Ep 1082 | Jase Gets a Birthday Request From Phil He Never Expected & Struggles to Hold It Together
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I am unashamed. What about you?

Welcome back to Unashamed. Zach, it's always good when we start out the podcast, wherever you get going, Jay's playing the role of Mr. Blackwell.

Always has some commentary on mine and yours. What were our attire? I didn't realize that I got both of you in one shot. If you're watching the podcast today, I'm wearing a rather loud shirt that says Gulf of America on it. So, Jace will give me a hard time. And as that comes on with his Elmer Fudd orange hat. That our lovely producer, young Matty, was asking if he had any alternative hats.

I defended you, Zach. I said, no. I wouldn't call that a defense, but you did answer for me. I did. I said, deer season is coming up in four or five months. I think the hat is a – it's hard for coloring is what I've been told, and I forgot that they asked me not to wear it. Zach, it's an inner thing. I think we've been going through John 6, which is difficult.

And we all are surrounded by people who say yes. And so Zach, I think it's subliminal because me and Al will say no, which we all need those people in our life, you know, because there's only one yes man. I think, what is that? First Corinthians one. Uh,

But I noticed, though, Jace, when Jill was on the podcast, she quickly jumped in when we were gigging them about the Orange Hats. And so I realized that Jill is also a non-yes person, Zach's life. And so I think she was glad to have some company, like some other support system.

to make sure Zach doesn't, you know, think of himself more highly than he ought. That's a nice way to say when she ran up on us on this podcast, she said, I'm not alone.

No, I misquoted that script. This 2 Corinthians 1. All those promises are yes and amen. Is it that one? Well, but it says for no, no, this is 2 Corinthians 1.20. Let's just start right here. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. That's the only person you just need to say yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes, but as humans who have flaws, you need people in your life that say... So it causes conflict. It's very healthy. You have to surround yourself with people that say no, which I feel like I've not intentionally done that. It's just I was born into a family of no men and no women. Yeah. I think we were all born into that. There's not a lot of... I mean, there's not a lot of...

I mean, it's a... Nobody's got time for that. Nobody's got time to make you feel better about whatever you're wrong about. None of that. So I ran around in the woods yesterday in the water with the man that epitomizes the word no. Al, your son-in-law, Jay Stone.

I just spent the weekend with him down here. He was a little bit more laid back. You know, I know. I would call him maybe stone when he was down here. I noticed that. He wanted me to be the motor man. It's very difficult to move large structures on the water that we call duck blinds. So most people, when a flood happens, you know, you run away to high ground. But we are the people who start rubbing our hands together.

And we run toward the tragic, dangerous, unpredictable floodwaters because for years we've hunted in two spots.

that were 75 to 100 yards away from the X, the perfect spot. Do you realize how frustrating that is year in and year out? You're like, if we just... Because you don't own the X. Is that somebody else's property? Oh, no, we own the X, but the blind is not floating. The water's not high enough to move it. So we're sitting here waiting on a flood.

And they had dropped the river down to a lower pool stage because they're working on the locks in our area. And so we realized that it's probably going to be another three years before we could even move it. So every time we go duck hunting in these two spots, people constantly say, well, if we were just over there.

Well, there's nothing I can do about it. We can't, you know, we can go walk over there, but then they'll see us. You know, we've tried to make blinds. We actually hunted the spots with temporary blinds, but, you know, it's just not a good hunt to be sitting there.

In water, trying to hide. It just doesn't work for large groups of people. But anyway, the flood, contrary to the predictions, there was a huge rain, evidently. I mean, it rains here in Louisiana all the time, but it was not enough to move the water. But the headwaters, which we're going to be talking about this when we get to John 7, in Arkansas...

that feeds us, they got torrential rains. And so that's what makes this so dangerous because nobody realizes. I'll tell you how dangerous it was. This is only the second time in my life we were going to put the boat in to go move the blinds. And you know where we put the boat in now? Is at our main gate.

You know the main gate to the property? That's where we launched the boat. Where we usually, it's like a one-mile ride. Oh, no, it's all water. So for only the second time in my life, I said, hang on before you put this boat in. Of course, we're in the truck. We're in Jay's truck. And so I get out of the truck and get my life jacket that I brought and put it on and got back in the truck. He said, what are you doing?

I said, I'm putting my life jacket on before you try to launch this boat. And he couldn't figure out. I said, when the water is this high and this volatile, and you don't really know, we're just backing it down off a hill here. I was like, I think it's just too embarrassing for me to be buried in my own creek in your truck, dead. Yeah.

Because people pull off, I've seen it at least in my life, half a dozen times. Somebody go to put their boat in and the whole truck is baptized.

It happens. Yeah. And it's usually about a three-day burial before the wrecker can get the truck out. Al, how many times have we seen it? It's been many times. It's very dangerous. So I rolled down the window. You already see in the headlines, Duck Dynasty star drowned on his own property. Buried at sea, baptized by floodwaters. So we survived. Uh-huh.

And we got the blinds moved. One of them was a 10 out of 10. Because I'd love if there was a competition. You don't realize how hard it is to move a blind that weighs about two tons when there's current even in the backwater. And the wind was blowing. It's just with a motor.

You're moving this thing. You just tie a chain up to it? I don't know. Usually we tie ropes, but I tried freestyle yesterday because there was so many. I mean, and it's just the hardest manner of doing it. So basically I'm just circling the blind, getting my boat wedged by two-by-fours or logs, and then I'd move it, and then it'd spin around me. Jay was like, what are you doing? I was like...

It was kind of a hold my unsweet tea and watch this. And the first one, I looked like master class. You know, it was just perfect. The second one, we had some problems.

So Jace even has categories. He has the, what did you call it? The freestyle. You got freestyle. Which is not recommended because most people wind up with their blind going down the Ouachita River headed to the Gulf of America. Because once you get past your destination, it's over. There's no coming back. There's no coming back.

I was trying to tell them that they were filming all this for Duck Commander, so I'm sure. I was wondering if it was being filmed because that's how viral videos are made. They didn't know what they were doing, the filmers, because they were in the boat with us. I was like, you only appreciate this if you're away from us. You got to be in another boat. The blind is too big, but they didn't want to be in another boat because they were all scared to die. So they kind of weren't like you. They just didn't have the orange hats on. Yeah.

If they wanted to be with me, I could tell the cameraman. He was like, I mean, what are our chances of survival on this? Which he was kidding, but I wasn't. I said, I'd say 70%.

And he just looked at me kind of dumbfounded, which is a great time to then introduce Jesus. But we had already had that talk, so I was like, you're good. We're in Jesus. So, Jase, this reminds me. Zach, do you remember, I think it was in the first year, Dad's old show. It was called In the Woods with Phil. And we did more than one episode. I want to say it was three.

maybe two or three episodes about this because, you know, the whole setup for that show is dad just doing what dad does, doing dad things. And he was showing exactly how he does it. And I don't remember a freestyle, but I do remember him hooking up the ropes and it was him and Dan doing exactly. Yeah, we had all that available. I just...

It just takes way more time, you know. And it was my wife's birthday yesterday, and she was like, all right, you know. I told her I was going to take her out to eat. And, I mean, I was out there for hours. But I got it all done. And I was like, it's going to take too long. I mean, so I was just doing it for the love of my wife.

And I was one out of two. And the second one is huntable. It just, what happened was you can't see what's under the water. And one of the logs my dad has, I'm not kidding. This log is like, I would say 40 yards long. It's twice as big as all the other logs. And it hung on something and eventually died.

broke itself away from the blind. So then we had the blind was kind of, I mean, it was still floating, but, and so then it became a blocker to where we wanted to put it. So we got it close. So what we'll do, nobody will panic. When the water goes down, we'll get heavy equipment in there, jack the blind up, put another flotation under it. It's just made it harder, but that will be to be continued. It's in the right spot. It's just...

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that we would live on in the summer of 1976. Chase, you and I were children. I was 11, you were about seven. And he famously told the real estate agent who was very nervous about selling this property because it was in a flood zone that he didn't want it unless it flooded.

Yeah. Because that's when good things happen. It was his mindset because, you know, you got all this stuff that flowed down the river. Of course, you could fish the backwater. I mean, no one else understood what a good flood could do. Most people are afraid of floods. We actually went into the flood zone on purpose. Well, yeah, there is a fear factor, but you got to realize everybody has roles to play because you need a high-quality motor man. I'm not bragging. I just am. Yeah.

I mean, Al, you can testify to this. The first thing I learned how to do when I was probably eight was run an outboard motor. And so you have to be really good with an outboard motor on this. Backwards and forwards. So I told Jay, because you can't have any distractions. The biggest distraction is in floodwaters, all of the critters run to the blind or swim to the blind or crawl.

Or Slither. I sent Dan, and he formed a posse, Dan the butler. And I think Jay headed them up because he's a skilled shooter.

So they decotton-mowed the blinds before I ever got there. They did this a week ago, and they de-beavered the blinds. Those were the main two suspects. Did you see any floating fire ant balls? Because a lot of times you see those, too. Yeah, but those, I mean, you're only dealing with things that can kill you.

Yeah, I understand. Oh, and the beavers are destroying the blind. You know, they want to move in. It's not personal with the beaver. And I know, you know, people listen like, oh, don't hurt the beaver. But they're destroying our blinds. I don't care if the beaver lives or dies. I just don't want him to do it in our houses. He needs to go somewhere else. And look, if they just jumped off the log and took off.

That'd be fine. But you know what they do? They rear up and defend their new home. But, you know, Jase, you're actually saying, look, we're not for beaver welfare because go build your own huts. Don't take our building that we built for us to hunt. You're free to leave. But if you make a stand, guess what? You die. Yep. We call the grave digger. Yeah.

And you don't think they'll take a stand, but they do in the Cottonmouths. Do they ever take a stand? This is like, this is my house. And we're like, no, we built it.

So, oh, Jay, you know, he was loading up his pistol. I was like, I thought you had already de-crittered the blind. He's like, well, you never know when you'll have some new inhabitants. But we didn't really run into any of that. So it was good. It was a good day. It's funny, Jay, because I'll say this to wrap it up. The same thing I said about when Dad did that episode, when I was watching it, and it was some beautiful footage of it, they had drones and all this stuff. And I said, you know, who else in America –

is doing this during the late spring season. I would say not many. It's an interesting lifestyle. No, we were high-fiving. I'm glad you're carrying it on. Yeah, we're high-fiving. I mean, it's like I think we would have had twice as good of a duck season if we'd have had these two blinds in their current locations.

I mean, it's a no-brainer. So we got it done. We're all happy, happy. And then you closed it out with Missy's birthday feast, I hope. Oh, yeah, we did good. I mean, it was— You know, it's interesting, Jace, because Missy has always shared a birthday with Willie, but it is also the anniversary of my granddaughter getting married.

That all happened now on the same day. So there was a lot going on yesterday. You know, what's crazy is, uh, and then two days later, my dad, uh, has his birthday and, uh, just to prove, I mean, look overall, I think we're doing as good as we can do. And they're actually doing a lot better since they're together. But, uh, and my mom's problems are more physical and my dad's are more mental, but, uh,

But I would say he's doing, you know, a little better than he was for a few months. But to show you that he's definitely mentally not all there, and you have to laugh at this just to keep, you know, keep from crying from the overall situation. But I was telling him, I was like, your birthday's coming up. And he was like, really? And I was like, well, you want me to get you for your birthday?

And his response, one, proved that he's not all there mentally, and two, was the most shocking thing that I've ever thought I would hear that came out of my dad's mouth. Have I told you this, Al? No. He said, what I want is, you heard of this company called Nike? Nike.

Yep, but I didn't think you had because nothing in your life has anything to do with you. You can't make this up. And I was like, yep. And I actually thought he was going to say something about the stock market or something, you know. He said, I think I want some of those –

Air Jordan tennis shoes. Hot tops. Oh, my goodness. I busted out laughing, and I looked at Mom, and she looked at me and kind of made her eyes big. And I was like, well, what's your thinking on that? He said, I just really think if I had a pair of those, I'd be all right. See?

You never know what's going on in the mind there, dude. I will go get you a pair of Air Jordan. And I said, is there a color preference? And he said, I think I want to go orange and white. I said...

Okay, Phil. So anyway, there's that. Do with it what you will. Hey, a man with good taste. How you wore the white, I wore the orange. Yeah. I never know if they're sort of kidding and it's a real moment or if it's like a...

Well, that's what I thought, Al, but about 10 minutes. Because mom, I went in there one day, I said, mom, how are you, you know, are you meeting some of your new like suite mates? Because there's like people in these little apartments around them. And she said, oh, yeah, we're all going on vacation together next year. Well, I mean, I busted out laughing.

And then I wasn't sure, was she joking or was she like really thinking they were going to go on vacation? Because sometimes she thinks they're on vacation. She told me they were in an all-inclusive recently. So I never know. But, you know, she laughed about it, so so did I, but I was never quite sure. No, I think this is legit. Ten minutes later, he's like, you're going to get me them shoes. Yep. So then, you know, we leave. I got an ass walk, but we came back and stopped in, you know, and visited him. He said, where's my shoes?

So he had forgot. No, I said, Phil, it's not your birthday yet. He's like, I know, I know. I was thinking he don't know that, but he was like, he wants him high top shoes. I wonder where he saw that, where, where that came from. I think, uh,

You know, I really don't know. I don't even want to speculate because it's just crazy. But, you know, he's always had those knobs on his feet. Yeah. You know, I don't know. He never did it in his life. I've never seen him wear a pair of tennis shoes in my life. Never. Never. This would be a first. You know, sometimes the bucket list, you just start digging around in there and you come out with a pair of high-top Air Jordans. Yeah. There's that. Yeah.

All right, before we start, Al, well, I'll tell you what. I'll save that for the next podcast, but I'll give you a cliffhanger for the next podcast. Remember when I had met the...

the wonderful young woman who had a name I'd never heard, and it was one, W-O-N. Oh, yeah. I recently met another person who had a name I'd never heard, but I'll leave that as a cliffhanger. Oh, there's the tease for the next podcast. So we left off. We're still in John 6. We're kind of at the close of that chapter, which has been interesting, and you know in-depth study because John,

We've had a lot of rabbit holes, mostly by Jay's, that we've looked at. But all of it provides the flavor in the background because, as Jay stated correctly, this is, I would say, a fairly controversial chapter because it has produced a lot of different interpretations, I think is a fair way to say it, of this text. Yeah, and doctrines, I think, that may be looking too much at a modern perspective.

view of like, what does this mean to me? Oh, you know how people just pick verses out and they're like, what does this mean to you? I think that's one of the worst questions ever. I agree. I hate that. I mean, God wrote this and there was a purpose. It is a story. But you need to especially research the history of the story that God is fulfilling in Jesus, which is what we tried to do with Deuteronomy.

doing an overview of it. I know it's complex. It's hard to read. There's a reason that can be difficult to digest. But I think it does kind of connect the dots to the conversation Jesus was having here.

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We're going to get into John 7, and you see that people are not believing, even his own brothers. Right. And so I thought about that. You know, when you think about trying to break down kind of the group, you know, your worldview, and that's why I wanted just to kind of look at the overview of what we've been reading in John 6 and what we'll read in John 7. You know, they had a worldview that Jesus was challenging them.

And then they had a group of people with them who shared same said worldview, which didn't include God becoming a man. Yeah. And, but you know, I think if you want to apply that to today, we have that same problem. Yeah. You know, it's like you read something. It's kind of our question here in John six, Jesus said, he's like, you know, do my words offend you? If you're having a hard time wrapping your head around it,

instead of being open-minded about it or doing the research or, you know, we tend to just have our groups of people that kind of make us feel better about what we believe. And I think they were having a hard time because I think at the end of the day, what Jesus was presenting here was very costly to their little groups and their day-to-day life. And, uh,

They just they weren't willing to give it up. I don't know what y'all think about that. No, I agree. And I think that's why he made the statement that we said when he was talking to Nicodemus that you should know these things. And that's why he continues to go back. You mentioned in the last podcast.

that he mentions Moses 13 times in John and quite a bit in John 6, which is where we've been, which is why you want to go to Deuteronomy and read it because Deuteronomy is basically Moses' reset for the people of Israel after 40 years of wandering around in the desert before they're about to go into the Promised Land.

which had been promised to Abraham's heritage 400 years earlier. So you see why these things continue to come up. And I had one more just shallow rabbit hole to show you that it even went beyond this, because you think once they got into Canaan, the promised land, the thing that God had promised Abraham through his heritage, then that would be the end of it. But it wasn't the end of it because it was always going to be about the

Him sending the Messiah that you would trust in him for eternal salvation. That's always been the goal, no matter where they were in Israeli history. And there was a couple of instances in 1 and 2 Samuel.

around David, who's also mentioned quite a few times by Jesus in the New Testament, the Gospels. And one of those was a story from Second Samuel 23. And it's a story about David's mighty men. And, you know, he had like 30 of these guys that were like his inner circle, you know, and they were great warriors. And the setting is they're in this battle with the Philistines. So they're behind enemy lines. And

And David just kind of in a moment of saying how he felt said, oh, if I only had some water out of a well in Bethlehem, it'd be like, man, wouldn't that be great? Because they were separated because of this army. Well, three of these guys heard him say it. Well, guess what? They fought their way through the enemy line to go back into Israel, got some water.

out of that well, brought it back and fought their way back to where David was and offered him the water. I mean, that's how committed they were to the process. But he said something really interesting. When they handed him the water, David said, "'Far be it from me, O Lord, to drink this. Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?' And then he pours the water out on the ground."

And you'd think that would almost be like from our mindset of living in our own culture, that would be like an insult. But for him, what he was saying was, is these men risked their lives, their blood to bring this water to me. And I'm telling you, this water is for all of Israel. And he pours it out on the ground. Then, of course, they win the war. But I think it's little symbols that you see all through this process.

Same thing when David went in and ate the show bread in 1 Samuel. You see these situations where Jesus mentions and says, all that was pointing to me. Living water, blood as a symbol of that water, my body, bread as an idea that that's who I've come to be. And so it happens over and over and over throughout Old Testament history to continue to point to this very moment, which is what Jesus is trying to prove. And you're right.

In this case, we're in the end of John 6. Most didn't believe. And I say most. I mean, all these people, remember, there were thousands. And all of a sudden, Jesus looks back up, and we're back down basically to the original 12 going into the next set. Yeah, I mean, you know, he told them in 43 of 6, you know, stop grumbling among yourselves. And then they were arguing. I forget where that verse was where it says an argument broke out. They were arguing. Yeah.

Oh, 52. That was in verse 52. Yeah, and then the Jews began to argue sharply among... He's challenging their worldview. But then, you know, when you get to the disciples, well, 61, it says, well, where that his disciples were grumbling about this. And then it says from that time in 66, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

And the only thing I want to mention before we move to seven, besides bringing that up, because I do think everybody, you know, listening to this, you need to realize that following Jesus is challenging. I mean, you get inside not only your mind and your heart about how you make decisions and what you're doing,

But it's also, you know, who you're running with and what you're doing. And you need to make sure that you're not literally arguing or grumbling against the Lord Jesus and what he wants for your life, you know? I mean, he's in charge of it. So I wanted to bring up where he said, I know we talked about it a little bit, but when he said, does this offend you in 61? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before Jesus?

And then he starts talking about the spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. We hit on it a little bit, but I think it's interesting that he keeps bringing up that he's going to ascend to the right hand of God, like as a preview. And of course you're going to see that more as the book develops, but then he starts talking about the spirit in that context. And the reason I'm bringing this up is,

As I think one of the things they were having a hard time wrapping their head around, which I think the same thing is true today, is

is that Jesus basically was representing dual citizenship here. He's like, I'm a citizen of heaven, and I am a citizen of earth because the word became flesh, verse 14, and here I am talking to you. And I think that's a key thing to lock into because eventually when he does ascend and he does pour out the Spirit, that then becomes available for all of humanity, right?

To represent heaven and earth as a surrendered disciple of Jesus and a carrier of the Holy Spirit. And having Jesus connected to you at the right hand of God, like is this sacrifice for humanity, making the presence of God in the heavenly realms actually...

doable for other humans who will... That's what he says in a few chapters. He's going to talk about leaving Earth, and he says, it's for your good that I go away, because if I don't go, then he won't come, speaking of the Holy Spirit. And so I think it's interesting here that the way he answers the question about offense is to ask another question

Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? And the reference Son of Man, we mentioned it before, it's actually used about 80, over 80 times in the New Testament. And did you know that all of those times that it's used except for two, it's how Jesus identifies himself?

He identifies himself most prominently as the Son of Man, which is the Daniel 7 figure where he appears before the Ancient of Days. And the reason why that matters is because if you go read that passage, it's in that moment where the Son of Man appears before the Ancient of Days and he's given a kingdom and he's given dominion and he's given authority and he's given all these things. So it's not a...

It's actually not a dismissal of earth when Jesus talks about his ascension. It's actually an elevation of the created world that he's painting the picture of in the end, which I think is why the whole story of Moses is

And the reference to Moses is so key to this because you read it in Deuteronomy. You also went, I think we read it in Exodus as well. And when you go ahead and read all that, so what's the, what is the whole point of the Exodus? What was the whole thing about? And the whole thing was about God tabernacling with humans, right?

And I thought this in our last podcast, I didn't bring it up, but I thought about this verse at the end of the Hebrew canon, which the way the Hebrew Bible is set up, it's different than the way our Bible has the books. Their last book, if you were to, the way it's organized, the last of the Hebrew scriptures is actually 2 Chronicles. And that ends with this verse.

instruction or this call for this messianic figure to build a house for God. Now in the story, it's, I think it's about Cyrus, but it's actually bigger than Cyrus. It's actually like, it's funny that the Hebrew scripture ends with the very thing that we're talking about of the Holy spirit. Basically build a house for God to live in. Well, that's what Jesus does. He builds a house. He finally, he finally builds the house for,

that God will live in, which is his own human body being a cornerstone. And then we are now those living stones. So the spirit will come and live in people now. And so I think that's why people heard this. They're like, I mean, you're talking about like taking their entire worldview and just flipping it upside down. And they do not have a context for what he's saying. I think that's why they left him.

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I think you're right. And I was mentioning earlier about Jesus using David eating the show bread, you know, on the Sabbath was the defense in Matthew six. I mean, in Matthew 12. But here's what he said, Zach, to your point you just made. He said when he was talking about this, here's what in Matthew 12, six. I tell you that no one I mean, I tell you that one greater than the temple is.

is here. Now that he was talking to the context about the Sabbath, but you could say the same thing about his flesh, his body, all of it, everything we've been talking about, everything that the Exodus and the Passover and all those things pointed to, what he was saying was you're looking for something that is now here. Yeah. And that, and that's me. And when I leave, when I sin to Jason's point in this text, I'm going to send my spirit. And in that way, I'm here on earth. You are my temple. Yeah.

And so I think that's where so many people have missed it because they leave off in that second Chronicles. They're saying, well, boy, it's going to be something one day when Jesus comes back and they build that temple. And, you know, over there on that ground, that third temple. And we're like, you're waiting on something that's already here. It's already here, which is weird if you think about like this concept that without the Holy Spirit, then all we have is a cornerstone.

That's it. There's no corner. We have the cornerstones. Jesus is the cornerstone because he was resurrected from the dead. So why? Well, is that the end of it? No, the ascension is key as well, because that's Jesus. Jesus will make this point. Yes, I'm going to die. I'm going to be buried. I'm going to be raised. But I'm also going to ascend to sit at the right of the father. And here's why this matters is what he tells his disciples.

you want me to ascend because when I ascend, I'll be the cornerstone of the temple. But guess what? I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. He's going to live in you. And now you're going to be living stones. We're going to have more than just a cornerstone. We're going to have a cornerstone with living stones growing up, being built into one place.

temple system that accomplishes everything. Built on the foundation of the apostles, all those in the first century, and now for 2,000 years since, living stones that continue to be built. I want to say this. I brought this up because...

I think Jesus, the reason he gets so much pushback, one of the reasons, is this whole idea about him becoming flesh. And I think when people read this verse where it says, the Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing, I think they miss, if they go to take that to the extreme, well, then it's like nothing physical matters. But you got to remember, Jesus became a human.

And he receives the Holy Spirit. He does this physical act where he's baptized and receives God's Spirit. And the reason I think this is important is because we all believe, I think, in all the people that Jesus is talking to here, even his Jewish opposition, believe that God is omnipresent. And you got to remember the whole Old Testament narrative is, yeah, God's everywhere. God's everywhere.

He's omnipresent. I mean, there's a whole list of things that you can write on what that means. But now, in Jesus, this is like God coming in person. I couldn't really think of a better phrase for that, but it's like...

And just an illustration, I kind of looked this up on the internet just to see what people would say about it. And it was interesting what artificial intelligence said. But because it was like, and artificial intelligence used a metaphor, or an illustration that I thought was interesting. It's like what the transition, which I don't know where artificial intelligence actually gets everything, but this was a good illustration. Yeah.

It's like they described the omnipresence like if you walk into a room and you smell coffee, it's like the smell is all around you. But there's a big difference in having that experience or that kind of theological awareness that, okay, there's coffee around because you smell it. But you couldn't really, I mean, you might could find it if you started looking, but trying to capture that smell is difficult, right?

Well, there's a big difference in that and drinking a cup of coffee. And I think that's all of a sudden this becomes personal when you realize, okay, he becomes a man. And then even though he dies, when he's resurrected, he really made a point to say, look at my hands and my feet.

And so I'm saying all that just to say as we launch into John 7, because he's really going to get into what this means about the Spirit coming in a different way. Because it's like, well, what do you mean the Spirit had not yet been given? That's what John 7 that we're going to read. And I think this is a good place to launch from because...

It's coming in a different way. And you can call it in person or, and actually you can see it. Just think of the fruit of the Spirit. And I don't know the right word to use, manifestation. I looked that up. There's two verses that says that, and we can look at them when we get to John 7. And there's one that says, remember when Paul said, we didn't come to you with talk, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power? Yeah.

So it's like there's kind of three categories to this, the presence of God. You have his omnipresence. Then you have it in person. And then you kind of have the manifestation of having that in your person, you know, having the Holy Spirit. So I simply am bringing this up to say the flesh counts for nothing without the Spirit.

But it's like Paul would say in Romans, he's like, if you have the Spirit of God, your body's dead. You know, flesh, whether it's actually dead or going, it's going to die. But then he follows that up saying, if the Spirit of Christ, this Romans 8, 11, is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead, well, what was raised from the dead?

His body. Yeah. It will also give life to your mortal body. So that's, I know that's a little deep, but I'm saying, I think they were having trouble with like, what are you talking about? I mean, God is everywhere. And he's like, yeah, but he's right here. That's why he keeps saying, I came from the Father. And I think they were having a hard time wrapping their head around that. Yeah, I think that's a good point. Good nuance you pointed out there that

that the flesh in verse 63, he's not saying that the flesh is inherently evil. That actually...

He teaches against that. That would be called Gnosticism, which was a heresy back in this time period that the flesh is inherently bad and the spirit's good. That leads to all kinds of things. Actually, it's Christianity alone that I think gives a very, very high view of the flesh and of the earth. Well, once he became flesh... It's kind of the whole point, right? I'm like, well, that's a lot of people who have, you know, they'll read stuff like this and

and say all flat you know being a human is terrible yeah i mean that's basically their their conclusion i'm like and then but god became a human well it's that time of year springtime is in the air i want to tell you about our sponsor fastgraintrees.com fast growing trees is the biggest online nursery in the u.s with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers i actually am one of those happy customers i ordered the

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Unashamed at checkout. That's an additional 15% off at FastGrowingTrees.com using the code Unashamed at checkout. FastGrowingTrees.com, code Unashamed. Now's the perfect time to plant. Use Unashamed to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Well, he just said eat my flesh. He's not denigrating flesh. What he's saying when he says the word, the Greek word here, the way he's using it is...

It's like human effort, like your effort, your attempts, your fallen nature. When he uses flesh, in this frame, this is what he means. And he's pointing to what you just said. It's very similar to what you mentioned in the 1 Corinthians passage, that I didn't come to you.

with wise and persuasive words, right? I didn't come to you, that's another way you could say that. I didn't come to you with a fleshly argument. I came to you with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. And so that's the point that Jesus is making here. He's saying that this is where the power is going to come.

I love the idea about showing up in flesh. I don't know where you were going with the AI illustration, but I was thinking if there was somebody you really respected and had really meant a lot to you and you got a letter, and it was probably from a handler, but it still was from this person, you would think, oh, man, that's really cool. They've sent me something. And then you got an email from them with their name on it. You're thinking, man, I mean, they sat down and typed out an email. And then you got a call from them or a FaceTime message.

And that would be amazing. But if they showed up at your front door and knocked on it and you open the door and they were there, they were on your front porch, that's,

I mean, you should be beside yourself because they came all the way to see you, to impact you. Why would you slam the door in their face and say, nope, not really him? Well, look, it's like, I mean, that's what I was attempting to do. It'd be like if you had a multimillionaire that was like supporting your church or your cause or whatever, but you had never met him, but you were appreciating him.

because you were a member of whatever group that he's supporting, you know. Yeah. Well, you would feel a little different if he was in the room, you know, if he showed up. Then all of a sudden you're like, oh, you know, thank you. You're doing all this. Well, then if he sent you a text, you're like, oh, man. I mean, you're starting to feel better about this thing. Well, then you see where I'm going with this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like helping you with the decision-making process because you're thinking, man, I got access to all these benefits here. Well, I think that's what Jesus is trying to introduce, which is why I just kind of wanted to take a time out and say it is hard to wrap your head around

And I think that's why these people were leaving because this was getting way too personal. Yeah. But that's actually a positive thing. Exactly. And that's why those Old Testament references are important because

whether you're talking about bread that falls from heaven, water that comes out of a rock, water that is called men's blood and is poured out on the ground as a sacrifice. I mean, all those things from the Old Testament, the Jewish mind should have understood that when he said, look, I am all those things in one. And when I leave here, because he gives you that last hint, when I sin, I'm going to send all that into you.

Yeah. To then be my body. So that's the whole point he's trying to get across. Well, just imagine all these illustrations we're saying and the guy comes in your building, you know, that's supporting everything. And then, you know, a group of people rises up and says, no, you're not allowed to do that. Yeah. You can only give from afar. Right. Because we have our little system here.

And then let's just say the sponsor said, okay, forget this building where you're all meeting. I want y'all to be my building. Yeah. And just y'all move and represent all this stuff I'm going to lay before you, all these resources. I just want you to move throughout the world and let's do the work with what I'm giving you. Well, it's ultimately what's happening here is it's probably the most –

Not probably. It's the most disruptive thing that ever happened to the power system. Because if you think about, if God lives in a temple built by the hands of men, if that's where he's at, all you got to do is just burn down the temple.

Just destroy it. And you can contain him. You can control him. You can – you got – really, you have total control. Which has been done twice in history. It's been done twice in history. And so then you think –

Well, what if the temple was in living human bodies? You couldn't even really identify where, like, it's uncontainable. And so I kill one of you, but the problem is you've done spawning off into four more. And it's like, whack, you can't get to the end of this. It's like a virus that has taken over the universe. I mean, it's like you can't contain him anymore.

And so I think that that is, I could just dial it back and say, wow, what's so offensive at the core? And I don't know if they cognitively got this, but what's really offensive about this is probably that it puts us as humans in a posture that we cannot control the God of the cosmos.

We can't contain him. We can't hold him. We can't. I mean, we have zero control over him. And I think that this text is pointing to that realization. And maybe they didn't cognitively get that, but I think it's undergirding their hatred for Jesus and their abandonment of him. Well, I think that's why he told the woman at the well when he was talking about worship. And he was like, it's not a place.

Because what happened was, look, the God, speaking about his omnipresence, what Jesus was introducing is he went from over there, like, so just think temple, tabernacle. He went from over there to in here.

And I mean, that is the profound thing about him introducing the Holy Spirit. And so what did we do? You know, in our modern religion, we want to put him over there. We go to the building, we check in, and then, you know, we go out and live our lives. But that doesn't work if he's in here. Yeah.

He's in here when you went over there and then when you went over here and now you're going here. So, I mean, think homes, workplace, friends, hanging out, walking down the street. And when you're meeting with other people, I mean, it's all together. It became personal. So let me reset this before we sign off on this podcast and we get into it on the next one. So Jesus, all this has happened around Galilee, Jerusalem.

Drogs have left him because of this teaching that he's just done. And he's about to go into the teeth of his opposition, which is in Jerusalem. Because remember, you know, now people are starting for the first time saying this guy's dangerous. I mean, not only do we not believe him, but something's got to be done about this. And so that's our next chapter that we get into in this sort of journey that Jesus is on. So we'll pick it up next time in John 7. I'm not ashamed. Thank you.

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