Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1009 | The Military Knows Exactly What's Going On with the Mystery Drones

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Al and Jase ponder the meaning of the spate of drone sightings occurring all across the Northeastern U.S. Luckily, they have some insider insight on the matter! Combat veterans and podcasters Chad Robichaux and Chadd Wright reveal how they turned to Jesus after facing down real evil spirits as well as their inner demons. In this episode: Romans 10, verses 9-10 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. We're back in the lair jays. You're back in the duck blind. Does life seem normal again to you? Does everything seem... You know, yesterday, there's a phrase that is used in the religious world that I do not like. And as much as I've talked about it, it's not working. I'm thinking maybe a bumper sticker. but the phrase is I'm going to church. Do you know why I don't like that phrase? Dad's been trying to nix that phrase for years. Yeah.

Because you can't go to the church. Well, you can't go because we are the church. We are the church. How's the church go to the church? Wherever I'm going is where the church is going, especially if there's two or three people with me. So you never did the here's the church, here's the steeple. I've done that.

I've done that, but that didn't work either. it phased out. Yeah. So yesterday, when I was headed to meet with the brothers and sisters in the Lord at a central location. That's a fill line. Where a building is of which God does not live in buildings. I have multiple scripture references to that. I guess I will.

You agree with that, Zach? God does not live in buildings made by men's hand. You know, I've heard a couple people say that. The first person that I heard ever say that was a man by the name of Stephen. Thank you. He got killed for it. But the man who gave the approval to kill him for saying that ended up saying the same exact thing. And wrote several books, yeah, in the New Testament.

And wrote several books about it. So I'd have to agree with you on that, Jason. So here's what happened. So I'm a little grumpy because we have some guests here. We do. I'm super excited about our guests. Something happened this morning that caused a slight. bit of grumpiness.

And I will reveal that when our guests get here because they were a part of what triggered grumpy jace. So we'll wait and share. There's your cliffhanger. So yesterday, my wife and I are, we drive to this building and we get out. To meet with some of your brothers and sisters. To meet with the brothers and sisters. And they have what they call a service.

That's another thing that I've never figured out. Because I would call it a sitting session with a little standing. But service is actually doing something where you're serving. I wonder why they do call it service. I never really thought about that. Look, I'll just make a list and check it twice. So we get there, and I have a, you know, I'm trying to have a good attitude about when we meet, what do they call it, Al, corporately? Yeah, corporate worship.

Where's that verse at? Nowhere. Okay. So, but I said, you know what? we're going to come to serve today. So we're down at the nursery. We're dropping off a little one. And we literally bumped into a couple that they were also going to the nursery.

And this woman saw Missy and she just got teared up. And she said, can I hug you, which was a little awkward? Missy's like, sure. Hugs are welcome. Who doesn't want a good hug? said we we followed y'all on your podcast we're from washington so i started talking to the husband and i was like what are y'all doing here's like well there was a there's they're going to a funeral in the area and i think he meant the state of louisiana and so we wanted to run by because we heard this is

where y'all meet we were hoping to meet some of you the duck people okay and i'm not sure they knew which one i was you know because we all pretty much just throw throw a rocket any of us so i said Before you guess, let me just introduce myself, I'm Jace, because I didn't want them to call me Si. Or like our good friend that went to school that called you Willie. Yeah. There's a tough crowd today. So anyway, we met them, Missy had the hug, and they had a 16-year-old son there, and they had a toddler, obviously, because they were dropping them. So we, like, set our peace, and now we're going.

to attend. We're going to go sit. Which, by the way, AI says, it says AI, a church service is called a service because it is a gathering of Christians to worship God and receive the word of God.

Yeah, where's the serving coming? I don't know. That's a terrible definition. That's what AI says. I have a speech on that, but I'm trying to tell a story. So then all of a sudden somebody tapped me on the shoulder. Well, it's the same.

guy. And he said, I got a question, will you baptize me? So at that point, I thought, oh, we have Phil's little class that he's, he's not teaching because he's. Jersey is the, is the sub. He's stepped in. And so I said, oh, you were at the class. And he said, what class? I was like, oh, you weren't at the class. I said, well, I looked at Missy, she looked at me. And I said, well you know who baptizes you means nothing and he said well yeah i know but i just i've been following y'all and i thought you know about time i said well i think you might need to hear why we should do this and he said well i'm i'm open to that so we went and found uh you know where you walk out when you preach that little there's some stairs yeah a little cubby home because i didn't know

where to go. And so I just went to the staircase. Yep. So it was Missy and I. So you did you a little staircase sermon. Yeah, that's what this story is funny, because I went to attend a church service, in quotations, and I never attended anything. It turned into a proclamation of Jesus on the staircase. I love it. So they asked questions, Missy and I kind of doubled to you. Which, by the way, is why you go? You never know. We spent 40 minutes talking about Jesus and, you know, five talking about baptism.

Because I was like... That's a good ratio, by the way. Yeah, I was like, you know, let's talk about Jesus and are you ready to surrender your life to Jesus? We heard their personal stories. So the father and the son, after the, they said, we're ready. Well, the wife said, well, you know, and she kind of told her religious. history. And she said, I was, I was baptized as a baby, but I have no idea why, because I was a baby. But based on what I just heard, I don't want to steal their thunder. I said, there's no stealing any

thunder. God, this is about, you know, who Jesus is. And she said, well, I just think I, I'd like to do this too. So I said, well, perfect timing, because I said, they're fixed to sing an invitation song, and we're not going to walk down the aisle because we're at the end of the aisle. Yeah, you're there. He's going to take a right and change clothes. And so we walked out three minutes later. They're singing the invitation song. We take a right.

I motioned to one of the elders there. I was like, we're fixed. I gave the baptism. Somebody else had responded to a 14-year-old young buck who looked like he was 25. And so he was back there with us. And so we went out there and I told them. Because basically, we had a real raw, I didn't go in the details. I mean, we went through the book of John, we went who Jesus was.

And I said, I'm going to ask you in your own words. I've been doing this here lately. I said to tell people what your confession is. And so the mom said, well, there's a lot of people out there. And I said, yep. And I quoted Romans 10, 9, and 10. I said that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart. that got raised from mother and dead you'll be saved i said you're making a vow to god here and uh i said

it's it's supposed to be a little uncomfortable i said but based on everything you've heard about jesus you know i think this is this is a moment you're declaring jesus is is the lord of my life yeah i said now however you want to say that is up to you so i got them all three out there and there was a mic there and i just went right down the list and look it was as beautiful a heartfelt three different versions of I'm surrendering to Jesus. That's good. Tearfully and very powerfully, and I thought,

we need to make this a thing moving forward, you know? And so I baptized the dad and then the son and then the mom. And they just, so they were all standing there together, and they all just huddled up and just began, you know, to cry, which I got a little bit, for a clamp myself. Well, it was just like,

what has happened here? I came to sit. And now I'm moved by the power of Jesus. You know, it sounded like service to me, Jays, because you were of service to these people. And so then it was kind of an awkward silence. I looked at the crowd.

The service, in quotations, is over. And I just raised my hand to the crowd and went, yeah. Everybody started clapping, you know, and hollering. And so then we went in the car and left. That was it. And we took Phil lunch. I told him the story.

So that made his day. And so the story with Phil, he was physically not in as much pain as he's been, which is good. But he's going to have another back surgery. Now, the other side of it with his Alzheimer's, you know, it wasn't the best of days yesterday. But that's the way this is. There's good days and bad days. But I told him the story. And we were going to cook for him.

him, but he called me the night before and said, look, there's this chicken place, and I want two crispy legs. So I said, you want me to go buy two chicken legs at the chicken place? So it was kind of funny and bizarre, because my dad doesn't really eat fast food, but, you know, there I was, in line, it's chicken place. He's grown to light some cabsuits. So all of a sudden, he wanted a couple of chicken legs. But he's hanging in there and we appreciate your prayers.

And just to let you know, we're bringing our guest on here. We're continuing our Unashamed Bible study because a lot of you come every week. And so Joe's going to continue to lead that. Obviously, Dad can't do that. And then once a month, the first Sunday of every month, we're going to try to have a little celebration for you guys. Whoever of us is in town, I'm going to be here on January 5th, the first one. And so, you know, we just encourage you guys.

You want to come check us out, check WIFRI, just like this family obviously did. All right. And my point of making fun of our little taglines that doesn't make any sense is what I learned in the process is, is I need to wake up and be willing to serve. Yeah. Because that kind of happened what we would say by accident, but at some point. It was a divine appointment for these folks. That's what I was going to say.

Now, do you think it was just a coincidence that we bumped into them in the nursery section? and then ended with them being assured that they're... And even them blessing you with their confession. All right, so we're going to take a break. We come back. We've got two very special guests, and we'll introduce them. Welcome back to Unashame. We are joined by Chad Squared, Chad Robes Show, who has been on the podcast.

Welcome back. I think it's your third time to be. Yeah, something like that. A couple of times, yeah. Get your applause. And Chad Wright is joined us. has two D's. Chad, you're the only Chad I've ever known that has two Ds. Is there a reason why you're a Chad? My mom is just a little crazy.

You're from North Georgia, right? Yeah, yeah. How is it? Chad did that? Yeah, does you have to draw it? I'm going to whatever, I'll come to whatever you call me. I'm not too picky. I found that he'll come to a nice big steak. I found that out. Yeah, or Chick-fil-A biscuit. Chick-fil-A biscuit, which is good. So here's what, here's what's crazy about. We went duck hunting this morning. And I told you all last night because we got together at old Jay Stones. He's a griller. He grilled us some steaks. Had a nice little time. Amazing. Pretty good. And you ate all the leftovers this morning at four. Yeah, it was just as good a second time. Yeah. And so. Chad's a runner, by the way. So we'll talk about that. So we went to the elm hole,

but I told you all to lower your expectations because it was, what was it, 70 degrees? Yeah, it was the warmest that ever had a duck hunt. Yeah. And, and mud. And, muggy, just like very, very much. No wind. But I said, look, I, I've got a knack for this, and there's these wood ducks. They're getting up, and they're coming over in waves, and they're hitting this particular spot in the woods, and that's where we're going to hunt because they're coming. So we go duck hunting this morning, and what few we saw did not come in.

Now, we shot, how many did we shoot four? We got four, so we got some appetizers. Good. and they had some kind of gun specialists that had some kind of prototype, something that hasn't even been released to the public, so I won't go into it. The vortex red dot. Oh, we can say that.

So there was a red dot on my gun, and they want me to shoot it. But I didn't want to shoot it just into the air. So I thought if any duck comes over, because we weren't seeing many ducks, you know, I'm fixed to take a shot just to see what this feels like. You call those a hope shot. So four came by a little out of range. I picked the back duck, and I threw up with this thing. And I was kind of doing a sigh.

I was like, all right, he's a little too far, but I got this red dot I'm looking. I'm going to try about a seven-foot lead, and I went, boom. And it was like 1001, and that duck, rubber duck dead fold, just poop. and I said, how much does this cost? We got a believer, folks. And actually, after the hunt, we went and retrieved the duck because it fell so far.

And so I went to look for it on the way back to pick them up because we had parked the boat. And I looked out across the water. I knew he was dead, but I didn't see the duck. But I saw feathers. So I started tracking the feathers. And I looked to the left, no duck. Look to the right, no duck, look straight ahead, no duck. So there was a lot of feathers.

I thought he had to hit hard. The duck looked dead. And then I was thinking a hawk. I was thinking birds of prey. And then, you know, a little voice in the back of my head, because I've done this many times, I thought, I don't recall hearing the splash on the water. And so I looked up, and there he was.

The tree. Hanging up in a tree as dry as he was when he was. flew over but he was it was such a thicket that we i went back and got them and i was like let me see if they can find this duck and uh of course nobody spotted him until i said look up he was just yeah so it was pretty cool now you say well why why are you grumpy you got four ducks you're hunting with these you know our war heroes here speaking of service and we appreciate y'all's service i was grumpy because as soon as we had to leave at nine o'clock and come here to the podcast.

Here they come. We're out in the decoys, picking the deco. We look up. The woody wave? Wave after wave. Look, locking up on us. Yeah, we're everywhere. Oh, just the sky was filled with ducks.

We could have waited an hour to. Here's why the grumpiness is I thought, you never want to, and to quote my dad, you never want to be duck hunting on a, schedule because that's what happens. Yeah. So it's pure sacrifice that we're here. And did y'all see any, uh, did y'all see any groups of drones come in? No zone. Zach is infatuated with these drones.

That would be in New Jersey. I mean. So here's the question. You two guys are military veterans. How long would it take to correct this problem? I'm serious. Oh, I think ours. If our military wanted those things out of the sky, they would be down in ours.

Well, that's the question. Are they, you think they belong to us? And that's what I mean, that's what everybody's surmising. Because the government has just acted like nobody. Well, they're flying in sensitive areas. And I thought, well, don't we have a military? And everybody's like, oh, no, it's attack of the drones. I want 100% think.

I mean, I watch John Kirby speak about them. And he says, they don't know what they are, but you're not a threat to public safety. And they're not a national security threat. Well, that means they know what they are. And in this thing, the Pentagon spokeswoman said it's a local law enforcement matter. They're not reacting because they know what they are. And so. We can relax.

I think so. I think we know exactly what they are. Have you guys seen drones that are that big as big as they're describing? Because they're talking about them be as a vehicle. Like an SUV. An SUV. Have you all ever seen them that big? I've never seen one that big before.

No, I haven't either. The drones wasn't a big thing. When I, yeah, it was kind of a newer thing. It was kind of coming about after I had done got out. But yeah. know, people can't, people, look, I don't think, I don't like that the government has secrets either, but here's the thing. Some things have to remain secret that the government is doing. Because you got enemies, right? Well, you have enemies and you have a population who's going to

respond in a way that is detrimental to society if you was to actually tell them what's going on, you know, you tell me or you something bad's about to happen. Well, we're down here on the river. We don't give two rips. We're not going to go crazy. panic about it, right? We can take care of ourselves. But these people in these cities, man, if you want to tell them that there's some imminent threat and maybe that's the reason these drones are flying around, maybe it's because it's for your own safety. Well, you want to tell them that. What are they going to do? They're going to lose their mind. Yeah, right. You know, so. I'm glad y'all cleared that up for us. Well, I always side with Chad. This joker right

here is sharp. It's a full circle moment for me. The first time I ever heard Chad was on the Unashamed podcast. Really? Really? It really is. I was going to ask them. One of my questions was how did you meet and how did you become friends? Because obviously we've known Chad for a bit. We didn't know you. But once I looked into your story, amazing, you were at Navy Seal. I guess you're always a Navy Seal, right? Because that's something you're not like you were. You are. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question. I just, I kind of, I kind of just more, I try to identify most with, uh, with my faith and and with Christ and the older I get, no longer I go into life, the less I identify with my military service or my running or, or anything as the, the Holy Spirit just continues that

process of sanctification. I less and less really identify with even anything else in my past. So we were talking before we came on, Chad, about your running. just so I can bring this up. And you said, well, my favorite race is 100 miles in the mountains. And I was like, a hundred miles in the mountains. So tell us what kind of race we're talking about. Well, my favorite race is actually what's called a Last Man Standing race. And it's where a bunch of runners show up.

Usually have about, there's a film on Amazon Prime if you guys want to watch it called Just One Mile. It's me doing this. Him winning it, by the way. Nobody can really beat me at it, but I don't mean to sound prideful or anything. That's just a fact. Yeah, about 100 runners show up from all over the country, and you run this one mile loop over and over again. And you've got 20 minutes to complete the loop,

but there's about 350 feet of climbing and descending in the loop, so it's super steep. And, you know, you come in, if you come in in 15 minutes, well, then you've got five minutes to refill your water bottle, get you a little food in your belly, and then you've got to be back on the line, and toiling the line to go again. And so I love these Last Man Standing races.

I think that one that the documentary was done on, I think I ran for 33, 34 hours straight, something like that. And I just like that because it's a, I can really mess with people's mind, right? I mean, you know, you're- My mind is blown. You're running with these same people loop after loop, and, you know, you get down to the core group, and, you know, you look over at a guy and you say, hey, man, you look like you're limping a little bit. You know, your leg doing all right? Well, his leg might be fine, but when you tell him he's limping and that his leg looks like it's a little off,

he starts thinking, dang, my leg is kind of bothering me, you know? And, man, you just pick them off and you just really get to get in people's heads. So that's my favorite format. The longest I've ever ran is 250 miles. That was through the mountains of Arizona. But, yeah, I love to run. It's been a wonderful avenue for me to challenge myself. since I left the Navy.

And also it's been a thing that's given me this platform that I have. It's really the foundation of the platform that I have to where now, you know, we're able to share the gospel, we're able to travel around and speak, and our faith is the foundational element of our business now and everything that we do. And, yeah, man. So just for full transparency, See, my favorite race is 30 feet. Because did you know, you may know this,

a man who's above average in speed, which I always was, can outrun most vehicles for 30 feet. And so when you put a little money on it, it's a pretty good way to make a buck. But now that I've told everybody... Well, it was on the movie, too, Dad. Yeah, we all see it.

My dad passed that on to us because at high school, you know, I made a lot of money running 30 feet. And even my own brother, Willie, who didn't believe it, and we actually did a little duck episode about it because he had one of them souped up. He's got all these tricky trucks. He went through that stage. And he said, you ain't go out run this? And we did it three times.

They only ran one take. But all three times he lost and slipped a. $100 bill in my hand that I still have because I'm saving for the right moment to spend that. Dad said the only thing that it won't work against is a horse. A horse or a motorcycle. A motorcycle. My only loss was a motorcycle, so I found that out. I mean, it beat me.

And I guess. A little quicker take-up. But if they ever, most people get in there and floor it and their tire spin, I'm gone. It's over. You lost. So that motorcycle took off without spending that tire And you know, it was a controversial loss Yeah

But so Robes Show you you have Obviously you did your MMA fighter Jiu-Jitsu now did you ever do any running like Well I ran a lot in service Because of you know It's conditioning Just being in special operations All those fields you run a lot

And but I probably ran from like 13 years old To about three years ago I kind of backed off and running because I felt like it was starting to impede my jiu-jitsu competing in jiu-jitsu. You know, I want to say something about Chad real quick. But, you know, everybody focuses on Chad's military background

on all the awesome stuff he's done and is doing. But yes, why are we friends? Well, we met. And this man right here, he loves, his life is dedicated to loving people. He loves and cares about people more on a higher level and on just a more, just a whole other degree than any other person I have, I've met in my life. And I don't think people talk about that part of him near as much. And that's one of the things that I'm worse at is loving and caring for people.

Not that I don't love people. I just want to be left alone, right? Right, right, right. That's kind of the background I came from. Yeah. We're loners. And so he inspires me just when I see how much he genuinely cares for people. I mean, he'll just send me a random text and tell me he loves me and hope I'm like, what?

This guy's busier than I am. Yeah. Well, it reminds me when Jesus summed up, you know, when he brought. Thanks for that, Chad. Yeah, man. Appreciate that. He brought the new way of thinking from a rule-oriented system, and he summed it up by saying, you know, you want some commandments, I'll give you two. Love the Lord, your God

with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love people of your neighbor as yourself, which is really a glimpse into the character of God. I mean, God is love. And so when you see love transpiring, and I mean real love, not a definition of, you know, physical sex or whatever, love, you know, 1 Corinthians 13, kindness and patience and trusting and perseverance and not delighting and evil, that whole list. When you see that, you're seeing the evidence of God on the planet, even from people that don't believe in God. That's where it originally came from. So I wanted to ask you about when you came to Christ. How long was that? Oh, in 2012, the Navy sent me on a deployment. I spent a month or two in North Africa and we had left North Africa and we were

rejoccing our gear in Germany and they stuck us in this old like run down dingy barracks because we were just going to be there for a few weeks and we're a barracks is a building that people stay in. That's what we call it in the military of barracks. And it was empty. It was just me and a couple of the guys staying in there. And just to make a long story short, this this place was inhabited by some sort of evil spirit. And we began experiencing some pretty scary things. To the, and me and the three guys that I was with were in there.

And to the point that eventually we were all sleeping in the same room together. Because we were so freaked out about what we were experiencing. You could feel it. What was happening? The first, so the initial thing I was laying in my bed one night, something slammed, hit my door, and it jolted me. awake out of sleep and then I could hear voices echoing up and down the hallway of this of this building big long hallways I'd heard it was used to house Holocaust victims it dated all the way

back to World War II and I woke up my roommate was asleep looked in the hallway nobody was there went to the guys across the hallway they were dead asleep and I thought okay that's strange so it was it was a lot of bumps in the nights the oven turned on one time but but but it was a lot of bumps in the nights but Even more so, it was a feeling, it was a presence that was so oppressive that when I would walk into this place, there was a stairwell. I'd walk up the stairwell and then it turned back up to a landing. We were staying on the second deck. And I could feel something staring at me. You know, we have that instinct, just like an animal.

And I would fully expect to turn around and look up at that landing and see something up there. Anyways, we got to our wits end on this thing. and I called my little brother. I wasn't a Christian man. I didn't want God. Would not have ever chose God, I don't believe. I actually believed that since I was a good guy, I was a Navy SEAL, right?

I was serving my country. I was doing a hard job. If I was a good guy that if there was a God, if I got killed, he's going to send me to the good place, of course. You know what I mean? What a lie that was. You know what I mean? And so I called my little brother because I knew my

My little brother was a Christian. I said, look, man, we have encountered something here that is outside of our knowledge of warfare. I don't know how to combat this thing. You couldn't just shoot it. I mean, the things you would do in normal warfare won't work. Exactly, exactly. And I said, Blake, you know, can you help me with this? And he said, let me put you in touch with my pastor.

That pastor called me the same day on a little flip phone I had. And I told the pastor what was going on. And that pastor said, oh, that ain't no big deal. I said, what are you talking about? Man, no, this is a big deal. We got four Navy seals sleeping in the same room together. Something's going on here, man. And he said, no, don't worry about it.

He said, put me on a speakerphone. And he said, I want you just walk up down the hallways of this place. And he said, I'm going to pray. So I said, all right, this is foolish, but I'm at my wits in here. And I walk around this place. He prays. He's praying in the name of Jesus. He says, go now to the room.

You're staying in there. He said, you got some olive oil? I said, yeah, he said, take a little, just a dab at that olive oil. He said, just dab it right there above the doorway, you know, of your room. And I said, okay, man, that's it. Nothing happened. No spirits descended or dove started, nothing. He said, yeah, that's it, man.

So, you know, we wound down that night, laid in bed, total peace had just returned to this place. Whatever that thing was left. I don't even know what it was, why it was there, how it got there. You got you to thinking about God. I'm not here to explain that. But whatever that thing was, was gone. And so I am no fool. So I said, there's some power here.

And so I got my hands on a Bible, and I started reading in the book of Matthew. And the first thing that I realized, when I started reading God's word for the first time, first thing I realized was what a wretched human I was. that old thing about how I was a good person, right? I was doing a good job, a hard thing. If I die, surely I'll go to the good place. If there is a good place, I realize, no, man, when you go, when you get to the sermon on the mount and you get there right quick and you get to the beatitudes and you get to the

sermon on the mount, you say, I'm screwed. If this is true, I am screwed. Right? Yeah. And as I went, the Holy Spirit revealed to me the truth of the gospel and showed me why I needed Christ. And I received a gift of salvation just maybe a week or so after. Was it at those barracks? Yeah, at the same barracks.

Received a gift of salvation. Look at the blessing of that from the power of the Holy Spirit. It's interesting because I was going to ask you guys about Ephesians 6 because we just studied Ephesians last time on the on the podcast last year and you know you have that section about armor obviously it's a military thing and it's connected to roman soldiers and you got all these different comparisons to spiritual things to physical things but it closes with three verses on prayer way more talked to paul talks about prayer in that context than he does any of the other sort of defensive weapons that you're talking about helmet of salvation sort of truth so it is interesting

that you brought that up, that that really is our first and greatest weapon in spiritual warfare is prayer. And it's the one, I think it's the one that we leverage the least. That's right. It's like, I don't know about you guys, but I love reading my Bible. I mean, I could read my Bible for hours a day, but it's hard to pray a lot of times. You know, you talk about, well, I want to read my Bible. well, I don't, I don't, it takes a long time to get to the point and the Lord leads you there

to where you can sit down and pray for hours, you know. I mean, how often do you do that? And it's the most powerful tool that God, and what a gift. We, we have access to God through Jesus Christ. Like, are you, and we don't leverage that, like we leverage that gift. what, three minutes a day in the morning and five seconds at a little prayer around dinner. You know, I've got to the point, you know, my family, we got stuck in the hole, we sit down to eat dinner and it's a, it's a, it's a, thank you, Lord, for this food. Amen. I don't,

I'm done with that. Yeah. If I, if we are, if we have time to pray, by gosh, we are going to pray. Right. And it's, and we're going to take it seriously because it's the most, it's the most, it's the most powerful tool that the Lord has gifted us with. It's the only time, in my opinion, that you engage the, all the deity, the father, son, the Holy Spirit at the same time. Yeah. And I think about that Romans age, you know, where the spirit interprets, well, we can't even say because we're human beings that is so much bigger than us.

So that idea of having all, the whole Godhead in a conversation at one time is powerful. Because, you know, we cry out for help. We thank Jesus for saving. this, but when you're in a conversation with the Godhead, I mean, there's nothing better. We've talked a little bit about your story in the past, but when you came to Christ, was it something similar? Was it, you know? When I came to Christ, it was after all the, all my deployments to Afghanistan.

I came home and just fell in my face, and I was in that just complete rock bottom moment. I was, you know, in a complete state of panic, panic attacks, anxiety, depression, and just a real hopelessness. and I spent about three years in just this dark downward spiral. And at the end of three years ended in a suicide attempt. And that's when my wife came in and some amazing people from my community came in and got around me. And I was really confronted with the truth that everything had tried to repair the damage that had done to myself to people around me, that I was trying to fix myself, that I was not capable.

Everything I tried and failed, medication, consulate. professional success in MMA stuff, rebuild the ego and and trying to, you know, rebuild what I thought I lost from my, you know, my persona and then bravado. All those things,

you know, some of those things are good. Some of those things were bad. But no other things had helped heal me and restore me. And the only thing I had yet to try was it was a relationship with Jesus. And so for me, it was kind of like, I made it into my rope.

I've tried everything else. What will have to lose? And I made a very, I'd say uninformed decision because I didn't even really understand what I was doing, but it was just like, I'm going to give God a chance. And, and, and, and, but that came, that decision came with about a

year of discipleship that radically changed me. Yeah. Because I realized that all the things that had happened to me, the anxiety, depression, those all came from some moments that happened to my life and some bad things happened, but those things didn't leave me to be in that closet, my pistol on my hand, wanted to take my life, would it let me there, were the choices that I made responses to those things. And so

I really, I realized through this year, discipleship that the problem I had was a problem with my own wretchedness with the choices that I was making and in all these bad things that happened to me, you know, those things were not what had caused me to be that situation I was in. It was a choice I was making. So the Bible gave me a new blueprint to make better choices.

And so did it still get anxiety, depression, all those things? Of course I did. I've been through some hard things. But when I did, I went to the Bible for how to respond in accordance to what I was dealing with and I became very intentional about it. And through that, I found a restoration. I found hope.

And ultimately, I found a new purpose. And that purpose manifested in me, just this deep desire to pay it forward and share that story with others and that I knew how many other people were struggling with the same thing I was struggling with. And, you know, my whole life has been just committed to that sense. Yeah, you remind me a lot, Chad, of dad. And I love what you said, Chad, right, about his heart for people. That's what we saw in dad.

Once he figured it out and once he saw that, that life change, then he decided the rest of his life was going to be helping people find what I found. Yeah. For me, like, it's funny when I hear people say that about me. And a lot of people, I hear a lot of people say that about me now, not as eloquent and beautiful as Chad said. It really, really meant a lot.

You said that. But my wife gets to see both. She's this contrast. She's like, you did not like people. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I didn't want friends. I had the guys I worked with. And that was it.

I didn't want, like, don't invite anybody. I don't know over for dinner. Like, I don't like that. My wife was like, she. used to hate that, that she couldn't and let her friend know. New people, yeah. I didn't want to meet new people. Yeah, so the fact now that I, like, had this heart for people and I really had this,

just really just compassionate heart for people is still surprising to me. You've been made a new creature. Yeah, it's a brand new creation. Well, that's what I started out of this podcast for you all, John, just talking about this family. Because when you're in the public eye, there's a certain amount of weirdos that show up, you know. You mean weirder than the people at this table? Oh, yeah, way weird. and but what happens is we're not weird that's the thing so it's like you know the first time i kind of

gave an altar call at a speech i was given the first person and i was standing out the front the first person when they came down and i thought now we're talking and all these people are giving their lives to jesus so the first person that i came up to because i thought he's going to say i'm ready to give my life for jesus and they said will you take a picture with you and i it was when that happened, you know, it's just my old man just thought, what am I doing? What are we doing here? And it gets to the point, it's hard to love people. And so now, which by the way, I made an adjustment. I'll let somebody else do their alter call. I did the same thing. Because I just take that distraction out of the equation. I share Jesus. Because if they get hooked on Jesus, they're not going anywhere. But what I was

going to say is you can, even in that my first thought was when the woman started crying in front of my wife, I thought, oh boy. I mean, because that's not a normal occurrence. Hey, are you messy? And then bust out into tears. And so my first thought was, okay, this person might be a little weird or mentally unstable. But you know what I realized, what's helped us deal with people, when we talked about this in the duck blind,

because me and you are kind of lone woofers, is I realized that they're not attracted to us. they're attracted to the spirit of God living in us. And so that's why when this guy was talking about being baptized, he was just thinking, oh, this will be cool. This famous guy baptized me. I was like, hold the phone, time out. And it became a beautiful thing.

God teaches you to love people where they're at because that's what he did for us on a cross. And so you're seeing more that God has given us this treasure, this answer to life and to clue into his. is existence. And that needs to be the way we're thinking when we see people. And I'm going to tell you another person who's really good at this, and I think you'll agree, is our dad.

I mean, just when we were young, I remember just seeing what we would call just the trash of society come in. I was just always surprised at how he would ask them questions about different things. He treated them with respect to human beings. But I realized that he realized they were God-created creatures who had lost. their way. And through the power of the gospel, you would see these people that you would just think had fallen through the crack of society. And so we had that foundation. But even though our default setting, it's a difficult place to have that kind of love that God has had for all of us.

When it's even birthed our church into being a place where it's like, you know, the people that other churches say, we don't know what to do with this person. Someone will say, we'll send them down there to, that'll be a far. They'll take anybody. I want to be the place that will take anybody. You know, I mean, that seems like a Jesus kind of place to me to be there. So I want to ask you guys something, because we don't have a lot of time left on this podcast. But, you know, we've been studying in Colossians 3, which talks about the new life,

the old life you walk away from, the elements. And he has a whole long list of all the stuff you do in that old life. We're all sitting here realizing what that is. Then he talks about this new life that you both described. And then it's interesting because he goes right into family. He goes right into wives and husbands. children, how you parent, how they respond to you, and even your career and work situation. So I want to ask you guys, I mean, you obviously both spend a lot of time deployed as young men

in service to our country. And so I know that had to have been hard. You're away from your family. And yet, you know, you're coming back. And then all of a sudden you find Christ. How has that changed you in terms of being a husband, being a father, just being a man of God and your own family. I mean, what's been the biggest change there for you? I let Chad go first because I know he's got a good one. I do too, but I don't want to steal

time from him. Well, I mean, I would say the most logical answer to that question is how has it not changed me? My wife won't mind me telling this, but my wife's a recovering addict. And we've had a lot of rough, rough times. And Jason and I were talking about this at dinner last night. You know, it's, it's the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled me to forgive her for that period of her life. And how has it changed me, you know, in my opinion, the best way that we can attempt to represent or emulate Christ in our lives is by way of selflessness. You know, you ask, you ask any special operations guy, what's the number one characteristic you want to see in a teammate? It's selflessness.

Yeah. It's not proficiency. It's not shooting. It's not physical fitness. It's selflessness. And that's how we get to image Christ is through selflessness. And so it's changed me in that way in terms of my marriage. I look at the, you know, the foundational mission of my life in terms of actionable steps is,

is leading God's daughter home, leading my wife home, and being selfless to her and imaging Christ to her along that journey. And so that obviously bleeds into every aspect of that relationship, and it's changed everything for me. And let me go ahead and tell you right now, I'm not perfect at it. Yeah, none of them's saying. And I still make a lot of mistakes, and I still struggle with certain sins and things like this

and even sometimes succumb to them. So don't think that I'm sitting here saying I'm a perfect husband. But that's the number one thing that I want to do is I want to lead his daughter home. And I'm so thankful that God has gifted me with his daughter and put her under my care. I mean, what a responsibility that he entrust us with. And my job is to die. Yeah. That is my job.

And I'll never completely do it. Yeah. Because my old self, boy, it rears its ugly head so many times, man, all the time. But, man, I know my job is to die. Thanks be to Christ, right? Yes. That would be the same for me. I mean, look, before I surrendered my life to Jesus, everything was about me.

I always worked hard. I always felt like I'm a provider for my wife. I'm going to make sure that I'm working hard. are going to put a roof over the head. They're going to be safe, all the things that I'm supposed to do. So I felt like that was my responsibility. It was my duty and I did it well. But what I realized looking backwards now is that I was the center of my own universe.

Like the whole world revolved around me. My wife, I was in a marriage for my wife to provide what I wanted out of a relationship. My kids were, I was there, their father for them to be there to serve me. Everything was me focused. And I was, you know, very selfish. And so that surrender. to Christ, I think changed something in my heart that make me from selfish to, and I would have never admit it to being selfish before. Like, what do you mean I'm selfish? Like, everything I do is for

like, like I'm serving in the military. I'm serving like working hard. I'm providing. Like, I would have never even saw it, much less admitted it. I'm here, Chad. But the truth is that, you know, I was, I was selfish. And it's this shift happening in my heart to go from selfish to selfless and realize that my life's really not about me. My life is about service. And that's why I think I'm, I thought it was service driven before. But now, even more so, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm service-oriented service-driven. My life is about others, but it starts in my home. It starts with my wife.

It starts with my children. And because, you know, I can't serve well in ministry if I can't do that at my home first. So it starts there. I love that. And you both sounds like wound up landing in the same spot, which, by the way, is exactly what Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 give us the example for because we serve our wives as Christ loves us and serves us. He gave his life for us.

I mean, what ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate selfless move? He did it. He not only gave his life for us because, you know, we can wrap our mind around that. As warriors, we understand a man. It's not that big of a deal for us to think that a man would give his life for another man or for somebody that they loved or cared about. No, he didn't just give his life for us. What Christ did is he took the sin.

of all of humanity upon himself and literally bore that on the cross. In one moment. In one moment. And that separated him in some way, shape, or form from the father. And that was like the biggest moment of, we can't understand what that felt like. We can understand a man giving his life for a man. That ain't no big deal. but we can't understand what the weight of the sin of all humanity feels like.

How that crushes you. I mean, it's just incomprehensible. Yeah. And to do it in love because he loved us. Even enemies, which is powerful. So look, as we wrap up here, man, what a conversation. This went super fast. We could spend hours just.

We could. We could. So you've got, we've talked about your books. You've got a new fiction series coming out. I do. I got a new fiction series come out called Silent Horizons. It's actually available on Amazon right now for pre-order. I can't wait to get into it because I love, you know, fictional stuff, especially, I'm assuming it's like military.

Yeah, it's very much Jack Carr style, that style. I like Jack Carr, Brad Thor, I read him. Ryan Stack, who's a co-woman. Yeah, Ryan's awesome. Ryan's a great guy, so I read him as well. In fact, Jack wrote the forward cover, like the cover and Doors. on it. Jack Carr did. I'm so excited to see you get into this because I just think you'll have a perspective

that will make some really good reading. Podcasts, what are you doing to podcast? Yeah, so the Resilient Show is my podcast. And in fact, as we're recording today, and it'll already be out once this drops, but is the episode with Chad Wright. So, I mean, we just, this was sharp. We didn't get really into Chad's story. I mean, if we wanted to hear out Chad's full, like, story, he just, man, he,

he unburned and bore his life. story, which is super powerful. Like, challenge me, encourage me. He inspired me to do that. So what's the name of the podcast? The Resilient Show. And what's your podcast? The Three of Seven podcast.

Three of Seven. Yes, sir. Oh, see, Zach, there's a name. There's a name. Three of Seven. The only one I've known close to that, Seven of Nine. She was on Star Trek, but that's another story. I kind of went three.

Three stands for Body, Soul, Spirit, Seven is a biblical number for completion. Everything we talk about is developing our body, our soul, and our spirit in order to achieve the most complete version of ourselves that we can. You know what I mean? So that's what it's all about. I like that. It's great having you guys on. Always welcome here. It's a great honor.

Yeah. In the Duck Commanderland. We love being here. We love you guys. Mainly for Jay's food. Yeah. So I will say this. I'll leave with this because a lot of people, there was a little back and forth back with Jay and Jace.

and I don't know where all this started, but there were a lot of our fans wanting them to get into a physical battle with each other. I don't know where, Jason, were you aware of this? No. It was going with the back and forth with the duck call room. So, Chad, you know both. You know Jay and Jiu-Jitsu and all that.

Does Jace need to get into a physical altercation with Jay Stone? I don't know if they need to because they, but look, if it happened with shotguns, I'm going to give J-Stah. Jay-May and I like him to give J-Stah. All I'm going to say is this. Here's all I'm going to say. I'm with two of the finest warriors that we can produce. We're talking about Jay.

They work out. I work out the natural way, you know, cut firewoods, stuff like that. I've never seen the indoor of a gym. I will just say this. If you shoot at me, you better not miss. Oh, yeah. I said, I got you the shy gun. On the hand-to-hand side, I love you, but the jih Tjitsu's.

Yeah. Well, that's why I'm fast. See what I mean? There's a time to run. That's like Chad Wright is that Mandy Lutty. Just running the hills for 100 miles. Nobody's catching you. Jay's getting good at the chit-you.

He's getting good. I had to work that in. I had to work that in for Stone because I know it's been for. We're out of time. We'll see you next time with Undershame. Thank you all for being here. Oh, yeah. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast.

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