Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1361 | Willie Robertson’s Unaired ‘Duck Dynasty’ Snake Scene Erupted into Blood & Chaos

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Jase rehashes the behind-the-scenes ‘Duck Dynasty’ snake bite that never made the show, including the 9-fingered snake handler and Willie streaming blood on camera. Al’s visit to Bella’s Duck Commander office leads the guys into a bigger reflection on Phil’s tiny original duck call shop and the evidence that Phil’s mission has now lasted four generations. The guys explore the dignity of honest work, why every job can become a platform for Jesus, and how Christians are needed in the marketplace just as much as they’re needed in the church. In this episode: Genesis 9; Colossians 3, verse 23; James 1, verses 11–19; Acts 17, verse 26; Revelation 3, verse 11; Revelation 4, verse 10; 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24–25; 1 Corinthians 10, verses 11–13; Philippians 4, verse 1 “Unashamed” Episode 1361 is sponsored by: https://trustandwill.com/unashamed — Get 20% off and protect your legacy today!  https://www.stopboxusa.com/unashamed — Get firearm security redesigned and save 10% off @‌StopBoxUSA with code UNASHAMED #stopboxpod https://helixsleep.com/unashamed — Get 20% off sitewide and make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you! 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. 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://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Chapters 00:00 Keeping the Legacy Alive for 4 Generations 06:05 A Cajun Duck Call Maker with a Wild Story 11:41 Your Passion Becomes Your Platform for Jesus 16:50 Every Job Can Become a Ministry 20:05 The Weirdest Jobs People Get Paid For 27:04 Willie’s On-Set Snake Bite 33:31 Trials, Crowns & Not Quitting 41:49 Humble Beginnings Can Shape Success 48:24 God Always Provides a Way Out — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. So we're kind of in between recordings here because we do too, as you know. And I was going up front and I saw Bella in a spot I don't normally see her. Of course, people move around here. Which is Willie's daughter. Willie's daughter. And she runs the store and several things here. I had passed by Jacob, her husband, in another office, because. I guess they've just done a shuffleboard move, which they do quite frequently here.

I can never keep up with where people are. Jordan's over here now. They're all the time. All the time moving. But I did. I liked it when I saw Bella in there, says, this your new office? She said, yeah, for now. And, you know, we laugh.

And I said, well, this is where Lisa and I were. Back when we came, we left our full-time work at Weiss Ferry Road to come back to work here. And eventually to come on the show. but that was our office. And we were doing like licenses. A bunch of stuff I had never done before and we were just learning because y'all were all doing a show

you know, about building duck calls. Well, then all of a sudden we're selling these town of duck houses. Oh, yes, it was the backdrop. Yeah. I mean, behind the scenes, it was a madhouse around here. But it just took me back

because Lisa and I were in that office together where Bella is now. But when I walked in her office, I looked to the left and she's got a kind of a table there directly in front of her across from her desk. And it's a picture of dad. And he's in that old, I don't want to say warehouse,

but our original little shop. Yeah. It's not even, it was a tiny little shop. I mean, I think it was like a mobile home. I don't know what it. Well, not like a temporary shed. It was like a shed. It was a shed.

But it's a temporary. I mean, I think he bought it for a few hundred dollars. the whole building. Well, and we said before, when he went down and picked up all his equipment and it was this old stuff, and it had come in on a ship somewhere.

That maybe was either New Orleans or Memphis, like one of the two. Because it came in on a riverboat and we had to put it in the truck and the things weighed tons. And he had to have a come along to move it when he got there and he didn't realize

none of it would fit through the door. So he took a chainsaw and his, thing had wooden side note. He just sawed all the boards. And then there was a little crack for the rest of the time we had the shed. But there's a picture of him

in front of one of those wood lays that was in that shop. And he's got a thing tied around. It's the first bandana, I guess. It was a kind of, but it looked like an old towel or something tied around his head. And she's got that set up

across from her desk. But it was just in the moment of looking at it, realizing that Lisa and I had spent time there, we all worked for the company at different times. And you're kind of back doing some stuff again with them.

But now I realize generationally, when you watch it, I mean, like now we're into fourth generation of people. I mean, it's pretty crazy. But it's also for me, you know, at this point in my life, it's also nostalgic in a good way, because we were just telling them the last podcast about the further you move away from an originator, the harder it is to maintain the original idea.

And so I do think that dad would be proud see we're still building duck calls we're still committed you're going to be speaking at a youth camp for sportsmen the people coming here i mean the same things we were founded on we're working hard to try to keep it going generationally you know and that's hard to do because you know i mean you know people don't hunt they don't have the same desires you know that's in things like this but the idea is still some well my appeal is uh because you know i'm at a stage of my life where I don't have a problem saying, no, I ain't doing that. But they're, you know, they constantly come.

They're like, oh, it's, you know, the tradition and we're carrying it out. But I like things that involve me sharing Jesus with people with a duck commander in the backdrop. Exactly. And because that was really what floated my boat, because that's what Phil, he, that was, that was the model. Yeah. We're not going to get caught up. And because my dad used to always say, I mean, he would joke and say, oh, we're, we're going to sell a million of these duck out.

He was kidding. Now, later, when we actually did, he was like, I told you. But I was like, well, Phil, I think we all laughed, including you when you said that. Because he was like, there's not enough duck hunters out there to sell a million duck. And that was the crazy thing about the show is because it put us out there. in a different way, and the business was kind of the backdrop of the television show. And then we sold a million duck calls in one year. Well, exactly.

And so, who would have ever even thought it possible to even do this? I use this in my speeches because my whole point to this is it was definitely, it came from God, because what kind of marketing genius could come up with an idea that we're going to sell duck calls to people who don't duck hunt? And never will. And never will. And don't care. They just like going,

so Jay brought a guest yesterday was just a madhouse. It was crazy. People. But he had a guy. I met him and took a picture with it. Now, how much of what he said did you understand? About every third word. We're proud of Louisiana.

And we have basically two states within one state. And the further you go down south, you get into what we call Cajun County. And the further you get into south of Cajun country, you get into a man who was here that I needed subtitles. Because it were real, and he would, I'd say, say that again a little slower. My saying is that folks like the gentleman we met yesterday, who Bill's Duck calls is a fantastic person. It's a combination of bad English and bad French combined together into their own language. But very funny and just. He's a good guy.

And look, now he's been building duck calls for about as long as we have. Yeah. He makes him out of cane down there. He's like they're into a cane problem because of a freeze somewhere. He was telling us the story is crazy. And I said, no, are you with the white boots? He went, oh, no, no, that's way further south. Well, you're pretty well on the coast.

He said, yeah, but they're out there in the marsh. Which, by the way, that's Robes, though. That's his background. He's a white boot. Because the white boots are more the shrimpers. Yeah, yeah. They're out there. Commercial fishing.

But look, this guy, what was interesting about it, we made our original duck call insert out of cedar, which is a terrible wood to make duck calls out of as far as production, because about one out of every four. And I said that yesterday, and he laughed because he knew I was right. And he was like, oh, I know you know that. I was like, yeah, because they bust. And I used to tell my dad, I was like, maybe we should get a little harder a wood.

And he's like, the sound, Jay's, the sound. We got that. So it was a running joke, but he appreciated that. And then I was like, well, how do you make these? Because he showed me his duck cut. It's real soft and it's real small because it's made out of this cane wood. And then the insert is cedar. He cuts them out by hand with a pocket knife.

I was like, for 50 years you're making, and it just made me. And he stays, and he has like this list of people. Oh, it's a waiting list. It's a waiting list to get his calls because he's hand-making them. It's like a story that you're buying, though. Oh, that's it. And this guy, look, people in Louisiana are famed. There's a reason people come to Louisiana to film and to film its people.

Yeah. I'm like, this guy, you know, not understanding half of what he said was irrelevant because what I did get was hilarious and interesting and very heartfelt. And you all seen that movie Marty Supreme with Timothy, is it, Salome? Salome.

Oh, no, I saw the... I watched it on the plane and it's like, it's so he's, I think it's like based, loosely based on a true story of this champion. Ping-pong player? Table tennis. Yeah, ping-pong player, which is kind of at the time the film takes place is kind of like this small kind of niche sport that hasn't really taken off yet.

But this guy's just obsessed with it. And so kind of the movie is like his journey to greatness and something that he was passionate about. And he pretty much gave his whole life to this thing. He's kind of a hustler kind of guy. But I love those like stories. Like it's kind of like, and I think about Phil, you know, It's because duck hunting is a niche thing. I mean, it's not like there's a ton of duck hunters in the world.

I mean, how many duck hunters are there? Well, at one time, there's less than 900,000 duck stamps sold in America. I think the low, we used to do a survey on that. And not everybody that buys a duck stamp duck hunts either. Well, that was one year. It was less than half a million. So less than 500,000 bought a duck stamp. Now, I think that was the years when it was 30 days and three dugs.

And when we did the comparisons, Zach, 10 million people deer hunt at that time. But how many people have bought the duck calls? I mean, you start looking at the math on it. Like, something doesn't add up here because there's more people bought the duck calls than there are duck hunters. Like double more. When you're building a life that you love, you start realizing that taking care of your family isn't just about what you do day to day.

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It became his passion. He did it with excellence. And then it, like, you kind of build a story around that. And then there's, and then the kingdom can be launched out of that type of passion. I think about where y'all live, there's a barber shop in town. Every time I come in town,

I want to go to it, it's called Ramos. And I just like it because it's like Russell, the owner, he's like, you know what? I'm passionate about being a barber. It was a whole experience

when he started that barbershop, and he was all in with it and everything was done with excellence. I don't really care what it is. If you're like all in, that's kind of incurred. That inspires me to see somebody go all in on something.

And I think it, it like paves the way for a lot of kingdom activity. It doesn't really matter what the thing is. It's the fact that somebody's fully vested in something. They're going to build a story around that. It may be the random duck call maker who hand-carves it, but there's a story there. I think people are looking, like, we want to be inspired.

We want to be like, do you really believe? That's awesome. It's encouraging to me watch you be inspired by what you're doing, and then you're doing it with excellence. I love that kind of stuff. Well, and it's an American thing, too, Zach. I mean, it's kind of woven in there together. The kingdom is at the heart of it.

But, you know, we did our Hillsdale course about the American founding and the idea. It was just that. The idea was to escape this idea of somebody having their hand on you all the time to then just be free to create and do something. And what you're passionate about. And, you know, and then have God bless you and that and then build something. And really, that's kind of what this whole experiment has been about. Now, like we talked about with Solomon, the more success you have, sometimes that becomes your biggest detriment.

Well, then it's temptations and all. Look, I'll give my dad credit for something. I really, just really encouraged me when I was young. Because people would come down there constantly once we started kind of started rolling. You know, before the show came out. I mean, we got up into the top three or four duck call, manufacturers, you know, before the duck show hit and all that. I mean, we were doing videos and we had all that.

And really the video thing, which was, again, another dad idea of, like, the way he would put it was shooting ducks in your face. That was the, that was the, yeah, well, Phil, always had this blunt, you know, we're doing this. It's God sanctioned. Genesis 9. We got orders from headquarters, axed in, you know. He was justifying it.

And he's like, this is, this is. Remember when he used to quote the Declaration of Independence and all about, you know, the pursuit of happiness? He said, nothing makes me happier than blowing the head off of Mallardra. Yeah. And then he would talk about, but I love you. But what I was going to say is a lot of people would come down and then they were like, well, we want to do what you are doing. And he would always be like, well, maybe you're not cut out. You know, be a duck hunter.

And he used to read this Colossians 3 where it's like, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men. He's like, this is what we do. And he used to tell people, you know, what do you do for a living? You know, some people's like,

well, I work on a garbage truck. I mean, and I remember, that's not like I'm making this analogy. I remember a guy saying, I work on a garbage truck, and he's like, hey, part of walking with Jesus. You got to take out the garbage every day. You got to take it out.

Because he was, his point was, whatever you're doing, that is your platform. Yeah, that's your platform. And don't feel bad that, oh, I'm taking out garbage. And you remember the guy I'm talking about who, and then later we had another guy who owned his own garbage truck. And he was like, love it. Love it. There's a lot of points here when people ask, you, you, you smell that. Oh, it's me.

because he always noticed it about the garbage truck. He's like, even though you take a shower, you still stink because you're dealing in garbage every day. But you need to use that for the Lord. You can tell them, hey, yeah, I'm taking that garbage. And he said, you know what smells like to me? Money. Spells like money.

And it smells, it reminds me of what the Lord has done in my life. You know, I just always thought that was fascinating because I thought no matter what they say, he always, like what they do? Because he's like, what do you like to do? Yeah. And they're like, well, I can't make a living doing what I like to do. Well, what do you do?

And whatever it was, he made some of a spiritual analogy. This is how you're going to do this for the Lord. It's like a goblin. You know, when we ran up on Goblin or he ran up on us, he was working at the mill, swing shell. He worked out there over 20 years. Paper mill. And it stinks.

It smells like a big fart. Oh, it stinks to this day. I mean, I don't notice it anymore when I drive by. but if someone says, what's that smell? I'll say, oh, that's that mill we're driving by. So I'd ask Guy, what does it smell like to you? And he said, Steaking eggs. Steaking eggs, boys.

But Guy one winds up working for Duck Commander for more years than it was at the mill. And he never really loved it out there, but Dad told him the same thing. And then it was ironic that we wound up getting to hire him, and he came to work for us. And he loved it, obviously. And now he's fishing guy. on top of that. But it is just over and over and over the same concept of just where we're at in James, really. And we did the illustration last time in that the brother in the humble circumstances

are to take pride in his high position. What James is saying is, you know what? Sometimes whatever, the garbage truck job may be the best thing you could ever do as long as you understand me. Hey, when they go on strike. Yeah, you see what happens. I'm telling you. Walk with your head up. We appreciate you, bud. Exactly, right. There's honor in everything. I had coffee last month with the guy. It's like, funny, if you love what you do, no matter how boring, I might think it is, if you love it and you're, like, passionate about it, you see how it's purposeful and meaningful.

I actually find it interesting. This guy, I talked to him probably 30 minutes. He's into water. What he does is he goes in the companies, and he helps them figure out how they can, get rid of all their wastewater, which is I'm like, I have no desire to learn about. But what he got to talk about, I was like, I'm like super interesting what he does. But like, it's his life. He cares about it. He's great at. He's the best at it.

I was like, that's interesting, man. Like, what you do is very, I mean, but it's just because he cared about it. And I think that, you know, when so many times the way we've entered into the, you know, discussion about Christ and ministry is we think ministry is only the professional clergy. And so that's your sacred world. And then your secular world, that's where you, that's where you have to go do all the other stuff. And I used to tell these college kids all the time, when we did college ministry, they'd say, I want to go into ministry. I mean, no, no, no, no, no. Before you do that, you realize if all of you go into professional ministry,

then we have no Christians in the marketplace. And I think, I actually believe the next revival that we're going to experience. And maybe in right now, I think a lot of it's going to happen in the marketplace first, and then it'll move into the church. So we need Christians in the marketplace, you know, taking out the trash, you know, and creating. I had a lot of teachers, Zach, when I was here, you know, through the years they would leave a Christian school, but they were conflicted about it because they were like, you know, public education, I mean, it's not always a good situation. And, you know, they would be like questioning what to do, and they would come talk to me. but I was always like, public education needs Christians all over that place.

They need people that are there. God has that you're going to be in a circumstance where you're going to be talking to young people every day and you're going to have an opportunity because some of those kids are going to get ready to turn themselves in, and you may be the guide that gets them there. So I was like, and they pay about three times as much. I was like, take the blessing and go be God's missionary. You know, that's your situation. And that's for any of us.

So before we get into something that hopefully will change your life, I thought it'd be fun. I did this off the top of my head. The top 10 most unusual slash bizarre jobs. You ready? Yep. Number 10, professional sleeper. Yes.

Luxury sleep labs, mattress companies, and clinical researchers pay people to sleep on the job and record data about the rest. Number nine. Professional Sleeper. I've got a couple of grandkids that I need to sign up for that one. Number nine. I mean, I'm going to tell my wife about this because she would do that. Number nine, nail polish namer.

Employees sit around. Maddie got a laugh. I thought that was funny. Employees sit around brainstorming clever, catchy, and creative names for new polish shades. Do they have names? They all have different names, Maddie? Wow. There are also, number eight, professional mattress jumpers.

They test a mattress's durability, balance, and structural integrity. These are legitimate jobs. This is two out of three from my grandkids. Right. I mean, I'm learning since then. Number seven, a human statue. Performers paint themselves pose motionless as public art on street corners or at events. I've seen those at New Orleans.

Earning decent money. Yeah, they do pretty well. The gold paint, though, and the silver paint, that would be the... For standing perfectly still. Obviously, as a dad, I feel like one of my rules is to protect my family. Probably a couple years ago, we had an incident where I thought somebody was in my house. And by the time I got to my safe, which is in another room and got my gun out and got back, I was like the whole thing would have been over if had there been a real threat.

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Number six, professional line stander. Yes, this is true. People are paid to stand in long cues on behalf of impatient or busy clients. Oh, man. Securing coveted items. Is there a number where I could call somebody? New phone releases. Do they have a business card on that?

Because I'm that impatient guy. Number five. Odor judge used by cosmetic and deodorant companies to test product effectiveness. Odor judges are hired to smell volunteers' breath, feet, armpits, and other places in controlled environment. I threw in the other places. Number four, golf ball diver. Uh-oh. Jace, you've done this before, so I'll skip to number three.

Dog food taster. Ooh. Yes. To guarantee the flavor, texture, and nutritional value meet strict standards, human taste testers, sample dog food, wet meat, kibbles, and treats before spitting them out. Oh, so you don't swallow. You don't swallow it. They just taste it and spit it out.

Nope. I'm out on that one. Gagging is optional. I think I'd rather smell the bad smells than eat the dog. Number two, professional mourner, which I'm familiar with this, because there's actually a story in the Gospels. Yeah, about the whalers. Yeah, they were professional mourners.

You know who does that? Who can do that is Grace Burke, our friend. Oh, really? She can do that. She's a mourner. They have hired her before to, like, someone's turning six. or something and she shows up with this thing over her head and she does all this wailing. Well, it says in certain cultures this is mandatory.

Oh, yeah. It's just part of it. They have number one, which I'll have my own number one, but their number one is a snake milker. Those brave specialists extract venom from highly poisonous snakes directly in the jars. The venom is vital for creating life, saving antivenoms, and pharmaceuticals. and pharmaceutical medications. I was going to put the number one job

is the guy with the sign at every red light saying, I will work for food, but that is his job. Because he's there every day. There's a couple of them that I've seen for years. So I'm like, no, this is your profession to say I need some money. What's funny is he's always standing there,

but I'm thinking somewhere on one of the parking lots in the surrounding area. He's probably got a nice F-150 pickup truck because, I mean, he's working hard. I'll give him credit. He's there every day. But my point was, I just did that while y'all were talking. And I thought, actually, a lot of these things, you could make a segue into something spiritual.

I thought about the snake milk. Well, I thought you were going to say Snake Rangler, because I was just reading one of these Yellowstone spin-offs they're doing, they're filming in Texas. and they were talking about how wherever they're filming what a snake problem they have, 3,700 rattlesnakes they've had to wrangle and move out of this whatever area they're doing production in, in like four or five months. And I was like, 3,700 rattlesnakes. That's a lot of snakes.

I could help. I wouldn't move them, though, but I could help. Yeah, well, they were clear in there. They didn't say, yeah. They dealt with them like. We have another method that we use that's just. It's effect, maybe more effective. That scene where dad does that, he's the crocodile man.

Yeah. He says, Crocodile man, he likes to pick him up and milk him. He said, here's the way we do it down here. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm sure the statute of limitations have run out. But the first technical scene that I was involved with for our duck show was not the show. It was a, you know, in the TV world, you do a sizzler. Yeah.

to do it, to get to pitch say this is kind of what the show is. So this was basically a commercial. It was not part of the show. Like a trailer. It was not seen. But this was day one. And it's me, Willie. We actually blew a blind up.

And that was no sci-fi tricks. We blew, because Phil wanted to get rid of that blind anyway. But what we didn't know is they had hired. a snake wrangler, and they put a bunch of snakes in the blind, without our knowledge. So when we got in the blind, they took pictures and filmed all this. And, well, I objected to this. And I've shared this story before, but my biggest objection was the snake handler that they hired was missing a finger.

He was from South Africa Was that the guy? Yeah, yeah And boy, did we get into it? Because I said, how'd you, I just looked, he had the snakes and I said, well, I got a question for you, how'd you lose that finger?

And he's like, well, I was in South Africa and I got bit by, you know, something poisonous. I lost it. I was like, I don't think you're qualified. And I, and look, I was proven to be right. because he convinced Willie that this snake was harmless. True story.

You're not going to believe what I'm faced today. But Willie's like, well, I'm going to trust the guy, the nine-fingered, you know, snake handler. As soon as Willie grabbed this snake, which looked like a chicken snake to me, and I didn't think it was poisonous, that thing bit Willie on the thumb. And look, blood spurted out of his thumb and was just, going and he he started having a moment here and I was like

I tried to tell you of course they're taking pictures and all this which none of this made any ad the snake part but we blew up the blind and that did make

in the credits of the show or whatever you call it right the intro of the show we all junk we had our back to that and then after that blew up Phil said I'm not doing that again because the heat from that explosion literally blew it.

If you look at our faces real quick, you can find a duck down. They just showed it on the season two premiere when they were showing clips of dad. They showed that. You see our bodies move forward. It literally, the concussion. I saw it. And here's my mother who's been bitten by a snake. And despite it wasn't poisonous and all that, but it took a week to heal up.

Oh, yeah. And, I mean, we got into a knockdown dragout because I'm like, I don't work with people who are expert snake handers who they're missing a finger. I just couldn't believe it. Ever trust a nine-figure snake handler? To be fair, you can't be a full snake handler. He's a partial handler because he'd have a full hand. He had missing fingers. He was like those commercial fishermen we met as they caught one too many loggerhead turtle because we saw a few of them with.

And did you. I mean, since we've broken down that wall, same fella. You know, like three years later we're doing the show's back up. And I'm like, he's like, well, I'm not a snake handler now. He was like a different position. And I said, is this what you sophisticated carnie workers do? You just, you lost that fight. So now you're working.

Same guy. We're going out to do a scene. This scene is actually on the show somewhere. and I took about three steps because we all had our pistols and all, they were props. I looked down, they weren't props to me.

I mean, we're headed out to do the scene, but they were filming just background and whatever. I looked down, there's a snake there. And we shoot the snake, but right before he said, don't shoot, you can't shoot that snake. He didn't want us to shoot the snake. But I was like,

he's fixed to bite us. We're going to be here all day. You know, we're killing this snake. And so then Willie just pulled out and shot it. But somebody was filming it, and they actually put it in an episode. He pah, pap, pap, p, pout. And weirdly enough, they weaved it in whatever scene we did. But that happened in real life.

I actually saw the guy you're talking about on a show, a Shark Week show down in South Africa years after our show was over. What's weird is eventually we made up and kind of became friends. I liked him a lot. Yeah. Oh, we had our moments. But so anyway, that was a, I'm not sure what that point of all that was. Other than whatever you do, I do think we talked about Solomon in the last podcast,

that's got to be the backdrop for what really matters in your life, despite its success or failure. Yeah. I think the point is from James 1 is you want to be true to God and to who you are. I mean, that's what we're talking about here. That's kind of the thing about it. Well, it gets back to something he's going to bring up many times. We're made in the image of God. And I love that Act 17.

I know I'm bringing up all the time. But, you know, God determined the exact times and the exact places where we should live and where we should be. I mean, you get that from Paul's sermon. There's a gift we have. been there and it's for God and to represent him and I believe that's what makes life fun figuring out what that is. Yeah, I'm in that stage of life, guys, where sleep all of a sudden has become a real commodity

around my house. I mean, I think about it a lot. I've been there a minute, Zach. Yeah. I got to have sleep. I can't function without it. Sleep is very important for your overall health. It's key.

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point, Helix is basically taken over the whole family. Jill and I have one, Al Lee, so you guys have one, Jason Missy. All your beds are Helix sleep. And by the way, I'm not just sleeping better over all of my Helix. I'm waking up with less aches, less pains than I did before. And when I travel, I'm telling you right now, the one thing I miss most about home is my Helix sleep mattress. So go to Helixleep.com slash Unashamed for 20% off sitewide. That's Helixleep.com slash Unashamed for 20% off sitewide, helixleep.com slash Unashame. I wanted to bring up that.

Chandler had that, we had him on a few podcasts back. He had that coil illustration, which I thought was so good, the idea that as you're going around highs and lows, that you're moving forward in a direction. He kept calling it instead of up and to the right, how we tend to always think reach higher, you know, you hear people talk about,

as if somehow you're, You can make yourself better. The idea is, as we're moving through the coil, whether it's a high or a low, you're doing what God has called you to do. And sometimes it's a low. I mean, that's the whole idea of this idea about trial. And he says in verse 12, blessed is the man, which is back to your going back to the beatitudes. He says the same thing Jesus. He says, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he received the crown of.

of life that God has promised to those who love him. And it was interesting. You brought up about the crown. We left off. You were talking about the crown of thorns. Which is the ultimate suffering crown. And it's interesting, you said that because there's somebody, you know how you see now? There's one up here at Ravel.

You see them along the interstate. They're building these like giant crosses. I mean, they are giant. They're like 100 feet high. It just built one on 98 heading down to Gulf Shores. I see it. But these people did a little interesting twist. It's giant like the one on I-20,

but they put a giant crown of thorns hanging on that cross, which is really cool because it's the idea of suffering. I like the way they were thinking. It was like, when you see the cross, remember what it was for. Yeah. Well, there's two different Greek words for crown. I looked it up. One of them is only used three times,

and it's in Revelation. And it's more about kingdoms. Think of the verses where it's like one of them was... One of them is Ray Rose in 311. One of them's 410, because I wrote those down too. Yeah, but they're always plural. And it's like kingdoms. But this is more...

And they're presented to Jesus in the context of... Well, one of them's about Jesus, one of them's about the evil one, and one of them is about the woman, I think, which, you know, symbolically what that represents, I guess humanity with its kingdoms and kings. Right. So you get, that is interesting that it's like the people are represented, the earthly kingdoms, the evil one in his kingdom, and then Jesus, and then that one where that diadem is used, it's a version of what I just said.

I can't pronounce Greek very well. it's Jesus and it later on says he's the king of kings but and you but you see the other which is the victory crown which it is used when it describes the same word on his crown of thorns which is make your head kind of spin we talked about this at a podcast before maybe a hundred back but uh because think about what that was it actually deceive

the evil world, the evil world, because you wouldn't think they've been just running mayhem on humans by killing him. You know, think the evil one was a murder from the beginning. He introduced, going back to the garden, remember when the snake is there, speaking of snake handlers, he's like, oh, you won't die. Because here's this tree of life that's representing God's presence forever. And where I'm going with this is, it's like here in James, he calls it the crown of life. You're like, that is the crown.

And Philippians, when Paul used it, he talked about the people that he had, he was like his joy. They were his crown of people who had given their life to Jesus. That was his victory of people who were going to live forever. And so I think it's an interesting phrase to use, especially in trials and temptations, and you hang in there and persevere. And it's like, at the end of the day, it's life. That is true victory.

In 1st Corinthians 9, you remember Paul was used in the illustration because it was like, it was an illustration of like the Isthmath games. We talked about when we studied Corinthians, like an Olympics type setting. So they would have these, you know, like things. things they would sew together like some kind of plant that was a crown that you would get when you wanted to race. That was their crown.

It's not what we think usually. Exactly. But he said, but this crown is one that, I mean, that was just going to, at some point, it's going to die because it's not, you know, growing anymore. And he's like, look at all the hard work you do in the strict training. And you go, and that thing don't even last long. Exactly. It's like some flowers around your head.

Exactly. You do it for a crown that'll last forever, which goes back to the point when you think about this being about righteousness and faithfulness in relationships, it's not so much about the place. You know, because in the sermon on the mouth, he says, okay, you'll inherit the land. And he also said you have a reward in heaven. You're like, well, which is it? Because the point is, you're going to be with me, the king, and the people who are your family in me, in the kingdom, forever.

Now, what you're going to be doing? That's why, okay, whether it's land, sky, Right. I'm fine with either one as long as it's forever. And, you know, I'm with a good crew and we're with the King of Kings. I mean, that's really, I think, the point that you should get out of that. The wisdom of it all is the relationships and for how long they're going on. But it's easy to see why a particularly difficult trial or even temptation, because James is going to deal with both, even something you got into by your own making, when there's an overcoming of that. And again, back, think the coil, when there's an overcoming of that, it does, it is a crown in the sense that, I mean, that's an achievement that God gives you in that moment.

And you look back and you're like, man, we made it, how did we make it through that? You look back and you're just like. Well, because life itself, you're, you made it. You live. Exactly. That's why when he, Chandler made the point about not quitting, oh, that's a big statement. Yeah. Because that's what life is.

Right. you're you're just hanging in there that's right because because this is this is for forever and it's with other people well i thought about we had a had the family that was business yesterday on the first podcast we did and we had no idea like that they came and the bigger ones the the teenagers or whatever got baptized and i missed them and i felt bad and then i ran into them and i was like well are y'all still here and they're like yeah they were going to just go to the store and i was like Woncho come see on the pockets. I had no idea.

They had a cleft palate child. Well, and me either, that I had prayed for before she had even come forth from the womb. Years ago at a hospital. I didn't even remember the details, which was embarrassing. But this little girl had such pizzazz and personality. I just loved her the minute I met her. And then she comes in here and they tell Jay's the story. Jays, we actually met you prayed for her.

And I thought, but that was that whole trial that you guys went through with Mia. and we all did because we were there in support of you guys. But that was her whole life trial. Oh. And she's still. Right. I mean, it's like you think, oh, well, are we ever going to get through this? But I think about the crown.

Those are the moments when like yesterday, when you see that and you realize you had an ability because you went through something to impact somebody else that's going through something similar. I mean, that really is what this is about. I mean, that's, and that's to me what James is talking about. You have the invitation to the end to the place as Jason was talking about. I'm trying to think of what to say it, that the place, think about that book by C.S. Louis, the Great Divorce, and he has like a picture of the place. And those who are in Christ are like in reality.

So they're coming into the place and they can experience it for what it is illuminated by Christ. If you're not in Christ and you're not spiritual, then you're like that you're a ghost. ghost in the place and so you can't really experience it. Like in fact, it feels like hell in some regard that. So heaven ends up being like the ultimate reality. I think that it's an interesting way to frame it up because it's not that we're saying the place doesn't matter. It's more like why does the place matter?

And so when Christ is there and then everything that he, that is created and it's solid. So yeah, so the the ghostly figure, they're not. solid enough to experience this. And so what Christ brings in his presence, he brings the tethering, the solid nature, the tangible expression, something that can be held, touched, experienced. And that is what the reprobate will not have. And so that's the call into that. It's actually a call back into reality.

It's a call to live in reality. I keep coming back to that because that's what that word that you mentioned before, J. Telios. Yeah, it's live it out. Be what you are. I mean, I just love 11 and 12 of James 1. It just, because you just look at life. And so, you know, you remember the struggle.

We were talking about, you know, we started this, talking about Duck Commander and all the tough times and all that. And you read a verse like this. You're like, the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant. Its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. in the same way the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. I mean, we were made fun of as kids

for our wardrobe and, you know, Willie always talks about that in his speech when he's like, I remember the process. Because you're thinking he's going to talk about the maturity process, but he's like, started all free lunches. Then we went to reduced. Then we were paying, and we were proud.

I was like, I actually get to pay for my lunch. The minute we went until a $1 lunch lunch, it's like, we have made it. At school, you know. But all the free lunch kids were made fun of, and we were part of that crew. It's like, I mean, you can't afford it. Because back then, it wasn't like it was a couple bucks. But we didn't have a couple bucks. So it's rough.

Well, I say it all the time. He starts out in this context by talking about humility. and when you come out of humble means, it tends to prepare you for future successes if you allow it to, which is what should happen. You should always remember that. So when you see other people,

it's not like you instantly think like people thought about you. You see people who love the Lord, no matter what they have. We used to joke there was a family out at our little church out at Luna when we were kids. Of course, for me, I was becoming an adult there, at least when I got married. But there was a family,

there that didn't have anything. But we loved playing cards with them and hanging out. We never thought of ourselves. At this point, we were in a lot better position than they were, but we never thought of it any differently. It's not like we looked down on this hand. And I think we've got to thank our parents for that. Because, I mean, I look back on it, you'd think the world would just say, boy, that's

some poor white trash. I mean, they had nothing. Nothing. Nothing. but they were in the Lord and there was a sweetness about them. But if you just looked at them, I mean, when I'm saying they had nothing, they had nothing. And we'd go to their house and whatever. The dad was illiterate.

You couldn't read. He drove a concrete truck for a living and worked hard, you know, and just didn't, they didn't have much. But they loved the Lord, and we love them in the Lord. And so I just, and I know that family still to this day, many of them are still friends of mine. And, you know, a lot of them died early because that's what happens a lot of times when you're poor. You know, you don't have a good diet. Yeah, exactly. You don't have any health care.

Right. All that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah, I spent a night at their house one time in a weird turn of events. And I didn't realize there was so many of them in so few rooms. Yeah, it's just kind of, it's like a sleepover out there. And just the sights and sounds of staying there that night was pretty rough. you know and I thought because they were like

well you can get in this bed with this couple and I was thinking no I think of a sleep on the floor but we were just all out there you know but yeah that's crazy memories yeah so Jay's I wanted to just we don't have much time left but

this last little bit here because we're leading up to 19 which is going to be really interesting coming off of what we've been talking about but this difference between trials and temptation. Because we talked about this in the past, kind of the idea about the testing of it. And it's hard to see in the original language.

Right. It's just, I think our bit before about the trial leads to a temptation, good and bad. Right. Because I always think about the temptation verse to me, which I know he's talking about temptation, is when in the 1st Corinthians passage where he does the warning

from Israel's history and he gets down to verse 11 and he said these things happen what chapter you are first Corinthians 10 as examples and written down as warnings for us and he's talking about the Israel nation

those baptized into Moses yet God was not pleased with them right and so then he says in verse 12 so if you think you're standing firm Be careful that you don't fall. And look, we know from a ton of other passages. He's not wanting you to doubt your faith or your assurance. There's no condemnation in Jesus.

But he's just saying there's many trials that come on. And a lot of times there are trials that we don't think of. It's like you get blessed with a lot of money or success or fame or whatever it is. And he's like, be careful. What are you using this for? That's why I keep going back to that job. And then he says this. Verse 13, no temptation has seized you except what is common to man.

And there's many translations of that phrase, but I think the fact it's illustrating, it's coming. In any situation, whether it's just something you know is wrong a temptation, or something's a little more subtle. I mean, the evil one in his world are known as being deceiver. So sometimes it's a subtle thing. But it says, but God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

But when you're tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it, which then kind of goes back to the trial thing. You can stand through that. It's not like, well, I can't help it. How many statements do you recall like that? When somebody says, you know, the next thing I know, like next thing you know what happened no you made a decision in there there was a way out but

that's what people say one thing led to another we have all these little idioms that say well there was nothing i could do about it oh there's a lot you could have done about it and i think it's really good that that you point that out because i think a lot of people get trapped in situations and then they say well there was no way for me to do anything different it's kind of like the guy you described in the previous bike as the stepped on the aisle alligator and had that little turn and then said to himself in the moment, if I get through, if I get out of this, something's going to change. Which was a trial, which his life was in danger in the moment, but all of a sudden he was

convicted. Yeah. I mean, he got clarity. I think that's the point James is making here, because he goes from the trial into the situation. You notice he says, even he says, it's not about God or the evil one. It's about you. Exactly.

I mean, you've got to make the call and you've got to make the decision. Because the rest of the same last. Well, you can't blame God. I think the first thing we do is try to rationalize our behavior. Or, you know, like Hollywood does this great. Because a lot of people, you go back to your childhood. I mean, you look at some of the worst people on the planet. Yeah.

And it's true. That was terrible. Yeah. But you also have a responsibility for your own action. And I think that's why verses like these are so like, wow, when he says, when tempted, no one should say, God is tempted me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. And I just gave you another verse from Paul saying, and he also provides a way out.

Exactly. So you can stand up under. But each one, and he goes to this process, is tempted when by his own evil desire he's dragged away and enticed. It's almost like he was so hard on this temptation about the rich. Then he's like the true crown of life is the man he perseveres under trial because there's going to be temptations that arise from any trial. Are you going to do it God's way or? Well, it's just like Chandler said, and I'll close to this,

that when he talked about transformational process, that's over time where you grow in Christ and gain because you understand trials, we see a process that work here too and it's the other way. There's a process downward. That leads to death. That leads to death. That's why he said it's the crown of life. That's the contrast.

Exactly. But think of any successful team or business, or we talked about our jobs and all. There's got to be some grit. There's got to be, I'm not giving up. Chips are down. It's when we need to rise to the occasion. All these things, that overcoming adversity, this is what God is in the business of doing through people. That's good.

So we'll pick up here. We'll pick up in 19 next time we come back on the show. Thank you. 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.