify themselves and then taking the 90% and wasn't using it for godly things, but to make themselves, you know, look good. But I thought of a practical illustration. You took off from high school, basically, they every end. You get married. I mean, you're giving, in their case, it could still be going down.

Well, exactly. And they were just working it. They were working it. And so it made me think of the, I've shared this before, but, you know, I know a few Major League Baseball players. And, you know, Willie knows a bunch of them. And just from our show and being famous and you meet Major League Baseball players who duck hunt. But somewhere in there, one of the players said that, and he was kind of asking me, you know, and I forgot what the percentage was, but it was like 80, 90 percent of,

of the Major League Baseball players, once they retire, their wife leaves them. And he was like, you know, I just can't figure it out. And I'm like, well, I can figure it out. The well has stopped. The money, because then you get a divorce, get half. The money's gone and so is your woman. Once the money stops coming in, you're like, okay, well, now we can end this charade.

And give me half. and I'll move on and you can go find somebody else, which just shows you the arrangement that your marriage was in. It was more about money. I mean, the money came first than the relationship. And in a weird way, when I read this, I say, I see what Jesus' point was here. And another thing, Jay, is the 100% truism about divorce is divorce is far more expensive

than marriage, because the more you break down what you have into then two and then sometimes four and keep going, trust me, the money runs out much quicker. You know, people say divorce, you know, yeah, well, I had to get divorced. You know, it was a financial decision. Well, it was a poor one because it's always more expensive, which, by the way, goes back to the principal. I want to read this a couple of passages before we get to overtime because we're going to flesh this out some more.

of why Luke brings it up in this particular instance like he does. And it does seem rather random, as we said, but it's really not. So I want to read two passages out of Matthew 5 because what Luke did was he took a couple of principles from the sermon on the Mount and he sticks them in here. And I think Zach's right on the money about why he does it with the Pharisees and their legalism. But here's what he said in Matthew 517. This is the same thing that Luke is quoting, but it's a little bigger context. so it helps you understand a little bit better.

In verse 17, he said, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, which is what he says in Luke's version too. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So you get the idea here, the double-mindedness is a rejection of who Jesus is. That's why they're rejecting the kingdom.

I tell you the truth, unless heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen with any will by any means, disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. What's he talking about? He's talking about him accomplishing that. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So he's talking about this duality

again with the Pharisees. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees. So he's going to directly approach him in Matthew. and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of God. Now, that's pretty clear and pretty plain as to what he's talking about here in this double-mindedness. And interestingly, in the same sermon over in 531, he brings up marriage and divorce. He said it has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. And we'll get into that in the overtime way. He said that.

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife and he brings in except for marital and faithfulness causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. So Matthew is bringing up the same concept that Luke does, but remember of why he's bringing it up, which I think makes a lot more sense that, as we said, the topic is not marriage and divorce. It just fits into that because of their misunderstanding of kingdom and their misunderstanding now fulfillment of law and prophecy. Yeah, I agree. That is the context. think, you know, because everybody when they read this, they start asking questions. Well,

what does he mean? And so I think we can spend maybe the next podcast talking about that. I'll just listen to a really good sermon on this. And because a lot of people, there's so many questions that come up. And look, let's face it, divorce is always terrible. Yeah. It's just, we've all worked with people going through that process. And to say that it's difficult would be an understatement. And you have so many circumstances that come in, and there are so many questions. But I do believe Jesus does set a standard here

that's going back to creation itself about marriage. And the Pharisees were following all the rest of the law, their minds to the letter. But on this one, they had aired on the side of it was no big deal. And so he basically caught them in their own deceit. Right. They had a love problem, but it wasn't because they didn't love money. Well, yeah, they didn't love the father, which is what Jesus was introducing.

Their woman, I'm not sure they were really loving the girls. They were over-sending them off for every week. remember in this culture a woman just didn't have any kind of rights whatsoever and they were treated terribly and that's the heart of it yeah they were discarded for any and every reason which made them really vulnerable which is why paul addresses a lot of that in first and it's also why moses came up with this to begin with but we'll talk about that in the overtime as well as the next podcast so uh if you want to follow us over to our overtime segment to hear more about this blazedtiv.com slash unashamed is where we'll be.

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