Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1137 | How ‘Duck Dynasty’ Brought a Broken Soldier Back to Life

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

Jase, Al, and Zach sit down with former soldier and police officer Blake Cook as he shares his powerful testimony of hitting rock bottom and finding redemption in Jesus. He opens up about trauma from war and law enforcement, a near-death experience, and the phone call that saved his life from suicide. Blake explains how Duck Dynasty first sparked his curiosity about God, leading him to fully surrender and forgive his father. The guys reflect on the beauty of true surrender, weaponized worship, and the parable of the lost sheep. In this episode: Colossians 1, verses 15–17; Colossians 2, verses 9–13; Colossians 3, verses 1–4; 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3; Romans 7, verses 21–25; Luke 15, verse 4 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. You ever feel like you're drinking out of a fire hose? That's a walk in this morning. It was like, I mean, what is happening here? Yeah. I felt like as I come in, our pets' heads are falling off. I mean, it's just, what's happening? It's when I come in town, I try to stack it all in into one. Oh, you're responsible? You're all in a circus out there?

It's me. I mean, so I'm in the other room. I hear Saigon wide open, which means the duck car room is fully engaged. We got I am second out here. Sadie's going. Yeah, and I walk right by Zach and thought he worked here. And it was a new employee. I did not recognize it.

Totally ignored me. Well, I didn't know you were coming and I just didn't. I didn't expect anything, though, because like we said, you know, you come to town, drive through my hometown, Black Mountain. That doesn't stop. So why would you stop for me in the warehouse? Yeah, and you had camouflage on Well, since he's been here, this is my second day with Zach.

He's only worn Duck Commander merchandise. So I guess now he just doesn't bring a bag. I may. I may or may not have cheap free merch while I'm here. While I'm in town, dress me. But to be fair, this is free product placement. You know what I mean? So I think Willie and Corey, they're getting there.

They're getting a fair end of the deal. I think we heard Jay's that two days ago he was grabbing about his vacation about how costly everything was the last time we did a podcast. Today he comes, though, he's just like, feed me and dress me.

I mean, that's... Zach, I feel like we've come to a point in our relationship. I'm going to have to tell you. I'm going to give you some advice. Yes, sir. Not that I'm smarter or no more. I just feel like in this situation,

I'm going to say it's the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the caveat. The Holy Spirit has moved me this morning. And I'm going to say, I think what you need to do Yeah, is go sell everything you have and follow it to do. Well, it's not too hard for him to sell everything you have because he does that about every five years. Yeah, we total sellout, move to a new place, flips it up.

You've been longer at this house you're out now than you have been. It's the longest. We've lived in this house longer than we've ever lived in any house that we've ever lived in. Yeah. And I just keep saying, God bless your wife. She's the problem. What he's talking about? God bless my wife.

She's the one that wants to turn over. She's the rock of y'all's job. I'm a creature of habit. Yeah. So, okay. I think Zach got nervous when I told him to have a problem. So where are we at? What are we doing?

Well, we have a guest in the studio today. We're super excited about our guests. And it made me think about, which I'll tease a little bit, that this man has background and law enforcement military as well. And it made me think driving in today about the impact. You know, when you see, when you're driving, so I spend a lot of time in Mississippi, driving back and forth to Alabama. Yeah.

And when I see one of the Mississippi's finest, you know, sitting on the top of a hill perched, you know, ready to catch some speeder, I always think about our reaction to first responders, police officers, and most of the time we're kind of like head on a swivel, making sure we're trying to do the right thing. But, you know, there are circumstances and situations we find ourselves in where one of those folks, man or woman could be a game changer for it. And in my case, that's exactly what happened. I told the story before on the podcast,

but when I was a prodigal wandering, it was a police officer that like, you know that verse that says make the most of every opportunity? Yeah. He saw an 18-year-old lost person, literally lost not only in Christ, but lost. Like living in New Orleans, shouldn't have been there. And he just like spoke words of truth into the moment.

And what's weird is that I don't know his name. name. I don't know anything about him. Like, he had that moment with me then, and, like, I got things lined out. I finally got my life going the right direction. And so now I've got to, like, find him in heaven, you know, just to say, hey, it turned out, you know. Yeah. No, I think it's a bedrock of our society. So we've taken in a daughter from a third world country who was an orphan girl.

And I remember having a conversation with her about, you know, we just take for granted. when there's a problem, you call 911. And she said, in my country, there's no one to call. I mean, that was her quick response. And I just thought, of course, they were going through a civil war and all this. And I just thought, man, I mean. That is a massive statement to live in a place where there's no one to call. I mean, that's scary.

Yeah. I mean, we experienced it to a very, very lesser degree. where we were raised because, you know, my dad, people thought it was a joke, but he said where I live, I am 911. And there was a lot of truth in that because any kind of domestic disturbance or whatever that's going on out there where we were raised, by the time somebody got down there, it's over. Yeah.

And so my dad just took it upon himself to be the dispute seller. We had that happen one time when I was out there. we were we were spending the night on Christmas Eve because we were hunting on Christmas Day because most of the rest of the family you had decided years ago you'd spend that with your kids well my kids were bigger and so we stayed out at mom and dads and they had just put a new fireplace in and they didn't do it properly and so underneath caught on fire the floor joyce and his own dad's house and he woke up smelling it like at three in the morning and we're in there with sledge hammers,

busting, pouring water, running around. Anna was over there picking out her presence, taking them outside. She wasn't getting everybody's presence. She was just picking through to get her. She was a Robertson. But it was funny, we did all this, and basically dad,

me and dad, but mostly dad, put this fire out. We had called 911, but by the time they got there, we had it done or otherwise the whole house was... Well, I showed up because it was duck season. Yeah.

And I walked in, and I was like, what's going on? So when the fire department got there, they come in, they put more water on all that. And dad's like, all right, we're out of here. We're heading to the blind. Oh, I know. I was shocked. I was like, oh, you're going hunting today?

And he's like, what are you talking about? There's just this mess. What kind of question is that? Which is kind of crazy. So, all right, we all ready to bring the guests on them? Mr. Blake Cook. All right. Blake Cook.

So we'll introduce our guests on the other side. Let's take a break. So welcome back to Unashamed. Welcome Blake Cook to the Unashamed podcast. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm super excited. Yeah. So our old friend Chad Robeshow, because I didn't know who you were, and like most people, when I hear a new name, of course, I Google it. So I listed some of your interviews you've done. You have quite the story. But our friend Chad Robesho sends me out of the blue. He says, oh, you guys are having Blake on your podcast. He's awesome. And we love us some Chad Rovishov. Appreciate that, Chad.

Yeah, there you go. So how do you know, Chad? What's the connection there? The veteran community and the elite community is a pretty small community in general. So just, you know, obviously I went on the Sean Ron show and it's a massive platform. And a marathon interview. Yeah, yeah, five and a half hours filmed. Oh, wow.

This will seem like nothing compared to Sean Ryan. You may need an agent on that kind of arrangement. You can always say, no, make it too. It was, you know, we got there and, you know, I was all jacked up on caffeine. Oh, yeah. I was, like, super nervous, super excited. But by the end of it, I was like, I'm over this. I probably cried, like, 20 times in that interview.

And we got into some really deep stuff. And that's something you kind of got a problem with Sean. It's like, hey, when you go on, like, I want it all. Like, we're not hiding nothing. And that's just one of those things that, you know, if I promise you that, And I'm going to give you everything. And, you know, I come from old school country. So a man's word is all he has, truly.

So I went on there and I just, it got heavy. It got deep. Yeah. And it was good, man. And a lot of people watched it. I think it's got like two million views in six months. Yeah. Just on YouTube.

So it's been good. It was good to, it's the first time of my life I've ever done something in my adult life that I was able to truly start my healing process. Yeah. Right. Because I've always, you know, we keep it in and we move on. Yeah. You know, we'll just keep pushing.

You know, why am I going to trauma dump on her or trauma dump on my family? Yeah. Am I going to tell my friends about it? Like, they're going to think that I'm too weak. Maybe I'm not operational enough to keep pushing. So we're going to bottle it up and move on. But, man, to be able to just get all of that out was great. And the moment that I left that studio, I left a different person.

It was almost like a big counseling session to go along with this to, to a podcast, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was... Sometimes it's cathartic, you know, to have those moments. It was a good therapy session. I always think, Sean, thank you. You're the best therapist I've ever had.

And, but, you know, when I walked in there, I was a different person when I left. I was on the process of being healed. Yeah. Which has really started my journey to my walk with Jesus. Right.

I've always been religious, right? I've always been to church. But I never understood. understood the expectations of how I needed to perform. Yeah, right. And all Jesus wants is your love and faith. That's right. Now, it's so good.

And so much what we talk about in this podcast. So I want to get into that because I know our show had some to do with your process. But you mentioned her, dump on her, and you kind of glanced over your wife is here off camera watching today. And we've discovered after five minutes with her that she fits right in with our wives because she's very, feisty and she knows how to deal with her man right yeah she's my biggest supporter she's um she's literally carried me in times where i couldn't even stand yeah and kept me pushing and she dusted me off when the world beat me down yes go good and said hey like get back up yeah you know job's not job's not finished right and uh without her i'll i won't even know if i'd even be here

yeah so you read that text in genesis too when it talks about man being incomplete and and and needing more because it's not good for him to be alone. Those of us that have walked through hard times, we know what a wife can do. I don't doubt about that. That's part of the blessing. So we were talking before you came on about the show, impacted you, the little duck show, we call it now.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, the Duck Dynasty had an impact on you at a sort of a crucial moment. Tell the audience about that, how it impacted you? Man, I don't even know the word. Impact's not even a powerful enough word. for that. I joined the Army when I was 21.

I got deployed when I was 22. Four months into that deployment vehicle in front of me and the vehicle that I was in, we both ran over an IED, which at the time I was told it was approximately 500 pounds. And then, you know, basically I finished, I did physical speech, memory, and physical therapy for two years at, um, while, Mac Army Medical Center in their traumatic brain injury pipeline. And I think, because you have computer access and stuff over there a little bit. So I would see clips of Duck Dynasty because it just came out like I think the spring of 2012.

That's right. And, you know, so I always kept seeing it and stuff. But then when I started my physical therapy, my physical therapist named was Sheila. And she was all about Doug Dynasty. And so one morning we were doing some walking stuff And I looked up, it was on the TV And I just sitting there, I was watching it And it's funny, it's, there's no cussing

People are talking about Jesus on a public, massive platform, Which is like, Back then, nobody's doing that. Nobody's doing that. And then at the end, when you guys are sitting around the table, and I hear Phil pray, man, it was like, as a kid, as a 22-year-old kid who,

is now having to restart things. You know, it's because, you know, it's natural to be upset, right? When you grow up as a kid in church, Southern Baptist. And, you know, my dad always pushed us to go to church, took us to church camp. And it's almost like, man,

how can you let this happen to me? Like, I'm 22. I'm just going over here trying to serve my country. Like, but I mean, ultimately I was grateful all six friends on that deployment. at least I was able to come home. Yeah. And so every day I did speech memory and physical therapy,

four days a week, three times a day. It was a long, long road. And every time I was there, it was Duck Dynasty, whether it was the same episode playing over and over. But, you know, I kept hearing, no cussing, no praying, men talking about Jesus. And to be honest with you, listen, we watched that for two years.

and that really brought me back down and evoked my curiosity. You know, we started going to church and things like that. And it really grounded me. And then when I became a law enforcement officer, it was, you know, people don't call 911 when they're having the greatest day of their life. That's right. They call 911 when they're having, they're in their worst moment of their life. Exactly.

So, you know, I became a police officer in 2014, medically retired, in the beginning of 2021. But, you know, my first call ever, day one, I was a rookie. Mother's child, she called in a missing kid. Couldn't find her kid. Kid didn't go to school. She didn't check the basement. She knew, I think.

So we walked down in the basement. Day one, kid had hung himself with an extension cord. And I had to be the one as a rookie to go tell the mom this happened. And then it was just like things just, you know, Fayville, North Carolina. is an extremely dangerous high gang riddled all 595 drug trafficking

human trafficking gangs cartel like you know so it just it was every day it was like it was dead people and violence

and stabbing and just evil and that and that really makes you if you're not truly understanding who Jesus is

and God like it's really hard to stay on path. So what all war fighters do, which I've been preaching like crazy not to do, is you started drinking. You know, you, uh, that's why I tell people all the time, you know, we drink to run from something, you know, I really think that we could stop suicide if you put the bottle down and pick the book up. Yeah. When you pick the bottle up, you're running from something. When you

pick the Bible up, you're running to something. Yeah, right. And that's Jesus. And I wish I had that in my law enforcement career. But I tell you something that I did have. And the reason why I'm sitting here is I had you guys on TV. It's okay. I had you guys during some of the most crucial time of my life in those seven years. Yeah. Yeah, I was drinking.

Yeah, I wasn't acting right. But you guys still kept me somewhat grounded. Still kept me somewhat curious. You still evoked in my curiosity. You still made me want to be like you. Yeah. The world was beating me down. Yeah.

The devil was beat me down, forcing me to achieve those goals. Right. And, man, I still maintained curiosity. I still went to church when I could. I just wasn't walking the right way. Yeah. I couldn't figure that out. But that, man, Doug Donacy just, I don't know if I would be here.

Yeah. If I wasn't constantly reminded of, Jesus. The prayers at the end of the shows and how you guys just talk about God and who you are as men bold in your faith, man, it just does something to somebody. And I know I'm not the only one out there that has been through this. So it has felt this way. But you know, my time as a police officer had to go away.

My mental health was hitting rock bottoms. I eventually made a gang unit. It was high stress to keep producing, getting guns, putting people in jail, get written up. You know, I started becoming angry. And during this time where I'm hunting all these drug dealers, me and my brother in 2018 had heard that my father was separated from my mother, my whole life, was addicted to drugs.

So we went down to see it with our own eyes. And, man, you talk about something hard to see. You're talking about a man that. Camp us in church camp Camp us in church Knows the Bible Yeah Can repeat scripture

Off the top of his head I'm looking at a man That's addicted to drugs And that's when I became so angry At God How can such a godly man With a snap of your finger Again I didn't know what I know now

Yeah But with a snap of your finger Like come on like Helium Like do something And then it just got worse And worse and worse And then my anger

towards drug dealers got worse and worse and then it was everything was personal yeah and then cussing like i started like i was cussing a lot towards these people and not treating them not treating them with audacity respect like like as i should right um so i'm a medically retired in in 2021 um i actually fought a guy for a gun and my department wanted i told him i was going to use some bad language and told him I was going to kill him. I had the, um, these scars on my finger are from his front sight post where he was ripping his gun out of my hand to try to shoot me with it. And they wanted to suspend me, um, because they didn't, they said it would have sounded bad on the internet.

Yeah. So I met, I went to the bathroom. I cried, you got a medically retired out. And, um, I moved to the beach. I was like, all right, cool, you know. Now you're talking about it was like, which. No wonder I like his. I can't even go to Best Buy without running into some gang member that I've dealt with.

They all know who I am. Yeah. I have a very distinct look. I got my hands tattoo when I was in the gang unit, like the whole nine yards. I'm glad you said that because when I first met you, I knew I didn't want to mess with you. But then I thought, I don't know if I should read him or talk to him. That was my first impression because I all introduced that. It was like, I didn't know, because they don't tell me anything, Blake.

I didn't know you were going to be here. And I don't Google stuff, unless it's a Bible character. And so it was fascinating. But then you started telling your story. And I was like, oh, wow. I mean, this is incredible. My son tells me I look like a Chipotle bag. You ever seen a Spoli bag?

That's so good. That's so good. How old is your son? 17. Oh, he's got a good sense of it. Oh, he does. He would fit it ain't good here. Yeah, he's, man, he watches y'all shows.

Because truly it's what stays on our TV. Yeah. Because we have Roku or whatever. Yeah, yeah. It's going to see all stuff. It just, I mean, it just, it doesn't cuss. It talks about God and. Well, you were talking about it, though, like, it just, it's so humbling for us to hear your story.

And you're right. We've heard others. Because, like, you know, we never. knew. Like, we kind of went into that. You know, we, our family is a hunting family. Yeah. We had filmed our exploits and hunting and, you know, dad was never, he never shied away

from, like, putting it out there. And so we, we were building a brand. We didn't even know what that meant because we were just, everybody was being themselves. Yeah. That was the brand. We didn't know we were building the brand. And so when this whole thing came along, dad famously was like, well, this, this won't work. Like,

Because Willie was the one that really wanted to take it, like, national, you know, and Dad's like, this won't work. Nobody cares about the going zone of our lives and all this stuff. And, you know, we're just trying to kill ducks. You know, that's all people care about when they look at our family. And he said, but he had a caveat. He said, but if the Almighty is behind it, then it'll go gangbuster. It'll be everywhere, and it'll be an impact.

So he left that probability and possibility that God was going to do something with this whole thing. And so what you just described was exactly what we had been praying for that through cameras being around and us just kind of telling our stories and, you know, funny ways and yet showing the spiritual side of who we are, which really wasn't very popular back in that time at all. It was new, like I said. It wasn't really going on.

So to get that opportunity and to know that beyond what you could ever ask or imagine, that God was doing something in the hearts, lives of people. You heard me before you came on describing a police officer that saw an opportunity in me because you're right. It was my worst day of my life up until that point I was 18. But he saw an opportunity and he spoke just a little into me, which sent me back home to that same dad that impacted you. So, you know, that's how God works this thing out. You know, and you just had a near-death experience. Exactly. I mean, you know, some guy tried to kill me because I deserved it, you know, the way I was living. But in that moment, someone saw the opportunity. And so that's the beauty of paying it forward,

which sounds a lot like what you do now, just by telling your story. Because, look, I know from we've had Chad on, we've had Chad Rite on, and some amazing vets that have told amazing stories, but all of their lives are about helping guys to understand some things we can't even understand about what you guys go through. But at the same time, Jesus becomes the ultimate thing that pulls us all together because that we can all see and go well i was just going to bring up you know colosians is one of my favorite books because it it describes jesus you know in a way that's shocking to a lot of people and that here's god becoming a human and i mean if you'd have had jesus and peter standing side beside and you could see that visual you would say well peter's a human and then you look at

Jesus, you'd say, well, it's a human. The difference is it's God becoming a human. And that famous you know, passage that says he's the image of the invisible God, by him, all things were created on heaven and earth, he's before all things, in him, all things hold together. So it's this picture of Jesus. And when he gets to chapter two, he says, in Christ, in Jesus, all the fullness of the godhead or deity lives in bodily form, which is what I'm saying. Then it says, and you've been given fullness in Christ. And I'm just going through to get to the point I want to say here. In verse 13 of chapter 2, it says, when you were dead in your sinful nature,

God made you alive with Christ. And so then when he gets to chapter 3, and this is what I wanted to say in response to you even watching Duck Dynasty, saying, what's this all about? When he gets to chapter three, he says, since then you have been raised with Christ. But he's saying that to people that haven't participated in the bodily resurrection.

Yeah. God has made you alive on the planet. Now. Now in Jesus. So he says, since then you've been raised with Christ, set your heart, hearts on things above where Christ is seated. set your mind on things above not on earthly things and here's the verse i wanted to read to for you died and your life is now hidden with christ in god and so what was hidden about you watching duck dynasty

and i tell people this all the time when they say oh man your show i'm like the draw was not us it was hidden it was christ in us was the appeal and so uh I think that was the draw for you, and that's how, what we came to realize, we didn't realize God was going to use that, but we were unapologetic for our faith in Jesus, and that's the way he used it. So, but you're in the same boat. I think your journey, because God, you know, uses those situations to show Christ and people, despite our flaws in our past.

And it is kind of hidden. it's an invisible that we, you know, come to realize that it's our faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Yeah. But sometimes you're not certain. Like I love, like, at the beginning of your journey, it was like God came in with a curiosity through a TV show, right? Just to foster an imagination for it.

Yeah, just invoked in my curiosity, just a little bit. Yeah. Just a tiny bit. Because you were in a dark spot there in that whole, like, the window that you're talking about right now. Yeah. And it was like God gave you enough. of just, hey, I'm going to throw this out there, and this is going to create a curiosity for the

kingdom. Plus, I love the way you framed it, like that even in the moment you first get the nugget, sometimes it takes some time and living and not getting it right for a while before you finally clearly see what you need to see. And I love that you describe that, because a lot of people listen and they think, well, I love what you guys are saying, man, I love the word of God, but I'm just not there. I mean, I'm still having this internal battle. that goes on. And so it's hard to talk patients to folks that are going through that because you're like, look, the nugget is real and the nugget is right. It just, it has to then reveal itself to you where then you can totally grasp it, which obviously you've done. I think, you know, I truly believe

that to have a testimony to give out to people, you have to be put through a test. Yeah. And, you know, when we moved to the beach, I thought that was going to be peaceful, but it wasn't peaceful because I was running from something. I was running from leaving the job that I loved so much, and I was so good at. Are you still drinking at this point? Oh, man, so one of my good buddies owns a bar at the beach.

And, man, you know, Wilmington, fishing town, drinking problem. Now, we always laughed about that. I didn't understand what that was, but, you know, I had no purpose. Yeah. I had no job. I was, you know, at the time, I was still pretty big on social media.

So, but they only liked me because I was posting tactical stuff. Yeah. They didn't know anything about me. Right. So I didn't have anything else to post. I was drinking. And, you know, I gave the world a front row seat to me destroying myself. And so I did that for about a year and a half, about two years, actually, drinking.

I'd lose my family. it just I was like you know it's just I'm un-alcoholic it's just a culture here yeah like and you know I didn't really have any support because everybody that was around was drinking and and then I got a phone call from my aunt judy that my dad was done and uh so I was like I this is my opportunity I'm on a cop anymore I can get down there and help him so I spent about three months trying to help him got him in the hospital and ultimately didn't work out the last phone call that I had with him at that time. He was getting arrested and he called me and thought I had this magical power not

for him to go to jail or something. You pretty much said, I'll be okay in jail. You know, you weren't even worthy to save me. And I went into self-destruction mode. And then ultimately, to be honest, a couple months later, I sat in a vehicle and roll my windows down was going to take my life and as I went to pick a gun up to do it

my good friend Kyle calls and the phone rang so I picked the phone up instead of the gun well right before I did all this I'll put my head on the steering wheel and I said God I'm sorry I'm tired please don't send me to hell please don't send me to hell and in that moment when I finished that prayer, I didn't know it at the time,

but I know it now fully surrendered to his will. Right. And that's why my phone rang. Yeah. Oh, I agree. That was a divine appointment. So your dad, you didn't know he was a drug addict growing up, or was he a drug addict?

Or did he come? No, he got a divorce from my stepmom that we had for a long time. And got with a new lady who was a cancer survivor on all kinds of stuff and got addicted to it and just went straight downhill and um and you know I quit drinking uh last time I had a drink alcohol was May of 2023 I had no need for it it doesn't serve me at all praise the Lord when you drink I think you invite the devil in and uh and so I try not to I don't even want to put myself in that predicament yeah and um really man I've been on this journey for the last two years to try to do what you guys did on Duck Dynasty was just to be so bold

you know on Sean Ryshell was the only person to ever open it up with a prayer wow and uh uh I was nervous that's okay but man I wanted to be bold yeah yeah because I wanted to just help one person and then I tell you I really truly started this journey was only been the last like seven months where I've had the expectation of what Jesus wanted from me. I never knew until six months ago. I listened to y'all's podcasts every morning, and I was driving to Spring Lake, North Carolina, for a hostage rescue training event we had,

or an active shooter training event. And I listened to the episode where Jason went down with Missy to, I think Texas for the premiere of season five of the children. chosen. Oh, yeah. I never knew what the chosen was. He was talking about it and I was laughing about the nun and all that. Oh, yeah, I took a picture with a nun. That was awesome. Yeah. And so we finished that training event. I came home and started the, I was like, I'm going to watch it. I started the chosen. And I started reading in the book of Matthew, I've never read a chapter in any book in my life. Yeah. And, you know, I've read four books so far. And I've read four books so far. And I've,

finished that season or that that all season four just finished season five this week but i finished four seasons in a week i was just non-stop i was so addicted to it yeah and that showed me the expectation it showed me what jesus truly wants yeah he doesn't want my perfection yeah he wants me for me that's it and that's it and that's it and that's my goal is to really just um get it out there to as many as I can. I don't care about people liking me. I don't care if anybody likes me. I don't care if anybody wants to hear it. I'm going to say it. If you don't like it, I'm following me. If you don't want to hear it, don't listen to me. Yeah. Well, you've kind of concluded because it's very difficult for military guys to realize that victory comes to surrender. Yeah. Because you're taught,

hey, yeah, we're full speed ahead. So, you know, I use this illustration a lot, but I love it. because for me, you know, I was pretty self-righteous as a kid just because of our situation. And it's weird. Al and I have shared this many times. He was... I'm the older brother, but was the younger brother. From the Luke 15, yeah, I was the prodigal son. Jay's is the older brother.

I was the older brother just because I thought I had looked at my dad. I mean, we were raised in a bar, and I was like, this is stupid. I mean, I just kept thinking, this is all bad. It promoted fear, and I was scared. But I just, I was like, that's not for me. But you think that sounds great, but it's kind of terrible because then you feel like, well, I'm better than everybody. That was kind of my catalyst, you know. And so I just alienated everybody and was basically lonely, shy, you know, and afraid and bitter.

But I tell you that because it was very hard for me to surrender. And kind of like what you did watching The Chosen, when I read the book of John, all of a sudden I thought, I'm not that great. I'm terrible. What was I thinking? Because I thought I'm not better than him. Just literally the words. Not even close. Yeah, I just thought, this is the guy.

And it humbled me, which is what I needed. and I think a lot of times just the degree of our sinful life humbles you but ultimately you get led to Jesus and here we are with two different paths but we reach the same conclusion and I wanted to read this I don't know why these verses are popping in my head I mean I thought about the one earlier in Corinthians where it says the weapons that we fight with are not the weapons of the world so I wanted to mention that which where is that out so Corinthians we'll find it

but I wanted to read this because when you were talking about this struggle in Romans 7 Paul was talking about this struggling with because these are people who have surrendered to Jesus and it's still a struggle St. Corinthians 10-3

Yeah, Sacred Corinthians 10-3 that we don't fight with the weapons of the world which is very dangerous because when you talked about being nervous here's a shy kid I mean deep down at heart I'm a shy kid like I've always struggled with that. I'm like I don't want to ever speak, you know, publicly or confront people.

But these conversations get so awkward when you're sharing Jesus with people and you get a little nervous. Because you feel like even when your life is threatened, which we've had happened, and to put our faith to the test, it's very difficult because I'm not armed with the weapons of the world. And so for somebody like you with your past is very difficult, but you're relying on God through faith and saying this is the weapon that I'm fighting I'm going to love you and I'm going to show you

the greatest person the world has ever known. That came out with a new phrase for you is weaponized worship. Weaponized worship. So I want to read this. So he said I find this law at work. When I want to do good evil's right there with me. Well just think about everything you've shared.

You're looking at something. You see an idea of doing good but when you want to, evil's always right around you. And in your case, oh, it was swarming you, everything, especially in law enforcement, you're saying the worst of the worst. And it says, for in my inner being, I delight in God,

but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my body. What a wretched man I am. You almost feel the emotion there. He's like, what a scoundrel I am, because you just can't get it right. And then it says,

who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And I think that's, I see, when I read that, I see this battlefield, you know, and there's bullets flying, and all of a sudden there's a surrender that happens. and that is the way to victory. That's why when you said, you know, being in your car thinking about suicide,

I've always said this, which is tricky to say, you're really sensing that in order for me to live, I need to die. There's a thin line between you being that vulnerable because while ago when I read Colossians 3, he said, for you died and your life is now hidden in Christ, well, you didn't really die. physically. What's he talking about? You surrendered.

The old man's got to go down. The Bible uses death. You knew that in that car. Yeah. You see what I mean? To claim Jesus as Lord, he's the one providing the victory, not you. You're just surrendering to it. I think if you get that in your head, it will never leave you. You will never unsee that.

It's like the famous line from the movie, which is really sad. I mean, it was just, you reflected exactly where the people showed up for Dad to go carousing one more time. and he looked at him and said, the guy you're looking for is dead. Yeah. He doesn't exist anymore. And in that moment, that was a defense. That was a weaponized worship because at this point,

he's like, I'm not, that guy's not here anymore. And everybody walks away, scratching their head, like, what does that even mean? But dad knew what he meant in the moment. You know what it means, you know, in the moment. I know what it meant. The first time I got up to give a speech, because I had the same conclusion,

I thought, okay, I got to get past this being shy and scared and running. because I want to talk about Jesus. I was so nervous that every time I would turn a page of my Bible, I'd rip it out, which was very embarrassing. Yeah. And he's been missing pages ever since.

And you know what? At some point in that speech, I finally stopped in my mind, and it was a long pause, which was also nerve-wracking. And I thought to myself, that shy, scared, coward, died. I got to get over this. It was like a pep talk mid-speech in my mind because I thought I died. My life

sitting in Christ. You know what you're dying to hiding from God in his presence? And I think that that's the thing that our sin does is it separates us. You know, like we're talking to this podcast all the time about reading the Bible through the lens of God's presence. But I think that's what you're dying to that because that's what you're you're dying to running you're dying to hiding you're dying to to the shame you're dying to covering up and you're saying god i want to i want to be known again i want to be in your presence so i feel like anytime somebody's new in the faith and new in this venture you know i'm i'm reading these scriptures because that's where i got my confidence it's like trying to make sense of everything but you know when i read something like

that. Oh, I'm dead. Is Christ living in me? It makes me just want to run out of a building and say, God came to the earth. His name was Jesus. He died because he loved us. He rose, so we don't have to die. And it goes back to that. In that moment, I feel confident because I think it's God working in me. I was going to ask you a question, Blake. So you kind of made this pretty large transition in your life.

how has the people that followed you? Because you said you had a front row seat to your demise. Well, now they're having a front row seat to the resurrected. To this new guy, new man, and Jesus. How are people responding to that? You know, obviously a lot of positive to it. People are, I'm being, I'm like, one, I'm like the face of the community. So it's kind of, it's like people are finally able to,

go public with their faith also. So, for instance, my Instagram used to be full of, you know, girls holding guns, just by tactical pages, right? Not me following them, just tactical pages posting it. It used to be people drinking, partying. Now my Instagram page is full of the chosen. People getting saved. People making posts about Jesus.

Right. We're seeing a massive shift in the community because we've been so bold and now others are being so bold. Yeah. We do a fellowship every Friday night on our blueberry Patreon, and I let it one night. One of the things that I wrote down is when you're new to this, right, you're going to lose people who love the broken version of you, but won't walk with the healed one, and that's okay.

Oh, wow. Boy, that's a good word for somebody coming on Jesus out of the world. And, you know, something else that I tell people that are new to this, because I'm still new to it, too, right? what I tell people is I'm here to help invoke your curiosity. I'm still in my own journey. I'm still learning scripture. I'm still reading my Bible every morning.

I'm still doing the things that I can, but I can connect you with people who are maybe a little bit more well versed in this. But I'm going to lead you there. I'm going to walk with you. I'm not just going to tell you that's where you need to go. We're in this together. Yeah, that's good. And something else I wrote this morning,

sitting on the porch at the farm. Thinking about this podcast is, and this is what I'm going to push out probably on a fellowship, is until God's presence is your most prized possession, you will fail to fully experience it. And man, it's amazing to have conversations with people who've been searching. That's good.

So that's, you know, that's kind of like where I'm at is, I'm just here to have the conversation with the people who are curious. So Chad told me that one of your favorite parables was the one in Matthew 18, where the guy has the 100-sheet, one wanders off. Yeah, yeah, which is cool, because I have it, as a reminder,

I have the Luke 1547 version. Yeah. And that's so powerful for me because, you know, I was the one that he left the 99 others for. Yeah. He didn't forget about me. Yeah. You know, he didn't let the devil take control of me.

You didn't let me die? He literally came from me. And brought me back in heaven. Heaven wasn't mad. Heaven rejoice. Yeah. And, man, every time I hear that, I get emotional because, man, like, I just love Jesus. Yeah.

Yeah. Because that that sort of love. And I thought it was really neat that, you know, all these years later, you were young, 22-year-old buck, you know, healing and trying to figure stuff out. And now, all these years later, how old are you now? 36. 36. And here you sit in the same warehouse where you were watching episodes being filmed all those years. Isn't that crazy?

How God brings things around. And here we are talking about the journey, you know? I mean, that's the cool thing about how God works, which is powerful. Yeah, I mean, I was talking to the, you know, I did the podcast with the blurry creature guys back in June. Oh, yeah. And I was talking to them, and they were just asking about my journey. And I told him the same thing. Honestly, man, was the biggest influential thing I've ever had.

in my life and they were like oh well we know those guys it's like oh that's cool I was like you know now some of them are probably thinking what a weirdo we're all blurry creatures in our own way right I was like I was like man you know the journey that that you know my buddy asked me to go on there to do it with him and I did it which that led me to hear yeah led me to sit in here with with you guys and I mean honestly we we we prayed with our third guy in our team is in ministry and he works with us part-time his name's Stephen you know I called him last night and I was so nervous I said man I don't know if I'm even worthy enough to set at tables with these guys and um and he prayed he prayed with us before we got here and it's just a man it's just

it's so crazy that if you just believe in him and give him what he wants which is your faith without ever even seeing a miracle. You know, I'll tell you what's, I don't know if we got time for it real quick, but, you know, June 13th is my birthday this past June 13th. You know, I've been on the super walk with Jesus, right? And, you know, I'm driving back home from training. It's my birthday. I don't have my dad's number saved at all.

And I haven't talked to him since the last phone conversation I had. And, you know, so I'm scrolling through Brandon Lakes. songs to get music. That's one thing I quit doing. I quit listening to rap music and music that just, you know, messes with you. It's all Christian music. And then Brandon Lakes did a song with jelly roll. Yeah. And so as I go to, to hit that song, my phone rings at the same time and I accidentally hit the green button. And I saw that it was a three or four area code number. and it answered is it

hey son and my heart dropped the only thing that came to me is I said Dad Jesus loves you Wow I forgive you because he forgave me

Wow And it would be foolish I mean not to forgive you Yeah When he forgave me Right And all you have to do is just tell him you're sorry

Yeah That's all he wants So man Jesus works in crazy ways. He does. How did he respond to that? He told me he loved me and he's, he's been sober.

He's doing good. Yeah. He says, you know, he started watching the Chosen and he's back reading his Bible. And, I mean, you know, obviously you got to prove yourself. Sure. Right. But just to be able to tell him to be as healed as I can be. Yeah.

To answer a phone call and I could have hung up. He said not to call me. the first thing that just came out of my mouth was, Dad, Jesus loves you. Jesus is the one that changed us all. So I think, I wanted to read this. I know we're at time. But you remind me of, you know, Saul, his conversion

when he was struck down on the road, and he's like, who are you? And the voice said, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting, which I'm sure he never thought about it quite like that. But he eventually goes on to say, because this is what your story reminds me of. He says, I am sending you to the people,

to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are saved by faith in me. That's what we're all doing here. Yeah. You know, we have that moment. Well, we're like, who are you?

And then he has a mission for us, and there is rejoicing on earth. So we are out of time. But, man, thank you for coming on. Since you opened, Sean's with a prayer, can I close us with a prayer? Please. And prayer blessing for you. Father, I just want to come to you. And I'm so grateful for Blake, his story, that is your story, that continues to be lived out every single day.

He's still a young man with a lot left to do for your story. kingdom and for you. So I pray you bless him with strength and health. I pray you continue to use him mightily as he speaks your presence into the lives of so many people. I'm thankful for Kyle, the man he mentioned who made that call by your divine appointment that allowed him to realize his surrender to you means forever. I pray a blessing on he and his wife and his son and their family. Just help him father and guide him wherever he goes. We have the blessing of the intersection of lives here on this podcast and we're very grateful for that opportunity. Thank you, Jesus, for everything you've done for our lives. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Thanks for having you guys. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.