Ep 1330 | Jase Nails the Perfect Birthday Surprise for Missy & the Living Room Faith Movement

I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome back to unashamed. We were just talking about in the last podcast some local stuff we had going on. I mentioned that my grandson had his 10th birthday. And so one of the things they get to do part of compound living is that you get to go out and eat wherever you like to go eat because we usually eat together like in each other's homes. And so going out is kind of a special thing for the kids. And so my youngest too, they like the hibachi. Remember the hibachi with the you gather. I remember the first time I went, I was a youngster and I felt now this is a show. Because there's knives banging and tricks and I won't do it now. Yeah, it's gotten it was one of those things back like 20 years ago. It was like that was it. And then it's like now I'm like, yeah. But it's still. Why are you? I still find it exciting. My kids love it. I like watching somebody cook what I'm fixed. And my kids are very picky about eating, but they'll eat the veggies. It's funny just because of the setting. They'll eat things that they wouldn't eat at home, which I find fascinating because if you're associated with the guy doing all the knife tricks and the he's got the little boiling over a volcano. But now you're saying I don't I don't go to restaurants. I don't go to restaurants in general. Yeah. Although I did take Missy. There's one little place that I'll take her for a birthday. And by the way, if you want to do something, because I know men have a very difficult time figuring out what to do for their wife for like their birthday, especially the more years that go by. Because I mean, my wife at this stage, if she wants something, she goes and gets it. So then I'm expected on three or four occasions, anniversary, birthday to come up with something. Well, you're not going to run out of ideas. So you got to think outside the box, guys. I will tell you this. Just take it as your own. And don't say you heard it from me. This worked because what happened was we had little man. So if you got little kids around and we got him the day before her birthday and of course I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she's like, oh, don't give me anything. I'm fine. Which means go get something. So I thought, what could I do? So I went and got her some flowers the day before. So I had that. This is a backup. And I don't mean just the cheap. I mean, it was quite the, because she loves flowers. But had a little man there and he was playing on a piano the day before. Of course, she don't know how to play the piano. He's four years old. And I'm like, but his favorite thing on his birthday was of all the gifts that he got because we had all friends and family over there. His favorite thing was a card that played a song that played happy birthday. He carried that thing around. He slept with it. But by doing that, he learned that song. Happy birthday. So he was playing the piano and I thought, I got it. I was like, look, tomorrow is Lulu's birthday. Why don't you play happy birthday for a little practice? And so when he got on the piano, you know, most kids, they start banging. I was like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Women like soft. You got to play it soft. Now he's not playing. He's not that talented. But he would barely touch and he just, he would sing. Then he would sing. And I was like, that's it. Cause Missy wasn't there when we were practicing. So the next morning she gets up. I got her flowers there. And then I was like, come on in here. And he sat down at that piano and he's happy birthday. But he was playing real soft. And he would look, he would look happy birthday. Oh, look, she got tears in her eyes. Oh, you had her days. She came over, hug me. I was like, Oh, little boy is simulating the piano. Happy birthday. First thing in the morning. Missy's a musical person. And of course, then you got act like you've been there before. I just like, well, we love you. So glad that God brought you inside. You were like, Oh, I walked outside and I went, yeah, get you some of that. That's so good. I was, I was, I was there about last night. So we're sitting around the guy doing the show and he comes in and you know, he's doing this thing and he's flipping the egg up in the hat, which we did a couple of episodes of the show. Those were fun. Oh, that's what we were talking about. I got sidetracked. And so Willie got, remember he jumped in there and did the show. It was really funny. So, but we had mom there last night too. And it was funny because, because mom's doing great. And so she loves outings now. She loves going wherever. But she's almost like the, she's like my grandkids. She's like so excited. So my grandkids are reacting to the show and the guy, you know, it's like playing to them, but then mom is keeps jumping in with her comments too. So it was like, she's, she's just one of the kids, you know, making all the comments about the show, but she's hilarious and just doing what she's doing. And it's funny because it made me think just back to the old days, back to the old days when we would do something like this, we didn't have any money and mom and dad didn't have much more money either. But, you know, you always, when it came to the check at the end, somebody had, who had the most had to step up for the group. And now I'm in this situation, Zach, in my middle life, middle to later life, where I'm responsible for mom and the grandkids and kids. So you're the one, they look at you. Yeah, they look around the table and the guy immediately, how does this guy know? I guess, I said, I guess he's performing in front of a lot of circles because he looked at me and said, Hey, boss man, are you getting the ticket? I'm at that phase. Yeah. I'm at that phase. How does they know where the boss man is? Speaking of, Zach, speaking of, we have a real weird dynamic that I'm really nervous about. So did you know that me and Zach are going to be together this weekend? We're going to leave because our kids are graduating college same year. Yeah. Me and that we're same year. Same college. Same college. Yes. Somehow or another, they were like, well, let's all get together and do this. What are we going to do? Well, my daughter, she's like, we got a, we got a bowl of crawfish. I'm like, I don't know if they got crawfish in Tennessee there. But anyway, we got past that. And so I just assumed that I was going to have to cook it. And so Missy comes, she's like, okay, we've got everything lined out. Zach's going to cook the crawfish, but you get the crawfish and all the seasoning, like I, and everything you're going to ball them in, you know, and I was like, this, this is kind of weird here. I don't know how we got to this point, but I'm like, I got to have a, I have a, another layer to lay into that. I'm not actually going to cook the crawfish. I'm bringing Ben, my brother-in-law, he can cook the crawfish. He can cook crawfish. So he's really good at it. So this is making more sense when I'm no longer nervous. Ben's coming. No, I don't, I don't, I can cook Jays, but I don't do, I don't do a whole lot of crawfish bowls and not in our, our fear of the family, Ben does the, the boils. He does all that. So now this will make sense and won't hurt your feelings. Cause when she told me that I was like, you're getting zapped to bulk coffee. She's like, oh yeah, he said he could do it. And I was like, no, he can't. I'm like, why am I going to pay all this money for something that he's going to ruin? Well, now that I have you here, and this is, I mean, this is your, you're seeing, if you're listening, this is, we're breaking into what's called the fourth wall in production. I'm just saying Asia is about to hear a negotiation. There's no entertainment value about the next part of the conversations. I'm just, I'm just getting this out of the way because I actually needed to call you anyway. So here's the question. Are you getting crawfish? Are you also getting the sausage and all the, are you getting everything? Or what, what, what am I responsible for? I have it all. I have sausage. I have crawfish. I have corn. I have potatoes. I prefer the little golden brown ones, but they only had one bag. Oh no. Well, that's fine. I got two bags of the red cause people who don't know, don't know. Yeah. But I'll be picking out, I'll be picking out the brown ones. Uh, yeah, I have the season. I have everything. So you just made Zach's day. I took that question as an insult, but now that I know that you said, Oh, I can do it, which meant I got a guy who can't do it. I got a guy which, eerily enough, makes me feel better about the situation. You said you were nervous about something. I know why you were nervous. I was like, what? And then I'm going to, and I'm going to, and I'm going to get to Nashville. I'm, so we have a dinner tonight at the children's home that Jill serves on the board at. And so we're going to do the dinner, the, the, it's a, it's a fundraiser. And then we're going to drive as far as we can get, stay in a hotel and I get up early in the morning. I'll be in Nashville in the morning. And then what I'm going to do is I'm also going to bring shrimp. I'm going to get some shrimp. So we'll do shrimp. So he is contributing. I'm going to contribute as well. Well, does that mean you're just going to put the shrimp in the crawfish bowl? Or you're going to do them separate separate. Yeah. Well, because they need to be done. So I mean, I do both and there is a difference in the two and both amount of time and seasoning and everything. So shrimp are a little more sensitive than. So we'll give you a report on how that goes. I'm glad we cleared that up. We're also busy. We just had a meeting on the podcast. That just happened. I didn't tell you this, but then my daughter gets wind of it because she's, you know, she's a bottle rocket. And about three hours later, she calls me. She's like, dad, I heard this rumor that Zach's doing the crawfish. I think you need to do the crawfish. I was like, no, we have a plan. I'm going to stick to it. Zach has convinced your mom that he's the man. So that's what I couldn't figure out. I was like, what, when's the last time he bought some crawfish? When I say I'm the man, I mean, I'm the man who has the man. I like that. I don't mind that. You're forgiven. My wife has been out of town for 10 days and I realized yesterday I have no food. I got good news for you. I want to tell you about our partner at home chef. These guys will help you, Jason. 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So for a limited time, home chef is offering our listeners 50% off and free shipping for your first box plus free dessert for life. All you got to do is go to home chef.com slash unashamed. That's home chef.com slash unashamed for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. Home chef.com slash unashamed must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. And that can do something. That doesn't mean jambalaya. He does. I've had his gumbo is delicious. You have several losing out of dishes you cook. The boiling crawfish is a little bit. Yeah. And it's not, I've had a guy, you know, it's same thing. Well, you're gonna bring the pot. You got like, so you got everything. No, somebody else is in charge of equipment. Yeah. Cause I asked that same question and they're like, Oh no, we have all that. That's my dog said that. I'm gonna cut that. I'm what I'm gonna do. I just, I'm gonna send a text right now to Ben as we're talking. I'm gonna say bring a pot and all the stuff we need just in case somebody has a fish. I mean, that's fine. But you're so why you bring this up, which it was fresh on my mind. Cause in the last part of guess we talked about all these family gathering house, church, compound living. We would have a meal, which is this is what this will be. And what I miss most about house churches and being a part of that, cause I was for years, of course now, you know, it's a different kind of ministry. So, uh, but last night was a little bit of that experience. What I miss most is just that breakout into singing. Yeah. I mean, some of my fondest memories of my life. So when I think of the afterlife, like resurrection, cause people are like, what are we going to do? Sit around and sing? I love to sit around and sing and I can't sing, but it's just something about being together. You have a meal and you sing to the Lord. What just so happens that you're graduating children, uh, are very talented, uh, and leading worship. Yes. And, uh, so I expect that's going to be pretty fantastic. I bet we'll get into a little music tomorrow night. I bet you will. I can almost guarantee we will. And, um, what's interesting though, when you think of, man, so funny you're talking about the house church days when we were all together back in Louisiana, we, I had, um, some of our dear friends came in town this week and spoke at our church, uh, Mack and Mary came in, Mack, Mary Owens and, uh, I think it was Owen singly. Yeah. Owen. Mack. Owen. Yeah. What did I say? Owens. That's the sausage. Remember when they used to make Owen sauce? They probably still do. I didn't say that. I said it plural. Yeah, you did. I only bring that up cause Phil used to, he asked Matt one time, he said, are you in with this bunch that makes the sausage? And he said, no, I'm singular. Owen. And so dad called him Owens from that point. He always put the, that was his nickname, which he, my dad was saying. I may have, I may have slipped up there, but I didn't, I'll go back and check the tape on that. I don't think I said Owens. But now, plural together, they are Owens because Owens. The Owens. Matt, you hear the Owens, okay. Yep. Okay. You already beat. You've already lost that one. So our dear friends who I did not pronounce her name correctly, but they are really good friends of ours. I promise. I'm having a lot of problems the older I get, but my ears are working fine. Well, they sat right here on this couch in front of me and me and Jill had, literally it's probably the longest episode we've ever recorded of not yet now. It went like an hour and 15 minutes and we could have gone for two hours, but just really got to hear their story. But I was, we were talking about this in the podcast and after the podcast as well of that time period of, uh, White's Free Road history and it started with Mack coming down front and basically confessing to the whole church that he had a drug addiction. And that spurred on just a, I mean, I mean, between that and then Phil coming to Christ, you know, and then them kind of coming together in ministry. And I was thinking about how much kingdom activity came out of that friendship. How, how many baptisms have we all witnessed? How the stories, I was just, we were like running through some of these stories. I was like, if we were to start to catalog all of these like testimonies, like people wouldn't believe like there's no amount of, there's no story out there that could come in to probably our little group of friends where we would be like, wow, that's shocking. I mean, we have literally seen the craziest things happen and the wildest of stories when it comes to people coming to Christ and how much of that was centered around a meal, hot coffee together, spontaneous singing. It really had the family compounds, like all the, like kind of what Ben Sass was talking about. Like, I'm like, man, that, that really is kind of our, our history and, and I'm so thankful for it. Sometimes you forget about it, but then you'll get, you know, you'll get in those settings with people you hadn't seen in a while and maybe hadn't talked to them in a year or two years and you get in the setting and it just, it's just like, there's an intimacy that was formed back in those days. It just, it just, it continues. It was really out of, out of our relationship here and our forever family connection that these planks were built sort of by the Almighty for all of us to do what we're doing now and everybody's doing their thing, but you're right. Then every once in a while, we get back in a room together or the setting like that where you're able to have those conversations and I'm, I'm hesitant to mention this because this, this book is not in print anymore and I know you're going to be looking for it and it's going to be hard to find. So I apologize in advance, but when Dad and I were approached about doing a study Bible a few years ago, it's been about 10 years ago, and it was a great project. It's called the Duck Commander Faith and Family Bible, which is out of print. So I'm telling you right now, you're not going to be able to find this, this Bible. Sometime, I think they're going to try to get some more here, Duck Commander, but I'm not sure, but that we opened exact above the Moss is the guy that helped write our parts, me and Dad. And we began the Bible project. Of course, it's God's word. It's not our word, but we, you know, put stuff from our teachings. And so Bob is listening to old cassette tapes of Dad's lessons, my lessons, different conversations we had had. Of course, then we met for a couple of weeks and just told stories. And we opened it with something we call life changers. It was a 31 day devotional for a month before you get into reading the Bible. This was a month of stories of people that were led to Christ during these eras we're talking about. And they were some of the most, I mean, almost like unbelievable. They're believable because they're true. But many of the stories, and they were people maybe that you had led or I had led or dad had led, but we start and we picked out the ones that were the most crazy and amazing. And they're all in there is that beginning point because the whole idea was this book is about, is about changing your life. It's about falling in love with Jesus. So it's relationship oriented. So that's why we began it with 31 people who had began a relationship with Jesus, which was a great way to start. But even in Mike's story, the guy who was preaching that day was a guest speaker. And that story, I don't mean the details, it has to be 40 years ago, but it was something along the lines of teenage guy goes out, has his first little party experience, does drugs or gets drunk, whatever it was, winds up in prison. And then has a bad experience in prison. And I don't know if he got into the detail, but it was pretty graphic. Here's Max sitting there. This was the guy that had been like shot multiple times. Yeah, I think he's no longer on the plane. He's moved on, but yeah, I'd forgotten that part of the story. Well, because that story was so crazy. He got shot like five times like and survived. But anyway, so Mac had had this experience with his daughter who was like, are you coming to church? And he's like, no. She's like, well, I'm not either. Well, it moved him. She was four. Yeah. And so he's there. They have this guy who had this one night that destroyed his life because eventually he picks up some disease from a used needle or whatever they like. He held him down. His name is Richard something. I can't remember. But Richard something. Well, that's not messed up because I, you know, I know that. So he had, they put some tattoo on him in prison on his back. That was very embarrassing or whatever. I mean, it was like the worst night that you could possibly conceive. And now here he is years later, he found the Lord and then Mac sitting in the audience. And so what the point I wanted to make is so Mac goes down, I mean, is graphic in his confession that he's owned drugs and all this kind of stuff. And there was an audible gasp from the audience when they shared that. It was like, oh, and I just thought, which I've seen that happen. Were you there? I was there. Oh yeah, I was too. I look half the, more than half, of the people sitting in the pews once they made this confession went to him. It's like, everyone got up. I've never seen that. And that wasn't that wasn't that really wasn't the thing back then. They just, they just all went around him and lots of tears and what is an audible gasp. So when you were telling that story, I thought, and it all started with a gasp. So this episode is brought to you by pocket hose. It's the world's number one expandable hose. I planted a bunch of plants this year. So I was going to have to haul those, you know, water hoses around the water, everything. But now I have a new expandable pocket hose. Absolutely amazing pocket hose is a rustproof anti burst hose that's easy to manage and easy to store. I get it is turned the water on and it grows. I turn the water off. Well, it shrinks back down the pocket size. The brand new pocket is copperhead with pocket pivot is a total game changer. 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It was just for me as a young fella after hearing this horrific story because here I was, you know, never been drunk or anything like that, but it's a different temptation when you live the life that, you know, I've lived because that's always the temptation is, I wonder what it's like, you know, just to, just to know that I hear that this guy one time, one like he was doing drugs, getting dry, he goes out, friends talking about doing something, winds up in prison, gets a disease, gets a tattoo, like they forced him down and abusing him in prison. And he died early because of all of his, because of that disease he got from a needle or whatever. And I thought, well, that temptation's gone for me. I think I'll stay away. Well, then here's a guy that I know, you know, comes down and confess that it was just so shocking to me as a young man. And then seeing him grow in the faith because he checked into a, I mean, hardcore rehab, I think it was like 21 days or whatever. Yeah, it was supposed to be longer, but, but he did so well. They let him out early and let him out. And so then he comes and finds my dad because they didn't know each other real well at that time. And he's like, every time you have a bottle study, I want you to call me because I want to be a part of it. Cause he was, wasn't that far from his 10, 15 minutes. Yeah. I eventually moved right next to him. Yeah. And we became neighbors for 10 years. But what's so funny about it, you know, my dad chaired Jesus with somebody almost every day. Well, he saw him the next Sunday and he was like, did you have any studies? It feels like, yeah. He's like, well, you didn't call me. He was like, Hey, I ain't got time to stop what I'm doing. And boy, Mac bowed up on him. He's like, I need this more than I need air. I mean, they kind of had an altercation in the parking lot over something good. But they were both angry. Right. Feels like, Hey, I ain't got time to be calling people up. And so he did in the spirit of Zach, every time he would have a study, he would tell me call Owens. Yeah. Call Owens. And look, no matter what he was doing, cause this happened for a year, I would call and say, studies fixed to start, and he would be there in 12 minutes. Yeah. And he would, he would take notes the whole time. And then he'd give the notes to the people. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. So, uh, yeah, that, that was kind of how that discipleship program started. Yeah. And then, and then a catfish, pal, who's still around here, he then became Mac's guy like that. When he turned his life around, catfish was Mac's scribe on his Bible study. So it just, the idea is kind of like we talked about in the last podcast, that the idea was to pay that forward by then going and sharing with other people. Well, Jill, yeah, Jill was on the, sitting right here next to me and, um, she was telling Mac and Mary, and I'd forgotten about this. It's even funny how I've been a, you know, I've benefited from obviously in a lot of other ways too, but she was like, you know, Mary, you hosted a Bible study at six AM that I used to go to every week. And she said that with me and Zach, we first got married. I forgot that she used to do that. She said, I cannot tell you how formative that was for me. And she said, I just remember your how everything was, you walk in, it was so comfortable. There's always a hot pot of coffee that was, and she was describing this. And as Jill was describing that to Mary, I was thinking about how Jill now has built that home for us and for other people to come into. And, you know, we didn't, we didn't learn hospitality in a vacuum. I can tell you that we learned hospitality primarily from, well, my parents some, but then Kay and Phil and the Mac and Mary. And I, like, like, that, like that opening up your home in that way, creating that environment, and you don't have to have a lot of money to do it either, by the way, because I remember the days when, you know, whatever was on that table. I mean, it wasn't, but what does Phil say? The thing about the difference between rich and poor is the menu gets better. But the menu was pretty good before whatever it was. It would be a gumbo, it'd be a, you know, maybe a big crawfish that you got out of the house, off your property, catfish, opalus, a catfish, whatever it was, but the food was plentiful. And I just think about, if you remove that element of community, of food out of the equation, it, the whole story doesn't look the same. Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, thank you. Barry's first century asked, because the pictures you see in Acts two and four, early owner of that setting, where they're meeting together, they're in homes, they're sharing meals together. Yeah, they didn't meet in buildings. No, they met at the synagogue, and then they would share Jesus and a riot would break out. Yeah, exactly. Because they were in the Jewish environment. But the, the churches were, they were meeting in homes, which even in John- Maybe because of safety, as much as anything else. Well, and I just think that so many people got up and spoke. I mean, think Acts 17, when Paul got up and explained the unknown God, the famous airman, he's like, the first thing he says is the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in buildings built by hands. Get off the building. And of course, what do we do 2000 years later? Make it about a billion. Build buildings everywhere on every street corner, which is unfortunate. But the most dynamic groups I've been a part of through my church history, all had this meeting in homes or small groups or going to college campuses and meeting in dorm rooms and all these things like that. Because, you know, God lives in people. But I think it's fascinating in John to kind of relate to this. So John records the life of Jesus very brilliantly because he goes back to the Old Testament, how Jesus fulfills all that. It ends with them all gathered up on the bank there with the resurrected Jesus eating a meal fish. And then Jesus reinstates Peter and, you know, they, he leaves. So then he comes years later, he writes first, John, and you see the difference now as he's grown about us being included in this fellowship with the Godhead and what that means our focus on Jesus walking like Jesus. But then he gets to second, John. And so that's just kind of a general first, John is like a general to the, all the people around there because they had this influence of people saying, Hey, Jesus, he's, he's not God in human form. It was probably meant to go to surrounding churches, probably went to Ephesus, probably went to other places. Right. But then he writes second, John, which is to a specific house church. That's why you never hear many sermons on it because it was like, it was just a group of people and he classified it interesting enough as the lady and her children. And then you get third, John, which is to one guy at the house church. But, but really, I think the power of that is really that's what this is all about. You have the story of Jesus. You have a broader group, this global in reality that you're a part of, which in the season we're in right now is, has been more to that group. Exactly. And then kind of did this backwards. Yeah. Then there's house churches and specific house churches where you never realize, I mean, you think about what we're talking about with Phil and Mac been in the same house church for years. Well, look at the fruit of that. Yeah. I mean, you're talking about that catfish pile. I have a funny story about that. I would say for five years, every time I saw him, because he was in their little inner circle, I'd say, what you been up to? And he said, Hey, I'm just trying to survive. And next time I'd see him, he'd say, Hey, I'm just trying to survive. And Phil used to imitate him. Oh, oh, pal, he's just trying to survive. After about five years, one day, he said that to me. And I said, you need to end that right now. And he, he, he's looked at me. He said, what do you mean? I said, Jesus survived so that we will permanently survive forever. There's no trying with an abundant life. You're in survival is eternal. Quit telling me you're trying to do it. It happened. You're there. Move on to something else. You have survived and it's not going to end. I quoted about four verses about living eternally. You got the spirit. He's going to raise your body that survive. You, you, you have survived. You survived. Quit trying. Yeah. Quit trying. He's like, Hmm, I'm going to look. So what's funny about that? The next time I saw him, I said, what's been going on? He said, well, I don't know what to say. So Zach, you know, people struggle with weight for a lot of different reasons. I really never had an issue with it until I hit it into my somewhere in the mid 40s. And it just seemed like then I hit this kind of like plateau area where I couldn't burn fat. And it just kind of started building up on me. Yeah, it gets a little difficult when you get older. So your body feels stress. Your metabolism begins to slow you hold on to fat, which makes it hard to lose weight. Even if you're eating less and moving more, that's why the popular GLP one shots, they can help with your appetite, but they don't really get at the underneath problems. A PhD weight loss, they focus on restoring your metabolism. So your body works with you, not against you. And that's where the real change can happen. Here's a picture of me at the beginning of the journey, which now is a year and four months ago. Here I am today. Now I don't have a loss of the weight that I set out to lose, but I'm keeping it off. I've been able to get off the meds that I was on completely. I have no more CPAP machined at night. I'm not snoring like I was, which is a great blessing. I have much more energy to exercise and be with my grandkids. So now's the time to check it out right now. When you call and mention Al Robertson, yours truly, you'll get two free weeks and they'll pay for the cost of your food. So that's a $1,500 value right off the bat. Call 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900. Or you can go to myphdweightloss.com because the goal isn't just to lose weight once. It's to never having to start over again. Again, that's 864-644-1900 or go to myphdweightloss.com. How did Keith get the name Catfish? I don't know. The honor? That's what Dan called him. He was around. There was something that happened about a trot lining episode that he went on that was kind of a size story, but it involved catching large groups. You got to remember Catfish was, Keith was his dad. It had been an alcoholic and became a Christian and was pretty big in AA back in those days. There wasn't any CR in the stuff you see now. But he kind of became, because he liked to hunt fish, and he fished a little bit commercial on the Washtel River up here in town. So he became one of dad's early mentors. His son, Keith, went to Vietnam, got into serious drug issues, and then had all that struggle and then almost died one night, ran through a house literally in his car. His mom and dad were actually at our house playing dominoes when they got the call. So he barely survived. Out of that survival was when he eventually came to Christ, but he really didn't get it figured out until he became part of Max group and dad's. So this is back to that discipleship thing again. So Keith was actually there the day of the infamous bend over the white car when me and three of my buddies got a whipping. And you all were grown men. We were grown men. We were all teenagers, and Keith was actually there on the front porch. And I'd forgotten that too. He reminded me that he witnessed that whipping that day that unfortunately did not turn us around, but is a planet to see. We actually talked about that. Which by the way, so you wonder what Keith's doing now. This the ring I'm wearing today, this is a deer time that he now he cars. This is the most beautiful. He's a woodworker. He's amazing. And he cars the little gospel symbols into the deer times. He makes wedding rings. And so he gave me this one. And so he's been tracking my weight loss so he can keep me in wedding rings. I'll give you another interesting little thought about that. So catfish's dad was responsible for me speaking publicly for the first time. Oh, because of Western Alaska. Now he just came up to me at the church building one day and he said, because I was sharing Jesus with a lot of people, just but individuals. And he said, you need to get up and go public with the story of Jesus. And I was like, no, I like what I'm doing. I'm too shy to do that. And he said, well, you need to get past that. And I was like, no, I appreciate it. But so the next Sunday, he came up to me and he said, you ready to get up? I was like, I thought we already been through there. And he's not the kind of man that there's a little school over here that's a Christian school. He said, it's a small group. And he said, you need to you need to share Jesus. I don't think I know. And I said, why are you doing that? He said, the Lord put that on my heart. And I'm going to keep telling you till you do it. And look, for about a month, he ever when I came, I thought, oh, I got to avoid this guy. And about the fourth time I said, all right, line it up. I'll do it. Because you just were so persistent. And he is a great, great man. Well, I think about that, Jays, is that I'm surprised he did that because he had the most beautiful public prayers to me of all the people that have heard pray like that. But he never wanted to do it. Like we would have to say, please pray, like do communion or whatever. Well, he was always reluctant. Through the years we developed a relationship. Because once I did it, which it was the most nervous of every man, I was ripping pages out of my Bible because my hands were shaking. But there was a couple of those kids who came up to me later and were like, I want to give my life to Jesus. And that changed all of it for me. Because I thought, man, this is not about me. You need to get past that. And so then I felt so guilty for running for a month. I mean, I had a little Jonah. Was this the little school that was at the church? It's called Cornerstone. You know, he was at that school, Zach, the one who will be preparing the crawfish for y'all tomorrow night. Who, Ben? Ben. When Ben was a little kid, he was at that school. That's probably where the social awkwardness comes from, right? But then I felt so bad about it. I'm kidding, Ben, if you're listening. I started inviting him to go duck hunting with us. And then we just became, but I was very appreciative because I look back on it now as an older person. But I'm sure that was hard for him to do because I fought it. I was being way more blunt like now. I'm never getting up and speaking in front of people. But yeah, he really helped me. I'm glad he did that. And I think he probably did it out of his own because he was reluctant about doing things in public because we'd have to twist his arm. He taught me into it. That's funny. I think that's what I learned from those years and Mack is a prime example of it. If you're in church leadership, it's like, how can we build a program around something? So you think, well, we have a discipleship crisis. Let's build a program on discipleship. And then I'm not against the programs on there. I think they can be helpful. But it's not a formal, discipleship is not like a formal, we're going to sit down and meet once a week and I'm going to go through this material with you. It's not that way. It's not a formula. And I think everybody that I'm a disciple and who has a disciple of me, I'm around them. And it just starts to ooze. They start to absorb the Christ in you. That's what Mack did. He just showed up. He was just around the wall. He learned. It really was even thinking about this podcast whenever I had an idea for doing this, I was like, man, the big thing you got to do is it has to be like repeatable. And we record a lot of episodes. And so how do you repeat this over and over and over again? And it hit me, the conversations in that living room, those weren't like in Phil's living room. Those weren't like, Hey, let's go sit down and Phil's going to go through a six week series on what it is. You're just in the living room and we're talking about Jesus. And you just keep coming back to the living room. And you know, about a year into it, you look back and say, man, I'm a different person. We've been sitting around talking about Jesus and living this out, having meals together. That's what discipleship looks like. And I think that's why Jesus only disciples 12 people because it's like, you know, it's intense, right? It's you're doing life with people. It's not, it's not just information. Like you said, Zach, the Bible was always a part of it because we were studied the Bible together. Sometimes we'd have one of the, one of the big Pumbas would have Smith or somebody in and teach us something. But a lot of times it was just us getting into it ourselves. There was hospitality. There was food. There was, there was worship and singing and there was work. There was work. There was praying. Sometimes we would even as part of those processes of discipleship, we'd go out and package a bunch of duck calls up for a big sale we had coming up. And we worked, we did that together. People just contributed their time to help our little business. So you're right. And it's interesting because Jesus is already giving you the little look ahead to second and third, John. But hospitality was so prevalent in the first century church that then John has to give a warning to this house church because they would take these folks in that were traveling through. But what was happening was now we're having this, these false teachers begin showing up at these house churches and other places. So they had to start giving you a little insight as to who to look for. Cause some of these people, and they even came over the rules on how long to keep them. Cause they were like, if they want to stay too long, or they start asking for money, not a good sign. You know, so, and he doesn't deal with it specifically in the text. So life can feel like a big puzzle. You know, you're constantly trying to fit all the pieces together, work, relationships, finances, and of course, your healthcare. Finding healthcare should not be the trickiest piece to fit into your daily lives. ZockDock makes it easy to find and book an appointment with a doctor that you'll love. ZockDock is a free app and a website that helps you find and book high quality in network doctors so that you can find someone that you love. So whether you need a dermatologist, a dentist, a primary care physician, an eye doctor, you can search by what you want and what you need and find the right fit. You can go in person or you can do a video visit. Also love the fact that you can read real patient reviews. When you're ready, you see real time availability and book instantly. No phone calls, no waiting on hold, and most appointments can happen within 24 to 72 hours, sometimes even same day. The next time I book an appointment, it's going to be through ZockDock. Stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to ZockDock.com slash Unashamed to find and instantly book a doctor that you love today. That's ZocDoc.com slash Unashamed. ZockDock.com slash Unashamed. And thank you ZockDock for sponsoring this message. When you put it all together, I mean, just where he leaves off in first John 5, he says, we know that anyone born of God doesn't continue to sin because he's in Christ. He's continually forgiven. You have this relationship. You're confessing your sins. And then he made that point that I love, the one who was born of God keeps him safe and the evil one cannot harm him. So he draws the battle lines here. There's an evil world. Satan is in control, sin and death. And then there's the new world in Christ. And so he says, we know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, even in his son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. And everybody always asks that question. Well, who is the one we know? Is it God or Jesus? And he's like, yeah, through the spirit. Then, dear children, keep yourselves from idols, which is the another thing, the evil one is after to distract you, to put your worship on anything other than Jesus. So then, when he goes to the second letter, he goes to a house church, which what is a house church? It's a group of people getting together declaring, okay, Jesus is Lord. It's the world within the world. And I mean, do you want to read it? There's nothing new in here. No, it's actually just a circle that's a little tighter with the same message. It's the idea that you're drawing the line of those two camps. Yeah. This is what you're a part of in a meaningful, relational, personal way. And this is your community. So he says to the elder, to the chosen lady and her children whom I love in the truth and not I only, but also all who know the truth. Well, we know who the truth is because of the truth, which three times, by the way, mentioned truth in the first two words, which lives in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace from God, the father and from Jesus Christ, the father son will be with us in truth and love. There's number four. It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I'm not writing you a new command, but one we've had from the beginning. I asked that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. That's the same message from first John. Yep. Many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. There it is again, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the anti-Christ, which is the same message. But now it's a specific group of people. Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever continues in the teaching has both the father and the son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked ways. So there's that challenge to their hospitality that I was talking about. Yeah. And there's that reference to the sin that leads to death. Because he left off the last verse then, keep yourself from idols. If people are worshiping something else and declaring that Jesus is not the son of God. Yeah. Well, you draw the line in the sand. That's right. Say, you don't want to miss him. Yeah. I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face so that our joy may be complete. The children of your chosen sister send their greetings, which I love the reference about the face to face, which takes us back to that John 21, Jesus face to face, having a meal with his disciples who had abandoned him. And I really believe that's what eternity is going to be all about. But it starts here and now. Yeah. And I love it because he says the chosen lady, which is probably a real lady in a real home. But it also kind of has one of those double meanings. Like you see a lot of times in the text, because it's the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ is also the idea of the church. I think so. Yeah. And the children. Well, and I was going to say, you know, when we talk about sort of our early days, sometimes when you're listening, you're thinking, oh, yeah, we got to have that. And we encourage you to. I mean, we still use our homes. Zach, you guys do too. It's still a place we like to invite people in to do ministry and to talk to them, help them, encourage them, whatever the case may be. But there are things that go on now. Times change over over discipleship methodology. And we used to all teach Bible classes. That's where we taught the word of God. We were taught and we taught other people. I think we ought to bring that back. That's probably a good thing. But what we're doing though, Jase, we are bringing it back right here. Now we are teaching because four days a week of teaching the Bible. But the good thing about a podcast, because I hear from so many of you out there when I visit you in Unashamed Nation, is you don't have to go to some place on a Sunday to hear us. You're listening to us at work every day. I mean, you're listening to us on the way to work. But it's kind of like the house church is even like, I don't, I'm not involved in an organized house church, but my house is a house church because every time a group of people come together, it turns into a Bible study after a meal and singing spontaneously in prayers and, and all over town here in our town. And then this is happening all around the country. The way a lot of them do it now is we used to have like a night meeting with all the families and everybody together. Now a lot of them are done with these early morning Bible studies. There's so many of them that are going on because I know a lot of people that are participating in them. They meet for work early in the morning. There's a lot of retreats that happen now multiple times a year where people go and spend a weekend just right, really investing in other people's lives. So there is a lot of good things happening out. There's not that the Holy Spirit is quit working. It's just a little bit different than the way we did it, you know, in our day, but it led to these discipleship opportunities. And I was going to say, Zach, because since you brought up Mac and Mary, I mentioned what they're doing now. Mac obviously being having a drug issue. And it's funny because he responded when Jace was talking about that night on the guy shares testimony. And he famously says when he talks about that, he said, one of the elders said, well, Max said, well, what do I do next? And the guy's like, well, I'm not sure you're the first guy that's ever responded with this problem. So he's like, you're our first guy that's ever said it. So he wasn't doing the rehab. But when he came out of that, he knew he wanted to share, but he wanted to be more in depth. And so he started a group called Overcomers Outreach and they met for about eight or 10 years, and it grew and they helped people and especially transition off of drugs. And then he went out to Saddleback in California and saw a celebrate recovery and came back and said, you know, I want to start that here. And so he started our first celebrate recovery 20 years ago, 21 now. And, but now God has moved him away from here. And he is over all the teaching and training of celebrate recovery for the North American continent. So about 35,000 churches. So, you know, God built that platform for them to do what they're doing now. But we share that DNA from those early days of just being in a living room, right? I mean, which is where you, but my point is you never know where God's going to take you. We never knew there'd be a TV show that would give us the platform to do what we're doing either. No, you don't, you never know. I'll put the link in the show notes to the, to the, not yet now interview I did with them, but it, we were, man, it was powerful. I mean, Mack broke down, Mary broke down, I broke down, Joe, we were all crying because it was just, it was just thinking about what you just said. That was the, I think that was the part of the story that hit like how much came out of those years that continues to come out now. And I can't even imagine to see what like the, the ripples of the kingdom when we're, when we joined the great cloud of witnesses to see what, what, what is that? What, where this whole thing though is headed toward a consummation. It's headed toward that, that Revelation 22 passage. And that's the hope. That's the, that's what we're all longing for. But I think when we get to that, to the, to the final resurrection of the dead and the new heavens and the new earth have been established, we are in it. We are going to be overwhelmingly shocked and surprised at how what, what, what God has built through the, through his church. I mean, I think it's going to blow up. I love that you said that about the great cloud because Mack was the one that always tells about how he writes that in the margin of his Bible, people that have impacted. So I texted Mack and then we'll close with this. And I said, who was the guy Richards, whose testimony impacted you? And he said, Richard Taylor. I knew it was a Richard. So if you want to look him up, I think it's probably out there somewhere, but his story is incredible. I think he's gone on now to be with Lord, but he said, we had a great week with the dashers, just got home, relive some great memories. Can't wait to see y'all next time. So that's that just to show you have a relation. It's everything is a dot, dot, dot in this life, which is a great blessing for us. And by the way, if you're wondering if you may not know this, but John David, who's on our brother podcast, duck call room, it's his uncle is Mack. So just to know there's a family connection beyond that as well. So what a, what a serendipitous blessing. We'll get back and break a few things down from second and third John next time we get together 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.