Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 140 | A Phil-Style Funeral, the Best Computer Glitch & Jase's Issue with 'What Would Jesus Do?'

Episode Date: September 6, 2020

Phil shares the story of the old drinking buddy he baptized three months before speaking at the man's funeral. Phil, Jase, and Zach reminisce about Phil's sister's gift of prophecy and the early Duck Commander days, including how a computer glitch helped the company take off and why their worst duck call was a best-seller. Phil gives President Trump kudos for whackin' and stackin' regulations and explains why Jesus trumps all government edicts. And Jase explains his problem with asking what Jesus would do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? All right, this is, we're still at Duck Commander, which is kind of odd. And we have a, are you a guest host or are you like number two or? I'm a guest house. Zach, who is my cousin? Because a lot of people say, who is this guy? How often do you, how often do you visit?

Because I rack my brain. Do I visit? I mean, the Duck Commander compound. And I thought to myself, I said, I didn't come but one time last year, the year before, maybe none. So I'm very rarely back on the premises of where we started. You'd think some old coot like me that started Duck Commander. You never come up here. Yeah, and it was just mid-Jar for a long time.

But it just mushroomed out. But the bigger it got, the less we were even seen. So I don't know how to explain that. Well, I think it's interesting. I mean, we should talk about the history. I'm not a sentimental type, you know. You started what in 19. I think you had the idea in what, 1972?

72 had the idea. Coming out of the duck blind, somebody said. Well, it was out your buddy, Big Al, yeah. Who was your old drinking buddy, who fast forward, what? How many years did it take him to come to the Lord? Took him 12 years, and once he came to Jesus, and I baptized him, three months later, he fell dead. Man. So he cut it.

He watched me for 12 years. You preached his funeral, didn't. He was an avowed atheist. And he told me that I'm an atheist, and he had a health issue, and the doctor said, you have an aneurysm near your heart that could explode at any moment. He said, so take it easy, watch your diet, and we'll do surgery in the next three, four months. be careful how you roll. So it was during that time frame, he calls me up,

and he said, Robeson, I've been watching you for 12 years from a distance. He said, how in the world did you do that, make that bigger change? I mean, you've weeded us out. You called us on the spot, and we never saw you again. What happened? What changed you so much? Well, that's a perfect lead-in question. So I preached, I shared the gospel.

I drove all the way to Arkansas. I said, I'll be up there. So I go up. he calls me. So I'm telling him on the phone. So I drive to Arkansas. We're getting his old Bronco. We're riding around on the roads

where previously we'd get drunk, you know. We stayed in the woods all the time no matter what. So I said, so you're having some doubts about being an atheist? Is that what you're trying to tell me? He said, that's exactly what I'm telling you. I said, sometimes when death is knocking on your door, you begin to contemplate these things about immortality,

your mortality, immortality, which is offered. So I went through the whole thing with him. He has like a 30 plus. I mean, he's just this shy of a Ph.D. Brilliant mind. So I took him down and baptized him. Then three months later, he lived a good life. He was coaching third base when he fell over.

His family called me up when he died. Yeah, he was on third baseline. He was a great baseball coach. They won championship after championship, Junction City, Arkansas. But anyway, they called me up, and they said, we want you to do the funeral. I said, do what? They do the funeral. I'm not, I've never done a funeral before, but from what I've observed,

people who do funerals are usually pretty spiffy. they dress up they're pretty these funeral home guys they seem to be kind of preacher types yeah preacher types I said you had to forgive me but I don't even own a suit so I just don't think I would be the type person you would want at a funeral I said I mean his wife said well the family members got together and they and I all said if something happens to me have Phil come up here and let him send me off. He requested that, and I said, well, I'll be there. So all I did was point to the casket where Big Al's body was, which was asleep, and I knew his soul and spirit had gone to be with the Lord,

and I pointed over to the casket, and it was a packed house. all the people, he was well-known, baseball coach, and a wild one. So basically, I just gave a little history of myself and his life, my life, how they would change us that some of you may not know. They didn't know that. They didn't know he had come to Jesus. I did, but they did. That's the first time they heard of it.

First time they heard it. So then you got to share Jesus with them. I said, I'll just use this opportunity to preach the gospel to them. Yeah. And then get on down the road. because I was, you know, warrants out for me from previous episodes. So I said, well, the law may get me. Like they're still active?

They may cut me some slag. I think we looked in. No, it finally died out. The statute of limitations. I left town in the dead of night, and I didn't return for, it had been like a year, year and a half. And that's when I got lined out, I repented. Then Al, he repents.

So out of all of them that I ran with, he was in. only one that made it. By the way, all my old friends, they're all dead. You mean all your drinking buddy? All of them. They're all dead. He's the only one that made the cut. So he's he made it. And he named Duck Commander because you had taken an old PSO, put two reeds in it and did what you do. He named the Duck Call. And Phil was calling the Ducks, which is a famous. blind you know there was a cypress tree there at moss leave we were up in a tree is that the one that looks like the nest oh yeah there's a picture of it right i've seen the and then a sad turn of events as soon as the government bought that place they burn that tree which is it hurt somebody should

have been putting that was the second funeral i went to owls and when they burned that tree down i went up there 60 miles from here but i went up there went back into the river bottom motored up on it, turn my motor off, and I'm looking at that burned out stump, and it hurt. I said, about an 800-year-old cypress tree.

Wow. That thing is incredible. They don't make them kind anymore, so, you know, that one was right there on edge. I'm the one who said, we need to build a blind on that tree right there. That's where most of these ducks want to go.

And they said, what? I said, we need to get up in that tree. Did y'all name Allen after Big Al, or no? No. named him after Adam lad in the movie Shane. Sorry, I asked. I had no idea. It's not quite as affectionate as you might have thought.

But I remember the lying as Big Al said, you're not talking to those ducks. You're commanding. He said, call it the duck commander and market that. And I said, I never thought about that. I said, I may do that one of these days. He said, call it the duck commander. and he said.

So you'd already had the idea for the design, the two-reed. He had the idea, gave it to me. He said, you ought to market that duck call. Well, he means the main. I mean, the actual two-reated duck-coll system. Two-readed, been up with the dimple. I mean, it was an evolving process. Of course, then the process, I guess, we stayed down there.

How long was Duck Commander down at your house? It was at the house for, 20 years, man. Yeah, 20 years, the first 20 years. This problem when we don't have howl, he knows all these meaningless facts. He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, reservoir of information. Yeah. So anyway, at some point, I believe during a flood, it got moved up here.

Be, I think it was a, was it 91 maybe? 91. You know, the big flood, so we had to move up here. And then Willie took up. I kind of ran it for a few years. That's a year. Got in, got within about eight to ten inches from being in my house. But y'all weren't in this building.

It was like this far under the. the floor. I can't remember. And the moisture from that water being that close to the floor went up through the old particle board floors. And I heard a big racket one night. The water had receded. I said, whew, well, we cut that thin. Well, it had soaked the floor old particle board.

And when you soak particle board, it gives off gas, gives off a gas. So we basically were being, what are they embalmy with? What do they call that? Embalming. From out of high. Yeah, formaldehyde. It was given off formaldehyde. We were all getting dizzy, falling around, stagging around.

I said, I called some carpenter and said, man, that's formaldehyde gas. He said, open all your windows and get your family out there. So anyway, we tore it all out because I just walked in there one night, and I heard a big racket, and my living room floor, it was about three, three boards just pulled loose like that. So the water had receded, and I looked through the floor. I saw that old Catehoola cur dog about him. He was looking up at me on the house.

I said, I said, Ms. Kay, I went on there. I said, when you see your dog looking at you, through your floor, you got to fix your floor. So we tore the whole thing out. And it's time to move. The duck commander at some point moved up here, and then Willie eventually took over. And it was kind of a deal like, I make the duck calls, and he runs the business because Phil said, I'm done. And so, but that's why you only come up once a year. I come up more often.

a business man you paved the way i looked at all this stuff in this warehouse and you know our bookkeepers right down there and there's people in offices you know and and you know and and now we're here back in here i'm looking around at you know they've got my pictures hanging around like that one look i was i was building duck calls i was i'm not sure they can my youngest one is 42 now i was probably about 30 right there. You actually look at what the ravages of time has done there, nephew. Yeah. You actually look kind of like me or I look like you.

Yeah, we favor it a lot. We'll have to get a picture of that and put on the, on the YouTube channel. So make sure you go to YouTube. From there to here today, it seemed like a long journey. Yeah. Look, to me, it's just long. It's quick. Just like that.

Yeah, I went out to driving out in Calhoun today because, you know, we live in North Carolina. line now so but i drove by where mom was buried uh your sister my mom just about a year ago and uh which i never thought i would go back in a visit a grave you know but i just was driving by with the kids i said i'm gonna i want to just go by and see i have a moment yeah i didn't think i'd get emotional i did but really because it was just surreal you're you're you're looking at this grave site which they still don't have the stone up yet your mama was the reason the catalyst that brought me to Jesus. Your mother, my sister.

And she tells the preacher they bring up there to the beer joint that I had at the time. Yeah. And, of course, that's where we initially started. And she's the one that said, Bill, his name of Bill Smith, he's going on with the Lord. But she said, you convert that one. My brother, he'll convert thousands. Yeah. Well, it was.

I didn't know that. the time brings tears to my eyes but i mean that's that's exactly what happened yeah that's what happened she had some kind of special gift of kind of knowing what was going to happen you know i've said this many times when i visited our church when i was in like i don't know sixth grade and she picked out my wife because she taught my wife in the fourth grade and she said i think that's the girl you're going to marry Good night, Judy. Yeah.

She's some kind of prophetess. I don't know. Well, I'm just saying she said it. Of course, I'd never paid any attention. I thought, don't mind her. She's crazy. You can only handle so much. All right.

And so then when I met my wife, I didn't even meet her. She just walked by. When I met her, when I was now in high school, I started dating her. All it takes is a walk by. Well, your mom said, hey, I told you. You're dating her. I was like, that was the same girl in six-grade?

Because then I vaguely remembered that. The only reason I remembered it because I thought, boy, she's crazy. She made low, she was a little crazy. She was called crazy by more than one individual. Insanity run. There's a thin line of insanity in the Robertson heritage. Hey, let's take a quick break. I think Exhibit A, not to mention any names, Sigh.

Well, that's why. That's why. You can be crazy and be functional. That's why all weird people are gathered. We gather them up down there. That's why so many weird people show up. It's weirdness meets weirdness. We attract them.

That's right. They are one. Because we're weird. That's it. Well, when I was out there, I had this moment, to your point, just the quickness of life. I mean, I'm looking at this mound of dirt that the grass has grown over it now. But it's just a real moment when you, and they've got our picture there

because they're waiting on a, you know, a gravestone. And I mean, I know this sounds more about it, but I'm thinking her bones are in the ground. The bones of my mother are in the ground. And it was just, it was a very sobering reminder of just the shortness and the quickness of life here. You know what I mean? Mix with hope.

I love. Absolutely. First Peter won 23. it says for you have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God for all men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of the Lord stands forever which is why we've dedicated so much time to the book of John, because the word of the Lord brings us the opportunity to be born again. I mean, that's where John 1 starts.

And then you have this term that in our world is almost impossible, which is imperishable. Yeah. I mean, what a word to throw around. It's the ultimate escape hatch, and it's the only one available. I've always asked, I've asked everybody, when I talk. talking to them. It's like the redneck translation of imperishable. I always ask him.

Ultimate escape hatch. Here's my story. And I said, here's the escape hatch. I said, what's your escape patch? And I said, do you have a story that'll beat it? All the atheists have ever talked to, they said, no, the story itself. And it's more than an escape patch because it makes life here better. So it's not, I mean, this isn't the ultimate.

destination, but even... It helps my peace of mind. Yeah. Well, to get back where we started, I come up here probably, well, a lot more than you, because they still pay me. And Willie, I told him, I was like, look, I don't, I'm at a point here where I'm not going to be this eight to five. I was trying to kind of resign, but he's like, no, I'll keep you on the payroll because

he's in charge, you know. He said, but when I call you, I want you to come. So I thought, and he said, we'll try it out. So he doesn't call me very much. Most of the time, since I'm more familiar with the mold system and the technical part of the duck calls, when they call me, there's a problem in the design of a call. And so we figured out and then move on.

That's basically my role. Yeah. So. Does it bring back memories being in here? I mean, it does. It brings back. You don't realize how monotonous. You're a sound.

Jason's a sound engineer. Basically, the skill set that put the whole thing into play. Yeah. The duck called industry that we could be part of. The whole thing came down to a gift. And the gift was the skill set to ascertain what wild birds. sound like. Only in America could someone say,

you know, they said, what's you going to do with your life? What's your skill set? I said, well, I have a couple degrees, but I think I'm going to exercise my skill set and pursue that. And they say, which is, I said, I know what duck sound like.

It's like playing piano by ear. So if one has a skill set to understand what the bird sound. Jason's got it too. I mean, we know exactly what they sound like, but the key is... But we're with them.

But to duplicate that. We hear some, we've been hearing them all our life. These birds sound, they all make different sounds. Different quacks, different cough, whistles, and there's grah, right, right, right, they all sound different. We've got the ability to zone in and build a device that perfectly mimics that. Trust in God and start your exercise and your skillset. trust in capitalism because it won't work with socialism.

Nope. You got to trust in capitalism and you work hard. And you say, you look up and you say, then you look around and say, that's how you get pictures on the wall. Trust in God, trust in capitalism and work hard. You get your picture on the wall one day. Do you trust in capitalism? Yeah, I mean, look, I like it better than socialism.

Yeah. It's not a perfect system. It's just better than anything else out there. Well, there's a reason. The point is you can start from scratch with no paperwork. Someone said, well, did you talk with the state authorities about getting a license? No. We had no paperwork, no, can I start a business?

I just went out there and there's a shed there. And I said, well, Phil, that means you probably broke the law. Probably did. You know, they got rules and regulations. Trump's, speaking of regulations, Trump goes in there. And the first thing he did is start whacking and stacking. and the regulations, burning them, get rid of them. That's the way it ought to be in America.

If you've got an idea, you should be able to pursue it, mold it, fix it, market it. That's the way capitalism works. Now, you start messing with that, and you begin to stymie that with regulations and government edicts. You're getting in the way of progress and what the country's all about. You ought to be able to start from nothing and end up with something. And that's what happened. Well, it's American free enterprise. I remember taking that junior in high school,

and I thought, I like this. I took a high school basically what you're discussing. This was a great enlightening about what can be done as far as just hard work and have an idea. Capitalism, it's the only place you can do that. But you said something like in the duck call world, like when I've had thousands of times, people come through that door,

and they'll blow a duck call, and they're like, what do you think? and immediately I know they're not basing their style on what they've heard ducks do. They just want to go duck hunting, and they heard us or others, and that's the difference in what we're doing. Because we have, I don't have many different duck calls we have now, probably 50. And you say, well, how do you have so many different duck calls? We've got all the species covered.

But then within the mallard hen, which is the most famous because she's the most vocal. the way, Judge, it's an interesting point. He just brought up. No one before us had ever incorporated the majority of the species that you actually hunt and build a device that sounds like them. I mean, you see it real quick, but it was just what, Mallard Henn? Well, some of those, yeah, that's right. The Mallard Henn, because, and look, people, they would go out and they would see some wood ducks fly by, and you've been with these people, and they'll blow a mallard hen call. They're like, oh, there's ducks.

I'm thinking, number one, we don't have wood duck decoys. Because back in the day, you didn't. No. Number two, those are wood ducks. Why are you blowing a mallard hen? I mean, what's the duck world? I'm sure thought the human world was just full of idiots. Because for years, that was what they were trying to do.

And so what we did was, and it was mainly because of Genesis 9, which is the birthplace of high. money. God said, hey, they're going to be wild. Go get them and eat them. So we started trying to mimic the sounds. I give you the beasts of the earth, the birds of the air and the fish in the sea. I'm giving you complete control over them. Pretty well whack them and stack them. Yeah. But my point gave you the green. He said, just as I gave you the green plants, vegetarians at first, but then he went, he said, now I give it all to you. Yeah. Well, my point was going to be in the duck call business world, we have like 20 different hen calls because all hens sound a little different,

all mallard hint. Of course you have young ones, they're a little different. Young ones, middle-aged ones, and old ones. And then you combine the fact that all people, their aerodynamic structure is different. So you're going to have different sounds. The trick and the hard part of where my job for years and what I'm still doing here is once you design,

sign a call that sounds like one of the thousands of mallard hens, you're trying to get all those calls to sound like that call because you have 20 different hen calls. You don't want two of them sounding just a lot. So quality assurance becomes a major issue. Well, it's just different. It's like some people. The difference between a clarinet and a trumpet, you have readed musical instruments, you know, the trombone, the saxophone, you know, you got reeded instruments. Well, just think about how critical it is for that read that you're, it's vibrating. And you say, yeah, that's a sax. That's a saxophone.

You see these guys on them. Well, Duck Cullen's a lot like that. It's musical instruments of birds in the wild. So to duplicate that, say it real quick, add more to it and we spent a lifetime at it. Let's take a quick break. What's funny is the worst sounding duck call that we ever made to me was actually the best seller.

Which one was that? It was called the old raspy. It was a mistake in the mold process, and all it would do, no matter how hard you blew on it, it would just, that's all it would do. So Phil, to his credit, said, we'll just do this for beginners.

At least they can get a decent sound out of it. You can just blow. You don't have to have air that's controlled. You can just literally pick it up. Anybody can do it and maybe it'll work. It sounds raspy. You don't have to make it sound like that. That's right.

And I thought that'll never work. Greatest selling down call ever because people, no matter how they put air into it, it doesn't sound bad. It just, right, right, right, and so they started killing ducks.

Plus, it was finally, it hit at a, at a, time frame that the calls went nationwide. Yeah.

Via Walmart. I think the name had remember they had a computer glitch. They were going to just stock up the stores that had, that had a, well, that was in Walmart.

Yeah, that was back when I was in control. And look, I get this order. that was ridiculous. It was like 50,000 old Raspi's. They had a miscue on the computer, and they said this product is going to

an astronomical amount of Walmarts where they ain't been a ducked in a thousand years. It was 3,000. We were selling to about 400 Walmart stores, and I said, how is this 50,000? Because I kind of laughed, so this is not right. So I look it up, and it's all the Walmarts. So I made a moment of integrity there,

because I could have just took the order, processed it. I mean, I had the order, and I thought, no, this ain't, this is not right. So I called the buyer. He was basically, he knew they weren't going to stock that minute. This was not right. So I call him up and say, look, first I talked to the guy's secretary, and they're like, no, that's what it says. I'm like, I'm telling you, it's not right. And she's, what's the problem?

I'm like, you're sending duck calls to Miami, Florida. There's no ducks in Miami, Florida. and people and so okay I'll get you the buyer buyer gets on the phone not New York but major cities metropolitan every film every Walmart and and so the buyer gets on the phone he said what's the problem I said somehow there's a glitch in your system

and you order 50,000 old raspies and he said what's your problem with it I said well you're sending duck calls to places where they don't hunt ducks and he said hey if you can't meet up with the demand then maybe you don't need to do business with it. I said, now look,

I will turn out the duck. I just wanted to make sure. And he said, hey, that's what we ordered. So I hung up and said, okay. He told you later,

oh, it was a glitch. All right. Well, right. So what happened was the 50,000, look, then they start reordering. Because if they just sell one,

they basically put six duck on. And now, I don't know how many we saw. We were getting rich off of a Computer glitch. Jason trying to talk them out of it, said, I don't think you. But they finally figured it out. Well, when we had the meeting, and look, surprisingly, they sold most of them.

And I figure, you know, Miami, Florida, somebody said, hey, there's a duck call. But, I mean, they just, and so when we. Walmart actually made us a national product. Yeah, they did. People say about Walmart, aye, yeah, yeah. For Redneck who came up with a little idea about something. than the beast put in the sporting goods store to us. They really made us a national.

Well, back in the day, I remember. Even though it was a mistake. I remember back in the day when it was at the house, and you guys would get a big Walmart order. Do you remember what you guys would do? You would cook a huge meal. You would invite the whole family and any friends you had to come down. We would celebrate.

Well, we would pack those boxes. You guys would have. Oh, yeah. The pay was the food. That was the page. But look, when I met with him the next, because I was nervous because I was like, this was a mistake. And they didn't sell out, obviously. So we go up there and I'm like, as soon as I walk in, he said, yeah, something happened with the computer.

And y'all went to all the stores. And I was like, that's what I thought. I'd already called it. But he doesn't forgot that conversation, you know. And I was like, what you want to do about it? And he's like, oh, we just, well, they'll sell them eventually. but let's get back to your 400s. I was like, oh, okay.

Because I thought he's going to say, we're sending those calls back. Oh, no, they'll eventually. But the menu after that year, the menu on the river bank, the menu picked up exponentially. The menu got a lot better after that year. We went from, you remember,

from liver and baloney to states. What's the biggest difference that happened before and after our commander? I said, the menu. Well, you say that, but now I feel like we've come full circle. I would much rather, if you said, I'm going to cook you anything you want, Zach. I would not pick the finest of steaks. I would pick the opolis of catfish, a fried deer steak.

I would pick something that you would get out on the land on the river, the Mahal jelly. So it's funny we've come full circle. The best things that we eat are the things that we were eating back in the old days. That's why we don't eat out. I mean, it's not just because it's a. problem when somebody comes up and like hey but there's nowhere that I can go eat that's better than what I've been eating that's funny whenever uh by the way Phil's books doing very well Jesus politics I remember when we had the initial interview we were interviewing a new

agent and so our agent Ciliates comes in town who's from California San Diego area and so he's he's in there trying to sell Phil on what he can do for the family. He's done a great job, by the way. But I'll never forget. So he's in from California, and all of a sudden, it's about noon. The door swings open. And, Jace, you walk in, and you've got about a 20-pound opalusa cat.

Your hands are under the gills. It's completely skinned. And Jay says, I got lunch ready. And Phil, you get up and you walk, and you immediately walk in there, and you start cleaning that fish within 15 minutes. He got him up. Yeah. Oh, we did that.

We've done that. thousands of times. You can't beat it. There's something about when a, when fish gets frozen, frogs, deer, it loses something.

Because a lot of people, when they eat our products that we're putting out there, they're like, boy, you just, what are you, what are you, well,

it's fresh, number one. I mean, that, and you're picking the right, you know, when we, we catch them,

I'm looking saying, oh, that there's the special one. You don't, freeze them before you fry them never freeze them catch them clean them and eat them well i get it but people freeze them because they're to me their schedule doesn't work but i when i catch an opolis cat or i go catch some crappie or i shoot a young small deer i stop everything and i eat that immediately i don't care what schedule you can't get that fresh i mean i used to tell willie i'm like

i'm going to be late back when i did have to be here on certain time he's like what you got i was like I'm fixed to eat this deer. Let's take a break. That's the joy of honey. Well, we started, because we were trying to give an explanation on while we're here. And Al, I never have got where his whereabouts were. What's funny is after we film our other two podcasts, I was telling Zach, I was like, because when you got to the commercials, I was like, we're the type of people that we see.

say what we're thinking. That's why I feel sometimes has had more awkward moments than most people. But we were telling Zach, say, he's a guest host. We do the commercials that you'll hear. And we're not like most people. We don't read from the page because we're real. We're authentic people like us or hate us. It is what it is.

And so the last time with Zach, he was kind of, you were getting your, it seemed like a color commentator. and so we were making fun of him and to Zach's credit he was like I don't know why I was doing that I guess they were trying to be more excited about that so what did you say I was like a sports commentator

when I was reading when I was like going away from the mic because I see my wife do that when she sings and I'm like is she putting an effect and you were doing that in the ads and I thought why not just say what they do well I'm working on it

so our ads today jace was basically saying in a nice way turn it down a notch or two your voice your voice was fluctuating and I thought well Al's a lot more jovial

than I am well Al just was like just being I mean he's looking at it here's the product well he's smooth this is what they do and

so we had a funny moment but we're doing the best we can. I mean, I was the first one, a hurricane hit, and I was like, the coronavirus is already pretty bad in this area. Between the two things, I was like, ah, let's take a week off. You're like, no, no. There's no weeks off. We got to get up here. So, yeah, we moved the entire studio from Phil's place to, yeah, right here at Duck Commander. In one day, I mean, which was incredible. I say we, Cole's looking at me over there,

Like, no, I wouldn't know we to it. I like it a lot better down there on the river because it's just... Well, Phil, you hadn't been to town in six months before today. This visiting town, I've done the last two days. I mean, I think old Jeremiah Johnson had it right. I've been to a town. What's weird is everyone from South Louisiana has come up this way. That's why traffic's so bad.

You can't find ice. and, you know, the fast-feeding restaurants. Yeah, I'm baptized some of them Sunday morning. Oh, did you? Yeah, sure it did. Yeah, they were coming from the 150-mile-hour wind. I really felt for them. Well, that's the real reason we're here and we're even doing this.

I mean, you see Jesus, and, you shared that about Big Al, and there's storms in life, and I don't mean literal. I mean, we just have one. But, look, I was sitting on that couch. I had about 30 pillows. were literally trees falling just feet from me. And I thought, okay. I mean, if this is where it ends on this earth, that's fine.

I was at peace. And I shared on the last podcast, you know, I actually went to sleep, woke up to chainsaw. But a lot of people who have no hope, they start having some clarity. And that's why when we go through John and we introduce. Jesus, which has been our whole theme of what we share, all of a sudden, you see something that makes sense. Not only from a historical view, not only from, you know, a biblical view, just in life. You look at creation. We were talking about the animals earlier in the trees,

and, you know, I just saw all the acorns on the ground, and I saw you all these trees die. I thought, but here they come. They're coming back. Oh, correct. And it's, it's so. subconsciously planting that seed in your mind that there's more yeah there's more to life than just some weird happening where all of this happened with all these very minute details that all function together perfectly and all of a sudden you're just going to live your life and retire and die what what you're talking about hopeless and to me almost delusious and to me almost delusious There's a famous sermon that John Piper gave called the, I think it's called something like the seashell sermon,

and he gave to a group of young folks, I believe in Memphis. I may be butchering this story, but the moral of his sermon was that do you want to retire and go pick up seashells on the beach? Or do you want to go out with a bang for the kingdom's sake? And so when you said that last week about the thought of making all this money and then spending what you can and leaving the rest for your kids to fight over, like that makes me sick to my stomach to think about. I think God has called us to, you talk about this inner longing. Everybody that listens to this podcast, I'm telling you, everybody, everybody has that thing in them that is saying there's got to be more than just this temporal existence. There's got to be a point to all of this. And I think that's what we're trying to accomplish here in the podcast

is to talk about that in a fun way, but to talk about it in a meaningful way. I think the best sermon I heard him give, he preached out of Hebrews 3, and I've never thought about this, but Hebrews 3 1 says, Holy Brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus. And he zeroed in on that heavenly calling. it's not a phrase we use very often but his point fix your thoughts on jesus because jesus like we read in john 12 when he's lifted up would draw all men to himself

jesus is the heavenly calling on earth that's why he's so famous that's why we're talking about him that's why we're analyzing his the characteristics of his personality and what he did in these bumper sticker statements where he says things like, you know, before Abraham was, I am. Yeah. Because that is God said, hey, here's your, here's the answer to what you're searching for. Those visitors Sunday morning, I said, here's an interesting thing. I said, I'm looking at y'all.

I said, that guy's over there right there. He said, he was from New Jersey. I said, do you realize have fewer people I've ever laid eyes on from New Jersey? I said, but he's here. He arrived here today and it's seated right there. I said, now you folks are from Florida. I said, I flew into Florida.

I gave a couple of speeches one time. I said, but I don't traverse through Florida. Then there was deep south Louisiana. One guy said, I'm from Texas. I said, tell you, there's Texas. I said, if you're wondering, I've never laid eyes on y'all until right now. Never met you, never, didn't know who you were, you just appeared. I said, you know why are you here?

I said, why would you come here? I said, all those great distances to get here. I said, heavenly calling, God calls you. That's what you're doing here. I said, so I'm going to give you a briefing on what this is all about. to make sure you understand that there's a free gift available and involved in it is an escape hatch that will literally give you life while you're here. Peace of mind, joy, peace, patience, kindness, good.

And on top of all that, immortality. Let's take a quick break, Phil. So we baptize them. You said, did you catch the coronavirus? No. Not yet. But, you know, I remember in that sermon that I was referring to Hebrews 3, his two points that he made was, you know, if there's a God, we need a way to God and we need a word from God, like direction. And as simple as that is, that's basically what Jesus said.

He said in John 14, I'm the way. And then John 1 starts off saying, in the beginning was the word. and you say, well, it seems like a strange thing. We've said the theme of John and Jesus' characteristics, I mentioned this many times, is love, light, and life. Those three things keep coming up. Not so much the word love, you know, John 316 is famous, but just in his interaction with people.

But life and light over and over and over and over and over, again. So somewhere in there, you know, God had in mind that you see what Jesus does, you see what he said, how he acted, you will figure out he's the way, and this is the word. This is the instruction. It's just in a being instead of a manual. Plus, pun intended, Jesus and what he did, what he's now doing and what he will do. He died on the cross, he was buried, he was raised. He went, he's at the right hand of the father, constant mediating the path to immortality. Jesus in our world trumps government edicts.

rules. It trumps it all. You say, you're there. Thanks. I like constitutional republics. They seem to work a lot better for the kingdom of God, but no way you're a monarchy or you're some kind of oligarchy or some kind of dictatorship. It would be the same with us. We would have, we would just have to remember Jesus trumps all government edicts. You know, go make disciple, Jesus said, and baptize them. That's what we do. It's just as simple as it can be, but profound ramifications when you start looking out there and saying, you know, where are I come from? What am I doing here? What is there any way out of here?

Well, the answers are all right here. So in our case, free of charge. That's good. Yeah, I think that Jesus, and I keep coming back to this concept of the person of Jesus. and not the idea of Jesus. I think sometimes we, well, the temptation is to move Jesus into an idea or a concept or a set of principles or values. This is terms we use Christian values.

No, it's not Christian values. This is reality. This is about a person who is God who became human flesh and dwelt among men and became like us in every way so that he could identify what. That's how he mediates for us. I think the encounter is to meet him personally over and over and over and over again. See, I mean, I'll bring something up where I think people have missed what you're saying, because I agree 100%.

You know, we came up a few years ago. Somebody did. And they said, in every situation, you say, what would Jesus do? Now, at first, I thought, boy, it's awesome. You know, they had a little, I still think they do. They have little bracelets. Yeah, WWJ. Yeah. And look, I'm not knocking it.

But if you think about it, that infers that he's no longer here. He's like a million. He was here, but he left. So what would he do? But over and over, he said I am. So I would like to change that to what is he doing in my life? right now. So you read a verse, Hebrews 412, the Word of God is living and active.

Most people associate that with the Bible. They'll say, you know, the word, it's relevant. It's living and active. It cuts, it divides. But I'm like, but Jesus is the Word of God. Now, he's revealed, we have all this in history. But if you say, well, what is the point of the Bible? what would you say?

What would I say? Yeah. What would you say is the point of the Bible? I would say the point people to an introduction with the author of their life, Jesus. I would too. Somehow another, this turned into a manual and a system of rules or do's and don't, and Jesus just became an idea that those revolve around instead of a living, active I am person. That's why people have, and I quote this all the time, where it says Jesus

Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if you have that approach where it's just an idea, you have trouble with that verse. What does that mean? Well, it means the same thing he said in all these situations when he said, I am. Yeah. Yeah, because what do they say? This is a, I've heard it said this is a rule book on how to live. I'm like, no, it's not at all. A rule book on how to live. I don't know. It's a book that introduces you to the creator of the universe. It's a message. It's not even a book.

It's a message that points you to the creator of the universe to make an introduction. And when you have an introduction with such an individual or such a being as God, but that probably be a better term, he is so amazing that it will change the desires of your heart. And so if I need a rule book on how to live, I'm not going to make it. I need a transformation. I need a desire. I need my desires. transformed, you know, and that can only come through an encounter with him.

So you're driving down the road right after we do this, and somebody pulls out in front of you, and you're like, blankety, blakety, bliggity, bliggity, bliggity, blakety. Because then you thought, well, what would Jesus do in that situation? And my point is, I mean, Jesus is real in that moment. It's something, let's say you do, you know, slip and have a moment of stupidity, which does happen to all of us. It's not like, because you read a verse that says, don't cuss,

that you're not doing that. Or you've got to wait till Sunday to repent of it. To me, that seems to be the angle of religion in our world. Instead of, when Jesus is living and active, he sees all, he's all knowing, he's all powerful, he's in my being right now via his Holy Spirit. That's kind of my point. So when you say these encounters with Jesus,

I mean, how many times do I think about something revolving around Jesus in a day's time? I would say 100 probably. Yep. You know, you read the text in Romans 13 about the power of love, Jesus being love incarnate. You get to think about it as you say, he never ever harmed. anyone. Not once. He just didn't harm anyone. And love does no harm to its neighbor. And therefore, it's the fulfillment of all the rules and regulations. Love fulfills it all. You say, you just love your neighbor. You say, you won't be getting up saying like you're talking about,

well, if somebody pulls out in front of me, I better watch my mouth. You don't operate like that. Not only did he not harm them, he respected everyone. Read every situation. You're saying, oh, you're just making that up. Read them all. No matter what they had done, where they were from, he showed them respect. Even at the end, though, the ones crucifying him. He wasn't running his mouth saying, I tell you what, buddy, you're going to get your order.

He's the one that implemented. God so loved the work. That's every last one of them, every human being. There is but one race on the earth. Look at what mankind did to the truth about races. They're just one race. It's the human race. Thank you.

Jesus so loved the human race. He sent Jesus. All you have to believe in him and you won't perish. But if you look at that, you say, it's for everybody. Yeah. All this splintering and dividing on what color, where'd you come from? some ethnicists and that and that and other. Look at what Satan has interwoven into man's thinking,

and it gets all bent out of shape. If you see somebody coming, you know, look way back in the past, and whole mistakes again, you just think about it. How many time we forgive them, Lord, seven, and then call it a wrap. He said, 70 times seven. You live a life of forgiveness. Well, let's end on this right here, that the way you know,

your system is probably not in line with the Bible or if it is, is does it lead to freedom? Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Yep. And if there's no freedom in me having to do all the right things with behavior modification, Jesus, he freed you from that. He freed you. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast.

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