Ep 1113 | Jase & Al Face Their First Father’s Day Without Phil
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What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. The last time we were all together on the set. Now Zach and I are back in our boxes and Jace has done something because I'm looking into my little camera shot here.

And there's some sort of food, Jace. Well, what does it mean? As soon as we leave, what happened? I had a guy who, uh, we call him, uh, well, my dad called him nurse man, nurse man. And, uh, cause he used to wear the little, or I guess he still does. What do you call these things? Uh,

And so my dad... It's like kind of you and Willie in your youth, scrubs. But he's kind of like Burley. He doesn't look anything like someone who could produce comfort and healing in a time of crisis because he looks like all of us, beard, rough guy. So he's in the medical world. But he said his dad had made some jelly. He was breaking new ground. So...

I had to do an event, which I'll share at some point this weekend. Not like an event where we go speak. It was just involving some members of my family, which was fantastic and spectacular. But when I got back home, there were two jars of jelly on my little island in the kitchen.

And, uh, cause he knows how the game is played. I'm like, just go in there and, you know, set them down. So he was breaking new ground. He had his dad and he, he made this by hand. He combined Mayhall and Blackberry and he called it Mayberry.

I'm a big fan of Andy Griffith. And so, look. Which, by the way, the perfect timing of this, Jay, is the perfect timing because I read yesterday, spoke at a church. Actually, I heard the pastor there say that when they do a poll on the most memorable TV dad's,

Andy Griffith is number one by far. So just to play right into your dad. He was a good dad. Well, you know, they don't make shows like that anymore. I loved it.

So, you know, I tried. So, you know, I didn't. I got distracted this morning on another matter. I got on the phone for an hour. I was actually going to make some biscuits this morning, but got on the phone. It was good. It was all good. It was a Bible study related issue. So then I looked up. Well, then I had to go and be here. I'm like, well, I'll go to Chick-fil-A and get me a couple biscuits. And so I took the jar of jelly and I broke the seal.

And I put some of the jelly. Of course, I wasn't going to do this for the podcast. I was hurriedly coming in here and getting it all ready. And if you're listening to the podcast, what he just, Jace just held up a Ziploc bag with, I would say, probably three tablespoons of jelly in it. So it does look awkward, I'll admit. With a plastic spoon.

Our lovely unseen. Is there a plastic? There's a plastic spoon. Yeah, you could get on there. The unseen voice of the podcast, lovely Maddie, said, oh, you're going to do this for the podcast? And I was like, no, I'm fixed to eat this. Good, bad, or ugly. So you haven't tried this yet. You dip this out of the jar, put this in the Ziploc bag. You're going to put it on the Chick-fil-A biscuit, and we're going to see if the

at the Mayhall Blackberry combo known as the Mayberry is going to get the thumbs up. Your comprehension is off the charts. That's why you're so smart. So, yes. And this was not planned for the podcast, but I mean, it's like, if you just think I'm 55 and I'm doing something I've never done before.

And you got to remember, in my family, jelly is real close to our heart. I mean, this is fruit of the land provided by the Creator.

You have the mayhall, which is kind of a wild berry that lives in the low swamps of the land. And my dad... And as you're listening, as you're listening for the playback for the listeners, he's scooped out two spoons of the jelly out of the Ziploc bag, has strategically placed it on the split Chick-fil-A biscuit that sits on the tinfoil wrapping. I mean, Zach, your color commentator...

Boy, you give a guy a couple days off and he's just like burst onto the scene now. Well, to be fair, I do want to say this because we've been talking about spiritual blindness and blindness in John 9. We actually had someone in the comments that said for the blind people, you should, and the people listening, they said both, for the blind people and the people listening, you should do the commentate, like you should,

Explain what's going on. I think it's good, Zach. That is awesome. That's awesome. And this has a back story. But, Jase, Jase, before you go, though, Jase, before you do that, I'm nervous for Nurse Man because this is the second, the last time this happened. I was fixed to bring that up. I hurt their feelings. They stopped at a Five and Dime store. I don't know where they stopped, but they bought a jar of Mayhall jelly.

and they got one for like all my brothers. But I said, do you realize the risk you're taking here? I said, you bought this? I was like, have you tried it? And he was like, no. Well, I just popped the top on it and put the nose to it, and I thought, hmm. And it wasn't a good hmm. I thought, doesn't have the smell.

So I tried it and I said, nope. Well, then it got awkward because here's the guy, he bought us gifts and we, what did we do? We rejected him. We rejected the gift. I was like,

And Martin was standing right behind me, and Martin looked at the back. He said, well, it was cut by cranberry juice. That explains it all. Yeah, it was no good. But this one's close to home. This is close to home, so we're going to check it out. This is homemade, and I will admit, Chad, the nurse man, I mean, he's in the inner circle here, so he's already gone through the gamut. You cannot hurt his feelings. I mean, because especially when we're in the duck blind, we use plain talk.

We tell the truth, and you're seeing the soul of men on a daily basis in a duck blind situation. And so if you get out of line as men, we are to speak the truth in love. I think you're going to like this. Something tells me. Well, here's why I'm excited. It has the look. It looks great, and I'm going to give it the smell test.

It passes the smell. It looks inviting. It has the smell. I feel like we need a drum roll. You can probably cue that in. Jason is taking his first bite, processing it through. It's a look of satisfaction.

He's chewing. He got two thumbs up. The blackberry, mayhall, mayberry combination. I'm stunned. Which is an interesting combination because it's super, blackberries are pretty sweet and mayhalls are very tart. So it may be the perfect in the middle mayberry. Al, you actually hit it. It's like a sweet tart. Because the mayhall tartness is there, which is the problem with the Shane and Shane jar. Yeah.

There was no talk. Where's the mayhem? You poured a bunch of cranberry juice after an investigation. We did an autopsy on the jelly and figured out where it all went wrong. I mean, you can just slap mayhem on something. No, it was some cranberry juice and probably had four or five little mayhems in there. I think here's the lesson to learn. If I go to Italy to visit a friend in Italy, the one thing I'm not going to bring them as a gift is pasta.

I'm not doing that. You don't come into our house and give us a gift of the thing that we do. I mean, that was, I mean, I love those guys. No, that's what kids do. You know, we take them to a restaurant and they're like, you know, we take them to a seafood restaurant when they're like six and they're like, I'll take the grilled cheese or, you know, whatever it is. I'm like, grilled cheese? They don't eat grilled cheese here. We're eating some shrimp. I mean, if you're on a hunting trip in Nebraska and you go to a restaurant and you look at the menu and

and they've got Cajun gumbo or jambalaya or etouffee, I'm like, I'm not eating that outside of Louisiana. You're so right. I've said that so many times. I said, do you realize how far we are from the coast? Yeah. And you're fixing to order something that has something in the coast in it?

Bad move. Unless it's like real expensive and they flew it in that day or whatever. Yeah. And a guy named Thibodeau is cooking back there. So Chad the nurse man, boy, he dodged a bullet here because now we have to have a new arrangement because I want to have some more. I mean, this is fantastic. Fantastic.

Out of the park. I'm impressed that you're impressed. That doesn't happen very often. And you didn't even compliment him with a backhanded compliment. It was a full-scale endorsement, which typically what you'll do is your endorsement would typically be something like this. Well, you know what? It's not the worst I've ever had, and that means it's pretty good. No, this was fantastic. That one, you came in there and just owned it. Do you know what I noticed, too? This is not for sale. When people say, where can I get some? Oh, you can't.

This is what people in these parts do. And somebody had given Chad the nurseman's dad, who I don't think I've ever even met, but somebody had given him some constructive criticism along the way because you don't get to this level without a lot of big pans of boiling water and dumping berries and saying, let me just get this right. Agree to agree. Oh, I mean, we're living now.

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I'm excited. That's awesome. That's fantastic. Well, I guess the next couple of segments on the podcast, Chase will be eating. Zach and I will be discussing. Well, the problem is, yeah, because now we've got to sit here because I don't want to be doing this with a full mouth. So I'm going to have to revisit. But trust me, that will give me incentive to get through this with a happy heart.

Happy, happy, happy. Yeah, everybody happy, happy, happy. So I'm removing this. So I will say this while Jace is repositioning there. So yesterday, I'm not sure, I think this will air later this week, but yesterday was Father's Day, which was, you know, I didn't really think that much about it at first. And then I realized, you know, obviously this is our first Father's Day without our Father here on planet Earth.

But because we view everything from a crossover, eternal perspective, a lot of people are sending me notes about it. And but I just didn't feel the way they were trying to comfort me. But I didn't feel discomforted. In fact, I had already been asked months ago before dad even probably before he was even in the facility to speak yesterday at a church down here in Mobile.

And it was I felt so honored because I preached the same sermon I did at West Bay Road from Joshua three called Crossing Over the Jordan. But the reason I did is because it allowed me there's a kind of a part at the end where I talk about dad's crossover, but it could not have gone better. And I just felt very humbled.

And honor. Jason, I don't know how you felt yesterday about it, or my kids sent me notes, but it wound up being the best possible therapeutic for me was just to be able to preach the gospel. Exactly. I got distracted because I was seeing if they actually sell

Mayhall and blackberry jelly together, but I can't. I'm not an internet. Now I'm thinking of Jesus. Al's going super deep emotional. I shipped it in Texas still. This is borderline idolatry now. Well, Al, the reason I'm thinking that is because one of the most famous things our dad was famous for was his excitement about

picking up berries and making jelly. I mean, it's not like... No doubt. And he would have loved to have been there with your taste test, by the way. My dad would have been more excited about this than anything you can imagine. I mean, this is like, well, here we... And the fact that it's really good would have been shocking.

He literally would have moved Chad, the nurse man, way, because he would say that, you've moved way up the list. Of course, then people say, what list are we talking about? He's like, oh, there's a list, and you just went way up on it.

nobody really understood what the list was but uh it's like it's like the robertson code you know he told me about the robertson code i said dad i didn't know there was a code he said oh there's a code now i got involved in and i was like well i don't know nobody ever wrote i got involved in two two events this weekend in the spirit of father's day and uh both were kind of shocking for different reasons i'll give you the thumbnail of it but uh

And it made me think, you know, about our dad, Al. But, you know, little man, I talk about, I haven't talked about him in a while, but he's, there's a three-year-old that, you know, we helped raise and we're still in his life. And so, and the mom who, when we got the little boy, was incarcerated and it's a long story, but

She's doing really well and, you know, went through a program. And long story short, you know, the program that she was in was all women. And so I kind of became the, you know, father figure in this little man's life. So anyway, he's in a little preschool thing and they were having breakfast with dad was like the theme. I think it was called Donuts with Dad or whatever.

And so I was asked to, because we don't want this little man to be here by himself, you know. And a lot of the circumstances and details I'm leaving out, but I'm pretty much, you know, the main guy in his life here. So I was like, yeah, I'll do it. So I'll go up there and do it. What I didn't realize is, well, people know who I am. And so there was a lot of dads here with a lot of kids. Well, they're looking like...

Well, who is, you know, it's breakfast with dad. I'm with a kid that's obviously not my son, you know. And so people were asking about the story. And I was like, at first I realized they're kind of staring at me like and their mind was raised. Well, you know what it made me think of, Al and Zach, is it made me think of how Joseph felt with Mary saying, oh, you know, she's a virgin.

You know, even though she's pregnant, you know. Yeah. I mean, that's the way I felt. Now, maybe I was being self-conscious about it, but people kept asking me, and I was like, I'm not explaining this again. I'm just like, it's complicated, you know. But then I felt like they're looking at me like, what's the story here, you know? Yeah, like there's more to it than you're sharing. Well, right, you know, and basically I'm like,

I love this boy, and he was given birth in a difficult situation, you know, and we're trying to give this kid a chance here in life. And really all the parties involved now are doing really well. But it was awkward, you know, because it was just an awkward situation. But I just thought, you know what? God is my witness and love for life, right?

And tip of the hat for this mom in a difficult situation choosing life. And now we're all gathered around as the kingdom, you know, trying to help this family. And I'm not going to worry about my reputation or what people are thinking. So that was kind of story one. So I was told Missy that. She's like, how'd it go? I was like, well, you'll never guess. I kind of felt like people were looking at me thinking, oh, you know, whatever.

Something's going on here. Do you have a son from another mom or whatever? So that was one. The other thing I was going to share was Reed and Brighton, my son and his wife, they came down because every year there was a tragedy that happened that we shared on a podcast. It's been a while. I'm not sure the dates on all that. We could figure it out.

But I told the story about in Reed's family, in his wife's family, you know, they had a tragedy where two children were killed in a car accident. And the mom was driving and, you know, and there was three kids in the car. And, you know, one of them survived and the mom. But, you know, she was injured and was burned, the car.

vehicle caught on fire horrific story the dad was behind the car you know following them when this all happened you know an 18-wheeler crashed into the back of them and uh it was just a brutal i don't think they can be any worse of a story you know but since that time they've done numerous things uh to honor their memory and many really good things well yesterday

There was a baseball tournament where the proceeds are going to this foundation, which the names of the kids is part of the name of the foundation, which is Brynn and Harrison. And I wanted to give you this information about their foundation.

Just so you want to check it out, because after I tell you what happened, you're going to say, ooh. It's called the Thompson Memorial Foundation. So anyway, one of the things they did was at this baseball tournament, they sang the Star Spangled Banner, which Reed sang it. And they had a little baseball game, but it was for special needs kids. And...

They said a few things about Brynn and Harrison. They actually sang, the child that survived sang Happy Birthday because it would have been his brother's birthday, which was pretty heavy to sit there when his brother's singing him Happy Birthday. But anyway, they just did this. Then all these special needs kids, which is where the money that goes into this foundation, this is things that they do in their memory.

uh they gave them all one at bat and i mean it was so moving these kids they would be introduced they had a guy on the mic you know the crowd because it was a huge crowd and uh some of those kids and you could tell some up some of them are in wheelchairs and some of them could barely walk but you know what they all could hit a baseball somehow another despite all their problems and uh

Some of them, when they were introduced, there was one girl who just, she was just looking at the crowd like, yep, give it up for me. And it was so funny. I leaned over and told Missy, I was like, if a kid did this in normal life, we would be like,

Oh, my goodness. You know, look at, they're being cocky, you know. But in this situation, it was, like, so awesome. She was like, yeah, watch this, you know. And I kind of got choked up at many times just the kids around in the bases. So what they do is they hit the ball, and then they have all these, like, college kids out in the infield and outfield. And then the kid that survived, he was like,

on the pitcher's mound. And then they basically throw the ball around like a bunch of clowns, which is kind of funny, while they're running around the bases. And the crowd is going nuts, and they all hit home. It was fantastic. People crashed. They laughed. It was awesome. But it made me think, you know, isn't this what the kingdom should look like? We're talking about John 9 and the man born blind and the beggar.

And here are all these kids with all these problems and a tragedy happened in a family's life who are now trying to do things that make society great and provide, you know, healing and hope in spite of just, you know, what the alternative is. And I tell you, it was moving. Yeah.

So that's why I wanted to bring it up. And I didn't tell them I was going to do this. I just, I went and thought, oh, wow. I didn't know this was going on in our society. But it was fantastic.

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mentality is, especially of kingdom people. You know, when terrible things happen, it can either totally destroy you, it can wipe out your family, you can never recover from it, you can go into depression, you can go into addiction. I mean, all the things that are out there to try to deal with something like that. Or you can somehow pivot and say, you know, we got through something really hard. You never really get over something like that, but you get through it.

and then we want to help other people get through what they're going through. So I just, I love that mindset. It's exactly a kingdom mindset of what happens if you really think God is in charge, even when you go through something really, really difficult. That's the mindset. Well, one of the things the mom said, just,

And, you know, it was a pretty long little deal, but it was all fun. And, you know, they were just masters at doing this. But she was like, they love Jesus. And it's even on their page, you know, where their foundation is. And I just thought there was no doubt. I mean, they're little kids, you know, and this thing happens. There's no doubt in anybody's mind, 100%, we will see these people again.

You know, when we talk about Jesus and the resurrection and him destroying death itself one day, that's just a fact.

And so when you embrace that, I think you get into doing Jesus-type stuff because you realize his whole ministry with, you know, take the guy that was born blind, take, you know, the guy at the pool, you know, take the woman with all the problems. But no matter what situation you get in, you know, he eventually goes to, you know, what happened to Lazarus, and then you're like, wait a minute, that's a game-changer.

We're talking about death itself is destroyed. So we all know we're going to be back together again, and it softens you up to recognize other people that need to be lifted up and need this hope. So they had all these special needs kids. I'm not sure where they all came from.

But the joy in their faces and just in that experience, it was like you didn't have to know, oh, is this a good thing to do? And it was real quick. They got one at bat. They ran around the bases. The crowd cheered, and it was just fantastic. I mean, it was absolutely fantastic. That sounds like a fun time. I think you see it, that idea that Al was talking about too. You see it even in this passage we've been in in

John 9 because that's a tragedy, right? In some regards, like you're born with this inability. And then how, is there something bigger at play here? What's the reason why this happened? I mean, these are the big questions that I think we keep bumping up against in the Bible. One of y'all mentioned Job quite a bit in the last couple, but maybe both y'all did. But I mean, it's the story of Job. It's like we're trying to make sense of pain and suffering in this world and

But it is such a beautiful, beautiful example of how the kingdom works to see such goodness come out of such tragedy. It's pretty powerful. Exactly. Yeah, and that fast answer, Zach, that Jesus makes is so that the work of God may be displayed in his life. I mean, you could really just take that one phrase and

And then work it into whatever tragedy and situation you're working with. And it's really hard to see it in the moment you're going through it. But once time passes by and you start to see some of the things that happen, you can get a better grasp of that as well. No, exactly. That's what I was going to say. That's why at the end of the day, you know, life is so sacred to us, you know, I mean, in every situation. So I think there's a reason why,

And I believe the function of life is to image God. And even if they're born in difficult circumstances, you know, with God, I believe all things are possible. It's just not something that's a little tagline that's said. And because it makes you reflect on your own life. I mean, even just watching that little baseball game in the little production. I mean, I'm telling you, the things that don't matter is way away from your mind, you know.

It's just value in life and not taking it for granted and all the gifts that we have that have been given to us just to be able to speak and to think and to walk and to talk. You know what's amazing about that? I want to say this. There was a girl in a wheelchair when she took her at bat. Of course, you don't realize this. She's in a wheelchair. Well, I'm sure her upper body gets extreme workout because that's how she's doing that. Well, when she hit the ball,

It was a rocket. And the crowd erupted because it just looked. Here was this girl who you could see obviously had a lot of problems. But, you know, she had elevated it just a hair. It would have gone out of the park. It was just ripped. And all the college kids got out of the way. I'd love to know the mile per hour off the bat.

Because the sea parted and it just was smoke to the alpha. And I was like, you would have never thought that in your wildest dreams that a girl in a wheelchair could hit a ball that hard.

It was amazing. Jays, you know what I love about you telling that story is that so last Saturday night, LSU was playing the College World Series and me, you and Willie were texting each other during the game. And, you know, we're watching it. We're in tents, you know, because they're up against a rival. And, you know, it's a big deal. It's a big game. We all get into it when they make it to the World Series. The same game, baseball.

And that intensity, and we're all watching it and wondering what's going to happen. We're commenting back and forth when LSU is playing. And then the same game with a different perspective, what these kids are talking about, you have a whole different appreciation. It was baseball. It was a game. But the circumstances and the situation changes everything. I think that's a beautiful thing. No, it really is. It's weird you bring up LSU baseball because my son this morning sent me –

some kind of social media post or whatever. And because Josh Pearson, and his brother now, I guess, they're from our hometown in West Monroe. And so...

And everybody seems to love Josh Pearson. He's like the veteran that, you know, when they, he had his last at bat at, in Baton Rouge in the regional. And he struck out on three pitches and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. I'm like, where have you come in life to where you strike out and they give you a standing ovation, but it was, they were getting him standing ovation because it was probably his last game. I guess it wasn't probably his last game in Baton Rouge.

But anyway, my daughter went to school with him at West Monroe. And she always told me, she's like, he's a really, really good guy, Dad. And you know how kids will say that, and you're like, yeah. But she's like, no, Dad, he really is. And I was like, well, maybe that's why he's so likable down there. Well, my son sent me a post that, because they're interviewing him at the College World Series now about everything.

And it was basically him saying, he was in the dugout and they were interviewing him. And he's like, you know, I attribute, you know, really my growth as a man and as a baseball player to the weekly Bible study that the team puts out there. He's like, I used to go to a few. He's like, now I go every week. Well, then I sent Reed. That was the gist of it. I sent Reed a text. I was like, well, I didn't think I could get any more fired up until you sent me that text.

Because now we're not just playing in Omaha. We're on a mission from God, you know. Because I had just listened to a podcast that somebody else sent me about that freshman, Derek Curiel. He was on a spiritual podcast talking about his faith. And I was like, what's going on here?

This is good. But I'm glad even in that environment, some of those young men are thinking about the bigger picture in life, which is you don't get any bigger than the Lord Jesus. So it was really exciting. You love hearing that for sure. If we keep this up, I'm going to have to go to Omaha.

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So back to John chapter nine, we last night, Jace sent us a text, Zach, and said, all right, we got to we got to go back and revisit this question because, you know, we've been kind of going through and there've been some questions. This whole thing about blindness, it started out, of course, with this man physically born blind, as we've been talking about. But it quickly morphed into a discussion about spiritual blindness and

And this investigation ensues and, you know, it's just a lot of ugly stuff and the Pharisees are involved. And then at the end of the text that we read last time, it says, if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But now that you claim you can see your guilt remains. So obviously,

He's going to get this into a very spiritual context with people who are spiritually blind. But he asked a question that I think Jace has done a rabbit hole. So I'm looking forward to going down with him on this. In verse 35, it said, Jesus heard that they had thrown out this guy who just basically stuck up for Jesus because he didn't know any better. I mean, he's just telling what happened. And so they threw him out of the synagogue. And when he found him, so he's looking for this guy.

He asked him this question, which now we've added to our hall of questions from Jesus in the book of John. Do you believe in the Son of Man? And so, Jace, I'll let you take it from here on where that question took you. We'll do some deep dive into that. Let me just tell you this, Al, because we're going to have to put our seatbelt on.

I started last night. I sent you the text at 830. Well, I started this study at 6 o'clock p.m.

And it finished at 2 a.m. Non-stop. On this one question, do you believe in the Son of Man? Yep. What is that? Do the math. I didn't put that much into it, but I will say when you sent the thing, I said, well, let me go look at this. I did a little, not quite that extensive, but I did a pretty good little deep dive too. Well, good. Because look, we're going to have to take a time out. There was a movie I saw one time and he was like,

Time out, okay? We're going to take a time out on this because this shocked me. And I'm going to ask you a few questions, and you'll see where I'm going with this. Did you know, when you think about how Jesus referred to himself,

I could only come up with two things. Now, I don't mean, because when you think of who is Jesus, so if you ask yourself that question, who is Jesus? We could start naming a lot of things. He's Lord. He's Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the Son of God.

Yeah. All right. But when you look at how he referred to shepherd, yeah, chief shepherd, I mean, you can come up with a lot of things, but when you look at how he referred to himself and so when, and asking that question, do you believe in the son of man? How does Jesus refer to himself? And I only came up with two things.

Can you name them? Well, I know one's the Son of Man. One's the Son of Man. And look, did you know over a hundred times in the gospel, over a hundred, he refers to himself as the Son of Man. I thought it was 80, but still a lot. Well, mine said a hundred, but that was AI, so they may... Well, and also when he refers to himself as the Son of Man...

he's really the only, he's only referred to the Son of Man outside of his own reference to himself, I think a couple times. So this is like Jesus' preferred way to identify himself, and nobody else seems to be doing it except for him. Exactly. Which is worthy of note. And what was the other? You all know the other? It's so simple. Would you say, would it be Son of God? Nope. The Christ? Other people refer to him as Son of God.

No, other people referred to, they'd ask him, are you the Christ? And he would say, I am the way. Well, you just got it right. I am. Even when they said, are you the Christ? I'm going to show it to you in this rabbit hole. And they say, aren't you the Christ? And he'd say, I am. He referred to himself as I am and the son of man. Yeah. I found that fascinating. Now you'll Google this on the internet and they'll have 10 things, but you know, it,

I think they missed it. He doesn't go around saying, you know, the Christ, or he'll say, I am, I am, I am, I am, I am, I am. Well, that I am is quite the statement, especially when you know where he's getting it from, which I would say the primary place he's getting that from is, where is that, Exodus 3? We talked about that earlier, when God said, I am.

who I am to Moses. Well, and the Son of Man famous passage from the Old Testament is Daniel 7. Now, there's other references where Son of Man is used in the Old Testament, but Daniel 7 seems to be...

The one most used because from the Israel perspective, it was the prediction of this coming kingdom. And I would like to go to Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. That's what took me so long is because then you start getting into Daniel. And Daniel can be difficult reading if you're not familiar with that. So I took a deep dive on that. But since I only want to introduce it,

I just wanted to say that and see if y'all are aware of that. Yeah, that Daniel 7 too, it's not just an introduction of the kingdom, it's an introduction of the king who, by the way, it's an introduction to his authority and his dominion, and it's an invitation into submission to him.

Which I think is what ultimately was what's at stake here when you see this interaction he's having with the Pharisees. Yeah. So let's define son of man. What does that mean? Zach, I figured you would come up with a good definition as far as... What is the son of man? Well, just what does that mean? Well, I think he's referencing Daniel 7. I think he's... Well, I know that, but I was more thinking, you know...

What is that practically? I would say it is the physical human manifestation of God. Yeah. Is what he means when he says the Son of Man. In other words, he's God, but he's also here and he's made. Yeah, which if you think about the idea, if we're talking about a kingdom, that Christ brought his kingdom, he inaugurated the kingdom with his incarnation and coming and death, burial, and resurrection. Yeah.

then it's like, yeah, then it is the manifestation, the incarnation of the king. It's heaven coming to earth. So that's why it's a son of man, because he's coming into earth and becoming human to reign. He's taking, I should say it this way, Philippians 2 language, he's taking on the nature of a human in addition to his divine nature. Yeah, I can live with that. So when you think of Adam...

and how it relates to that. You know, he's a human. He was the first human. Well, then Jesus becomes the first human that would come back from the dead, would, you know, God in human form. I mean, it's a combination of all that. He's the new Adam. He's the new Adam. Yeah, the new Adam, which is why you see the passages like, uh,

You know, I'll read this because what I would like to do is read some of these verses, which we're just kind of introducing this. It's going to take us a whole podcast to go through this. But once you see this, you will never unsee it. Because the reason I spent eight hours studying this, it wasn't because I was like trying to pass a test.

I was so excited about it that I thought, why have I not been talking about this before? And it really made me go back to that question. When he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? That was a very exciting question for people to consider. But I'll just give you a little thumbnail of this. 1 Corinthians 15, which I think is a famous passage.

Verse 20. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through, well, here's this word, a man. Who's that man? Adam. The resurrection of the dead comes also through a what? A man. A man. It's so easy of a definition that I think we've just, we've never thought about it.

So I've always been an entrepreneur, but the hardest thing about starting a business is there's just so much stuff you got to do to manage a business. A lot of us out there hold ourselves back thinking, what if I don't have the skills to actually do this? What if I can't do it alone? And I'm telling you this, that you could easily turn your what ifs into why nots with Shopify.

Jace, I think you may own some Shopify. Am I correct? I do. I've owned Shopify stock for years. So here's what Shopify is. It's a commerce platform behind literally probably millions of businesses around the world from mom and pop shops to big national brands. It actually powers 10% of all the e-commerce in the US. And I'm not surprised. Can't design a website? Shopify's got you. Their templates are top-notch and they match your brand's

You can even get help with everyday tasks like enhancing product photos, writing product descriptions, generating discount codes, all with Shopify's AI tools. It really does speed things up. Shopify can even help you find your customers with easy email and social media campaigns. I'm telling you, you got to have that in any successful business. And if you get stuck, Shopify is always around to get you back on track with their 24-7 customer support.

So, Zach, you know, our family has used Shopify for years, Adult Commander for our products, for merch. And, in fact, Missy has used it as well out at Longtown Estate for everything they're doing as well. So it's been a part of our family business for a long time. Yeah, I can't imagine doing business without it. We also use Shopify for the blind and unashamed merch and everything else that we've been a part of. Turn those dreams into...

And give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash unashamed. Go to shopify.com slash unashamed. That's shopify.com slash unashamed. For as in Adam all die, that first man. So in Christ, this new man...

All will be made alive, but each in his own turn, Christ the firstfruits. Then when he comes, those who belong to him. Now listen to this in 24. Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom. Well, now we're getting into this Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 7 prediction about the kingdom where one like a son of man would be born.

riding on the clouds, ascending to the ancient of days, which is a different definition than a lot of religious people view of the kingdom. But I'm just telling you what it says, and we'll get deep into it in the next podcast.

But when he hands over the kingdom to the father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, power, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death for he is

For he has put everything under his feet. Because I'm going to read you the Old Testament version of that at some point. But then I wanted to skip down and read 1 Corinthians 15 and verse...

Where is this? 44. Second part of 44 where it says if there's a natural body, there's a spiritual body. So it is written, the first man, Adam, this is 1 Corinthians 15, 45, became a living being, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. Now, but I want to remind you, he still had a body. Remember when he said in Luke 24, a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have?

He had a new body. And that's kind of the context I'm skipping. But I just want to keep reading. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural. And after that, the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth. The second man...

From heaven. Remember how many times Jesus kept saying, I came from heaven, I'm from heaven, I came down from heaven, I came down from heaven? Remember, even when he was with Pilate, he was like, my kingdom is not of this world. And people took that to mean, oh, it's not in the world. But that would be a wrong assessment. And they don't realize it's for the world. So we'll get to that. Verse 48, as was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth.

We die. And as is the man from heaven, so also those who are of heaven. Oh, resurrection, death being destroyed. And just as we have been born the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. So I only did that to show you the definition is he was the son of a human. He became human.

a human being. God became a man, and he did it for a purpose, and the purpose is awesome. So what I want to bring up next, so out of the 80 or 100 times that Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, from what I studied, there's basically three major themes when he refers himself as the Son of Man. And this is, I didn't read this out of a book, this is basically what I wrote down.

When he would say that, he was basically given the impression to his hearers when he said, son of man, that the first thing is he had the authority to rule. He's from God. God, his father is in heaven, and he has been given this authority from God, the son of man. The second is that he would suffer and die.

And, you know, by that defeat the powers that brought sin and death to our world.

So just think of all the verses when he says, the Son of Man will be handed over. The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men. He will be lifted up on the cross. Exactly. He will die. Every time it's the Son of Man. It's the Son of Man. And you kind of see an attitude of humility in there. Think the verse, and we'll read the verses next time, but think the verse where it says, the Son of Man did not come unabashedly.

To be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom of many. So you have, he had authority of rule, but he also came in humility, which he would suffer and die and be raised, which would defeat the powers that caused the problems in the first place. And then the last, the third one is, it's a picture of him being exalted, enthroned,

uh bringing heaven and earth together and through that would create the the judgment scene good or bad yeah and so uh you get all in all that language about the temple being being destroyed one day he's like the son of man has this authority but he'll be exalted uh

And, and yeah, it, cause that, cause a lot of times you read those passages and you think, oh, there's talking about the second coming when, no, when he talks about, you'll see the son of man on a cloud, that's talking about the, the reception that he's going to receive in terms of the

kingdom. He's going to receive the kingdom and the authority and the dominion. Exactly. And judgment on the powers that led to the temple being tainted itself. In essence, he would become the temple, the place where heaven and earth meet. Which N.T. Wright's so helpful in understanding that, although, by the way, he is dead wrong on his comments on abortion recently. I was shocked to hear some of that. I heard that too, and I agree. I just...

You know, I was like, whoa, okay. I still, I think one of the things you can take from this is like, no, we need to, Christ has the authority. We don't get to determine life and death. That is, that is Jesus's prerogative, not ours, especially when it comes to the unborn, no matter what their, their predisposed idea. I probably should, I do want to make a note of that, by the way, for our audience. We reference N.T. Wright a lot on here. We do not agree with his latest comments on, um,

at all. Yeah, I did want to say that. Yeah, I would have never said it, but you sent me that. But even in the spirit of what I was saying about that baseball game and those special needs, it just brought John 9 to me. And the reason I told the story about that little boy who I love like a son

It's like when life goes bad and people choose life, you never know what God's going to do. And even with all those special needs kids I saw, there was something supernatural that was being displayed in the lives of humans with extreme difficulties.

And it just made me think of that John 9. This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in their life. And it was being displayed right before my very eyes. And I do know that there is a God who became the Son of Man and gave not only the impression of

but gave you the fact that all of these things will be made right. Yes. All the difficulties, all the physical problems, all the tragedies. That's why he's going around healing. That's why he's casting out demons. That's why he's forgiving. I mean, these are the impressions that he's given that the earth and everything in it will be made right. This is called the new creation. It's happening now and will ultimately happen later. Yes.

In a perfect way. Yeah, I love that. And that's the point of the... That's the whole... Our whole role under God's rule and reign in kingdom is that we are to be a vessel of life works, not death works. I mean, that's not... I mean, you mentioned that beautiful baseball game with the very people that some would say, oh, we should not let them live. And I'm like...

Are you kidding me? Look at the blessing that you received. Look at the blessing of my own daughter. I mean, that I received when she wasn't really viable, you know, viable in the womb. But I cannot imagine life without precious Ruth. And so, you know, I do think that this idea of what the Son of Man is bringing, I love what you said because it said, I wrote these down, authority,

that he would suffer and then him being exalted and enthroned. That's the life work right there because he mediates for us. And that's the life that he's called us into. Well, we're out of time. But Al, I just wanted to say before,

Yeah, I just wanted to say, read Daniel 2, read Daniel 7, and look up every verse where Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, and then we'll go deep into the weeds on the next one. That sounds good. We'll check that out. We'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast.

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