Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 616 | Phil & Miss Kay's Free-Range Parenting & Why Jase Won't Attend High School Reunions

Episode Date: January 18, 2023

Jase has a very good reason for never attending high school reunions. Phil and Miss Kay were some of the original free-range parents, and Jase and Al share childhood stories of their free-range adventures. Zach and Jase emphasize the role women played in being witness to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Zach shares about the times he struggled with doubt in his faith — but what he kept coming back to was the awesomeness of God choosing to accomplish what he did in a way no one would have predicted. And Jase remembers his own faith journey, when church seemed boring, but when he heard the first sermon Phil ever preached — "The Bad News and the Good News" — he decided to consider the Gospel, and that changed his life.  In this episode: Mark 16. "The Blind" hits theaters this fall. Get updates, trailers, behind-the-scenes moments, and special opportunities here: https://theblindmovie.com --- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So we're back in the duck call room for the podcast. We had Shane and Shane on the last podcast. And amazingly, Jay, Zach is back. He's back. Yeah, he was here. Because we did podcast yesterday, and I found out I was right while we were working hard, digging into the Word of God, talking about the crucifixion of burial of Jesus. Zach was duck hunting with Shane and Shane. Yep.

It was ministry. I was ministering to them. Well, it gave new meaning to I'll be there next time. So next time means at some point in the future. When you're gathered. Not necessarily the next. But next time. Let me apologize.

And I do for, I want to forgive you for talking about me behind my back when I wasn't here, too. I want to tell you. Oh, you were thrown squarely over the bus. No, no resentments for me. I took it as a sign when you answered my text 23 hours and 58 minutes after the first, which was then, because a lot of the viewers are wondering why I'm making a big deal of that. Because we were then, therefore, into the next day and fixing to do another podcast. We were two minutes away from starting.

when he responded to two podcasts ago in 24 hours that I'm having a low cell service issue. Well, I was. My family went, we do like a four or five day sabbatical trip every year just to kind of and I didn't realize where. That's another big word, Dave. Sabatical. Sabatical. Yep.

I'm being introduced to a whole new series of words. Hiatus. Hiatus. sabbatical. Have you and your family ever done a sabbatical, Jay? Well, we don't call it a sabbatical. We call it a vacation. Okay, very good.

So we're, look, we're kind of like the typical people. We take one once a year. Well, this is, I got up there and I thought I would have an ability to, so it really, it really wasn't my fault. But actually, it worked out better because when you're on a sabbatical, it's best not to have self. Dad's life is a sabbatical. Yeah, dad, yeah, yeah.

Your life is a sabbatical. I'm going to have to look up sabbatical. Yeah, something to do that. Sabatical, it does seem like it can't because I spelled it wrong. I went S-E-B instead of S-A-B. That's the thing about. Jay, should go back to your phonetics. Remember phonetics, sound out those.

But I'm so glad to use this word because this is interesting. You literally just threw yourself under the bus. Oh, great. This is what it says. A period of paid leave granted to someone, a teacher or university or other worker for study or travel, traditionally one year for every seven years worked. Oh, hell. That's one day to do. Wow, one year.

One year. So I see why you caught it a sabbatical because you're gone for, you know, two or three weeks and you're like, well, look, it could have been a year. No, I had gone that long. I was, yeah, yesterday, that one's on me. It's more like a hibernation than a sabbatical. Well, let's face it, and most of our lines of work, if you're gone for a year, then when you come back, it's like, we don't need you anymore. Don't do that.

I'll stay gone too long. Yeah, you stay gone too long. It's like, why do we even need you around? Everybody got bent out of shape because I don't go to these high school reunions ever, you know, 20 years. and I said, look, if I haven't contacted you in 20 years, there's probably a reason. I'm not showing up. All the people from that time, I have them in my phone. If we want to have a get together, we will.

Well, so one guy that I now know is we're adults, but we were in high school together, and he was always a big student president, blah, blah, blah. So he sends me this email, and he's like, you know, our 40th is this year, you're going to come. And so, you know, and I've told him every time he advice, so I said, no, Stanley, I didn't know anybody back then. Yeah. I sure don't know anybody now. You know, and what am I going to do?

Go back in and try to act like Mr. Big, you know, because I was on a TV show. I was like, no, that's, I'm never coming. You never going to the reunion. I'm never going to the reunion. I didn't know these people. I knew six people in high school. There were 2,000 there. I knew six.

And I still stay in contact with those six. But the rest of them, I don't know. I see them around town. I see them on billboards. They're insurance sales. Were your parents involved in like the PTA and stuff? I'm not sure mom and dad even knew. You knew we were in school because we got on a bus every day,

but you weren't exactly. They didn't go to school functions or ball games. Of course, we only had one vehicle, a big Chrysler. And, you know, so. And in dad's defense, he was on the road a lot of settling duck calls during my era of playing sports and stuff. So mom had come here once in a while. Yeah, a couple of years into their newfound faith.

I didn't see y'all for a few years. It seemed like, you know, I'm sure y'all were coming in and out, but it just, it was survival down there. I mean, we were at a perfect place to not really be watched 24-7, but we just kind of went out in the woods. But you didn't really go anywhere. I mean, we couldn't get further than, the furthest I ever went was maybe a couple of miles up the road.

You were usually hunting, you know. Hey, look, I ran away 17 times and no one ever knew it. I knew I was independent when Bill Phillips and I were in high school and we took off downriver. We found a little break down there, a little Cypress break. You remember us telling you that story? And it turns out we got ran off because I didn't know if you owned all the land around it. Then you can't, you know, you can't hunt it. But we went down there and the motor died.

We're five miles downriver in January. So it's strong current. And so we were like, you know, what are we going to do? So we went, we found an old camp house. and they had like a little 2.9 horse motor in a can of gas. And so we left a note. We said, we're stuck. We're going to bring your motor back and we'll fill up the gas.

Just in case, it didn't look like anybody was there. And so we hooked that up on the thing because Bill's motor was locked in where you couldn't get it off. And we came back. We were just fast enough to beat the current. So it took to cover that five miles, it took about 10 hours. Oh, gosh. So we left it, we left it, or maybe six hours, we left it dark.

And so we get in, it's like 11 o'clock. So we're thinking they're going to have people looking for it. So we walk in, mom and dad are watching, you know, Carson or whatever. They're like, hey, what y'all do you? And we were like, we've been stranded. We couldn't get back. We're telling the story. And so dad's like, good night.

And I said, were y'all not worried about us? They said, oh, we didn't know where y'all were. We figured you'd show up at some point. He figured. I remember one tub it rained real hard, and that was before the roads were paved out there, and the school bus got stuck. Right in the middle of the road. Yeah, and I mean, we got in about dark, and I was thinking, boy, they're going to be worried about us, you know, and walked in there like, what are you all been doing? I was like, we get off the school bus every day.

I've been on the school bus. Three hours ago. Yeah. Three hours ago, I should have been here. Nobody. They're like, well, we left a little supper there for you in the oven. So what you're telling me is that Phil and Kay, they were free-range parenting before that was cool. It's exactly what it was.

And now they teach courses on how to do that, Phil. They teach people. I mean, I'm telling you, people look at this, oh, that sounds terrible because we're also, you know, my grandkids are gone for two minutes. I'm like, where did they go? But it really was, it built in a huge amount of independence and free-spiritedness in us. I mean, so the location was the reason. Yeah, we were safe. There was nobody down there.

No. Nobody. Unless they were lost. Yeah, but kids don't take adventures anymore. You're right. Because they're watching a video of somebody playing a video game. They're watching them watching something else. That's the popular thing.

I've said that meantime. My childhood was better than any video game. Oh, it was. When you're 10 years old and you think, I mean, literally a trip across the river seems like another world. Yeah. Yeah, I love, I didn't like visiting you guys because of the abuse that we've talked about in the past. But the thing that I did like. I'm glad he's had counseling to help him.

Yeah, I've got a little resentment still. I was so shocked when I heard that. I got no idea. Yeah, it's Christmas. It was a great time for you guys. Terrible memories. Yeah, Merry Christmas. But I did like, me and Jeff, you know, it was like the Wild West.

I mean, it was, I know we get the, like, you always, you always have. had like a collection of styrofoam at your house like big chunks of star that was that was dad obsessions all that floating down the river yeah for duck blinds yeah that's star farm is expensive so i just waited for the water to rise and it just came down a river block after block we'd take it to the bank yeah tied up i've still got duck blinds riding on them on that is it still it was it was louisiana law is it still law that if something's floating down the river and you close it's claim it is yours, right? Yeah.

Yep. Where'd the star foam come from? Even down to a log. Who knows? You can take a Cypress log floating down the river. Yeah. If you snag that, pull it over and tie it up, which I did it many a time, make your mark on it, put you a mark and tie it up.

That's your Cypress log. That's still law in Louisiana. You find a cypress log floating down the river. If nobody's smarks on it, you can get it and tie it out. Now that you've told everybody that everybody's going to go out looking for Cypress loans. I say if you could give it to them and give them money to take it, they still wouldn't take it away.

I was being sarcastic. Yeah, I was going to say, look at it. They say, what's that all about it? What are you going to do with that? How are we going to build a blind on time? I'm running hoop nets one morning. I looked out there. water was rising and I had the net in my hand I was coming up with it I was watching I see this log

I said I dropped that net I pulled out there got out of the boat the log was so big I got out of the boat stepped over on the log where now I'm floating down the river on the log all along got my boat in my hand I said oh this is going to be tied up what though I said you're talking about luck. I said, look at that thing. So I tied it up over there. I went back to going up to the river running my nets. I looked over there as another one coming down the river about, you know, a mile from that other one. I stopped that, we got that. It was the day the logs. This day, we are floating on those duck blinds on those two logs. I found them both in the same morning. One of them had a piece of iron sticking out of it on the end.

I said, somebody has used this way, way back. Yeah. Big old, big old piece of metal in one end of it. There was a house on it or some kind of. You remember when the wildness and the people first hit the North American continent, all these people that had already been there, the Pathfinders, all their floating devices, places of business down at the mouth of the Mississippi River, they floated around and did all that.

They floated a bit of Cyprus logs. There was no styro on. Yeah. Logs. But to this day, knowing that, I've already gathered them up, up to 35, 40 miles either side of me, mainly upstream because you can't come upstream with it, too much care.

So I had to get them and float them down. But I've got my yard out there, my old boathouse is still out there. You got a stash. It's looking rough. I don't use it anymore. Willie comes up and builds a big thing, you know, with all kinds of floats. Yeah, that's what he does, though. I saw his.

Over there, I said, I was down there the other day. I was doing something. We was filming a commercial, and I saw Phil's doc, and I thought, hmm, need some work. Then I looked to over there and saw Willie's, and I'm like. That's Hash Mahal. Oh, did Willie do that after looking at Phil's and say, Yeah, look at this. More like a boathouse.

I sent him word asking permission, can I put my boat under your boat house? What do you say? Oh, he said, well, yeah. Oh, okay. He's got two. Well, I thought he might say no, just because your boat beside his boat might make his boat. I don't know. But then there'd be nobody to see it, so let's take a break.

So I looked down there, Jayce, I was in the yard. I don't know, it's been back in the summer. And I looked up and I said, what in the world? it was like a floating double-wide trailer coming down Thompson Bow there. And I was like, what is? So I had to go to the get closer so I can tell what it is. Willie has, I guess, bought some big speedboat. Oh, yeah, that's what it is.

And it was one of his son of Oz was driving it. Of course, I was thinking, I mean, that thing was almost as wide as the bow. And I thought, boy, I tell you what, they don't know where these stubs are. This is going to be a funny thing to watch that whole wreck just go down like the time. It would be fun. Old school just turned to new school over about a 40-year stint. But a Cypress log is one of the most sought after for years. Was it sought after things there was?

I mean, I went all the way to a late 30 miles north of us and floated all the most of them logs in high water. And that's what all them blinds are sitting on. They hunted out of one yesterday. and my logs still raises them up. Yeah. I tripped on one today. Remember when they all like, oh, he went down?

Because now that the water's up, so high. Almost went down. You recovered. Well, there's an art. Did you get your boat in there this morning like I thought it. We got it in there, but it's so low. The water's so up and the brush sunk down that it was tricky. Yeah.

But everybody remained dry. You had to crawl on your knees to get in, to get in the water. You would have had trouble with your current back situation. I've got to replace some of that plywood. You all notice it's the rickety. Yeah. Yeah. To fix that.

But, you know, we were comfortable and we killed a lot of ducks. It was fun. Well, yeah, anyways. Logs blend in with the landscape. What does? Logs. Yeah. Far better than blocks of styrofoam.

Because it, yeah. But to it, to it. It just added up. Well, you're going to like what I did with the blind. I gave the blind a beard. today because it wasn't brushed to my standards. Spanish moss. Spanish moss.

So when I got out from the blind, I look back. It looked like the blind because I put it all where we stand. It just, and all the hunters were standing up. It looked like a gray hairline that was receding. It came around and it was a perfect beard, a little bit of a Fu Manchu in the middle. I said, I gave that blind a beard. Yeah. You did.

Very nicely shaped. You should have took a picture of that. I should have. But, yeah. All of those have maintenance. I've replaced two whole fronts. I've ridded on two blinds last year because it needed to be done, you know. We usually wait until someone falls through.

That's the reason I'm wearing a back brace here, you know, and everybody else. Hey, how's it going? We've had multiple encounters where a person fell through a blind or the blind just began to sink. Yeah. Or things are getting in with you. And so people say at that moment, We might not do some maintenance here. It's maintenance.

That's why we're trying to get more. When I'm fooling with them in the spring and summer when the high water's up, you'll come up on some of them, and there'll be three big bull, cotton mouths laying up on them logs. Sometimes there's gators, alligators, up on it. They just kind of roll off. Sometimes there's beavers or any kind of varmint. Yeah.

They got them a little dry place at. I've got two of them. of them that beavers already built houses on top of them, which looked realistic, but that's a lot of weight. So I got to air off some of these beaver dams. The beavers are building on my logs. I don't permit them to do that. They didn't get a permit for that. They had a meeting, Dad. They can catch a bullet in the head for that. So we cohabitate with what's living on the property, that's for sure. Well, Zach, I'm glad you got to come and hunt and be with us again on the podcast. It's always a pleasure. Now, we've had fun for this podcast and that last one. When are we going to get

on that resurrection of the dead? Well, let's do it. That's ready to transition. So, so we're actually, we're at the, I mean, arguably, we talked a lot about the power of the crucifixion, but arguably we're now at the most important event in the history of the universe. Now, to our audience, they need to take Matthew, we cover that on podcast. Mark, we've already did, we've done John too, right? You did John. Everything been Luke. It didn't Luke, but maybe we're done Luke.

But you just take, I'm down to the page where chapter 16 begins. Chapter 15 is there, but you just take the last two pages. Read this. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Same story told by four different writers. The prediction is, made back in Mark chapter 8 is where it starts here

the son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men they'll kill him and three days he'll rise they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. That's the gospel just came out of nowhere

he says this once he's pretty well known to be a demonic deliverer raised the dead heals the sick over and over and over and they got people after him the same group

the most religious people on earth the people of the temple they're the ones that's giving him trouble so Matthew you get on Mark we're finally down there to where it says the death of Jesus and the resurrection

that way that's where you start when some of you say where do I start when I'm converted to Christ start in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the last two chapters read them then you go to the book of Acts Romans and all the rest of the epistles just read the first page first page get all that information in your head and actually that's all you need yeah that's all you need you'll have some text about love one another good you all that's in there but those things it's where you should start you start with the gospel yeah that's exactly right because this one ends going to all the world preach the good news mark's going to record to all creation whoever believes in and baptized be saved whoever does not believe i'll be condemned so it's just that just that simple

What are you going to read the section wrong? Read the first eight verses. Well, I don't think you have to be baptized. Somebody else say. I said, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. See what they said. See what Jesus said. See what he said.

Yeah. See what he said. So we're at Mark 16. So it says when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James. And how did we? Salome is what? Salome. We're going to go with Missy's pronunciation.

Salome. Is that the way you're. He heard his act? Yeah. Who was, this is, remind us who that is. We said that was the... Zebedee's... The mother of James and John.

That's who we think it was. Yeah. So, they also had a Mary in there, which would mean three Mary's, yeah. So they bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. And remember, I made this point earlier. They were there at the cross. They were there at the burial. You can look at verse 47 of 15.

So verse 2, very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, now this is interesting. They were on their way to the tomb, and they asked each other, well, who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb? They hadn't really thought that far. No. Maybe they, I think they felt called to go there. And then when they got to go and they thought, well, how are we going to get that rock over there? It's what it seems like. Good question.

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the team, now this is real interesting, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. Yeah. I mean. So it was a form of a male angel sitting on the right. side yeah i think so that's what sounds like to me don't be alarmed he said you're looking for jesus the nazarene who was crucified he has risen he is not here it's kind of like you know you're just we were talking about being lost and coming in and i mean they come in they're like

no he's not here he's risen i mean i would think i would say well who are you see the place where they laid him but go tell us to say He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him just as I told. Just as he told you. Now, I do think this is interesting. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

And you remember a couple of podcasts ago, I did this thing where it seems like Mark, every time he record something spectacular that happens, he then notes that fear comes over the crowd or they try to kill Jesus or and so we were talking about there is a there's a healthy fear in a John's account says that it was fear mixed with joy yeah because in their back of their mind you've got to be thinking is this even though you had heard this predicted because Jesus had predicted feels gone over that many times I mean over and over

it's just hard for your mind to move outside of the material universe and the laws of gravity and laws of nature. That's right. I mean, you know, there's been a lot of people that say, I can fly and I can't die. You got to remember, he had dealt with people with death. He had, he had. Well, he had done that before, but it's one thing to have a trick. He responded to people and they were dead. Yeah.

And he raised them from the dead. It still say, well, you know, that's a good sign for you when you say, I'm going to do that same thing there. I'm going to die, but I'll be raised in three days. Tell that guy to come on out, he'd be all right. So it wasn't like they had never seen it before. Yeah. But they're looking right at it and they're saying, is that last?

You know, Phil, I think the brutality of this event and the flogging and the public spectacle of the cross, there was no doubt, which is, I think, why God chose to do this. there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was dead. That's right. Plus, you got to remember he's, they didn't have newspapers. They didn't have, look what some people have found. I mean, this is just a rag tag.

There's no computers around, no cell phones. There's no way to communicate except a few people here and there. Well, that's why everybody was running. You remember the sweat. It's one of the reasons. They didn't have the information. Not near what we have. And you mentioned, hang on, Zach.

Let's take it back. Yeah, you mentioned Phil that this is a rag tag group of people. That's one of the reasons why a lot of Christian apologists will appeal to this particular text right here as kind of a historical proof of the resurrection. Because if you think, well, if you're a historian and you want to put yourself back into like that time period, to think about, okay, if I'm investigating this event or this alleged event of a resurrection, what are things I would look for? One of the options is, well, the only option is either these guys are lying or, you know, they made it up or it happened, right?

Those are your two options. If they made it up, most of the New Testament scholarship would agree that they would not have constructed the story in this way and had the women find the empty tomb. That wouldn't have made sense. I brought that up. We talked about that. Yeah. And I made it more of a clarification because they were the only ones at each step of the way.

Yeah. Because if you were in a court of law, that would be the most important witness. Because at every leg, you'd say, well, I was at the burial. And there's like, well, did you see him die? Well, they're like, well, I did. Yeah. I saw him die. And then I saw him put his body.

And then I saw him not there. Yeah. With these group of people, you know, human rights want to call it, whatever you want to, among females. There wasn't any. No. And I think, but even beyond the... A bunch of women up there, hauling about something. I don't know, you know, but you can't pay in attention to these women.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they just dismissed them. Yeah, they dismissed them. But even beyond the role of the women, just think about all the other people we appear to after this, the ones mentioned in First, 1 Corinthians 15. You know, there's over 500 people. So this resurrection, I mean, they think about that, like if I'm going to make up a story and I'm going to say, okay, we're going to come up with a religion, and we're going to pretend like this guy was resurrected. And we're going to – but the one thing you're not going to say is you're not going to publicly

say on Facebook, you're not going to say the guy raised from the dead, he appeared to me than to a few other people, then to 500 people, most of whom are still living. You're not going to say that. Because if they're still living, guess what the first thing that anyone who reads that is going to say? Where are they at? What's their names? Let me go ask them. It's easy to disprove it at that point.

So when you get to like that 1st Corinthians 15 passage, which is Paul's reference of this event or part of this event, it's the whole gospel, right? I want to remind you of the gospel that's the first importance. The Christ died for our sins that he was buried, raised on the third day, and then everything that came after that. That was an oral tradition that had been passed down to Paul. that he had received it after the road of Damascus, after he had had an encounter with Jesus, he went and learned this. Right.

He learned this, and the oral tradition was the way they would recite this, and they would pass it down from generation to generation. It's a very early account of the gospel. But I'm thinking, like, just the nature of Jesus' ministry, the nature of what he did, it's like he picked all the wrong people to accomplish it, and yet it was still accomplished. Yeah. It's almost like he was making a point. Yeah, he picked the ragpacks. He picked...

Well, maybe that's why one of the writers said he chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. What would you say if you said, because they're highly educated, highly educated, unbelievers, atheists, and they take a stand and they have their way on what happened, creation and everything else. And they read this, and they think. it's laughable. But the few that are converted, all of a sudden,

they're modern-day atheists. You say, you know what? I got the more I looked at that, the more I said, you know what, he might have done this. Yeah. Well, he had mentioned, I didn't hear the podcast yesterday.

You told me this earlier when you were talking about truth. You know how you read us? Why is this so hard to believe, even though. I think it's hard to believe because of what Jesus said, that those on the side of truth will hear his voice. And so we do a lot of things to get around the truth.

You know, and if you think about it, you go back to look at our culture and how much we deny obvious truths, biological realities, things that, like, we'll go to whatever length we have to go to to preserve our own autonomy. I think that's, I think it's offensive to us. We've all been offended by it. That's why we were living in sin at one point, right? We were offended by the fact that we're not God. That's offensive at first. But once you learn to accept that reality,

you actually understand that God's inviting you. I think it's First Peter says that we're invited to be participants in God's divine nature. Then you start to see a way to say, if I come in as a participator by his invitation, I can actually participate in his divine nature. And you see, to that's points, you see people, I mean, Lee Stroval comes to mind. Yeah.

First time I heard Lee, you know, give his testimony, basically. He's an investigator in Chicago, very smart, very, you know, asked a lot of questions about anything, because to be a good investigator, you have to be. And he's an agnostic or an atheist. And so his approach to the Bible was he didn't want to believe any of it. And he thought, because he was really good at his job, he would, dismantle the Bible and the story of Jesus. He said, you know, he said, I do this all the time.

Yeah. I go in and deconstruct a crime scene and figure out the truth. And so he went in with zero faith and to tear it down. And I don't know, I can't remember what he said the period of time was, but at the end of the day, guess what? He believed. I mean, you know, and now, of course, he's so great because he speaks into that world in a way we can. I went through a lot of doubt. in my faith. And I went down the rabbit hole that's called apologetics, which is the defense

of the Christian faith. And once you kind of go into rabbit hole, you start to realize, man, like there's a rich intellectual history to Christianity, current and past. I mean, some of the most brilliant people that have ever lived were believers. And I've been ministered to a lot by those arguments, but I'm telling you the thing that has probably that I've anchored in more than any of that is just the idea that God accomplished everything that he accomplished in a way that none of us would have ever chosen them.

Yeah, and if you do make the mistake of saying, so you expect me to believe this because I can gain everything. Yeah. And then you make a decision, you say, well, I have nothing to lose and I would tell them except your life. Yeah.

That's what you got to lose. That's what it's right. And it speaks, yeah, right. Well, I don't believe it because what have I got to lose? If I don't fool around or believe in somebody to come along and died on the cross. And you're like, everything. You use your life. Yeah.

Hey, let's take another. So we were duck hunting yesterday, as you guys have already pointed out, while y'all were doing the podcast. But like I said, I was minister. string. And so, but that was a cool moment. And the duck line are one of the guys that was in there calling for us, just a Louisiana country boy. I just grew up out in the Delta country. And after about two hours of duck cutting, he says, y'all want to hear my testimony? And it's one of those moments. You're like, I mean, you're never going to say no, right?

I say, Shane's like, yeah, I would love to hear your story. And so he gives his story. And it's like, I mean, this guy was just, I mean, in 2019, he was. He was an atheist. He was just living. I mean, he was pretty bad off. Wife left him, rock bottom, make a long story short, has a radical encounter with Jesus. And at the end of his whole story, he said something I thought was so funny, but it was like, it was so profound at the same time. He said, you know, people ask me all the time, why do you believe this now?

What reason can you give me? He said, you know what I say to him? He said, did you know me before? And they're like, yep. He said, do you know me now? And they're like, yep, he goes, isn't that enough reason? And they're like, good point. But it's just like the transform life, you know.

You look at this guy. You think, I mean, we're doing your movie, Phil. But you and K's story, and that's one of the things. I think we've accomplished it. We just got a rough cut in. And I think we've accomplished this. It's when you see who you were and I know who you are now, and I'm like, I can't explain that.

Yeah. I just cannot explain that. Yeah. That's one of the greatest witnesses, this transformation. Let me read this Matthew 28, because we were talking about sort of the setting and why the women were afraid, because Matthew gives a few little details that Mark didn't include in his. And when you read his version, it sounds a lot scarier. He says in Matthew 28, too, there was a violent earthquake.

So that hasn't been mentioned in the other ones. Remember, there was an earthquake when he died. And I'm assuming these are probably aftershocks of that same thing. And so God's like something's happening. So we got these earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, roll back the stone, and sat on it. So now we know the earthquake. So I'm imagining rocks are strowing around everywhere.

I mean, this is quite the scene when you walk up here. And this angel sitting on the rock, his appearance was like lightning. Mark was just kind of like dressed in white, like lightning. and his clothes were white as snow. So this was more than just, you know, he was wearing a painter's outfit. It reminds me of that verse, all the verses about that he'll make our enemies,

his footstool, and to imagine that God's angel is sitting on the symbol of a sealed death. That's right. He's just sitting on that symbol. He's just sitting on it. You know, what's interesting is he, his appearance was like lightning

if you ever run upon an individual and when you look at him you're looking at lightning I would say I am with you whatever which way we're going here I mean he was appearance like lightning

and his clothes were white as snow and the guards were so afraid of him that they shook and I don't know what this means and they became like dead men. Well, if they became like dead men, they went in the shop. They went smooth out. It's a pretty clear picture of whatever I'm dealing with here. I need to tiptoe.

And that's a prototype pattern that you see in scripture when Saul, when Saul, this same Jesus. And when John saw Jesus. Well, they do. They hit the deck and they were paralyzed. We just argued the point of, how could you die and be and live again? Only God could pull that one off, but he did. but those little things like I just read, you say that had to have a big impact on anybody who just staggered by there and saw what was going on. Well, that's what I'm saying.

So imagine all that's happened. So these women walk up. We got rocks thrown everywhere. We got this so bright you can barely look at him, angels sitting there. And then you got, oh, by the way, these people passed out on the ground laying around because they're there, not witnessing the resurrection.

What's up with them? Right. And so when you walk in, of that setting, it looks like something just happened here, something big. And so that's the setting. Now, what Matthew tells us that Mark doesn't is that so he tells him to go and tell the disciples, and then suddenly Jesus met them, and we read about this and some of the others. Greetings, he said. They came to him, clasped his feet, and worshipped him. There's your worship day. And then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid, because they're, you know, mixed with joy, fear.

go and tell my brothers to go to galley they will see me there so and then we also know that later i think it's in john where you know she's just holding on to him and he's like and john i was going to bring that up he appeared to mary magdalen which was a very interesting story i heard a lot of stories about that where because she thought he was the gardener she didn't recognize it crying and you know so there's there's just a ready-built sermon there when you're looking at the resurrected lord you know thinking he's a gardener I don't know why that's funny. There's a lot of sermons there. I mean, it's quite a thought.

And he was like, woman. So first he says, woman, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said. If you've carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. And then Jesus said, Mary. So first he said woman, then he said her name. And I guess in a voice where she then recognized.

The reason I'm making a big deal of this. this is because his body now has a few bells and whistles. Shapeshifting. Yeah. Shapeshifter. This interests me. Yeah. As a believer, and look, as an unbeliever, I had a similar journey as you say.

I was skeptical. You know, I saw my parents' life change, but I didn't like the feel of the church said it just seemed boring to me. I was a kid, but it seemed boring. And I thought, this just doesn't seem. There was something there that didn't seem. Yeah. So.

It felt like it lacked authenticity. Yeah. It's like that. It gets kind of cold. Let's take our last book. So I decided to study, you know, this. Phil had just preached his first sermon. I remember the title was the bad news and the good news.

So I was, I'm going to research that and make sure. See what these. Was this a church? Is he preached? He preached at the church. It was a little old country church because he. had moved out to the middle of nowhere. Is this out about where you live, where they live now?

Yeah. Yeah. And so he pre, I remember his first, you remember that, Phil? Yep. That was the first sermon he preached. It was the bad news and the good news. That was the name of it. I mean, I remember that like yesterday.

Wow. Because it made me realize, oh, he's finally going all the way with this thing. Because I was a little skeptical. I kept thinking, well, he's. How far, how far after? There's a few years. Was this a lunar or? I was, I was like 13.

So not four or five miles west of it. I'm pretty sure I just turned a teenager. So we're talking five or six years after you've become a Christian, you know. And so you're nervous. I remember you was nervous about getting up and giving it. But it, you know, in a weird way, it was the first time I kind of considered the gospel because I wasn't paying attention to anything else. I was thinking about, you know, fishing in rainbows or whatever I was thinking of.

And so I thought, you know, I was. You know, I, because my whole deal, I was fascinated by the creation itself. I mean, really, I'm kind of that Romans 1 type of guy where I just felt like there's a God, not what's going on in the church building, because I thought these people, it just seems dead to me. I mean, you're looking at what's been made and you're like, something. Yeah, they're like, we're living forever, and I'm like, you could have fooled me. I mean, it just didn't seem very dynamic.

It was a little small group of people, and they had good hearts. It was the old-timey-type church. It was, and nobody could really lead singing. And so I'd. Oh, Al. That's a nice way. Look, when they started singing, it just sounded like some weird voices that were in pain. Yeah, but you know what that.

But it was two sisters days. It was a competition, because I used to lead a little singing. It was a competition between one of the preacher's wife who, could sing versus another dear sister who couldn't and they were both loud and so whoever got it like i would say the first word whoever got the third word the that's where we went we went off the cliff or we went right into the average year of origin for these songs were mid-1800s yeah yeah but but y'all were but that church was perfect for where y'all oh it's where we need to it's where y'all because that's where dad learned to i don't know oh holy one it was miserable to me i did it was miserable to me i did

not enjoy it. And there was, Jason's church experience is like, you're Christmas. He's just like, it was terrible. You needed that experience. It was a wilderness moment. So now look, because I just thought, this just doesn't, it just wasn't appealing, you know, and I, because

you can't, you can't just force it on people. Everybody's got to find your way. But when Phil gave that lesson, to his credit, his courage, because I was still having to, you know, I was still skeptical. We're five years into their faith. and I was like, yeah, I don't know if it's going to last.

I mean, you were about it. Because it was really bad before he was, you know, he was a Christian. And I thought, well, he's getting better, but it still, you know, it takes a while. And so I was skeptical of the whole thing because it just didn't. Because Phil and Kay were really fired up for the Lord. And everybody that were coming down there, they were sharing with. Yeah. But the church, I mean, Phil, you have to admit, it was not dynamic.

It's a little dry. Whatsoever. And they had a preacher. It was a bit parched. And I just couldn't understand. It's no longer around, right? No, it's not. I couldn't, I didn't understand a word he was saying.

And so I just kind of started studying trying to prove it wrong. But, you know, really in the back of my mind, I believed that there was a God. I just thought that something is not making sense to me. I told Bill Smith, I said, he said, what do you think? When I came back to see him after we studied, I said, it almost sounds too good to be true. well yeah and he said it probably is too good for all of us but it is true yeah and I thought hmm so so to finish my long story yeah this is gonna work it just seemed like this this this is too good to be true so look I'm gonna need over I was I was studying for as a skeptic

that's all I was trying to say but the more I studied I was I was not becoming a skeptic I thought, well, this is making them a sense. It makes a much sense. It was, and I wasn't, someone wasn't pointing the verses out to me. I was just reading, and I read the four Gospels, and I was like, this is absolutely fascinating. You know, I wasn't listening to church. Everybody listening to their voice needs to read at least the last two chapters.

Read them all, but the last two chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Start your journey with Jesus right there. So I come in to Phil, and he was sitting on the couch, and I said, well, I finally get it. And he was like, get what? Do what? I said, I've been studying there. I said, I actually was studying to try to get around this. Yeah.

But the more I did, I want to do this. I'm going with Jesus. I figured out, I'll put all the dots together. Now I see why you changed. And then I kind of, you know, personally said, look, I realized that, that, that, I hadn't really forgiven you. And I was like, but I was, you know, I'm, I want to appeal to Christ's forgiveness for what I've done. And so a part of that, I'm going to forgive you.

And that, that was my introduction to ask you and to baptize me. Oh, really? And so, yeah, so I planted the seed there. And then we, the next time we went to church, uh, because then I had a new attitude. All of a sudden, you know, the song sounded more meaningful. I mean, actually it was, I was, I was saying that it wasn't. as bad I was making out to be, when you're disinterested, it's terrible. But it's like when I connected it to Jesus, I was like, well, this, this is not as bad

as I thought it was. But what had changed was my attitude toward it. And I thought, maybe I'll try to sing. I mean, try, why not try that? I like to sing. So on the way down from that next service is when, because another guy had responded that morning, oh, Matt Willis. And he was wanting to be baptized.

So I was like, they probably hadn't had a baptism at church. Yeah, we had two in one day. Well, it didn't have a baptistery. I think you had to go to the river. Well, we were headed to the river. Well, you know, it's funny. I made the announcement as we were headed with him, but I said, I'll be coming with you. But that simplicity of that sermon, which I wasn't there for, but I've heard, we've all said.

How many times you sat down when people said, I got good news and bad news? Yeah. Many of the time. Many of times. But you usually did the bad news first. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I don't remember anything about the sermon other than the title, but I've heard

that so many times. I know what you said, because I know what the bad news is and I know what the good news is. The bad news is, you know, we've got a sin problem and we're going to die. A sin problem. A grave problem. And a weakness problem. That was the way we were trained. But you really, that whole approach is the book of Romans.

I mean, because that's what Paul does. Paul lays out clearly the first few chapters. Here's why you can't do it on their own. And here's why it's so great. Well, I went with the sin and death because I don't view weakness as necessarily a problem anymore. I think somebody came up with that. I mean, that's a good, we are weak. And it's a fact.

But God does his best work in that. So I think there's a positives to be in weak. I mean, the good news is that Jesus answers that for us, you know. But I think that's a good, I don't like to list that in the problem section. because it's okay to be weak. God uses you when you're weak. He comes in. Yeah.

Well, in the last overtime, we were, Shane and Shane were here in the last podcast, and then the overtime, we got Shane E to tell a little bit of his story. And I got a sermon title from that, by the way, Jay's, Living Under Neon. That was a powerful short testimony. The reason I asked him that,

because, you know, he was rowed with me to the duck bind. Yeah. And I said, what's your story? I always ask that because I want to hear your story, you know. And he kind of chuckled. He went and he told me that. And so when we got to the pie cat, I didn't tell him I was gone. But I was like, tell us about how y'all met because I knew that was going to come up.

Because it was a surreal moment. He had had the seed planted. That's right. And then just was living just like a helion. And just looked around after one night of field. and it just became clear to him that, you know what, I'm on the wrong road. And all those seeds that were planted by his grandpa going to church camp, all of a sudden, he said, you know, I need to go back and see this.

And what he had seen as a negative was actually positive. All right of time. We're going to head to overtime. There are three or four things that happen after he's raised, and I wanted to look at a couple of those in our overtime segment. So if you want to follow us over, it's blaishtiv.com slash unashamed to catch our overtime segment. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazTV at blazestiv.com slash unashamed.