Ep 937 | Jase Discovers an Envelope Stuffed with Cash, Airline Woes & a Hot Tub Baptism
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I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. On the last podcast, I said we upgraded, jokingly, by trading in Cy for Zach. Zach's got big stuff he's working on this week, so he can't tell you about it, but I'm sure he's always got something in the works. Well, but I don't have any compassion for Zach. Here's why. We did multiple podcasts together.

For his mission trip. Because he had a mission trip coming up. So we got some time off because we wanted Zach to be here. Right. And then he's like, oh, yeah, not only do I need two weeks off, but I need to get

Make that three. That's right. You know, after a while. Yeah. How committed are you? I can see you getting a day off, you know, a couple days off, a week. Well, two weeks. I would consider that almost a vacation, but he was on a mission trip. But now it's three weeks. So it looked like to me he's in line for part-time work here. Here's the bus. There's that. So we have now upgraded yet again.

Because we traded Cy for Lisa. So welcome, babe. Well, thank you. Back to the podcast. This is another upgrade in terms of beauty and I don't know, many things, I'm sure. Well, she represents half the population that we struggle with. Because look, I want to tell you something because I need to go over this with you and maybe you can help me. Because right now in my life, we're on baby watch. And there's a new baby coming.

Let me see. Nope, we're still on baby watch. And so what happened was my son- Oh, you mean like any day? Grandbaby. Grandbaby. Okay. And so about three days ago, there was a text that seemed like it was imminent. And so my daughter, who had just had surgery, she had another surgery, and I appreciate everybody, you know, and the prayers, and she's doing really good.

And had just got where she's up and around. But when this text was interpreted as in this is imminent, I mean, my wife went crazy. She was just like a whirlwind, packing bags. And here's my daughter who can barely get around. She's going too, you know. It's like, oh, I don't have time. So they were here in Louisiana. They were here in Louisiana. They were going to Nashville. And the baby in tow is in Tennessee. Yeah.

So it was just, they never even told me bye. It was just a whirlwind. And I was basically there for grunt work. Yeah. Carry this, move this. I mean, cause Mia just had surgery. She's,

help you know and i wish i didn't mind she's but missy moved it you could not stick everybody's got a roll jace and i thought you couldn't stick another item in that car finally i said there's no more room in the end and so i went back in and was thinking is there any other stuff and i heard the car crank up and just that was three days ago

and i'm trying to understand what happened obviously and it wasn't imminent because it's been three yeah it was a wrong call yeah why did you need so much stuff what it was all this stuff and where how am i supposed to play this moving forward so yeah haste hastily packing usually is not the way to go yeah i mean do you offer any insight you're a woman these were two women

Whenever you feel as though there is a baby coming, it's all hands on deck. Yeah. And that's what you were. Yeah, that's what happened. He was hands on deck. I thought it was interesting. You would have found that very interesting to watch. I bet I would. Yeah. That goes back to dad's, when God made a woman, he made a strange creature. So Lisa and I had interesting travel as well, Jay. So we...

In our time that we were off from doing the podcast, we had two appearances. And so Lisa, as everyone knows, and by the way, thanks for the prayers for us too, because they have been amazing.

Phenomenally successful. And we attribute it to prayer, spiritual blessing. Lisa has healed at a supernatural level. No doubt about it. In fact, so much so that you just did a blog and you talked about being guilty about it. You felt guilty because a lot of people don't do as well, which I admire your humility for.

You know, just because you're like, why am I doing so well when other people struggle? Right. I mean, that was a powerful thing you said. But so she's done amazingly well. But this was our first, like, big test, you know, was to go. It was a double-double, I call it. And we spoke two days at two different events back-to-back. Yeah. And, Jace, you do this, too. I mean, that's a lot. No, let's rephrase that. I've done that before. Yeah.

As in past. I'm not currently lining any of that up because. It's a lot. I feel your, that's a lot. So, and so we're, so, but Lisa and I are like, when we travel, we do this so much. We're like a well oil machine, which was interesting in your story. Cause I thought when you just panic and throwing stuff in the car, I mean, that's not the way you want to roll. That's not good. Cause you forget, you take too much.

But we hadn't been doing it much because Lisa's been down. We had one little appearance in Kansas City. But now we got to go to Lake Erie, as far north as you can go. We hit the Great Lakes, Dad, in Ohio at a camp, which is an amazing experience. The people there were so good. And then we went to Indiana and we joined Tony and Phyllis there. And we did our first joint tour.

deal event with Tony and Phyllis, which was also a lot of fun. It was. People there. I was wondering how that went. Yeah. I'll tell you about it. So anyway, the problem is apparently some software company somewhere, I guess it's in America, had a glitch.

And so several corporations, including Delta Airlines, was affected by this glitch. It affected banking. There was a lot of stuff. I'm fully aware. As a keeper of my own portfolio. So you're aware of this phenomenon. I own the company who had the problem with the software. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Okay. And it is worth a lot less than it was before.

Well, let me just tell you, as two people who were on the hamster wheel of Delta Airlines last week, it was terrible. And so we got into it. We did make it, by the grace of God, at 3 a.m. into Cleveland, Ohio to the airport. But many people did not make it anywhere that night, did they? Yeah. It's midnight, and there's a line of people in a terminal in the Atlanta airport that stretched out a football field.

I'm not exaggerating. Hundreds of people. They were trying to get hotels or get their flights rearranged. I mean... Way more canceled or delayed flights than actually were actually working. And so Lisa and I got there. We were praising God we made it. And of course...

The box of books we had and one of Lisa's bags didn't make it. Yeah. So we had one bag. And so Lisa's trying to do the best she can. And she's having to do it. Which, by the way, let me just let me just go down one of those rabbit trails. It's the Jace rabbit hole. Yeah. So three bags checked at the same time. We're in the airport two hours and one bag goes and two bags don't. What's up with that?

They're all together. They got on the little machine, all three together going down. Except they didn't. Well, I guess y'all are a little behind me because I don't schedule these things now back to back to back to back, nor do I take any bags. Yeah. If I can't carry it on, which presents a problem.

- I said a problem 'cause I've had to buy clothes. - Here's the difference, Jase. You're doing this Han Solo. If you and Missy were doing this, you would have a bag, trust me. This one doesn't travel. - She's come around though 'cause she's realized this bag thing is part of the reason the world is so grumpy.

But, I mean, I'm gone for a week. Yeah. I can't pack what I need in a carrier. I get it. I get it. So we finally, the bag finally showed up or it didn't show up? My bag showed up the next day. Yeah. The books never did. Right. And so she finally got her bag. But anyway, she just had to do without it. Still, cannot find the box of books. I'm like, okay. They said, what color is it? I said, black.

a box of books. What color is the box? It's, it's brown. Yeah. Which is what color every box, a box is supposed to be. And by the way, we still haven't gotten the book. And we still haven't gotten them. There's somewhere, there's somewhere. These events, I was, we were about three days into a trip and, uh, Missy's like, yeah, babe, look, I love you, but you stink. And I was like, well, I took a shower. She's like, are those the same clothes? Cause I didn't have the one bag. And that's all, you know,

So I'm in there washing them out in the sink, trying to figure out how I'm going to dry them. And she's like, look, I get you have the no bag policy. Yeah. But this won't work. If you're hand washing in a hotel sink, trying to figure out, because then, you know, the next thing we went to, I literally was damp.

At the event. Yeah. My clothes were damp, but they smelled nice. They smelled like good hand soap from a hotel. So we've got this back and forth. We're finally, we've done two events. We're both exhausted. We poured our hearts into it. We had fun with Tony and Phyllis. Tony,

Tony's not, probably speaking's not his best gift. He's a better artist than a speaker. Phyllis was a very good speaker. Phyllis was amazing. I guess it's the genetics. It's genetics. I guess it must be. Well, maybe he needs to be a pointer. Yeah. I think he needs to be a pointer. He needs to be a painter. I think he needs to be a caddy. I think we established he's a caddy. Actually, I'm coming up with a presentation for them. It's going to be amazing. I'm going to introduce Tony to Lindy, a lady at our church, a good friend of ours, who's a great artist.

who paints when other people talk and the end result is amazing to see it because you get a vision. That's what he should do. That's what he should do. So Phyllis should tell their story and he should paint something and then they can leave it at every event. Still husband-wife team. Yeah, husband-wife team. It's unique. Anyways, so we get to the last stop. We baptized a young man. The people that put the event on their son, he heard our story and he went up to his dad and he was like, all right.

All right, I'm ready. And people just started crying. Apparently they'd been praying for this young man, Clayton's his name, to come around. Well, he did it. The story of Jesus and working through me and Lisa, his heart was open. And so we baptized him in the hot tub the next day, which was great, at the end of the event.

which is a blessing. I'll send you a picture of Maddie to put on it. But anyway, it was, so everything was like, man, we're ready. We're tired. This is so good. We're coming home. We're coming here to fly into Monroe. We get to the airport, delayed. Those two hadn't got their problems fixed.

And we're going to miss our flight. And we know this. And Lisa and I have been doing this a long time. So we, none like other people, I don't get into long lines hoping for the best. You get on the phone and if you can't figure it out there, then you get you a car and you get out of there. Yeah. You don't give yourself to the mercy of the airline. That's never going to work. So Lisa goes up, fixes it. We're going to Pensacola. We got a house down there. We're just going to, instead of coming to Monroe, because we're going to miss that flight, can't get here.

Until the next day. Until the next day. Yeah. And you're in that hamster wheel. We're going to Pensacola. Everything's great. We get to Atlanta and we've got boarding passes. We go up to get on the plane and they're like, nope, can't process you. Got some kind of problem here. What's the problem? We had seat assignments. We got seat assignments. What's the deal? So then she gets on the phone and she's talking to some other person. Now, this is the lady that's putting us on the plane. She's on the phone to some other person.

Um, no, the problem is y'all are going more than 100 miles away from where you originally were going. So it's going to cost you another $450 a piece. And we're at the gate to get on the plane. I've never seen anything like this. And it's just like she looks at me and I was like, look, if $900 gets us on that plane and gets us to a bed tonight, I'm in and we'll sort this out with the airline later. And so she takes our card number on the phone at the gate. I've never seen anything like this.

And we paid $900. And then we didn't make the flight. They closed the door before we got out. Did they get your money back? No, not yet. But it's coming. Lisa's been like a dog on a pole. Y'all need a handler.

Well, we are the handler. I am the handler. Yeah, that's the problem. But anyway, we got there. It's a first world problem. I get it. A man was baptized. A man was baptized. That's right. Marriages were enhanced and helped. Tony and Phyllis got in and got to do an event. And let me just tell you, I've called Delta Airlines to find out where my bags are for a week.

They don't know. They don't know. So I get a call and it says, Willie Jess on my phone. And Willie never calls. What's Willie calling me for? He never calls me. So I answer the phone. Hey, Willie, what's happening? And he said, yeah, I got a call. Your bags are at the airport. They called Willie. They called you and not me. Because he knows this girl that works with the airport. Oh, yeah, that's funny.

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That's what I was fixing to recommend. I mean, I've had so many things that I was like, I probably could have. Well, I now have a precious number that I will. An insider at Delta. Thanks to Willie of all people. Yeah, yeah. So don't panic about the glitch. But it did make me realize that.

That was just one little glitch. We need some redundancy in the process. It wasn't a cybersecurity thing. The name of that company is called CrowdStrike, and it was so up. It's like an up-and-coming cybersecurity company that it went down. I mean, it just got hammered, but it was already way up. I didn't sell it. I know a lot of y'all are in the stocks, and you wonder that. But it was a good opportunity to buy other cybersecurity companies that

Because they all went down too. Oh, there's a glitch. There's a glitch. But it did show you that just that one little glitch caused all those problems. So I think that's going to be the next great world problems because now we're so reliant on them.

on data even my own computer because i have had to use microsoft windows wouldn't work that day when that happened i mean i don't know what it had to do with my personal computer but i mean that glitch went everywhere yeah so anyway we had problems with our internet internet issues there's a lot of stuff going on well i'm working with about 50 individuals every sunday

but they're not flying. They're driving. That's good. They drive to where we are and out of another state, a whole new scheme. We preach the gospel, baptize the couples, the girls. She cried the entire time she was there. I said, listen carefully to this lesson and you'll get it. And I said, and then we're going to baptize you. So

The tears can dry up finally in your life. So that's what happened. So dad's saying, if you're going to come to West Monroe, you probably ought to drive. Don't try to fly. Well, here's what's crazy, Phil. That's good advice, dad. You get 30 to 75 that are coming and going in front of us from all the states, different states, some parts of the world.

Some are coming from Canada. Canada. I was going to share. I was going to do a little mailbag from Unashamed Nation segment here. Really? You've been checking your mail. Not really, but I'll explain that. But it's technically mailbag. You'll understand as we go. We're based on it. If there's just one of you who came here.

to find out about Jesus if it just won once enough. I got a good story on that. It goes along with what you're saying. So what happened was the first mailbag item was an actual couple that drove from Indiana. Now, they weren't at your class, and since the baby watch happened, I found myself like, you know, I got some free time here. All of a sudden, I'm a bachelor at a moment's notice.

And so a couple hours later, one of the, uh, elders at the church called me and said, so I guess this was Friday or Saturday. So there was a couple there. And usually when people come, we say, look, Bill's got a class on Sunday. These people didn't get that memo. We, we've said it many times on the podcast, their podcast listeners. And, uh,

And he's like, they basically want to talk to a Robertson. And I was like, I kind of went to 1 Corinthians 1. Paul didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, just share the gospel. But then I thought, well, I literally have nothing to do at this moment. And so because there, I said, where are they at? And he's like, they're at the parking lot at Churchville. I was like, well, they're.

They're about 30 hours too early. He's like, but they have to leave tonight. And I was like, so they drove. How far is it to Indiana? It's a long way. So anyway, I was. 700, 800 miles. Yeah. So I went up there and I'm glad I did. It was a cool story. I sat and listened for 20 minutes to their story. And they were leading like the equivalent of a Celebrate Recovery group at their church. So I thought.

well, you bound to have understood Jesus and obeyed Jesus. You're leaders at your church. But the guy said, well, here's the deal. He's like, I came to God 10 years ago. And he said, because he was hard on drugs. And he's like, basically, I was fixed to die. And I was at the end of the road here. And so I had, he said, what I would call a conversion. But

It was mainly because I didn't want to go to hell, and I knew that I was fixed to die of a drug overdose if I didn't do something. So instead of coming to Christ, he really came to an escape out of a addiction problem. Yeah, and I'm using his terminology. I'm just listening. And he said, but I've been growing. The church has just been a lighthouse for us. We've grown.

We're helping other people. But he said, you know, when you start doing lessons and all this, you need help. You need resources. And so he said, I started listening to y'all's podcast. He said, which is why I'm here, because y'all just seem like normal guys. And at some point in there, I fell in love with Jesus. And so he said, I just thought I wanted to let y'all know. And I won't.

you know, you to baptize me because now I know who Jesus is now. And I thought, what a, what a story this is that, because I, you know, there's no doubt God was working in his life, but when you read this Bible, this is about Jesus. This is how he chose himself to be revealed. So I baptized him and I've, I've never seen two people. I've seen a lot of baptisms and been involved in hundreds, but,

I've never seen people this excited. I mean, it was... Because it was just me, them two, and the pastor had a representative there. He wasn't even there, but who was just there on his behalf. But I thought, what a moment that was. And then they drove back to Indiana. So that was one thing that kind of made me feel good about what we do here. Yeah. The other things...

were kind of weird. I had an envelope from Cincinnati, Ohio. I had another envelope. Yeah, an envelope from Cincinnati, Ohio. That's how we got Phyllis. Yeah, we just know that story. It was sent to Duck Commander, and it had five $20 bills in it. Okay. Addressed to me with no return address, no note, five $20 bills. In the envelope. I appreciate it, but you don't send me money, especially with no letter and no return address.

You don't think that's weird? Send it to me. Oh, all right. I'll take care of it. Send us all envelopes with money in it. We don't mind. These are things that were sent to Duck Commander in my name. So then I opened up a second envelope. I opened it up, and it was a check for $75. Made out to me.

I was like, well, I'm two envelopes in and I got $175 here. Now, this one had a letter. I need to start going to Duckamander. Exactly. Checking the mail. Well, what was fascinating about the first- I'm going to start getting Jace's mail. The first letter that had the 520s in it, they opened it. Somebody at Duckamander, which I think is a federal crime, but I'm not sure.

And I thought. What's funny is that it may have been $400. Well, that's where I was going with this. And they stapled it back. Oh, staple. So, and Missy said, huh, I'm surprised those 20s are in there. And I was like, well, I'm surprised if there weren't way more. But anyway, so this letter was about the seatbelt.

Oh, boy. And this woman was, I could tell, very up in years, and I really appreciate it. She said she's never missed a podcast. I appreciate it, but you don't have to pay my ticket because it's not about the money. She's like, this is— Oh, she's going to pay your ticket. She wants to pay the ticket, and here was her reasoning, which I thought was interesting. She's like, when you shared the Bible with that police officer, you probably prevented riots in the streets because you could have had a totally different attitude,

And she's like, unashamed nation is so big and strong and powerful in a moment of weakness, it might have caused riots. So I want to pay this ticket for you. I'm not making this up. That's what it said. And it's a sweet gesture. What a gesture. And look, if I wind up having to pay the $75, I think I said it was 25, but she sent 75 in case it's more than they said.

So that's covered. So don't send me any more money about the seatbelts. And I appreciate it. So the third thing was evidently somebody made a product that you can, the way the letter said is you can put this on your seatbelt and wear the seatbelt under your arm, but it looks like it's on top of your shoulder. And they ordered it off of Amazon. Really? And gave me the receipt in case I didn't like it. And it was two clips. Yeah.

And I was like, this is not about me wanting to look like I'm keeping the law, if that is the law. Which you actually may make your trip to court may determine whether it is law or not. Well, exactly. You never know.

We love to support business that love America. Don't you agree, Jace? As former President Bush would say, America. Kind of hard to find these days. It is. Yeah. Kind of like cell phone coverage. It's hard to find. It's hard to find. So that's where our good friends at Patriot Mobile come in. They love America, but also they provide great cell phone coverage. For 10 years, Patriot Mobile has been America's only Christian conservative wireless provider.

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Well, that was a PSA, and don't send me anything revolving around the seat. But you know what's funny, Jay? Through the years, people have sent money and checks, and just because you love us, and I appreciate it. One lady, I think she was from South Carolina.

actually had sold something and had a windfall and gave quite a bit of money, wanted to. And I said, well, look, we don't like we're being paid to do the podcast by Blaze. And so we don't really have an apparatus for this. You know, I said, I appreciate it. So you said, well, what can I do? And I said, well, look, if you just want to give something, you know, I can open up an account at our church. We'll put the money in there and we'll use it at some point. So she said, well, that's what I want to do. I said, OK, so we did that.

And it had been in there a little while. And then Lisa ran across a situation where it was a widow lady living in a, literally in a shed with no water, uh, out behind her sister and just, you know, tough situation. And so Lisa, so this sister, I know you're listening. I'm sorry. I don't remember your name. Um, that

The money you sent bought a travel trailer for this widow. And now that travel trailer is behind her son's house. And so she is so excited. She has a place to live. And Lisa made it happen. But you made it happen by sending that money. That's right. To the church. So.

What I'm saying all that, Jason, is to say, if you won't feel like you're led to do something, send it to the church, not to us, because we don't have an apparatus to handle it. And we're not doing it for that reason anyway. All right. But we do appreciate that people... Appreciate the gestures, but just, you know... But you know what? Those clips you were talking about is a really good idea. Oh, boy. If...

If you find out that it is a law that you have to wear it a certain way, because after you have what I had done. Yeah. It's tough to wear a seatbelt across this area right here. You may be on to something. You know? He might have sent me a. So you put a pillow, you know, right there, which is probably not legal either, but. Yeah. I don't know. We need to look into that. We need to look into that. I'll know a lot more after October.

If I give my case and my presentation. Yeah. And if the officer shows up, which is funny because somebody sent a note that actually, I guess he's a police officer, but he knows this, this young man that, that gave you the ticket.

And so it was interesting. That came through the mail. But I don't remember what he said about it. He just said he was a good young man. Yeah, and I love all police officers and done great. Yeah, because we've gotten – Jace has gotten some negative from some of you guys out there. But look, we said it all along. We are 100% pro-blue. It's not a question of that. It was a question of this particular situation. Well, this is about what does the law say and how do you interpret it. This is a –

This is a Congress issue. The way the law is written. Yeah, that's right. I should not have gotten a ticket. Now, if we want to go to Congress and write a letter there and change the wording of the law, let's do it. That's my whole platform. Write a letter to Congress. Don't write me a ticket based on this statute because this is muddy. Mm-hmm.

So anyway, there's that. So is that the end of your mailbag? That was the end of my mailbag. I did have one other Bible study that went along with what we're doing in Ephesians. I would call it a mailbag. I got a letter that the question was, and this is a famous verse, and I really never thought about it. Let's see. I'll put that here somewhere. Here we go. So here was the letter. It was not long.

Hey man, in James 1.12 is the crown of life referring to eternal life. So if you read James 1.12, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. So now you would think, what's your first impression? So the question is, in James 1.12 is the crown of life referring to eternal life.

What's your first impression? Could be. Could be? Could be. You sound like a politician. I'm saying, I mean, my first impression would be, yeah, that's probably what he's talking about. Now, if you read the whole first chapter. When you read the whole thing, then it's maybe more the idea of just passing a, getting through a trial or getting through a. Yeah. I think you're on to something. Yeah. Well, I thought y'all would give me some more impressions, but if you don't want to, I'll read you what I said. You ready? Yep.

Here's what I put. I put, obviously, eternal life is always implied when the Bible writers are writing to Christians because followers of Jesus are spirit-indwelled people. And I put Ephesians 1.13 and all over the place. You remember Ephesians 1.13? You were included in Christ.

When you heard the word of truth, having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. You remember the verse in Hebrews where it says, Jesus, through the eternal spirit, went to the right hand on our behalf. So we have the Holy Spirit. So in essence, we are eternal. And we think eternal when we see things. We're eternal. I mean, God had... So I said, obviously...

That's always a part of everything. Correct. When he says he'll receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. But then I put this. However, in James 1.12, the context is growing up and maturing in Christ, not unlike, because we're in Ephesians, Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, which we'll get to. Mm-hmm.

You remember the verse that says God's given some to be apostles, some to be prophets, so that the church may grow up? Maybe I should read it. Ephesians 4.

I think I got those two confused. To prepare God's people for works of service so the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth. So when you read John 1, it's the same vein. He's talking about maturing, growing up in Christ, which I do think is very interesting.

Uh, not sure where exactly he says that in James, but you know, when I read it, it's, it's up there in, um, two and three, six and six. He says, uh, he, he won't be one who's blown and tossed about. Yeah. Like Ephesians four. Right. Uh,

And just two and three says, you know, when you face trials of many kind, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature. There it was. So same vein. So then I put, when you read James 3, 13 through 18, it says, when you see wisdom from heaven.

And he gives two kinds of wisdom. Well, a mature wisdom that comes from heaven via the Holy Spirit is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, good fruit, impartial, and sincere. So then I put my point is this, and I think here's the point for y'all's discussion. The Spirit, we have the Spirit now. So when it's talking about the crown of life and we have the Spirit, and we just read in the last podcast that because we have the Spirit, we're heirs.

Well, when you think heirs, you think of royalty. When you think of Jesus being king and he's made us to be a kingdom. So crown, kingship, heirs, what we're passed on, I think that there's an idea of that. But we have the Spirit now.

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We have the Spirit now, even though it may not feel like it because of the evil world that surrounds us, the persecution that comes our way, daily temptations, physical ailments. You just had surgery. But that's why the crown of life is knowing Jesus better. And by doing that, you become more mature, in essence, becoming Jesus in the world. Then I'll put 1 John 4, 13 through 18 and Ephesians 2, 21 and 22.

And then I finished that statement with, he poured out his spirit, allowing us to become new creations. And all that is left is a new body. 1 John 3, 1 and 2. And so he got the response, was as excited as I've ever seen. But I thought it was a good point because we tend to think in our culture, oh, everything is something we're going to get later. We get to go to heaven or whatever.

Does that mean I'm going to get eternal life? If you have God's spirit, you have eternal life now. I mean, the only bump in the road is your physical death. But like we said, that's the last piece to the puzzle when you become like Jesus. But you become like Jesus in this world because of his spirit. So that is what the crown of life. We're members of the kingdom. The crown of life is now.

And later. In the context of that James 1, you're right, was going through something difficult to then learn something better, either about God or yourself. And so I've said this before. We talked about this when Lisa first came in today because we were talking about this with Dad and he's

He's been taking care of mom, who's doing great. She finally was on the podcast. And I've seen the same thing with Lisa. The trial we went through, not only did it make her stronger and more complete in her faith, but it helped me because I was able to serve her in a way I'd never done before. Dad, you've done the same thing. It stretches your capacity to

to understand what eternity really is all about. And so I was going to read this, Jase. I thought about this because I just preached Hebrews 10 recently. Hebrews 10, 25, it's the same kind of thing as what you told him. Let us not give up meeting together, some are in the habit of doing, and let us encourage each other all the more as you see the day approaching. And they capitalized it in the NIV.

Again, making you think the day, meaning judgment day. And it does. It certainly means that. You want to be encouraged. But when I lift up the Greek on the word, it's any day. It's every day. It's every day. Jesus is at the right hand. I actually did a sermon on that. Today is the day. Today is the day. And Hebrews 4. I brought that up because I do think when you look at James from that perspective and Ephesians, it seems so eerily similar.

And you got two different writers here, but they both have the Holy Spirit. And I did think that was a good way to view what we have in Jesus leading into this prayer in Ephesians 3, 14 through 21, because the implications are obviously true. We're going to live forever. But so much of his prayer was about what he's doing now. And man, if you want to have the crown of life,

When you come to Jesus and receive God's spirit and all these things that life produces that you got to deal with, like we said, persecution, there's evil powers and physical ailments and

I mean, it'll really inspire you. I mean, this is one of the greatest prayers in the Bible. There's no doubt. I want to make one more comment. You brought up a good point talking about James and Paul. And what we think, most scholars agree that this James that wrote it was the half-brother of Jesus, who was also the leader of the Jerusalem church. You read about in Acts 15. It's probably that James that wrote James. And if that's true, we don't know for sure because this is thousands of years of history. It could have been another James.

But I tend to think it is. And the reason Jace just brought up, you remember whenever the Gentiles were first...

allowed in when Peter went to Cornelius and then Paul was sent out. You remember they all came together for a get together because now it's done got, it's done got real. We got Gentiles that are in. And so the church was struggling with how to handle that. And James, who was one of the early leaders of the church, he had to figure that out. So they basically said, look, he listened to Paul and Barnabas tell about their stories about what they had seen. He heard Peter tell about what happened to Cornelius. And then they were like, God is for this. We can't be against it.

Well, that was a big moment for the early church. So I thought about that. That's why the similarities are there. They walked through that deal together about...

about Jew and Gentile coming together. And we look at it now 2,000 years later and we're like, oh yeah, well that was easy to do. It was not easy to do. Yeah, right. Because there have been thousands of years of history. It's the same thing now. We found a division, a wall of hostility. And we think when you're living through the moment of trying to tear down that wall, it's not easy because people have to give to be able to do that. So I think that shared experience is probably one of the reasons why you see that. So I was glad you brought that up.

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All right, so now our Ephesians, Jay set us up perfectly for this prayer, and it is a doozy. I'm going to read it because we don't have a lot of time left on the podcast, but we'll dive into what we can get into today.

And remember, this is an interruption, as we said before, because he starts out in verse one. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of Gentiles. Then he does that little deep dive into his role and kind of restates really the first couple of chapters. Now he's going to pick the prayer back up for this reason. Paul, I kneel before the father.

I love that idea about positioning, you know, being prostrate for God, laying yourself out, you know, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives his name. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. That's a mouthful. And then he gives us a little doxology at the end of it. Now to him, God, Christ.

who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Yeah. Which, just a couple of points to tie in with the crown of life thing. When he said it's according to his power that is at work within us. So just...

Think about that, because he had said, I pray that out of his verse 16, out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being. So when you think of eternal life, I think we should think now and forever. Right. He's working.

Yeah. No, that's exactly right. And good. Yeah. So I did a little bit of look back to see this idea of, he says, I kneel before the Father. And I thought about different positions of prayer. And there's several in the Bible. A bowed knee. There's one of 1 Kings 8. There's several where it says they prostrate themselves. In other words, it was just flat on your face. Usually those were situations where there was a divine show up.

you know, some, something from the other side of the supernatural. I've been there. Yeah. You've been there. You laid out in that backyard and look, you say something amazing. You said, if I could dig a hole and go deeper, I would. Yeah. Cause that's how low I felt. Right. But there's something about that idea about prostrating yourself before God. Yeah. And usually it's in moments of desperation, right? I mean, that's what it was for you. Yeah. And in that time you cry out to God and he responds. Tell me about what you said. Cause what you actually said to God, cause it's pretty powerful. Well,

From the way that my life, I had been living my life, I just say, God, I don't even know if I have a relationship with you. But more than that, I don't even know if I believe in you, that you're some being that I've never seen. You're up in heaven that I've never been to. Usually you believe in things that you can feel or touch and hold. And so I said, I don't even know if I believe that. But if you're there...

And if you're listening to me, which I don't feel like you are because of the life I'm living, would you please come and rescue me? Because I have nothing and I need to be rescued.

And that's exactly what he did at that very moment. I felt it, you know, and I felt him rescue me. That's right. That's right. You know, what's interesting, babe, is you had just for the first time in your life since you were a young girl had been totally honest with another person. In this case, it was me with where your life was.

So for the first time, all that honesty. And so then you had the same honesty with God by saying, you know what? Right now, I'm not even sure you're there. Yeah. But if you are, I sure could use some help. Yeah. And so it's moments like that. And you see that in Daniel, Revelation, this idea of being laid out before God. Another one in 1 Timothy 2.8 is to stand with uplifted hands, which is another position of offering to God. Another weird one is in 2 Samuel 12, lying in bed.

And there were two or three of those in the Old Testament. And I thought about that. I pray a lot when I'm in bed. I wake up in the middle of the night. A lot of times I had a bad dream, not sure. And I spend a lot of time praying to the Almighty. But that's a prone position of intimacy. So I thought about that. And then I thought about the one that's not in the Bible that we do now as kind of our tradition, and that's to bow your head.

which is, you don't find that in scripture anywhere, but that's something, again, that's a position of saying we're, you know, humble. We're before you. So I don't know. It was just an interesting thing. I thought about when he said he kneeled before the father, because the idea is when I hit my knees, that means I'm submitting to you. And sometimes lying in bed is, you know, if you're,

If you're sick and you're not able to get up. Yeah, a lot of times. You're just lying there praying for God to heal your body. Well, it's a conversation. Look, I'm sure people...

had passed me before on the road and they thought he must be on the phone but i mean i pray going down the vehicle but i just do it audibly obviously i can't bow my head or close my eyes or that prayer may end in death maybe the last prayer you remember but i do have conversations and uh i think part of it there was a guy the other day that was talking about a guy he knew that was converted it was it was a pretty funny story

But he saw a guy before daylight pulled over on the side of the road. And, you know, he was just thinking, what's up with this? Because he saw a light on. And because it was in their neighborhood, it wasn't like it was a remote area. And he recognized the car and he thought, well, what's he doing? Well, it was his neighbor, but he was reading his Bible. And he's like, what are you doing?

He's like, well, I knew if I got home, I'd get preoccupied. And I just thought, no, I haven't done this today. And he's like, I mean, well, why is that such a big deal? But the guy who was reading the Bible, his response was, because God is very fond of me and I want to read about it.

But the guy who was converted, that statement just got all over him because I guess he had an idea of God, kind of like some of your prayer that he didn't think he was there. But he just thought, here's a guy pulled over on the side of the road reading the Bible and his answer was, God's really fond of me. And that one statement led him to Christ. He's like, I got to go figure this out. But it just made me think, you know, thinking of stories like that.

When God is real, these conversations should be coming up all day. I mean, he had said in chapter 2, verse 18, for through Christ we both have access to the Father by one spirit. Well, when you think about having access to God,

That should be something that we're overusing or almost annoying than thinking, oh, I need to pray because it's dinner time. I'm not sure what happened there, but it's almost like ritualistic instead of conversational. Right. But I'm much more conversational. Yeah. And that's what I said. People ask me about prayer. I said, well, I start the day praying.

with prayer, and then there's prayer that goes on throughout the day, and then I end the day with prayer. I mean, that's a conversation. But I do the same thing with my wife. I mean, typically, pretty much after we're both awake, we're going to be in conversation, and usually we're the last people we talk to each day. And that's the closest thing we have on earth to our relationship with God. It wouldn't feel right if we didn't communicate. And even when we're apart, we're texting, we're calling each other and all that. Well, I mean...

If you have a relationship with someone, usually you talk to that person either by phone or text. So how can you have a relationship with Christ if you're never talking to him or never reading his word or sharing his word with somebody else? So how do you actually have that relationship? Which is where I was all those years ago is that I thought I was there.

Because I went to church every Sunday. I'm sitting at your feet. You're teaching classes. You're preaching. I'm teaching the Bible. And Phil, too. And so I'm thinking that, yeah, I'm there. But I had no relationship. Because my relationship was with you.

And I was listening to you. I had you on the throne instead of Jesus. Exactly. When that changed, our lives changed. Yeah, which is kind of the same thing we talked about with Paul having this moment where he finally recognized who Jesus was. He was called out, you know, and all of a sudden it changed him forever, which is powerful.

Wow, man, there's so much more that we have to talk about. One thing I want to say at the end of the thing about prayer is just like in a relationship that evolves, you remember when you first were dating Missy or Lisa and I were first dating, you could spend hours on the phone. We spoke on the phone sometimes till daylight. Exactly. But you're building a relationship. And so when you look now for all of us, we're 40 years later. You guys are almost that much older.

You don't have to talk all night on the phone anymore, but the conversations still matter. It's usually just a little bit shorter, but you've built that up. So I think it's the same thing with prayer to God as well. Way more to get into. This is, Jase is right. To me, it's my favorite prayer in the Bible. It's so powerful and there's so much good stuff. So we'll pick it up next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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