Ep 1012 | Mia Announced Her Return to Jesus with a Piano & Jase Was Wrecked
56:58 Share

The 2024 F-150 Lightning truck gets dirty and runs clean. With an EPA-estimated range of 320 miles with the available extended-range battery, it's the only electric vehicle that's an F-150. Visit ford.com slash F-150 Lightning to learn more. Excludes platinum models. EPA-estimated driving range based on full charge. Actual driving range varies with conditions such as external environment, vehicle use, vehicle maintenance, high voltage, battery age, and state of health.

This is the sound of your ride home with dad after he caught you vaping. Awkward, isn't it? Most vapes contain seriously addictive levels of nicotine and disappointment. Know the real cost of vapes. Brought to you by the FDA. I am unashamed. What about you?

Welcome back to Unashamed. And I just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas out there. We know we're right here in the middle of the Christmas season. It's always a special time for our family. And it's interesting because, Zach, when you did the movie, I was so glad that

you included at the end of it kind of closed with this kind of a Christmas theme and dad kind of standing up for his newfound faith around Christmas, which meant a lot because in Jason, I can both say when we were growing up, you know, dad wasn't in the picture those first few years very often. But the one thing he always did was he made a huge effort around Christmas. And we would, we've told the stories before we go to the movies or, or,

He just did more family stuff because I think Christmas meant so much to him. And so then as our families started growing, we all got married and had kids. You know, we would all gather together at mom and dad's. And of course, then we started having a little bit of success with the business. And so we went from never really doing much on gifts and things like that to then this massive pile of

I mean, Jace, remember some of mom's gift piles from the, you know, it was more we were all adults, but it was more for our kids than anything. But it was just kind of a way for us to appreciate, I guess, what God has done. Make up for lost time. I guess we were making up for lost time. It's not that we were super materialistic. It was just like we went so long not having anything.

When there was an opportunity to have a few things, mom went a little bit overboard. Well, she would embellish. She would say, you're not getting anything. And then...

she tried this surprise every year, you know, after about three or four years, it's like, you know, Santa's not coming this year. Sorry. I was like, yeah, that's what you said the last three years. And he magically showed up. She was trying, she would always go the, you know, the movie deal. If you have high expectations, you're never going to like it. So she would, her expectation, expectation she would give us was you're getting nothing.

And then I'm like, oh, surprise. It's a Christmas miracle. It's a big year. Yeah. I tried to do that in my marriage. Just set the bar real low. Set the expectations really low so that anything, any turnout, you'll say, wow, that's a...

You got a bad theory. I mean, in principle. It's a good strategy. Yeah. It's a good strategy. But you want to talk about the exceeding all expectations that anyone ever had is the Christmas story, Emmanuel, God with us. I mean, think about all the expectations for the prophets that Israel had.

And I guess the Gentiles had no expectation because they weren't even in, we weren't even in the, in the, the discussion. And then God becoming flesh. I mean, that is the, that is probably the great, that is the greatest exceeding of expectations in the history of the world is God becoming flesh, which is a Christmas story. It is. And the fact that he chose to do it,

in miraculous fashion, the only person ever to be born in the history of the world without two people coming together to procreate. And so that very fact alone made him unique and special above all else. And it was predicted 700 years before it happened, which makes it even more of an amazing story. So, yeah.

I love the Christmas season. Yeah, and I want to invite us to 23rd today. So tomorrow we're going to have a Christmas special on the Not Yet Now podcast. I'm going to have my kids on. Have you changed the name yet? Not Yet Now? Now Not Yet? No, I'm too deep in. But to be fair, I did have the first comment of somebody saying, Jace is right.

You should have chose a different name, but we love the podcast, but the name, you should have changed it. Thank you. So you got someone there. And I've had a few say it's too, this last one, they said it's too deep, too much, but we're going places. But on Christmas, we're going to have a little thing because the kids wrote a

They wrote a really and released a really good Christmas song. And I don't think I'm saying that because I'm biased, which I'll put the links in the show notes. No, you're kidding. I'm sure you wouldn't be biased. Just go ahead and own that. Just say I'm biased. I'm actually...

But you didn't talk to my wife because Jill says I'm overly critical of my own family, which would include you guys. So she says I'm overly critical if it's someone that's related to me. She said I don't give them a fair shake. So I don't know what that is. But but they write a good song. We're going to we're going to do it on the podcast on that podcast tomorrow. And it's a Christmas song, right? It's a Christmas song. And it's about I mean, I mean, I mean, when we listen to it, me and Jill both cried because it's a lot of kind of.

They're really good at writing about nostalgic memories. We would always come to Carolina for Christmas because we lived in Louisiana pretty much the first half of their life. But we would drive the 13 hours to Carolina to come to Christmas to be the grandparents where Jill's side of the family lives. It's called Carolina Christmas, but it's all these –

But maybe I am biased now that I'm sitting there saying this. That's why I said, just go ahead and own it out the gate. All right. Well, I'll tell you what I did to spread the Christmas spirit because I love any opportunities where people are focused on Jesus. Because look, you give Jesus a chance and watch out. You'll get hooked and he'll change your life. So I think we should pray on that. You see what I did there? You can use that word interchangeably.

So yesterday, little man's doing better. And I took him on the golf cart, just being him. I was giving Missy a break. And it turned into a Let's Save Christmas miniseries. That's what it turned into. This is a good hook. Someone who pitches this kind of stuff all the time, this is a great hook.

so here's what happened where you go so i get in the call golf cart with a kid that's not quite three yet and we we do our routine we go see we go through the neighborhood and we go see the deer that's part of this you say well how do you know you're going to see deer don't you live in town oh i know we're going to see deer because al behind your house there are two deer but one of them i don't know if you knew this one of them had fallen

And his antlers. So there's one deer standing and there's one. He's got his look like he's like an ostrich, his head and his broken back's broken. There's just two legs. Well,

These are targets for the audience, just so you know. They're not actual deer. I figured they would deduct that. These are styrofoam targets. You said the deer fell. I was going to ask, how did the deer fall? I was trying to imagine. Well, you're stealing my punchline before I got there. These were styrofoam targets that he thinks are deer. Well, when he saw the one that

that wasn't looking too good he went oh no reindeer we had to fix the reindeer because i i could see the mind working that reindeer has a job to do and he's out of commission so i thought okay

let's fix al's targets back here which i'm sure is coming from jay not al when's the last time you shot a bow al it's it's been a few years so uh we get he was so happy that i was like he's back going again okay we saved christmas he's like yeah i mean just we're singing joy to the world

Ring them bells. No, what is it? Bells are ringing. No, what is it? Bells will be ringing. No. Jingle bells. Thank you, Matty. Jingle bells. The old classic. We need a 21-year-old here to remember this stuff. So, look, then we go to the next neighbor's, and our next neighbor bought a ladder with a Santa Claus sign.

creature looks like Santa Claus and it, the ladder goes up to the roof and this thing, it looks like Santa Claus. I was going to the roof, going to the roof, which he had seen that before. So he wanted to check, check in on the progress. Well, our neighbor had it turned off, which caused hysteria because to a three-year-old looking, he's like,

He's like, J-Rock, we need to help him. So now I find myself in the backyard of my neighbor's house and he doesn't know I'm there. But I thought, I do have this kid, so he may think I'm not trying to break into his house and I'm trying to figure out how to turn this thing on. But what we concluded was it's broken.

And the only thing I could say is I will call this neighbor, which he reminded me of through the night because we have to save Christmas because Santa Claus is hung up here on the ladder, which I thought was pretty funny. And so then the last thing I'm doing to spread Christmas spirit is my vehicle right now out here in the parking lot. Looks like I cut down a forest and put it in the back of my truck.

But it has that look of, you remember the Christmas movie where I think it's the Griswolds had the too big of a tree on the station wagon? Yeah. The whole route system. Times that by 100 and you've got what's going on in the back of my truck right now. I'll tell you this, Matty, I will take a picture when I leave and you can insert it before this is released.

If y'all would like to see this. And the reason I tell you this, this story is because when I came here, I took the back roads because I don't want to drive real fast and I'm hoping I have this secure, but I got to drive it down to Phil's because I'm going to put this on a duck blind. We have a brand new duck blind and that's what Christmas, I mean, the greatest gifts on the planet during Christmas are actually the waterfowl that the Lord sends from Canada every year for us to enjoy. Would you agree?

I mean, Christmas happens during duck season, which was a tradition for years that we would get up and go duck hunting on Christmas day. And I felt like the most special kid in the world while everybody else is drinking hot chocolate, you know, figuring out what, which presents are theirs. We were getting to duck hunt, which I thought was way far superior. And I actually tried to implement that into our family, which didn't work out very well. And my wife is like, you hunt for,

60 days. Well, we're going to make that 59 when the kids come up. But I actually did get them to go. We had about a two-year trial period and I lost because the kids turned on me.

and would rather open the gifts than get up and freeze their tails off. I mean, and you know what happened, Mal? The second year, we didn't kill any ducks. Yeah. So they're like, forget this, Dad. I'd rather open up Christmas presents. But that shows you, Jason, the context of Christmas because you and I had a little different thing going on with Dad to get him to ourselves because nobody else would come on Christmas Day because they were all spending Christmas with their families. Right. So it was just Dad and us.

And I think because we missed out a lot on our early stuff, I think we cherish that more. And I love those days, but then all of us now it's worked out the other way around for you because your kids are grown now. Yeah. And so you're able to hunt if you want. And as time went on the, to get a seat in the duck blind became a, I mean, that was hard. I mean, I remember growing up, like if you got in on the duck hunt, that was like a,

Yeah, exactly. It wasn't just for anybody. So that was a tradition. You were lucky. So on the way here, despite me taking the back roads,

I mean, I'm talking about the back roads because now I have to avoid interstate. I have to avoid all major highways because I don't want to go. Where the black top ends, as the song says. Yeah, I don't want to go over 40 miles an hour. So I got here. I'm at Duck Commander headquarters. You know, I had to get here creatively. And when you know it, I get on the last road and I look at my rearview mirror. It's not all I see is a wall of brush, but I'm looking at the side mirrors and there it is, the old...

siren truck, but they weren't going off. It just pulled up right behind me. Of course, I got a big pink flag like the loggers do. So I thought, I think I'm legal, but I'm not sure they can see my brake lights or my blinkers, but I think you can, you know, and I'm using hand signals, but I thought, what story do I need to give? Because I just figured at any moment, the lights were going to go off, you know?

And so I thought, I'm going Christmas spirit here. Because it looks like the biggest Christmas tree in the world is in the back of my truck. And then I'll parlay that into a duck blind. I'm making my duck blind. I'm decorating.

For twofold. So this is brush for your blinds. I never understood what you had the brush for. I said I got a forest in the back of my truck. Well, I know, but you never said, I thought, were you hauling a Christmas tree? You never made clear what the purpose was. I'm a duck hunter. I thought that was it. I got it. I got it now. So for everybody else who didn't get that, I have a lot of brush in the back of my truck. But it looks like one giant Christmas tree is what I'm saying from the visual. I got you.

But wouldn't you know it, I took a left. I did the hand signal. I had a quarter mile to go, and he went around me and didn't wave, but he just went out. So I guess I was legal, street legal. So I'm very happy. At least it wasn't your old friend. Well, that's what I'm saying. I've had a few brushes with the law. Get it?

Brushes with the law. But I'm street legal. You're on it today, man. And I'm going to brush the duck blind as soon as this is over. And that, to me, puts me in the Christmas mood and spirit. It's a Christmas miracle. The 2024 F-150 Lightning Truck gets dirty and runs clean.

With an EPA-estimated range of 320 miles with the available extended-range battery, it's the only electric vehicle that's an F-150. Visit Ford.com slash F-150 Lightning to learn more. Excludes Platinum models. EPA-estimated driving range based on full charge. Actual driving range varies with conditions such as external environment, vehicle use, vehicle maintenance, high voltage, battery age, and state of health.

You talked about the worship, Zach, with the new song with Layla Max, which, by the way, I'll just go ahead and say it because I'm not their parent. They're fantastic. Oh, yeah. And Jace's family is talented, too. So we are very blessed with both of y'all's wing of youth in terms of their musical ability and what they're able to do. They have exceeded Jace and I for sure. Our children, Jace, they've taken it to the next level.

Well, I think you plant the seeds and, uh, you know, my wife, which I'm super proud of, but she's always infused worship in when times are difficult or just when there's opportunities. And, uh, y'all remember when we got the podcast of the year award, which I was very grateful for, uh, my wife and I, when we went out there, she, cause we were presenting an award also, uh,

And we were backstage and there's how many people were there? Is that at the K? It was full. It was slam full. Can I say thousands or the thousands? Oh yeah. It was, it was the auditorium. Was it the Ryman or Ryman? Yeah. Yeah. Grand Ole Opry. Grand Ole Opry. I don't know. It was whatever it was. It was Grand Ole Opry. It was, it was cool. And, and there's a saying that she keeps on saying that,

when these things come up and it is, I'm not sure how God is going to use this, but I believe God's fixed to do something. She actually said that when we were at Mar-a-Lago, we shared that when she was backstage, she said the same thing. So when she says that, look out. But she said, I think I'm going to lead this group of people in a worship song. And I was not nervous, but when she said that, I said, no, babe, we're both going to have mics.

And she said, well, you can pantomime. But she said, I feel like God is fixed to do something and I'm not sure what it is. And when she said that, I was like, babe, you start and I'll follow. And I don't know, I can't remember. Y'all were there or were you not? Yeah, we were there. Yeah, and she walked out there and she just got everybody to stand and she sang an old hymn.

And the crowd just, I mean, fell right in line. And I mean, I thought it was amazing. Yeah, this was one of those you had to be there because the song didn't make the final cut of the award show. It was the doxology. It was the doxology. We went so far. I have a question. I have a question, though. What award, do you remember what award you were giving away? And do you remember who won the award?

I remember who won. I think it was Brandon Lake. Brandon Lake is who won. For Gratitude. And that's why, because it got awkward. Was it Song of the Year, Zach? I don't remember the category. Okay. But I do remember it was Brandon Lake. I do remember Brandon Lake, I believe, after that came out with a song that had the doxology in it. Now, of course, Missy didn't write the doxology, but I wonder if he heard that and thought, you know what?

Well, you inspired. I wonder if he, I'm not, not, not, we're not claiming credit here. I'm just, I'm just wondering. I'm just, all I'm doing is I'm saying, I saw this, I saw this happen. I'm just wondering if there's a connection. The tentacles of unashamed reach deep into the. I share this story because everybody's like, Oh, isn't that nice. But you got to remember when people put on a production and they ask you to be a part of it, you follow the rules.

oh yeah and the whoever was running that teleprompter when my wife stepped forward and said everyone

rise to your feet and sing along. I'm sure the teleprompter operator was in the fetal position because this wasn't in the script. Luckily it was a Christian event, so there was a cursing. Yeah, but I'm on the production side. So I was, I even, I was like, Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure that if we're ever invited back, there will be a caveat involved.

because that was why it didn't make it because we rebelled against what we were supposed to do. And my wife led the crowd in a song acapella. There's no place to hide. She just, and look, the woman's full of the spirit of God. And I was proud of her in that moment. And look for us there, it was moving and it led the winner, which I didn't know that.

to infuse that magic of that song into whatever venture he was. Because the doxology has been around a long time, right? Yeah. Well, and she did it on purpose. She said if it does make the cut, because there's no copyright,

there's no copyright infringements for a song once it's reached a certain age but that's why he had such an awkward response when he came up there to us and a lot of people don't realize what he said to us but when he walked up and i know it's because we just led that song and it was very moving he said this brandon lake who had met one time before but in passing he said can i give you a hug

And I said, sure. And so he hugged us, which I'm sure people just thought that happened organically. But I think it was a cool moment, you know? He normally doesn't ask, I bet, but he saw you and thought, I better. He looks a little rough around the edges. I better ask. And I was like, sure. But it wasn't. It was only in what we had just shared together. Yeah. You know, what's funny about that is we sing that song.

Every Sunday, that's how we end our service is we all sing the doxology together. And it's such a beautiful moment and such a great kind of rhythm or pattern. We always end that way before we send everybody out. And I love that. It's one of my favorite songs. You know the first time that I remember singing it? At camp. At camp around that box. We'd get around every meal.

We'd have a prayer and the docks out. It's a simple song. The first line is like, praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him. Praise him, all creatures who are below. I'm here below. Praise him. Above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And then everyone comes in at the harmonies at the end. Amen. Oh, we did it. Yeah. And we did the amen. And the crowd was great. It just goes on.

Because you're talking about the greatest Christian artist in the world were all on the first three rows of the Grand Ole Opry that night. So we were sitting next to them. So you're talking about sounding good. Even the fans there. I mean, the Kate Love Fan Awards. If you're there.

You love Christian music, period. That's why you're there. You love Christian music. Which Missy told me later, you know, because everything was a production and everything was a show and you had instruments and all. And there was it was just all these people who knew that song.

praising God acapella. And I'm telling you, it was something God, God worked in that. It was like when you cut back all the production side of it and this guy won this award. And this is about spirit filled people together singing to a real living God. And I mean, that's why we do this Bible study. It's not, you know, people say was the Bible speaking and it kind of,

is, uh, is cut off from the living God. This is God speaking through a Bible. And, uh, you know, I remember one of my mentors one time telling me that he closed every day, every day. And I'm sure he still does. He says, God speak to me with something I haven't understood or something I don't understand.

And so when he first told me that, I was thinking, oh, are you listening for an audible? And he said, it's amazing how many verses would pop into my head that I've read a thousand times. And that's where I got that from. He was like, this is God breathed. This is God speaking to us. And that goes on down the rabbit hole of love is not loving. It's a person.

It comes back to a person. You don't carry around notes from your wife back when you were dating and while you're in the car, you're just reading those notes because at some point she's going to say, hey, I'm right here.

Why don't you, you know, you see what I mean? And that's kind of what the Lord's Supper is about. It's not just that we're detached a million miles away. We're literally at his table listening and speaking. It's coming alive.

This episode is brought to you by Peloton. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations. Whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you and has something there to adapt with you whether you need a challenge or rest. Peloton has everything you need whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit onepeloton.com.

We almost studied a little bit in Colossians. Yeah, where are we at? I'd like to get to it. So we left off in Colossians 3, 15 through 17, which I think, J.C., you read for us last time. And we kind of zeroed in on that concept of peace in our last podcast, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. And so we talked a lot about that and the idea that that's been around since the Old Testament, Prince of Peace, you know, who Christ is.

And he says, since as members of one body, you were called to peace. And some of that was that idea of the Gentile and Jew coming together and how that then can bring unity for any two groups of people, race, gender, whatever. But then he says, and be thankful when this is interesting. He mentions gratitude or thankfulness in all three of these verses, which I found interesting. In verse 16, he says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and here is again the thought of gratitude, with gratitude,

in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus. And then the third time, giving thanks to God the Father through him. But I wanted to talk a little bit today in this text before we move on to the family aspect, which we kind of already set up with both you guys talking about little ones and raising them and how that issue goes, because he's going to bring the family back up in 18 through 21, was this idea of worship.

and teaching in terms of how they relate to us as Christians. And, you know, it's, it feels like to me, when you look at this, he's kind of giving you both. It's like a coin when it comes to your Christian faith and your walk. And one is what you feed into your brain. Cause we talked about the idea of the new mind and what goes in and how that relates to what comes out in terms of your actions. But then he kind of taps into this, uh,

I guess I would call it the emotional side or the side that worships, which is a little bit different and seems to tap into something different in our walk and in the way we relate to other people, kind of our one another. So I want to talk a little bit about that and get your take on it. Yeah, my assessment of this, you know, I really studied this hard.

Because I really believe, you know, it is a pivotal verse when he gets to three, five and he starts talking about the old self and the new self. And so I think, you know, you've entered this new world, the kingdom of God, but we're still in the old world.

And I think that's why it's such a profound verse when he says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body. So we're coming together as the body of Christ in this world all over the globe. And the more I thought about this and I read N.T. Wright's commentary on he does one on the prison system.

letters and there's four letters there ephesians colossians uh philippians and philemon we're going to get into but in this section he kind of had an illustration of because we tend to think purely in in a north american context of churches well you know just get in get saved as we'll say it

And then he's saving you from, and we'll list all the things, you know, hell and just the consequences and the world. But when you kind of look at the passage and the illustration he made, it's like, well, you found this new found freedom in Christ, you know, in Galatians, which kind of mirrors the same problems that they were having with the Colossians. You know, there's a lot in there about freedom. And so, uh,

You say, well, that doesn't mean that he's just taking you immediately from the world. And he made an illustration. It's like if you had a new president elected and you were going to be free from all the old ways and all the old rules. Well, that doesn't mean that when you get out on the highway the next day, that if you don't abide by rules,

some kind of guidelines. You know, if you're just like, well, we're free, we're in a new era. He's like, well, guess what's going to happen? There's going to be head-on collisions everywhere. And he kind of tells a story about, well, we were just free to do whatever we want. And so that's why he seems to get into the family structure, which is, but when you really look into the family structure, the principle that he was saying, which I want to say, just summing all that up,

is that he's not taking you from the difficulty of the world. He wants to work through us. And he proved that in his life. I mean, Jesus came down here and lived 30 years and it was just a being a human being and growing in nature. And all of a sudden, you know, he's baptized, the spirit descends on him. And then he kind of starts his ministry for three years, but he worked through all these difficulties, uh,

And then eventually dies on a cross, which you're thinking, well, that, you know, that ended that, which produced in the resurrection and him being exalted king of kings. And so I think that was a very good illustration to wrap our head around this, because when you really look at it, we argue about these verses and in different things, but he's turning in their world, the family structure on its head.

with these different reciprocal roles that we have that are not identical, but they're both looked at through the filter of what Jesus did. And you have other passages that do that. And I think these two principles he starts before he gets to the family is this,

This being a part of the body of Christ. And then we teach what we're partners in this proclaiming Jesus. So that's kind of one thing. And we're also partners in this healing and inspiration through worship and getting together. And just imagine all the high points of your Christian life.

It usually involves a group of people getting together and worshiping. Whatever you've got going on that's troubling you or difficult. I mean, there's been many times in some kind of

worship setting where I was going through something really difficult, even with this little one in the early days, in groups of the church gathered at my house and they sang songs in worship over us, you know, and I'm sitting there, you know, tearing up because there's just something inspirational about what we have in Christ of working through difficulty. Yeah, because you get into this passage, particularly like family stuff, I don't think it's an accident that

When you think about the current cultural climate and really this has been in every culture that the assault typically or always the main assault of the enemy tends to be focused on the family unit.

And I think that's because if you think about the construction of the family and where that first started, that institution started in the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter one, when he said, let us make man in our image. And there's that passage in Genesis two, where God looks at Adam and all that exists is Adam and then man.

the triune god there's no like other people outside of adam he's there by himself he's in a vertical relationship with god um and you would think that at that moment god would would say oh this is all you need is me this is perfect this is exactly what i had planned but god when he looked at adam by himself he says something that's profound he says it is not good that man be alone

And that is the basis for the entire thing right there, that it is not good for man to be alone, which the opposite of that would be it's good for man alone.

to be with someone else if it's not good for man to be alone then it is good for man to be with someone else and the reason why is because to be created in the image of god i don't think that simply means that us individually i also think that means that man and woman together because when it says in the bible that in the image of god he created them both male and female

So he makes that distinction in Genesis 1 when he says in the image of God, he created them both male and female. And I don't think he's just saying separately. I also think he's talking about together because to be alone is to not really reflect

the nature of who God is. It's not to reflect the nature of the Trinity because God's not alone. God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He's three persons in one being. And so the marriage and the institution of the marriage, that's what it is ultimately. It is a fulfillment and a reflection of the triune God. So when he says it's not good for man to be alone, he's making female to be a companion and a helper for

Um, for man. And it's interesting, we can get into a little bit to look at that word that he uses there for helper. And I think that's why these things get so controversial when you start talking about marriage and, and, and different functions inside of a relationship is because people say, whoa, if I'm in that position, then that must mean that I'm less than the other one.

But that's not the truth if we're looking at God as the ultimate source of how we reflect him. Which is why that Paul in Ephesians and here in Colossians to Jace's point he made earlier starts with this idea about our relationship with him before he gets into our one another relationships and marriage or parenting work related those type things because that's where it has to start.

Time to move? Skip the hassles of selling during the holiday season and sell your home directly to Opendoor. Request an all-cash offer in minutes, close, and get paid in days. You can even pick your close date so you can move after New Year's. Start your move at opendoor.com or download the Opendoor app. Opendoor is represented by Opendoor Brokerage, Inc., License 02061130 in California, and Opendoor Brokerage, LLC, and its other markets. Terms and conditions apply.

Paul is establishing the centrality of Christ first, and then this is kind of what flows out of that. And I've heard people try that. When you try to talk about cultural issues centered around family, even the right to life and sexuality and all these things,

If you don't root and anchor that entire discussion first and who God is, then I think we're left with a fairly impotent argument. And it becomes more about like, well, this is just the way it's always been. It loses its teeth. Like the real teeth of what we're talking about is anchored in the first and foremost in truth.

Who is God? And then God has created us in his image. So therefore, how does that connect? And so I think that's where this discussion should lead. Well, and that's why I think he approaches the worship concept with both head and heart, which we look at that as a physical thing. We think brain and heart, but in a physical way, it's just two organs. But in the spiritual side of who we are,

We know there's an intellect and an inspirational side to us, but then there's also an emotional side of us that has to be open. And so a lot of people do either or, which I think is a mistake. We've talked about this before. When I remember when dad became a Christian and of course the movie depicted this as well, he was drawn more the idea of the story of who God was and,

And even though he was in a bad emotional place, it wasn't really an emotional decision for dad. It was more of a decision of he finally got it. It was like, okay, I understand it. I understand the big picture. I see that he has something for me. And so he based his decision on that. And I remember, and Jay, she may have been too young to remember, but that first year, now we're a part of a church dad's there and he's participating. He's glad to be there because you know, this is a family that like share the gospel with him, but he really struggled with,

With the emotional side of it. He, he would say, I remember him telling other people, cause you know, we would be around when he was talking to his mentors. He said, you know, I'm struggling with this, like singing and stuff. I remember him saying that the first time he gathered, he opened his mouth, but it just, nothing would come out, would not, would not come out. And he really struggled with that.

Well, I just remember, you know, in my own life, when I shared a few podcasts ago, we were talking about feel and legacy. I shared about angel, you know, when I was mad, uh, cause you know, cause she was gone. That was the only time, you know, when I went and we were worshiping, of course I was a basket case, you know, emotionally, but I couldn't sing. I just could not, the words would not come out, you know?

And, uh, but I was just going to bring up, uh, Zach, I would put when we were at your mom, you know, our aunt's funeral, who was very, Jan was very instrumental in bringing Phil to the Lord. I would say that was the number one worship that I've ever been a part of. It was, it was just, and it was kind of shocking to me. It was more joyful than,

than anything. - Yeah, that's out of humor. - Our tears were more in joy and you just start thinking back. And it's some of the songs we've sang a thousand times, but in that setting, there just seemed to be a power that was being unleashed. And I think of it often, like, I'm glad I'm a part of this. Which goes back to my point that he worked, God's whole big plan is he works through

suffering and difficulty. And we're partnered with him via the Holy spirit in this. That's why he's, he brings up those two things. It's not by accident, us speaking Jesus and us singing Jesus in these group settings and individually, you know, wherever you're at, that, that is, that's the way God uses us.

flawed human beings to make Jesus known and don't ever underestimate the power of that. Well, look, and just to speak to that, Zach, before you go, dad through the years grew to love singing. Like we would have house churches in his living room and it would just be full, man. It would just be like little ones around like Zach was describing earlier and mom's trying to wrangle them. And he would look over at me and say, Al, you know, get us a couple of songs started there.

And we would sing, you know, we would sing praises and it would always be him, you know, and he kind of had a lot more. Think about how much more emotional Phil got throughout his life. And I can tell you that I never saw Phil cry until about 2015.

when we were at the beach and, uh, and I've told that story, but, uh, but then since then, uh, you know, the last 10 years, nine years, I think I've seen Phil cry about eight or nine times, maybe more. And so I think about that. I mean, he's, I think that's all of us. It's not, there's a danger of coming too emotional, but I want to say this to Jason, when you mentioned my mom's funeral, here's a song that we sang. And I love this because in this text here, it says, uh, uh,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. And so often there's like these worship wars like, oh, we only sing the hymns or we don't sing the hymns. Those are old or we we only sing the psalms. But I love that. Like it gives us like these three categories, psalms.

hymns and spiritual songs. And then at my mom's funeral, I think we did all three of those. And one of the songs, um,

We sang at church the other day and, and they just said, we're going to introduce y'all to a song we've never sang before. And they started to sing it. Of course I started weeping. Cause I'm like, I remember this song we sang at my mom's funeral. And it was the last time I'd heard that song sung publicly. And it was, um, it was by Sean Curran and it was about the kingdom. I want to, I want to see heaven. So let your, your kingdom come. And it was all about heaven coming to earth. And like, like this in like these, these things,

an invasion almost of, of, of God coming to earth and his kingdom coming. And I think that like in that moment of like pain and suffering, the reason why we could worship and sing out because those moments for us, yeah, we like, we're here, we're moved like in pain, but we're also like, these are sobering moments for us. Um, and moments filled with hope because what they do is they're like these moments of, um,

I don't even know how to describe it, but it's like putting our hope on steroids in these moments because it like fast forwards everything. Like, you know what? This is where everything is headed, which means that we know there's more. And that's how we kind of find this weird piece in the moments that would wreck a lot of other people. Yeah, no doubt about it. Look, I had a revelation at some point because I've told you about my dating ministry.

That was a flop. But it led me to my wife. And so really, it wasn't a flop because the end result justified the means. And for you who are just now listening, I would date a girl, share the gospel within the first minute of the date. And then that was the date. It was like, we're not going anywhere. I just want to share that with you because I just thought...

Did that kind of kill the mood sometimes? Are they like, I'm out on that? The first one just got out.

That's how you vet them right there. The first one got out on the first couple sentences. They didn't even hear the whole dissertation. Did they say you were weird and you were like, yep, I sure am. They didn't have to say I was weird. It just got weird. But the only person it didn't get weird with was my wife because I gave the speech. I was like, look, I'm not going to put my hands on you in an inappropriate way.

I'm looking forward to the afterlife. I'm going to spend eternity with the creator of the universe. And I'm looking for someone to help me get there. And if the Lord blesses us with kids, so be it. We'll help them. So you're going zero to 80 in about two seconds. Well, after about 10 strikeouts. Now, I did baptize one of them later.

The one girl came back and it was like the 10 lepers, you know, one left the vehicle thinking I was a weirdo and later came back. I don't know why they would think that. You start talking about having babies with them and stuff. And one day if the kids, you know that, I don't know why they would have thought. I started the conversation with, I'm not going to touch you inappropriately as long as we are not married.

because I wanted them to hold me accountable to that. So I gave Missy the speech. I love it. And look, at this stage of it, after about 10 strikeouts, I was kind of just going through it. Like, this is the way it is. This is who I am. You know, I didn't have a lot of heart and emotion in it. It was just like, this is the way it's going to be.

Your home with Blinds.com. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. D-I-Y or let us install. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. Free design consultation. Free, free, free, free, free. Plus free samples and free shipping. Free, free, free, free, free, free. Head to Blinds.com now for up to 40% off select styles plus a free professional measure. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-

And she famously said, well, I think you're the kind of guy I'm looking for. And I thought, really? Okay. She's like, but let's just start off being friends. So I thought that meant I'm just being nice about declining this proposal. But no, she was, you know, and that kind of birth of we started off as just friends for quite a lengthy time.

But what I was going to say is at some point I read this Colossians three in our relationship. I'm saying once we got married and realize, you know, I mainly speak Jesus. I'm teaching and admonishing and shared mainly with the non-Christian about who Jesus is, but she's, she's a worship person. And I mean, world-class if she hadn't married me, I'm sure she would be making a living singing or producing singing in some capacity full time. Um,

But boy, I thought after a while, I realized I was like, thank you God for sending me this woman. Yeah. Because we can go do an event and cover the speaking and the worship. Yeah.

in one package. And I think it was very instrumental with our kids. I want to share one story. I don't think I've ever shared it here. I didn't want to ever share this because I got choked up and look, I was not an emotional guy for 30 years. You know, I cry when my best friend died and I cried a little bit when our grandpa died. But then I took a 30 year break.

And I'm just not, look, I'm a man, you know, I've kind of got that man's man and I don't cry about things. You took a 30 year break from crying. Yeah, I did. And so, but the last four or five years, you know, and I think it's kind of what y'all described with Phil. Now he took about a, you know,

70 year break but uh which was from when he was a baby till a few years ago uh seriously

He did. But, you know, I just when I had my daughter, it just it changed things, especially when she, you know, really struggled, you know, with a teenager and having all these surgeries. And, you know, you just you go through anything with a special needs kid and it will put you to the test. And so my tears were more with joy in her life.

and overcoming all that i just couldn't help it and so a famous story i told on sadie's podcast and i just turned into a basket case which was embarrassing but i think i'm good with it now but i could tell uh she had had a surgery and she wasn't doing good spiritually she had a you know a year or two where it was very difficult and uh this is i guess five years ago but uh

I just noticed, because her go-to throughout all those surgeries was that contribution that Missy had made with worship and singing and learning the piano. And like, you know, my son Reed can play eight different instruments and he never had a lesson. It was just, we have, our house has been filled with worship. And look, she came down after that surgery and we had started the road, you know, basically to Jesus, but it's hard to see the forest for the trees.

but when she couldn't sing, but the energy that she was playing that piano, and I was sitting there on the couch listening, I thought, she's had an awakening. Even though she wasn't singing, and it was like a movie that I was watching, the passion and the positivity, even despite all this pain and all her struggles, I was like,

Oh, she's found her way back to the Lord. I mean, it was just and it's hard to describe because it was just fingers on piano keys. And look, she she played for hours and it was just this joy that was just unleashed and different people would come in and sit down and listen. I mean, this went on. It was like a five day concert in her recovery and not a word was spoken.

So obviously I had many tear filled moments during that. I was just like, she's, she's bursting forth. You can't help it. And then when she could talk, it confirmed that,

what i heard and i thought that's the beauty when you say let the peace of christ rule in your hearts that's the beauty of speaking jesus even though it might come with resistance and persecution well then you have the oh this this recovery process that god instituted on the side the beauty of worshiping together and you and you may have a person not even saying a word

Which shows you the heart part of it. Just that word sing in the NIV here, the Greek word is solo. And it means to pluck the strings is what the word literally means. And so what you were describing is interesting. You were talking about the keys. It could have been a guitar. It could have just been in a heart. It could have been whatever. But I love the idea there of that is a heart part.

that's full and that really has an understanding of something, which is really kind of the point of the whole thing. And I love the point you made about how that we complement each other, which we'll get into the next podcast with husbands and wives, because I didn't mention, I should have mentioned that really one of the things that acclimated dad to the heart part of Christianity and not just the head part was mom.

And like her being there through that every step of the way, she's the one that helped open our house and made those opportunities there. And, you know, she loved to sing and she loved to. And so she really brought that along into that because you're right. I think our instinct is a lot like his. I get probably more motivated by a podcast, by what we're doing here, by a sermon, by a lesson. You know, I still tend to think that way, but I've grown to love singing.

worship as well, what it does for the heart. And I've shed tears before, like we've described. And I love it, Zach, because you mentioned what's different about biblical peace and understanding who God is, is even in situations where other people would be sad, we're joyful.

And which we mentioned about your mom's funeral. So a lot more to say about that. Next time we come back, there's some biblical examples of worship I want to mention before we get into this next text, but we're out of time. So we'll hit that next time on the show.

Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazetv.com slash unashamed.