Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 7 | Jase Preaches His First Funeral

Episode Date: June 9, 2019

Jase tells about his first experience preaching a funeral, someone pays $30,000 to eat with Phil, and the guys honor Cathy Hilburn. See more episodes of "Unashamed with Phil Robertson": https://bit.ly/2J4XsiX See clips from Phil's TV show "In the Woods with Phil": https://bit.ly/2PNM6k1 To take a FREE 30 Day Trial of Phil's TV show and the rest of BlazeTV: https://www.BlazeTV.com/Phil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome to the Unashamed podcast with Phil Robertson, of course, myself, Al, the beardless brother, and Jace, the ugly bearded brother. We're all here today to talk about our podcast. And, you know, it's really interesting today because in our episode, we're going to talk about Jason's first ever funeral, sort of how that impacted him, but also the life of a person that we really cared about well-lived. So buckle up. It's going to be fun. You're going to love it. I am underchange. What about you? All right.

Before we get into today's episode, we wanted to tell you about Dad's show that's over on Blaze TV in the woods with Phil. We're now in our second year, I think, Dad, for the show. And I don't know. It was kind of funny when we first started talking about it. it was like what's this going to be like because really the only experience we have for a show was to do Duck Dynasty and of course we did the show prior

but what would you say about your experience of doing the show how would you describe it to folks? Well it's hard to actually call it a show but basically it's just an inside look 330 million people in the United States of America I'm one of them

and it's a look at a lifestyle intermingled with a family structure me being the patriarch of this particular clan four sons you Jace Willie and Jepp your children their children

and it's just a look at a family structure who live in America who are Americans who love God and love each other so it's a it's a lifestyle you see us doing everything from making jelly to duck hunting to you know putting out nets and you know watching back floods come and go how we react it's just a so it's a it's a two-pronged thing it's a lifestyle plus a spiritual worldview coming out of one family in America right how do you prep for this show do you spend hours of prep you get up

drink a cup of coffee and I sit down. I say, y'all running the cameraman or looking at you. I said, y'all ready? Yeah. They said, what do you got on your mind? I said, I don't know. That's what I thought. Some people call it flying by the seat of your pants.

In the business, we call this organic. It's a very organic show. It's a video blog format. So it's basically eight to 12 minutes of just feel unplugged. And our crew, by the way, is the best fed crew in America. because when you're cooking lunch or mom's cooking something and part of the show, they get to eat with us. The other day is a perfect example of what our show's like

if you've never seen it. Dad is showing how to make et tufei. And, you know, he's kind of giving you the, this is what you put in, this is the way you cook it, and our guys are really good about showing and make it. And all of a sudden he just turns to camera and he goes into about a, I'd say, about a seven-minute rant,

a kind of a Mark Levin type rant, I would call it about Mueller. You know, it was right when the Mueller thing was happening. And then he just looks back, I mean, he gets the ran out, and then he comes back and he's like, well, all right. So we get this Et Tufe. It looks like it's about ready here. It looks like it's perfect. We got the rice and when are we going to eat, you know, let's pray.

Which sums up my childhood. That's it. That's exactly right. So this show, you need to check it out. They've got a special promo going on right now that you can sign up. So you go to Blaze TV and you sign up and it's got a, there's a code, unashamed. so just think about our podcast unashamed you put that code in seven bucks a month that's what it costs to get the show and we're releasing probably about three shows a week so it's a lot of content

seven bucks i mean what was a can of Copenhagen cost these days four or five dollars yeah there you go so i mean not even for two cans of Copenhagen the point of it is if you're if you happen to be the reason i mentioned america 300 something million if you're in a in a metropolitan area New York City, Los Angeles, you know, whatever, San Francisco, and you've got your little life there and your job and you work down. It would just be hard. Sometimes it's difficult for someone to see outside that. You say, well, what, you know, what about a family structure in North Louisiana down on the river?

So we're just giving them a glimpse. I mean, we're Americans. Well, what we're going to do. We do what we do. We're hunters, fishermen. We have a biblical world. view, you don't have to just embrace it and say, well, you know, we're just giving you a glimpse of how some people roll.

Right. Well, and I met a woman yesterday at church. She's from Florida. She retired there or moved there. She's from New York. She goes down, goes to Florida, you know, older lady. She was at our church yesterday and was like, oh, I just, you know, I watch in the woods. Sure.

It's wonderful. I'm listening to your podcast. So I decided to come visit, you know. I watch you guys online every Sunday. she's watching our church, you know. So to her, you know, she's not, has nothing in common with us in terms of how we live every day, you know, hunting and all this stuff. She's a woman from New York by way of Florida that watches it and listens to us and says,

you know, I like that. I like your biblical approach. And she's giving me this whole spill yesterday now. I was like, well, man, that's great. You know, maybe we need to put you on the internet and do a commercial. I learned that last year at the Tebow event, you know, I'd taken, I'd given a duck hunt. away and uh but the people who came they were not familiar with weapons so it was a little awkward i was thinking it was a good chance i could not make it through the duck hunt alive so i got to

thinking i was like why not let's do a frog hunt and so of course tebow me and tebow the only thing we have in common is jesus but that's enough and uh he's a little different yeah and i and so he's like i was like what could but it went for so much money in the tibo foundation they do incredible things. Of all the charities I'm involved with, I got that one way up at the top. It's good. It's awesome.

So a group of individuals paid to have a frog hunt with you, and the money went to a good cause. Well, right. But it's a live auction, and I thought, well, it's just a frog hunt. I mean, something I've done all my life. It's a way of life that, I mean, it's so simple. I thought, you know, we might get $10,000,

which would be awesome. They start bidding for this thing. You know, they have the auctioneer was the guy from Scott Van Pell. Yeah, Scott Van Pell. So he's, and I could tell, just call it a hunch, he was not familiar with, you know, the ways of frog honey. He's looking at me like, well, you know, who's can I get, you know, $100? Check his papers, yeah. How this guy get in here?

Yeah, so look, this thing starts and these people start bidding. And look, it goes up to 100,000. And it seemed like it wasn't going to stop. And somebody finally stood up and said, well, since there's three people bidding, how about you do three frog hunts for a hundred thousand piece, 100,000 pieces to go to the Tebow Foundation? And I was thinking, it's just we're catching frogs. I mean, so look, I start, so we do it.

And it was great, you know, it was the talk of the foundation. but when I took those people out there, I realized what the draw was because they all did the same thing. They screamed the entire time. And these weren't like, you know, kids. I mean, it was family. One of them was a family. It was like the most amazing thing to be in a swamp, you know, to see alligators.

Because I make them all get up there and you catch a frog, you know. They're like, well, how do I do this? I'm like, get on the front of the boat, lay down, all shining a light, you so some of them it'll take a few well it's funny as we had this older lady the first time and I was like now you sure you know I wasn't sure she was physically able to pull this out she's like no I'm going for it so she goes up there well I realized there was a gator a small gator right in front of the frog

and she's like fixing to pounce the alligator I'm like whoa no no that's a gator she backs off everybody's screaming you know she's eyes rolled back in the back of her head I thought this is what this is what's interesting about this. So I think that's your draw with your show. It's the experience. You're right. Yeah. You see that with several things that are auctioned off at that event because these are

people that have money and have corporations, but they love Tebow and they love what he's doing, just like we do. So they're like, let's go for all kind of. It's the perfect combination. They get the people with money there. They try to get them to find something interesting. It's hard to auction something to people with a lot of money because, you know, they have so much money they can do.

anything but they hadn't been a frog hunting in a swamp but here's the kicker so if any of the three of us went frog hunting what's the best part of going frog hunting to us eating the frogs eating the frogs right these folks had no desire for that well one group i had they said can we turn the frogs back and i'm like catch and release that seems really really dumb to do i mean this is like the equivalent of you taking a filet, you know, and saying, can we put that back? Can we feed that to Bobo? Yeah, I just, but one of them, there was a couple of them that were vegetarians, which is fine. It's, you know, more for me.

But I was like, sure, I mean, we'll release the frogs unharmed, you know. I just thought that was interesting to show you the idea of somebody doing some of his experience versus our experience of doing it for all the years with done. Some guy called, well, he didn't call because I don't take calls, but someone from Duck Commander, the main office called and said, they said, Phil, there's a individual who wants to just come eat supper with you, bring his family. And I said, well, I don't know.

I said, you know, we got a lot going on down in here, and first one thing, another, you know. Which means I'd rather not, because you really don't have a whole lot going on. He really does. He said he had paid to come down there. I said, really? And she said, yeah, you want to know what he said? He'd pay for the supper? Just one supper.

You have a meal, and then they leave. They fly in. He has his own plane. He said he'd give you $30,000. Really? That seems weird to me right there. Well, I thought for about maybe two seconds. And I said, well, yeah.

I said, 30,000. I asked him when he came. when he walked in the door, said, what line of work are you in? He said, hedge funds. Oh, yeah. There you go. He had 30,000.

This is almost like Robin Hood. But what I'm, my point is, it's not for everybody, you know. I mean, we're Bible people. We eat well. We eat a lot of things that we get out of the woods and fruit and animals and stuff. And, you know, a lot of people would say, you know, they're bad mothers. But we're, I'm not bad by the mother. fellow Americans who do not live that way.

That's right. This is just one way to roll. It's a glimpse. I guess, you know, it's interesting to people. It is. And look, it costs the breadth of Blaze TV. And by the way, we're talking about that show in the woods with Phil. You can go sign up for it now.

You do the code unashamed and it's a cheaper, you get for seven bucks a month. But the network has a lot of different, you know, voices on there and a lot of different people, great people. I mean, but they all have their different approach. You know, Levin's got the way he does it. Beck does it his way. Bongino does it his way. I think people will get that just by looking at the profile pictures on the site.

Dad's a little bit different. Yeah. He stands out. So anyway, check it out. We'd love for you to cross over and check out the show. The guys at Blaze would love that as well. Go ahead and sign up. While I'm giving a commercial, I'll go ahead and talk about Dad's book.

The Thft of America's Souls. Still doing great. If you hadn't checked that out, be sure in order you a copy of that. Lisa and I have a brand new book that's releasing this week. We're excited about that. It's called Desperate Forgiveness. So you might want to check that out as well. So this last week was really interesting because a dear friend of our family used to work for us at one time.

Kathy Hilberin's her name. She passed away. And so I was at the beach. We were still there. And I saw that Chase was going to be doing the funeral. Which is shocking. Yeah. Somebody said on social media.

or Facebook or something, that this would be the first funeral Jason ever done. And I was like, well, that can't be right. You know, I mean, Jason is, you know, he's like me. He's classically trained, you know, and I know he's done some weddings. And so I thought, well, that can't be right. That's just somebody's got that wrong. So I sent Jason a text and I was like, hey, I heard you were doing Kathy's funeral. And he said, yeah.

And so I said, I said, this is my first one. I've never done one before. And so I just found that very intriguing. And then, of course, Dad and I were both at the funeral. But I want to talk a little bit about that today. I mean, I've done, I don't know, hundreds, probably, or at least been at hundreds of funeral. Well, I mean...

But it was really amazing. I mean, it's worth us talking about today because I just, I've never been so inspired at a person's funeral. I mean, I've seen some that were very uplifting, but this was amazing. So, I mean, I'm glad we're going to talk about that. It was one of the roughest weeks I've spent. Just, just thought,

and hearing the whole story and you say, how did this happen? But like you, you know, you've been a paid pastor, I guess, for years, and I think that comes with it. But I never have done that. But I've dealt with a lot of people, and people have asked me to do their funeral before, and I've always declined, which was really awkward because it offended the family or whatever.

But I'm like, look, everybody in my mind, I was like, everybody's got to know what their deal is, what their talent. This is not mine. I kind of justified it, which I'm not saying this was correct. Maybe rationalize it would be a better word. From that verse in Luke 9, you remember when the people were coming up to Jesus, and they said, I'll let you look it up. It's Luke 9, 57 through 62.

And they're like, I'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus, the first person, he said, look, foxes have holes. birds of the air have nests but the son of man has no place to lay his head which his point was saying you want to follow me wherever I go there may be some sleepless nights you may not have a place to go but that next one is the one I zeroed in this was my justification on why I'm not doing funerals rightfully or wrongfully so but one said Lord first let me go and bury my father and Jesus said let the dead bury their own dead you go proclaim the will of God so in my mind always thought because most people see my exterior like you feel and and they don't realize that I'm

tender-hearted there's a there's a place in there that's tender-hearted and uh feel same way it just took a lot more years to find that bring that out yeah I appreciate that yeah and Willie too you know and so uh I just thought I don't want to get up there and get blubbery you know I mean I think it's it's time that that was kind of my thinking I'm going to share with you while you're alive. Once you're dead, you know what? Not much I can do about it. I'm going to.

So that was kind of a justification. But what happened on the backstory here, this girl, I met her in a pizza place about, I think it was 29 years ago. We had 30 years, yeah. And her and her husband, they had just been married. But I knew her husband from school. Well, I went to school with him. He was rough around the edges is a nice way. You stay at high school.

In high school, yeah. And so I saw him. And, you know, I was fired up for Jesus. I mean, I've been fired up since I was 14, but I got vocal about it at 16 or 17. I saw him in a pizza place. He said they were just married. And I was like, well, man, I got to show you something.

I want to show you something that will, you know, keep your marriage together. And he was like, what are you mean? And I was trying to intrigue him. And he actually said, is it a magic trick? I said, well, it's magical. But I intrigued them enough. By the way, when you ask someone from Balkanville is where Toby is from, you've got something you want to show them, they instantly think magic trick. That's what he said. Just so you know. I said, it's magical.

So look, so I get their numbers, you know, I meet with them, I share Jesus with them. It did not go well. She never said a word, and he was like, I don't want anything to do with it. that but I didn't give up I you know a few weeks go by call them again wound up studying with them again well then that was about the time that uh the first person I brought to the Lord was my best friend from school and he came to the Lord well he knew this guy so I'm like look I've been studying with this guy well you go over with me I said I think it'll help you know because I just wasn't given there was something I just saw something there so we go over studied with him about 2 o'clock that morning, I remember he's kind of sat up in his chair.

And the girl, Kathy, has never said a word other than, hey, how are you doing? But he sat up his chair, and he's like, I need to find some water. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, I want you to baptize me. You know, I really wasn't talking about baptism. This was many studies. I'd shared Jesus with them. I'm sure I had kind of talked about what baptism does,

where you reenact Jesus' death, bary and resurrection. but he just said and I mean it's 2 o'clock in the morning I was like well I was thinking the church building is it locked and he's like well I mean shinie lakes right it ain't a couple miles down there I was like shenny lake it is well Kathy was not in the room but she was like in the next room but there was no wall it's like the kitchen the living room and she said well I'm ready too well when she said that you know I kind of thought are you sure or you just swept up in this you're you're husband's fixed to respond when I said are you sure she gave a five-minute dissertation that just it moved me and it was basically along the lines of I need this love that kind of love in my life and she said also there's a lot of people I need to forgive and I was thinking when you mentioned your book about forgiveness I thought she hadn't even responded she hadn't even surrendered to Jesus yet and she's already made the connection. Jesus's forgiveness is going to allow me to forgive.

I mean, this is incredible. So all of a sudden, I was like, I'm glad this guy is responding, but, you know, this, I'm really impressed with the heart of this woman right here. So anyway, we shenny late 2 o'clock in the morning and they started adventure. Now, their marriage got bumpy. the fellow that she is married to, you know, y'all remember all that story off and on, which led to them finally, you know, getting separated.

But she stayed the course following Jesus the entire time. Eventually, we, you know, hired her down here to help her once they were apart. But she never left the faith. And as years went by, her faith deepened. she, one of the letters that I read in the funeral said that when she came to Jesus, she went from being a follower, you know, making bad decisions to a leader. And then when she became a mother, she became a warrior. And that, we saw that.

So to tell you the whole story, she's then diagnosed with cancer. At the same time, she had decided she wanted to go to school and become a nurse. And so about the time she gets diagnosed with cancer, she, graduates nursing school. And so then she starts working these 12 and 16 hour shifts. And people are like, you have cancer. I mean, she'd do chemo. And she's like, I work so hard to accomplish this, I'm going to be a nurse.

And to make a long story short, I woke up one night thinking about her. I told me I said, we need to go talk to her. Well, about the same time we get a text saying she wanted to talk to us. We go out there. She's cancer's back. you know she's literally days within dying and so I thought what am I going to say she couldn't even move we missy and I climbed up into her bed and said you know what can we do and she had this all mapped out she said first of all I'm 100% at peace with what's fixed to happen

and I told the story I've never seen a person so anxiety free or fear free there was zero fear none and no and she's days away from well yeah She's like, well, this is, she said, I've been hanging on so I could talk to you because I have a plan. And I was like, you do. I was like, what's your plan? She said, well, my plan is, I realize that I need to use my death to motivate the people that will be there at that funeral and my family to surrender to Jesus. She said, because I want people to know why my life is so awesome. Well, when she said that, I thought, if you look at it from a worldly viewpoint, I mean, she's living.

and a trader has very little money. Because she hadn't been able to work as a nurse. She said cancer a little time. Now she had a new husband who's awesome, you know, who she brought to the Lord and been a rock the whole time through that situation, Jackie. And I thought, I mean, the more I listened to her, the more I got inspired.

And she said, I just think this is spiritual warfare. And Jesus has blessed me so much that I'm sure this is why I'm being attacked. So I want to use it kind of like Jesus. did to inspire others and uh because she's she was she used a phrase that I will use from now she said because basically you're just going to bury me alive and I I just kind of paused on that I thought she's not worried about this at all and she said all my kids are in a good place with Jesus so I would like for you I know you don't do funerals she said but I would like for you

to do this funeral to help others see Jesus will you do it I said, yes, I would do your funeral. And that's what we did. That's why it was a different kind of funeral because basically I followed the plan. And I wasn't blubbery, but there was about five times during the funeral where my mouth was open and I literally could not speak

because it was such a powerful story. I knew she's such an inspiration. This is going to be difficult to get out. Well, from my perspective, I mean, I thought Jay's did a matter. masterful job of doing what she asked to do. And it was powerful on the people that were there. And it was celebratory.

And yet at the same time, you know, when a person is that loved by everybody there, you know, there was a lot of weeping and grieving and me as well. But here's what struck me. So after Jay's does his thing, which is really powerful, her son gets up. And her son's probably 27 years. He's got two or three children. and then the daughter's there. She's got three children.

I think Kathy had five grandkids. And then she had a 14-year-old, a teenage daughter by her second husband. So, you know, this is her family that's there. So Blake's getting up to speak. And I hadn't been around Blake in a while. And I knew who's doing well because Kathy had told me that because I'd asked her. And in Brookie, I see a lot more. So I didn't really know what to expect, you know.

And I'd already heard Jay say, you know, that he had like 11 pages. And I thought, oh, boy, I'm again thinking from a funeral perspective of this, this could get bad thinking he's going to try to. Yeah. But he didn't. He just went through it. And here's what I thought dad was interesting. So in his 11 pages of honoring his mom and talking about his life, what kept coming up was

his memories as a child about, of course, when she separated from Toby and they're on their own, they don't have anything. Our church walked alongside her and basically just carried her through that stretch. and then he specifically mentioned you and mom and not that that Kathy just had a job working for us but that he had spent summers out here as a young boy and then a young man with you with the property whatever just we talked about your show in the woods and I was saying how many how many people through the years of this one was a powerful story she's 47 years old she knew who she was she's leaving this legacy of faith and here's

her son up telling I'll be here and I'll meet her in heaven no matter what and I just thought man that was so powerful but then it was like then she mentioned you guys and I thought how many people have has our family and then even our church family have we walked alongside whether it was talking to a wayward son a wayward daughter I mean just how many times does that happen you know through the years a lot I mean it's powerful well the back story on that so we met with her and then because she said she said no when you're leave. I'm done. I'm tired. And so, you know, and the next day she died, which was really strange because I told Missy,

she was articulate. She was, you know, physically she couldn't really move a whole lot. But her mind was amazing. And I thought, was this is not going to be quick, but it was. And of course, her body just was riddled with cancer. I mean, she beat it once, then it came back. but so after she dies the next night after that we met with the family with the three kids two of them are married you know uh and and and their husbands wives and and a few other family members and then her current husband uh jacky who was yeah i didn't realize how funny this guy is because i was like how did you pull this off and he said well we were watching Sanford and son. I was like Sanford and son. Yeah. He said, now to commercial. He said, I got out on

one knee and said, well, you marry me? And she said, yeah. And I said, then what happened? He was like, well, we got back to watching Sanford's son. Of course, we laugh, but it kind of broke the tension, you know, and he just felt good about it because he saw her. But that night, Blake, who spoke after me, he sat there and didn't say anything for probably the first 45 minutes. And then he just kind of told his story. He was like, you know, I looked at my mom and my dad, and they kind of went two different directions. And he said, I tried, I kind of went my dad's direction.

And for most of his adult life now, you know, he said, but my mom, he's like, it's just, I couldn't, it was hard to get around the perseverance. and how positive she was. I mean, everything in her life is going bad, but she never complained. She always says this is, you know, God's plan. Even he went through about her becoming a nurse

and all the, you know, her fellow workers saying she never complains. She's there. I mean, it's just, it's amazing. And he said, you know, even though I have put my faith in Jesus, he said, through this process, I've decided to go public with it. And so I was like, I kind of asked the question, when did you go public? And he said, right now. I'm going.

I'm going. So that's when I said, well, you need to tell them that. I said, just say that. I said, I think your mom would want you to do that. I was like, I know it would be tough. I'll stand up there with you. And I said, just that one statement, because he made the statement that he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that his mom.

was with Jesus. And he's like, I'm going to see my mom again. And the way to do that is through Jesus. That's what I'm going to do. And I said, just make that one statement. He said, I believe I will. Well, then the next day was the day of the funeral. And so I said, well, you ready?

You got your statement ready? And he said, well, actually, I wrote it down. And it turned out to be 11 pages. And then I thought, oh, boy. Oh, boy. I was like, I better start, you know, whacking some of my materials. Let me imagine some. about what he said in there.

And this is a great thing for folks that are watching and listening. When he made that discussion or that statement, I want to go public, meaning that I'm going to let people know who I am. This is why I follow Christ. He also in that process extended forgiveness and healing because when he and Brooke, when she married Jackie, they were teenagers. Now, anybody that's listening in and watching knows that, When you marry a second time or third time and you have teenage children, you know,

you're talking about blended family. It gets difficult. They're not going to like the person you're married. That's right. Teenagers or any children, but teenagers are hard enough as it is. But so they had a major issue with Kathy's new husband because there's that clash. You know, he's trying to be their stepdad, but, you know, it just doesn't wear well. And so the statement Blake made in his talk at the funeral was that they hated his guts.

which I thought was powerful because he just come on out there with and tell us. But then something happened that was amazing. I mean, I just cried watching it. He said, but I watched you never leave my mom. You were her rock. You stood it out. I mean, she got sick. You never left her side.

He said, when I saw how much you love my mom, it changed my view of you. And so I think that was right along the line of his understanding, what Christ had done for him. But it was back to what you said with Kathy in the original. statement. When you understand how much Christ loves us and what he's done for us, it then changes your whole capacity to love other people

and extend forgiveness. And I'll tell you, I've done a lot of funerals myself. I've had a lot of people up make statements and talk and family and memories. I've never seen such a transparent extending of grace and forgiveness like I did

at the funeral. That's what inspired me. Look, even the first, even the first husband who was there I thought responded you know in in a really positive way I mean I obviously it's upset now but just hearing everybody that shared and I read a lot of comments from her friends and her fellow workers and you got the same picture but the picture that I'm presenting is through her life and her perseverance in Jesus I mean we're talking about surrender and her maturity as she went on that despite all these vicious attacks that i i deem was from you know the spiritual forces of evil i mean because she just

she got it down and and she accepted that and looked at it as something positive well through up through that her life and suffering and eventual death she basically brought everybody together. Everybody, including her past, her past husband, her current husband, her kid. She brought everybody together because she didn't have any kind of maliciousness. There was no, you know, when she made the comment about her first husband, she's like, oh, I forgave him, you know, years ago and moved on, which is so hard to do for, you know, she said it like it was nothing, but, you know, when you do that, you're then free. no matter what happened she's like oh that you know i put that on the cross years ago you know i've

always had a good relationship with her i've checked up on her but i haven't you know hung out with her in the last few years because she's obviously been busy and a lot going on but whenever we have these little private moments conversations at church or whatever i'd ask her i was like now how's your husband treating you and she'd always be like like a queen and i finally trusted her i'm like this is just a a spiritual warrior. Every time I ask you, she's like, oh, I feel great, which I realized was kind of a white lie. I mean, she has cancer.

She's dying. Yeah. But she just viewed her life as just complete awesomeness because of the relationships in her family, all the repaired relationships, all the relationships at church. And then her eternity wasn't a doubt in her mind. So what I read, because I know, you know, we just

scripture here. I don't know if that's ever been read at a funeral, but my text that I used was Ephesians chapter 6. I mean, I sensed some intensity in there, I guess, but I mean, it was kind of a fog. I don't know what y'all's perspective of me.

Because I was like, I want to do her right. She had a great plan. It's not about me. I had to mumble that to myself a couple of times during my speech because I thought, I got to get this out. Right. But I read Ephesians 6, where it says in verse 12,

For our struggles not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, against spiritual forces of evil. And so then when I got to the armor, he says, put on the full armor of God. Well, all these qualities, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, their feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel,

the shield of faith, you know, arm yourselves with the Word of God, which is the sword of the spirit. All these qualities, her body was riddled. I mean, it was riddled with cancer. But you could see all those qualities in her life of having that armor on. And so that's why I referenced the buried alive. She is a warrior. She had figured out the text that the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8,

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall trouble. She had a lot. ship. She had that persecution, famine, nakedness, or danger, or sword. As it is written, for your sake, we face death all day long, we're considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, and all these things, we are more than conquer us to him who loved us. I am convinced, and he starts with what Kathy just experienced. I'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels, demons, present, future, powers, height, nor depth, or anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God

that's in Christ, Jesus, our Lord. She figured it out. It was moving and inspiring to see somebody knowing they're fixed to die and have zero concern about that. Well, and, you know, we, like you said on our podcast, we talk a lot about the Bible. And to a lot of people, it just seems like the mysterious, historical, too big to be fit in my daily life book. But the reason we want to talk about this today is this was a life lived that was completely changed as a teenage girl who just got married.

And then the process of a 30-year period where when she, in our opinion, was way too young, but, you know, God does things in his own timetable. When she left here, we looked and saw a legacy of faith, children who said, I'll see my mom again because I'm going to raise my kids the same way I was raised. And we knew how tough it was because we were a part of that process. So really it's just a microcosm of what we're talking about. If you think about it, and the audience is listening, and say, well, why tell that story and you know we're listening?

So the audience is sitting there, whoever is out there in computer land. You said, why did y'all bring that up? Because it's going to happen to ever last one of you. That's right. Every one of you are going to take. Your path is going to finally end where that girl's path ended, at least on this first go around. Because of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus conquered death by his own death, who'd keep them from being slavery to their fear of death.

That's the big fear. Everybody's trying to stay alive. But everybody out there in computer land, just remember your day's coming, so is mine. Well, you can go there and say, but we're looking at it like you're going to need this. Big deal. Well, even in our culture, I mean,

I guess I saw things way more clear because I was just so involved in this. and the family and it was just a you know after it was over i felt just in a fog for two days but something that that was really weird you know i didn't know because they kept calling me the preacher because i'm i don't view myself as the preacher because they were like the preacher usually stands here you know by the casket as the people are leaving out and you shake their hands which i never noticed that so i noted i noted when i when you walked up to the podium at a funeral I've been asked to do three funerals,

and I did all three of them, one for an avowed atheist who I just converted six weeks before he died. Got it at the last second. No one knew that. That's right. But he requested that I do his funeral because of his turning from atheism

and trusting him. And he was one of your old drinking buddies. Old drinking buddies. So it was him, the town drunk, that same town, the town drunk, the old green, that old guy. Remember him? Well, when the town drunk and everybody knows, that's what he was famous for,

his family asked me to do his funeral. Well, just think about it. You're going to walk up there and give him a few words about this individual. My words were, I'm glad I'm not God, and who is the ultimate judge, one lawgiver and judge, who could save and destroy. I'm not here to be God. God will judge each one of us.

I know this. We're all sinners, that's for sure. So was this man. And the third one was a guy, young man, who died young. He was one of my ex-students that I had helped kind of mentor and say, look, I'll get you out of these classes,

but don't be running your mouth and hollering and carrying on. If I tell you, to sit down and shut up, sit down and shut up. and you'll get out of these classes that I'm teaching you. I'm so shocked you didn't make it as a teacher now. That's just that mindset. I told him, I said, look, what do you want to do with your life one day? And he said, actually, I want to be a welder.

I said, you get out there and you tell that industrial arts guy out there that you want to learn how to well, learn how to be a good welder. Well, that's what he did. But he died early on something I've already forgotten what it was. So what was your observation? You said as you saw Jace come up to the podium. Well, I said I'm not a preacher, yeah. When he said, you know, he's not a preacher, I was thinking like he had to say that.

Yeah. You're saying that was obvious from, you know. I had to have my shade zone. He had his shade zone and his hat, too. You know what? Because I told me this, yeah. Well, my hat is my. I can say.

I can say anything. I've never done a funeral on a hat. Well, I couldn't say anything negative about when he walked up there, but it was just not funeral like. What's happening here? And I reel back the years when I was up there and probably I said, well, when I told them, I said, listen, I don't even own a suit. I think these, you know guys. That's what's weird about this is you're kind of critiquing my look, looking like you do right now. That's why I kept my mouth shut.

He critiqued it, but he did so from looking at his own percentage. So I was worried about Jay's because I sent Jay's a test. What Jay's told me is like, do I just like show up and speak like an event? You know, he's like, I'm not sure how this goes. and said, look, let me call somebody and make sure that, because there's like a whole, you know, traditional funeral stuff. I had to do it. I would know that.

You didn't. I did all the traditional stuff. And like I said, I met with the family during the week. I don't know. I think people do that. They do. Our meeting was really meaningful and powerful because I know them all. So everyone will know.

You say, well, how could y'all be this sort of frivolous about one of your sisters in Christ? passing on the other side. Her body has fallen asleep. Her soul and spirit, she's alive, apart from her body. She's gone on to be with the Lord in the other dimension. She's there. Her body is asleep in the dust of the earth.

At the return of Jesus, she receives her body and her soul and spirit are reunited. With a new body. With a new body. should be glorified. So y'all say, well, you know, what in our world is all that about? If people are watching, you're this Jesus thing. Well, march on in there when you finally, your body falls asleep without any hope. We're just saying the story is there's life beyond the grave.

And if you believe in Jesus, even if you die, yet shall you live? And whoever believes in him will never die. It's pretty comforting. And Kathy, she had it down. I read John... She figured it out. I read John 11 in the funeral, which was the Lazarus story.

Because I thought, you know, she was young. She had a 14-year-old girl, which no matter how you spend this, it's going to be tough on that girl. You remember being 14. You lose your mama, who's just an awesome human being. I mean, that's just going to be tough.

That was the time I had the roughest, but I said, you know what I'm going to do it? I talked to her because the last word out of her mouth when she died was her 14 year old daughter's name because she was more worried about her because she's like she's young you know so i read that uh the story of lazarus and because you know they said jesus come you know Lazarus is sick but he he waited a couple days of course he knew the big picture what was going to happen and uh by the time he gets there of course he's dead and the sisters marry martha they were mad which

you know, you make the point of, it is upsetting, you know, when someone dies young who's a warrior, and you kind of blame God, kind of like they were doing. And he didn't rebuke him for them at all. No, no. He understood. This stinks, you know, it's terrible. But that's why I went at it from the angle.

She believed she was being attacked from the spiritual forces of evil because she had sold out for Jesus. And after a while, she just said, I'm going to use this just like Jesus did to inspire others to put their faith and trust in God. Once she made that decision, I mean, her life just, it soared where she became so influential. I mean, that's why you saw so many people there at that funeral. I mean, she, she had, her life had touched so many people. But then I read at the graveside, which I thought was interesting because I saw this, you know,

I said I went through the motion, so I understand what you did. But even driving out there, the graveyard was a pretty good distance away. I mean, it was probably 40 minutes. And, you know, the tradition that we have in our country, I don't know if it's just the south of they do this. Different places, different. I mean, you know, the cop comes out in front. Well, I was first in line because they're like, well, the preacher is right behind the cop.

You're leading them out. And I'm looking around for the preacher. And they're like, oh, I'm the preacher this week. Okay. So, well, it's kind of weird because he'll stop at a red light, get out. and I'm like, do I go? And she's like, Missy was with me, you know, of course.

And she was like, no, you wait for, you follow. You know, you don't go because I'm like, I know where it's at. But then when we got on the interstate, you know, we're driving like 40 miles an hour. And an 18-wheeler got in the other lane and slowed down. Because a lot of times I've seen them just passing you by. He held that line for the entire 20 miles or whatever it was. And I thought, boy, I bet all.

all these people. Did you notice some of the people that were, and it shows you in the south, especially in our area, they were pulling over and getting out of their cars. Oh, yeah. You know, and a lot of them had their hand over their heart.

Just, I mean, they don't know who this person was, but it was just a general respect that someone's life had, you know. It reminded me of a guy I shared Jesus with, and just in a random, kind of like her. And I saw him years later,

and I was like, what did you ever decide, you know, decide on. Jesus. He said, well, I didn't think much about it. He said, but every time I saw a funeral from that day forward, I thought about that. I said, well, you need to move on it. He said, oh, I did. He said, that was finally just. That's good advice for the audience. Always. So I like that. But I said all that to say when I got to the grave side, I read that

what you just said, first Thessalonians for where it said, brothers, we don't want you to grieve or to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. And that's the deal. You know, it was a little bit controversial because she said she didn't want everybody wearing black. She's like, this is, I want to some celebration. What she said is she says, I mean, it's fun for me to graduate to my eternal life. This is fun for me.

Of course, I'm sitting here looking at this woman dying and cancer saying that. I'm like, I'm not saying that on your behalf. I was like, I'll do the best I can. The word fun is not coming out of my mouth. But she said, I don't want everybody to dress, you know, dark. She wanted bright colors. Well, it was. You know, some people said that.

What was it like? It looked like an Easter Sunday. And I was like, that's what she wanted. And so, but we're, we're not grieving like the rest of me and have no hope. Look, I'm 100%, 100% sure that she is in heaven, that she, will get her body back and live again. To the point of I went from trying to encourage her that day to being encouraged. I left out of thinking, okay, I need to work on my faith a little bit and get to that point.

Because if somebody told me, okay, you got two weeks to live, it would probably be a little struggle there grasping that. She didn't have a problem. And so he goes on to say, we believe that Jesus died, was buried in race, and he will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in it that was my point i'd make you all ago i was just giving the scriptures and he's bringing her to earth the body comes up and then the famous verse in first thursday lans 4 after that we are still alive and our left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air and so we will be with the lord forever it is a wild story

So today's episode, we honor our sister, Kathy Hilburn. Rest in peace. We'll see her again. It's a great challenge for all of us to live in such a way. These two have identified as non-preachers. I am a preacher. And I used to tell our church all the time when I preach full-time, live in such a way that it makes it easy for me to do your funeral because I'd do a lot of funals.

And certainly Kathy was that person, even though Jason never done one before. It was fantastic. It was an honor. Having said that, it was an honor to do our funeral. So next time we get back together on the Unashamed podcast, we're going to kick back into Genesis 4. We've seen a beautiful picture of what happens when a life is turned and when it changes from sin,

because that's where we've been talking about. Don't forget, Blaze TV. Check out in the woods with Phil. Right now you can use the unashamed code and get a much cheaper deal. So check that out. Dad's Book, Theft of America Soul, our book, Mauna Lisa, Desperate for. forgiveness. We love you guys and we're glad that you tuned in.