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I'm James McComb, reporting live from home in my bathrobe and slippers.Tonight, we're talking Dunkin' Polar Peppermint Coffee.Gene's here with the latest.Uh, Gene, do you copy?
The home with Dunkin' is where you wanna be.
I am unashamed.What about you?
Welcome back to Unashamed.If you're watching, you see that dad is still not back.He's still struggling with this back, but he is having a procedure done today, Jase.
Yep.Well, they've identified the problem and... The thing probably had a couple of years ago.And it's interesting, our producer, which I guess Zach runs Roughshot over. They put me in Phil's, well, that was a joke.They put me in Phil's seat.
So they're like, every once in a while, you know, you need to represent Phil past the torch because he's been absent for a while.But we were, we were not sure.
We knew something was wrong just cause he's in a lot of pain, but he's had two back surgeries.What was that a year ago?Yeah, about a year and a half.And, uh, so he he's not doing anything strenuous.
So we, we weren't sure he was just kind of going through the process, but sure enough, it's another back break.Yep. And, uh, so I told Phil, I was like, well, for all those times you said, give me a break.It sure seems to be happening to you a lot.
Well, two, two, right.Two, that's two.
Yeah.Two, two vertebrae again, which was two last time.And the doctor said two years ago, this was likely to happen just because obviously dad's having some, as he's getting older.
Those bones are not as strong as they used to be, and so when you fortify a couple of them, then you kind of weaken everything else.
Keep him in your prayers.He had a rough time, and I told him, I said, Dad, I just went and sat down.We had a good conversation, but he wasn't feeling great.But then I said, Dad, you raised us.
to not be very compassionate, because that's the way you are.
That was a very nice way to say Phil's not compassionate.
He's not.He's never been, except.Phil felt bad for him because he's hurting, but I was like, but really, Dad, I mean, I do feel bad that you're hurting, but I just don't have this weepy-like feeling about it, because it's you.
It's our family.But in the past couple years, he's really been compassionate toward our mom, who has had multiple, problems all due to falls pretty much, but he's been really good, but he's, yeah, he's been in pain.
It's about the most pain I've seen a human being be in.
Well, and, and, and I've said this before, dad has a super high pain tolerance.My grandpa did too.Uh, we have, I guess you have, Jess, I definitely have it. And so what happens is you can go a while and then when it gets bad, it's bad.
I think I'm kind of on the stubborn, you know, cause I heard my back putting my shoe on, but, but once they gave me a shot, which they tried that with Phil, cause I was like, Phil, that worked wonders on me.
I mean, two days later, I canceled all future.I was like, it's over.I'm I'm well, well, the doctor was like, well, let's still take a look at it, you know?And I was kind of like, you know, it's these days MRIs, I don't know.
1,500 bucks, and I'm like, why have an MRI?So the generational curse lives on.It lives on.I was like, I'm perfectly fine.And if you would have seen what I did in the past three days, you would say, I think your back is fine.
But what did you do in the last three days?
Well, we went to Nashville, so we did a podcast.Well, I know about that.I was there.Yeah, you were there.Well, you were there, but you were not there.We had something happen that I've dubbed the battle on top of the hill.
Cause what happened is, you know, a tornado hit our property five months ago.Most of my neighbors have already rebuilt.The process is going on around us.
And now we're the neighbors on the top of the hill that everybody's saying, why aren't they doing anything?Cause it, it just looks like. It looks like right now a bomb went off because they've cleaned up three quarters of the trees.
But just to say why we haven't done anything is because we had 30 acres of virgin timber that all trees hit the ground, twisted, combined with everyone else's fences.And so it was just a mess.
And so the insurance company, they were like, we're not doing anything and don't do anything until you clean that up.Then we'll assess the situation.Well, we're five months into it and it's still not been completed.
And so in my house, they put mini tarps on the roof through this, and actually my son Reed had to go because all our ceilings fell in on the part that was livable.
And so Missy's like, she doesn't like critters already, we all know this, I've told multiple stories.
And so I felt like I needed to go, we were going to promote the greatest Christmas pageant ever, which I'm still promoting, so go see that, it's wonderful.
And we never talked about that, Zach, but I think if you could convince Hollywood to go along with a Christmas movie, and then there's a five minute section where you're basically having an experience with Jesus.
and get Hollywood to sign off on that, I think that's just God ordained.And so that's why we felt compelled to do that.So I get up there and the conditions have worsened, because you got to realize there's holes in my roof.
And even though my son put a semi-temporary ceiling situation, When we walked in, I would say there were hundreds of stink bugs.It's a stink bug plague plague.
And, uh, of course my son lives there, which didn't sit right with his mother, my wife, who can live with a hundred stink bug.
And he was, uh, I think, let me interject for a second.That's interesting that you you're saying this because I stayed at a place. in Nashville, actually Franklin, nice place, and they had the stink bugs in the place I stayed at.
Yeah, it's a plague.It's the year of the stink bug, it happened a few years ago.So, and look, if you had to be invaded by an insect... I would say that's more preferable.They don't bite you, they move slow.
And they really only smell bad if you grab them.
Well, if you kill, you know, a few thousand... that are on the floor, when I walked in, the smell.Did it smell like a stink bug?I looked and thought, well, I think I've figured out why it stinks in here.So Cole is living in the stink bug?
And he's killing them, but to my wife's point, he's not cleaning them up.I mean, there were literally hundreds. And I looked at Cole and said, look like there's been a battle going on there.
And so, cause you gotta remember, I have a tarp for a roof and most of the seat, and half of my house is unlivable.Missy called it something, I can't even remember what it is, but it was the don't enter.Condemned.
Yeah, it's the condemned section of my house. So I woke up after we went to the movie and did that, I woke up the next morning and I just looked around and I thought, I think it's time to start cleaning up.Yeah.
Even though they got to redo my driveway.Cause you know, trees fell all over my head, 13 or 15.It was in the teens trees on my house.Well, all those stumps when they fell, they literally the ones beside the driveway, it uprooted the driveway.
I just, the driveway is torn up all this debris.And what I noticed, if you keep putting tarps on a roof, in high wind conditions after five months, all those tarps turn into confetti.Yeah.There's confetti.
It looks like we had a party and there's, there's hundreds.And it was a wild party of yards of just confetti of what used to be a whole tarp is the hangup, but the hangup is the insurance company.Well, right.Yeah.
So we're, I mean, we're in the process and it. Oh, it's livable.It's like a Kato miss.I was like, this is what we did.This is just think of it like a camp.Cause she's really strong.
It was a, it was, that's why I'm introducing this because you think, well, that doesn't sound too bad.Well, what happened was the little storage shed, it's like a garage.It has a garage entrance right next to my house.
I thought, I wonder if anybody has inspected that there's a tarp on that too, but nobody's living there. When I opened that door, there was a different smell that hit me.One that just immediately caused a gag response.
And I thought, what in the world?And I was scared to turn the light on, but I did.
And I put a mask on, like not a, you know, a mask, but like I wrapped a shirt around my nose and I walked in there, turned the light on, and I could just sense the presence of a lot of unwanted things.And it just, it smelled like death.
And I thought, where's the source of this?And I looked over in the corner past this broken down lawnmower that was fully functional last year.The tires have rotted and there's a little electric vehicle that was my wife's grandparents.
And, uh, it, it, I could tell it's not going anywhere.Yeah. And I look and there's three large canisters.One of them, I would say weighs over a thousand pounds and the other two probably over 500.
And it was the feed that my two sons were going to put out for the deer.And I looked at the tops of them and they had been breached.And there was just trash and debris everywhere, which I found out later that the goats during the tornado, the goats
are smarter than you think.They bum rushed the storage shelter and hung out in there for weeks without anybody even knowing it.So just imagine it's a foot deep in goat poop that has been there for five months.We now have a breach in feed.
And I thought that smell, the main concentration is coming from those three big canisters, like way too big for a human.You had moved these with a tractor. And so, uh, you know, I just walked out and said, I can't deal with that.
So I actually went and, uh, my neighbors had wanted me to treasure hunt their, their yards after the tornado, they were thinking. with all this land being moved and all, everybody thinks that there's some buried treasure there or whatever.
So I went and did that, which was fun.But day two of it, I just said, you know what, I gotta go do this.I'm a man, forget blaming.
I thought you should have got your son to do it, because he's living with stink bugs.I mean, obviously smells.
Well, there was a breakdown, there was a healthy discussion, a heated discussion about, because look, in their mind, the fault is the tornado. And they didn't think, you don't put deer feed out, there's no wood, we don't have any woods anymore.
And so it just didn't, and no one's been in there, and it's like, why clean up if we gotta rebuild it anyway?But I just thought, we're too far gone, someone has to do something.And so like my yard, it's waist high.I mean, there's been nothing happen.
It just looks like a waste zone.
So Cole felt like a, mosquito in the proverbial nudist colony there's so much to do but you don't know where to start.
I guess maybe it's because it's election season you know every time a presidential election rolls around we get a lot of different discussions going on at the national level about things of course that matter to us every single day and one of those is life.
Right now some have called this the abortion election just because it's been talked about so much and it's such a contrast.But I think to us, I mean, we talk about life all the time and the importance of it.
I mean, the election's not gonna change our view on how we view life and the importance of it.
Well, even in this current election, you know, people who are unashamed to be followers of Jesus and who are unashamed to stand up for life and the innocent are being persecuted.I mean, it's literally being said.
I mean, we're being made fun of because we believe Jesus is Lord and that all life is sacred.
That's the hand we've been dealt his life is our life And so we join forces with organizations that are you know doing this day in and day out one of those is preborn which is the largest pro-life organization in the nation and They're protecting the greatest victims in our society and that's babies in their mother's womb Preborns network of clinics are positioned in the highest abortion areas in the nation and they've rescued
over 300,000 babies, which is fantastic.When a woman is considering abortion, Preborn is there.They use the power of ultrasound combined with God's love, which doubles a baby's chance at life.One ultrasound is just $28 and five ultrasounds are 140.
So we're asking you guys to join together to help Preborn help mothers choose life, to donate securely, Dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby.That's pound 250, keyword baby.Or you can go to preborn.com slash unashamed.
That's preborn.com slash unashamed.
So what happened was, I'll get to the point of this story.You think he's going to get to the point of this story?So I go in there.
He will eventually.He'll get there.
So I'll go in there and I just get the trash first, which was three hefty bags, slam full, started with the trash.You're in the ship.I'm in the ship.
Are we talking like 30 quarts?We talking, what are we talking?
As big leaf, but as big as 39 gallon, 39 gallon of just the trash from the goats, ripping everything.
So then I'd only eaten the deer feed and you'd have been no good to go.
Then I addressed the goat poop, got all that out with a bit, but I'm still at the back of my mind and I'm not turning my back on, on, well, I, I had most orifices closed, but I keep looking at those three huge canisters.And I thought, Hmm.
So the problem is how am I going to get them out? So I took a two- Because you got broken down vehicles around them.Oh yeah.Once I got all that out, I took, you know, I learned somewhere in sixth, seventh grade about leverage.
I took a two-by-four and I leveraged this huge lawnmower.I moved it with a two-by-four.I mean, I don't know how much this weighs, but, and I moved it over and I moved the truck.Oh, it's a little small thing for leveraging.
All I could do, that's why I said my back's in good shape, because I did all that and I feel no problems.And so then I said, well, it's time.
So when I just reached out and tried to touch it without getting as close as possible, I couldn't even move it.I was like, it's too heavy.So I got that tube before.And when I just moved it one inch with leverage, just an explosion of insects,
Spiders, like think a movie that they use digitally to try to capture.I just took off running.I was like, I'm outnumbered.I mean, moss, all kinds of wing, they just, just come bull.
Creatures, the creep, the creepies along the ground.
Just, just burrowing out of here.Just in the, the literal cement just began to move. And I thought, oh my goodness, this problem is worse.Those feed trails have become a breeding ground, because then it hit me.This whole hill has been destroyed.
All the woods, all the homes for all these places, and they've all- Ascended on your shade.Exactly.Which reminded me of multiple stories in our past where these kind of perfect storms have happened.You need to bulldoze it down.
Well, I went in there and called my right-hand man, my buddy from Kansas, because he's really good at figuring out problems, and he never got off the burn it.I was like, it's a $100,000 building.I'm not bulldozing this over.I'm just not doing it.
And so I just had to man up.And I just, you know, I started, I leveraged it out.I found a rope.I got my wife's car. I put the rope around it and I surgically pulled it out down the road.
Luckily everything's downhill once I got it out and I got it away from my driveway.I got the first one and there's when I just had to have a high speed curve.Just imagine there's this big crate behind my wife's car with a long rope.Yeah.
You talk about a redneck operation.I turned the curve at such force that that thing just slung off out into the area where they had removed all the trees and fell over.And so then I had to go look and see what was in there.
And it was tens of thousands of maggots and larva.It was just, the whole thing was alive and it was literally wet.And I thought, well, how did it get wet?It was in a canister.And I've deducted, I didn't know at the time what it calls that.
But I deducted by the time I got to canister three, that was the urine of mice.Yes.So I get canister two, do the same trick.How did you deter?
Because when I got to canister three, which is now a thousand pounds and is as big as half this room, when I leveraged that board, Hundreds of mice came toward me.
I literally just heard Matty make a sound.
Even though, look, you're not scared of a mouse, but hundreds of them coming at you.I was like, oh my goodness.
A canister full of mice urine.I mean, that's...
And so, you know what's crazy?Is I took the two before.
This story is what's crazy.
Trying to defend myself against the mice, because I thought, this is hand-to-mice combat.
Oh, they made movies about this in the 70s.
There were hundreds of mice coming at me, and I swung that two before a hundred times, and I never hit one.
I thought, these things have the agility of some kind of supernatural form.I just kept banging the concrete.
And look, none of this have I told my wife, because every time I've tried to, she's like, don't stop talking, stop talking.
She couldn't even hear the story.That was the most difficult removal, and so the problem was this thing- Hold on, just real quick.
So you're saying because they saw the mice and there was something wet in the barrel- I don't know what else the moisture could be, because it's in a sealed container under a roof, that that part of the roof was functional.
There was no water that got in there.It wasn't.It was perfectly dry. It just, it was just the urine.I mean, you get a few hundred mice and uh, what I found fascinating, what I found fascinating.So I get the biggest container down.
So, so it came out at an angle.Just think you go up into the driveway.Well, that thing was so heavy that when it came down, it wouldn't just bounce off and hit the road.So I had to go get Missy.There's no other person there.This was at work.
I'll go in there and I said, babe, do whatever you gotta do, but I need you, I'm gonna get this leveraged up and I need to get a piece of plywood under this so I can get it.And she said, I'm not able to do that.
I gave her the, oh, this is where we're at sometimes in life.I felt like a football coach.And to her credit, she turned her head.Went nude right there.
I got a shovel, leveraged it up, said, hold the shovel, look away, look away, don't look in the box. Because there were, it was beginning to bust and it was just hundreds of larvae and maggots just streaming out.
That thing had just exploded right there.Oh, it would have been terrible.
And I had the rope, so she did it, we get it.I sling it out, but it wasn't, it was so heavy.It just, I just got it down there. And then I spent the next half a day piling up all the debris around it.And I built fires and I guarantee you.
So in real time, that's probably five days ago.My son this morning said it's still burning.
It's still, I've come up with a new fuel, Zach, a new, uh, something we need to look into the combination.
But what I found fascinating was as it burned down in the biggest canister, the mouse, the mice had built a nest inside the canister at the bottom and were just eating their way out to the food. So that's why I said it was the war on the hill.
And what was funny is that last night when I felt proud, I thought, what a, what a, this is redneck ingenuity.I got it done.My son's scratching their head like how, cause they're all like, well, what could we do?What could we do?
Here's old dad without any equipment.I took a two before and battled tens of thousands of creatures, the 10 plagues on that hill. And one, and so that night we went out to eat that night, the last night with all our kids, everybody was happy.
We get home, I'm talking with Cole, and all of a sudden I hear this blood curdling scream from the bedroom, it's Missy.I mean, just like top of the lungs.
Oh well, more stink bugs. I go up there and there's a spider, big around as a half dollar, just climbing up the wall, and she's like, I'm ready to go home.
So finally it all came down to one spider, but we got out of there, you know.
But I'm saying that this is just, this is what happened.I mean, we've been talking about the hurricane and, you know, what happened was a very bad tornado, but this cleanup, it's not over, you know, this is the part of life that is a struggle.
But, uh, so that's basically what I did for three days.I've been at war.Wasn't Zach there with you in Tennessee?Why didn't you call on good old cousin Zach?It's hard to get a man to go along with that.
You could have, could have tricked me into it.I mean, plus I was, I was kind of embarrassed that, you know, my two sons, they're the ones that got the feet.I had nothing to do with that.And Missy's like, well, are you going to get on to him?
I was like, you know, at, 35 probably would have I said at 55 And now they're grown men too.I mean, I just thought you know, what are you gonna do?I said I'm trying to lead by example And my son did send me a text and he's like dad.
I gotta admit that was pretty impressive That's all you need.Well, there you go.
All the redneck knees is to say that's impressive.So that's the lesson we learned from that
I guess, Jase, it's safe to say that when we spend our money on different things, different businesses, we try to, you know, spend it where people kind of have the same mindset as us, if we can.Oh, exactly.
I mean, that's why, you know, with my dad, he's the kind of guy that's like, if I ever did get a cell phone,
At least I know where my money's going.
Yeah, because, you know, a lot of times in the cell phone world, these these major corporations are definitely left wing people.And so we do have an option for the last 10 years.
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So this is gonna be airing out a little ways, but I did want to mention just last night, because you probably know what's going on, but I'm still a huge baseball fan.
And so the Dodgers are playing the Yankees in the World Series, which I think when this airs, it will have already started.But last night is when they clinched.
And it was really interesting because they haven't played each other for the World Series in 43 years.But when I was a kid, and first started watching baseball, I was 12 years old in 1977 when the Dodgers and Yankees played the first time.
You and Willie, before you came big shots and now you don't follow baseball teams, but when y'all were young, because I was a Dodger fan, y'all were Dodger fans, do you remember that?Yes.Yeah, Kirk Gibson.
Kirk Gibson, I hit my head on the ceiling.
Yeah, exactly, on the 88 home run.So I never left it, I'm still a huge fan and watch them every year. But it was a big deal because they played each other in 77, 78, 81.
So it was like when I was a kid, it was the Dodgers and Yankees, they were going to play all the time.Well, now 43 years have gone by before they play again.So it's really interesting.I mean, I was excited about it, obviously, but now my grandkids,
or watching it.So I just thought about this, how time and passage go along.Cause now they're becoming fans because I'm into it.So they sit and watch the games with me.
So it was just one of those moments that you have, it's, you know, sports can do that where it's bigger than sports, you know, like it's, it's a family thing.So I just, you know, last night it hit me.
I was like, that's the way people are not just, you know, about any sport.When you have a love for something, that just a long time, other people get involved in that too.So that was pretty good.
Yeah.Well, I was just going to say, uh, you know, what were the spiritual applications of this?I mean, here's, here we are, we're all alive and, uh, we had this happen. But it brought back to memory multiple things that had happened.
Uh, you know, Phil and I had a similar situation when we leased a duck camp in Tinsel.This is in the earlier, this is pre even videos.Oh man, that place.And, uh, same thing happened.You had a, uh, you had a, A real wet winter.
I mean, it was just rain, rain and the water, the river started coming, everything started flooding.And so Phil had gotten an old beat up trailer and that was going to be our camp.Yeah.
But unfortunately all the mice escaping the water fled to that trailer. And, uh, you know, we stopped at a little.
Cause it was the only structure out there for miles.
For miles.And, uh, we stopped at a, cause we had got, uh, Phil had a guest who, who was there three or four days before us.And he told him where to hunt and all.Well, it about drove that guy crazy.
I mean, when, when Phil called him, he was like, you don't understand how many mice are here.And Phil was like, what are you talking about?And, uh, he's all, we'll pick up some mousetraps.And he's like, you don't understand.
We came armed with 12 mousetraps.
And a few of those sticky papers where they stick on there.
Yeah.And I remember when I walked in, like 30 just ran in every direction in the trailer.And I thought, boy, we might've, we might've should've got a few more mousetraps.
And I remember I put the first one out and then I went to put the second one out and the first one went off.I looked over, there was a little mouse laying in and I thought, good grief, what's going on here?
And that led to about the kind of story that I just said that ended in our Uncle Tommy, who's gone on to be with the Lord. because we eventually just put a bomb out in there and decon and then left.
And then when we come back, the smell was so bad.That's a bad, you don't poison them.Don't do that, because they get in the walls.That's what happened.
So look, they all ran toward the hot water heater, but we didn't know that, because you could just smell, but you didn't see any death.And we remember hearing boards breaking and all, and it was Tommy just, he was just tearing the walls up.
He was like, hey, what are you doing? And when he did, and the wall came down, there were so many dead mice in the wall that it looked like mouse insulation.They were just stacked on top of each other perfectly, like somebody had put them all there.
And then I remember Phil's famous word, because Tommy's like, what are we going to do to get these out?Phil said, we're gonna burn it.
I mean, we never went back.I mean, I think he paid like $500 for it, but it was like, did we really win?
But it made me think about this verse, because I think you had brought up in the last podcast a little place called Mark 11, the triumphal entry of Jesus, which is not what
people would have thought, here's God in human form, and he's announcing him being king riding on a donkey, and they call it the triumphal entry.It's almost like it's in air quotes, isn't it?
So it made me think about this verse in 2 Corinthians 2 14, it says, but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal entry. possession in Christ, and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.
For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.To the one we are the smell of death, to the other the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
And so it just made me think, you know, how am I, what am I presenting myself into the world?Because I spent three days of the smell of death.I mean, it was just.
terrible, your worst nightmares have come true, especially for somebody like Missy, who is squeamish about insects.And with that, Al, maybe we can transition to Colossians 1.
That's very strange.Well, one, the segue was really strange, but it's even stranger.
Zach, this is how I think.I was saying, I don't want my life
To smell like this, because all this started off with smells.State bugs.I walk in, I'm like, whoa.
No, it's just funny that I preached on this little thing called Mark 11, and guess what verse I ended with?
2 Corinthians 2 and 14.How many verses?Yes.Oh, really?How weird is that?See, I missed it.I was like, how many verses are in the Bible?You want me to guess the one?I knew where he was going.
Well, you connected that.That's so weird that you connected that.That's actually where I ended up.A lot of it was just, well, I won't get it in my sermon because I do want to say this, though, for those of you who are listening.
Well, you still had 22 minutes left in your sermon.You never got to.That is true. That is true.
And it comes right after that second Corinthians passage.But what you got to do and what you got to remember is when you have any type of mice or rat infestation, you get a five gallon bucket.That's what you do.
You can get multiple buckets, but here's the setup. And then you get like a little ramp, like a little piece of board that goes up to the, to the lane on the bucket.
You take the bucket, you put it, you fill it about, uh, about, about eight inches of water in the bucket.Then you drill two holes at the top of the bucket.You put a metal coat hanger through it.
And then you put a can, like a, like an empty Coke can and put peanut butter on it.
And what, and what they'll do is they'll climb up that they'll climb up that ramp.
and they'll jump over to the tin can to eat the peanut butter, and they fall in the water, and you'll come back, and every bucket you put out will have hundreds of mice in there.
You know what I call that?What you call it?Embarrassing.That's embarrassing.If I was nine, I would probably do that. You poison them and then you're gonna end up with what you guys did with the stench.Well, maybe I'll look in.
It'd make a great TV episode if you get the buckets.
But back to the text that you mentioned.
You talk about a ramblin' ring.
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I don't even know how to take it back in.I do.I do.I have a way to do it.
Because I said all that, told this whole long story.It came from Mark 11 to get to this 2 Corinthians 2, he leads us in triumphal procession.Because I was just saying, when you look at something,
Uh, you remember another famous story, I only had the crawfish bait in a refrigerator and filled it a sermon on it.Yeah.
Someone had unplugged it, tripped over the cord, but he said, when you walk by it, you would have thought, well, here's a shiny new refrigerator.Yeah.Freeze it. but when you opened it and saw what was inside, it was the smell of death.
And so we did a sermon on that.I mean, I thought it was fantastic.And I'm saying how we are to the world, not when you're at church, how you are to the world is giving off a smell.And Paul made that analogy in 2 Corinthians 2, and it's a triumphal,
procession that we as the kingdom of heaven on earth are conveying to the world.And so I thought, well, here we are in a little, you know, it made me think of this, how'd you word that?
There's a little place called Mark 11, well, there's a little place called Colossians 2.15.
because we're studying Colossians, that speaking of Jesus and what he did on the cross, and God's working in our participation in that in baptism, that's 2.11 and 12, he makes this statement.
Jesus, in verse 15 of chapter two, having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, well, here's our common word, triumphing over them by the cross.
And so we're in Colossians 1, 15 through 21, which I would say is at least top five paragraphs in the Bible about who Jesus is?
It is interesting that, to take the analogy you both were using, that so a person is perishing, and we're talking about spiritually, we're all dying physically, so there's a spiritual death that has happened
But they look at what should be the fragrance of life, and to them that smells like death.It's almost like a projection.It makes me think about Jesus saying the moment of the cross, to your point about the triumphal entry.
is people looked at that, who he had been teaching and leading, and some of the ones he had fed on the mountainside and all that, and they looked at that with disdain.
Remember, they were making fun of him and throwing insults, and they were like, this guy, he looks like he's gonna save the world now.You can't even come off that cross.So when they were looking at Jesus in this moment, It was with disdain.
It was death.It was execution.It was like, well, that's what happens when you claim you're something you're not.So it's that same concept.You can't see past your own failure to see a way out.And so that happened.
And of course, some of those same people in Acts 2, when Peter finally said, oh, he's back.And it's like, oh, wait, you know, and then it changed our lives.
Well, that's why I'm saying when I was standing on the top of the hill, as those fires were burning with my hands outreach, I was thinking- Like a CR poster.I won here.Yeah.This was a battle that I won, but I was thinking spiritually the whole time.
And I mean, even when I was first a Christian, I went to one party, one, and it just didn't smell right. And whether it was the alcohol, the marijuana, or the sexual activities.It's a toxic smell.And I just thought, you know what?
I'm not gonna be able to follow Jesus and come to these functions unarmed.And it was just, I was overwhelmed. with me being there, I just thought, this is not gonna be something I'm gonna be able to tiptoe through.
And so I decided to, and it took me a couple of years to kind of get lined out and have the confidence to do it.But I thought, no, we're gonna have a battle here.
I'm gonna make them feel uncomfortable, but it's gonna be more of the smell of victory and confidence in Jesus. And that's where I was going with that.
And I mean, here he is, you know, he writes, he brags on them, the Colossians for what, you know, he's like, I heard of your faith and your love that sprang from the hope.And he makes this analogy of the new creation.
It's like fruit that is growing, which is the opposite of what I was doing.I mean, what we do there, what I did with removing all the unwelcome guests and the death and all that, became fertilizer for my. rebuilding.Yeah.I'm rebuilding my house.
It's so funny that I mentioned the same, a lot of the same things you're saying in my sermon yesterday.
And the point that I was trying to make is that, cause I've heard a lot of this lately about this is the end times and everyone's always trying to predict that.Right.And it's like everything, anything, something bad happens.
Everybody's like, it's the end times.And it's almost like this mentality that the world's going to hell in a hand basket and we just got to grind it out.And heaven is somewhere out there.
But the language that you mentioned in 2 Corinthians and the fruit, by the way, that's growing in the temple, that's also growing.I mean, it's a triumphal procession, not regression.We don't regress from the world.We don't pull back.
That's what makes the kingdom so powerful, is that it is this fragrance.It's a fragrance of victory.It's a fragrance of life.And I mentioned a quote from Nancy Piercy.
In one of her books that she wrote, which I thought was so key to understanding really a lot of what we're trying to teach on this podcast, and I'm going to read it here.
She says, Christianity holds that the material world was created by God and is therefore intrinsically good.We're not buying into it's going to hell in a handbasket and we're grinding it out to the end.
The ultimate vision, she writes, of salvation, it's not to escape from the material world, but to be transformed with God restoring and renewing the material world.
Human life in all of its aspects, including our biological dimensions, is the good creation of a good God.That's what I think is why this matters.Why does it matter even what we're even talking about here?It matters because
The message of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom, has not come to Jesus. grind out your 80 years and live in misery, and then one day you get to go to heaven.The message of the gospel, the kingdom, is that heaven has actually invaded earth.
And that's what you're seeing with the triumphal entry of Mark 11, when Jesus comes in and he cleanses that temple.Something's unfolding here, and Jesus is actually accomplishing what he always wanted to accomplish in the temple.
He's destroying, he's predicting that one system is going down, their temple system, and then it's the inauguration or the coronation of a new temple structure and a new kingdom that Jesus is bringing that we get to be a part of.
But it is, I just want to emphasize, it is a triumphal procession.It is forward.It's growing.It's optimistic.It's good.And that's why we're not peddlers, as Paul says.We're not peddling the Word of God.We don't have to peddle it.
I don't have to peddle anything.I don't have to sell you on anything.We're not peddling the gospel, but we are bringing it forth with sincerity, meaning that we're just being real.And why is that powerful?Because God's powerful and He's good.
And what He offers us is good.We just got to be sincere about it.
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Zach, while you were in Mark 11, I was in a little thing we call Matthew 5, which is... Are we gonna do this, Camille?
Which, of course, is the Sermon on the Mount. And so we've been doing some discipleship sermons.And so yesterday was our One Kingdom Sunday, and we chose the passage about salt and light, which is exactly what you're saying.
It's just, it's funny how we all see this now.
You know, we kind of all had the same message going, because the idea is he lays out this great little, you know, some things we're supposed to be, blessed is this, and meek, and then he comes back and says, here's what you do.
You take that and you go out, and that's who you are, you're salt and you're light. So just like you're describing, we were hitting on the same theme yesterday, and the idea about light and darkness, and that's so that people can find their way out.
So whether it's the smells that James was talking about, or what you were talking about, or the idea that you light up and you provide salt and preserve, it's the same thing.
Yeah, I had a point why I told that long story and it was that it was, it was the cleanup.I mean, look, the difficulty happened, the cleanup ensued, but it is going to be a new creation.
I mean, we're planting trees, we're fertilizing and you know, it was just at some point you got to clean the house here and let's, let's, let's start over.But it was all a spiritual application. in my mind.
But Zach, I really like that point you made, because I didn't read that 2 Corinthians 2, when you said we don't try to peddle it, but we speak with sincerity, because I had an occurrence that happened during the battle on top of the hill.
There's a new brother who I'm, I guess I'm trying to mentor without, I baptized this guy and I'm not gonna give his name or anything because it was a difficult moment.He was asked to speak and what he does,
Cause they found out he's a, he's now a person of faith, you know?
And so he did a little 10 minute speech and he sent it to me and I dropped the ball cause I was in, I was in battle here, you know, and about three different times I went to listen to it and got a minute in it.
Somebody hollered or, you know, there's some critter or Missy, whatever. And so when we were on the way home, I listened to it, and I was like, oh no, it's been a few days.I hope he hasn't given this speech.And look, it's not that it was bad.
He's a new Christian.And there was just a lot of things, and I really have a good point here, because when he brought that up about sincerity, the problem was all of a sudden he was trying to convince people why what he did was right.
And so he just took little nuggets from politics and the world and his life experience, and he was just trying to prove that Jesus was who he said he was.Unfortunately, he's had no training.
Like most of his points, I'm not even sure they could be validated.And so I just couldn't text him back.I was like, call me when you get a chance.And he did.And I thought, well, this is gonna be an awkward conversation because I'm like,
is a good effort.You wanna be encouraging.Yeah, it's awesome that you're contemplating sharing your faith, but I was wanting to say, wide that up and let's forget that happened. It was all over the place, you know?
So I basically said it the best way I could, spirit-lit, but it was a relief to him.He's like, well, I could have told you it wasn't very good.He's like, I don't wanna do this.And that's why I'm reaching out.That's why he wanted you to look at it.
He wanted you to help me.And Missy was driving and she heard this conversation.She was like, babe, I think you did really good on that.I was like, let's, Let's just talk from here.
But then she shared another story with one of her friends who's been in the church for years.And she said, you're not gonna believe this.She said, I just had this same conversation.
She said, one of her good friends who has grown up in the church or whatever, but she's living with a guy. And so, you know, Missy's friend came to her and was like, I feel like I should say something, you know?
I mean, cause they were going out to eat or something.And Missy's like, well, maybe you should just share Jesus with her, you know?And she said, well, I've never done that.How would I go about doing that?
And it just made me think, these are two things that happened in the same week.And I thought, you know, I think a lot of people really struggle with how to do that.
Because they think, oh, we got to be a teacher, because I saw it with the new guy I was working with.And so when I, to get back to our conversation, me and him, I said, look, you know what it lacked?I said, it lacked sincerity.
And he said, well, he said, and then he gave about a three minute speech.He said, well, I just don't feel qualified because the people I've been around, they've seen me. and I've done so many bad things.
And so when he got finished, I said, that's where you start.I said, there's your speech.You have been a hypocrite, a terrible example.And he told personal stories in there.And I was like, then you realize this is about Jesus.
I said, if I asked you to introduce your wife, you wouldn't have a problem doing that.I was like, all the good stuff, what led you to drive hundreds of miles
to, you know, cause he had driven hundreds of miles and I baptized him, but we, it was after multiple Bible studies through the, you know, through texting and things.I was like, that, that, that is the story.It's God's story through your life.
Which is, which is Colossians.That's why I hear that phrase in him so much, but I think what, what makes you, what makes us more susceptible to peddling God's word is when we miss one of two things.
Either we don't understand that God is powerful enough, so we feel like we gotta somehow get in there and make sure this gets done.
So we start peddling it, or our theology or eschatology, whatever other ology you got, it doesn't lead us to the conclusion that God is good and that He has our best interest at heart.So then we got to do the whole bait and switch thing.
We can't really tell them how limiting this whole thing is until they get in, and then we can tell them all the rules and all the limitations of what a life in Christ looks like.But that's not it.True sincerity
that's born out of the Spirit of God, it's going to be born out of us receiving a revelation from Him that one, He's powerful enough to accomplish His will and that His will is good.And then like your friend, he can come into that situation.
He don't have to package anything.He can tell his story.
That's what I told him.I was like, this is thrilling.I was like, what happened to you is thrilling.You think, oh, I don't even know what to say.Just tell him what happened.
That's how you gotta do it.That's what does it.All right, we're out of time.We'll try to do better next time on Unashamed.
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