Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 858 | Phil Sneaks Up on His New Bidet & Jase Doesn’t Believe In ‘Enhanced’ Bathroom Experiences

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

Phil gets a new piece of bathroom hardware he’s immediately suspicious of, but Jase finds the whole mental picture hilarious. Jase recalls Rucker’s hiring at Duck Commander, even though the first thing he said during his interview was “I’m a convicted felon.” The guys conclude that the best way to stay away from sin is to spend your time chasing Jesus and use the evidence from the story about Philip to propose ideas about the urgency of baptism. In this episode: Acts 8; 1 Peter 2, verse 1; Jonah 1, verses 1-3; 2 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. Dad, I got a call from Jersey Joe. Said he was doing a little bit of installation work at your house this past week. Commode, I went by there, you know. I was looking at it like as a rattlesnake. You have a self-washing commode? I'm sitting there, you know, just a wall of things you can make happen. It's pasted till the door, head high.

I messed the memo on this. Water on your butt. You want water here, water there, just punch this and get back, hold on. Well, why would you buy something? I waited by the left and snuck back in there. And I said, good grief. I said, boy, they're making a new, new world out of a commode. Phil, why, how do you have this?

I just looked up and I had somebody. up there nailing, screwing, and trying, you know, and I, what are you doing? And I said, wait, who, I was trying to slow him down. But Jersey was doing the, all the work that I was just watching him. Well, most people, I started to ask him, did you check with somebody before you do this? That's what I mean. How does this get the okay? Most people have a plumbing problem. Well, what got me was I reached up on the wall and he said, just matter. this one and this one. You have two choices out of about 15 things.

And I went back. I waited to ever, I cleared out, and I just would punch. I looked down there the first time, and I saw a pipe moving my way. I'm like, whoa. I hope that don't slide off. Wow. That's the first time I was. I finally found out the Chinese and the Japanese were about.

I know, the old thing. They built it. They got us again, yeah. So, I'm sorry. Wow. I knew all I had to do was ask the question. He said it was like a rattlesnake. How did you hear about this, Al?

Well, Joe, so Lisa bought mom a bidet. What's he called? It's what's called? A bidet. A bidet? A bidet. What's the spell? That's French.

The I, D-I-D-E-T. It's actually French in nature. I think they came up with it. The French came up. The French. came up with it. But the French came up with it, but I guess it was probably made in China. I'm sure Dad's right about that.

B-A-D-E-T, I think. What? B-I-D-E-T. I never heard of this. So, yep, there it is. She got it from mom, but mom has been, you know, been sick. We talked about this before, and so she still hadn't gotten back home yet. She's now in a rehab getting stronger.

Should be on this week, Lord willing. Thank you for the prayers, everybody. So Joe wanted to make sure and get this installed before she got home. So, you know, Dad's been Bachelor here for a few a week, so he didn't know about this. And so Joe, who is quite handy, went out. And he told me he laid it all out on the table, all the parts and everything. And he said, Dad came in. He said, Dad looked at it.

And he said, what's this? And he told you. And you looked at it and said, huh. And you went over and sat in your chair. He said, you never came back over, but you just kept looking over there every once in a while when he was putting it all together. But he told me a little bit about Dad's initial reaction to it. I just, I thought it was really funny because I knew this was going to, you know. But we have one too, but I've always been a little cautious about it, too.

I just typed it in there. It's like the top five advantages. Better hygiene. Yeah. Limits germ spread. enhance your bathroom experience. Don't what is that? Enhanced your bathroom experience.

They just, all right. Does it need to be enhanced? We've got two positives and just a random statement. I've taken many, many, many, many, many, many dumps in the years. The best leaf tree is a, it's a big acon tree. That big acon tree gets the best leaves. That needs to be your best book. You stop, you need to look up and see what kind of trees up forever because that's a wide leaf tree.

You need a coffee table book that just describes that leaves in the woods, putting in sporting goods. This is the first time I've ever seen pipes. But this is... I'm coming my way and not that far away. The dad's in the woods. That's a paday, not a bidet. It's better for the environment. Because you don't use the toilet paper, yeah.

It's four. And it could lower your wrist for hemorrhoids. So there you go. And I've heard that from people, which is why, yeah. Thanks. There you go. Okay. Well, look, they're not cheap.

I'm looking at them. No, it was a nice gift. They're expensive. It was a nice gift for mom. But it'll be great for her and where she's at. I wouldn't have done it, but. Yeah. Well, the fact you went along with it shows that you're mellowing.

It took him about 45 minutes. 45 minutes. He had it finished and ready to go. I thought he was a software band. Oh, he's an air. Everything, man. He can cook. He can put in bidets.

He does software. The man can do anything. It's a computer whiz. Computer whiz. And he passed that on to his son, and I'm praising God every day for that because his son is married my granddaughter. And so that means that sort of ability will now be at my house, which is very much. He fixed my truck the other day in 10 minutes. That's right.

It was going to cost me about $1,000. He did it for 10 minutes. Oh, I know. So the man's handy. So, Jace, what did you do? Well, there's nowhere to go from here, but up. I figure we better start there. Then we've got to work our way.

I feel like we need a transition that's not. We've got to have like some intermediate conversation before we move into the. Yeah, well, Jay said. Well, I spoke at Celebrate Recovery Friday, our local chapter of that. It was packed, raucous. I love the, I love the crowd. I do that ever so often. It's fantastic. By the way, we've been doing CR for 20 years at WFR. I think this year is our 20th year. And I mean, we have the, if not the largest, the second largest settlement in the whole North American continent is right here in West One. It's about 500 people.

So it's a strange relationship I have because, you know, it's, I don't really have that background as far as, you know, we've documented. I was kind of the older brother in the prodigal son story. Yeah, I mean, most of these people here struggle with alcohol. Some sort of addiction. Or drugs. And, you know, I've never been drunk and I haven't done drugs. There's a steady stream of them. We're baptized.

And it was one or two of them of the day, but five yesterday morning. Well, because our CR is so strong here, now they've built recovery houses. They buy houses and retool them where they can hold eight to, to 12 men or women in the women's homes. And so people are coming here from all over the country. So it's not like it's just locals. I mean, people come here from everywhere. To me, this is part of, this is what the kingdom should look like.

If you're going to go out and share Jesus, and part of that are people who are a prisoner of sin. And if you're going to share Jesus, well, it's going to take a bit to get them on their feet. I mean, you can't spend. Wouldn't you say, I mean, and this may be too. big of an analogy, but Jason, wouldn't you say it is the sort of the lepers and lame of our culture in terms of what you saw Jesus? I mean, from a spiritual standpoint, yes. I mean, these people, most people are like, don't, not here. Like, we're trying to do church here.

We don't need this. The majority of them, I noticed, shed tears when they're standing in the water and I'm talking to them on what's fixed to happen. They, they cry. Well, it's a way to start over. I baptized a couple yesterday in Oklahoma. So Rucker. Both in tears. I think Rucker's part of the management team on this. He's one of our directors, he and Derek.

We had him on the podcast. Ruckers has a great story. By the way, he's on I am second if you want to see a story. He told it on the podcast. Yeah, he was here. Well, he introduced me. Yeah. And I revisited his story because, you know, how he, he always, when he introduced him,

he says the same thing. He's like, because we actually gave my job at Duck Commander. And because I remember the day when he was interviewed at the time the guy that was part of that was Grant. And he said, hey, let me ask you something. He's like, we just had a guy apply for a job here. And, you know, I just asked him kind of about himself. And he said, like the first sentence out of his mouth was he was a convicted felon. He said, what do you think about that?

I said, well, what do you think about it? You're the hiring guy. And he said, well, I mean, you know. And at this time, we were basically hiring anybody with a pulse to get product out the door at DoComus. I said, well, my next sentence would have been something having to do with Jesus. And he said, well, that's what I did. He said, I basically said, look, this is what we're all about. Yeah.

And I said, oh, well, I'm good with it then. So I said, where else could you have gone in the world? And in the first minute, when you're applying for a job, say you're a convicted felon. And we actually said, yeah, we'll hire you. Which is what happened. And he eventually came to the Lord. And, you know, I didn't know his story at the time. But, you know, it turned out he was in me.

He was in a gang and family breakdown when he was a kid. And this is when you look around and see our problems, you realize this is this is what happens. Here's a guy with nobody training him. On a big scale. And we believe and Phil kind of sowed this seed in all of our lives when we were young that if someone comes to you, and they're already confessing their sins, maybe the Lord sent him. And, you know, you fast forward, what is this, 20 years later?

Well, in his case, less than 10 years later, he went from being a guy who got hired at Duck Commander and then coming to Christ to being one of the ministry leaders of one of our biggest ministries in our church. Good dude. So, there you go. So anyway, he's like... To show you potential, you know.

So I was like, I can't believe they keep asking me back. And he's like, well, I keep asking. He said, because you bring a different perspective. And I had asked him, I said, well, when's the last time somebody just gave a Bible, Jesus-focused Bible sermon here? And he said, well, probably the last time I spoke. So I said, okay, well, let's do it. He also asked me to come in a few weeks, so I can clean up whatever you messed up.

Yeah, well, I don't think I'm, I think I got them started up. I am coming a few weeks. I had some funny, but they didn't get my jokes, which is okay. I mean, they laughed several times, but I wasn't joking when they laughed. That's your MO, Jays. It happened. You should have laughed. They didn't.

It happened. You tried to be funny, nothing. I told a funny story about, look, I read, I quoted 1st Peter 4-1, and we'll get into this with Saul. There's, in part of his conversions, which is in Acts 9, Acts. 22 and 26. 22 and 26. But there's a verse in there where it said, you know, when the Lord said he'll, he wanted him to go back to Jerusalem. And he said, and give him an opportunity to suffer.

Yeah. For the Lord. I thought, what a, what a statement. But I read a quote of 1st Peter 4-1. It says, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude because he who has done so, it'd be interesting to see your translation on that, Zach, First Peter 4th. for one, but it said, he who suffered in his body is done with sin, which is kind of a strange verse. A lot of truth in that. But there's a point where when you're out, I made the illustration, when you're on offense for the Lord, it's actually a really good defense to your morality.

Yeah. Because they spend most of their time, which I said this, talking about not doing wrong, because they're trying to get. away from whatever habit or addiction that they were involved in for years. Yeah, the word in their community is relapse, so they're trying not to relapse. That's the word. So I told a story that was a true story. I don't know if I've ever shared it here. But I said, you know, you can, it's a way to get you out of trouble because you're on the offense.

And so I told about one of the times I was pulled over because I made this deal about, you know, I'm a son of God. Jesus, I believe Jesus is at the right hand of God. He's my Lord. And I'm under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And I did my little gig that I did on the podcast about the craze of artificial intelligence. Because now they say, you know, in five years that they're going to have an artificial intelligence being. that's smarter than all the humans. Yep.

They believe that. Yep. And I said, what, what about the humans that have the eternal intelligence of the Holy Spirit in them? They forgot about that group. He's not going to be smarter than them. Did they like that line? I was going to show you that since you brought it up. This was from a good friend of mine down.

Somebody's already come up with that? Yeah. Hang on. Let's take a break. Zach, through the years, you've worked with a lot of young men, especially college-age guys. Would you say that pornography has a negative effect on the development of young people, especially young men? I think it might be one of the greatest travesties of our lifetime.

And even if it's not an ongoing addiction situation, we've all been affected because when we're especially young men or young boys, there's a curiosity, there's an illusion, lure, someone has a picture, someone has something. And so it just creates these false narratives of what, you know, relationships are supposed to be like and what sex is supposed to be like. One of our sponsors, Victory by Covenant Eyes, these guys have been involved in this world for many, many years. They're the number one trusted accountability software for over 23 years for Christians seeking to live a porn-free life. Because I wish we could say it doesn't affect Christians like it does the world. But in this case,

That's just not true. Many of us, yeah, we've experienced the damaging effects, either in our own life or someone that we love. Victory by Covenant Eyes is a powerful tool that helps Christians who are serious and want to quit porn for good or never start, of course, which is always better. Many verses about how accountability matters. Proverbs 2717 says iron sharpens iron. And so that's what these guys do. covenantize.com slash fill is where you go to download victory on all your devices. Once that's installed, Victory runs silently in the background of your devices,

uses cutting edge AI technology to watch the screen for a behavior that doesn't match your goals. So this is a case Jace where AI is actually helping us. You invite a trusted friend to be your ally. This is someone who can walk beside you. Your ally will get push notifications of any porn use, and that brings your accountability in. So living a poor and free life will bring you a new freedom to live honestly. And accountability is not others calling you out on your sin,

but others calling you up to the person that you are in Christ. You can get started on this path to recovery for free by visiting covenantize.com slash fill. Use the promo code fill for 30 days free or by clicking on the link in the show notes today. That's covenanteys.com slash fill. I thought I invented that. No, no, no, you did. Oh, oh, he was, he was listening. All right, get the lawyers involved.

We have a copyright infringement. This is my good friend Craig Jones from down in Gulf Shores. And he's had knee surgeries. So he's got a lot of time of his saying. Now, this is a good idea. So he was listed on the podcast. He's a graphic design guy, so he sent me this. So the T-shirt.

That's the guy that sent the email and said, are y'all doing something with this? No, not that guy. I knew somebody was going to do something. But it says, don't settle for artificial. It's kind of in small letters. It's got an E.I, big EI. And then it's a big circle with a big EI, and under it is eternal intelligence.

And then below the circle, it says when Christ gives eternal. Don't settle for artificial when Christ gives eternal. He's a graphics guy. So he sent me that. He was just listening. I mean, it's a real. I mean, you start thinking about the implications of artificial intelligence, deep fake. I mean, I had this conversation today with one of our pastors.

I mean, with the way technology is advancing in the very, very near future, very near future, you're going to have video footage of people doing things that they never did. And it's going to be, we're going to flood the internet with images and with videos of people, with the deep fake of the AI stuff. You can literally just type in your computer or spit me out of it. a video of Jace Robertson, robin a bank. And it'll produce that. And so now a deep fake to me is when I'm going on a post pattern in the yard.

You're still doing postpric. And we're going to do a pump and go, the quarterback pump. So tell me what you mean by that. So a deep fake is, it's a video that is generated. It's not even video because it's digital, but it's a digital, like imagery of you doing stuff that you never did. That's part of it. I mean, you can actually take...

That's what they name that? They need a better name than that. Yeah, it's like it looks real. And so you having a conversation, we could actually, you can actually take your face, put Phil's voice in your face and your, I mean, it is bizarre what they can do. But one of the big things that the experts are predicting the experts,

whoever they are, are one of the problems with deep fake AI. machine learning and just where all of that's headed is, is they're saying we're not going to be able to know what truth is. We're going to have a crisis of truth, how we know what's actually real when the internet is flooded with fake images. Now, Phil will be immune to all of this because he does not get on the internet. But for the,

but for other people, you're explaining why. Yeah. I mean, sounds like to me, you will not be faked out there. These are fairy tales using. the images of real people.

Yeah, but it will be hard to distinguish between them. But I think one of the things we talk about... Who cares? I mean, this is my dictionary. Yeah, I'm not trying to distinguish now. Well, what if you see a video of somebody doing something and you're like... I'm kind of with Phil on that. I'm really not seeing the videos of people doing anything except speaking the word of God. Well, that's where you want to camp out.

So Zach, like this the other day we were doing Eric Metaxus's show for Dad's new book. And so we're talking. And dad says, Now here you go, Mataxis. And he reaches over and he grabs his encyclopedia. And he starts reading it. And Metaxus says, what are you reading from there, Phil?

He said, the whirl book encyclopedia. And I said, Eric, that's his Google. He pulls it over and starts reading from it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm with Solomon on this. There's nothing new under the sun. We just have a digital version of it. People making up stories.

They've been lying and making up. the stories since we've been around. Well, I think it does give an opportunity, though, for kingdom people. No doubt. You mentioned eternal intelligence. I think that people are going to be searching more for eternal intelligence in a world where you can't trust, you can't trust artificial intelligence. So what are you going to look for?

You're going to look for an intelligence source that is not artificial. And the one thing that we can actually move into is, I love the term, by the way. Yeah, it's good. I mean, it really is. So I'm curious where you went with them. Well, yeah, let me finish my sermon here. Y'all may need this. After hearing this, well, hold on, Phil, before we get to Saul, let me just finish my sermon.

And then we'll get. So 2nd Corinthians 5 is what I read first. But here's what I did. I gave you some stats. Because my point was if we're out there sharing Jesus, it's going to keep you out of a lot of trouble. Morally, which was. So you're saying a good defense isn't even better. offense.

Do you remember, like, in Acts 3 and 4 and even in 5, where Peter kept saying, we can't help but speak about this. They're like, hey, stop, we're going to put you in J. He's like, we can't help it. It was a movement. It was a declaration of Jesus. Well, if you're involved in something like that, which is what Celebrate Recovery is, well, we need to be speaking that to where you came from in packs.

and you'd be amazed at how good your behavior is going to be while you're doing that. And so that was my point. If you're willing to go out there and suffer for Jesus. But before I read the 2nd Corinthians 5, this is where I went with it. I think you'll like this. I gave these stats, a population on the earth. Do you all know what it is? 8 billion, I think now.

Yeah, it's over 8B. Look, they actually have a ticker of the current population now. It's fascinating. You can just stare at it. It's like people are being born. People are dying. Literally in seconds, you're watching people being born. Yeah, it's just, now I don't know if that's an AI thing. I did see that on the Internet, Zach, so you have to research that.

So there's $8.1 billion as of three or four days ago. And look, this is scary. The population has more than doubled. since I was born. Wow. In 54 years. 55. Guess what the average age is on the globe?

What is the average age? I want to see how close y'all get to this. Average age. What is the average age of a person on the earth? I'd say 30 years. Well, looking it up, Zach. What'd you say, Phil? I'd say 30 years.

I was going to say. He got it. Yeah. 30.7. Mainly because... This is a man without the Internet. The man without the Internet has noticed that most of humanity, if they make a turn for good or bad,

but especially if they make a turn to be good. All you want, you'll be good. I just noticed they all range the vast majority of them from 28 to 32. Well, you hit that. And that's your time you say people are most open to conversion. They have built a track record. You had to have gotten that from the Holy Spirit.

All right, so let me just read you what I read to them. So I said, look, if you're somebody like me, well, I better get a move on here. Because I'm way past the median age. And there's way more people here than when I started. Yeah, twice a minute. So I told him, I was like, that's why I'm here. you need to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, realize you're a son or daughter of the God,

of the Father God, and Jesus is at the right hand. Let's take that and go out there and start declaring Jesus, act style, 2020. That's what I'm doing. Yeah, well, you weren't in the audience, but I don't know if they were doing that. I'd already chosen to be that way.

So I read based on Paul's ministry, which will tie in with where we're going, because we're going to go to where when he was Saul. So I read verse 1 of chapter 5. It says, Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands. Then I read verse 10 that says,

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body. whether good or bad. And there was a noticeable gasp in the audience. That's what I love about Celebrate Recovery. Their emotions are on their sleep. I read that verse and I heard a, like,

Somebody's keep a record. Are some of y'all just figuring out that you're going to stand before God after this tent goes down? And then it was kind of like a pause. And then they laughed. I said, I wasn't joking. Neither was Paul.

Some of those Jay's jokes are. the wrong time. Let's take another break. So we talk a lot on the podcast about kind of our own personal conviction of being pro-life and how we line up with one of our sponsors, which is a group called pre-born. Yeah. You know, we've been studying about the Apostle Paul and one of the verses I read, which I thought about what these guys do when I read this, but he said in Glacians 115, when God had set him apart from his mother's womb. And, you know, we just are unashamed that God created us and knitted us together in our mother's wing. It's what's funny is Jeremiah made the same comment thousands of years earlier.

He knew there was something about that womb. And that's what preborn does. They empower young, expectant mothers who are in crisis because most are not planning this at all and it's unexpected, but we want them to choose life because there is something special about that child. preborn has rescued hundreds of thousands of babies through ultrasound. So when you're considering abortion, you go to a preborn center, you get to hear the baby's heartbeat. And when that happens, they call it a divine encounter. And I think that's a great way to describe it. Majority of the time, when a mom hears her baby's heartbeat, she will choose life.

And that's what they do. Over the past 15 years, preborn centers have counseled over four. 450,000 women concerning abortion and over 200,000 babies have been saved. So these are amazing numbers. We want to support these guys and help them out. Here's what you do. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 in your phone, keyword baby.

Or you can go to preborn.com slash unashamed. That's preborn.com slash unashamed. So I read those two verses to get to verse 11, which says, now watch, since then we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. Paul said, we try to persuade people because the tent, the body's wearing out, and we're going to stand before the creator. I mean, we hadn't even got to the main motivation. Those are just general facts on why you should try to persuade men. So then I read.

Man, the second half of that verse, though, Jayes, before you leave it. Because in that vein, what we are is plain to God. So he knows who you are. And I hope it is also plain to your conscience. That's the heck of the state. I think it fit in good. That could be a whole sermon right there. With the audience.

So I read verse 15, or 14 and 15, Christ's love compels us because we're convinced that one died for all, therefore all died talking about Jesus and what he offers and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again that is the offense helping the defense here yeah it's good so then i read verse 17 yeah it says therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. There's the offense again, driven by the Holy Spirit. Because I'd made a big deal about being influenced by the Holy Spirit. And I shared the quick version of the guy being baptized in the ice chest. I said, you got to remember that whole conversation started by one comment. Everybody was getting drunk.

We're at a meeting in a worldly setting. Hey, Jace, what are you drinking tonight? I said, oh, I'm good. I'm high on Jesus, which caused him to ask me a question. He said, oh, do you have a problem with that? And I was like, no, I'm high on Jesus. I just stuck by my aunts, but he thought, oh, you must have a problem with that. I was like, I've never been drunk. I didn't tell him that. But I said, and then here 10 years later, the guy sends me a video of him being baptized in an ice jet.

So then I actually told them a funny story about also, because I was making a point that you're housing the eternal intelligence of Jesus. Because a lot of people say, well, I don't share Jesus. Why? They're like, well, I don't know the verses. Of course, to that, I said, learn them. But in the meantime, the verses, John 5 are written about him. You know Jesus.

It's like if I did, and I did illustration, I said, if I asked you to describe your best friend, you could tell me about your best friend. That's why they're your best friend. But then you say, oh, but I can't share Jesus because I don't know or not. We either know anymore you don't. That was kind of the way we went through. And oh, by the way, all the people in the verses didn't have the verses when the time they live, when we now have the verses about them.

Well, exactly. And so then in verse 20 I read, we are there for Christ ambassadors as though God were making is appeal through us. So then I read 6-1, as God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. So I did that. God uses people, despite their flaws, to declare Jesus. And then I gave an example, and I did Jonah,

because I had held up the Bible and said, look, this is about Jesus. That's why I told the stories about you introducing, him because he knows you, you know him. That's how this works, powers in him. So then I did an example of Jonah,

and I just read the first two verses, because I said, how many of y'all have heard the story of, you know, Jonah, about three quarters of the people raise their hand. And I said, what's the first thing you think about?

And they basically simultaneously said, a big fish swallowed a guy. Yeah. I was like, is that it? Well, that's all they had. And so a lot of people, I'd say, if you went out and shared that, people would say, well, that's, that's, that's, that's just stupid. So I went through a little deal about when you go out and share Jesus, another reason people don't want to do it, because it's, they, they fear that it's going to make them look stupid. Right.

And it is to some people. They're like, oh, that's just a fairy tale. It's a myth. It's a deep fake, Zach. So I read the first two verses, and you said, why I go to Jonah? because it says the word of the Lord came to Jonah, go to the city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.

Seems simple enough. The Lord tells you, go down here and preach. I got, there's a job for you. Next verse, verse three. But Jonah ran away from the Lord. I said, you want a good definition of sin? There it is. and so then I went through

kind of Jonah's journey through the eyes of looking at it from your selfish viewpoint because I got that out of 2ndthians 5 you know do nothing what was the phrase I had there what did he say out of selfish ambition

yeah those who no longer live for themselves you know Jonah was living for himself we all have that choice and so I had you know Santa's exhausted remember he was asleep in the bottom of the boat. It blinds us. It affects everyone around you.

It calluses your conscience. It always produces a cover-up. It turns you into a liar. It makes you think either too good about yourself, like you're better than everybody else, or too bad. You're worthless. There's nothing anyone can do. And so enter the fish.

They know the story. And my point was then. And I said, now that does seem like a crazy story. You're like, you're trying to tell me that God sent a fish and ate this guy. And so then I read Matthew 12, 38. I think this is pretty good. Matthew 12, did I say 28, 38. So some of the Pharisees were asking for a miraculous sign.

And Jesus said, a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah. I said, because I was positive. I said, now some of you thought this was a stupid story in the Bible, and you were wondering if it was true. Well, here's your validation, because the son of God, God in a human body, said,

for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, do you believe it now? the greatest person to ever walk to earth just validated that story. But then he said... And a guy who would have been there. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's why I thought the word of the Lord, when it said the word of the Lord came to him.

Yeah. Well, who was that? That's right. So the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And so that's when I launched into the message. And that's why I picked up the Bible again. So this is about Jesus. As you know, from time to time, we always talk about our liver here on the Unashamed Piper.

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Try liver health formula by going to get liverhelp.com slash unashamed to claim your free bonus gift. That's get liverhelp.com slash unashamed. Be a liver. Protect your liver. So I launched in the message of Jesus and his death, his burial, his resurrection, and him being at the right hand of God. And then I was going to get to Ephesians, but they only give you 25 minutes. So you have to do that next time we come back. Yeah. That was the gist.

That was excellent. That was really good. And I love the idea about the offense, you know, creates the better defense, which is really good. I mean, that's a good theme. Yeah, I just think at some point we go through that transition. It took me a couple of years from 14 years of age to 16. I was trying not to do wrong, which is what they're trying to do. They're trying not to do wrong.

They've screwed their life up. Families are all broken. It's chaos. At some point, you realize God has called us to something. Yeah. This is what the kingdom looks like. And look, we've already noticed from Acts, it's not just the apostion. but it's disciples, it's the deacons.

I mean, people are doing one thing in common. There's a lot of things that are in common, but one thing is standing out. They are declaring that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and he is alive and well. They are introducing Jesus to the world. And look, anytime you have a ministry where people are coming directly out of really,

raunchy, rough situations from the world, and the bulk of your people are coming that way. In other words, you don't have the benefit of generational families that teach their kids from the beginning. These are all people that didn't get any of that. And they're coming in. But what you're describing in a lot of ways is what we're reading about in the book of Acts. It's people come, because look, every leader in the book of Acts, just a few months before they were leading, including the very apostles were all scared rabbits not understanding what the kingdom was even about and then they became the leaders of this one who wrote most of the letters in the new testament the apostle paul was the king of maw and then he was killing him oh i mean he was literally

rattling him up and kill him so yeah obviously obviously it shows you the power what god could do we left off on philip in acts eight who was look he was just one of the guys who was just one of the guys who the apostles had chosen of the seven. Yeah, one of the magnificent seven I called. Yeah, to help these widow ladies from Acts chapter six. And now he's in a famous story. I mean, I guess this was the first African convert. Unless there was somebody in that original group.

We know of. Right. But his first guy we read about for sure, specifically. They're out in the middle of a desert. And like I said before, it was the culmination of Acts 1-8, which was Jesus' command, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the utter ends. This is the utter ends. We're going out now.

And I made the point, and I didn't bring up this story in Acts 8, but when the Holy Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it, and you hear somebody reading, Isaiah. I mean, granted, at this stage of the kingdom, you know, the Lord. is still saying, hey, go here, do this, don't fear. But now that you've read these stories, and you know, after reading them and via the Holy Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit, if you're looking for opportunities on a daily basis, it's not an audible voice, but it's the same ideas. People have the same problems. That's why I went, I went through the list of sins and the things with Jonah. People had the same basic problems. Our tent's wearing out, and we make mistakes.

Yeah. And we're looking for a purpose on earth. And you made the point earlier, Jason, about not knowing the verses and sometimes that holding people back. Again, this story was Stephen First and now Philip. These are guys who were tapped on the shoulder by the apostles because they didn't want to give up their ministry of the Word of God, it says, to wait on tables for this need that was there. It didn't say that was less, it just meant we were doing this. Look what happens to two of these guys that just started out by serving and submitting. Stephen is one of the best messages I've ever heard from the word, from the Old Testament. And then Philip understands what the guy's talking about in Isaiah 53. So here's two guys that weren't apostles, but had the ability because they had encountered Jesus

to be able to minister to other people. So don't say you don't have enough. You got enough. When you got the Holy Spirit, you got enough. You got enough to serve. And the Word of God will be there. The same one that wrote the Word of God is the one living in you. So don't worry, you got it. Exactly. So I don't know.

Maybe it got into this, we got into this temple worship, you know, invite people to church, the preacher is supposed to do the work, whatever those all are. But it just seems like what's supposed to happen, especially since there's 8.1B. and people there. People who believe in the Lord need to move and declare. Yeah. However you want to do that, it's fine with me, but that's what we need to do. That's right.

And don't stop learning and growing. And like you said, learn the version. The more you know, the better it is. But we're not saying don't shut it down. You start representing Jesus as your way of, your lifestyle, there will be a constant stream of people that come your way. That's right. Yesterday, five more.

Yep. Next week from now, same message. Yep. But a different group of people. They're from all the different states. Some people are actually in the world. You know, I said, who's that guy there? They said, he works on the other side of the earth.

He works in Africa. I said, hmm. Yeah. I said, well, good to have him. So they're coming from every direction. That's right. Close and far. Let me, you want to get into Acts 9 in this last segment and then we'll start

breaking it down the next. Was there anything else you wanted to do from Acts 8? Anybody? We're good. We tell the story of Philip. I mean, I guess we didn't really, at the very end, I do say that there's something about. this type of, how would you describe it?

I mean, this is their own a road out in the middle of a desert. Now, I agree, God orchestrated it. But there's something very encouraging, inspiring, exciting about a guy hearing about Jesus and being out in the middle of nowhere and having a spontaneous response. Yeah. I mean,

it's the urgency of it. It's, it's, you know, we, we have good, vigorous debate on baptism and we have on this podcast,

but I think the one thing that we would definitely all agree on is, it should be an immediate urgency to it that we've lost. Not everybody's lost. I think I think it's coming back. I mean, yeah, I've been at several conferences. I've been on college campuses all across the country now.

Yeah. where the gospel's being preached and then immediately it's being followed up with baptism. And I think there is something special about the immediate urgency and the nature of what's happening here. It does kind of give this physical, tangible expression. And he wasn't waiting. I mean, he was right now. And there's something to do that. And there was a couple.

The first pothole they saw, the one who was lost and didn't know who Jesus was, the flushed water they saw. he said look there's some water why shouldn't i be baptized well he's talking to the man who preached the good news to him he now knows who jesus is he said i need to be baptized right now and they stopped the chariot and he was yeah and then philip swisked away gone went on down the road or the i don't know how far it was from where he took off and stopped but he took off out of I actually looked it up. I think it was like 20 miles.

Yeah, it's a pretty good little disappearing. I mean, there was a, this happened at Auburn University recently. Jenny Allen and what's the guys, Jonathan Paduca or something like that, JP, they call him. They were, they were doing something there like for college age, preached the gospel, and then they offered up a time of baptism afterwards, and they all went down to the water, And they were just going to, I think one of the girls was just like, no, I want to be baptized. I think it was like one person. I can't remember exactly how it went down.

Well, they get down there. And then all of a sudden, there's like hundreds of young people in this pond on Auburn campus that are being baptized. I saw the video of it. It was so powerful. And I think what it is is, man, you start moving like that. It's like a, I don't know, the physical nature of saying, I'm going to get in water. I'm going to submit myself to. I mean, and I'm going to do this in front of people.

It's just, it just has it just dripping with the book of accident. 99% of them cry. I noticed that. So, but you're right, Zaghan, it's because it takes us back to these moments that we're reading in the early days. This is what was happening, both individually and even in Acts 2 and Acts 4 as groups. Yeah. This, there was at least I did a marriage event this weekend. And a couple came there with all sorts of issues.

And so before we even got there to do our part, someone, the pastor or someone had shared Jesus with them, that this was a starting place both individually but also as a merry couple, it could change them. So over the course of that weekend, they became convinced. That's what they needed. They needed to start in Christ and go from there. So Sunday after we spoke, they wanted to be baptized. They had a tank back in the back of this thing. It was kind of a temporary public location, but I'd never seen anything quite like it. They sat out. in that thing and it was the easiest way to baptize anybody because they're sitting down the water. But when they both were in tears, Dad, but they left there was something different. And to your point, Zach, this physical, they came that weekend ready to divorce, but trying to give it some other shot, they encountered Christ. And now they have hope as they leave as something new. And it will be different for them.

I have no doubt about it. Yeah, I wanted to check it out to see how much. power there is in it on the story of Jesus like yesterday. Two raised their hand. We just ask them, did you come here to follow Jesus, be baptized and follow Jesus? I said, if you are, you listen very carefully. Two raised their hands, five were baptized. That's the way it works.

Every time. Yeah, but you declare Jesus. And I think the underlying principles are. Because before you declare them, there'll be a number. After you declare them, the number rises. Just 99% of the time. And the reason we bring this up is because we made the point the last time we were in this text, that verse 37 in the NIV, I don't know.

Is it in, what's your version is that? Well, if you read 35, 35 says, Philip began with that very passage of scripture in Isaiah, told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, here's water why shouldn't I be baptized? That's what I see every Sunday morning, right there.

The omitted verse that is not in the earliest manuscript said, Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. The eunuch answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then Philip and the unit went down into the water and Philip baptized him. I was just going to make the point. Whether that verses was in the early manuscripts, it doesn't matter because this narrative flies in the face of a lot of organizations under the church umbrella on what they teach about baptism. I mean, it just does.

Most teach this idea of that this is a public thing to show that you're in the church. Well, these guys were in nowhere public. They were out in the middle of nowhere on a desert road. And the guy who did. He had no idea who Jesus was at the beginning. Didn't even know who he was. No, I had no idea. Yeah, and the Phil's point, he told him about the good news of Jesus

because Jesus is what saves him. But then he saw water and said, well, here's water. So evidently, that conversation had come up somewhere in there. Not that this is a formula, but the fact that it just happened. And so I have a theory on this because another thing that it kind of flies in the face of is all these arguments over whether you should do it or not. I mean, there's tons of argument. And what the eunuch asked is actually the opposite perspective,

which is what I believe your perspective should always be. Why shouldn't I do it? Why shouldn't I be baptized? Yeah. What an opportunity. infinity. And I want to do it. That is a better question. When I want to do it now, so when people ask me that, okay, so let's say, and I'm like, well, why shouldn't you do it? Let's answer that question before we get into hypotheticals. And whatever your answer is, read all the verses. But when you start down that rabbit hole, you're getting way past what you should be getting past, which is that, you know, Jesus is Lord, he's innocent, he's the son of God, he died, died for you, he was resurrected, he's at the right hand of God, you believe that. Why shouldn't you? And in my opinion, you have that little phrase, stop the chariot. I think a lot of times we need to

just stop the argument, stop the, whatever you want to put at the end there and say, what are we doing here? Let's do this. And I do think, and theorize them, I think people have a hard time with this because it is the heart, which is a spiritual concept that you're given to God. But he made us physical beings, and he gave us an opportunity to reenact something that we believe in a physical way, not unlike the Lord's Supper. And so, you know, when you carry this all the way through, what's so weird, which I think another thing this flies in the face of, which you'll see in Paul's conversion, the one you read Phil in Acts 22 when he said, what are you waiting for?

Arise, be baptized and wash your sins away. What's amazing to me is John's baptism, you got forgiveness of sins and no spirit. But you did get forgiveness of sins. And then people today say, well, in Jesus's baptism, you get the Holy Spirit, but not necessarily forgiveness of sins, which is kind of ironic if you think about it. didn't he's the one who died for your sins even in john's baptism they were they were believing in

the one that was to come who would die for their sins yeah so i think we just our theologians have talked about this subject so much where they've ironically watered it down instead of just asking the eunuchs question why is this story in the bible they're out there this guy is on cloud nine because he's found a way to live forever, a way to start over. I mean, he's like, this is heaven and earth meeting together in Jesus, and I can be a part of this. And so you wouldn't want to take a time out and have a 10-minute argument about whether you should do this or not. He said, why shouldn't I? All right, so we're out of time.

Hold that, Zach. Hold that thought. We'll pick it up here before we get into Saul and finish that discussion in the next podcast. We'll see you next time on 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 BlazTV at blazestiv.com slash unashamed.