Ep 964 | Phil & Jase THOUGHT They Chose Wisely. It Backfires Big Time
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The thing that I ask people when I go on the road is, do you ever think Jace is going to run out of stories? And every time I ask that question to someone who's a podcast listener at an appearance, they always say, never. Never.

Which is a gifting. I mean, you think about it. Oh, it is a definite gift. Then they asked me how much of it is true. And I said, well, now there, I don't know. It doesn't matter. How much of it is true? We're in a foggy area. I think it's all based in truth. Right, Jase? It's based on a true story. You go watch a movie, it says based on a true story. And you're like, oh, isn't that neat? You tell a story and you say that was based on a true story. And you're like, liar. I can't.

I can't remember every detail. Now, what happened this morning? Oh, I can give you the details. Well, here's what it was. I walked in this morning, Jason. I walked in the lair because we have some guests here with us today, podcast listeners, Alan and Kim from Tennessee. And I walk in and Jersey Joe's sitting over there in a chair.

And his eye lid's about half closed. And I said, Joe, are you okay? He said, I don't know. And I said, did y'all have a rough morning? He said, it was rough. And that was it. That's all I got out of him. That was Jersey Joe's first experience of when things go wrong in Louisiana. You're not in Jersey anymore. He was sitting there during the hunt, and he was kind of – he had that look like when a dog has eaten something. Yeah.

But he wasn't doing the actual gag, but he had the same posture. Like the gag could just break out. I just thought he was going to start, oh, oh, oh. And I said, you all right, George? And he said, I'm wondering if I just had a heart attack. And I said, well. I don't know why that's funny. I shouldn't have. I looked at my phone and I said, it's 30 of 8.

Because I did that because that's kind of the running joke now. That's how we're trying to learn how to tell time. That's what I tell you. It sounds so silly when you say it's 40 of 8.

But then I sang the theme. Is that 8.30? The fact that you don't know and you're supposed to be the smartest person here. Now, we talked about it, but I can't remember where we landed. No, that would be 7.30 because he's saying it's before the hour. So it's not of 8, it's 30. Okay, so he says 30 of 8. That's really 7.30. He really means 30 until 8. That's right. Okay.

That's why I told him, I said, are people late a lot in New Jersey? And he said, you know they are. I said, well, now you know why. The word of. You've got to learn your verbiage. Well, Al, if you'd have walked in here while you were inspecting Jersey, I was shirtless and shoeless trying to find myself. You never want to be shirtless and shoeless after a hunt. Basically, that's what happened. It was a.

Things did not go as planned. I guess I can give you the short version. So we didn't hunt yesterday. We didn't do podcasts. We didn't hunt. And the reason was the only people that wanted to go were me and Phil. Yeah. So we thought, well, if they come. You can only kill. There's a prayer that famously is in the Bible, lead us not into temptation. Hmm.

And I just thought, if me and Phil go down there. And they show up. And they show up. The strain may be more than we could bear. So I talked to Phil. Remember when I said, I just don't. Because what happened when the hurricane hit South Louisiana, we just got the rain from it. But we have a full hole. So we haven't inspected it.

So anyway, we don't go hunting. Jay goes doing his deer thing or whatever yesterday, and a bunch of 50 jumps up out of a little lake that we got that I've never seen a teal on. And they just went down to where we normally hunt when we hunt there, and they just went down like they're looking at other dogs. I was going to say, that meant there were others.

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

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

So I was like, we got to go. We got to go. Because I was thinking, I don't know if we can get the motor cranked because a tree had fallen across where the boat run is. So we hadn't cranked the motors until last year. I was like, what if we can't get there? So I tear off out of here with my buddy. I open the gate and I noticed that the guy with me had waders on. And I thought, boy, you're...

You're expecting that water to be deep because I hadn't worn waders during teal season because we never have enough water. And he's like, yeah. Well, then I realized when I looked down, I forgot to put my hip boots on. So I was like, he's like, well, it's better than what you got because I was fixed to get wet. So I called Jay and say, Jay, look around. And he answered because they were still here getting ready. And so he found my hip boots. I said, bring them.

So then I take off again. Well, I almost get to the place where Phil's gun and bag is. And then I realize I don't have my gun. So I call Jay back. I was like, Jay, have you left yet? Well, I was just leaving.

You don't happen to see my gun, Leonard. Ten more years on you, and it'd be worse than that story. So you're on your way to get Dad's gun and bag, and you don't have your gun. I don't have my gun nor boots. And so that's where it started. This operation has gone down since I left it. Then we all meet up at the boathouse. Well, then, when you know it, the mud motor won't crank. The battery's dead.

Which you anticipate. Bill has gotten, we have a little bitty outboard, like a four horse outboard. He has it cranked, you know. I wanted to see if it worked in shallow water. Well, what was the answer on that? We made it, but it's, you need a pocket knife to cut the weeds off. We didn't make it because of that motor, but we took off and we didn't realize the grass had grown up so much that even though it was deep enough to run it,

It's just that prop. That's the biggest bunch of blue-winged teal. One of the biggest bunches I've ever seen. We're getting to the teal. We haven't got there yet. So look, here's how we got to the blind. We were close to zero. We got about seven or eight. Jay Bonebreaker is his name, Jay's buddy.

I think his last name sounds like that. It's like Zorro Brocker. They call him Bone Breaker because he literally could run through that wall. Oh, yeah. He's just a beast of a man. I've seen him out on the jujitsu floor. He would hurt you. Yeah. But it was good to have him because he got on one side of the boat and Jay got on the other. Yep. And they walked pretty good ways pulling us over the grass.

And now literally you have to have strong men to pull. Well, we did this morning, but we didn't know what we were getting into. But Jersey Joe, he got out 30 yards in front of the blind and walked and pulled the boat because I had hip boots on. Now I'm understanding the near heart attack. Joe's already said he's working on his weight. Yeah, Jay and Bonebreaker walked a quarter mile and act like nothing ever happened. Jersey Joe walked 30 yards.

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

We got decoys out in front of where I thought the blind was. And you're blazing the line. I'm looking over here where there's no water. You requested I move the blind 10 yards where you have a better view. I did that, but come like this. But it did like that. So Phil was in the hot spot. And then here's what happened. It was shooting hours. We get our guns loaded. And I don't know how many tail that we saw, but they never stopped.

Huge bunch. Several hundred. Several hundred. Which normally means... Most teal I've ever seen, and we didn't get more shots of it. And most time that happens has happened in the past. That means full limits in about 20 minutes. That's right. Here's what we concluded. This will be a little lesson on teal. We concluded that they had come yesterday, and they stayed there all night, didn't leave. So when we were all...

Had the propeller out of the water and then move and pull the boat. We're scaring all of these teal. And so they literally acted like our little decoy spread and us were not there, didn't they? For the first hour. They ignored it. They just ignored everything about it. And they all went down and lit about how far? Four or 500 yards from us. Yep. And they just kept gathering up down there.

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

I'll let him. He didn't do very well. Zero. Zero. So we had that happen, and that's when the theme song, someone sang a song, and we sang it the rest of the hunt. And now I've forgotten how that song went. Oh, I remember. This is a sad song. See if you can name this tune. It went like...

I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. I got a few years on me. And I had to hear that. That was Toby Keith, right? Phil had to hear that. But then the key phrase was, but back in my prime, there was a time when I could really lay it down.

We sang that. I could get them pretty good up to 60, but I'm crowding 70. And then it got out at 80. I said, yep.

But then, I will admit. I said, we need to move young people into prominent positions. It was the boat move, Phil, when you picked up the butt. You hadn't quite gotten to Yahoo's status. But I will say this. We were going to leave at 8 so we could be here for the podcast. And I said, let's give it 10 more minutes. And at 8.07, here came a little bunch from the WOD down there.

And they made a couple passes. It was about seven or eight of them. But this time, they set up a little more on my corner, and they came in there right. And we killed five out of that bunch. Should have killed them all, but we're not what we once were. But compared to everything else that happened, it was awesome. So we wound up with nine teal, which is enough to eat and survive and even feed the kids. But a fiasco. Yeah.

And so then Bonebreaker and Jay escorted us back out walking, and that's it. We made it. That's what happened. That's kind of a sad story. It really was. For what things once were. Hundreds of teal. But that's what happened. You just think, when you live somewhere, I mean, if you buy a new house, you're not sure...

where everything's at, you're getting, you know, if you're there when the teal show up, they come in your decoys. But once you stay there a while, they look down and said, that's trouble up there. And it doesn't matter if there's a thousand of them.

They would not come in. They wouldn't come in gun range. Just a few smithereens of the doves were the knowledge. One of the weird days. Their population is down according to the people who count ducks. So we did a good thing today, Phil. Yeah. Just let a few go for next time. Is that right? The teal are on their way to Mexico. So they fly across the ocean.

And they get in there, you know, South Louisiana, deep South Louisiana. Then they cross the Gulf. Yep. And that's where they winter. Yep. So they're all headed there. They're going there. They're going to Mexico. But that's the most teal I've ever seen. And the fewest harvested. Right. Yeah. Well, thanks to y'all, there's going to be a few more on vacation this year going to Mexico. So there you go. We weren't what we once, what's the name of the song? I'm not as good as I once was.

That's a good song. I sing it quite a bit. You sing it more when you get older, I've noticed. It's usually sad stories like that. You throw your back out, brushing your teeth, you do stuff like that, and you start singing that song. Or you forget your hip boots. You forget your gun.

But then I'm going to tell you, them seven or eight came in and I raised up because then all of a sudden it seemed like it was happening in slow motion because these did come in right. And I just, as I went up, I pulled left and two just kind of lined up and I just, boom, both of them just poof.

And then I thought, I'm on the comeback trail. I'm back. It's another song. It's a new song. I knew AIDS was sitting in with me when I got out of the boat after it was all over. And I took about two steps, hit some gravel, and I just tore the gravel up. Just face down. Oh, no. Then people say they run up there. You know, are you all right? I said, yeah, I'll get there. I tripped over my dignity. That's it. That's it.

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Because you worked with a lot of, through the years, a lot of young men, especially, although it's a plague on men and women. But pornography is, man, it's got a bad effect on people, wouldn't you say? Well, yeah. You got to keep in mind that what you desire...

is primarily shaped by the practices that you engage in. And if you're engaging in pornographic habits and rhythms of your life, it's going to profoundly shape what you desire. So, yeah, we're moving towards, let's put things in our life that help us develop new practices that we engage in. Yeah, and Jason said this before, it's fake. It's not real. We want things that are real. The Bible warns us about the dangers that are coming

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Phil, for almost 80, I mean, look. Yeah, I mean, just the fact you're out there, Dad, I'm impressed. Because, I mean, look, this little blind, we call it the hobbit blind because if there were real actual hobbits, they would be real comfortable in this blind. The only person that liked that blind was John Goblin because he was a hobbit. But the beavers just ate it this block at a time all the way down the back. So I had to go out there this summer.

with a couple of pretty good hands. Old Dan the man was in there. But to put some upflotation there and not starve for them,

Yeah. It's a rotation. That's what I thought when them people say that you shouldn't drink out of styrofoam cups because it's, you know, some kind of harmful. It may turn you into a beaver, but it ain't going to hurt you because the beaver population has exploded. Yeah. It's some kind of help for them to be able to grow. The funniest thing of the morning, though, was right when we were leaving, old Jersey Joe went, ah, ah. Because when I hear that, I was thinking,

You know, he could be bitten by a snake because we got in there and nobody had been in there. I mean, Phil inspected it a couple of days ago, but...

I mean, you're there with the critters. We got one in the summer out of Cottonmouth. He was up in there where we had duck hunt. So it pays to kind of knock around a little bit, get the wasp. You got wasp, and you got Cottonmouth marks. And the times, alligators are as long as your boat. So it's... We've till hunted before, and I looked down under to the bench, hunted all morning there, an hour and a half or two. And there'd been one coiled up

three feet away from me all day. That happened in that same blind last year. That's happened to me. Jersey Joe, he was, he was grunting, you know, I said, what's wrong? He said, I think I got a crick in my neck.

And I said, it's the contour of the blind. Because you have to have your head down, you know? And I said, well, it's better than a heart attack. Well, he was looking quite peaked out there. It was his first experience when things go wrong. So I thought it was good for him, you know? Look, and that's life. I mean...

We consider ourselves somewhat professional duck hunters and, you know, just nothing went right today. Yeah. But we still got nine. We made up for everything on the last buck. We had a safe hunt. Nobody got hurt. Within reason. There's a few minor injuries, but nothing major. Nothing major. And yeah, it was good. And so now they're all after the alligator. You know, our good buddy that I hunt with, he had lost one of his bird dogs.

And not duck dogs, but like a quail, the pointer. Yeah. What are those called? What do they call them? I think they just call them bird dogs. And he lives on a little swamp. Well, they had a tracker on that dog, either on his collar or they had it in his skin or whatever. And so when they looked it up, well, that dog was in the middle of the swamp. And he said, well, that's not good. Well, then they realized...

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

there was a beast of an alligator, and they caught him, had a tag for it. I can put this picture up for Maddie to show because you remember one of our former cameramen that worked for Willie,

I think Phil called him Frodo because he wasn't a tall man. He's a little short man from Arkansas. Yeah. And would love the blind we were at today. Oh, yeah. He was the original hobbit. Him and his son and my buddy, they caught the gator and they took a picture of it. It doesn't look real, but I'm telling you, that is not Photoshop. This picture is unbelievable. Well, then Jay and Chad, the nurse man here,

almost stepped on one here at our place and it's as big as that one so now they're all panicky because we have duck dogs and all so they're after him so they put a camera up we're waiting on our tag they put a camera up to see if they could get him on i saw the video oh you saw it wasn't that incredible it is if he if he can eat a dog he'll eat you yeah it's possible i

I told Jay, I said, well, when you catch that thing, you got to put the old line from Swamp People, Jude him, Jude him. So I hope that happens, and I hope they film it. It's not as- Was this filmed today? The gator? I saw a cameraman today. This fiasco y'all did. Oh, yeah. It'll be a comedy. Today was a comedy. What a day to have your cameraman. Comedy errors. I'm not sure what he filmed of that, but if that was not entertaining-

But it had a happy ending. Yeah. There was nothing we could have done, you know. I mean, they were living there. We should have been there yesterday and we'd have killed 12, but we killed nine today, Phil. So really, it only cost us three tail. That's right.

But Dad's just not happy because he was over. He didn't shoot well today. But, you know, it was a tough morning. I mean, it happens. It happens. And it's early. We're rusty. Yeah. It'll get better, Jess. It will. Don't be depressed. So speaking of dogs, have you all introduced the son of Blue yet? I thought there was supposed to be a new dog.

Well, we got him in the pen, but I've got a guy that's going to take a look at him today. They're going to get him, and he's going to check out. We're not sure. Yeah, he's skilled. We have some training, but I don't know. It's hard to say with that. We got young bucks. They're actually better than a dog. Well, right. On the cripples, they're a little –

Yeah, a person can, you can tell them which way to go a little easier, is what you're saying. I like that. There's a lot of dogs, you know, that will retrieve things, but it's pretty few of them that can retrieve ducks the way we do it. Well, and it's hard when you have a dog like you had. You bet. But the theme, you know, you said, what's the spiritual application? Things just don't go right sometimes. You know, and it's how you respond that really is what's most important. And, and,

Having all things said, it was a pretty fun morning. Yeah. I mean, if we hadn't have got that last bunch, I probably wouldn't be as optimistic.

Jace, I don't know if this is true for you, but when my wife is on fire about something spiritually, it makes my life better. I think the Lord was right. She then completes you, Al. When she's happy, I'm usually happy. Exactly. And there's something about that spiritual growth, you know, that does amazing stuff. So there's an opportunity coming up for you guys out there listening to Unashamed, the women in your life. And of course, all of our female listeners as well that you don't want to miss out on. On

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Yeah, we'll reset it. So what we've been talking about is the armor of God. And in the last podcast, I think we talked about the belt of truth, which was this kind of thing that holds everything together, which is why John talks about it so much, you know, in John and 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. Oh, and by the way, I read, because I...

You know, I believe you look through everything through the eyes of Jesus because that's what the Bible is about. God revealing himself in Jesus.

And I just read, started reading the book of John, which I do a lot. Yep. Because even the theme of Ephesians has been knowing Jesus better. And I believe this armor is the character of Jesus, which is while one, he proved to be sinless and he represented how God feels toward humanity. So when you just look at all the conversations he had and the way he

He carried himself. And so I did something different last night. I just read the red letters because, you know, I've read it so much. But I just wanted to see exactly what he said. And it was fascinating. But one thing I noticed, I didn't get through probably six chapters, John.

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

And you think about this idea of this concept of righteousness, it's interesting that he puts it on the breastplate, which the idea there was on the Roman suit. That protects everything vital is the breastplate, right? And that's the enemy attacks, but that's the main area. Even when we shoot, what do they tell you? Their center mass, you know, is what you're looking at. So the idea is...

That righteousness is the protection. But here's an interesting concept, and I want to get y'all's take on it. We talk about righteousness. All you have to do is add one word to it, and then it becomes something bad.

Self-righteousness. Because the Bible talks a lot about self-righteousness. And so that becomes this huge struggle, this idea of righteousness. If it's not coming from the Almighty, it quickly turns into something very negative. And let's face it, if we know some self-righteous people, I mean, you see it all the time, right? It becomes then something that instead of protecting you, makes you think you've got it figured out.

And then that's a dangerous place to be when you talk about self-righteousness. So I thought it was interesting. And part of that, of course, the feeder of righteousness comes from the Holy Spirit, which he's going to mention at the end of this. But you see that kind of, you know, what he's trying to lay out the entire time. The next one he says is the feet of

They're fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. How's that in your versions, that little phrase? Read that phrase. It's in verse 15. What do you use in the ESV? I use the ESV version, which reads, 615 reads, and as shoes for feet, having put on the readiness given to

by the gospel of peace. So it mentioned shoes. So the idea there is the, again, the Roman suit, there was a sandals called the, uh, Callagay was the, was the way they used them. I experienced that this morning. I didn't have my, I didn't have my boot. Well, the, the Romans, the Romans were brilliant. They, they knew like any army, if you don't have men who have shoes that fit, uh,

and keep your feet dry or warm depending on your setting of fighting, you run into major problems without proper footwear, as you discovered today, Jase. That would have been a lot rougher. And I would have been more susceptible to a snake bite, which is, I mean, we're all bailing out of the boat, walking around like there's no problem. But I'm like, we're in amongst the water moccasin, cottonmouth,

Yeah.

And many times I went out and hunted. And I mean, you talk about having to look out for snakes. We were just going in our socks or a pair of tennis shoes when you're hunting in jeans because it was usually on about knee deep. I had a catfish. In my 20s, I gave up all shoes. For two years. For two years. Now, this was B.J. Before Jesus? Yeah. So there was a lot of whiskey involved, as I recall. And that's just a little bit of it. Yeah.

Well, I had a catfish swim up my pant leg when I was on tail hunting one day. I remember that. And he turned around on me where his fin was right here on my shin, this front part of your... So he was sticking me with that fin. Well, all of a sudden, something's going at your leg there underwater. And so I got to a little more shallow water. I started rolling my pant leg up. And then the bottom of that little old catfish, he was about that long,

was there and old Ep was standing there with a gun. He pointed that gun at my leg. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's don't do anything rash. Well, because at that point you've already been bit. Right. I mean, it was a snake. First I'm thinking it was a snake. And then I see it's a catfish. Well, that was a big relief, you know, when you realize that. The idea here is that, which is interesting to me, that peace is, he calls it the gospel of peace.

It's what then motivates you to go. Because he says your feet fit with the raindrops that comes from the gospel. So the idea is the gospel of peace gives you some confidence to be able to go and do what you need to do. Well, because the thing, why is he calling it peace? Because what Jesus offers, it kind of makes sense of your past, the mistakes you made, but then Jesus died for those mistakes. You're present. You have a...

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

Well, there's your peace. Right. Because you think about it, if somebody's bitter, which a lot of people are, what's the problem? Well, something has happened in their past that they can't get past. And so that's why the cross is so powerful. Not only does it give you personal peace, but it gives you away from people that have sinned against you. Right. And if you're anxious or stressed out, well, that's because your present situation is overwhelming. Right.

And you're not realizing God's got a plan. If I stick with declaring Jesus, then that's going to remove the stress because nothing's worth really worrying about in that light. And...

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

Our studio audience. Our studio audience. And I don't know where the, N.B. Anderson. And last night we were talking. Well, tell them how I met them. Well, yeah. Well, you knew them before. I knew them before. Well, actually, we all did because I didn't realize until last night that Al was in the hunting industry. So he had met us at the big DU things we used to do up there. We, you know, had the booth and sold all the duck calls and stuff out in that big old field. Those ducks.

DU deals we did for years. That was our biggest event was Memphis and Germantown. But anyway, so I knew them. They listened to the podcast. We talked about that shooting at Real Foot Lake that happened two, three years ago on the duck blind. Yeah. And Alan knew those people. So we started a conversation, got to know each other. And you're both named Alan. And he's named after Alan Ladd, which I find fascinating. Who is that?

Well, he's like, who was he, Dad? Who was Alan Ladd? He was like a wrestler, wasn't he? No, no, no. He was an actor and singer, but he was famous back in the day. And so Dad and Mom, you know, and Alan's mom named us after him.

But anyway, so they started stopping by here on their way down to MD Anderson to go do the cancer stuff. And they were coming through, and I wasn't here. I said, well, you know, Jace is preaching. Yeah, I was preaching, and I was sick. That was the morning I was really sick, and I was –

not living out what i just read my feet weren't ready because i was kind of stressed out because i felt so bad yep so i was worrying about it i was like i'm not sure i'm gonna be able to do that i drove myself there because missy was singing so she was there early and i got out of my truck i think we pulled up together yeah and uh i'm not sure it was a hey how you doing i'm so and so and then

tears started flowing uh from alan just said he said he told the story last night to me he said when i saw jace we had been we were going to come and you know they're just going through this battle and he said when he saw it when y'all pulled up at the same time he just took it as a sign that he was like it was yeah and it really helped me in the moment because i thought well i thought i had some problems with whatever bug i got but this is way more important so uh

Yeah, we wound up praying together, and it was a special— I think y'all even came forward and got prayers from the— So last night we were talking about this. One of the things he said was something you sparked in my mind a minute ago.

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Shop blinds.com right now and get up to 45% off select styles. Rules and restrictions may apply. So they were telling me that when they go to the hospital, the people that are there a lot of times, they're telling them, they said, you know, we can always tell the Jesus people, I think was what they put it, whenever they're going through something like this because they're still kind to us. They seem to be kind of calm in the moment, even though it's scary stuff. But the people that don't know Jesus, they're

They're very bitter and they're very angry about their setting and their situation. And so I just thought about that, Jason, when you described that a minute ago, because that's exactly what happened. If we don't have something bigger than ourselves, when we're going through a really difficult time, when it's not peaceful, we're going to have to do something.

by circumstance, you better have something peaceful that you can rely on that's bigger than just your health or your situation, a kid's situation, whatever. What made me think, even I'm telling you when I read the book of John last night, I was going to save this for when we revisit John, but basically what I just described is how

the first conversation of Jesus played out, and this is before he died and was buried and raised, because it's interesting. If I ask you, what are the first words in John spoken by Jesus? What are the first? You're not going to get it. He got me there. Yeah. You know what it was? What do you want? That's the first thing he said. But you know, when I actually thought about that, if God came to earth and asked you that,

Hmm. What would you say? What do you want? I would say, I just think that she's my way out of here. I don't know why I knew you were thinking to say that. No, that's a father son relationship. I thought that's what you were going to say. And you said it. Uh, I'm just trying to find a way out of here.

So it starts in chapter one when the two disciples of John came up and they were following Jesus. They were following him. And he turned around and said, what do you want? Which I've done before. When somebody comes up and makes me uncomfortable, I'm like, what do you want? How can I help you? And so what the translation doesn't say is, well, we just wanted to know where you're staying. Now, most people would respond,

I got a little place in, you know, just outside of Nazareth or whatever, you know. And so what was his next phrase? He said, come and you will see, which I think is clever. Yeah. And because it's seemingly an insignificant verse, but it's,

There's a there's the next verse says, so they went and saw where he was staying, but they spent the day with him. Well, that's really what it was about, because just just watch how this where I thought this was fascinating. So that was what he was kind of presently doing was having conversations with who would turn into his core group of disciples.

And it was more about having a conversation, which look, what do we do when we have the armor of God on and we're revealing the character of Jesus? If somebody says, well, where do you live? 99% of the people would give you the address or describe it. But we need to be the type of people that say, well, come over and I'll show you. Because then you're going to have a conversation. And hopefully Jesus, I mean, having people in your home. I mean, that's what he was all about.

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

So it's a theme coming up. It's like, you spend time with me and you'll figure this out. And so Philip, like Andrew and Peter, he was from the town Bethsaida. He found Nathaniel and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about. Because the more time they spent with him, they knew. And it says, Jesus of Nazareth.

Well, Nathaniel, who hasn't met Jesus yet, he says, can anything good come from there? Nathaniel asks. Now, what's he thinking? He's thinking about the past. Yeah. All the things that have come out of Nazareth. These first guys, I think, was kind of a present situation where Jesus moved on. It's like, you know, where are you staying? And he's like, well, come and I'll show you. I mean, like right now. And they wind up.

Spending the day here is like nothing could come he's already made up his mind about anything coming out of Nazareth But look what Philip said and I wonder where he got this you see what he what he said in verse 46 Come and see it was the same thing Jesus had told him. Yeah. Well now it's become like okay We've got that part figured out. All you got to do is get in his presence and you'll figure it out And so what happens?

So Jesus and Nathanael, after he does come and see, they have a conversation. Because when Jesus saw Nathanael, he said, here's a true Israelite in whom there's nothing false. And he said, well, how do you know me? Nathanael asked, which is another deal about in the past. Jesus knew us before Nathanael.

Yeah. We responded to him. I mean, that gets into that verse, while we were still sinners, you know, God demonstrates his own love for us while we were sinners, Christ died for us. But Jesus answered, I saw you while you were under the fig tree before Philip called you. So evidently he was out there under a fig tree thinking about, you know, whatever, but Jesus answered,

Jesus knew that. Well, all of a sudden he's like, well, you must be the son of God. Cause he, I guess it was a place where he didn't see him around. Yeah. And he's thinking, how would he know that? Yeah. How would he know that? But watch what he, watch what he says. Jesus said, you believe because I told you, I saw you under the fig tree. And now here's a future reference. You shall see, I mean, this kind of come and see is the theme here, but then he said, you shall see greater things than that. Hmm.

He then added, I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God descending and descending on the Son of Man. I just thought, isn't that really neat how he took whatever time frame that we live in where we struggle, whether it's bitterness or frustration or anxiety or fear or

And in each moment he had conversation, revealed his character, revealed about the future. He showed, I mean, it doesn't even give the details about what he talked about, but whatever he discussed with them, they were convinced that he was the son of God. Yeah. And that is the key ingredient for life change. Yeah. And also a reminder that,

You'll struggle because these same guys who in the initial moment, they had it. I mean, they knew. At the same time, follow them through the rest of the book for the next three years. Life is short and full of trouble. Yeah. Any way you slice it. And your faith gets tested. And theirs was the entire time. And then when he got to the end, guess what happened? They all ran away. But that's my point. When you read Ephesians 6 in the armor, it tends to get philosophical and

And I'm saying in a practical way, this needs to become real in conversations that you're having with people. I mean, like our guests we were talking about, I saw tears and I was like, well, what's wrong? I mean, I forgot what I was fixing to do, which was speak in front of a thousand people. I wanted to hear the story. And so I think those conversations that are Jesus-focused and centered are

That's what we should be doing. That's the feet that are ready with the gospel of peace. But it's also the breastplate of righteousness because once you get into some of these conversations with people, well, they start talking about the mess that is their life. And you talk about the truth. Sometimes it's hard to tell people the truth because it's going to make them uncomfortable. With an hour before boarding, there's only one place to go. The Chase Sapphire Lounge by the club. There, you can recharge before the big adventure.

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

When probably a more biblical teaching is that heaven's coming to us. And you see that in the gospel, that God's coming to us. But I think what question hits the core of it, right? Because if we're only focused on just getting out of here, then we tend to move into what I would call and others have called a gospel of sin management.

But he doesn't really address it there. He doesn't ask them what they know or what their set of beliefs are. Jesus asks them, what do you want? What do you actually want? My translation says, what are you seeking? What do you long for? What do you desire? And it's interesting that what they say they want is probably true. They say, where do you live at? Because what they really wanted, they want to be in proximity to him. And so he says, come follow me. So what happens is in the gospel, the kingdom,

It's not just a future reality. It's a present reality in that what we want, what we love, what we desire, whatever word you want to use, or what we long for, that's a disposition that is shaped by the practices in which we engage in. And that's why he's saying,

Come follow me because what you want will be shaped when you're in proximity to Christ, when you're living with him. That's the whole point of the gospel is that Christ came down to dwell with man, to make his home with men and women. And the Holy Spirit lives in us, so we become the temple and so the ultimate dwelling place. Where does God live? Where do you stay at? Well, the final answer after the resurrection is going to be,

I live in you now. And that's where the whole story is going. So I'd never seen that connection though. Um, what a profound way. I'm glad you saw it. And it excites me. Cause you know what I discovered as I kept reading that the next thing he said, he did the same thing when, when they had the banquet, when he changed the water to wine, his first statement was to his mom. And he said, why do you involve me? Um,

Look, there's a theme that's happening here. Now, when you get to John 3, of course, then it got into the kingdom, by the way, because then he cleared the temple. Remember, one of his famous statements was, you destroy this temple and I'll raise it up in three days. So John 3 doesn't ask a question to Nicodemus.

He just shakes his house by saying, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again, which was a profound statement that caused him to think. Well, he made his mom think too. She thought, what's he talking about? And then he said, my time hasn't come yet. And I think it planted a seed that one day there would be a wedding feast event

of heavenly and earthly proportions of us being married to Jesus. I think it was a picture of what he did. - Yeah, 'cause he uses that later. - Well, yeah, and at the end, he changes water, which was used out of the jars for the ceremonial washing. He changed it to wine to be presented to the master. Well, what's that give you a vision of? I mean, we're presented as the bride of Christ. But look, in John 4, you know how that conversation started? He walked up to a well,

with a woman who was not from the same region as him. And he said, will you give me a drink? It's another question. Of course, she's thinking, should I? I'm a woman. I'm not from here. You're not supposed to be talking to me. And I'm not living a, I'm living a terrible life. But that's what I was. And look, it continues. You're going to notice this. And I just discovered it last night by just reading the red letters that I think if you get that in your mind of having the armor of God,

You're going to ask people questions and have conversations about real life and destroy a lot of barriers and walls that people have ideas about. And look at the other side of that, James. If you don't choose that, if you don't believe, then you're still searching for

Those questions are still being asked. What do you want? What do you want in life? How are things going? All those questions are still being asked, but you have no answer. Well, exactly. I mean, that becomes... Look, you think about the breastplate of righteousness. He later on tells her, he said, go call your husband and come back. And she said, well, I have no husband.

Now, you're talking about the breastplate of righteousness. He's like, well, you're right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you've had five of them, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you've said is quite true. You say, what is that called? That's called the breastplate of righteousness. We have gotten down... Truth detector. You have tried to say a little comment that's covering up this mess in your life. But now... And look, she took it to heart so much when she went back to the village. She said...

This man's told me everything I've ever done. I mean, you talk about some hyperbole. She's like, he knows that I'm a mess. He knows the whole story. But I think it's a true picture of speaking the truth and love. Yeah. Cause deep down, we all know right from wrong, good and evil, but we just spend lives of trying to cover it up and justified. And you,

You think of anything noteworthy in your life where you turned around, somebody usually filled with the Holy Spirit sat down and had a very difficult conversation with you and made you search your heart and say, what do you want in life? What are you doing? You know, how do you feel about other people? So, I mean, just in the first four chapters, we've gotten into difficult family situations, racism,

uh calling the first disciples despite you know but you remember and you remember what paul said because we're out of time but you remember what paul said at the beginning of ephesians jays so that you can know him better yeah tell my jesus i mean so it really is that becomes the theme and that's what you just described in the book of john so we're out of time we'll pick it up here next time on unashamed thanks for listening to the unashamed podcast help us out by rating us on itunes

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