Ep 908 | Jase Accidentally Accepts a Modeling Gig & Phil Was Born 100 Years Too Late
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I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. I'm looking here at my monitor here in the lair and I'm seeing Zach with the new setups. Zach, you're back to your studious look. Yeah. Have you moved again in your studio? We were delayed 20 minutes waiting on you to get all your ducks in a row. Yeah, we moved over here. We've been trying to move for about two weeks, so we're

We're kind of in, but then we got some electricity problems. We got some lighting problems. But thanks to Jace, we got that situated. I just stated the obvious. We can't see. That was a dimly lit figure of you. And I thought we were going to talk about the spiritual side.

Yeah. In between death and life. I didn't know what. What happens when the light dims? That's, you know. I see. I see you've gone to the books in the background.

Is that books? Yeah. You know, I started with books in the background and I moved to the other setup and then now we're, we may change again. This is, this is a temporary setup. Yeah. So we can, so we can get electricity. I've got an event up there this fall and I'm planning on doing a podcast with you from there. Have you got room for me in the, in your little studio? Okay. Yep. I got plenty of room. You can stay at my house. I like, I like come to the Eastern layer. Sometimes we even stay in the same room that we do the podcast room.

Which is good. Yep. Like my cousins, my Eastern cousin. We had a good, so I had an event, Jace, in Ada, Oklahoma is where I was at Sunday, yesterday. And so I had a good little trip up there, stopped and visited Skinny Meat, our cousin, Kim Holly. You know, Willie calls her Skinny Meat because she's always been super skinny.

That's Tommy's daughter. She and her husband, we had a great visit. But everything kind of going on with family now are, you know, kind of finding out what's going on with everybody. And that was really good. And so I get up to Ada, Oklahoma, and I'm driving in because I spent some time with some friends in Marietta. And, you know, GPS takes you in. So I come up here and there's a big, it's kind of an old, older looking church building, but it's huge, you know. And I said, well, there it is. That's where I'm headed.

And, um, I get out and there was no sign anywhere, but they were doing some construction. So I thought, well, maybe, you know, I don't know what's happening here. So I kind of go in a side door in this building and there's a couple of classes there and I'm looking around, looking for somebody, you know, figuring there'd be a greeter or somebody to meet me because I'm, you know, I'm the speaker and I'm there probably 45 minutes before the thing starts.

And like they were waving me in the class and I'm like waving back, you know, and I keep going and I come in this room and they're having breakfast. And the people that told me they were going to have a father's day breakfast. And so they said, Hey, sit down, eat some breakfast. This lady was super nice. I said, no, it's okay. You know, I don't, I don't like to eat before I speak. I said, I'm trying to find the sanctuary. Can you guide me to that? She's, Oh yeah, you go down this hall and look and just keep going. Right. You'll run into it. So I pop out in here. I'm walking. This thing is old. So it's like old hallways and,

I pop into the sanctuary and I'm looking around. I thought, well, this don't look like a Baptist church because it had kind of the, it had kind of the, the Holy of Holy look up front. Like, you don't mess around up there. Stained glass. Yeah. Stained glass and all that. And I thought. We call that high church. Yeah. High church. There was no instruments there. There's nobody in there. There's one guy standing over there in the corner, just kind of looking. And I said, uh, I said, Hey, I said, do you know where your pastor Brad is? And,

He never said anything. He just kind of turned his head sideways, and I looked around because Carbo was in there and said, I think we're in the wrong church. You're walking the wrong way? Yeah. So I asked the guy, I said, what church is this? He said, First Methodist. Well, that was going to be something when you got up to speak.

Did they have security in the wrong house? Looking for my PowerPoints and all that. So I said, well, is the first Baptist nearby? He said, it's next door. So I went out a side door and there was a big construction site. And right around the corner from that was a huge –

another church, more modern, and it was the First Baptist. So I've never gone to the wrong church and wandered through the whole thing. So I walk in. And we're acting like you were supposed to be there. Yeah. And I was like. They thought you were a visitor. They did. And look, they were very friendly and nice. If somebody from that community is listening, they were great people. So I found this greeter. I come in. Of course, now I'm on the wrong side at the Baptist church. So I come in kind of a side door and there's a greeter there.

And I thought he would probably know who I was, but he didn't. And I said, I just did a self-guided tour over at the Methodist church. And he said, well, you made the right choice. Oh, boy. By coming there, I guess is what he meant. I said, can you tell me where...

The pastor is and where the sanctuary is. I said, I need to find out. So he took me and we got. It is disturbing that there in some places there is a church literally on every street corner. And literally these are on the opposite corners of the same. And it goes with all the books. See, I mean, it made me think of a movie idea for you, Zach. What's that? Because you have all these books and you have the Bible against the books.

Like if I do, next time I do- That could be a series, Bible versus books. Next time I have a rogue setting where I'm doing the podcast, I'm just going to have one book behind me. It's like a big one. Missy just bought a big one at a state sale. Yeah. It was like from 1920. I mean, it's as big as half his table.

But if you follow that logic out, then you would have to say, I'm not going to listen to anybody's sermon or any teaching or any, no pontificating. I'm just going to read the Bible. But no, you can't do that. I kind of like that thought. You're getting down to what? Just a thought. Oh, Phil's got a thought. Come on, Phil. And the thought is, in other words, if you go to Matthew,

He was one of the disciples. He was appointed by Jesus. He spoke of the resurrection, the great commission, the crucifixion, the death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus. Then he says, therefore, he quotes Jesus saying, Jesus came to him. All authority in heaven and on earth had been given to me, Jesus said.

This is post-resurrection. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, and surely I'll be with you to the end of the age. That's what Matthew said. Mark, who was another disciple, got his degree. He spoke of the resurrection, the crucifixion at first, the death of Jesus,

The burial of Jesus, the resurrection. I think that'll cover it, won't it? Yeah, go into all the world and preach the gospel. This is just the launching point. But I like that verse in John, when John got to the end, we quote this a lot, but the last verse of book of John, because I know you were headed there anyway, Phil, after the death, burial, and resurrection is recorded, and the little fish story.

He still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. That was the final word on it. But his last verse, John says, Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. Yeah.

That was where I was coming at. Well, I mean, I would argue, I think there's a danger, obviously, of attaching yourself to an ism or a theology that's not centered. That's right. But you can also, I mean, I've learned a lot, though, from a lot of the historical writers that have learned. No, I agree. I wasn't slamming at all. I was just being brutally honest, and we can discuss it. But I think when you read books...

You have to proceed with caution. And to me, the gauge is if it's not centered or filtered in Jesus, and I'm basing that on Hebrews 1, where the Hebrew writer said, you know, in the past, God spoke in various ways, in many ways through prophets, but now he has spoken to us through his son. That is God speaking.

Speaking in Jesus, which is why you have so many in Christ references in Ephesians 1. If you take that context out, you can come up with all kinds of stuff.

See, the leap from John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, that God had talked about the crucifixion, the death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus, the empty tomb, and they still did not understand Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Well, if you look at that, you say the leap from there to Acts, which we covered recently,

Old Peter was reinstated. You love me, Peter? You love me? You really do. I mean, so he tested him. So he got him to open the door up, you know, when he gives the famous speech.

sermon, let all Israel be assured of this. God's made this Jesus and you crucified both Lord and Christ. When they heard it, they were cut to the heart. That's what he was sent to do by Jesus. Brothers, what shall we do? I mean, we're in a bind here. We've killed the Savior of the world.

He died on a cross for us. Peter replied, repent and be baptized, all of you. You'll be forgiven and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Save yourselves in this corrupt generation. So those are the men that started marching. You've got at least 10 stories.

scriptures, you got about 10 of them where they get together and one of them stands up and said, I tell you, Jesus died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead. In other words, it's all covered in the book of Acts. By the time you get to where we are now, it still coincides with itself about what's being said and who's doing the talking. You know, you got Romans, that's Apostle Paul. You got 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

You thumb through a little bit, you got, well, you know, Galatians. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Galatians, it's spelled out for them. You're all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves. Well, that's Galatians. You get to Ephesians. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints in Ephesus,

the faithful in Christ Jesus, all of them, it starts unraveling the three-year stint that Jesus did, going around saying, what do you think? I am the one. You're going to kill me. In three days, I'll be raised to the dead. They said, you're going to do what? And that all comes forth, but it never goes away with all of what's in your New Testament of your Bible. You've got Colossians. It's all worked out there.

Word of truth. The gospel that has come to you all over the world. The gospel is producing. So it's all explained. One book after the other. And we're looking at Ephesians. But we know what they're fixing to say. Because they repeat it over and over and over. Why repeat it so much?

Hard for people to get it. Well, it's just the heart. It seems simple, but it's... It's about a person. That's right. The creator. My sermon yesterday was called The Unashamed Life. Obviously, I'm kind of taking the twist off of our podcast. And, Dad, I started, since it was Father's Day, I started with a picture of you next to a picture of Judge Jephthah Robertson, who was literally born 100 years before you were.

And then I had a caption underneath that said, was he born 100 years too late? And I went into this thing about when you live an unashamed life, it can be at any time in history. And, you know, Judge Jephthah, I don't know if you've seen this picture before, but you look a lot like him. You know, this was from Civil War eras when he was around. This is your great, I think your great-grandfather. Yep. And so I was talking about this idea that in any era,

that we're in, we can live the unashamed life because everything that's happened since Jesus has happened. And so that was my whole take on it. And so at the end of the service, you know, they had an altar call and a time people come forward, a couple of folks came forward and they got baptized.

And I had done this whole thing about Unashamed. This shirt I'm wearing today, Josh, you see it. This was the shirt they were using for their, you know, they baptize people. They have a shirt, you know, dark shirt, dark shorts, like we do at WFR. And this was the one. I looked up there and I was like, Unashamed, did y'all do that just because y'all knew I was coming, doing this thing? And they were like, no. I said, well, this must be a Holy Spirit moment that we live the Unashamed life to have for just what you were talking about out of the text, that it's timeless.

This will go on until the Lord comes back. This is the life we live. This is what we do. This is how we impact people. And so that happens in any circumstance and every single day. See, there's a little Bible verse under there. There is. Romans 1.16. And then the verse is quoted on the back and has their church. Just saying, we didn't get this idea. No, it wasn't us. Hey, let's do it.

Let's be unashamed. Of course, I jumped from that in the lesson over to Hebrews 2, where it says Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters because we're in the same family. And then also Hebrews 11 that said God is not ashamed for him to call us our God.

Because he has made for us a happy house. Oh, that's a good one. So all that goes together. The only reason we can be unashamed is because they're not ashamed of us. Exactly. I think that's what separates Christianity from all other religions. I think you're right. Is that it's not a merit-based function. Yep. It's unconditional love. He's unashamed of us, even though we've got a lot to be ashamed about. That's why he sent Jesus. And then he's like, look, I did this for you. So it's not like you're...

like a college exam where you take an entrance exam just to get in. And then if you weren't

well enough and pass your final exam you're in but i think a lot of people view christianity like that that's a good point won't work yeah that's what that's what's different you know that's why it's not a commitment to of a life but a an idea of a it's a test that i have to take it's a it's a it's a just a challenge it's just part of that thing and then i've got that down

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By popular demand, NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind flexible financing plan for a few more weeks, so head to netsuite.com slash phil. That's netsuite.com slash phil. netsuite.com slash phil. Check them out. Well, that was interesting. Yeah. Yeah, actually, Father's Day was, yeah, I forgot it was Father's Day. Well, your kids don't live here.

Well, but... But they were sending you texts and stuff. Well, I had an event and... Oh, that's right. So, and it was... You know what? It just occurred to me. That's why it was all men because it was Father's Day weekend. You were at a Father's Day event. I didn't realize it was Father's Day. Yep, yep. Sorry about that. So, I was like... Those of you at the event, Jace just figured out why he was there. So, just so you know. Yeah, I was in...

Cartersville, Rome, Georgia area, which I always find that fascinating about Rome, you know, because it's like, it's named after Rome, Italy. So you'd think you'd see people running around in the Roman guard, but no, it was just pretty much a bunch of rednecks. But yeah, we had like maybe a thousand men at this thing. It was...

And it was raucous. Good sign. And they were like via satellite going all over the world. They were having watch parties for the event. I was one of three or four speakers. You were seeing the same thing that Jesus talked about in the future. All men will rally to. Yeah, that's what it was. I shared Jesus. Then we did like a live, I would call it maybe a live podcast, a preacher podcast.

uh interviewed me yeah but uh they said they was it was going to military bases in japan and in different places all over the world so i thought it was uh i thought it was really good i mean it was did you just kind of do your what you typically do when you speak to a crowd or do you know you take you you would have thought you would have thought i did but i got up there and maybe the holy spirit just

Intervened, and it was a different message. I mean, it was focused on Jesus 100%. Yeah, me too. But just about the time I was ready to get started, my timer went red, and I thought, well, I guess that's it. All a servant of Christ Jesus. You say, for what? Called to be an apostle. Yeah.

and set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in his holy scriptures regarding his son, who as to human nature was a descendant of David and who through the spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the son of God by his resurrection from the dead. That's every time you open another book,

That's what you read. Things like that. Yeah. Things like that. Things like that. Yeah. Over and over and over and over. Well, that was my goal. I mean, my whole goal is if you get people hooked on Jesus, they fall in love with Jesus. Look at him for themselves, whether they're in their house, their workplace, on the street or in a church building.

that this is the catalyst for a person making the decision to follow Jesus and their life will change. And they'll, that was my philosophy is like, you want to be a better husband, father, all that. Well, let's, we got a problem here. Yeah. Sin and death. It's just, we're born into a world where that's going to happen. But for those who were self-seeking,

and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for God does not show favoritism. Amen.

This thing is not so hard to understand that there ought to be a use of it. That's about it. Well, then you move on to Jesus. But it makes me think, we started off talking about church buildings and all these books that are out there, which I wasn't attacking Zach. I was just making a point that

The bottom line is Jesus is salvation. Yep. This book reveals Jesus. I don't mind listening to somebody else's opinion on it. But when you, if you just had to go with something, you're like, read one of the gospels, like Phil was referencing, which is why he was. And you have to make a decision here. You're a human being. Where'd I come from? You know, what am I supposed to be doing here? How am I leaving? Kind of type questions. We could be wrong.

But I doubt it. Well, I very seriously doubt. Speaking of books. That's wrong. Speaking of books, there's one right there that says that. I'm saying you read and see what Jesus is like, which is what happened in my conversion. I read the book of John, and I thought, I really believe this. Mm-hmm.

And, you know, later on, I found that first John five passage that says, I write this to you who believe in the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. You talk about a bold statement. He's like, I'm writing this. And once you if you believe Jesus is who he is, you can know by reading this, you're going to know that you have eternal life. Yeah.

That's a bold statement. It's bold. And part of that is books that are written as well as sermons that are given or testimonies that are shared are what happens when you discover that. And so that's one of the things I did yesterday in talking about the unashamed life. I had entered in a shameful period of life. And so I told him about it.

Because I figured in a group the size I was speaking to, there's probably somebody out there that was like me. He was a double secret agent. He was right there in the midst. It looked like he had everything going all right, but he wasn't because he wasn't right with Christ. And so I told that story, Dad, and I told that story about when I came home, and it was just like the Luke 15 story. And that's what we're here for. I mean, the places that get together are getting together to introduce people to Jesus. And some are running.

and some just don't know, and maybe somebody else had an effort to get them to something like that. I'm sure people were invited guests to what you did this weekend because they're trying to get them to somebody to tell them about Jesus. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of all those who have fallen asleep.

What a statement. And since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. So as in Adam all die, so in Christ all be made alive, each in his own turn, Christ the firstfruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him. It's things like that that are worth preaching. Oh, I agree. There's two worlds. There's a world within a world, those that are in Christ. That's why you think of all those passages in John where he said,

I chose you out of the world. And then when he prayed in John 17, he's like, I'm not praying that you should take them out of the world, but he was having that concept. They need to represent the new world in this world. You think about all those verses that say, even though we live in the world, we don't belong to the world. 1 John 2, don't love the things of the world, the cravings of man, the lust of the eye, the boasting what he has and does.

And so, yeah, it's a, I mean, I do think that's preaching worthy. And it'll get on you. If it's preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how come some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? Well, you have nothing to preach. Yeah. Well, we're just going to die. Well, it's a... You believe that? I said, you must believe that. So this June marks two years since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

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to donate dial pound two 50. Say the keyword baby. That's pound two 50 keyword baby, or go to preborn.com slash unashamed. That's preborn.com slash unashamed. Well, why wouldn't you want to? That's on the table. Why wouldn't you want to? Yeah. Oh, one of my buddies, I mean, that's what I was going to go with the father's day thing. You know, when I got back home, my daughter, uh, she's here at camp, you know, she's volunteering to be a counselor or whatever. And, uh,

But she came home, which I was like, I thought you were at camp. She's like, well, I came to tell you Happy Father's Day, which was really sweet. That's sweet. Really nice. And I was getting all these reminders because some guys, they would send me like Happy Father's Day or whatever. Well, one of them was...

The military guy shared a story that drove from Florida and brought his wife and kids and his pastor that he had always rejected. They came over and baptized him a few weeks ago. I met him at the Chad Robichaux event where helping military guys with the PTSD. And so he just sent a really long letter about being thankful that he's, that basically the way he described it, he has a new post.

And, uh, and it is to protect his family, you know, from the evil one and, and share Jesus with them. And, uh, I just thought, man, what, this is the kind of father's day message. I like to see a guy who's a new Christian six months in, and he's now looking at it from how God is using him with his family. And, uh, it was, it was quite moving. And so, uh, he sent me a note as well.

Of course, then I got the Father's Day gifts, which is a little embarrassing. My wife got me underwear, which at this stage of my life, she had noticed, which I guess the fact that she had noticed is a positive, but that my underwear were getting a bit holey and ragged. And not in a set-apart way.

sanctified way. No, no. Not that kind of holy. So I was like, well, thank you, babe. You know, he's all I need. You made it on Father's Day. Okay, that's going to make everybody more comfortable, I guess. So, and then I got this box from our friends at the Honey Hole, and we brought this up before because I bought a shirt one time that Phil actually was giving me fashion advice, which is kind of hilarious. Yeah.

And they sent me a box because they're like, look, every time you wear one of these shirts, I mean, it's a hole in the wall. It used to be a 7-Eleven, but all the guys who worked there are brothers in the Lord, and it couldn't happen to a finer group of folks. One of them is on our sister podcast. So they sent me some new shirts from the Honey Hole, and they're like, keep wearing them. So then it kind of hit me. I'm like, what?

I'm actually functioning kind of like a model here.

Which is crazy. Who would have ever thought Jace would be a model? But look, I don't care where they got it. They're the best shirts I've ever worn because they're designed for outdoors people. You know, I mean, they're comfortable. They're long sleeve. You got a little hoodie if you want, but they got all kinds of stuff. So that kind of made my day. And then just through the day, you know, my other kids, Karina, who we've, you know,

See me adopted in the Lord, you know, and my boys called me and I thought,

Yeah, this is a good day. I mean, there is something special about that. But what it made me think is we're studying in Ephesians. I want to run this by you because I'm preaching tonight and I haven't got my lesson yet. So I thought I'd practice on y'all since we're in Ephesians. So you're actually pulling this lesson together as we speak. Oh, yeah. I'm not prepared, but I'm always prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks me to give the reason. First Peter 3. First Peter 3.15.

But I just thought as an overview of Ephesians, and I heard a sermon on this maybe last year, and it was the same concept. Because Phil made me think this when he read the Matthew 28 passage about all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. When you think about that statement, because I think in our culture, in our church system with a church on every corner and a book about everything,

We tend to detach heaven and earth. We're like, subtly, it's like what I said about the college exam. It's like, okay, we have the interest exam, and that's kind of our focus. Let's just get people in. Share Jesus, have the altar call, get them in, and then we'll wait. And then for the final exam, you hope you make it.

And it's like, well, what about the part in between? Because when you have just that view, which I'm not saying, look, we want to get people in, obviously. When you have that, it seems like there's a detachment of heaven and earth. And so when I read that Ephesians 1, 9, and 10 again,

while ago while we were talking. It said, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached fulfillment. And what's this next statement? To bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ.

I'm like, he's not detaching that. He's like, Christ is exalted. You have the Holy Spirit of God. We're seeing the beginning stages of this new world in that heaven and earth is being combined through an exalted Jesus and his spirit being in people on earth. Which then it makes more sense when you think about when you pray, when he said,

I pray that your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And so you take that verse. This just overview of Ephesians, which, by the way, the Holy Spirit is mentioned there in verse 13 because he gave us the promised Holy Spirit. He's exalted at the right hand of God. Look in verse 20. So there's that heaven and earth connection.

coming together. He's in heaven representing us. We're on earth representing him through his spirit. So then when you read like 2.10, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Well, most preachers, they read that and they start thinking about your behavior. He's not talking about your behavior. He's talking about functioning

as representatives of Jesus on the throne in heaven. That's what we're doing. We're making him known, and these are the works that are laid out before us. That's how the message of Jesus gets out through Spirit-filled people. So then when you read 3.10,

So you get what I'm doing here in 1.10, 2.10, 3.10. I got it. His intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Which is a huge statement. So when you're talking about heaven and earth coming together in Jesus as exalted, and now the church, it's like you're...

You went to the wrong church, Al, because we got them all in little buildings. He's not talking about that kind of church because in Ephesians 2, he talked about the Gentiles and the Jews being together under one head, Christ. So he brought everybody together in Christ. And then I love that chapter 2 and verse 21 says,

you know 20 and 21 jesus is the chief cornerstone in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the lord and in him you two are being built to become a dwelling in which god lives by his spirit is that not evidence and a sign that everything on heaven and the earth has now been joined together

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And Jason, when I saw that possum trot, I was thinking, what in the world? And it's in Texas. What an amazing story. It's inspired by a true story of the bishop and the first lady, Donna Martin, a little bitty Bennett Chapel in a town called Possum Trot. And it looked just like the same area that we grew up in. I mean, that was in the woods of East Texas. Right. And we both watched this. They gave us a sneak peek of the movie. Yeah.

Last night. And it was powerful. Oh, man. I cried a couple times. I ugly cried at the end. I'm just going to tell you. These are the stories that need to be told.

especially with the condition of kids out there. It's very applicable to any part of this. This was from back in 1998 and 2000 is when the story is set. And it was basically 22 families from this rural black church that adopted 76 kids. Another one was in 2011. And then it just shows you what happens. And it's very, very powerful. We highly encourage you to go watch it.

You can order tickets to see Sound of Hope, The Story of Possum Trot today. If you go to angel.com slash unashamed, that's angel.com slash unashamed. The Fight for Kids begins on July 4th when Sound of Hope opens in theaters. You will be glad you saw this film. You need to support this venture and you'll be glad you did. Very encouraging. Go see it. So then when you get to four, five, and six, will you see...

the life of spirit-filled people and how that happens. He starts off talking about we all have different gifts in the church, but even in verse 10 of chapter 4, it says, "...he who descended is the very one who ascended higher than the heavens."

And what's this next statement? This is 410. In order to fill the whole universe. So you're seeing this come together. And then chapter 5, I wanted to read verse 8 through 10. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Where are you light at?

On the earth because of what he's doing in heaven. Live as children of light and find out what pleases the Lord. Of course, then he goes through these, how that goes to our real life, you know, with marriage and wives and husbands, children and parents, and then the armor of God. But to me, that made me think, especially in verse, where's that at? In verse...

32, when he's talking about husband and wives, he said, this is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. I mean, we're the bride of Christ. The bride is on earth. Jesus is in heaven. So when you read that one little statement about bringing all things together in heaven and on earth,

you see these parallels in the physical life, husbands and wives, but that's a picture of us being married to Jesus. You see father and parent, I mean, a father and kids, but what is that a,

reflection of we're sons and daughters of god right and even in the classes of people the slaves and masters section well we're servants of christ right well then the armor of god we're the army of god he's the king right we're now we function differently but it's all the the armor that he provides you know and it goes through that whole all a profound mystery

But I'm talking about Christ and the church. So I'm just saying that that's an overview of Ephesians, but that one little verse gives you a picture of what we're really supposed to be doing here as spirit-filled people. I love that one in about the, was it 310? Yeah, the intent was now through the church.

The manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Like so much was linked because Jesus came here because God created us that you just think about it. All those, whatever beings are there. And we read about a few of them in the Bible, but we don't even know what, who all's there, but they have a keen interest in this little blue ball of,

in this mass universe because this was created specifically by the Almighty and the Son and the Spirit of Him who brings us life. It was created in His image. And so there's so much focus in the entire universe and the other realms on what goes on here because of who Jesus is, to your point, Jay, of how that brings it all together. I mean, it's just one blue dot.

Well, that's why 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. And it says right before that he is the wisdom and the power of God. I mean, that's where the power and the wisdom is coming from. I mean, you're like, what does that mean in everyday terms? Being in Jesus makes you really smart.

My buddy I was talking to on the way down there, he got into this debate. He's like, I mean, it wasn't my purpose to share Jesus, which it should have been, but he was talking to a doctor and the doctor made a comment about how it's fascinating that we came from a lightning strike and he kind of went through the evolution of man from a lightning strike. And my buddy was like, well, where'd the lightning come from?

And he was like, what do you mean? I mean, cause he was acting like, well, everybody believes this. Everybody knows this, you know? And he said, what's your point? And, and my buddy was like, my point is I believe there's a God and he made us, I don't believe there was some lightning from nowhere struck something. And, and he said, so we, we just got it. He said, you know, here we were, we, we got into it. And, uh,

He's like, well, why would you believe there's a God? Of course, he just immediately went to the resurrection. The resurrection is a historical occurrence that it's just hard to get around. He said, basically, we started debating, and then we both agreed that it took faith to believe in what we believed, even though it was the polar opposite. He said, what I found interesting is

uh, about him is when I brought up the resurrection, he's like, well, that can be easily explained. He's like, I mean, I'm a doctor. He said, what happened? It was when Jesus was on the cross. It's very possible that when the spear, they use the spear to make sure he was dead. It'd be easy to miss a vital organ from that distance poking the spear.

And so my buddy said, so let me get this right. You've debunked all of Christianity based on the fact that the greatest community that ever existed on this earth at killing people made a mistake. Then they took his body, put it in a tomb. And then, cause they didn't want it. He wasn't really dead. Yeah. He wasn't really dead. And then they wanted to make sure that the disciples wouldn't claim that they stole the body. Yeah.

So they put a big boulder in front of it and guard the tomb. And put their seal on it. You're like, there's no resurrection because he could have missed a vital organ on a spear. And the guy, he said, just looked dumbfounded. It was like, you know, that's a lot to put on that, especially if you're wrong. That was a, I saw a funny little skit on YouTube or something. These guys, they're all dressed up like the disciples.

And they're sitting around talking and the lead disciple is Peter. He's like, all right, guys, here's the deal. Jesus is dead. Okay. We all know that. And everybody's like, oh yeah. And then I can, well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to, we're going to go steal his body.

And then we're going to tell everyone that he is alive. And of course, all the guys said, man, great idea, great idea, great idea. And then he's like, and then we're all going to be persecuted. And they're all cheering. Yes, that sounds amazing. And then we're all going to die for this. It's going to be amazing. And this one guy's like, wait, hold on a second. Do we get anything out of this? And the whole story, it's like this parody, but it's like, you know what? And it said how atheists believe.

that, you know, the whole, how Christianity began. And when you think of it like that, that these guys went to their death, except for

You know, John was exiled to Patmos, but the verdict on all of these guys, I mean, they got nothing out of it if the earthly standpoint was what you're looking at. They didn't get rich off of it. They didn't get accolades, cultural accolades out of it. They literally all suffered horribly from

for something that they knew to be true. Not that they believed to be true, because these were eyewitnesses. So if it didn't happen, they would have known that it didn't happen. They didn't say, I think this is what happened because somebody told me this is what happened. They were eyewitnesses of it. And that is a powerful, powerful testimony to the validity that Jesus actually did come from the grave. And I've always taken a lot of comfort in that. But I was going to also mention something you said, Jace, when you read that Ephesians passage.

Phil reiterated that word mystery. I just went through my Bible as you guys were talking, and I went through the book of Ephesians, and I just made a note of all of the times that it says the word mystery. I may have missed a few because I did a quick search on the internet, but the first one was what you mentioned in Ephesians.

Ephesians 1, 9, that says, making known to us the mystery of his will. So there it is, the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for

for the fullness of time to unite all things to him, things in heaven and on earth. There's this mystery that's being unfolded is that God is uniting things. Then you skip forward a couple chapters to Ephesians 3. This is Ephesians 3, 1 through 3. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to

He says,

members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ to the gospel. So again, you see the idea of unification here, unification of what he talked about in Ephesians 1. He's now explaining it in further detail in Ephesians 3. He said that the mystery that has been hidden for all ages, that he wants to bring this to light for everyone. That's in Ephesians 3 as well. Then you skip over to the

verse that you read in Ephesians 5, this mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. And then he ends the entire passage

book or the entire letter of Ephesians at the almost the very end, right before the final reading, he says in verse 19 that his mouth boldly to open my mouth to boldly proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly.

as i ought to speak so i mean i i really think that you could almost like if you want to sum up the book of ephesians it i think you could sum it up with mystery revealed it's a mystery that is revealed and that mystery is this oneness of the church of jew and gentile slave and free male and female like like all coming in to one body together under the headship this

the supremacy and the sovereignty of Christ. I think that is the ultimate message of the entire book. Oh, I agree. And I think it culminates with another mystery is that all those people who have God's spirit, that is a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. Because Paul went the same direction in 1 Corinthians 15, 50, when he said, I declare to you,

that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, which this verse always troubled me at first because I thought, well, wait a minute. Well, how do I get in it? Right. Because I have flesh and blood. And a lot of people have misinterpreted that to say things like that. Exactly. And I didn't realize that you have the two worlds. You have that that were related to Adam in that

His sin caused a series of events by which people are born into a world where at some point they're going to sin. And at some point they're all going to die. So Jesus comes down and presents Jesus.

new world by which you have his spirit and then because then it goes on to say this nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable and he says listen I tell you a mystery we will not all sleep or die but we will all be changed in a flash in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed and

The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal, which is the problem with this flesh and blood, because that just is another way to say we're a human. We're mortal. We're in a mortal realm. It's going to be swallowed up with immortality, which is why Jesus is...

in heaven today, making the place God's presence. That is, it's not a place like we think a place, because God's bigger than places, but he's in the presence of God, which is the trailblazing moment for us to do the same thing. That's why 1 John 3 says we'll be transformed. It says what we will be is not made known

But we know that when Jesus comes, we will be like him. Right. But it also, we sell short, really, to your original point, this coming together of heaven and earth, we sell short the role God has given us. Because if all of the heavenly realms are looking on us to see the manifold wisdom of God...

and how it's relayed out in terms of relationships and eventually eternity, then that means that they're waiting too to see how it's all going to play out. And we're a part of that. So, I mean, it works both ways. I mean, it really shows you our role. People have missed the idea that heaven has come down on numerous occasions in the garden,

I mean, because God came down. Right. Even the law, you know, came down. You had the tabernacles, the temple. That's why angels were in all those situations. You saw angels present because that was that from their realm to our realm. I mean, exactly what you're talking about. And think, Jesus came here. Where did he come from?

Well, I mean, I know he came out of a woman, but he came from heaven. He's like, I'm not even from. I mean, it's a hard concept to grasp. But when we say Jesus was fully human, but Jesus was fully God. Yeah. And so he is the he's the God man. And we have a hard time understanding that. I mean, I know we all do. But I think that's in that what you're seeing in the fact that God took on flesh. That's the language of Philippians, too, by the way, is that God took on.

this nature. I don't think it would be appropriate or accurate to say that God emptied himself of his divinity because he did not. I mean, if he did, you used to tell us that, that if he did, then we're still dead in our sins. But he took on the nature of a servant, which is an incredible act of humility to take on the nature of a human. Like we're talking about the full

fullness of God. I think about that verse that you mentioned in Colossians, that in Christ, the fullness of deity is

God dwells in bodily form. I mean, you're just like, wait, what? And you start to contemplate the expanse of our universe. You start to contemplate the immense amount of power that's harnessed in one atom. And you start to imagine how big the planet is, how big the sun is, how big the solar system is, how big the universe, and on and on and on and on. And you think there's a God.

who spoke that into existence and the fullness of that God, that was mere child's play for him. And the fullness of that God with that kind of power, the Bible says, dwelt in bodily form in Jesus. I mean, that is just incredible when we start to think about that beyond just the sheer power that came down, who he is. The fact that this power condescends is incredible.

a display of love that I don't think any of us can, we'll never scratch, we can scratch the surface. We'll never get to the end of that because the height, the thing is this, the height or the depth of God's love is measured by the height of his glory, which is infinitely high. So we can't measure the distance that he came for us. We can't even measure it because it's, it's infinite. Well, that's how much he loves you. Thanks for illustrating the idea. We'll never get to the end of it.

Like this podcast. We're out of time. We're way out of time because we were talking about it just won't end because it's too great. But what Zach brought up was so good. We'll pick it up next time on the show.

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