Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 788 | Phil’s Book Collection Gets Looted & He Cracks the Guys Up with His Timekeeping Struggles

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

Phil cracks the guys up describing his struggles with time zones, daylight savings time, clocks, watches, and all things related to timekeeping. Phil is missing just one letter from his encyclopedia collection, and Zach has some good news about the award for this award-winning podcast. The guys talk about humbling ourselves before the Father and the importance of humility in prayer and attitude. In this episode: Luke 18, verses 9-14; 1 John 1, verse 5; 1 John 2, verse 3; John 8, verses 44-47 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to the award-winning, Unashamed podcast. Jay's hadn't thrown that in for a while. Just a reminder, we are the K-Love fan podcast of the year award winner. Rainy. I guess we hold it for, do we hold it for a year, Zach? I wonder if we're ever going to get the trophy. Does that thing wait about 60 pounds?

You know, it's funny. I thought the same thing, and I got, I just got an email two days ago and said, where do you want us to send the trophy? Ah. So, yep. So we're going to put it somewhere, right, I'm trying to look at, right, but that unashamed, somewhere on that bookshelf. Yeah, we've got to put it on the shelf back there.

Yeah. We'll put it next to that. Is that a duck or a goose that I'm looking at? That's a duck. It's right below. No, that's a goose. That's a goose. Oh, yeah.

That's the specklebelly. We may move the, now I'm looking to the side because I have a monitor right here. If you wonder, I can see better. I think we might put it right there where the encyclopedias are out. We might replace the encyclopedias. And you know the encyclopedias were an homage to Dad's research. That's how he does his research and development. Well, he could go right at the top there with the, I like the Encyclopedias.

Phil is trying to bring those back. but I just don't think I wouldn't invest in that business no I wouldn't be so bold as to say you can put them on the shelf where everybody to see them no I just do that you know when you get in the bind and you want to see what you hear something happen well that's your version of the internet because in your house they're on the floor they're literally right there on the floor by the fireplace they're not on a shelf if I remember correctly correct the encyclopedias are just scattered up on the floor yeah close close to three four steps why to get over and look. Somebody run off with one of them, so I can't find anything that begins with C or whatever it was. Somebody done scarfed up C, so I get to that, and I'm out of that way. A, B, D, E, F, I said, whoa, whoa, here. There's a hole in badge research. Looking for C, you never found it.

That's funny, Phil. So you know all about history concerning anything except things that started with the letter C. I'm out. This quiet. So, so, Dad, so we were, we flew in from, we had an appearance in Vegas. And so we flew in late Saturday night. And we had been just having this whole discussion on the plane because it was very confusing. I admit, and it was really confusing mom and dad because we were flying two hours to Pacific time and then back.

So, you know, you had a two hour time change going out there, going backward in time, and then coming back, we were going back forward. And then also it was daylight savings time on top of that, which was actually to our advantage because we had this super long all day trip to do this event. So you'll know, I've spent the last three days trying to rectify what some food did. Okay, we're over here. We went across. We're across the mountain range. Okay, that's another hour ago. So you've been recovered.

Before you get back, you've got to drop an hour, cut an hour out. Well, we come rolling in about 11 o'clock, but actually it was 10 o'clock. So I get over there, you know, and I'm going. around it, but I noticed I got clocks up on the wall, and it was the biggest mess. I didn't get the job done. I said, well, forget the time, you know, forget all this, these little arrows where it's pointed. And I had Dan, Dan that came down. I got a computer on his left hand, and he's going around.

But it took his computer to get it all lined out. Now it's 10 o'clock. All of them say the same thing. I said, it took three days to figure it out. But I knew, I knew this was going to happen. So on the plane, I was like, okay, Dad. So Jersey Joe is taking you a mom home because it was late night. And we've had issues before with mom and dad late night.

So they have to have somebody to get them home now. But I said, let Joe go in and change all your clocks. Because if not, you're going to wind up sitting for an hour and a half in front of your teaching thing tomorrow morning. because I knew this was going to happen. Yeah, yeah, we got it. We got it. So next day, I check on them. And, of course, dad's sitting in his truck for an hour and a half.

I'm sitting in my truck for one hour because I misinterpreted, you know, taking that hour away somehow. So I pull up. I said, I said, don't look like many people showing up this morning. I was the only car in the whole parking lot. So I looked around and I said, well, you know, I'm sitting here by myself, you know, I took my pistol. Got it ready, got it in my lap, and I just sat there. After a while, a vehicle pull up.

Well, maybe. So here, I wanted to tell the story. My truck clock was saying, I was an hour off too. Well, I didn't remember to get out there and get in your trucks and you change that one. So that was an hour. I said, boy, it's a free hour. It's a free hour. It's the one moment in time.

besides when you fly back from Atlanta to Monroe that you experience the eternal God because you take off at 1015 and you land at 1015. That's not good for the human mind. So let me give it the person. That's why I know there's going to be no clocks in heaven. Rooves, time. So it reminds me of that old rock and roll zone. Does anybody really know what time it is?

Chicago. No. Not any of it. I mean, it's just. God now. Arizona. But the way we count time, human beings, it's a crazy way to count time. Yeah.

Especially you say, well, I know that's been for 12 months. That's been 10 minutes after two. But as of right now, okay, now it's an hour. earlier. I'm like, what? Yeah, it's really not. We just try to wrap our heads around it by attaching real. I mean, you know, I'm not sure. And we thought, I thought Congress was, our great Congress was supposed to fix all this by passing the Sunshine Protection Act. That's what I heard. So the Senate, the Senate passed it. The House didn't shock her.

Phil, you should go to Washington and present your idea of time. I think it's great. I think there's five of them. You have the middle of the night, before daylight, sun up, midday, mid-day, and right before dark. That's basically what you use. That's your five. It's wonderful. I think it's something that could unify people, too.

I always look for things. What can we rally around? What can we agree on? This is something we can agree on. the fewer individuals who never got around to buying a watch. No. They said, well, what time you want to be there? I say just before daylight, just after daylight, you know, late in the evening,

just before dark, just after dark. The problem is one up in the morning. Every time I've ever met you, though, in town somewhere, it was always confusion. I know. Because there was no time. I've had a big time, by a big time. I've had a hard time fooling with time. Yeah.

Because I've noticed if Phil shows up, it may be me. What time it is, he'll just leave. And so I was trying to explain that to Jay because he tries to organize the duck guns. And he'll say, okay, everybody, you know, be there at 5.30.

But Phil will get here at 515 and leave. So you're like, well, it's not even 5.5. 30. Yeah. But it feels like, well, how come y'all were late? I'm like, well, we weren't late because the meeting time was 5.30. But Phil said, no, you were late because I left without you. But I'm like, well, you left at 515.

You don't remember that? It's happened many times. That's one of many troubles I've run into over counting time, keeping time. It just doesn't make any sense to. me. If you move the numbers around, you just move the arrows around. You bump it and you can move it a little bit. Well, you must that path. Well, see, I thought I had a plan because I anticipated all this. I knew it was coming. And I was even under the weather, but I knew this was coming. And so I had it lined up. I had Joe, he was going to do the time for you. He gets out there

and he's going to go in the house to change your clocks back for you. And mom tells Joe, she says, oh, no, no, no, I can handle it. I'll take care of it because Phil doesn't like anybody in our bedroom. And that was it. So my plan was thwarted because mom put the stiff arm to Joe. She was going to handle it. And apparently it didn't get handled. That was a bad move when that woman started handling time.

Exactly. So I guess that's the deal. But it was, I knew it's good. I just anticipated. I didn't know you were still fighting the battle. But now everything's good. All the clocks are where they should be and you're good to go. Is that what I'm understanding?

Overall, I'm, you know, working in the system on how to count time. Overall, I'm very rarely do you see me being late somewhere? No, that's true. You're not late. It's a rare thing to see me late. Right. Unless you missed a memo somewhere. Yep.

Well, it's interesting, Dad, because one of your main talking points when you're talking about Jesus is time. Because you talk about us counting time by Jesus. So I think you're just a big picture time guy. That's the difference in you. You don't really get down to the hours and minutes. You're more of an era's or part of. parts of the day. No,

feels more about we count time. The only time he talks about counting or time is, he says, we're counting time by Jesus. You know, I think you never got past that. That's right. I didn't.

You're ready to go to Luke 18? We've, well, spent quite a bit of, we got camped out on Luke 17. I'm not going to tell you why, because that'll create another rabbit hole wheel. Every rabbit,

every rabbit house. We've gone down. It's been a whole podcast. Yeah. Well, we brought up this idea of prayer and kind of how it relates to God being eternal and we're not. So that kind of goes in with the time analogy. Yeah. I mean, I think about the mayflies because we see them every year.

You know, their lifespan is one day. Let me just think about that. Yeah. So you think you got problems. I mean, their whole lifespan is 24 hours. I mean, you see them every year in May. That's why they call them Mayflies. And there's just tens of thousands of them hanging on the bushes.

If you hit the bush, they just explode all over you. And they just, they only exist for one day. They go out, drop their eggs and then die. And then the process. It's the biggest fish feeding day, the Almighty can, you know, how you feed your fish in a fish. of fishbow that the almighty constructed that one.

The biggest fish feeding day in the year, I guess, is the day they all lay their eggs and, I mean, the fish love it. Yeah. So compared to the mayfly field, you're rolling. Yeah. You know, if you think about it,

when we look in the fall of the year, we wait on these big herds of ducks come in great distances, but it's all based on time. they'll they begin to they begin to leave i don't know whether it's just because the weather gets so cold i don't think so i mean even you think about the like this year they'll walk around on ice but they won't move but most of them but at some point they're moving they move it's like the uh study they did on the arctic turns or whatever where they blindfolded on oh yeah and they

some of them went down to the same tree that they're at the end of the same tree that they're ancestors went down. They were blind folded. I mean, how does that happen? It was just that time, and that's what they're going to do. Oh, yeah. Now, you know, that might have came from, I don't know what, what do you always say? It's some kind of saltwater evolving system.

I don't know how they know that. Yeah, what department in saltwater came up with that? Let's take our first break. So we're talking about prayer. They're going to get back to Luke 18 today. there were we talked about we led into this luke 18 prayer by looking at the luke 11 prayer and the way i kind of broke it down was the first one was kind of the what we pray for when jesus was laying out his example in luke 11 and then i think you know it's the why of it

is this first one about the persistence you know why we pray because jay said this on a couple of podcasts ago that this is one of the rare parables where Luke actually gives you the reason why, because it says he told his disciples to show them that they should always pray and never give up. So that's, that's kind of the why of prayer. You don't ever want to bail. You just want to be consistent, be persistent in your prayer life. And we talked a little bit about that on exactly why he lays that out. And then he comes to this next story, which we'll talk about today. And I think that, This is more the how of the prayer is the one we get to in verse nine,

because here we see an example of two different approaches to prayer. And it's kind of a consistent theme that's been coming up. Because you remember back in Luke 15, we show Jesus starts out. He's eaten with sinners and tax collectors. And the Pharisees questioned that. And they've been doing that throughout the book of Luke. And so now in this last little vignette about prayer and sort of how you go about it, he's going to make that same comparison. So let me read it and then we'll break it down.

This is Luke 18, verse 9. Verse 9. So remember he's just come off of the persistent prayer. And then he comes back to this in verse 9. He says, to some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on. everybody else. So again, Luke gives us a little, you know, then diagram here of who he's talking about. Jesus told this parable. So he's aiming this at people who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee

and the other a tax collector. The Pharisees stood up and prayed about himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulters, or even like this tax collector. So he's not only making a reference argument, he's actually pointing at a guy. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. And then verse 14, Jesus says, I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted.

So that's kind of the layout of this sort of how we go about prayer. But then it's so much more than that because it also just kind of goes into the what your outlook on Jesus is and how you tend to live your life. And about whether I'm a self-exaltor or whether I humble myself before God. Man, I think that hits to the core of a lot of us, right? I mean, that's the dichotomy, by the way, of the world and life in Christ is, one is exalting self, which is futile if you think about it. But the other is the reality is you exalt Christ and you live in that. And so, I mean, yeah, I mean, I think that that's the thing that's hard for us, though, because it's, you know, to, to let down yourself is, I guess, I guess it's offensive.

You know, I think we take offense to it when it's like, it's not about you. You know, the book that, what's the guy, the purpose driven life, one of the biggest books ever written. I love that first line. The first line of the book is, it's not about you. And it's just a great line, but it, like, I think it hits to the core of what our problem is because we want to make it about us when, and that's really is our problem, that we're making it about us when it's not primarily about us.

about him and then how we matter is who we are in him. So I love this picture that's being painted here. This is the message, 1 John 1, verse 5. This is the message we've heard from him and declare to you. God is light. In him there's no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

but if we walk in the light as he's in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus his son purifies us from all sin if we claim this is interesting if we claim to be without sin i i can think of what i said during a sermon sunday morning i did mention the fact that i couldn't remember how long ago but it's been years years and years and years years. Y'all here are witnesses. I raised you, J-Siu and Al. But how many times did you ever hear me curse? How many, Al? It's been a long time. After Jesus? When's the last time you heard me say a cuss word? Yeah, I can't remember, so that's been a while. Well, so, but here's the problem. Children.

I hate to put a time on it, Phil, since you have such a disdain for time, but I would say decades. So decades. So when I'm talking to people who are thinking about coming to Jesus and they hear me say, I said, things like cursing. I said, you can train yourself to where you don't curse anymore, ever. You just don't do it. I said, you'll get a lot further working with your neighbor if there's no profanity. there. But if we claim to be without sin in the midst of all that, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. So he said, you're not going to get to where, I mean, I said, well, the blood of

Jesus removed all of them. But if we claim to be without, well, I don't cuss anymore. But there may be some shortcoming somewhere else, but we all make mistakes. I think that's what he's saying, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. So that tells me we all, in some form or fashion, make mistakes from time to time. I could be wrong. Then y'all hammer it. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just, and we'll forgive us our sins, and purifies from all unrighteous.

There's something about if you live the way. you live because of God and he told you that, he said, live, live like that, somehow there's a difference in that and feeling that you're better than someone else because you don't use profanity anymore. Somewhere in that, if we claim we've not sinned, we certainly have never done that. We just made a movie on it. We make him out to be a liar, God, and his word has no place in our lives. I write this to you, so you won't sin.

So that's the goal. We're back where we started. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ's the righteous one. He's the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only for ours, but also for the entire world. I've often read that and said,

what exactly? He said, your sins will be forgiven, and you don't run around if somebody knows you, they say, well, they know whether you're sinning or not. They can spot you a mile off. It'll show up. But for the ones where it doesn't show up, you're like, I don't know. I mean, first of all, don't say you don't sin, but when you do sin, it's not counted against yourself.

So somewhere in there, you need some comfort. I mean, some righteous company. So I'll use what your illustration is there to apply into this text. So you've trained yourself and by the power of God to not use offensive language. So if someone came into your house, you said, hey, come on in. And then they said a curse word. You said, hang on. Let's pray for a minute here.

Father, I just, I'm grateful that I'm not like this sad sack that just walked into my house and said a curse word because I don't curse. And you made a comparison to a guy who hadn't even met yet, or, you know, he's obviously not, he's still in the world. Then that would be highlighting exactly the kind of attitude that Luke is laying out here for what Jesus is saying in this parable. You're not trying to elevate yourself. You're saying, hey, we want to help this guy understand how he can be better. And you can't do that by comparing yourself to all men. I don't, I'm not ashamed of somebody that comes in and they curse. Right, because you know they don't know.

That's right. So I'm not, I don't, I don't overreact. I mean, I hear, you know, as you hear people cursing money, you know, but I don't pay, I don't, I don't hold that against them. Right. I share Jesus with them, but I don't nail them on it, in other words. You see what I'm saying? Right. Yes.

And that's the point of the parable. is that this guy, in his prayer to the father, is comparing himself to other people saying, I'm glad I'm not that guy. And it's just, it's the worst possible way to present yourself to anybody, but especially to the Almighty who knows you. I mean,

to, to profess in conversation of the Almighty, the sins of others, instead of being humble, I mean, to me, it's so egregious. It's a bad,

it's a bad reference point. It's always going to either you're going to elevate yourself, but the problem is, is that you're, if you understand the concept of human depravity, you're basically comparing yourself to the bottom of the barrel so that you can be like, oh, I'm not that bad, but in comparison to what or in comparison to who, one of the things that the gospel does is, it puts you in a comparison to who God is. And when that's your comparison, there is no elevation of self in that moment because you see his holiness and then you see, therefore, your lack of holiness and how far away you are, not just from his power, but from his goodness. And I think that's the, where the gospel. I mean, mistakes will be made for all the followers of Jesus. Yeah, for anybody. time. I mean, yeah, I mean, we're all, I think,

but how do you reimagine? I think pure holiness, Jesus Christ, come in human form and never made a mistake. That's quite the, that's quite the reputation. Yeah. I mean, you know what I'm saying? I mean, he never made a mistake.

And he's telling you how to live. Well, the reason I believe in Jesus, I don't think men could have, could have invented Jesus, someone who was like that, and tell the story about him. On every issue that comes up, they're just about everything a human being can run into, and you're not on the other side thinking I'm saved,

and my sins have been washed away. Well, I tell you, not if you combine all the prophecies and just even the lineage, and you just couldn't have, you couldn't have dreamed it. I mean, even people don't believe in God do say the Bible is the greatest literary work of all time. No, they may, you know, I'm like, well, obviously God would be the best author. But they're like, well, we may not believe it's true, but it was a great work. It was not very, very well. But, Jay, there's also, think about this, there's a little subtle, which we've been talking about this for the last multiple podcast,

there's a subtle little thing that he lays in here about where does this happen two men went up to the temple to pray so it puts in this it that's what i was gonna say see i think we're we already know how this end so we immediately jump to the end but if you've had a panel and you had you know a con let's just say a woman for context or whatever who you know who you know was a prostitute or whatever or even a con man and then you got a preacher whose life is good I mean this guy wasn't like he couldn't back it out there's giving you no impression well you know 90% of the people would you say which one's going to heaven which one is going to hell well we're all picking this guy in the robes over here who's quoting verses and stops the proceedings to pray and he's fasting and you because you know these tax collectors i did a little a little search on that but they were notorious for being sexually immoral because they were using their money and they were getting their money from a lot of dishonest ways and cracks in the system

and then using that as power to do whatever they and manipulate whatever their pleasure desired you know The sin part is this. Now, he kind of reaches another whole group of individuals. We know, this is 1 John 2, verse 3. We know in lieu of what we read over there in Matthew or Luke, we know that we have come to know him. He say, so you'll know if you've come to Jesus. We know that we, if, if, there's an if there, if we obey him.

commands. The man who says, I know him, I know God, but does not do what he commands. Now we're in another group because it's it's he's zoning, he's zoning down and taking a close look at whether you know God or whether you don't know God when determined how you behave. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. So out of all the things he could say, it is pretty amazing. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. So we're reading text and we read them and we get behind the one we're reading about and we say Jesus number one somehow in that you can be in a safe spot it's safer that that if you're known to follow Jesus then it's I don't say I mean I'm not that bad but you

but you don't follow Jesus well what sins you have but maybe not be as many as the next man but we all have them. Yeah. Well, he's just trying to get the system by which the more commands you keep, the more favor you should receive, which is a wrong way to look. That's right. I think that's why the proximity is so important. Let's take another break.

Well, that's what I was going to say, Al, when they, I was doing the panel first, but I'm saying this is not in my panel. This is a church setting. You know, they went to the temple. And so if you had to be forced to pick out which one is going to be saved, we're not picking the tax collector, you know, the Swindler, who's just had a party and a harem the night before, you're just not picking them.

That's right. You're going to pick the guy. But when you start breaking down his problem, you notice Jesus quotes him as saying, I, two, many times three, four, five times, or four times, because he's like, thank you that I'm not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this here, tax collector, who probably, you know, was a bunch of those things. But then I think you see his twisted mind because then, now we all know about those things.

If you rob somebody, you know that's wrong, adultery, evil doers. But then he put something that, you know, we consider as optional, you know, fasting. I mean, it's a good thing to do and it's encouraged. But there's no set of rules. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you're supposed to fast twice a week as a New Testament Christian. But I'm saying... Or you don't know Jesus. But he's equating that on the level of not...

sinning also not not i mean look it's one thing to not do sin and think you should receive god's favor it's another thing to take things that are matters of the heart and you then say that you're better than another human because you pray more or you fast more i mean that's what he was doing sure so it was it was really all about him and the point was it said to some who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everybody. But I think it's a bigger problem than we think because I think every human has somewhere deep down inside of him

this drive to be noticed, to be approved, and to think we're better than other people. It's just we all are going to struggle with that from when we're kids to where they put us in the grave. We want to be glorified. And especially other people's view of these people, you know, like how you view them. Because you think about it, it's really interesting because the tax collector doesn't go. He goes up to the temple, but say he stood at a distance.

So he didn't go in. Well, he's a shame. He's a sinful. Yeah, he realizes the Lord is near. Exactly. And in that humility, when he just says, have mercy on me because I'm a sinner, it's interesting that Jesus uses the word, who went home justified. And this is where I think this is more of a subtle little view of a head. We've been having this whole discussion about the temple that a man who is self-righteous and compares himself to other men to determine

his righteousness instead of his humility toward God, winds up in a sense. situation where he's in the temple and everybody would think he's the man, but instead, it's the other guy who wouldn't even go in the temple who is justified because of his humble heart towards God. So if this isn't a little subtle picture of what Jesus is bringing to the table, I don't know what is. This shows you the flip about what's going to happen when it comes to having the right heart or to be in the right place. That's the difference. John 8, Jesus is talking to the people and the heading above the verse here is the children of the devil if god were your father you would love me for i came from god and now i'm here i have not come on my own but he sent me why is my

language not clear to you and he's fixing to uncork where all the source of evil is Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil. Now, when you get to this level, it's sad. And you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there's no truth in him.

So there's Satan that has entered this equation when it comes to sin. when he lies he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies yet because i tell you the truth you do not believe me can any of you prove me guilty of sin which in all the verses in the bible that one there can any of you prove me guilty of sin the answer is no if he's sinned where if i'm telling the truth why don't you believe me he who belongs to god here's what god says the reason you do not hear is that you don't belong to god now that right there when you think about if you say you've never sinned you say well i don't sin as much as i used to Yeah, it doesn't matter.

We're all centered. That's the big cover up. Most people who give an image like this, they're trying to cover up what they know deep down, is that they're sinful just like me. There's only one. You're right. Only one adult could have ever said, can you prove me guilty of sin? That's why I like self-deprecating humor.

You know, I find it funny. We were watching football game last night, and they had, it was some ESP. commercial. But they were taking, I mean, they had like a line of people and they were like trying to,

what you call it when you're trying out for a job? Like a job interview? Yeah, it was like job interviews. And so this guy had a Baltic Celtics and they're like, well, you're not on the list.

And he was, he said, you know, he was Jason somebody. Well, I'd never heard of him. And so finally he said, It's with a why, you know. And so he's like, oh, oh, I see here. Well, then I looked him up and the commercial went off, you know.

And I was like, well, he won. He was like NBA, whatever, player of the year or whatever, the Eastern Conference. I was like, never heard of this guy. But I thought, I like him because he agreed to do a commercial and make fun that nobody knew who he was. You know? And Mr. and I were talking about that. I said, well, what a refreshing commercial. Because usually it's, I'm the greatest, I'm the best.

I'm not like these other mere earthlings. And even with the explosion of social media about getting likes and followers, and now they'll pay you if you get this many people, you know, if you can command attention. Well, you know what that does to people and that deep down inside of us who we want to glorify ourselves? It's like dumping gas on a fire. Yeah. because I do think that that's our problem where we try to cover up our flaws and our mistakes,

but just through old-fashioned self-exaltation and marketing. Because you think about it, most people who come across like this or have the little sports car, it's nothing wrong with having a sports car, you know, but they just have the look. It's usually how it starts off on one of these crime shows, you know, where he's going down the road. And, you know, it's just, it just goes horribly wrong. He said, what happened?

He's just a sinner like everybody else in its illusion. Because obvious things, you know, you don't go around and tell people, you know, like if you're tall, you don't say, hey, I'm tall. Well, we see that. You don't do that because it's obvious. We go around and we try to act like something we're not. And when you do that in the church, it's the most dangerous place you can be

and you see this because most people, even though we read this and say, oh, I'm like this tax collector, but we're really not. You know, the humility that he was showing

is something that, you know, it's hard to get off a piece of paper, you know, when you're reading this. But there's, that's why he gets to the end, speaking of time,

just give the Pharisee time and what was going to happen. He was going to be humbled, which goes back to our whole idea of God's eternal and we're not. I mean, you know, God is just as good no matter how much time passes. But we're not. I mean, the more time you give us, the worst things are going to happen. And I'm saying, especially if you're separated from God. Yeah, I was going to say, too, I mean, even what we've been talking about with this idea of,

temple must being a temple and like what is that because i think you get into that discussion why does it matter where did this guy go what does it say in the text how which one the one that you did that you just read that to say he went into the temple yeah i mean two men went up to the temple the the the Pharisee goes in but the other guy stands that are distant yeah so think about the that what even just this idea that what's happening here is a picture of you can do the right things. Same thing with the rich young ruler, right? I've done all the things. I've kept the law. I've kept the commandments. I've done all the external things. I've obeyed God. But I think what this is getting to is what is the core of the obedience? Is the core of your obedience some kind of superficial earning that, and think about what the temple is? I mean, that's a very superficial external. I can put my hand on it. I can touch it. But it's it's the external. It's not about the

land. It's not about the actual stones. It's not about the actual borders. It's not about the external things that you're doing as much as it is about what is in your heart. And I think Phil was reading earlier out of, was that 1st John, 2nd John? Or about his 1st John, I mean, one of the things I think, and I don't have in front of me, I think it even says there, his commandments are not burdensome. And that shows the nature of the type of obedience that I think God's calling us to. It's the obedience of faith that Paul says he came to bring the Gentiles to, the obedience of faith, which is an obedience of faith means that I actually see the commandments is not burdensome. These are not begrudging submissions on our part.

That's not what this is. This is not us submitting to God, doing the right things, checking off the box, stacking up our points. That is not what God is calling us to. God is calling us to live and abide in him. So all of this really flows back into this temple idea that it's presence. It's us walking with God, being with God, experiencing intimacy with God, to where our desires and our hearts and our wants are shaped. And we want something or rather someone different than the lives of the world.

And I think that's the core of what's going on here. I think it's like the saying goes. You've got one trusting the plan of salvation and another trusting the, person or the man of salvation. The tax collector was looking at a living being that is all knowing and knowing his heart. And he's crushed by the way. He's been operating, which is something we all have to do at some point in our life when we come to God.

We've got to be honest. That's it. And you don't have to, he didn't have to be inside that temple to come to this realization. And I think that's a key point. I think back of what David said in Psalm 51, when he was unleashing his own humility out of being a hypocrite and a sinner, he said in verse 16, you do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burn offerings. Your deeds, all these things you're going to bring forward just because they're what you should be doing. He said, you don't want that from me.

He said the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh, God, you will not despise. So David was saying in that moment, you want my heart to be seeking you in my own sinfulness as opposed to me just doing all the deeds that I'm supposed to be doing, burning the sacrifices going to the temple. So even David, who is this, he was saying this a thousand years before Jesus is telling this parable, realized as a sinner what he was talking. about and this was the king of Israel. So, I mean, it shows you God has always desired the heart over going through the motion. Which is what we point to in this podcast all the time. Jason, I love when you do this a lot. We're pointing to a person that the whole of the scripture, all of it is, is coalescing into the person of Jesus. That is what he said when he met with the Pharisees. You know, you studied the scriptures. You think,

that by them you're saved, but they're all pointing, it's all coming back to me. I am the way, the truth of life and nobody comes to the Father except for me. I think that's why it's, when you talk about Jesus in terms of like, do you come to Christ, we're not offering a pragmatic solution. We're not saying, come to Jesus as a, this is a great way to get your life right. That's not what to, no, this, we're saying that Jesus is the author and the perfector of our salvation. He is a personal God. He is a God with a mind. He is a God that's, I mean, this is not an idea. Have you notice, Jack, live their life patterned by Jesus, it is a, you run into fewer sins from the people around you.

Well, it does work. I think that's the thing. It does work, but it's, it only works. You can get the benefits of the kingdom. I think it's possible that people could get the benefits of the kingdom by following the principles of the Bible. But here's the, but then you're faced with this reality. I'm still going to die, and then what?

And so it's not just a temporary solution, although these principles work because they're rooted in reality, rooted in truth, but it's more than a principle. It's more than like, I hate the term like Christian values. I hate people use that because it's almost like, these are just some ideas, these are some good ideas that God came up with. And, you know, if you go by these Christian values and principles,

no, it's, we're talking about a person here. Well, we're talking about the lordship of Jesus. We're talking about coming to the king of kings and saying, you're king, I'm not. Oh, it's so tempting. Yeah, it's so tempting to go to the deeds. And you say, well, I have it. Look how much less I've sinned.

But try that in marriage. I mean, ask your wife, give me the top 10 things you want me to do and you do it. And let me know how that works out. Number one, you're not going to be able to do them. You're not going to pull it off. And number two, when you do, you're going to be so puffed up with self-exaltation. And she's not going to be able to stand. She don't want to hear about it anymore.

You know, so it's like, I mean, that's something I've had to work out, you know, because my wife would be like, look, babe, you know, great. Why do you have, you don't have to tell me every time you do something awesome. You don't have to tell me about it. I was there. I saw it. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm being very transparent because that tends to what we want to do.

It's like we either go too high. or too low. You know, I'm worthless. You know, now the tax collector was humble, but he was heading in the right direction. He was wanting to humble himself before the Lord. But, you know, the evil one uses that with equal enthusiasm, saying you're worthless.

But now, especially in our culture now, it's way too high. It's, oh, we can be what we want to be. No, you can't. I mean, it sounds great. Be what you want to be. Yeah, that's not going to work. So, and we're out of time. We're head over to overtime, but I'll say this as we leave out.

He said he was justified. The Pharisee was justifying himself. Jesus said God was justifying the sinner because of the heart. So I'd rather be justified by God than by myself. So we're going to head into overtime. Talk a little bit more about this. This is really interesting context, and especially as he moves forward into another story about the Rich Unruly we'll get to in the next podcast.

So we'll see you in overtime blazedtv.com slash unashamed. 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 BlazeTV at blazTV.com. slash unashamed.