Jase Offers Newlyweds One Brutally Honest Marriage Warning | 1335

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to unashamed. We, uh, we've been talking on the interim. We, we, when, uh, you never know where we're going to jump in. That's the funny thing about this podcast is we always know where we think we're going to wind up, but we never know exactly how we're going to get there. So it's, it's interesting that, that we had a half of our podcast. Thankfully, especially about you, if I thankfully Zach has, has those conspiracy, uh, tendencies, even though I don't, well, you also are in a, you know, you're on a river called denial. But, uh, it did. Well, cause I was trying to keep it simple and I'm like, you're talking about NASA. We are NASA. Lifted up. It's the Hebrew word for lift it up. God has lifted us up. That would be a great conversation starter. The next time you're, you meet somebody who's into space and Star Trek, you're like, Hey buddy, God has made us NASA. Same thing with the aliens. You're like, are there aliens? We are aliens and strangers in this. We are the aliens. We are aliens in this world, but, but the, there's no, but in that sentence, I don't, in that, I'm just saying what we were talking about was their life forms out there that we, that we have, we don't know about yet that have been interacting with, with our planet. Um, and one of them, because it's, it's fascinating. I mean, Drayer quotes, uh, Heiser, Michael Heiser, who we, we like and we've read his work, you know, but I mean, it is interesting and, and it is possible that there is a lot more to the world than we realize. And, and this could be part of the cosmic battle, the spiritual battle that we're all in. I think it's, I mean, I think we, we've lost enchantment, you know, in 2026. So even though I'm kind of like, I'm skeptical about it, but at the same time I'm like, I'm open. I'm open to, well, we just, well, we just spent an hour trying to convince you differently. This just shows you without repentance. No, I was already in, I know how I was already in, Jay. So I'm not, you're not convincing me. I'm on the fence. Yeah. I was trying to get you to repent over there. I thought we had just done. I was like, well, we, we took care of that. Nope. Nope. An hour later, he's back right where we started. I was a believer. I was a, I was a believer. Are you believing Bigfoot too, Al? I'm not sure about Bigfoot. Uh, that's just Burley out there dressed as a, what about the Loch Ness monster? Yeah, I don't know about, I'm not much on the earthly stuff. All these things that you're coming up with, or in the Bible, what's that? Well, you had the, what was the thing we learned in school? Well, in Job and the, yeah, the Leviathan and the, yeah, there's another name too. Leviathan and, uh, what was the other kind of beast? Yeah. I can't not think of that. I've had a brain cramp. It was, uh, what was it called? Yeah, the Leviathan was, which was kind of the, the reptile Loch Ness monster, but behemoth. Behemoth. Thank you very much. Thank you, Maddy. Maddy over here, just behemoth. Yeah. So Maddy, Maddy did go to Harding University, and then the same place I went, great education. And where did Bigfoot come from? You had giants in Genesis six, which, you know, Goliath was from that genealogy. Yeah, he had big, he, that was Bigfoot. So guess what? A rock took him out. So why are you worried about that thing? The power of God in the name with a rock and old Bigfoot went head, head removed. So that's not. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it. I'm curious about it. Not Bigfoot. I don't, I'm curious about the aliens, the UFOs. I am very curious. Well, we had the, uh, we had the blurry creature guys on and they're, they're into this whole discussion. Oh, they're full bore. Yeah, they do a good job. And they had Dr. Heizer on their podcast, correct? Is that, is that not true? I don't know if they did or not. I mean, he's passed away a few years ago, but I mean, he may have had a better experience. Well, they definitely, they definitely, uh, talked about his work for sure. Yeah. But, uh, look, it's different in talking about other creatures from other planets and talking about celestial beings surrounded and involved in this planet. That, that's my point. Well, they could be the same thing. My point is if we've, if there are other entities out there that we don't know about, I would probably say that they're, it's, it's something, it's not alien life forms from other planets. It's more beings that, that have been here for a while that. Yeah. Celestial beings. Well, that's obvious. There's an extra to the rest of you. I mean, there's a whole fleet of verses, well, which I know you know that, you know, our struggle, which is, which is kind of, that's my, my whole point. So I wanted to, since Maddie's name was in boat, I wanted to come at this thing because we've been talking about the name and Jace pivoted beautifully to a third John seven, which is kind of what launched us into this whole discussion about the name. And even the, even the stuff we were talking about in the last podcast got us back there again. But I was, I was, when I came on this morning, I came in, tuned in a little bit early and Jace was there and he was eating his Jesus chicken biscuits. And so he and Maddie were having a conversation. So I was just listening in on the conversation. And you were talking about marriage, Jason and Maddie. When Maddie first came to us fresh out of Harding University, right out of, we saved her from a career in TV news, which might, you can thank us later for that, because this is probably way more exciting. But so we, she wasn't married, but she was engaged. I think that's right, Maddie. And then she got married fairly quickly. And so I find that we spend, especially when dad was around too, we would spend a lot of time giving young Maddie marriage advice. And so Jace, I felt like you were continuing that on this morning by talking about marriage with her. Well, I'm not a man. I don't, I don't even remember that conversation. But it was, it was conversations you were having about you and Missy, but you were doing it sort of in a teaching way. And Maddie was asking you a lot of questions about it. So I just, I found it fascinating. I said, they'll come a day because we're both kind of unoffendable. You know, when you're doing what we're doing at this rigorous of a pace, a lot of times you just say bluntly, you know, whatever you're thinking. And she made the point that she was unoffendable. I said, well, I am too. That's, that's why this is a good way to be when you're doing this much stuff. And I, but then I said, but they'll come a day in marriage where you're like, I feel like I could say anything I wanted to say, but sometimes it's just not worth it. You know, and it's usually over something small. And I was just saying, they'll come a day when you'll have that instinct. And you're like, no, it's not worth it. It's, it's so I guess that was the, and marriage, of course, and Zach, you can weigh in on this as well. So marriage, when we talk about conversation and marriage and communication, which is obviously a big key to success in marriage, sometimes communication is too way to get to information that you need to do, or you're trying to figure something out, or is this something, some big dream we want to accomplish. And so there's that kind of conversation, which is very much back and forth. And then, Jayce, you were describing a sort of conversation in marriage that you typically don't learn about until you've been married a few years. And that's a very one sided conversation where you were just there to listen primarily and to acknowledge sad hurts, you know, difficulties, struggles, and not really looking for solution, just an ear to hear, which the Bible talks about a lot. He has ears like them here, because sometimes there's that conversation that you have to have as well. And so I just, I just thought about the nuances of that. Well, I wanted to make a little, I mean, it's a very good point now, because something we didn't talk about in second, John, that I wanted to, but we just quickly went past it. But I'll bring it up because I think this is the perfect place to do that. And it's this idea of marriage, what's fascinating to me, and I'm not sure where this all got started. Maybe y'all know the history of this. I wasn't prepared to talk about this, but it's so weird. I remember thinking, okay, when my wife unbelievably said yes, which was a little bumpy during the proposal. I've shared that before when I asked her to marry me, because it was the way I asked her. I put the ring in some dirt. It was in a box. I'm still trying to defend this 36 years later. But I wanted to see, since she had such yuppie tendencies, Zach can identify, because I thought, I don't know. I don't think she realizes what she's getting into from a wilderness redneck guy that I am. I mean, I love Jesus. That was the draw for her. And so I did the proposal there. But what was fascinating to me is like when we were signing the marriage license and all that, I thought she's literally changing her name. And it was heavy. It was heavy for me. Well, last night I got in from Nashville and I'd been away for a couple of days. And when I pulled in Hazel and Buddy, which are my two guard dogs, they're vicious. They were shaking their tails, and I knew what that particular tail shake meant. Break out the rough greens. You know, our dogs love it because it makes them feel better. And most of us don't realize this, but our dogs food might be missing some of the live nutrients that they actually need to stay healthy and to stay active. Rough greens is all natural. It's made right here in the U S and you sprinkle it right on their food. Rough greens is America's number one dog supplement because it's got probiotics, enzymes, omega oils, and over 20 live vitamins and minerals that help with digestion, energy, and overall health. Thousands of people are seeing their dogs at more like themselves again. You could be one of them. Jason, I've seen it. My dogs coats are healthy. They're thriving. Meatball, who is our oldest dog in our compound. She's got some life back in her that she hadn't had for a while. And we're attributing that to rough greens. So you want to jump in and make your dogs feel better, get a free jumpstart trial bag for your dog. You just cover the shipping. Go to rough greens.com. Use the discount code unashamed. That's R U F F greens.com. Discount code unashamed. Rough greens. We make any dog food better. I guess the power of it hit me as I was researching this and studying this. I'm like, it's just a lot bigger deal than you think as far as your identity. That's why I said I really believe it's tied to your identity. And, you know, from God's perspective, his ownership of us. And that little phrase that says a people belonging to God, or there's a place in Exodus that I was reading about this where it says that they were God's treasured possession, that word possession. And so, but when I read this, you tend to think there's so many, especially under the umbrella of Christianity, confusion on what it means to be chosen. And I think the marriage context is, was God's way of kind of facilitating that idea? Because think about Ephesians 5, when he talks about the roles of marriage, which kind of what we're talking about, giving marital advice and all this, then he gets to the end of that chapter. I think it's what, verse 30, 32, somewhere in there. And he's like, this is a profound mystery. But I'm talking about Christ and the church. You know, being married, us being the bride of Christ. And when you, when you get to the book of Revelation, you see this name and the power of the name, it is all over the place. And there's a couple of rabbit holes that I want to go down back, that goes back to Exodus. And one of them is in Exodus 28, where Aaron, who as the, as the priest, representing Israel, you know, I think it's in verse like 18, 19, he had this plate on him. And there were 12 jewels sound familiar at the end of Revelation. And it says they represented the names of the tribes of Israel. And you say, what does all that mean? Well, Jesus comes fast forward, he comes later, and he becomes the ultimate high priest. And then you see this vision after all this talk about the name, remembering the little letters to the churches, he's like, I'll give you a new name. We can look them up and read them. But they're, they're fascinating. And then here are these jewels that are listed to describe the bride of Christ in Revelation, is it 21 or 22, 21. And remember when we did the podcast about the guy who was an expert in light that he's shining through the stone, look through the stones and all those stones that were selected in Revelation. When you look at them through this laser light, the colors are way more than its original, but a lot of jewels, when you shine that light on it, it's just dark. And so his whole point was, how did this writer know which stones to pick that my laser, 2000 years later, would illuminate and have all these multi, multi facets of light going through, which I thought was fascinating. But the real better news to me is this whole idea of the name that Aaron was representing as a priest to the tribes of Israel. And so then you get in that idea about being chosen. And the only point I was going to make is in John 15, when Jesus said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And people like, well, what does that mean? And I think there's been so much confusion about what that means, especially when you throw in the idea of, you know, like predestination. And because even in the conversations act, I had with your son in act 17. And this, this is going to make sense in the conversation we're in, because when you're bearing the image and you're representing the name, when I read that act 17, well, Paul, he gives an ex explanation of the unknown God. And in that explanation, he says, God gave you life, he gave you breath, he gave you everything else. He determined the times set for you, the exact places where you should live, or it says the boundaries of, from one man, he made all nations of men and the exact place and the exact time. That's what you conclude. What I found fascinating is, because I got to thinking based on his response, because he said, Oh, is that what predestination means? And I thought, where did that come from? You know, because predestination is not in there, but the word that's used there that he set that is predetermined and it's used other places. So when you look at both of those words, it kind of gives you the idea that there's two aspects to bearing the name and bearing the image. Just follow me here. I'm giving the overall view. And if you want to get into the verses, we can. So we all as humans, based on Act 17, bear the image of God. God created us. You know, think about, you knitted me together, my mother's womb, and, you know, where did life come from? Where the author of life, nothing that has been created was created, you know, without Jesus, John one, Colossians one, same kind of idea. Then you have this other aspect of however you want to depict it, entering a covenant relationship, which is what marriage is, in the name of Jesus, where you bear the name. You see? So it's like you image God just by being born, and you have that responsibility to lower it over creation. Think Genesis one and two, all the things that we were supposed to do. Take care of the creation, rule over the animals, fill the earth, all these things. Then you have this responsibility because of God's plan and purpose, which this really helped me answer that question. Because you, when you look at the word chosen, you tend to see groups of people where it's used like, all right, the nation of Israel was God's chosen people. Well, what was the purpose? What was ultimately the purpose? To bring Jesus here. To bring Jesus here. Yeah. So when you think, well, then the church is called God's chosen people over and over. What was the purpose of that? To share Jesus with people. Well, to image God. Yeah. Now, the Jews didn't do so well in imaging God as a nation, but they did produce Jesus. Awesome. Great job, which God, you know, accomplished in that. And so what I find fascinating is people try to explain that and you get into all these controversies. But what I was explaining to young bear is that concept right there. I was like, well, there was a plan and look at the purpose that God predetermined. And when, and I think the word predestined is confusing because we, our word of destiny is like some kind of mythical, mystical thing. But when you look up what it meant in their language, it was a path, a purpose, a plan, a path. That's what it was. And so God determined that. That's why the phrase in Christ means so much in that. So fast forward to us being married to Christ. You start understanding the path and the plan and the purpose, not only that God had, but that we have now. So that was my little speech on how it relates to marriage. What do you think? Well, I love it. And that's why I wanted to go there. That's why I brought it up about, you know, Maddie and getting married, because the idea is, I love what you said. We take on the name, but also when you think about a marriage is a man and a woman, God's first creation, humanity wise, that then merge their, their families into one, which is fascinating when you think about, because so Zach's mom, her name, her family heritage was the same. It was a Robertson, but her, his dad is a Dasher. And so, and so you put them together and it was Jan Robertson Dasher, but she took on Gordon's name because then they became one. Then they began to procreate and create children who they gave names that meant something to them. But this is now, this is them doing exactly what God has called them to do. And, and so it's this merging concept. And I love it when you think about it from the standpoint of, of what God does, it by allowing Jesus to come predetermined before the creation of time. As you mentioned, Jays, the, his destiny was then to become one of us, the son of man coming, Daniel seven. And so then you see that exact same merging concept that had been looked at all throughout the Old Testament. And I want to read Hebrews one. We've read this before, but it's such a beautiful place to put it here. Cause the Hebrew writer starts out his book, which is the whole idea of Hebrews is to describe that Jesus really did come here for this purpose. In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets and many times in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed air of all things and through whom he made the universe. That's the whole concierge always been there. The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. And so I love this idea again, back to the name and, and Zach, it shows that God is both transcendent and imminent at the same time in Jesus, which is this idea of merging into us and then sending a spirit later. I just, it's just such a beautiful picture and marriage is a really good illustration of that. But it is that picture that we're looking at. Jase, I just heard this from someone. I can't say who it is because they would be very embarrassed, but they were showing somebody in their house how to use a gun and they fired the gun off in their house. Unexceptible. Unexceptible. I'm telling you, it makes me realize how important it is to secure your firearms. Safe storage is a big part of that, but you shouldn't have to choose between safe storage and readiness. And so with stop box, you can have both safety when you need it and access when it matters. It takes a little practice, but it's not very difficult. And then you squeeze and push down and voila. You don't have to have batteries. It's completely mechanical with stop box. It's all might muscle memories and stop box made right in the US of A, which I love a lot. There's no tariffs, solid craftsmanship and it's support for American jobs. Plus they have a bunch of other cool products as well. I like the new stop box at UK and it's the same mechanical locking system as the stop box pro, but with way more storage for your firearms, your ammo and your gear, you know, me having the stop box at my house with young kids, it gives me a lot of peace of mind. And so for a limited time, let's just to our show, they get 10% off at stop box when you use the code UNASHAMED to check out. I head on over to stopboxusa.com and use the code UNASHAMED for 10% off your entire order. After you purchase, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support the show and tell them that we sent you that's code UNASHAMED at stopboxusa.com. Yeah, it's your, it's way more about participation than it is a one-time experience. I think that's what we're kind of getting at. Marriage is a participation in life with another person in unity, diversity in unity. It's not just a wedding. Is it a wedding? Well, yeah, there's a wedding involved, but it's, it, the marriage moves on past the wedding ceremony. And I think, again, we've mentioned this in the previous podcast. I think where this gets hairy and complicated for us is when we try to shrink down salvation to that one thing we did that one time. And so you get to a concept like predestination and what people mean by that a lot of times is like, they're just, they're just focusing on justification, but, but it is much more than that. And you see it in Romans eight, Romans eight has a perfect language for what you just said, Jayce, that, that we were predestined. Those who got foreknew he predestined to what? To be conformed into the image of the sun. And so you think about the, that's the key thing you got to get when you start talking about predestination. It is a predestination to participate into conformity. You start to smell and look, you start to image the name of Jesus. You image him. I thought of a silly illustration. I don't know. It just popped in my brain because I thought, think about a casino. It is predetermined that they're going to win. So I got a question. Why do people go there? Why do they go there? Do they not know, do they not know that it is a statistical impossibility that the humans that go in the place are going to win more than the people who own the place? It is, it is predetermined by math and stats. So my illustration is it made me, it made me think about that. And I think, well, the people, they realize some people are going to win. They want to be the special person who defies the odds and there's a sense of pride about that. They're like, yeah, but I, there's, I got it. I got it. I got a chance. But when you look at what, because you know, I mean, they put a bunch of them in West of us in a city and you know, it's just made the surrounding city just kind of a little dark and you're like, and I know there are some people winning, but when you look at the purpose of it, the purpose is the people who own that are making lots of money. And so I thought, do we, is that how we view this? The idea of predestination? Because I thought, God's casino, when you walk in, he's like, look what I did for you. I'm going to give you a job. I'm going to make you part of the ownership that what I have, I'm going to give you the inheritance. And I think that's the difference. And I think Jesus is the draw. I just, I don't know if that makes sense, but it popped into my head. And I thought, just because something's predetermined doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be used for a great purpose. It was my point, you know, because people still do it. And I've said that to many people. I'm like, the odds are stacked in your favor. I mean, against your favor, why would you do that? They're like, well, because I may win. I know a guy who walked in there and put, you know, a quarter and a slot machine and $17,000. I was like, yeah, but they, they're factoring that in. They're like, yeah, but he, he was the lucky one. And I thought God, God, God didn't work, work like that. This, it's a totally different concept. He put a plan in place that would draw people to him. And I just think that it's different. You become a part of that instead of just visiting, you happen to hit and get the win. And now you're waiting to, you know, get the end result, as you said. So, well, that's the choice of God to cheat. God does choose us. I mean, I know you mentioned that John 15 passage. I mean, he is talking to the disciples to be fair, but I do think, which is a small group of people is what I said, what was the purpose? That's a good, that's a, I'm glad you brought that up. What was the purpose? What was the purpose of choosing that small group of people that you should go and bear fruit? Exactly. And what happened after he left that, well, that small group of people? They bore some fruit. And they bore the name of Jesus, which is my point. When you don't, when you don't see the purpose or the big picture in the process, it tends to get confusing was, was where I was going with that. Well, and their job, their job was to abide. Remember the word abide we kept using and John 15, it's just over and over and over again. Their job was to abide in him. Well, think about, look, he says go bear fruit that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name, there you go. There you go. It keeps going. Look, you're, you're, you're noticing the same things I was noticing in this connection. Cause when you look up the Greek word for chosen, you know what you're going to find? I can't pronounce it, but you know what I see in it? Election, elect. That's why some places it says elect. It has all those, those letters in it. That's where I guess we get our word for elect. Well, what does that make you think? Well, that makes you think about voting and what I noticed in doing this research, you'll find this fascinating. The Hebrew word for, for voting and this is a modern day. It wasn't so much what I fixed state wasn't so much back when the Bible was written, but their modern definition of that word vote is used simultaneously with voice. And you'll see why they made that connection. I'm saying the modern day Hebrew word for vote, because they're like, will you, because you have a voice when you vote, that is your voice speaking. So I think it helped me understand this with God saying, look, I voted for you. That's why I put you here in the first place. This, I don't need anything from you. I'm giving you life. And then I think that goes to the purpose, this idea of the voice, because think about all the passages that says that. Remember when John the Baptist, how was he characterized? He said, there'll be a voice crying out in the wilderness. You see, God chose him to be a voice. Now, look, if you look that Greek word up for voice, it's over a hundred times in there. And so what I found fascinating about all this, because to me, it keeps going back to those 10 commandments about bearing the image God is God. He voted for us. He elected us for different purposes. You had Israel, they had their purpose. But even when it gets to individuals, it gets a little tricky, because that day I was studying with Bear, he asked me about Saul. And because he was asking me about different views of predestination. And I was like, well, some people believe that it's, everything's triggered by God. And some people believe that like the Holy Spirit, like, and y'all have heard this, this doctrine preached out there where in the, before the beginning of time, some people believe this, that God selected some people to be saved and some not to be. And then he gave them life. And that always kind of makes people who, someone like me, I mean, I'll just be honest, a little cringe worthy. Because to me, that sounds a lot like my casino illustration, you know, like, well, wait a minute here, is he not for everybody? And, you know, and those people teach that they're like, no, he's not, they'll just flat out say it. You ask them, did Jesus die for everybody? They'll say, no. So to me, that's missed something that within the framework of the entire Bible does it register. But my point was he brought up Saul, because I said they, you know, they believe the Holy Spirit has to trigger this idea that you were one of the select few that were chosen. And he said, what about Saul? Why did that happen? I was like, that's a great question. Because here's a guy, if he was just waiting on the trigger, why didn't God push the trigger instead of just saying, hey, Saul, there was a voice, which back to the voice, the voting and the voice, there was a voice that said, why are you persecuting me? I'm the Lord, you're persecuting me. So you know what later it says as, as a define on Paul's role, it says that he was God's chosen instrument. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because the amount of times that Jesus is defined as the chosen one, that phrase, and they usually capitalize it all over the New Testament. But look it up. It's multiple times. Remember when he was on the cross and they said, save yourself. We thought you were the chosen one. That that's a big theme in the New Testament. But when it got to Saul slash Paul, which he gave him a new name, is where I'm going with this. That word for instrument is all over the New Testament. Look, it says we're jars of clay. Same word. We're vessels. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that inflation is real. Everything costs more food, housing, everyday living, everything is skyrocketing. And the dollar does not stretch as far as it used to. So that raises a real question, which is this, the money that you've worked decades to save, the retirement that you built that you plan for, the legacy you want to leave for your family. What's that actually going to be worth in 20 years from now? That's one reason why a lot of folks are looking at ways to diversify their savings with real assets like gold and silver. And that's where our new partners, Freedom Gold USA comes in. For generations, people have looked at physical gold and silver as a way to help preserve their value, especially during times of inflation or currency changes or any kind of economic uncertainty. And so what Freedom Gold USA does is they help people understand how physical precious metals might fit into a long term retirement strategy. They're modest, simple, get more metal for your money, competitive pricing, no gimmicks, and specialists who focus on education and not pressure. So when you think about leaving something behind for your kids, your grandkids, it's important that you hold assets that hold their value over time. So we want to be wise with our savings. We want to be wise with our retirement plans because it matters. We have to start diversifying with things like gold and silver sooner rather than later. Right now, they're offering a free 2026 gold and silver guide and no obligation consultation. All you got to do is call 888-411-1845 or visit UnashamedGold.com. That's 888-411-1845 or visit UnashamedGold.com. Learn how diversification may help protect your retirement savings. That's what Saul, or who became Paul, he had that vocation, a particular office that he was elected to, which was to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. I will say this about him, but I do think you could make the case that his coming to Christ, I think you make this case very clearly in Scripture, it was very different than most people because he had an encounter with the risen Lord in a way that it was like God appeared to him in such a glorious way, which is why I think he says in 1 Corinthians 15 when he talks about himself and his new birth. Do you guys remember how he says it? And lastly, he appeared to me as one abnormally born. His new birth was different than most people because God did show up in a very powerful way. He was like, whoa, he hit the deck, kind of like John on the alpapamus. But I want to return to something you said. I have a theory on what you just said I'd like to give on why, because the bear asked me the same question. He said, why do you think God did that? I said, well, it's not unlike him choosing Abraham, Noah. Who's the one I skipped? Abraham, Noah. Moses. Moses, yeah. For a special purpose, which I agree with what Zach said. And the Noah and his family went well. And look, by the way, his first born son was named Shem. Do you know what that means? What does the name mean? Name. That's what his name means. Shem means name. This idea of the name being represented as hope for God is goes way back. But what I was going to say about Saul is I told a bear, I said, my opinion, based on what I read, when you read all of Paul's writings, you really get the idea that he was really sincerely mistaken. He was out there, we think, oh, he was murdering Christians, but he was doing it in the name of God. And he was conscious. He says he said he did it with a clean, with a clean conscience. Yeah. And I think God knows the heart ultimately. And here's this guy who cannot be any more passionate for the same God that Jesus is representing. He just didn't make the connection. And so I really believe he was born for that reason, but I also think that's why the conversation was there. And it's just an opinion. But I think he was sincerely trying to serve the living God. And he just said, hey, you're doing that the wrong way. You're representing me. And look at how it happened. He said, how did Jesus approach him? He called him by his name, his Hebrew name, Saul, Saul. And then Saul answered him, who are you? What did he ask him? What's your name? What's your name? He said, Jesus, whom you're persecuting. So back to the idea. And then he then he changes his name later. That's one of those uh, gulp moments. Yeah. Like, I can imagine what he felt, especially, especially if he did it with a good conscience, you know, to then realize, whoa, everything I thought I was doing that was righteous, I'm actually persecuting the living God. This is crazy. But I want to return back to something. Yeah. I want to return back to this. I think this is really important to understand when you talked about the definition of election. And then you kind of tied that to voting. And you're voting for what to put people in office. And so I think that we, when we try to limit the phrase predestination or election, we try to, we try to limit that to who's going to heaven one day. Like God's going to pick and choose, okay, you're going to heaven, you're not going to heaven, you're going to hell. And we limit it to that. Then I think what happens is, is because it limits our view of heaven, which is what we've talked about a lot on this podcast is that the Kingdom of Heaven is here. John 17 three eternal life is now it's not only in the future. It is participation in the life of Christ. And so I think this matters because election is about office. It is about vocation. It is totally connected to vocation. It's totally connected to what we're supposed to do and be and the kind of people we are and who we smell like and we're conforming to the image of sun Romans chapter eight, that fruitful multiplication, that be fruitful multiply that Genesis one 28 lived out, I chose you so that you would be fruitful and multiply this you would bear fruit and not just bear fruit for the sake of bearing fruit, but you would bear fruit that would abide that would last that would live. And if you read that John 15 passage at the very end of it, listen to what it says, he says, these things I command you, what's the purpose so that you will love one another as a fruit of the spirit to love is a fruit of the spirit. Well, how does it? How does it? How do we produce the fruit of the spirit? Be fruitful. I'm telling you these things. So you'll be fruitful. You can't separate being chosen by God from your vocation and the office that he's called you into. He's called you into a particular purpose. And in that purpose is to experience eternal life right now, yes, in the future, but right to know the one true God and Jesus Christ's Son whom he sent right now. So it's not to separate these things out and only think about salvation in terms of, Oh, I'm going to get to go to heaven one day. That's it's too limiting above you. It's too small. No, I agree 100%. And my theory on why I know why the confusion is about that word. But when you go back to second John and read where he read that, which is why I wanted to get into it, when he starts the verse off, he says to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth and not I only, but also all who know the truth because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever. And then he talks about this command about loving each other to your point and doing what God says. He brings up the deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ in verse seven that's coming in the flesh. Any such person is deceiving them in Christ. Watch out. And then he gets down to the end. His the last verse says the children of your chosen sister send their greetings, which I think most scholars agree that this is representative of the lady being the bride of Christ and the children are those that they're sharing Jesus with and bringing in to the fold. Would you agree with that? I think so. Yeah. So my theory is though, when you practically look at this and all churches struggle with this, you're in vicinity of the believers. And the reason it's so difficult to love each other is because we're humans. We're flawed. Bad things happen. It's hard to get along with people. And I think you have to remind yourselves, look, this was, this is God's plan. This is his purpose. We're married to Christ and we all got a lot of baggage and there's a lot of mistakes and it's easy to be an imposter, you know, at a church building or whatever. And I think they were struggling with all this. And I think this is why he's using that kind of language that you have to remind yourself is this is not a perfect system as we see it because we're all on a growth journey in Jesus. And mistakes are being constantly made and there's dissensions that come up and people get mad at each other and they, what they call them the old days, move their letter, which I never figured out what that really meant. But we didn't have a letter in churches of Christ. You just placed, we would place membership, but it was always a verbal, comfort memory. Someone said, hey, John, and Susie, they placed membership here in the Baptist church. I think there is an actual letter that you used to sign. And you're saying, Hey, so there's they give him my letter. I'm taking that letter to the church down the street. So that's why that's a bad this term. What amazes me is how the resurrection changed everything. You know, we kind of just jumped in at Saul, but I thought about other examples. One of them was in the book of Jude, which was a fascinating thing. We were talking about the angel of the Lord, a couple of podcasts to go. Jude is the half brother of Jesus. He starts out by saying, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ. So he, there he is. This is my brother, my earthly brother, but he's my Lord and brother of James. That's how we know that because James was also another brother. But then he says in verse five, though you already know this, I want to remind you that the Lord, the Lord he's talking about Jesus delivered his people out of Egypt. This is a new Exodus. I mean, that's the thing I was saying earlier about in the last podcast about Exodus. I can't remember six or five where he says, I didn't make my name known to Abraham and Jacob and Isaac, but to you, I'm telling you my name. To them, it was just I was else should I got almighty, but you, I'm telling you my name. And then nine, 16. Now, now this is why raised favor that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. We're in that new Exodus movement now. So we were talking about John 15 earlier. And I was talking about how we have to expand our view of heaven and we have to expand our view of salvation. It's not simply that we're going to heaven one day. It's that heaven's getting into us now. And I turned back to my Bible, just one page on accident. And I had this note in my Bible for in John 14. And it says it's more about getting, this is what I wrote, not the scripture. I'll read the scripture in just a second, but next to the scripture, I wrote, it's more about getting heaven into us than us getting into heaven. And then I have a reference of Hebrews 9.23 there, but, but here's the verse I was referring to in John 14.23. Listen to this. Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him. And we will come to him and make our home with him. That's that's salvation right there. They, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will make their home in us. I mean, that is salvation. To try to, like, I guess, separate salvation from God making his home in humans with some place that we're going to is to miss the point. And the reason why I put Hebrews 9.23 in there, because if you read the Hebrew writer, he's talking about the old temple, right? He says that thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands. That's old Exodus. We're in the new exodus. The old exodus was exodus 25 when God made, when he said, make the tabernacle. Christ didn't enter into, into those types, the ones made with man's hands, which are copies of the true things, but Christ entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. And he does that for what purpose to bring heaven and put heaven into us. And so Christ moves in the Holy Spirit lives in the body of the believers. Now we are now the uniting place of heaven and earth. And I think that also goes back to Acts 17, because right to what you said earlier, because Acts 17, 25, heaven itself now appears in the presence of God, which is in us now. Heaven's in us now. So Zach, the reason I brought Jude up was because remember John seven, Jude was among Jesus family who did not believe in him. Now they were like, they felt like they were his little marketing team. They didn't believe he was the son of God, but they thought John seven, five, it says he has his own book. Now he's writing a book. And he's comparing him and what he's doing in Jude's time to what happened way back in that first Exodus. So what changed, what took Jude from the boardroom, how we can make some money off of this brother to the upper room where he's there after it's all over. One thing happened, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. That's what happened. No, it's the same thing that changes us. It's a great point back when you go to Exodus, how that went down with an angel, the Lord who wasn't a typical angel of the Lord. Cause he said, my name is in him. And so what I wanted to do, it made me think out when you said that, looking at the, the context of 1 Corinthians in verse six, chapter six, verse nine, when he said, do you not know the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? And kind of to get back to my little casino analogy, it says, don't be deceived. And then it's all this mess, sexually immoral, the idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, thieves, greedy drunkards, slanders, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. I read that only in context because a couple of chapters later, he did the same thing Jude did. Paul does here when he says, I don't want you to be ignorant. This 1 Corinthians 10 about our forefathers, they were all under the cloud and they passed through the sea. They were baptized into Moses. They ate spiritual food, spiritual drink, but God was not pleased with them. But watch this one verse in verse three, when they ate that, that drink, remember the manna and the, the water that came from the rock? It said, they drank from the spiritual rock and that rock was Christ. I mean, he's going back to that Exodus and inserting Christ there. Well, what I find fascinating to get back to my casino analogy is when he gets to verse 11 of chapter 10, it says, these things happen to them as examples and we're written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. Well, I guarantee you that's Christ. So if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. But then what's this next little phrase? It's very interesting. And I've had a lot of studies with very prideful people that do not like this verse because people have a tendency to want to be either better or worse than everybody else. But the bottom line is, they want to be special. They want to be in a special group than all other humans. And he says, verse 13, no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. He breaks it down to we're all on the same page. That's why I wanted to read that 1st Corinthians 6. Even the worst of us, he says, look, you were that's where you were. But guess what? You were washed. You were sanctified. I mean, this offer is to everyone. So then it says, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out, which is what I started with saying, predestination means the literal word. There's there's a road out. And it's that's what Exodus. Did you know that's what Exodus means? A road out, a road out. That's what the word, but it's a road out. It's a road out to fruitful multiplication. And I like to tie bow on this if I can. If you look at the very beginning of Exodus, so why was the why did they delete? What was the problem? Well, they were being treated very harshly by Pharaoh. So what was his beef? Why did why was he so mad? You know why he was mad? First, read the first seven verses of the book of Exodus, because they were fruitful, and they multiplied and they filled the land. So they were doing Genesis 128. And that was why that's what got thwarted by Satan or Pharaoh in this case, working in conjunction with Satan. And God says, you're not going to stop the fruit. You're not going to stop Genesis 128 from happening. You're not going to stop it. So the egg, the road out is actually a road in two back in two Genesis 128, fruitful multiplication and filling up the earth. That's what they were doing. And that's why Pharaoh came after him. So he said, Well, what does this have to do with predestination? It has everything to do with it. Because even in Romans chapter eight, go read the whole chapter, when it talks about pre that we're predestined to be conformed into the image of the sun, just read right before that. Right before that, he talks about that the creation itself is longing or groaning. I forgot how it says it with eager expectation, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. Well, why is the creation groaning and waiting for the sons of God to be revealed? Because it's the sons of God who will cultivate the earth. That's our vocation. So the creation, in Romans eight, the way Paul writes it, creation is groaning. So we want to be cultivated. We want to be cultivated, cultivate us, cultivate. Who's going to cultivate us? Who's going to exercise their dominion? The sons of God. And that's why he ties that bow around it with the predestination comment that were predestined to be conformed to the image of the sun. Brilliant. And I want to put a, we're out of time, but I'm going to put a ribbon on that bow just for you to think about. Don't you find it fascinating that God freed them first and then gave them the law? Hmm. Ooh. That's something to ponder about. He freed them. They were in bond. He freed them. He's like, all right, now, now that I've got you free. Because it's, he gave them a vocation is my point. This is as well as the oldest sin in the book. And that's jealousy, which I don't know what I've talked about that next time. We come back on unashamed. Thanks for listening to the unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.