Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1347 | 50 Years Ago Miss Kay & Phil Made a Daring Move That Changed the Robertsons Forever

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

The Robertson family’s 50-year Jubilee brings Al and Jase back to the river property that shaped their faith, family, and future in ways they never could have imagined. Al reflects on the full-circle moment of being introduced by Phil through old gospel clips after years of introducing him onstage, while Jase relives a profane phone call that ended with two men driving across state lines to be baptized in floodwaters. The guys dig into double-minded faith, the mirror of God’s Word, the royal law, and why real belief must show up in a transformed life. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 In this episode: James 1, verses 22–25; James 2, verse 8; James 2, verse 24; James 3, verses 9–12; James 5, verse 4; Romans 9, verse 29 “Unashamed” Episode 1347 is sponsored by: https://chministries.org/unashamed — Get a better solution at half the cost of traditional healthcare! https://ruffgreens.com — Get a FREE Jumpstart Trial Bag for your dog today when you use promo code Unashamed! https://www.covesmart.com/unashamed/ — Use code UNASHAMED at checkout for up to 70% off your first order! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. As our listeners, our savvy listeners know, we record two podcasts when we record. So we're basically still in the same condition we were for the last podcast. Zach is off to parts unknown. I know he was out of the country for a while. He may or may not be back, but he's not back with us. So it's just Jason. I back to the core. You know what that means, Al? What's that?

That means less interruptions. I'm constantly having people come up to me and say, why do y'all interrupt each other so much? And I said, oh, we're not interrupting. That's a family heritage that has been passed on. So if that bothers you, just remember, this is not. That's just us making our point. You butt in, and that's welcome. We welcome that.

It was funny, Jase. I was going to forward it to you, but I forgot one of our listeners that sent me a note. She said I was the Jace Whisper. I guess I used to be the Phil Whisper, so now she thinks I'm the Jace whisper. She said, you've got to tell Jace he's interrupting too much. So she blamed you for the most interruptions. Well, I realize that 99.9% of our culture, they, let someone speak.

And when they're finished, then they speak. So you're like, why don't you all do that? Because there would only be one person talking for the rest of all of our lives. We were not raised that way. So there were some courtesies that just went on by like a warm spring day. Well, when we used to, in the back in the day, and I want to open with some back in day stuff that I thought about this morning is actually motivated by I have a studio guest here today one of our old-time friends jays a guy that you know well named bill that is uh is listening in today so he can

hear you as well but one of the greatest cooks on the planet not named robertson that's exactly right and he has shown out down here because he and hawk have been here this week and so we've had a lot of our Gulf Shore friends over and uh I sent you a picture jays I did a on memorial day I did a Brent boil, which is one of my new things I learned from Jay who taught me how to do them. And he learned it from a guy named Stale Cracker from Louisiana, who's a tremendous boiler of crawfish and shrimp. Now, what you said that fast? What was his name?

Stale Cracker with a K. Wow. That's his name. Boy, his parents had a sense of humor. He is quite the character. If you ever Google Stale Cracker with a K, you'll see quite the character. but he knows what he's doing about boiling shrimp. And so I have learned how to make a tremendous shrimp bowl.

So I did that. But then Bill, who's here, he did the, he's been doing desserts and cooked to roast one day. So we've been trading off every other day. It's me or Lisa cook. And then Bill cooks the next day. So we've been eating well. But Bill actually reminded me that this morning, because he was just asking me some questions about growing up. And like we first got to West Monroe.

and I guess just, I don't know if it's stuff you've never asked me before, but he was asking me about different things like that. So it hit me today, Jay's. This is kind of monumental because we're just had a year where we just had a podcast. I think it just dropped yesterday, but it'll probably be a few days ago for you listening with the four brothers talking about dad and the year of his crossing over to the resurrection, which just happened. So I think there's been a little more thought about dad and just, you know,

recognizing. I got a lot of text and email from people that just said, hey, thinking about you, you know, I know it's been a year since your dad crossed over. Very nice. And I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers you guys have given us. But it hit me that I thought back to this. This is a monumental year. So not only is it the year, of course, that the dad has crossed over, but 50 years ago, right around this time, it was sometime in this summer. So, you know, we're about to enter summer season. I guess we already have because we're post-memorial day now.

50 years ago is when our lives had a huge change. At the time, we were living in some apartments in West Monroe. We'd been there about a year. Dad had come back home. We're at Weiss Ferry Road. Our lives have changed for the better. You and I went to a little Christian school because dad was a teacher and a coach there. And this summer from 50 years ago, Jay said, I don't know if you remember this,

but you and I had a couple of girlfriends from our little apartment complex. Now, I was 10, which would have meant you were six. And I think they were sisters, if I recall correctly. So it's a long time to remember it. But do you remember the little girlfriends who had it? I do remember this. I thought I was older than six, but maybe not. Now that's what you are.

The fact that I remember this. Or seven. You could have been seven, yeah. It kind of went down a road that I was not prepared for. so I don't know where you're going with this. That was the first. We won't linger. We won't linger on the girlfriend.

But we had a couple of girlfriends. Actually, you're right. I was 11, and you were 7 in the summer of 76. And so that was our life. And as far as you and I know, Jay's, because you don't know what your parents are really talking about. And we didn't know that they had been talking with our grandparents about, you know, them moving to West Monroe.

and them finding some property with us somewhere out, out of town, out of this apartment. So that discussion was all going on. You and I, as far as you and I knew, we were going to be at these apartments the rest of our lives. I mean, that's just where we were. But that summer at some point in there, and to the best of my recollection, it was around August when we finally bought the property. But we bought the seven acres of lamb and two houses on the Washdale River that summer. 50 years ago, that would change our lives. It would change how we grew up, you know, everything, the duck haul business, the fishing

business, all the things we tell so many stories about. And the reason why the 50 years is a big deal is, and Bill was asked me this this morning, I thought, 50 years. Wow, that's amazing. And then I remembered the Leviticus 25, which is a whole chapter called the Jubilee. And it was a big deal for the Jews because what it was was, seven times seven. So it was a celebration of Sabbath days over seven years. So if you did seven a year, it's time seven, you get 49 years is basically what you got. And then the 50th year,

there was something called the Jubilee. And so it was a return home. It was a year of rest for the land because, you know, God was teaching them that when you farm and you have a, you know, agriculture society, the land has to have a break every once in a while to be able to continue. to produce. So he was teaching them a lot of principles. But one of the things that it was, which I found fascinating when I went back this morning and read Leviticus 25, is it was also a reset for property and family. And that was a big part of it because the Levitical priesthood had to be taken care of. And so there was a lot of, I won't get into all the law stuff of Leviticus. But just the big theme of property, transition, the setting forward of what we're going to be doing for

the next generation for another 50 years. Because let's face it, we only get in this lifetime now, we only get one 50 year look at anything. I mean, you're only going to live to be 70 or 80 at the best, you know, maybe a little more. So I just thought about it that our property, I mean, I've been out a couple of times since mom and dad aren't there anymore, but I just thought about it. Jay, that was an era like for us. And now it's a new era and it changes.

And 50 years from now, you and I are going to be gone. And hopefully maybe our grandkids or somebody will be having a podcast or whatever they'll be doing in 50 years to talk about the Bible and talk about us, the way we talk about our heritage, our past, the idea that land matters. Because that seven acres of land, and now it's expanded a little bit. And then we have hunting property. It was life-changing for us. I mean, it changed our trajectory and dynamic as much as,

as our spiritual walk did, because it was all combined at the same time. But I don't know, it just hit me this morning. I know I'm a little bit probably melancholy and nostalgic thinking about dad and thinking about our family. But it is pretty remarkable that this summer marks our Jubilee from when we got that property. I just want to know what you thought about that. Well, I think what stands out, something I've always thought about, because when I, you know,

it's hard to know in the process. I mean, I still remembering those two girls. because I thought, I was just a little kid. Of course, you know, the theme of our childhood was, where are the parents? But, and just another thing about apartment living is sort of a pack mentality because all the kids are outside just kind of roaming around. And so there is kind of a pack mentality in an apartment complex. But I just look back on it thinking you would never think you would be influential

if you move to a place that literally was the middle of nowhere. And I still have a vision as a seven, eight-year-old kid coming down that hill in a U-Haul truck or whatever we were in. And my dad was like, we'll take it. I mean, we hadn't even seen the house yet. Because when you come down the hill to my dad's property, you could just see the river. It was a bend in the river.

And he saw that. He disappears. And he thought, we'll take it. I don't even care if the house is standing. This bend of this river, this is it. And it just was so remote. And it was like deep into the woods. And so you're thinking, well, you're never going to be influential.

This is the equivalent of just being a hermit in the middle of the jungle on the river, which is really where it is. And it doesn't have quite the feel now because after the little duck show and all that, I mean, the place became inhabited. But when we first moved there, Al, there was just very few houses within miles. So if you're an American,

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the way of the future. It's the way of the past because this is how the book of acts shows how believers can share costs. So see why believers across the nation are better off of CHM. You guys can get started today by visiting ch ministries.org slash unashamed. That's ch ministries.org slash unashamed. There was one husband and wife that worked at the meal right next door. And that was pretty much it. A couple of little fishing camps. I mean, when it rain, you didn't travel. No, you got stuff. And also, I was telling Bill this morning because he was asking about the water, you know, obviously the river. And he was asking about the other tributaries that come off because off the river right in front of the property of Cypress Creek. And then off of Cypress Creek, there was a bow. We call them Bay, YOW, which is called Thompson Bow, which is called Thompson Bow. And it went down the side of where our property was. And then behind that, there was a levy. There was an actual pond that we called Harrison's pond. So we were literally. surrounded by water, as the property still is.

And so it was basically a very skinny peninsula into this property that was completely surrounded by water. If there had been a zombie apocalypse days, we were in the place. If they can't get across water, we were in the right place because we were surrounded by water, which is exactly what dad wanted. And it was interesting because part of it kind of was like you mentioned. It felt like an isolation thing, but it was such a John the Baptist moment because people, People came to the wilderness to hear about Jesus, just like they did in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Well, whether they knew it or not, they just showed up, and that conversation happened. And, you know, you fast forward through the 50 years. I mean, one little stat that I saw about our show, you know, that took off, which we were all, I think most of us were kind of embarrassed about the show, the way it turned out. It was like, yeah, it's kind of the silly side of my family. but anyway, but over a hundred, that show was aired in over a hundred countries. And I'm thinking, this came from the middle of nowhere with no attempt to be famous. It just happened from, you know, a family, the patriarchs of the family, saying, you know,

let's trust in the Lord, work hard, love her family, love our neighbor. I mean, these kind of issues that the Bible is filled with. God used that to become influential. Yeah, and now the podcast is part of that heritage because, you know, eight years ago, um, dad was, well, 10 years ago is when it started. But then eight years ago, a CRTV, which later became Blaze TV, had hired dad post post duck show to have a little video blog show called In the Woods with Phil. And Zach and I had decided to get into producing, trying to produce,

produce content. And so we produced the show for Dad's little show. And it was basically little 10-minute snippets of him just telling you what he thinks. And by the way, you know, all 800 of those episodes are out there. And I encourage you if you've never, if you're listening to podcast, you never knew that existed. You can get that like, we're publishing that. So that's going to be back out for you to be able to consume and enjoy, which is a blessing. But out of that came this podcast. And Jace, ironically, the first, I guess two or three years, I guess it was almost three years that we did the podcast. I know there's a lot of people that go back and start over,

so they're actually listening to those podcasts right now in real time. It took place at the top of the hill where the drive you described a minute ago starts, right in the front room of that lodge up there. And that's where me, you and dad first started the very first Bible study. We did an overview, and then we did the book of John. And so all these years later now,

of course, dad's crossed over, but it's like the Jubilee just keeps going for us. we just get this. I think the most funny, profound moment was when the realtor, who was a member of the church where they met, she said, now I'm going to have to break something to you about this property. Because Phil's already said, we'll take it. And memory Kay was like, shush your mouth.

You don't wait in me. Because she was thinking, we want to get a better price. That's right. And she said, I got to break something to you. This is technically in the flood zone. And my dad went, perfect. And then she started telling about every flood that's ever happened there going back to 19, 18, you know, because she finally found somebody willing to buy a flood prone property.

Which is why it was so cheap, Al, you know. And that, but he was like, oh, yeah, that's great. All right. We've hit the big time here, which those three major floods that we experienced down there were rough. but, you know, we had a hill. Phil always would say that. He's like, well, we have a hill. We just move on up the hill if we have to.

And many floods were there. Maddie just sent me some intel in what I was just talking about earlier. The show now is called At Home with Phil. The audience can find it on YouTube or anywhere they listen to podcast. And so she's going to put the show note in the link. She'll put the notes. So that's awesome. You can go back and say, and I highly recommend it.

A lot of you have been viewing a lot of dad's stuff lately. Jayce, this was interesting. I told you I spoke in Madison, Georgia at an event. And so they sent me the run of show just to make sure I was okay with it, kind of what was going to happen that night. And they had two video clips of Dad from the Internet in the worship segment. And the first one was just him doing a little bit. We did one time when he did one of his books about him sharing the gospel,

sitting on his front steps. It's excellent. So good. And then the second one was him telling the story in the duct line about the guy who called him up and said G.D. on the phone. Yeah. And he said, why would you curse the one who created you? And the guy calls back and says, you know, that got me thinking. And so it winds up coming over, Dad Bapt baptized.

So they showed those two clips before I spoke. And when they asked me if it was okay for them to do that, it just was such a moment. Because, you know, for like all the early years when we were doing the show and Dad, was going around and speaking, he wanted me to be a part of it. And so just out of kindness to me, because I'd started working for Duck Commander again. And y'all were doing the show. At first, I wasn't on the show. And he would have me introduce him at all these venues. And so I would do a little five-minute, like, funny stuff up front and then bring Dad out. And so I got to introduce him like, and that kind of is what got me going in the speaking world. And I told the guys in Georgia,

I said, well, you know, it's full circle because I introduced for Dad for all those years. And I guess now for the first time he's introducing for me because it was some of his old clips. And so it was just another reminder that we are so blessed because of all the video and videography that's been out there that we get to still listen to our dad

and you do too, the audience, because there's so much that's been done of him getting to speak. And so, you know, you just don't get that. I mean, the picture of, I told this before, but the picture of Judge Jeptha Robertson, who was dad's great grandfather, there's one picture of it.

And one story, he got shot on a levy by a federal agent. My granny told me that. That's all I know about this, ma'am. He was the judge. But with our dad, you know, and my kid's great-grandfather, they get to hear what he knows about the gospel, how he feels about relationships, what he thinks about the Bible. So we are pretty blessed when you think about that.

Well, even that story you told that, Phil told that story so many times it got a little change, but I actually answered the phone, was going to take the order and the guy literally was saying GED every other word like not in a mad he was just

part of his language you know I take the order and he kept doing it and I thought I need to say something and so I did I was like now look appreciate your order but we

the the God that you're using that phrase with we actually believe he's real and we worship him. So I confronted him at the end of the conversation. And he just didn't say anything, just got quiet. He's like, all right. So I hang up, and then I go back out to the shop or whatever.

Well, then he called back. Well, Phil answered the phone, which is unusual, but he did every once in a while. And so the guy's like looking for me, and he's like, no, he's working. He's like, well, and then that guy tells my dad what just how. happened. But they convicted me because I thought, you know, here's my dad. He took it to another level because the guy was apologizing. He was having a good adit. He's like, I just, I just have said that so much. I really wasn't thinking about it. And then that's when our dad said, hey, here's what you need. Where are you from? He was from Alabama. He said, you need to get in your

truck and get over here and we'll tell you about him. And so the next day, he did and brought a buddy. And that's how that story happened. My dad shared Jesus with him, and it was during a flood. Yeah, backwater. Yeah, backwater. So it wasn't no walk to the river. We literally walked in the yard.

He got in the ditch of our road, and he baptized both of them. And then he was like, I'll give you a change of clothes. And they're like, no, we're driving back to Alabama, soaking wet. And I just, it was so incredible. Yeah, that's how the story. happened. So he tells, he tells that on the video. He didn't tell the part about you, but that makes it even better. And then I told them the Paul Harvey rest of the story because years later, and this was after Dad did the video, obviously, but Dad is at an event, and I was there, too,

in Alabama speaking, and this guy, the same guy, comes up, and I didn't know him. I guess I wasn't there the day all this happened with y'all baptizing him. But he comes up. up and he says, you remember you remember me, Mr. Phil? And he said, well, I don't think so. And he said, well, you baptized me in the backwater. I was the one that used the Lord's name in vain. And he was oh, yeah. And so look, the guy was a deacon at this church and had gotten dad to speak there. It had actually lined it up for him. I mean, just, and I saw it, the audience loved it, you know, from Georgia. So, Jason, I haven't asked you this before, but how does, how does a little man get along with your little two poochies?

Well, this morning he called him his best friends. I love it. It's just the old thing, right? A dog really is man's best friend. We love them. Our kids love them. Rough Greens loves them as well, one of our sponsors. They have an all-natural USA-made supplement created by our good friend, Dr. Dennis Black.

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They shake their booties when it's time for the rough green. Oh, they do. We have four at our house in our compound that are all on it as well. and Meatball, who's the oldest, she's 12, but she's shown quite a bit of regeneration, able to jump back up on the couch. So it works. It's great for your pets.

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Well, it just shows you the power of confrontation. And it made me think. of yesterday, you know, I had been on vacation, we'd come in and Missy fixed a shrimp bisque, and my mom loves that dish. So I was like, I hadn't seen her a while. I was like, I'm going to take her a bowl of this. And it actually made me think of the book of James, because I've been just studying it for the last week every day. But when I saw another car there, and I thought, huh, she's got visitors. And it was just a young couple. I said, say young. They're younger than me, but not young, young.

Who were just visiting with her and had brought her supper, so we, you know, we put the shrimp bisque in the refrigerator. But I walked in, the fact that I had that shrimp bisque led to her saying, oh, here's my favorite son. I've noticed that if you have a meal in your hand, you will now be deemed the favorite son. There's no doubt that's true. But she's doing great. But What's funny is since I walked in, and she's like, you know, look, my friends are here. And there's, you know, the woman that stays with her. And so it was a little crowd. She's like, we're ready for our sermon.

And I looked around like behind me because I thought, oh, you're talking about from me? You want to hear a sermon? And she's like, well, you know, I forget stuff now that I'm at my age. And so you can just tell me one you've already told me because I'll hear it for the first time, which I thought the fact that she's recognizing this, because we're all recognizing it, and having fun with it. So I had had something that had just happened. That confrontation made me think about random encounters where you just share Jesus,

and all of a sudden you get such a beautiful story. But our old friend McIntosh sent me a text right before I had left up there to visit my mom, and it was just a pitcher of a tape measure. Now, he's, he's, where, he's somewhere in Texas. He's moved off, you know, with his wife. And he infamously was the only person that I accidentally got involved with him coming to Jesus. And the reason I say accidentally, he accidentally heard the message of Jesus. And we've shared that story before. I don't think we've ever had him on the podcast, have we? We haven't.

Well, we should because we had Blake. Yeah, hear this story. So I'm going back 25, 30 years. We were, I was sharing Jesus with my friends. And what happened is where they were all hanging out, which was the equivalent of a frat house cutting up, we had brought the guy who owned it to the Lord. And so we were having a study with another friend at this, I'm deeming at a frat house. I don't know how, because people, their buddies were just showing up to cut up.

Well, in Walt McIntosh, he looked around, we're having a Bible study. He's like, what's going on here? It's like, having a Bible study, have a seat. You know, we're going to share something with me. He's like, not interested. And so he just walked through the house, forgot about him, never thought about it again. We shared Jesus with this other fellow. He didn't respond, didn't have a good attitude about the study.

So I get up to leave us on Wednesday night, and we had Wednesday night church. Well, McIntosh comes out of his room, and he's like, I'm ready. And I'm like, ready for what? He's like, oh, I'm ready to give my life to the Lord. I was like, well, I thought you didn't want to hear about it. He's like, well, I overheard it in another room, and I'm ready. I was like, well, this can't be true. I was like, oh, oh, really.

I was almost sarcastically like saying, yeah, what's the joke here? Which, you know, he became one of my best friends, and he's so non-confrontational. So for him to even do this was a big step for him. But, you know, I didn't know the guy. Oh, he rattled off what I had just said. I mean, he went through the gospel. And he's like, never heard that. I won't end on this.

And so he just followed me to the. church building and we baptized him and 30 years later he sent me this text is what's what i found funny because he heard us talk about this on the podcast speaking of old material because he knows how it irks me so much and this ties in with the book of james the reason i'm bringing it up about how these companies who are trying to make money use godlike qualities or something in the name of god to sell their product and y'all have all heard me do this bit and i did it for my mom yesterday because i just gotten this text and so i went in with the angel soft toilet paper and the how how did this company wherever they're from figure out the softness of celestial beings speaking of you know the invisible

world and whether there's aliens we have a toilet paper company this is way more breaking news that they know the softness of the celestial world because they got a product called Angel Soft. I'm not making fun of them. I'm just saying, how did you get that information? So then their competitor, Charmin, comes up with the eternal role of toilet paper because this is their competitor, eternal role.

Small letters, and I have one. Somebody sent it in the mail to my house. I have it on my keepsake and sentimental things. And one does somebody tell you? Tell us, Jays, in small letters, it says actually one month supply or something like that. No, it says it will last up to a month under eternal role. So I tell you all that. I mean, I got plenty of information and data to support this from Oprah Winfrey having hope in a jar.

There's never been a jar that produced hope. But it's a selling point. What about Forever 21? There's another one. There's another. Look, and they did it. I found out they were followers of Jesus. So they were doing it as a way, but I'm like, you can't name your company that and then go bankrupt.

You just became a hypocrite. So look, so I set all that up to say he sends me the text, which is why I launched into said sermon for my mom and guest. He sent me a picture without explanation, which was funny. and I'm looking and it's McIntosh's hand, just his hand, and he has a box in his hand. And it's a picture of a tape measure. And guess what it says? The almighty ruler. Oh.

So when I first looked at it, I thought, why would he send me that? And then I thought, oh, the almighty ruler. Really? I bet this cost a lot, and I looked it up, 60 to 80 bucks. It's a tape measure. And I thought about my dad in that moment. You can take a tape measure, which should cost you what, $14.99? Yeah.

You put the almighty ruler, and you think, ooh. But that's just what our culture does. And this will make sense when you read the book of James, because there's a lot about money and being rich and not being rich and this leading a double life and how all that works. And so I showed her that. And of course, she was like, I don't get it. I was like, you don't get it.

They're selling a tape measure that just tells you something that we made up as humans to measure things, but they're calling it the almighty ruler. I said, you know why they're calling it the almighty ruler? I said, you know why they're calling it the Almighty Ruler? She said, why? I said, because it'll cost you about 80 bucks. A little bit more for the Almighty. That's right.

But a lot of you ask about her. She is doing amazing. Her countenance and her attitude have been fantastic. And I got to give a shout out to our church family because you mentioned that about people being there. Like, there are people that come by all the time from our church community, some of her good friends. And man, that makes a big difference. So just you need that in your community. And the reason I share that story is even like McIntosh,

you know, he heard me do a bit about that. But once you see it, you can't unsee it. And I think these kind of things are great conversation starters with people that are around. You don't realize, yeah, oh, we think the whole world doesn't believe in God and which you see that. We live in an evil world. But I tell you what, when they're trying to make money,

they'll use those principles to try to sell their product, which is so double-minded, you know. But it's great for conversations, and it would be bad for you to do that, to be on that end of it. Which is funny, you just used the word double-minded, which appears in James 1, verse 5. He is a double-minded man, unstable,

and then he mentions it again in chapter 4. And we'll get into that. we get into the actual textual part of this study. But that word, you know, has never appeared. I found this fascinating, Jay's when I was doing my research. That particular term, which would mean, I say, I have the Greek word somewhere, but it means double sold or double spirit. And it does not appear in any Greek literature before this point that it was written in this book.

So James, they think, I mean, most Greek scholars think that he actually, invented this work. So one night I look out my door and I see Max running down the road in the middle of the night, someone had stolen his bike. And he actually chased the guy all the way down the road in the middle of the night, at 1230 and midnight. I don't know why I was up or the door opened up, walked outside, saw Max running. But now we have taken matters into our own hands.

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That's why I brought up the sermon on the Mount. You think about what Jesus did. He basically turned their world from a religious viewpoint upside down. Because here they are trying to keep the laws and be technically correct and miss the heart of what the law was intended to do. do, they'd miss the wisdom of what he was sharing, which is why he said, I came to fulfill this. So he comes up with all this crazy, I mean, it just seems so crazy. And even people today, when they teach the sermon on the Mount, Al, I know you've been,

you know, have these cringe moments where people missed the whole point of what he was saying. You know, when he said, I came to fulfill this. And people like, well, what exactly does that mean? and it's hard to wrap your head around if you don't realize the one who wrote this has become a man. It is now among you. And now he's giving you the heart and the wisdom behind it. But it's so easy to be double-minded, and we do it even in our culture today in church buildings everywhere. And it's like, and I think that's really what the book of James does.

more than any other thing. I mean, I found it convicting that it's like, you can't just play this game of going to a church bill. Okay, I'm going to put my time in here. And then go out in your life, in your normal life, and lead something by your actions that is totally contrary to what you're representing. When you agree, that's just all over the place in the book of James.

He gets into this, does the different kinds of trees. They don't produce different kinds of fruit. Where's that section where you say? I think that's in James too. I'll read it while you make your point. Yeah, and then also in three. So why are you looking for that? I think that's why we talked about in the last podcast,

the idea of him being inside Jesus' family makes this even more eye-opening and amazing. that you could be that close to something and miss it. You know, like he literally grew up with him. The son of God was his brother. And yet because of his own way of viewing him, he never saw him in this way. And so he was like everybody else. And so when you read that passage, like we talked about John 7, when you think about even in John 5 as well, the idea that you could miss him so close.

and Jesus said the same thing to the Jewish leaders. He's like, you studied the scriptures trying to find eternal life, but you miss me. And that was the same message even to his family. And I think that really goes forward when you, this double-minded idea. A lot of people miss it. I mean, and it's right in front of them and they don't see it. That's why I love that mirror illustration that you mentioned in the last podcast, which is in chapter one.

Yeah, I'm going to read that out. Yeah, I want to read that. So in James 122, and Then I found the verse I want to read. It says, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror. And after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Then it says, but the man who looks intently into the, and this is another interesting thing, He calls it the perfect law that gives freedom. Just think about that statement. That's almost like an oxymoron, right? How does perfect law give freedom? We'll talk about it. But to do freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what is heard but doing it,

he will be blessed in what he does. So the one I wanted to read is in James 3, verse 9. It says, with the tongue, we praise the Lord and Father, and with it we curse me. men, which going back to our little story about the guy using God's, you know, an amen in cursing. Right. Who have been, here we go, who have been made in God's likeness.

You see this subtly through the book of James, imaging God, reflecting, looking at the mirror. What do you see as someone born again when you look in that mirror? Well, you're supposed to see you're made in the image of God. Let's go do some reflecting. in verse 10 of chapter 3 out of the same mouth come praise and cursing my brothers this should not be can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring what's the answer no no my brothers can a fig tree bear olives no or a grape vine bear figs neither can a salt spring produce fresh water so that's that that thing is that thing is that thing is comes up all over the place. You know, it's amazing. We talked about this in the last podcast a little bit about our movie,

but there's a scene in the movie, which is reflective of exactly what happened in real life as well, where I've confronted Lisa with the truth about where she is and who she is, and we're doing it. The last part of this confrontation takes place in our bathroom because it was the furthest place away from our kids. But in a bathroom, like, you know how to it, there's a huge mirror there.

you know, when women are getting ready or you're getting ready to go someplace, you need the big mirror. And Lisa says, I was looking in the mirror in this moment where I was right to the point of finally being honest with who I was because she was double-minded, just what we're talking about in this first. And she said, I did not recognize the person I was looking at in the mirror. And she says this all the time in front of audiences. And every time she says that, I think about that passage you just read, Jay's. I mean, this was, this really was where she was. She did not, she looked, it's, it's her, but it's not her. And she went straight out of that bathroom to the backyard, which to me is one of the most

powerful scenes in the movie. And she just collapsed. She just laid out before God because in that moment, the weight of now she's starting to understand who she really is comes to the front. And that's when she finally reaches out to God and it changed her life forever. You know, 27 years later, she's rocking and rolling. But that moment was exactly what James is describing. Isn't that something that a book that was written probably around 45 AD to 50 is exactly the picture of what somebody experienced back in 1999?

You know, I mean, it's just when you look at it like that, and I love the way you brought the beatitudes into it and the sermon on the matter. Now, when you see that these concepts are eternal and the truths behind them are eternal, which is what's so powerful about it and how life-changing it is. I did want to mention, too, that James is, there's a couple of, you know, Paul mentions him, as I read last time in 1st, Corinthians 15. He also mentions him in Galatians 119 and 2.9 as being a pillar of the church in Jerusalem. And before we get into the textual study, I wanted to bring up this one instance that happens. You know, Peter is called to go preach to the Gentiles in Acts 10.

And up until this point, the first probably decade of the first century church have been just Jewish Christians. And so James is a part of that. He's one of the leaders in the church at Jerusalem. And then Peter is called to go to Cornelius. And all of a sudden, you know, the Gentiles are just like in mass. about to be brought into the kingdom of God. And this is something new. And so you remember in Acts chapter 11,

Peter defends going there because he's like, well, look, I mean, basically what he says is I didn't want to go, but God told me I had to go. And once I was there, these people believed in the Holy Spirit came, just like it did back in Acts 2 for the rest of us. And so we can't deny that God has said that we need to now move to the Gentiles. This spring, Denham gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you.

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And I say all that to lead up to Acts 15 because what happens is that's going to bring a lot of tension into the early church and especially the one in Jerusalem because, you know, James and the rest of the Jewish Christians, they're still pretty much still practicing a lot of what they did as Jews before Jesus came, except now they know Jesus is the Messiah. And they've been called to that, but they're still being circumcised.

They're still circumcised in their children. They're still, all the elements of Judaism were still there. Now we've got all these new people coming in who don't fit any of these old ways. And in the Old Testament, they would have been a term called proselytized into Judaism. So that's what the early Christians thought needed to happen for these Jewish, I mean, to these Gentile Christians that are coming into the church. Well, Paul is arguing in the book of Galatians. He says, we can't go back and add in.

elements of the law. I mean, that's exactly why Jesus came here. And that's this idea we're going to get into about what freedom brings in Christ. And so that was some of the early tension. But here was, here was our guy. Here's James, the brother of Jesus in Acts 15, who comes up with sort of a solution like leaders will do. He was an elder at that church. And so he said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to tell the Gentiles, they don't have to be circumcise. Because Paul and Peter convinced him that you're right, we shouldn't do that. But, you know, they're still out here doing some of these stuff to idols and all. We can't have that. So let's just try to encourage them to leave the idolatry, but to come to Christ. And we're not trying to impose the Judaism on them.

And so I just thought it was interesting that a guy who's going to basically recreate the sermon on the mouth also had enough wisdom through the Holy Spirit to understand that he wasn't going try to put these law things on these new Christians as well, these Gentile Christians. And so that tells you something about his content and character and also the ability to work people through. Because remember, the greatest mystery that Paul says happens in the first century is that Jews and Gentiles are brought together now in Christ. Well, that's going to be a bumpy road. I mean, when I went to South Africa and I saw two oceans that merged, I saw some rough water. And that's exactly what's happening here. And so I just thought it was another little element about our guy

and it gives you another backdrop into his character when we studied the book. Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up because I guess we didn't really plan on having a theme where James is the only person to bring something of it. You brought that about the double-minded. But what I found fascinating, and I don't know how I missed this, but James is, I think this is the only time that loving your neighbor as yourself, he referred to it as the royal law. And that's in 28, which is an echo of the sermon on the Mount, because he talks about love your neighbor as yourself. But it says, if you really keep the royal law, well, when you look up that word royal, that's why I think Matthew's so important here, because what was Jesus doing, especially

as Matthew recorded it, as soon as he started his ministry, he was talking about the kingdom. Yeah, he's the kingdom. He's the king. And so you take that with the royal law, which is you just brought up the actions of what that meant. That's why he's gone with the royal law. The king is like, we loving everybody.

This is for everybody. Love your neighbor as yourself. But then I think it's also fascinating, and this is mentioned twice, but there's an obscure verse. I'm not even sure how it ran across this, but just in the preview of James. In James 5.4, and this kind of ties in with my almighty ruler tape measure, in James 5.4, it says, he says, look, the wages you failed to pay, the workman, because he was getting into these integrity issues who mowed your fields are crying out against you

because there's people claiming to be followers of Jesus but in their work, they're not showing integrity. They're being standing you. They're being stingy. It says you have hoarded wealth in these last days. Look, the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you.

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears and it says of the Lord Almighty. That's how the NIV translate that. Well, that word Almighty is actually only this particular. They put Almighty, and Almighty's mentioned other places in English. But the Greek word there is the Lord of Saboeth, if I said that right. It looks like Sabbath, which gives you a wrong impression of what it means, because it's the Lord of hosts and armies.

And so when you put that obscure verse with the royal law, you see this, he's viewing his brother now, he's the king of kings here. He has armies, whether it's celestial or the Lord's army. He's referring to us in that way, which echoes the kingdom. But I thought that's fascinating. The other place that that's used, I'll give you the two, is here that Lord of Saboeth is in Romans 929.

So it just, hmm. But anyway, I wanted to bring that up. There are quite a few things that we'll see that's exclusive to the Book of James that he mentioned. But I just wanted to say this as we move on in our introduction, and we're kind of waiting for Zach to get back. I think most people don't really study the book of James or for the reason that it's confusing because a lot of our current Christianity viewpoints it's like we're saved through faith.

I've heard people say we're saved through faith alone. And when you read James 2, what does it say the exact opposite? 24. It says you see that a person, to justify by what he does and not by faith alone. It's like, well, I'd feel uncomfortable going around saying I'm saved through faith alone. I get the point, what they're trying to say.

My point of bringing this up is most people go to the book of James to debate faith versus works. And there's all kinds of books about all this, which I've skipped, like in commentaries and all. which is I think Zach, since he knows all that stuff, will give an interesting perspective of it. But I just want to say right now, James and Paul are not in contrast. No. I don't care what the preacher said.

There's not a friction. There's not a friction. James should be in the Bible. There's no argument. So I think, you know, we need to address that. And you'll figure it out, I think because of all these subtle things that we're doing in this introduction with the sermon

on the Mount and with what we're saying about being imagers of God. The reason that argument occurs is because if you're only focused on how a person gets saved, you're going to have these types of debates. Yeah. But if you realize not only did what Jesus did, what he saved us from, but what he saved us to, which is going to make way more sense in the book of James, we're called to image God, to be something in the name of God. And that's what is doing.

And that's why he starts by saying he's a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows you his humility and his approach right off the bat. So we'll get into this some more next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the... the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.