Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 103 | Phil Robertson Takes on Our Culture of Overreaction, Lying & Why Self-Control Is Underrated

Episode Date: June 17, 2020

Phil is NOT a fan of how much people overreact these days, especially when it leads to lost jobs and being "canceled." Jase and Al tell the story of a young family member who caused an explosive incident on their vacation and how he came clean about it. Jase identifies the most underrated quality of the Holy Spirit and explains why the Bible isn't like a college course. And the local redneck finds out what happens when he breaks Jase's trailer rule. See episodes of "Unashamed with Phil Robertson": https://bit.ly/2J4XsiX   See clips from Phil's TV show "In the Woods with Phil": https://bit.ly/2PNM6k1  - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So, boys, let's face it, y'all are seeing the same news programs I am. You're under quarantine. You tend to watch a little more what goes on TV. Chase doesn't quite see as much as I do. Yes. But I've just noticed we're living in a culture of overreaction to the smallest little thing.

People now are getting fired if they say something about some conditions. Confederate General. I'm like, do what? I mean, we're holding each other to a standard none of us can live up to. And it's just, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a announcer for a NBA basketball team. He tweeted a tweet that said,

All Lives Matter. That's all it said. Which makes sense to me. I mean, it's a true statement. Who wouldn't agree with that? Fired the next day. Fire the next day. That's my point.

What? Fire the next day. So I'm just here. Because it was supposedly. the thought process was he's trying to hijack our message from the Black Lives Matter. But, I mean, that's how crazy it is. I mean, he got fired for saying a completely true statement. So I'm down here in the woods.

And I hear, yeah, I hear information like what you just said. And that's just one of many. So I'm sitting there thinking, you know, why don't we try to begin to exhibit, come to Jesus. And you will be given the Spirit of God. and the fruit you will see the result of coming to Jesus, you will see, because I've been in an era I live without Jesus. Well, I saw what came out of me, and it was kind of like now,

overreacting to everything. So I'm just suggesting, come to Jesus, and you will see love. I think it's better than what we have. Now, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and this is a doozy, self-control. I'm thinking, if you had those qualities, you would hesitate, for whatever reason, you would hesitate before. before you burn the city down. You would at least say,

so these days when you mention qualities like love, joy, peace, love instead of hate, joy instead of despair, peace, war instead of war, right of peace. So you just look at them and you think, to the human race, you would think, come on. And this, take the top two and cap that with, the why don't we try loving God and loving each other? What could be the downside to loving God, loving each other,

and the qualities I just listed coming forth from all of us. You think it would really be so much better. But it's because people make mistakes so they don't want to love them. Or, you know, people do you wrong. Right. But you, you know, it's interesting. You brought up that self-control. I think that is the most understanding.

underrated Holy Spirit quality of all those. It is. Just think about all the, you know, I'll see in the bulk of the emails that come in, and they're overwhelmingly positive about our show, but we're not delusional, you know, to where we think everybody's going to be jumping up and down about things we say. And I'm sure there are times we say things that we probably shouldn't have said. I'm glad I've never researched a cell phone since I don't have.

have one, I'm very thankful that I've never read what people say about me. I don't know what they're saying. I'd rather be in the dark there than listen to be. Well, that's why I don't watch. That's why I don't have a cell phone. I said, I don't want to hear all that. Well, I have it, but I use it for, you know, navigation or phone calls. And you use my phone to make calls.

So technically you're using one. You're just saying, Jace, call. them and tell them to bring the trailer. That I do. Well, I know. I'm saying somebody needs one, but I was going to make the point. We get way more stuff over what I call trivial stuff that we talk about. You know, we've made some gambling references and, you know, whether it's okay to drink, not get drunk. Well, these people get so, what I call the church police, they get so upset about these issues and when you brought up that self-control that that's what that's what made me think about that you know you have opportunities to to show self-control in a lot of these situations i'll give

you for instance which i'm kind of chasing a rabbit here but i'll give you for instance now here's me i've never been drunk i do not struggle with drunkenness because i've never been drunk in my i don't know even know what it would feel like you know i've never drank You don't want it. Well, I don't want. I'm so far gone now. And you say, well, how do you... You'll be on your hands and knees barfing.

Yeah. Well, I don't like to throw up, so I'm out on that already. You're a wise man, Jay. Yeah. So to do that, you know, I... Even though I'm... I feel free in Christ, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. First Corinthians.

I read that and thought, yes. You know, and I'm under grace. And, you know, Paul told somebody, you know, okay, drink a little wine. Jesus changed the water to wine. So I'm like, I'm free to do that, but I'm going to have to exercise self-control. So I put on myself guidelines to keep myself sober. Now, I didn't read this in a book.

My first one was, by the way, you choose to be that way, right? No doubt. Now watch. And I feel led by the spirit also. One of the guys who questioned us, I can't remember his name, but he said, well, Why would God design a hell and knowing people are going there? He seemed like an unkind God because he's made a hell for the sinful and then the murderers. His question was, it was Robert.

And he said, why would you even be born if you're going to someone that. He left out one simple thing, and Jace, to your point, then you can finish your story. Yeah. We have all of us a choice to live a life of love, joy, peace, you decide that and you try your best to follow that through. And when you make a mistake, because we're under grace, he forgives us. We say, my bad, I was a little impatient there. I know I'm supposed to be paid.

So it's all covered. That's why, blessed is a man or woman who sinned the Lord and never count against you. Well, that's what grace is all about. now continue to your stuff. Well, what I was going to say is... You've chosen not to get drunk. But here's my point. And I may do this because I guess I get a burrow of my saddle when I read this stuff. But now, I base it on situations. Now, take the drinking thing. If I go to something where there's kids around, I'm not drinking and drop. I'm just not doing that. Because I do, because a lot of people, the emails will be like this, like for gambling, they'll say, there's a lot of people that's, lost everything they had, you know, and there's, but, well, that's a self-control issue.

By the way, Jay. They say, look, but their point is you can't touch it. You can't do it. But, you know, when you start thinking practically about it, let's say you spend $100 to enter a bass tournament. Well, is that gambling? Well, now we can have a whole debate on whether that's gambling or not. But my point is there's a difference in paying $100.

where you've got to get lucky and catch the biggest bass, let's face it. You know, you may catch a hundred bad, but you don't catch the big one. You ain't going to win. You're gambling that you're, you know, with your, and they're like, well, that's not really gambling. That's why gambling is never mentioned in the Bible. There's a big difference in that than somebody taking every dollar he has and pouring it into a video poker machine. Well, wait a minute. Well, what was the problem?

It wasn't the circumstance. It was the lack of self-control. I had a couple I was counseling one time, and they were having financial problems. And so between the time I saw them and the next time they came in, a young couple at church, he had the big idea that since they were so far down on their bills, he took their entire paycheck and went over to the boat in Vicksburg. Because he thought, in his mind, he thought, this is the only way I can catch us up. Well, guess what happened? you know, the boat took that as well.

So then he's got to come back and face the wife who's already like we have problems. So I just never forget that couple and that mindset and that mindset that made sense to him that this was going to catch him up. But of course it didn't. And so we might as well, while you're on your point, prove your point. So we might as well come to an agreement that not only will the wicked persecute us. Many times

the godly, is what Jay's saying, the godly, the legalistic godly, will also chastises. So I figured out, I figured out that, you know what, you're not going to get out of here alive by holding it against people.

I just say, hey, I don't hold it against them. I don't. Whether it's coming from the right, the left or in between. I'm like, you know what? And look, we got a large audience. A lot of people have been taught a lot of different things. And so, I mean, we're laying out here our biblical study of where we are. We realize people have different views. And we're okay with that. So we're not saying, you know, don't criticize or don't say, you're going to change their heart. I mean, they'll just make a blanket statement like that. Like, look what that leads to. So we're not going

to do it. But in my opinion, that's good. That's not about it. I get it. That's what you're coming up with. But then if you put, so I'm no longer watching the show or, you know, I'm offended. You know, it's like, well, wait a minute here. You've come up with a narrative that's working for you. But you've got to realize the bigger pictures, what you said, is a self-control problem. It's like, look, if I go to a place and I'm in an event or whatever and everybody's getting drunk, I ain't going to drink a drop.

And you say, well, why don't you do that? Because I'm showing people that it's okay to exercise self-control because it's a powerful weapon. Now, is it wrong for me, you know, to take a sip? No. But I'm choosing not to do that in that life because I want to show a fruit of the spirit in this particular situation. Here's a good little text. First Timothy 5, the Apostle Paul writing on behalf of the Holy Spirit of God, Stop drinking only water and use a little wine.

he did say a little because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses evidently according to the spirit of God speaking through the Apostle Paul a little wine from time to time is a good thing and has medicinal well think about it like this I think it's a good I don't know what to say except give me a break think about this let's take gasoline now is gasoline dangerous yeah it's dangerous yes dangerous yes If not handled properly. Do you remember the day that me and you were lighting fires up the creek here? We were making a duck hole.

So we were cutting small trees, which the funny part was, this wasn't even on our land. That was back in the day where you just... You roam freely. We made a duck hole on somebody else's land. But that's kind of funny when I think about it. So Phil, I wouldn't allow that. Had been burning. It is redneck country.

Yeah. Yeah, Phil has been, he had been burning these piles. And so I was with him the next day because we were going to, what we, you know, call clean up the piles. Well, we had a gas can besides us. The fires are, how far away were those fires? Well, they were smoldering fires. Normally I use diesel.

Are you sure it was gas? Oh, you don't remember this? Okay. I think he's forgotten. So look, the gas is pretty close to us. The fires, I would say, are 30 yards away. and we're just standing there and the next thing we know

the fumes from that gas the fire seemingly was nowhere near that thing you don't remember that it blew us straight back that's happened numerous times it's like my it's like my two buddies that I went to high school with

they came to Monday morning classes at my high school and both of them I said what in the world happened to y'all because all the hair on their head was singed off their faces were puffed their red and he said well we were stealing some gas out of a truck and when I told my brother to give me a light where I could see where to put the hose he meant flashlight well he said give me a light he took a cigarette ladder out and snapped that and that thing went And they both came and looked like they had been at all.

Well, and you remember that... Hang on, Jay. Let's take a break. You remember the guy we brought to the Lord? And admittedly, he had some problems. And Phil was going through his, you know, routine. What's your problem, you know? And he said, I'm a sniff gas.

And Phil was like, on purpose. And evidently he was getting some hot. But he said, jet fuel's the best. and I was like, what? I mean, that's what you. Well, look, this guy who was young, who we did bring to the Lord, but it was always a struggle. And look, he died from that.

He died later. And now, here's why I'm bringing us up. You say, why am I bringing up, Gap? Because to the police, to the rulekeeper, I've given you some examples right here that shows you that gas is dangerous. Now, here's their mindset. They're like, yeah, but it don't say anything. a Bible about it so we can use it in our cars, you know. But I'm telling you, it's dangerous and I gave

you some examples. And my point is that you can make bad decisions with a lot of different things out there. It's going to come back to those qualities of the of the spirit and being wise in circumstances. You just, God didn't design the church to come up with all these arguments on why you can't do something or why you should based on the circumstances around it. That's what I see in the churches that just burns my bacon. What a lot of people do, especially young people, they sit there and once you go through the rule regiment, the rules, the rules never stop. Jay's, you come up with a pretty good line being raised as a Robertson down here.

And when someone asked, Jace, you know, how do you all keep from getting drunk and all Jay said, well, we have one rule. There are no rules. Yeah, it's a grace. We just have to use good judgment based on grace. Based on grace. But you laid it out, Jay, is because the Bible is written in different context. I mean, the truth is the truth.

But you'll have Paul saying what you quoted in a mendigo saying. You need to drink some wine for your stomach's day. And then you go to Romans 14. He says, look, if you're in a situation where someone is weak in the faith and you need to be strong and help that. That is correct. So in that context, it was talking about meat, not alcohol. You wouldn't say it's the same. It's fine and you drink in front of him. He's tempted. And he's an alcoholic. Right. So you wouldn't want to do that because that context would you laid it up. I got another email, you know, because the other day you said, you know, the stock market, let's face it, Jay says gambling. And I kind of agree with him.

And, but I got this long letter, you know, it was like. Not that it was sinful, idiot, but you are. But betting. It was like, tell your dad. that the stock market is not gambling and here's why and he laid out this long thing you know he's like about your you're investing in companies and yeah look generally i i agree with him except you know i know the stock market look it's not the company it's what you think about the company it was kind of a misstatement here that i read and i'm like he don't understand no you're gambling on what you think's going to happen to the company because look just because you own it and just because they have great numbers, that don't mean the stock's going to go up.

Because everybody else has got to, what makes it goes up. And they might be fudging on their numbers too. Here you go. And so look, it's the same principle. We're going to get back to self-control. Now, look, if you take all your money and all your family's money and you start buying penny stocks or day trading, well, guess what's going to happen? You're going to lose all your money.

So, is that? It's the same thing by thinking you can beat Vegas, right? Is it sinful? I'd say, yeah. You're messing up because you're not providing for your family. You're misusing what God gave you. But what happened was you lost control of fruit. That's why when you read that, I thought, we never talk about that.

Not very much. The fruit of the spirit is self-control. That's why I hesitated before I said it and I said, I was thinking, this is a doozy here. There's a lot. There's a lot of categories where you have an opportunity to use self-control. That may blur the lines because what people want to do, and that's why I was referring to the church beliefs, is they take the Bible like a college course.

Tell me what I do and tell me what I don't do. And therefore now I know if I pass the test, God will put me in. Let me give you a good example. You miss one thing. The grace of Jesus. You missed it. Let me give you a good example. The other day, the local redneck who works for me in that I give him a retainer,

I pay him every month. He gets a check. Whether I call on him or not, I've got him there to where he knows he's got a check when I do call. and say, get the track hole, and I want that track hole down here next Friday at 7 o'clock. I said, you got it? He said, I got it. So it's like the president has the red phone. Your red phone is the red phone.

I'm glad you're bringing this up because I have an issue with the local redneck who works for you. But go ahead. Finish your story. So the local redneck, this redneck, I bought a truck. He drives it. He drives the truck that I. own most trucking companies if the person who buys the truck they hire the driver and they get the money for what he hauled and then they pay him but in this case i said you get it all it's my truck but you drive it but the stipulation is you have to get off food stamps welfare and all that

you're taking my money anyway i'd rather you take it being productive than sitting around and making taking money from the government. So I'm going to alleviate the welfare roles by one man, you. I said, so you're letting him use your truck to make a living. And he's thinking about it. He's thinking about it. And he said, he has to work for you when called upon. I'm just explaining that I know the arrangement. I know the arrangement. If I want a load of gravel, I say, red, get me a load of rag gravel. He said, how big you want the rocks? And I tell them what size rocks I want. I said, get it down here. Get it down there by tomorrow and I said, I'll tell you, I'll show you what I want to put it. So he says, done. And he does it. Well, he came by the other day and he said, I got a good deal for you.

And I said, I said, speak freely. He said, I can get you, I can get you, I can get you, I can get you two bulldozers, one big about the size of one you already have, and a little smaller one, two bulldozers. There's a backhoe. and he said that's him with the stuff and he said there's a 20 foot trailer with walls and a roof on it one of them enclosed trailers they've got a they've got a

table saw I would have interrupted and said what is this stolen merchandise that's why it calls for patients you're hearing something from the local redneck and he said got a welding machine it's there also a tractor these are I said how old is this equipment

what vintage is it what year he said most of it's 80s it's older equipment he said you can get all of this for $8,000 so I said I'm out I know I said so here's what you do I said you go back over there you bring me pictures of all this equipment yeah I want to see pictures yeah this is the bad deal this not going to end well I hope but it didn't do it but it does end well oh oh so I'm listening and I said, go over there. I want pictures of the equipment. And I said, I want to look at it. Well, if the police pull up here in the next 30 minutes, I'm out of here. I'll tell you that. They won't hear it for a few days. I said, number two, after you take the pictures, Mr. Redneck, I said, I want you to get on each vehicle, get your truck up there if you need to jump them off.

I said, see if they'll crank. He said, what? I said, see if they will run. But he's a mechanic. That's why I told him. I said, see what they're, see if you can get them cramped. Well, he comes back with the pictures. I said, did you start them all up? He said, yes. I said, did they move when you put them in gear and you took off in the bulldozer

and then the backhoe? Then all of this moved, the tractor. Did you go around the circle? He said, I drove every one of them. He said, add to show up. Did you ever ask him, are they stolen? I'm getting all that. I said, who is the person you're getting this from?

Because I need to know, get that information. how did this equipment come to be all stacked over? I've been there for a couple of years. So that's why I said, crank them. I want to know if they'd run or they're just pieces of junk. He said they're all run, they're smooth. Now, he's a mechanic, so he knows, you know, if you've got blue smoke poured out of something bad, wrong.

He said, the little leak on some of the seals, you know, and all that. That just seems like a really cheap price. Well, so he goes over. He does all that. When he comes back after he went over there and did what I told him, he said 15. Okay. I said, who's the person who has him?

It's a widow. Her husband died two years ago. He was a diesel mechanic, so he knew how to work on vehicles and all that. And I said, I tell you what, Red. So he told you eight just to get you interested. I said, I'll tell you what? And then moved it up to 15. I said, can we resale some of this stuff?

You'd think if we had to sell it? Oh, boy. If I just take it and sell it. We think we can sell it. He said, no doubt about it. So the deal is. ended with this. So currently, right now, I have the small dozer, the backhoe, the trailer, the tractor, the Lincoln Welder. So I've got that on my premises. But you were never a part of the

big dozer. We ran it in the paper. The big dozer, it had been, but two weeks ago. The big dozer, some guy came along said, I gave you $3,000 for that big dozer. And I said, and Red said, what about it? And I said, tell him 4,500. So he says 4,500. The 4500 came to me. So the 15 now is down to 9,500. Okay, I have one question, Phil. So here's the deal. I got spare if you need one. I got a spare dozer, a spare backhoe. If you need to haul anything, I got to trade. You say, could you sell all this stuff and make about 10 grand? I could. But I decided to keep most of it because I've always got another back hole in case this one tears up. You don't want to get in the junk vehicle business. I've never been in the junk business. I'm just telling you what I did.

I think we're there. I am now. So hang on. Let's take a break. But if your question is, was it a gamble? No, no. Hold on. That's not my more pertinent question. I was wondering where this was going. My question is, my question is, what's to keep him from telling you 15, taking the seven? let's say it was the eight. Because I baptized him into the death barrel of resurrection of Jesus. I converted him when he was 17 years old and now he's about your age. So you say, has he ever crossed you and you have caught him stealing anything from you? I said, not one time.

You say, he's a brother. I'm helping my brother out. It does seem weird that it went from 8 to 15. and so I was thinking, well, what if he said? I took that into consideration. He said, it's 15 instead of eight. And I said, but, Red, I tell you. I mean, that's a pretty big jump.

I said, if I wanted to make money at it by just buying it and set on it, I said, I could make a few dollars that of it. All right, well, let me tell you. So I decided to keep most of it. And it all does run, like he said. So it was a gamble. Okay. All right, well, here's my question.

So you were gambling that. Red, I'm trying, I mean, Jay's, I'm trying to get you to see, son, that you You have to have faith sometime, even in a redneck. All right, well, I'm glad you brought this up. And you gambled on the equipment. We were supposed to be in John today, but now this is turned into real life. Well, let me tell you, because he... This is kingdom living, Jay.

He worked for you, right? Love your neighbor. He happened to be a redneck. Well, I had a situation. He said, brother. Now, baptize all of them, family members, but you say, how many stuck? This one here is the only one stuck. Well, let me get to my point.

He's my family, too. So yesterday, all right, I'm... I need a trailer. Now, I don't know if you've heard about this, but it'll be the first time. I'm ready to roll up my station. I got the report from Dan the unit. Jay, so I keep up with it. Let me tell you the truth.

Here's what happened. He gets information. So I call. I know your Argo was going out. You needed somebody today. Who'd you call, though, when you wanted something done? Yep. I called Jay, and I said, Jay, call Dan and tell him to go get my trailer.

Now, that may seem a shock to you because probably through the years you've forgotten. I bought a very nice trailer, I would say, seven, eight years ago. And I said, Phil, use it whenever you need it. Treat it like it's yours. I've come and gotten it maybe twice in seven years and used it. But so here's what happened. Well, Phil, it's my trailer. I paid the money for it.

Phil acquired it. But he had the same deal going with the local redneck. So now my trailer is being. being used by the local redneck, which I'm fine with. Here was the problem. When I called Jay, Jay called your man. Oh, you know your trailer. Dan calls Jay back and says, uh, Jimmy, or, maybe we shouldn't call his name.

The local redneck has, uh, all of Phil's trailers, and they're all being used. That's the word I got. He's working hard. I said, you tell Dan to call me. right now. So Dan called and I said, Dan, one of those trailers, the nicest looking one, that's mine. I said, I don't mind the local Redneck using it under the agreement that Phil has. However, I use it from time to time.

And when I want it, part of the agreement, because I'm going to tell you the Jace agreement, when I want my trailer, guess what? I have it immediately. Dan found the trailer. I will admit. Let me finish the story. When I drive by the redneck's house up there. I feel like I'm a mediator here.

If somebody says, if somebody says, there's a lot of equipment out there in that redneck's yard, how did he do that? It's kind of. I remind them, I said 90% of that equipment is mine. I said, he's just barring it and he's forgotten to bring it back. But I know where it is. All right. So look in my yard from my equipment, if it's not there, I'll go over to the lair with the barn. we take off from the hunt.

If it's not there, guess what? I go to red. So let me interject one thought here, Jay. I always find it. Okay, I want to interject one thought. For our audience that may not, was trying to picture what the local rednecks empire looks like, go to YouTube and type in Sanford and Son. Sanford and Son.

It's an old show from way back when a couple of guys out in L.A. When you see that, this is what we're talking about. All right. So Dan calls me back about 30 minutes later. He said, I found your trailer. I was like, of course. He said, there's a problem. He, it's loaded down.

I said, Dan, I don't think you're understanding. I only use this trailer once over three or four years. So all these problems are not your problem. I said, I'm going to pay you, I understand it. I said, I'm going to pay you $100 to do this. You take everything that's on that trailer off of it right now. and you hook it up. Yeah, I said, I'm going to give you 100 because I know, because he said, it's a lot of stuff.

He said, where do you want me to put it? I was like, it's not my problem. Take the stuff off the trailer. Put that trailer on your rig and bring it up here. Did you get the trailer and get the Argo to the back? Two hours later, he pulled up in my yard. I handed him $100. I said, good job.

He said, I don't think he's going to be real happy about that. Life is good. I said, I don't. I went Tommy. That's proven my point. Al's life. Trust the rednecks, the baptize was. Don't trust the rest of that.

He said, I don't think he's going to be happy about that. And I went Tommy Lee Jones. I said, I don't care. I thank God every day for the rednecks. So here's what's funny. So he got my argo because I have a brand new argo. No one else. Hey, Al, you know what?

Hey, no one else has ever reached out to most of them. Because we've got this thing going about, okay, a bunch of women. Phil, I'm not knocking your agreement. I was just reminding. minding you that I have a trailer up there. And look, so when I drove down today, I passed by. Do you see where the stuff was on the ground? Oh, yeah.

It didn't move. But here's what's funny about it. Again, thanks, San Bernardinson. And I see my trailer there because he's brought it back. You know, that was weird to me. I thought he just brought it back. But he didn't love the stuff back. Oh, no, no.

But then I looked over across the road with his same stuff. There's two other trailers over there. That's what I'm trying to tell you. The man's got three trailers, and he tried. I'm using it. Oh, no, I'm using it. Hey, those other trailers? Well, they're yours.

They're my trailers. Well, I know. We got a lot of trailers, yet. More trailers than we can use and your belly aching. That's why, Jay's, fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, Jays, patience, kindness. Welcome to Redneck Mediation. Hang on, let's take another break. Oh, I needed this.

I needed to get that off my chest. You've vented. I've vented. I was hot for five minutes. I'll admit. Oh, I'm waiting. I never get hot, Jason. He said, I didn't realize that.

You know, because then Dan felt bad. He said, I didn't realize it was your traitor. And I was like, well, now that you understand that. Jason, I'm asking you a question. Yeah. When's the last time you saw me through a bit of rage? Oh, it's been a while. It's been a while.

Years. I'm just saying. Yeah. We grow. We hear something. We say, okay, you grow from it. you learn from it, and you move on. Right.

I mean, you're not going to, I don't expect everybody to be, we're all sinners. Well, and like your. So I reach out to the local rednecks and such. And our congregation, I say this with pride, we're half African American, half white. And I told them, I said, this is where it should be. I said, we're eating together. We've got a big meal there. The homeless come in.

They don't care what color there are. They come in. We all have a meal. We remember Jesus. I point them to Jesus. We've got the SWAT guys, the police. They've been converted. I converted them.

And they're there. And one of them kind of tongue and cheek said, Robinson, I don't want to hurt your feelings. He said, but I've arrested a good portion of your congregation before. I said, so what do you think now? And the police officer said, y'all are doing great with these people he said i just you got to remember unless we operate like that in our society we will end up with what we now have this argument of the

day we're just human beings on the side of the right there's no black churches white churches we're all together here it's a great point about you talked about reaction i thought about it so this summer on our family vacation we had a we had an episode one of our one of our one of our family members, a teenager, all of a sudden, there's smoke coming out of their bedroom and someone next door calls a fire department. We got the fire department showing up at our big house. I was there. And Jason was there.

You're talking about reactions. And so our young family member comes and says he was just sitting there on the phone. And all of a sudden, his bag, his suitcase, you know, spontaneously combusted and just caught on fire. That was the story. That was the initial story. He had some fireworks in there that he probably should have had. No, he shouldn't that?

Fireworks inside a suitcase. He found some fireworks at a duck commander. Right. Because I think he used to sell them. Yeah, he's one of our family members. How did he be get to be our family member? Adoption. Well, we adopted him.

Okay, I got you. Well, we were trying to protect the innocent here, Phil. We're trying to stay a little bit bag on. Feels like, hey, what happened? Which one was it? He hadn't heard this story. I didn't hear about the fireworks in the suitcase right now. So what happened was, since we're going here, for some reason, everybody takes on a roll here.

This is the point I wanted to make. Jessica got the fire out. Because it's panic. It's pandemonium in the house. She turned into a bulldo. You know what I mean? Out of my way, you know. Which I like this.

She took charge. Oh, she's fantastic. How old is this young man? He's young. He's a teenager. And so I, though, thought, you know what? I need to find out what happened here. Now, everybody was being encouraging.

let's get to fire. Is everybody okay? You use it as a teaching moment. Well, I just thought, here I am. And look, we had to deal with the fire department. They show up, you know, so we're having. And this may help families that are listening to this. That's why I wanted to bring them.

You have somebody, I thought, what do I need to do here? Because it was a very traumatic thing. I mean, kids are crying. It was scary. I mean, when I'm talking about it wasn't just a little flame. There's smoke. When I walked down there, you could not see your hand in front of your face. Fireworks and a suitcase have that, have that, have the,

have that mark. Well, once they catch on fire. Oh, yeah. When she opened the door, I mean, his room is in flames. Well, the kid had an experiment of some type going on. Well, yeah. That's where we're getting. And so I said, how did this happen?

And, you know, he was quick because, look, I was a kid. I've had kids. I understand your first line of defense is to lie. Yeah. This goes back to Adam and Eve and the garden. You know, who told you there were fireworks in the bag, you know. That was my, you know, who told you were a naked moment. And he said, well, I heard the fuse go off.

I thought. Now, first he said it just exploded. Spontaneous. He said, I heard a fuse. No, no, let me back up. He said it spontaneously combust it. And I said, well, how'd your hand get burned? Because I looked at his hand.

You know, I had some ice on his hand. And there was powder burns. I did a little mini-investigation. Oh, Dave took on the roll as investigation. I said, well, how'd your hand get burned? Well, then I saw his mind racing, which I knew he was lying because I'm like, why is your mind, right? Why are you thinking? You were watching the puzzle.

He said, well, I heard the fuse ignite. I said, what were you doing when you heard the fuse ignite? He said, I was on the phone. I said, so let me get this right. You're on the phone, and all of a sudden you hear what you know is a fuse going off in your bag. I said, I've been around you, your whole life. You're not paying that close attention. You're not here.

Hey, hang on. There's a fuse. There's a bomb going off in my bag. I know the sound. And I didn't have anything to do with writing it. I said, now you're expecting me to believe that? I said, just go ahead and come clean. He's like, no, that's what happened.

So, and then I put my hand down to try to put out the fire. I said, well, there's a difference in having your hands burned, but you have powder burns. You, the explosion got your hands because I'm looking at it. I said, police, they do test to see if you have powder burns. I said, I don't need one. I can see. You got powder burns on both hands. You're going like CSI on it.

So I said, let's go to your room. And he said, well, why? I said, well, if this spontaneously combust it, of course, the firemen have already been there. And he gave them some fireworks. But he gave them the ones that didn't go off. Right. So he had more. And I said, let's go to your room.

I said, because if this combustion happened, we got 40-something people in here. What if it happens again? Yeah, we don't want it going off all right. And we all die. And he's like, okay that's that's that's that's a good point and i said so on the way of that i said do you realize in the history of mankind that a firework or any kind of fire for that matter has never just occurred this is the first without a cause and he said i didn't realize that i said yeah what you're

saying happened has never happened in the history of mankind of the world i said you know when you wake up and see the sun i said you know what the sun is he went a burning star i said yeah i said who started it he said i didn't know there was a starter i was like oh yeah there has to be a cause i said that's why we believe in god we believe he struck the match he's like oh okay so i start hang on just let's take one last break so i start going through his room and i he said what are you looking for i said i'm looking for what started that fire because we've already established that fires don't, don't happen at random. It's never happened.

He's like, yeah, I didn't realize that. I said, do you have anything in this room that may cause or start a fire? And he's like, nope. I said, what is that thing right there? And he said, that's a laser. I said, I think lasers can start fires. He said, not this one. Ooh.

I said, really? Uh-oh. I said, well, let me have that. Not this one. I said, is there any, I said, you sure? Because I thought I had the smoking gun, the laser. So I'll go over and Google this model, it won't start a fire. So I thought, huh.

So I'll go back over because Missy said, well, I saw him, he had a laser one day, and that wasn't it. I said, oh, okay, there's another laser. And Jayce is on the case. Jay's pretty good police work. Yeah, so I walked back over, and I said, I need that other laser. And he said, I didn't say I had one. I said, I know Missy did because she saw it. He said, oh, yeah.

He said, I know. That laser. I open up. Because I already asked him, is there anything in here that it started fire? I pull out this laser. Look, this thing looked like some kind of futuristic. Well, it looked like a lightsaber to me. A lightsaber gun from Star Wars.

How does a 15-year-old kid get this thing? Well, he ordered it without. about anyone's knowledge created a fake email account so there was no paper trail. Oh, this was a naughty, naughty move. And it had a magnifying glass on it. Well, look, I got the model. I just Googled it right there looking at him. I said, well, this started fire?

And he's like, I'm not sure. I said, well, you were sure that that first one wasn't. But you're not sure about this one. I said, you know what I think that means? Oh, it'll start a fire. I said, I'm thinking I see how this happened. So when I googled it, the page that came up, it said, Perfect for Lighting Fireworks.

Oh, boy. I was like, look at this. Now it's all coming together. We got a winner here, boys. So let me get this right. You're in the bed. Your bag is beside you. You had this magnetic, I mean, magnifying rock.

And you could take a laser and just go to that fuse. And then you went, oh, I said, the reason you heard it go off. is because you made it go off. And you thought, oh, this thing does work. Help me, my hands are burned up. So here's the... Ladies and gentlemen, you're hearing a story about chow rearing and the redneck world. But here's the part of the story I want to tell the audience because it was a reaction.

That night, it's pandemonium. Jace is on the case. He gets to the bottom of it. The next day, Jace is already heading home. So he goes home with him. I thought about that. I said, man, they're going to have, he's going to have six hours with Jay's on the ride back. There's going to be some.

Well, that was kind of plant. Willie called and said, I'm going to come get him. And I said, Willie, I'll just bring him. You know, I don't. Why drive seven? You know, I'm ready to go anyway. I'm quarantined at the beach, you know. That's right.

And I said, and it'll be a perfect situation for us to get to know each other better. Getting to know you. So anyway, they come back. Here's what I love about it. So we get a text. from our nephew the next day and said, I want to call everybody and tell the truth about last night. You know, so after his ride home with Jace, on his own, because I don't know that anybody told him any different, he said, I want to call all my cousins and, you know, my aunts and uncles,

and I want to tell the truth about what happened. And he did. And so I just thought it was such a great thing because we reacted in a way that we had to parent him because his parents weren't there. The results could have been far worse. Far worse. We were fortunate that we didn't have a bad thing. that went on look i'm like jace i was the tv remember jays when when uh my lifestyle was ratting me out but

i was such a good liar so jay saw a bunch of beer bottles in the in the back of my car and he thought i got him now so he goes and tells mom i think that you know you want to see what he's up to go down there and look at so she opens up that trunk and there's a number three wash tubber an ice just full of beer bottles and so mom's like she brings me over there she said what is this and i said well we were cleaning up the beach the other day and They decided to do a good work. They were all the same brand. So you haven't been in this young man's...

What I'm saying is I can relate to just lying, you know, just to avoid trouble. And so we all recognized that what I thought was a different ending that maybe happens with a lot of families is we could have all been mad, panicked. Our vacation is ruined and all that. And there was some of that in the first 30 minutes. It was tough. I mean, when the fire department's... showing up at your house. And I don't like being lied to it. And I was looking at him like, repent or perish. I'm just being honest. You know what I mean? I, I was hot. He took the hard

life. As I would say, I recommended to Joel Olstein one time. Osteen, just come on out with it, turn or burn. Yeah. Well, we had that moment, but I loved it because, and so, you know, what was what I loved about it is the reaction. Like, once they left, you know, some of the cousins are making up, Rowdy started the fire, you know, the old Billy Joel song. And I was, don't start all that, you know, don't go in and tell them. So, but, so what we said was, I heard it by saying, you know what, it's okay. We forgive you. Which he need to hear that.

He need to hear that I messed up. I'm telling the truth. And our family still loves you. I mean, I was like, hey, I can't wait to get back. That was the overall theme was that you messed up. But look, but these things before he wasn't telling the truth, they were still saying that. But on the way home, you know, and it took, it took, it took, it took, five of the first six hours to get to a point to where we're like, look, coming clean

is part of the process. Using this as a deterrent for other people and, you know, showing God's grace, this is how we operate. We don't keep secrets. It's a good thing for our audience to hear stories like this because it tells you, we're giving you a glimpse of actually the age old dealing with sin. and loving each other, the fruit of the spirit. That's where we started.

That's what launched this conversation. That's right. So to wrap it up, because we're out of time, is just what you said, Dad, that if the fruit of the spirit is our guiding influence, that's Galatians 522, by the way, read that passage. And when stuff happens, even bad stuff, figure out how you're going to react as a believer. And you don't want to overreact, which is what we're seeing to a lot of stuff today.

So I think it's a great lesson for all of it. I'm glad it turned up well for y'all. That's why you don't go on vacation with him. Hey, that's why I don't do beaches with the family members. It might catch on fire. No, I'm just thinking, let's say, a lot of water, you can't drink any of it, there's no shade, sand is getting an ever oars of your body, half-naked women running around. That's just this side of hell. And now that's what a beach is.

And now suitcases are spontaneous combust. Now you've got suitcases up in your room blowing up. Well, they were half-naked in 1970. They're about three-quarters. Oh, it's worse than half. So I've heard. Stay away from beaches. Have fun of the beach.

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