Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1350 | ‘Project Hail Mary’ Sneaks in a Phil Robertson Quote & Hollywood Got This One Right

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Jase is shocked to hear a Phil Robertson quote hidden inside “Project Hail Mary,” a Hollywood space movie full of surprising echoes of grace, sacrifice, and saving the world. Jase looks back on a chaotic season mentoring troubled kids and setting firm boundaries for parents whose pressure and dysfunction were spilling onto the next generation. The guys connect both stories to the Sermon on the Mount, the book of James, mercy, humility, trials, and the way God breaks generational cycles by rebuilding people from the inside out. In this episode: Matthew 5, verses 3–12; Psalm 37; James 1; Revelation 20–21; John; Matthew 6, verse 10 “Unashamed” Episode 1350 is sponsored by: https://bravebooks.com/unashamed — Use code UNASHAMED for 20% off your first order! https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "AL" to get 2 weeks free in the program! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College 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 Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters 00:00 Miss Kay’s Beautiful Morning Routine 04:06 Jase Accidentally Watches “Project Hail Mary” 08:12 A Hidden Phil Robertson Quote 13:42 Spiritual Themes in a Hollywood Space Movie 18:05 Jase’s ‘Good News Bears’ Idea 25:20 An Impossible Comeback 30:05 A Real-Life Movie Plot in L.A. Mayoral Race 36:14 Jase’s Team Becomes More Than Baseball 40:26 Breaking Generational Cycles Starts with the Heart 45:11 Temptation vs. Trials  — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19-speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility, and Optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. I am unashamed. What about you?

Welcome back to Unashamed. We just got a little video of Mom from Nan. My oldest daughter, Anna, since his mom, three days a week in the mornings. And she says she sings to her, oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day. Every day she comes in. Which I thought, man, what better way to face life every day, no matter where you are? Then looking at it as a beautiful day that God's created.

Which in my mom... For those of you wondering about moms, she's doing fantastic. Well, in my mom's case, her singing is more about courage than beauty. I'm saying she's not a very good singer. But I think you reach an age in size-proving that where if you sing passionately, it's actually inspiring, even though it's off-key and way too loud in K-N-sized case. I think the hearing goes,

and so then the singing becomes louder. But you're right. It actually is something inspirational because it's like, look at that old person. They're just like loving life and singing songs, which is kind of how you want to face life every day, which is good. Yeah, there's something cool about that.

Well, you're not going to believe what happened. to me last night. So I got on my couch, I was getting ready to prepare for our discussions in our podcast, and my wife comes out, and she's like, our son and his new wife, they saw a movie they said was good. So you want to go? What am I going to say? I mean, she hasn't, we haven't gone to a movie in the theater.

I guess it's probably documented somewhere on the podcast. Been a while, Al, been a while. Look, I'm the same way, Jay's. We were talking because we're planning to go to one next week, our Hillsdale movie from our podcast about Colonial America. And so I'm working this plan out, and I thought, when is the last time I went to a movie theater? And I can't even remember.

I guess it was the blind. I guess it was the movie about Mama and Dad. It was the last time I've been. I think the last time. I went is when the chosen launched their season at the movie theaters. Right.

So I said, sure. And she said, she said, well, you hesitated. I was like, well, I was going to study, but I think, you know, what, a couple hours, let's go. So we went, no, I said, what was the name of the movie?

And she said, something, hell merry. And so, look, in my mind, I was thinking, I mean, the last few movies I've gone to have all had some kind of spiritual theme like you just described. So I thought, somebody did a movie about Mary of the Bible. That's what I thought. Now, and what later I found this out, what Missy thought was it was a football movie. And when she first told me that, I was like, what are you telling me? She's like, we know the past, the Hail Mary.

I thought we were going to watch a football team come up and, you know, they... It's kind of a bad news bears kind of story. And so, which that reminds me, I have a great movie idea along those lines, but I'll share that later. But so when I get there, I mean, when you have no idea what a movie's going to be. And for everyone who's seen that movie, you know why I'm bringing this up. I was shocked to the point. I would say top five shocking things I've seen, and not because of anything that happened on the movie per se or the movie itself.

I was shocked at my view in the first couple minutes when I realized what this movie was going to be about, I thought I'm never going to make it to the end. because I thought I would leave. I thought we will leave because it was a space travel, right? Space travel and science and really those two will work. Oh, and aliens. And I thought, yep, because I've seen so many Hollywood movies that were just absolutely terrible and so ungodly just with how we got here and all this.

And so, and there was a few subtle points. points along the way in that. And I get, even in this movie, the reason I was shocked is there was so many spiritual vibes to this movie. And I'm like, what is, what is, it almost seemed like I was in a bizarre world or, or perhaps a dream. And just to, I'm not going to give you many spoiler alerts, but it's been out a while. So if you haven't seen it by now, Okay, you should have gone and seen it.

I'm surprised it was still in theaters, yeah. Well, guess what, Al? There were six people there in the theater. And I knew two of them. I didn't realize I knew them until I was walking out. But so just to give you the reason why I was shocked, Al, the name of the movies Project Hell Mary. So the fact that I thought it was about Jesus' mom, earthly mom, tells you there. Look, the name of the guy on the spaceship was named Grace.

That was his name. It was a guy, and his name was Grace. Ryan Gosling was the actor. Yeah. But what is that, a coincidence? And there were multiple either signs or, you know, things in the movie that would have savior of the world. Most of them were kind of ingest, but not really. So it's like, okay.

So the planet, you know, obviously the basic premise is, you know, something happens and the planet is in danger and is fixed to be gone and all the people want. And we need a hell married to save the planet. So we got a hell marry and a guy named Grace is going to try to save the planet. And part of the process of saving the planet was this is a one-way trip. You know, we don't have enough fuel to come back. So you got to give your life to save you. save the planet. And it's a guy named Grace.

See where I'm going with this? Yeah. Meets a, meets an alien named Rock or Rocky. And wouldn't you know it that this alien, he's willing to give his life to save not only his planet, but our planet. So you see where this is going. Oh, and his name is Rock, you know? Yeah. What is happening here?

Now, I said all that to say this. About three quarters through the movie, O'Rock, or Rocky, quote, quote, Our Dad, there is a Phil Robertson quote in the movie. Now, they don't say my dad.

In fact, I was so shocked and disturbed when I heard said quote. I'm wondering whether I should give the quote or just leave that as a cliffhanger to watch the movie and you find the quote. But what's hilarious is when I get back, because I thought, when we're driving back, I'm driving back at 10 o'clock, you know, Missy's talking, and she's like, what are you so focused on? I'm like, I got to go back and look up on the internet how this happened.

There has to be a story because that Hollywood movie I thought was going the same direction that they all go, which is, remember there was some movie. I walked out halfway through it. I've talked about it before. I think Brad Pitt was in it or whatever. Oh, yeah. It's all about it. Maybe Tommy Lee Jones, I don't know who was in it,

but they're going to go find God in space. And they basically, the whole movie, well, the half I watch, was they got up there and said, no, it's not here. That was the movie. I mean, it was just absolutely deplorable. and was a waste of however much money I spent. But then this just had a different vibe. So when I get back, the first thing I looked up was, you know,

was there a quote? Was there a Phil Robertson? I asked AI, because I was like, I cannot believe. How did that happen? Here's what's funny what AI's response was. It said, no, it wasn't a quote of Phil Robertson, even though, now listen to this what AI said, that it is universally accepted that Phil Robertson came up with this quote, even though that is a universal accepted fact that he invented the actual

quote, this was a coincidence that the character Rocky said that quote. So I just thought that was interesting. They didn't want to give him credit. And since he didn't say, you know, Phil Robertson said the thing, but he did. There is a Phil Robertson quote in there. And I didn't think that was an accident. Based on everything else, I had said, all these subtle things. So Jay's summertime is here.

We're trying to come up with things for kids to do because they're out of school, trying to keep them active, trying to keep their minds working. I think reading books is a tradition that I like that are handed down to kids. especially when they're young. It's good to be able to take stories and impact kids in a way they can understand. That's what our good friends that brave books do. They're a big deal to our family. Our family has authored brave books.

Jayes, you happen to know one of the... My wife. Because you're my family, which is a book about unconditional love, which we talk a lot about on the podcast. Jeff and Jessica, our brother and sister-in-law, have one called Dear Valor. It's about adoption and God's love for all of us. So we have those here. Brave books publishes Christian values-based children's stories designed to help parents raise kids with solid convictions.

Books about courage and faith and loving others the way God calls us to. And obviously, we're a part of that as well. So we love that. We love that our families behind it. We want you to get involved and have something for your kids and grandkids this summer. When you subscribe, you get a new book every month, a free starter kit, plus both of the Robertson books that we have here on the set. completely free. When you use the code unashamed, you'll even get 20% off your first order. Let's raise kids who are unashamed of their beliefs. Head to bravebooks.com slash unashamed, use the code

unashamed. That's bravebooks.com slash unashamed, use the code unashamed. So then I looked up is how, what is the reasoning for this spiritual component in there? Well, turns out two of the, I may get it wrong. Creators, directors, direct. producers, one of them was agnostic, one of them was a Catholic

and I wouldn't have appreciated this had I not worked in the producer realm of our Duck Family Treasure show because I realized

then I see why the problem is like what we have with our little duck show and I'm like why don't y'all just turn the cameras on

let us be who we are because I didn't realize they're all having meetings and they're like oh this is we what we want to get the family to do. And people have lines that they want the family to say. And there's this big argument about the creative aspects of the project.

But I do understand that now because even though when we in our show with the Duck Family Treasure, well, we were on the same page, me and the showrunner, who is, I mean, I consider her and her husband family. In fact, my wife today is going off antique shopping with the showrunner from that show. Oh, they're somewhere over in Texas, you know. So these people are real close to us. But when you're doing a show and you have all these episodes, there's conflict on how you want, like, something to go. Even though you're not getting into the weeds, like in our show,

it was a reality show. We're out there. Whatever happens, happens. But I realize those conflicts exist. this. So in this case, in this movie, according to AI and just my searches, so this could be totally wrong because the Internet's not the Bible. But they're like this, one of the producers is, he's a Catholic, he believes in God. And one of them's an agnostic. Well, they, they were butting heads about, about these issues. And it got so argumentative that they just decided to

kind of have fun with it and just kind of play both sides as they went along. Now, actually, I think it was genius because you'll get more people to watch the movie. Because trust me, if there had not been this element to it, I would have left a third through the movie and said, I told all my friends, don't go see it. And now, here I am talking on this podcast saying, oh, go see this. This movie, top notch. I loved it. Because I love that aspect, even I'll give you a line in the movie that really drew me in.

I mean, we're halfway through the movie and kind of the woman on the ground on Earth who's running things. You know, we've got to save the planet. Somehow it came up, do you believe in God? And she said, well, it's better than the alternative. And I thought, that's a line I've used many times, you know, which is true. So there was multiple moments. Like some of them were real subtle. But in that case, it was just like, well, I know which side of the production that line came from.

You see where I'm at? Oh, yeah. So I think it's, I think it'll be, I think it'll be a movie. Because when I looked up how many people had reviewed it, which it was 8.3 on the, what is this movie base? IMDB. IMD, yeah. But when I looked down, what got my attention is there were 345,000 at the time of us doing this podcast, who had created that 8.3.

The fact that that many people have seen the movie and then gone to this. Because even me, when I tried to rate the movie, they're like, oh, no, you got to sign up to do that. Well, I'm like, X out. I'm not signing up for anything. Right, because then you've got to get all their emails and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah, so it was a wonderful experience. I recommend the movie.

I think it's going to be one of those types of movies, like E.T. So a question I have, did Missy know what it was about? I mean, you didn't know. She said it. She thought it was a football movie. I said that. She thought football. Yeah.

And that's why I brought up that. She thought it was a bad news bear story. Oh, yeah. So it was going to be like a sports story. Yeah, which she led, because there's something. was a year of my life where I coached baseball. And my wife, we had had such a turbulent little league experience, little league baseball. And the problem was not the kids. It's the parents. And look, since then, I've heard horror stories about parents lose their minds over the game of baseball.

You get into the travel ball world. It just becomes so dramatic. And we had multiple bad experiences in Little League where it's just drama. People, cops coming over the parents. Yeah. You know, coaches quitting, cuss fights, punches thrown between parents at umpire through the years. And so my wife, she was like, well, why don't you just coached the team.

And I'm like, you don't want me to do that. You don't want me. I kept saying that and just infuriated her. And she was like, why do you keep saying that? I was like, because I'm going to do it right. And what I mean by doing it right, I will stop my life. And we will have a year of where it's done right with kids. And so when my second son, when he reached 14 years of age,

and it was his last year of playing was technically little league. you know, after 14, you move on and start playing school ball, that kind of stuff. He asked me to be the coach. And I was like, he said, I've just had, I'd just like to have a fun year and do it the right way. And I was like, you know what? I'm in.

And then Missy, a year later, realize why I said, you don't want me to do that. Even though it was a great experience, and now it's her idea, not mine. She thinks that what happens is, that year is movie worthy. And I actually agree on what happened. I'd like to name it the good news bears.

Yeah. See where I'm going? See where I'm going with this? I'm not sure I can legally or technically name it that. No, you could. But we, me and three other men that I handpicked, because I said parents will not be involved. I actually made the parents sign a contract that they would, you know, it was kind of the little saying about umpires, you know, do their job, coaches coach, parents cheer.

The kids play the game, you know, that you find your, this is your role, you cheer. So I use that to get them to sign a contract that if they did anything other than cheer, I had the full responsibility to. eject them from the stands to being further away, which actually happened in game one. After the first pitch of the first game, I called timeout, pulled the pitcher, ejected the mom, and then the three guys that were with me, who were all Jesus-loving people,

but knew the game of baseball. I had a guy who coached semi-pro baseball for 20 years. we had the leading home run hitter in the history of our local little league. He set the record for the most home runs ever, which is our friend Martin, who is a big guy. We love Jesus. And then we had Jay Stone who had coached and worked with kids sports. He actually played junior college baseball as well. Yeah.

And so, Maro, I was the manager of all this. As far as the technicals of baseball, I'm not an expert, but I had three guys who were. And so we took those kids, and I drafted all the troubled kids. I think nine of the nine or ten of the 13 that we wound up with were from broken homes. And so we turned the baseball field in this one year into a safe place. when we walk onto this field, this is the safe place. That's why I wouldn't let any outside distractions.

And as far as coaches, we never argued any one time, Jay, there was one mistake made, and I was like, go fix yourself, we don't do that. You know, it was a bad call. I mean, the guy missed the call. Yeah. But I'm like, oh, no, we overcome any adversity, you know.

And so we lost the first two games and then we never lost another one. And it was a pretty remarkable story. And one of those kids who were on our team is now, fast forward, however long ago this was 15 years ago, he is now in a major league baseball organization. So I'm saying I'd love to follow all those kids and see what happened, but I think it'd be a good movie.

So that I'll get with a good movie. So that I'll get with Zach. The good news bears. I mean, we're always looking for a good project. I think that would be eight out of ten, Jay's on the. Yeah. And look, we actually brought a couple of the parents to the Lord during that process. And this went beyond baseball, you know, because what I learned was everybody loves a winner.

So at some point when we turned it around, well, they were all on board. Because we were winning. It just became, you know, crazy. I remember advice, Jason, I got from dad. We first started doing the podcast. I had gotten quite a bit overweight. And he was like, Al, when you're having a hard time fitting through the door, maybe it's time to deal with it.

Maybe back off the honey buns. Exactly. And, you know, it's just dad's way of trying to motivate me. And look, we need it, right? We get in those places where we know we're eating the wrong things. What I didn't understand through this process is as you get older and your body starts feeling some stress, it slows your metabolism down. The popular gLP one shots or help you with your appetite, but then you still got the core problem. You got to deal with it. So a year and a half ago, I made the decision. Here's a picture of me at the beginning. You see, I was a bit portly.

And here I am today. I've lost 80 pounds. I feel better. I'm off all of the meds that I was on before. I'm off of my CPAP machine, which I had for 15 years at night, which is the ball and chain that's gone. And I feel better. And so you can too. I know you're thinking, man, can I really do this? You can. Give them a call right now and mention Al Robertson. You'll get two free weeks.

They'll pay for the cost of your food. That's a $1,500 value. 864-644-1900 is the number to call. That's 864-6-44-1900. Or you can go to my Ph.D. weight loss.com. The goal isn't just to lose weight, but it's to not have to start over again. Again, that's 864, 64-644-1900, or go to my PhD weightloss.com.

You would have had the same attitude, I mean, the same commitment and attitude if y'all had lost every game. Well, that's right. And the way it started, I mean, we lost the first two games. And our catcher, who, because when you draft. all these players, I was just picking on talent. I didn't care about the attitudes and all because I thought we'll have a spiritual foundation where we're going to give these kids a rebirth opportunity, you know,

on the spiritual side of things. But at the end of the draft, well, there's always a couple of kids who's never played baseball. And now they've decided at 13 and 14-year-old league, they're going to try it. Well, they just, you don't draft them. they just give them to you. And so really the best thing that happened to us was our two last draft picks, both got injured in the game. So we got to replace them.

Well, then I had to get into the rule book and see who we could pick up. Well, one of the guys we happened to pick up is the guy who's now in the Dodger organization. So that helped. But all the storylines in the detail. would make a great movie, you know? Because when this kid showed up, all these parents on the other teams, there was one stacked team because they're like, we're going to have the All-Star team.

Say, they're already predetermined who was going to go to the All-Stars. Whoever wins the league gets to be the All-Star coaches. Well, when we won the league, everybody was against me because they're like, well, we already had this set. Our kids are going to be, you know. And so I'll go ahead and give you the climate. of the movie after we defied all odds came back, won the league, I go to the all-star meeting and said, look, been a great year, appreciate it, I will not be the all-star coach.

We just wanted to have a season for those kids. And so good luck to you. And so the look on their face, because the whole time I was trying to take on the establishment, it should be about the kids. it's not about you trying to, you know, win, like you're going to win the World Series or whatever. And so it was a great experience, but it was a year of my life where that's all I did 24-7.

I mean, it was all about the kids. And so those two guys that got hurt, though, I just remember because one of them, this was such a great moment in my life. This kid, he was scared to swing the back. He's 14 years old. He's never played baseball. We're out here.

You know what, 13 or 14, they're throwing pretty hot. We're playing the real game of baseball here. And so I just thought, well, I'll teach him out of blunt. So that's all he did. I was like, at some point in this season, you're going to be called upon. So we lost the first two games. He never would swing the bat. Our third game, we only had about eight people show up.

So we're getting an out every time our ninth month. man is supposed to show up. We're losing 13 to 1 at some point in the third game. So a lot of things happen. We make the greatest comeback that I've ever been a part of, win that game 14 to 13. And the reason we did is because when this kid was up at the plate, there was one out.

And if he doesn't, and we had two men on base, the tying run and the winning run. And so I realize if he gets out, then we get an out because we have an empty slot. The game's over. So I call a time out. We got to tie and run on third. It's 13 to 12. I said, look, I am going to call a sacrifice butt.

Do you know what that is? And he was like, no, sir. I said, when that pitcher is in his windup, I'm going to send this man from third. He's coming to the plate that you're at. you square that bat around, and you put the bat on the ball. Because if you don't, I'm going to look like an idiot

because I'm sending this guy. He's coming. And so actually I forced him in his mind. He was like, I have to do this. I was like, it must be done. And so I said, that's what's going to happen. Get up there and do your job. He squares that bat around.

Perfect butt. They throw the ball away at first, tie and run scores, win and run. We win the game on his butt. So it's like, what could have gone wrong? True story. Everything could have gone. This is Hollywood movie moment. I mean, we're literally trying to pick him up and carry him off the field.

But we can't because he's in so much pain. And what we realized is the ball never touched the bat. It hit his hand. And he's like, look at my hand. I was like, oh, you'll be all right. It actually should have been a hit by pitch because he hit his hand. So he's like, well, I'm worried about it. And I was like, oh, you'll be fine.

You know, the mom was like, oh, it's great. But look at his hand as well as all. He'll be all right. I'm back home. We're still basking in our first win. I get a call from her, and she's like, his hand is broken. Oh, boy. He is out for the year.

So I don't guess we'll be seeing you anymore. And I'm like, oh, no, I need him. He will be the motivational factor. And then the next game, we lost our catcher who broke his leg. Same thing happened. These are the two guys that I, you know, were at the end. So they became our inspiration. And then I felt bad about making him bunt because he broke his hand, you know.

So anyway. What do you think? If you think this will be a good movie, that's just one of the storyline. I mean, it's just incredible. And then we never lost another game for the rest of the season. Now, it's so funny because when you're describing it, I was thinking about a current situation where there's the mayor race in Los Angeles, which is the place where they make movies in Hollywood.

And there's a, you know, this woman is the mayor. And, you know, it's just like, anybody else. She's kind of been there and not done a very good job. But they had this huge fire out there where just a whole community just burned up. And so this guy who was a reality TV person. And I never knew about his show. Apparently, I guess it was on 15 plus years, but back when our show was on, I guess. And, you know, when reality TV was everywhere. And this guy is a villain on the show. He's a terrible person, apparently, like, on the, you know, people that have watched talk about him. Well, this guy has a house in this area that was burned up. And, of course, the reason

why all the houses burned is that didn't have any water, you know, like water to put the fire out. That's what you, you know, you try to have a fire department and all that. So there was like, a lot of like things that didn't happen. It should have been there from the, from the leaders of the state of California, including the mayor. Well, this guy now is like, well, I'm running for mayor. And, you know, because my house burned up. And so he's, you know, first it's everybody's like, ah, this guy. He's stupid, you know, he's never done anything before.

He's an outsider to the whole system. And he's running against this mayor who's already in place and a city council person that has been in charge of their homeless problem in L.A., which is terrible. It's the worst in the world. They've got like, I mean, 100,000 homeless people. But all of a sudden, like he's getting. And it's funny that you said this about a movie because I heard someone describe it. They were like, if you were going to make a movie, this would be the movie.

Like the guy's house burns up and he's like, I'm going to be the mayor of this giant city. And people are starting to get fired up about it. They're like, and he makes sense. And he's like when he debated him and he just like mop the floor with him on the debate because he was just speaking truth. He wasn't lying about anything. He wasn't trying to protect a position. he was just doing it because this is what he felt called to do. And I don't know where that's going to end.

I mean, the state and the city is mostly democratic and the two people that are there running against him are as well. So I don't know that he'll win. But it's looking like it could be a movie. And it's funny, but they would never make a movie about that because like he's more conservative. You know, he's like all the things. Well, yeah, maybe that's changed somewhat.

Because like I said, that experience last night, I was so shocked. I mean, maybe we're trending in a better way, but it kind of fueled our conversation about it because Missy keeps saying, you have to make a movie. But there were so many things that happened during that year that I just kind of didn't stop and appreciate, you know?

I mean, I remember the umpire calling time out one time. Come on, what's the problem? He's like, your left filter is in a fight. I looked out there, and my left filter is, rolling around on the ground with two other people who had jumped the fence while the game is going on. Because I told you these kids had problem life. There were two of his friends from school. And I'm like, what is happening right now? I ran out there. And I'm like, who are you? Who are the other two kids? You know, they take off running. And I'm like, what are you doing? But in really, I mean, it wasn't his

fault. He's out there playing left field and two guys, which he gets kicked out of the game, which is the only time I really argued with the umpire, because I'm like, he's in left field and two people jump a fence. How is that his fault? You know, he was intact, you know? But it's because you have to take up for the kid somewhat, but then I'm like, we had to have a long conversation on what led to two young men feeling that disdain against you that they want to jump a fence while a game is going on. I think we should definitely make this movie. This is a great idea because like someone, we just did a bunch of media for our movie,

and they were like, who's the next person your family is going to do a movie? And I was like, I have no idea. Well, I'm pitching it right now. I mean, Missy has convinced me. She's, because I was so close to the situation, I just didn't, you know, I just, I didn't realize all that was going on, I guess, as far as like making a movie. But it was the good news bears. Good news bears. Who looked like the bad news bears.

Yeah. But through the good news of Jesus and not just that we were sharing sermons with them, we were just being men mentors to them. We taught them the game of baseball. they came together as a team, and we literally did the impossible, which was win that league with not the best team. We did not have the best team, but we won it, and we were scrappy, and we did pick up, you know, we had a couple of studs, but overall, you know, that doesn't mean anything.

That's why I love the, you know, the game of baseball. It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful game, and if you come together and get your mind right, look, you just wouldn't believe what will happen. So, well, because it's different, it's so different than the other major sports because, you know, you talk about size and, and all that's still there in terms of athletics and all that. But baseball has always been a little bit unique because it does seem that kids can rally and do something and beat kids that are maybe better athletes than them or maybe have a better pedigree and all the other things, which is why I think it's always been. Like, you think about all the great baseball movies. There's a lot of great ones, which you mentioned bad news bears. It was a great.

Well, yeah. Well, even my introduction to these kids, you know, I had an advisor who knew all the players, knew all the kids. He was sitting there. And every time, the same thing. I was like, what about this kid? And he's like, great athlete, you know, kids about terrible home life, you know. And then I'd pick him. He's like, why'd you just pick him?

I was like, I'm not worried about that part. Yeah. That's what you want to help. They need that. So look, that repeated itself over and over. Oh, this kid, he was in a juvenile home, you know, for whatever. But I tell you what, he can hit a baseball. You know, I'm like, I want that guy right there, you know.

And so that was kind of comical, you know, because I thought, well, that, because deep down wasn't about baseball to me. I thought, let's give these kids a positive experience. Maybe it'll be a catalyst. for them, you know, to find meaning in life and flourish. Now, I like it. It's because it's a microcosm of what we've been talking about in our preview of James. And then the last podcast, we were in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew, because it's that thing. It's the idea of the attitude that goes into the mission.

And that's exactly what we're talking about, right? the behind, you had a thing going in about what you wanted to get done and whether, what the success was going to be, what, wouldn't, we didn't matter in the wins and losses. It mattered in the attitude of the kids, right? I mean, that's who, that's who rally. That's who pulled together. And, and that's exactly what the point is in the book of James. And, and also what we think he's drawing from with the sermon on the mount was the idea of the heart is right and the attitude is right, then you'll do the right things. Yeah.

Well, it's just there's, you know, you realize that experience for me on the baseball field really showed this cycle of especially generational that you're having kids, you got a bunch of baggage, then you're passing that on to your kids, and they're passing it on to their kids, which was shown so much through that season, You know, one of the best players that we had, who was the guy that I removed from the game after the first pitch, because what happened was, you know, we've gone through practice, and I thought this kid is a stud, you know, can, and he eventually led our team in home runs and was one of our best pitchers. But he threw the first pitch of the game. Look like a strike. The umpire ball.

Look, these umpires that they have up here, they're making 30 bucks. They have no experience. It's just some dude. So what are we going to be shocked that he gets some of it wrong? You know, that was my whole attitude. But anyway, he calls it a ball. This kid meltdown. The mom stands up, four-letter words hollering, and I'm like, time out.

Okay, you know, little talk with the kid. You're done. And what was fascinating to me, and he's like, well, coach the rules. I got to play two innings. And I said, well, I'll go to court over that. Because you're sitting on that bench. We overcome adversity. We do not throw temper tantrums on the mound at 14 years of age because the umpire missed the call.

You're done. The mom, I was like, you're out of here. Go way away. And look, she never came back. She was back, you know, smoking a couple of packs of cigarettes. per game way away from the game because that worked from that point on you know yeah but you can't be showing this kind of example because you're putting way too much pressure on your kid i see why he's acting like this because you're acting like you're acting like that from the stamp we must break this cycle

and that's what i why i said through the year they both changed their demeanor they they changed how they were and look at the end of it after we won we all gathered together there they were there were tears flowing. There were people hugging. This was a positive experience. But it was messy breaking that cycle. And we're just talking about one aspect of their life, the game of baseball.

Can you imagine what else was going on behind the scenes? And so I really think that that's what, when we talk about the sermon on the mount, Jesus is given the bigger pitcher that James, is piggybacking off of. When you think about your actions, and I find it fascinating that James ends his letter, talking about us as spirit-filled people following Jesus,

bringing other people. This is how he ends the whole book. Bringing other people to the Lord. Yeah. And when you think of where that all starts in your own life, I mean, to a lot of people that when they're, first born again, they're like, they're just totally focused on keeping the old man dead and how can I break this cycle. And if you even introduce at that time, you actually being used to help someone

else out, that, you know, is so foreign. But that's what God does. It's not just a rebirth. It's a, he gives you a job. There's work to be done. He's going to use you. And so I think when Jesus said he came to fulfill the law, that's why you're looking at what was behind the law. Yeah. Well, and they, what he was doing, Jace, was he was, because their mindset was, we have the code, but they weren't living the code because no one can. I mean, it's, you're going to fall short. But instead of saying, okay, we're falling short, so we got to work on ourselves, we've got to work on our attitude, we've got to try. we've got to trust God that he's going to, you know, help us, you know, be better than our own

conscience and our own actions. Instead, they were like, well, no, we have it. We've got the law. But then they subverted the law. And they still felt righteous in the process. And so he totally deconstructed that with his sermon, with his speech. And basically said, no, the problem is your heart so bad to begin with. The law is fine.

I mean, it is what it is. but you have failed before you ever got to law because you think you're better than you are. And so I felt like that was his whole deconstruction of the people he was talking to, which, of course, they completely rejected him and his message, most of the people there, including, ironically, his own brother who wrote the book. Right. You know, I mean, I don't know that he was present that day when Jesus gave the sermon, but I know later he had to reflect on it because of the book he wrote, the letter that he wrote,

to the early church. This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand. Choose Activia. Feel good from the inside out.

Visit activia.ca for more details. So what I thought we should do, and we're still just kind of wrapping our head around this, and I think if people buy into kind of what we're selling here, which is when you think wisdom of God, you know, the book of proverbs, you think the creation story itself, how that played out. Yep. here comes Jesus, and he's introducing a new creation of people. Members of the kingdom, how he's describing it, these are the people of the kingdom of God,

and here's what they're going to do. Yeah. And he never, he's not acting like, come to me and all your problems are over, and that's why you get into these trials, and giving up your life and serving and sacrificing and being persecuted. So when you start off in James, he immediately starts talking about going through trials. And unfortunately, you know, in the Greek,

the word temptation can be translated as either being tested or being tempted. Well, to us, that's a huge difference in the English language, you know. It's tempted. We only think of sin. Trials, we just think that that could be anything. And I think the answer is yes, because when things, when you do have trials, a lot of times it leads to temptation, and then the temptation, you start doing sinful things and not responding properly to any kind of trial that happens.

But I think you see this echoed in the way Jesus started the beatitude. So when he began to teach, he says, Blessed are the poor and spirit, this is 5'3, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So these are the types of qualities and attitudes that you should have. Which, by the way, is exactly how James started his book, A Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say anything about it, brother, anything.

He started in humility. He's like, here's my humble being here. He starts in humility, and then he starts talking about persevering, under trials. Right. And so, well, all these qualities comes from trial. Just think of trials when they happen and bad things happening to you or as a result of poor decisions you make.

Well, that is the definition of being tested trials. If everything went your way, well, you would never learn anything. You would never appreciate anything. You're just like, oh, this is just great. So then he says, blessed of those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will, now I thought this was interesting. This kind of stopped me in my tracks out. They will inherit the earth.

You know, we talk about this heaven and earth dynamic, and heaven and earth being a theme of the Bible, and that coming together, not only now having the spirit of God, Jesus at the right hand of God, that temple idea that we're connected, where the place through what Jesus did and through his spirit, where heaven and earth meet, where God and people meet.

But I do think that's interesting when you think about when Jesus comes back and what that looks like and from him eating fish post-resurrection with his disciples to other points like that. And even what you brought up in the last podcast, which I thought was really interesting,

I didn't get a chance to comment on it because we had sound, But when you talked about that Gahena, which he mentions later in this sermon, being an actual place. And the idea was it was a place of terrible realities because it was a place of child sacrifice and all that. So his point is not saying, hey, one day there'll be a place of fire. And, you know, like we talk about help. But the ideas. It may be.

I mean, we may be. I mean, he does use Lake of Fire in Revelation 20 and 21, but I know in this instance, and I mean, I'm 99.5% sure. What that place in Gehenna, that valley was also, it was a place of justice. And those people got in this life a certain measure of what they had dished out to innocent children. And Jesus brought that up. as in you're not going to be able to get away with some big atrocity. One day, you're standing before God, and that's going to happen.

Because he frames that in the idea about murder and anger later on in Chapter 5. With being held accountable. Yes. And the capacity of what you're capable of, the thing about it is, once you go down the murderous path, you're capable of anything. I mean, when you can take another person's life and then just move forward, you're capable of then of anything, which is his point. I mean, once that happens, you get to this place where all that's left for you is justice

because, you know, you have no capacity to do anything any difference. I just thought that was a good point you made in that theme. I hadn't thought about it in that term. Yeah. I knew it was an actual place, but when you look at what actually happened there, you see that people are capable of doing terrible things when their mind's in the wrong place. Yeah. Well, and look, I did a lot of research.

search and study on this, I found the best place on the sermon on the Mount that I got the most ideas from was the Bible project did a one-year podcast series for one year on the sermon of the Mount. And it's not just them. They invited multiple scholars. So you can look into that. Some of these ideas that I'm getting, I got from there and some of the scholars they had on as guests. They even had my friend Dallas Jenkins on. talking about like what was in their minds when they did the chosen from the sermon on the mount is really, really interesting. I think that's actually on the first episode. So, but I just thought that was interesting.

And I think Psalm 37 is, his beatitude about the meek will inherit the earth is a direct quote from Psalm 37. And if you want to read that whole thing, I think you'll get a bigger picture of why Jesus said that. Verse six, blessed of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed of the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Because there's a lot in James also about mercy. And I don't mean a lot of verses, but there's a lot of profound statements about judging others. and this idea of you being judged in the same way you judged others. Well, see, that all of a sudden, that's when it comes home here.

Because really what we're trying to say is we as people who follow Jesus, and this is real close to home for me, because I know we're out of time, I was going to go through this whole thing, but I was just wanting to say, you know, here I was. I saw my dad come to the Lord, and eventually I'm reading a book of John and realized that God died for me and Jesus and forgave me for what I had done wrong.

Well, then, well, how am I going to look at my dad and hold against him things that he did wrong where I got some of the consequences of? All of a sudden, that question, and then what about me? How am I going to view other people? people who make mistakes and do wrong. So just to finish reading this, it says,

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is a reward in heaven. For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So I was just going to make a point about not only do you inherit the earth,

but you inherit heaven, because there's your rewards in heaven. He's constantly bringing that heaven and earth theme back together. And later when he teaches them how to pray, he says, I pray that your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So that's kind of the mantra, I think, in the backdrop that James is using this for action. That seems incredible for you to pull off. but it is possible. God has a plan, and he is fantastic at rebuilding and rebirthing human beings

and launching them into a new creation. Yeah, and it's a trust factor, which is huge. So I got a good quote from Joe, but I'm going to save that for the next time we come back. Hopefully we'll have Zach back in the fold next time we come back and we'll launch into the actual text in James 1. So we'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

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.