Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 964 | Phil & Jase THOUGHT They Chose Wisely. It Backfires Big Time

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Phil and Jase agree to avoid a major temptation, but the choice backfires on them in a comedy of errors. "No good deed goes unpunished," as they say! Phil finds another sign that his age is setting in, and the guys lay out the difference between the righteousness of God and the destructive characteristic of self-righteousness in mankind. Jase proposes a multifaceted theory for why the gospel is called the “gospel of peace.” In this episode: Ephesians 6; John 1 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Let me just tell you this, buddy. I ain't going to run out of material today. Honestly, I'm going to sing a song at some point in today's. So the number one thing that I ask people when I go on the road is, do you ever think Jason is going to run out of stories? And every time I ask that question to someone who's a podcast,

listener at an appearance, they always say never. Which is a gifting. I mean, you think about it. Oh, it is a different gift. Then they asked me how much of it is true. And I said, well, now there, I don't know. It doesn't matter. How much of it is true?

We're in a foggy area. I think it's all based in truth, right? Right. It's based on a true story. So you go watch a movie, it says based on a true story, and you're like, oh, isn't that neat? You tell a story, and you say that was based on a true story, and you're like, liar. I can't remember every detail.

Now, what happened this morning? Oh, I can give you the details. Well, here's what I was I walked in this morning, Jason, walked in the lair. Because we have some guests here with us today, podcast listeners, Alan and Kim from Tennessee. And I walk in in, and Jersey, Joe, sitting over there in a chair. And his hide lids are about half closed? And I said, Joe, are you okay? He said, I don't know.

And I said, do you have, y'all have a rough morning? He said, it was rough. And that was it. That's all I got out of him. That was Jersey Joe's first experience of when things go wrong in Louisiana. You're not in Jersey anymore. He was sitting there during the hunt. And he was kind of, he had that look like when a dog has eaten something.

But he wasn't doing the actual gag, but he had the same. posture. Like your gag could just break out. I just thought he was going to start, oh, oh, oh. And I said, you all right, Jersey? He said, I'm wondering if I just had a heart attack. And I said, well, I don't know why that's funny. I shouldn't.

I looked at my phone and I said, it's 30 of 8 because I did that because that's kind of the running joke now. That's how we're trying to learn how to tell time. That's what I tell you. It sounds so silly when you say it's 40 of 8. but then I then I sang the the things that 830 is that 8 just the fact that you don't know and you're supposed to be the smartest person here now we talked about it but I can't remember where we landed no that would be 730 because he's saying it's before the hour so it's not

of 8 it's 30 okay so he says 30 of 8 he really that's really 70 until 8 that's right okay that's why I told him that's I said are people late a lot in New Jersey And he said, you know they are. I said, well, now you know why. The word of. You've got to learn your verbiage. Well, Al, if you'd have walked in here while you were inspecting Jersey, I was shirtless and shoeless trying to find myself. You never want to be shirtless and shoeless after a hunt.

Basically, that's what happened. It was, things did not go as planned. I guess I can give you the short version. So we didn't hunt yesterday. We didn't do podcasts. We didn't hunt. And the reason was the only people that wanted to go were me and Phil. Yeah.

So we thought, well, if they come, you're going to kill. You know, there's a prayer that famously is in the Bible, lead us not into temptation. Hmm. And I just thought, if me and Phil go down there. And they show up. They show up. The strain may be more than we could bear.

So I talked to Phil. remember and I said I just don't I think it because what happened when the when the hurricane hit south Louisiana we just got the rain from it but we have a full hole so we haven't inspected it so anyway we don't go hunting jay goes doing his deer thing or whatever and yesterday and a bunch of 50 jumps up out of a little lake that we got that i've never seen a till on and they just went down to where we normally hunt when we hunt there and they just like went down like they're looking at other dogs. That's when I said that meant there were others.

So Jay called me last night and he's like, well, I've got some depressing news. They came today. And I thought, well, I'm glad we weren't there. That way, we probably would have just killed our 12 and left. But still, it would have been better if we'd have had a blindfold. You've already got a court date. I got off four shots. Well, so today, hang on before we get to what happened today, Phil.

So we thought we were going to burn them. We thought we were going to burn them today. And so, but when we went to leave this morning, Bill said, well, I left my shotgun and bag in the other blind. Well, that's what kind of caused the panic because I thought, well, we got a long way to go. now me and one of Jay's buddies we got to go get Phil stuff and I have a rig that does not go very fast

because it's an amphibious vehicle so I was like we got to go we got to go because I was thinking I don't know if we can get the motor crank because the tree had fallen across where the boat run is so we hadn't cranked the motors until last year I was like what if we can't get there so I tear off out of here when my buddy I opened the gate

and I noticed that the guy with me, he had waiters on. And I thought, boy, you're expecting that water to be deep because I hadn't worn waiters during teal season because we never have enough water. And he's like, yeah, well, then I realized when I looked down, I forgot to put my hip boots on. So I was like, he's like, well, it's better than what you got because I was fixed to get wet.

So I called Jay and say, Jay, look around, and he answered. because they were still here getting ready. And so he found my hip boots. I said, bring them. So then we, I take off again. Well, I almost get to the place where Phil's gun and bag is. And then I realize I don't have my gun. So I called Jay back.

I was like, Jay, have you left yet? Well, I was just leaving. You don't happen to see my gun land around. Ten more years on you. It would be worse than that story. So you're on her way to get. get dad's gun and bag. Because he left.

You don't have your gun. I don't have my gun nor boots. And so that's where it started. This operation has gone down since I left it out. Then we all meet up at the boat house. Well then when you know it, the mud motor won't crank. The battery's dead. So.

Which you anticipate. Bill has gotten, we have a little bitty outboard, like a four horse outboard. A little bit of, he has it cranked, you know. I wanted to see if it worked and shallow. water. Well, what was the answer on that? We made it, but it's, you need a pocket knife to cut the weeds off, the propeller. We didn't make it because of that motor. We took off and we didn't realize the grass had grown up so much that even though it was deep enough to run it, it's just that prop. That's the biggest bunch of blue wing teal, one of the biggest bunches I've ever seen.

We're getting to the teal. We hadn't got there yet. So look, here's how we got to the blind. We were close to zero. We got about seven or eight. Jay, Bonebreaker is his name, Jay's buddy. I think his last name sounds like that. It's like Zorrobroker. They call him Bonebreaker because he literally could run through that wall. Oh, yeah.

He's just a beast of a man. I seen him out on the jujitsu floor. He would hurt you. But it was good to have him because he got on one side of the boat and Jay got on the other. And they walked pretty good ways, pulling us over the grass. And now literally you have to have strong men to pull.

Well, we did this morning. We didn't know what we were getting into. But Jersey Joe, he got out 30 yards in front of the blind and walked and pulled the boat because I had hip boots out. Now I'm understanding the near heart attack. Joe's already said he needs to work. He's working on his weight. Yeah, Jay and Bonebreaker walked a quarter mile and act like nothing never happened.

Jersey Joe walked 30 yards. And it put everything he had to the test. So then we get in the blind, and I thought, boy, there's some trees that have grown up on my side. In one year, I couldn't figure it out because it was dark, you know. And then Phil said, no, the blind, when the water came up last year, when it went back down, the blind is now facing a different direction. Well, that proved, if I'd have known that, we would have hunted somewhere else. because we got decoys out in front

of where I thought the blind was. And you're lacing the road. I'm looking over here where there's no water. You requested I move the blind in yards where you have a better view. I did that, but come like this. But it did like that. So Phil was in the hot spot,

and then here's what happened. It was shooting hours. We get our guns loaded. And I don't know how many till that we saw, but they never stopped. Huge bunch. Several hundred. Several hundred. Which normally means...

Most Tiel I've ever seen and we didn't get more. And most time that happens has happened in the past. That means full limits in about 20 minutes. Here's what we concluded. This would be a little lesson on TIL. We concluded that they had come yesterday. And they stayed there all night, didn't leave. So when we were all had the propeller out of the,

out of the water and then move and pull the boat. We're scaring all of these teal. And so they literally acted like our little decoy spread and us were not there, didn't they? For the first hour. They ignored it. They just ignored everything about it. And they all went down and lit about how far, four or five hundred yards from us. Yep.

And they just kept gathering up down there. And so. It had only been there. Every once in a while, one or two would get up from the wad and just happened to come by and we killed a couple and then we had a little bunch that got up from down there and they worked around well then another bunch came behind them well i was looking at them calling they were banking and all of a sudden i hear boom boom and i look up and there seven or eight leaving the decoys bill was the only one that

shot i'll let him he didn't do very well zero so we had that happened and that's when the theme song someone sang a song and we sang it the rest of the hunt and uh now i've forgotten how that song oh i remember this this if you can name this this tune it went like i'm not as good as i once was but i'm as good once as i ever was i got a few years And I had to hear that. That was Toby Keith, right? Phil had to hear that. But then the key phrase was, but back in my pine, there was a time when I could really lay it down.

We sang that. I could get them pretty good up to 60, but I'm crowding 70. And then it got out in 80. I said, yep. But then, I will admit. I said, we need to move young people into prominent positions. It was the boat move, Phil, when you picked up the butt. You hadn't quite gotten to Yahoo's status.

But I will say this. We were going to leave at 8 so we could be here for the podcast. And I said, let's give it 10 more minutes. And at 807, here came a little bunch from the Wad down there. And they made a couple passes. It was about 7 or 8 of them. But this time, they set up a little more on my corner. And they came in there right.

and we killed five out of that bunch. Should have killed them all, but we're not what we once were. But compared to everything else that happened, it was awesome. So we wound up with nine till, which is enough to eat and survive and even feed the kids. But a fiasco. And so then Bonebreaker and Jay escorted us back out walking. And that's it. We made it.

That's what happened. That's kind of a sad story. It really was. For what things once were. Hundreds of teal. But that's what happened. You just think when you live somewhere, I mean, if you buy a new house, you're not sure where everything's at.

You know, if you're there when the teal show up, they come in your decoys. But once you stay there a while, they look down and said, that's trouble up there. And it doesn't matter. If there's a thousand of them, they would not come. come in. They wouldn't come in gun rain. Just a few smithereens of the dubs were of an olive. One of the weird days. Their population is down according to the people who count ducks. So we did a good thing today, Phil. Yeah. Let a few go for next time. Is that what? The teal are on their way to Mexico. So they fly across the ocean and they get in there, you know, South Louisiana,

deep South Louisiana, then they cross the Gulf. Yeah. And that's where they winter. Yeah. So they're all headed there. They're going there. They're going to Mexico. But that's the most till I've ever seen and the fewest harvested. Right. Yeah. Well, thanks to y'all, there's going to be a few more on vacation this year, going to Mexico. So, there you

go. We weren't what we once, what's the name of song? I'm not as good as I once was. That's a good song. That's a good song. I sing it quite a bit. You sing it more when you get older. I've noticed. It's

It's usually sad stories like that. You throw your back out, brushing your teeth. You do stuff like that, and you start singing that song. Well, you forget your hip boots. You forget your gun. But then I'm going to tell you, them seven or eight came in, and I raised up. Because then all of a sudden it seemed like it was happening in slow motion. Because these did come in right.

And I just said, as I went up, I pulled left, and two just kind of lined up. And I just, boom, both of them did. Poop. And then I thought, I'm on a comeback trail. I'm back. It's another song. It's a new song. I knew age was sitting in with me when I got out of the boat after it's all over.

And I took about two steps, hit some gravel, and I just tore the gravel up, just face down. Oh, no. Then people say, they run up there. You know, you're all right? I said, yeah, I get there. I tripped over my dignity. That's it. Phil, for almost 80, I mean, look.

Yeah, I mean, just the fact you're out there, Dad, I'm impressed. Because, I mean, look, this little blind, we call it the Hobbit Blind, because if there were real actual hobbits, they would be real comfortable in this blind. The only person that liked that blind was John Gobbin because he was a Hobbit. But the Beavers just ate it just block at a time all the way down the back. So I had to go out there this summer with a cup of the ball. pretty good hands. Oh, Dan, the man was in there.

But to put some up flotation there and not styrofoam. Yeah. That's what I thought when then people say that you shouldn't drink out of styrofoam cups because it's, you know, there's some kind of harmful. It may turn you into a beaver, but it ain't going to hurt you because the beaver population has exploded. Yeah. It's some kind of help for them to be able to grow.

The funniest thing of the morning, though, was right when we were leaving, old Jersey Joe went. Ah, ah, ah. And because I, when I hear that, I was thinking, you know, he could be bitten by a snake because we got in there. Nobody had been in there. I mean, Phil inspected it a couple days ago, but, I mean, you're there with the critters. We got one in the summer out of cotton mouth. He was up in there where we had duck on, so it pays to kind of knock around a little bit.

Get the wasp. And he got cotton mouth, marks against. And the times alligated as long as you're a boat. So it's, it's, it's. We've, we've till hunted before, and I looked down under the bench, hunting all morning there, an hour and a half or two, and there'd been one coiled up three feet away from me all day. Oh, that happened in that same blind last year.

That's happening to me. Jersey Joe, he was grunting, you know, and I said, what's wrong? He said, I think I got a crick in my neck. And I said, it's the contour of the blind. Because you have to have your head down, you know? And I said, well, it's better than. a heart attack. Well, he was looking quite, uh, quite peeking out there.

It was his first experience when things go wrong. Yeah. I thought it was good for him, you know. Look, and that's life. I mean, we, I consider ourselves somewhat professional duck hunters. And, you know, just nothing went right today. Yep. But we still got nine.

We made up for everything on the last box. You had a safe hunt. Nobody got hurt. Within reason. There's a few minor injuries, but nothing major. The major. And, yeah, it was good. And so now they're all after the alligator.

You know, our good buddy that I hunt with, he had lost one of his bird dogs, not duck dogs, but like a quail, the pointer. Yeah. What are those called? What are they called them? I think they just call them bird dogs. And he lives on a little swamp.

Well, they had a tracker on that dog, either on his collar or they had it in his skin or whatever. And so when they looked it up, well, that dog was in the middle of the swamp. And he said, well, that's not good. Well, then they realized there's only one reason. He was carried there.

Yeah, an alligator got his dog. And so then the next day, a little team of people, because, you know, people, you start losing your prize dogs, they were saying, evidently there's a gator out there. If it's big enough to eat that dog, we need to. Because they have tags and all. And I've actually caught some with them there. And sure enough, where the dog remains, where the signal was,

there was a beast of an alligator. And they called him, had a tag for it. I can put this picture up for Maddie to show. Because you remember one of our former cameraman that works for Willie, I think Phil called him Frodo, because he wasn't a tall. He's a little short man from Arkansas. Yeah.

And would love the blind we were at today. Oh, yeah, he's perfect. He was the original hobbit. Him and his son and my buddy, they caught the gator and they took a picture of it. It doesn't look real, but I'm telling you, that is not Photoshop. This picture is unbelievable. Well, then Jay and Chad, the nurseman here, almost stepped on one here at our place, and it's as big as that one.

So now they're all panicky because we have duck dogs and all so they're after him. So they put a camera up. We're waiting on our tag. They put a camera up to see if they could get him on camera. I saw the video. Oh, you saw it.

It wasn't that incredible. If he can eat a dog, he'll eat you. Yeah, it's possible. I told Jay, I said, well, when you catch that thing, you got to put the old line from swamp people, chewed him, chewed him. So I hope that happens And I hope they film it

It's not as Was this film today The Gaynor? I saw a cameraman today This fiasco y'all did us Oh yeah they felt It'll be a comedy Today was a comedy

What a day to have your cameraman Comedy airs I'm not sure what he filmed of that But if that was not entertaining But it had a happy ending Yeah There was nothing we could have done You know

I mean they They were living there. We should have been there yesterday and we had to kill 12, but we killed nine today, Phil. So really, it only costs us three till. That's right. But dad's just not happy because he was over. He didn't shoot well today. But, you know, it was a tough morning.

I mean, it happens. It happens. And when it's early, we're rusty. Yeah. It'll get better, Jess. And well. Don't be depressed. So speaking of dogs, did the, have you introduced the sun of blue yet?

I thought there was supposed to be a new. No. We got him in the pen, but I've got a guy that's going to take a look at him today. They're going to get him, and he's going to check out. We're not sure. Yeah, he's skill. You know, we're not. We have some training, some training, but I don't know.

Yeah. You know, we got young bucks. They're actually better than a dog. Well, right. On the cripples, they're a little. Yeah, a person can, you can tell them which way to go to the leisure is, There's a lot of dogs, you know, that would retrieve things, but it's pretty few of them that can retrieve ducks the way we do it. Well, and it's hard when you have a dog like you had to.

But the theme, you know, you say, what's the spiritual application? Things just don't go right sometimes, you know, and it's how you respond. That really is what's most important. And having all things said, it was pretty fun morning. Yeah. I mean, we hadn't got that last bunch or probably wouldn't be as optimistic. Yeah, we'll reset it.

So what we've been talking about is the armor of God. And in the last podcast, I think we talked about this, the belt of truth, which was this kind of, the thing that holds everything together, which is why John talks about it so much,

you know, in John and first, second, third John. Oh, and by the way, I read, I believe you look through everything through the eyes of Jesus because that's what the Bible is about. God revealing himself in Jesus. And I just read, started reading the book of John, which I do a lot. Yep. Because even the theme of Ephesians has been knowing Jesus better.

And I believe this armor is the character of Jesus, which is while one, he proved to be sinless. and he represented how God feels toward humanity. So when you just look at all the conversations he had and the way he carried himself. And so I did something different last night. I just read the red letters because, you know, I've read it so much. But I just wanted to see exactly what he said. And it was fascinating.

But one thing I noticed, I didn't get through probably six chapters, John. And he said something about truth. A lot, didn't he? A lot, as in double digits. It was 23 times in the book, and then another 19 in 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, which is John describing Jesus. So I would say that's the core of who he is, is true. And that's why he started with that. And then it's interesting, because then he goes to the next one, he says the breastplate of righteousness.

And you think about this idea of this concept of righteousness. It's interesting that he puts it on the breastplate, which the idea there was on the Roman suit that protects everything vital is the breastplate, right? And that's the enemy attacks, but that's the main area. Even when we shoot, what do they tell you? They're center mass, you know, is what you're looking at. So the idea is that righteousness is the protection. But here's an interesting concept, and I want to get y'all's take on it.

We talk about righteousness. All you have to do is add one word to it, and then it becomes something bad. self-righteous because the Bible talks a lot about self-righteousness. And so that becomes this huge struggle, this idea of righteousness. If it's not coming from the Almighty, it quickly turns into something very negative. And let's face it, if we know some self-righteous people, I mean, you see it all the time, right? It becomes then something that instead of protecting you makes you think you've got it figured out. and then that's a dangerous place to be when you talk about self-righteousness.

So it's always interesting. And part of that, of course, the feeder of righteousness comes from the Holy Spirit, which he's going to mention at the end of this. But you see that kind of what he's trying to lay out the entire time. The next one he says is the feet they're fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. How is that in your versions, that little phrase? that phrase. It's in verse 15. What do you use in the? I use the ESV version, which reads, um, 615 reads, and as, uh, as shoes for feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel

of peace. So it, it mentioned shoes. So the idea there is the, again, the Roman suit, there was a sandals called the, uh, Caligay was the, was the, was the, was the, was the, was the they used them. I experienced that this morning. I didn't have my, I didn't have my boot. Well, the Romans, the Romans were brilliant.

They knew, like any army, if you don't have men who have shoes that fit and keep your feet dry or warm, depending on your setting of fighting, you run into major problems without proper footwear, as you discovered today, Jay's. That would have been a lot rougher. And I would have been more susceptible,

you know, to a snake bite, which is, I mean, we're all bailing out of the boat walking around like there's no problem, but I'm like, we're in amongst the water moccasin cotton mouth capital of at least Louisiana because I've never seen a place with so many snakes as a place we were young and we hunted this time of year. It wasn't cold, so we never wore boots

because we couldn't afford boots. And so we would just wear 10, shoes or socks. And many times I went out and hunted and, I mean, you're talking about having to look out for snakes. We're just going in our socks or a pair of tennis shoes when you're hunting in jeans because if shoes were shoes on about knee deep, I had a catfish. In my 20s, I gave up all shoes for two years.

For two years. Now, this was B.J. Before Jesus? Yeah, so there was a lot of whiskey involved, as I recall. And that's just a little bit of it. Yeah. Well, I had a catfish swim up my pant leg when I was on till hunting one day. I remember that.

And he turned around on me where his fin was right here on my shin, this front part of your, so he was sticking me with that fin. Well, you know, all of a sudden something's going at your leg there underwater. And so I got to a little more shallow water. I started to roll my pant leg up. And then the bottom of that little old catfish, he was about that long, was there. Oh, Epp was down there. with a gun and he pointed that gun on my leg. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's don't do anything rash.

Well, because at that point, you've already been bit. Right. I mean, and so first time, it was a snake. First time thing is a snake. And then I said it's a catfish. Well, that's a big relief, you know, when you realize that. The idea here is that, which is interesting to me, that peace is, he calls it the gospel of peace, is what then motivates you to go. Because he says your feet, fit with the redness that comes in the gospel. So the idea is, is the gospel of peace gives you some confidence to be able to go and do what you need to do. Well, because the thing, why is he calling it peace? Because of what Jesus offers, it kind of makes sense of your past, the mistakes you made, but then Jesus died for those mistakes. Right. You're present. You have a

purpose. God uses people by sharing, in declaring the gospel to get more people into the kingdom. So you have more workers, you know, people with purpose on earth making God's presence known. And then, well, your future is secure, even in death. Right. Well, there's your peace. Right.

Because you think about it, if somebody's bitter, which a lot of people are, what's the problem? Well, something has happened in their past. That's right. that they can't get past. And so that's why the cross is so powerful. Not only does it give you personal peace, but it gives you away from, like, people that have sinned against you.

Right. And if you're anxious or stressed out, well, that's because your present situation is overwhelming. And you're not realizing God's got a plan. If I stick with declaring Jesus, then that's going to remove the stress because nothing's worth really worrying about in that light. And if you're worried, well, now that's the future.

Because you're uncertain of what's going to happen in the future, and there's the resurrection. I mean, that's why I think it uses the word peace, because it's whatever happened in your past, your present situation, or the future. He answered it in him being here and what he did on the cross and a resurrection. Our guests that are here today

are going through a battle with cancer. and our studio audience. And I don't know where the N.B. Anderson. And last night we were talking. Well, tell them how I met them. Well, yeah. You knew them before. I knew them before.

Well, actually, we all did because I didn't realize until last night that I was in the hunting industry. So he had met us at the big DU things we used to do up there. We had the booth and sold all the duck calls and stuff out in that big old field. Those DU deals we did for years. That was our biggest event was Memphis and Germantown. But anyway, so I knew them. They listened to the podcast. We talked about that shooting at Real Foot Lake that happened two, three years ago on a duck line.

Yeah. And Alan knew those people. So we started a conversation, got to know each of them. And you're both named Alan. And he's named after Alan Ladd, which I find fascinating. And who is that? Well, he's like, who was he that? Who was Alan Ladd?

He was like a wrestler, wouldn't he? No, no, no. He was an actor. Actor and singer. but he was famous back in the day. And so dad and mom, you know, and Alan's mom named us after him. But anyway, so they, so they were coming. They started coming by here on their way down to MD Anderson to go do the cancer stuff.

And they were coming through. And I wasn't here. I said, well, you know, Jay's is preaching. You know, I was preaching. And I was sick. That was the morning I was really sick. And I was not living out what I just read. my feet weren't ready because I was kind of stressed out because I felt so bad.

Yep. So I was worrying about it. I was like, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that. I drove myself there because Missy was singing, so she was there early. And I got out of my truck. I think we pulled up together. Yeah. And I'm not sure.

It was a, hey, how are you doing? I'm so-and-so. And then tears started flowing from them. Alan just said, he told the story last night to me, he said, when I saw Jace, we were going to come and, you know, they're just going through this battle. And he said, when he saw it, when y'all pulled up at the same time, he just took it as a sign that he was supposed to Yeah. And it really helped me in the moment because I thought, well, I thought I had some problems with whatever bug I got, but this is way more important. So, yeah, we wound up praying together.

And it was a, it was a special. I think all even came forward and got prayers from the, but so last night we were talking about this. One of the things he said was what something you sparked in my mind a minute ago. So they were telling me that when they go to the hospital, the people that are there a lot of times, they're telling them. They said, you know, we can always tell the Jesus people. I think it was what they put it. Whenever they're going through something like this, because they're still kind to us. They seem to be kind of calm in the moment, even though it's scary stuff. But the people that don't know, Jesus, they're very bitter and they're very angry about their setting and their situation.

And so I just thought about that, Jason, when you described that a minute ago, because that's exactly what happened. If we don't have something bigger than ourselves, when we're going through a really difficult time when it's not peaceful by circumstance, you better have something peaceful that you can rely on this bigger than just your health or your situation, a kid situation, whatever. What made me think even I'm telling you when I read the book of John last night, I was going to save this for when we revisit John. but basically what I just described is how the first conversation of Jesus played out. And this is before he died and was buried and raised. Because it's interesting. If I ask you, what are the first words in John spoken by Jesus? What are the first, you're not going to get it.

He got me there. Yeah. You know what it was? What do you want? That's the first thing he said. But, you know, when I actually thought about that, if God came to earth and asked you that, what would you say? What do you want? I would say, I just think that you was my way out of here.

I don't know why I knew you were thinking to say that. Now, that's a father-son relationship. I thought that's what you were going to say, and you said it. I'm just trying to find a way out of here. So it starts in chapter one when it was two disciples. Two disciples of John, you know, came up and they were following Jesus. They were following him. And he turned around and said, what do you want?

Which I've done before. When somebody comes up, it makes me uncomfortable. I'm like, what do you want? How can I help you? And so what the translation does it say is, well, we just wanted to know where you're staying. Now, most people would respond. I got a little place in, you know, just outside of Nazareth or whatever, you know. And so what was his next phrase?

He said, come and you will see, which I think is clever. Yeah. And because it's seemingly an insignificant verse, but it's, there's a, the next verse says, so they went and saw where he was staying, but they spent the day with him. Yeah. Well, that's really what it was about because just watch out of this where I thought this was fascinating. So that was what he was kind of presently doing was having conversations with who would turn into his core group of disciples. And it was more about having a conversation, which look, what do we do when we have the armor of God on and we're revealing the character of Jesus?

If somebody says, well, where do you live? 99% of the people would give you the address or describe it, but we need to be the type of people that say, well, come over and I'll show you. Because then you're going to have a conversation, and hopefully Jesus, I mean, having people in your home, I mean, that's what he was all about. And so watch how this works then.

The next day, this is 43, and I'm just giving you an illustration on how to be Jesus, which I think is the theme of having the armor. He decided to leave for Galilee and finding Philip, he said, now here we have another little catchphrase. The day before he had said, come and you will see. He said, follow me. So it's a theme coming up.

It's like, you spend time with me and you'll figure this out. And so Philip, like Andrew and Peter, he was from the town Besseda, he found Nathaniel and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about because the more time they spent with him they knew and it says,

Jesus of Nazareth. Well Nathaniel, who hasn't met Jesus yet, he says, can anything good come from there? Nathaniel asked. Now what's he thinking? He's thinking about the past. All the things that have come out of Nazareth, these first guys, I think,

was kind of a present situation. where Jesus moved on. It's like, you know, where are you staying? And he's like, well, come and I'll show you. I mean, like right now, and they wind up spending the day. Here he's like, nothing could come. He's already made up his mind about anything coming out of Nazareth. But look what Philip said.

And I wonder where he got this. You see what he said in verse 46? Come and see. It was the same thing Jesus had told him. Well, now it's become like, okay. Okay, we've got that part figured out. All you got to do is get in his presence and you'll figure it out. And so what happens?

Jesus and Nathaniel, after he does come and see, they have a conversation. Because when Jesus saw Nathaniel, he said, here's a true Israelite in whom there's nothing false. And he said, well, how do you know me? Nathaniel asked, which is another deal about in the past. Jesus knew us before we responded to him. I mean, that gets into that verse while we were still sinners. You know, God demonstrates his own love for us while we were sinners. Christ died for us.

But Jesus answered, I saw you while you were under the fig tree before Philip called you. So evidently he was out there under a fig tree thinking about, you know, whatever. But Jesus knew that. well, all of a sudden he's like, well, you must be the son of God. Because I guess it was a place where he didn't see him around. And he's thinking, how would he know that? Yeah, how would he know that? But watch what he says.

Jesus said, you believe, because I told you, I saw you onto the fig tree. And now here's a future reference. You shall see. I mean, this kind of come and see is the theme here. But then he said, you shall see greater things than that. he then added, I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God descending and descending on the son of man. I just thought, isn't that really neat how he took whatever time frame that we live in

where we struggle, whether it's bitterness or frustration or anxiety or fear? And in each moment, he had conversation, revealed his character, revealed about the future. He showed, I mean, it doesn't even give the details. about what he talked about. But whatever he discussed with them, they were convinced that he was the son of God. Yeah. And that is the key ingredient for life change.

Yep. And also a reminder that you'll struggle because these same guys who in the initial moment, they had it. I mean, they knew. At the same time, follow them through the rest of the book for the next three years. I mean. Life is short and full of trouble. Yeah.

And look, and your faith gets tested. and theirs was the entire time. And then when he got to the end, guess what happened? They all ran away. But that's my point. When you read Ephesian 6 in the armor, it tends to get philosophical. And I'm saying in a practical way, this needs to become real in conversations that you're having with people. I mean, like our guests we were talking about, I saw tears and I was like, well, what's wrong?

I mean, I forgot what I was fixed to do, which was speaking from a thousand people. people. I wanted to hear the story. Yep. And so I think those conversations that are Jesus focused and centered, that's what we should be doing. That's the feet that are ready with the gospel of peace. But it's also the breastplate of righteousness because once you get into some of these conversations with people, well, they start talking about the mess that is their life. And you talk about the truth. Sometimes it's hard to tell people the truth. Because it's going to make them uncomfortable.

And I love that I've never seen that verse, or I've read it a thousand times that I've never noticed that question that Jesus asked. And I think that's actually central to the gospel of the kingdom because what I think what a lot of us grew up hearing is a gospel that's, I would say, is disembodied. It's a future reality, and that's it. Like heaven is, it's all about getting off of this place, getting out of here and going there when probably a more biblical teacher. is that heaven's coming to us.

You see that in the gospel, that God's coming to us. But I think what question hits the core of it, right? Because if we're only focused on just getting out of here, then we tend to move into what I would call and others have called a gospel of sin management. But he doesn't really address it there. He doesn't ask them what they know or what their set of beliefs are. Jesus asks them, what do you want? What do you actually want?

My translation says, what are you seeking? What do you long for? What do you desire? And it's interesting that what they say they want is probably true. They said, where do you live at? Because what they really wanted, they want to be in proximity to him. And so he says, come follow me. So what happens is in the gospel, the kingdom, it's not just a future reality.

It's a present reality in that what we want, what we love, what we desire, whatever word you want to use or what we long for. that's a disposition that is shaped by the practices in which we engage in. And that's why he's saying, come follow me. Because what you want will be shaped when you're in proximity to Christ, when you're living with him. That's the whole point of the gospel, is that Christ came down to dwell with man, to make his home with men and women. And the Holy Spirit moves, lives in us. And we become the temple.

And so the ultimate dwelling place, where does God live? Where do you stay at? Well, the final answer after the resurrection is going to be, I live in you now. And that's where the whole story is going. So I'd never seen that connection, though. What a profound way to start. Well, I'm glad you saw it, and it excites me because you know what I discovered as I kept reading? That the next thing he said, he did the same thing.

When they had the banquet, when he changed the water to wine, his first statement was to his mom. and he said, why do you involve me? Look, there's a theme that's happening here. Now, when you get to John 3, of course, then it got into the kingdom, by the way, because then he cleared the temple. Remember one of his famous statements was, you destroy this temple, and I'll raise it up in three days.

So John 3 doesn't ask a question to Nicodemus. He just shakes his house by saying, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again, which was a profound statement. that caused him to think. Well, he made his mom think, too. She thought, what's he talking about?

And then he said, my time hasn't come yet. Yeah. And I think it planted a seed that one day there would be a wedding feast of heavenly and earthly proportions of us being married to Jesus. I think it was a picture. Yeah, because he uses that later. Well, yeah. And at the end, he changes water, which was used out of the jars for the ceremonial washing.

He changed it to wine to be presented to the master. Well, what's that give you a vision of? I mean, we're presented as the bride of Christ. But look, in John Ford, you know how that conversation started? He walked up to a well with a woman who was not from the same region as him, and he said, will you give me a drink? It's another question. Of course, she's thinking, shut I? I'm a woman.

I'm not from here. You're not supposed to be talking to me. And I'm not living a terrible life. But that's what I was, and look, it continues, you're going to notice this, and I just discovered it last night by just reading the red letters, that I think if you get that in your mind of having the armor of God own, you're going to ask people questions and have conversations about real life and destroy a lot of barriers and walls that people have ideas about. And look at the other side of that, Judge, if you don't choose that, if you don't believe, then you're, you're, you're, you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, still searching, those questions are still being asked. What do you want? What do you want in life? How things go? All those questions are still being asked, but you have no answer. Well, exactly. I mean, that becomes... Look, you think about the breastplate of righteousness.

He later on tells her, he said, go, go call your husband and come back. And she said, well, I have no husband. Now, you're talking about the breastplate of righteousness. He's like, well, you're right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you've had five of them, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you've said is quite true. You said, what is that called? That's called the breastplate of righteousness. We have gotten now, you have tried to say a little comment that's covering up this mess, you know, in your life.

But now. And look, she took it to heart so much when she went back to the village. She said, this man's told me everything I've ever done. I mean, you talk about some hyperbole. She's like, he knows that I'm a mess. He knows the whole story. But I think it's a true picture of speaking the truth and love. Yeah.

Because deep down, we all know right from wrong, good and evil, but we just spend lives of trying to cover it up and justified. And you think of anything noteworthy in your life where you turned around. Somebody usually filled with the Holy Spirit, sat down and had a very difficult conversation with you. And made you search your heart and say, what do you want in life? What are you doing? You know, how do you feel about other people? Yep.

So, I mean, just in the first four chapters, we've gotten into difficult family situations, racism, calling the first disciples, despite, you know. But you remember, and you remember what Paul said, because we're out of time, but you remember what Paul said at the beginning of Ephesians, Jays, so that you can know him better. Yeah. I'm talking about Jesus. I mean, so it really is that becomes the theme, and that's what you just described in the book of John.

So we're out of time. We'll pick it up here 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.