Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 76 | Jase's Pandemic Gold, Churches Under Lockdown & What to Do if You're Unhappy at Your Job

Episode Date: April 15, 2020

Jase is shocked by what he saw when he hit the lake for some pandemic fishing. If you're running low on fish or eggs (aka pandemic gold!), Jase is your man. Phil's been eating good in the quarantine ��� maybe too good. Church buildings are closed, but Phil, Jase, and Al still see the church flourishing under government lockdowns. And the guys answer an audience question: How can you work a full-time job and still be happy? See 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 - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am Unashamed What about you? So, so what, just to explain to our audience, one of our young cameramen and podcast guys, Connor, he shows up to, of course, everybody's getting long and shaggy. You know, I hadn't been able to even think about a haircut.

I don't even know where my person's bunker down somewhere. And apparently, Connor comes in looking like one of these high sidewall haircuts this morning. and he's got a big hickie on his neck. Are you married? Yeah, he's newly married, which is why you get hickies on your neck when you've been married about three months. I haven't seen someone with a hickie since high school.

Jason, is hickie still a fang? I was like, well, it is for Connor. I kind of, I don't know, my wife and I kind of graduated on the hickie. So she couldn't even get to your neck. What are you talking about? That's why he's got the high side walls. I'm not sure why you're having such a problem with a barber. Just cut your hair.

well i mean i don't just saw it off i mean when i cut my hair i i just look in the mirror and i'll grab it and i'll cut it you just answered your own question as to why i don't do that that's this is not what i'm going for so i haven't been to barber i have a hairstyle 10 years i have a confession to make uh-oh uh-oh since the quarantine started and all this stuff but i will have to admit uh it occurred to me five minutes ago hearing y'all talk that i have not bathed in a week. I'm sitting here thinking I just come off the river running trot lines and all that. I'm like, I just didn't think about it.

Why do I feel the need to get out of here and run? If the coronavirus happened to hit me anywhere, it's still there. I sure didn't put any soap water on it. That makes me feel like my nose is not working because I really don't smell you and I don't know if I'm used to. Actually, I don't smell me so I think I'm all right. when I smell me that time. I'm going to be smelling the entire. That's right.

Now we're going to be wondering what that smell is. Oh, gee. I've gained five pounds in the last three weeks. Really? With crawfish, catfish, shrimp. I mean, look, we're just. You're basically sitting, because you're in the high profile zone. Yeah, you're telling you.

I haven't seen three vehicles in the last. month that you know like service people the mail lady still i see her drive by and drop the mail the box down there yeah she's on up the road but but but besides that i don't i well i found them i found the people yesterday you want to know where they are yesterday jays says let's go fishing i'm like sure what else do i have to do so we go down here to the big trophy bass lake they got down here you know it's about an hour drive or whatever and we actually drive in separate vehicles, which look weird because it's like the coronavirus fear. But I had to go to the grocery store after.

And, you know, I wait until right for it closes. And we found this brand new grocery store in the middle of nowhere, so it's not as much traffic. So it's a little easier. So we go, when we pulled up to the dock, I mean, when we came over the hill where the dock is, it looked like the 4th of July. I mean, there was not a parking place now.

Everybody in the world down here, they're fishing. Yeah. social distance is perfect they had these neon signs like you put on the side of the road during road construction that you don't say slow down or construction and it it had all these messages there were different ones it was like do not congregate which i was surprised they had a spell right And look, it's like, it's a groups of people will be sighted, you know. So look, I'm looking at this scene because I just couldn't believe it. Because they shut the boat docks down, Jay told me a week ago, because I guess people were congregating at the boat dock. Well, look, and there was nobody congregating except right under one of the signs, there's a group of rednecks. And it looked like a family.

That was seven or eight of them. And they're right up under the sign. The picnic area is under the sign, which I said, I guess they can't read. I mean, that's what my first thought was. And Jay was like, probably not. And the leader of the family, the male, he's crotch deep fishing, catching one every cast, and they are screaming every time he catches one. And I'm like, well, you can't fix stupid.

You know, they're just. But they didn't hit me. I thought these people, because I can say that, because that was us, what, when I was a kid? Oh, yeah. That was us. I mean, these people have the immune system of a family of buzzards. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean?

You couldn't kill them if you tried. Because you walked through stuff. I mean. They were barefoot, you know, and I just thought, you know what? That's, I can only make fun of them because that used to be us. And then when we got out there on the lake, look, I was way more fearful. of my life of being just run over. All the boats.

There's a thousand boats out there. And look, they're all going wide open. I bet you ten different times during the fishing, I would say, if that guy does it turn right or left, we're fixed to die. Jay's like, oh, no, they'll sit up. They're just coming wide open at the last second. Yeah, because, you know, they're drinking beer and everything else out there. It's a pandemic.

You know what I mean? Let's go. I'll tell you I was shot. And so here we are in the middle of all this. Well, Jay, I learned something yesterday. This is my son-in-law, Jay Stone. And I would call him a professional fisherman, and I see. He's pretty good.

So we went after the Chinky Pants because it's full moon and it's a long story, but they're a mysterious fish. And if you catch the moon just right, when they're spawning, I mean, you can catch them by the hundreds and they're huge. They're huge and they're delicious. They're tasty. Back in the day, we call them a mason perch. or how they got the name Mason, I don't know, Mason Perch.

Well, somebody in Georgia. Chinky Pen, Mason, Perch. Well, these are hybrid chinky pen. I mean, they get up to two and a half pounds. I mean, they're just much. They're big. Unbelievable. Yeah.

So that's what we were after. And we caught three or four. Well, it wasn't happening. And said, Jay's like, forget this. Let's go catch the crappie. So I thought we were going to go fishing. What he does, he drives around. He has a state of art, you know,

tracking, what do you call? Sonar. You're looking at the bottom of the lake in kind of 3D. I mean, his goes out 100 feet on all sides. Not only you're looking at the bottom. And you can see the fish under the water. You see the shadows. So he has all these tops under the water, which it says everywhere there's signs. Do not put tops in the lake.

And you can't go 20 feet. and you see a top that somebody's put out because you see the cinder block you can see the actual cinder block tied to it. It's not every 25 feet. So which is this, the signs basically at Candy Lake are not working. I mean,

people are not bad. It's embarrassing. I mean, you look at what they're. Stuff that you wouldn't believe. You know, they got under the tires. The city dwellers are listening to what you're saying.

Yeah. They're like, you know, that bunch of idiots. Oh, I know. But you're catching fish in a midst of it all. Well,

that's right. Did you all get on them? Did you catch a, After an hour of driving around at one mile per hour, thinking I was going to die from a boat crash, he has a little buoy. And he flipped that buoy out. He went, oh, oh, good. I was rolling my eyes thinking, okay, you've been driving around an hour. I'm bored out of my mind.

And now we found the spot right in the middle of the lake. They ain't a bush, a stick. So we pull off from it And he said, Okay, throw four feet To the left of the buoy I was thinking, Are you actually kidding me?

Because I didn't look at the graph. He said, come look. I said, I don't want to look at that thing. I throw four feet. And look, he said, count to 11 Because the water's deep. And I was thinking, well, why would I count to 11

Before I threw it? And he's like, well, that's going to put you Right above the top. If you get to 13, you're going to get hung. So count to 11 and start reeling very slowly. I thought, okay, sir. So I throw out there, I count to 11. Yeah, I felt just like an idiot.

I rolled about three times and it was just boom, boom. I said, good, great, fat, lucky joke. First cast. First you got to see the thing. Then you got to throw the buoy. Then you got to position yourself. And, well, everybody's watching us. What size was this croppy?

As big as they grow. I mean, I thought it was a bass. And it come up and just a slab. And so I said, well, Jay, I feel weird because I said, you're right. All right, there was one there. All right, I'll give you that. He said, oh, there's way more than one. And I said, but everybody, you're showing everybody in your hole.

He's like, oh, they can't catch them. You have to do exactly what I'm doing. He said, they don't have the equipment. So we're fixed to put on a show here. Well, I throw back in there. Look, next cast, which he catches one. While he's reeling his end, I, boom. I got another one.

So it's a three for three. Three for three. Look, the first 15 casts, we went from having three chicky pin. Now we got 15 cropy big as they grow and the three chinking pin. Make a long story short. I would say we caught 50 keepers right there. Of course, then I was ready to go. I was like, well, how many do you need?

But then he wanted on the way back to check all his other little findings. So we're still going one mile per hour. So we'd pull up to one and catch two. And the good news is, ladies and gentlemen, I just looked in my ice box. We call them ice boxes. Y'all call them the fridge, refrigerator. But we call them iceboxes. You say, how come you call a refrigerator an ice box?

Because when I was a boy raised, you would go get 25 pounds of ice, put them inside the ice box. to keep your milk and your stuff. You wanted to refrigerate. All it was was a block of ice that you got uptown about three or four miles. You drive to town, get a block of ice, put it in there. You get four, five, six days out of it a week. But then you go get you another block of ice. So we call them ice boxes.

But I looked in our ice box. Y'all would call it a fridge. And I saw filet cropy in a plastic bag. Well, I already had catfish. I got a constant strength. of catfish coming out of the river that we've been eating. Because you've been on your in the woods or now in the quarantine on the show. You've been showing how to do trot lines.

Show them how to catch fish during the pandemic because if you run out of food, well, we have a river and flooded timber for miles. And it's just full of fish. Crawfish. It's full of catfish and bass and crop. So we just have a constant supply. I'm just showing them during a pandemic time to get hard. you say you could survive for years.

Oh, I fish more in the last month than I fished in the last three years. So when I saw those, I said, what are these, what's where did those crappie come from? They said, Stone sent them to you. So I knew he and that that proves that they, they pull off what they said they pull off. Because you got the result. But by the way, ladies and gentlemen, a great way to fix cropy. you filet them, take the skin off of them, take the rib cage out, and now you have a boneless filet.

I took them, I salt and black peppered them, put some peanut oil on the stove, and turn the fire wide open. I took the crappie, put salt and black pepper, took a squirt thing, a mustard, and you hose it down with mustard. Sounds terrible, but you never, you would never know the mustard was on there. You would never know, I'm just saying, and you get them coated with mustard, roll them around and instead of meal,

you put flour, put flour. So all you have is salt black pepper, mustard, much of croppy, they're filet, there's no bones there for the children and all that, and you roll them around, put flour in there, roll the flour around now you have a batter. So your batter is mustard and flour.

The peanut oil starts getting worried to sizzle a little bit, put a little flour in there. You've cooked those for about it. I'd say four minutes to five minutes, golden brown, take them out and he fry up the fish. Well, I had just a platter of filage crop that Jason Stone were so nice to bring me. I didn't know where they came from. Because you're the pattern from me. It's a pecking order in the south, the oldest one standing.

They'll bring him fish and they'll bring him ducks and squirrels, no matter a pandemic or not. But the old dog, see, I'm the oldest dog around here. And then on the, oh, brother, we're out there, you'd be the patter for me. That's right. You're the Patriot. So you get, so I actually don't have to do anything if I don't want to. I just sit there and the grub comes my way from various underlings. It's a first fruits mentality.

The underlings beneath me. They're making sure what's out of the old dog. Because you taught us all how to fish. They kill a deer and they'll bring by a tenderloin. They'll kill deer on land that I own and then they'll bring it. bring me a tithe. It's a, it's a time. I think that's just respect.

Hang on. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back because I want to talk about that. Well, my neighbor, what I did, you know, since when we had Duck Dynasty, I broke up this, what's it called, H.C. What's it called the home, the home governing body? Oh, the HMO or not HMO. What is it? Housing. Help us, producer.

What is the, what is the? Homeowners Association. Homeowners Association. H-O-A. Thank you, Connor, with your Hicchio. I've never heard of that terms. Well, it's one, well, you were on that show, so you've just forgotten it. Yeah.

It made such an impression on you, such a delible impression. I broke up. I'll never forget it. Look, between the yuppie millennial movement of going more organic and that show, I broke up that rule about you can't have chickens. So now my yuppie friends from California who live right next to me They used to work for Willie

You know most people in our neighborhood We're either Ken or Everybody's Ken except for that one family And they work for it And they're awesome family And so they have more chickens I mean they're running everywhere In their yard

Oh yeah And they're from California Oh yeah They're from California Well because they're Mr. and Mrs. Organic Every time I see people from California I always tell them

I shake their hand. Where are you from? And they'll say, you know, Los Angeles of California. And I always tell them, you know, you look perfectly normal. Well, just from a visual. They look perfectly normal. But you say, you know they're not because they're in California. But they look normal.

What was your old line you used to say when we were growing up about California? Every good thing and bad thing starts in California. Everything I've ever seen that was very good or very bad. It originates in California. It just sweeps across the nation. I don't know. I don't know. I don't agree to that.

So what I did was they give me about a dozen eggs three or four days. Well, now that's invaluable because you can't buy an egg in a grocery store. I mean, they are. You can't? No. If you're running low on eggs, I'm your man because I can get them. I'm not checking the food supply. I mean, that's your mother.

She's the one that says, you know, Dan. and she sends him to town for staples, she calls them. Staples, Staples. Well, I went yesterday. But I didn't know you were, they ran out of eggs. Well, look, yesterday. Bacon's another thing. I went to the grocery store yesterday.

And look, it looks, it's like your grocery shopping and some kind of sci-fi, you know, just far futuristic type grocery store. Because all the workers look like Darth Vader. You know, they have. The mass. And they have, there's plexig. glass, wherever they are, it's like, it looks like bulletproof glass. Really? Oh, yeah.

Sneeze guard. That's in like the Walmarts and all that? Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know. I hadn't been to Walmart. We don't go to Walmart. But the grocery store was crazy. I'm getting some information here that I was in.

You know, I just, it just occurred to me. Monroe and West Monroe, probably population 100,000, they're up there. But, you know, the thing could blow up or burn up or pandemic. kill them all. And the scary part is I wouldn't even know it. You know what I'm saying? I know exactly what you're saying. Yeah, you live where civilization is really not occurred.

Well, that's what I'm saying. Dad was set up for quarantine. If anybody was set up for it, it was him. That is true. You're looking like a genius. I've seen no difference in the pandemic, pre-pandemic and post-ped during pandemic. Of course, now, mom, she gives me a different side

because she's like, oh, your daddy, he's just doing what he always does. but I'm miserable because, you know, she loves to go and go and go. And she's like being. Well, for a while, she's talking to the ladies now, the girls in the rehabs and all. They always do that. I have made sure that the gospel goes forth no matter what we're doing. So it's worked out pretty well because we're making sure we have the one day a week, they get a big meal, all the homeless people over there on this part of town.

where we meet up there. So the grubs going out to the homeless. They have like a ham sandwich, a can of vayana sausage, some chips. And some of them other day, some of the homeless guys, they saw that. They said, we want this next week. We want this same. Well, of course you did. They like that vayana sausage because, you know, you can carry it with you in your pocket.

And we used to do it all the time. We're making sure the poor section of them. So mom, we're feeding a section of them. I'm proud of mom because she's. somebody's helping her, I guess is Dan. It's Tony. Tony's Don't. Okay, so she's doing a Zoom Bible study.

Of course, we've been meeting, me and Jay's been meeting with their church staff by Zoom, you know, with all our church stuff we're doing too. So it's a weird. By the way, boys, I like the Romans chapter 12 in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifice, it's holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. Don't conform to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of mind. You'll find out what God's will is. that Romans 12, we are practicing that.

It doesn't bother us at all if the health authorities say don't congregate anymore. We didn't even miss a beat. They're going through the computer wires and beating them that way, you know, and people are lying up to be baptized. The gospel's going out through us talking here today. It's fixing to go out of here. So we're looking at it like, well, what's the – I actually think the church has kind of flourished.

No, I'm not in – I do too. And I'm kind of a volunteer. I guess we all are in a way. But even with the church leader, I mean, y'all included me in it because we help with the worship and all. But, you know, they're really working hard to bring as much comfort as possible to the ones you talked about, the widows and orphans and the, you know, the homeless and all that. But they're also just being real creative. None of that has changed.

Well, and our church does a food bank. So, like, and now we're doing it drive-thru style, which, you know, we still got to be careful because you've got all this food that's there. But, I mean, they've come up with a way to still help families. Actually, if you look at it, it's – and think about it. The world at the time when God became flesh, Jesus, the Roman world at that time, look, hell, there was no freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. And none of those – this was not a – this was not a – This was not a Democratic Republic, the Roman Empire. You see what I'm saying?

Sure. So they had their righteous Romans and all that, but they were pretty, how shall I say, pretty brutal about people of that day. And they were unkind, the governing authorities and the Jews toward the apostles. It was a tough deal. I remember. But that's the way they did. Think about it. When everything had to be word of mouth, Al, had to be word of mouth, or nothing, the message doesn't

come out. There were no computers. There were no cell phone. You say, it is amazing that those guys and gals of the first century brought the kingdom of God and the gospel of Jesus preached that message, and it literally went worldwide in that time frame. It's pretty amazing. Well, even now, though, that, like I was talking to Mike this morning, our one kingdom ministry, he's talking to these guys in India and other places in the world where they're on lockdown too, because they're trying not to get the virus. But lockdown there means something totally different to us here. You bet. Locked down there means if you're out and they catch you, you're going to jail. Plus, I'm a little bit. I mean, that's, you know, you think it's a little different story.

I don't know where this is going to end. These same countries, they'll, you know, you commit a crime. They'll, you know, they'll shoot you in the bag of the head and send the bill to your parents for the bullets. This tracking, tracking people. And I can just, my biggest worry is that we'll get used to I mean, the lefties are rubbing their hands together, said, well, they're finally getting it. They're shucking out trillions of dollars and just paying the population for not working because they shut the work down. I just hope that doesn't take. It's a danger. I mean, in this case, I actually agree with the president.

It wasn't their fault and it wasn't anybody's fault. And it just, you're shut down. And they shut it down. The things they deem a necessity, they're basically trying to give a bomb. Well, the fear is that, that's how many, he's right, the slippery slope idea. It's just like 9-11. Then you had the Patriot Act, which then expanded government being able to intrude in your life. And we're still paying for that one.

I mean, that was his whole thing. But it gets back to the same illustration you've seen about, you know, if you give a guy who's, you know, a bomb on the side of the road, $20 and he takes the $20 and he does something mischievous with. that that don't mean you actually weren't trying to help him out and do the right thing. That's true. The problem in our culture is you're always going to have people with an evil mindset, try to take advantage of anything good. That's right. They just view it as weakness.

Certain individuals have told me, well, why in the world would you, you know, those homeless guys, you know, it's their father. I mean, what are you doing helping them? And they've come up with a thousand different reasons why we should not help the poor. Right. but we just keep helping them saying, listen. But we still have a responsibility to be smart. I love it how you don't give them money.

And you know, you give them food. I mean, we do the same thing. I told that whole story about the eggs and the chickens because I was getting to the point that I cleaned up a lot of fish, which is a big sacrifice. And I gave them to my next door neighbor who'd been giving me the eggs. I didn't do it because they're giving me the eggs. You were trading fish for eggs. Well, yeah, without really saying. As a guy and that other, what was the movie, the super?

Indians and, oh, what's the name? You know, you know, good trade. Good trade. Give me some eggs and I'll give you some fish. So, look, y'all know. You all know, you all day. Yopies, you know, and so when I saw them the next day, they were out with their family in the yard, spending, you know,

what else do we do now, you know, family time? And I said, hey, how was the fish? And she said, oh, they just melted in her mouth. They were all. She said, feel free to bring us more fish. And then there was a hesitation. And she said, after you clean them, of course. Oh, yeah.

I clean them. California, pretty slick. So in other words, you want eggs. You give us some fish. Let's take a break. I want to touch on that thought, Dad, Mark, a minute ago. So, now you talked about tithing, and we've gotten several questions. I didn't have it in our question list today, but it made me think about it.

People have asked us about that. But you actually tapped into the biblical view of why we would tithe anyway. In other words, the idea is that you're the father. You created us. You taught us out of fish and all that. So people naturally, then, our response was is that we're always going to take care of you because you were the first. And that's kind of the concept that across the biblical landscape that God said,

I created you. And so therefore, you should always be willing to. give to the creator. Of course, we give our life, our time. It's not just money. But that's the idea behind it. We've gotten, you know, people, you get all sorts of stuff about tithing and all these rules and regulations.

It's just a heart. It's a heart. Biblically speaking, generosity, Al, any way you slice it, it's at the top of a Christian life. That's right. Faithful sons and daughters of God must be known for their generosity. With no strings attached, you say, well, have you gave stuff. they'll take advantage of. They'll start listing the reasons why you shouldn't be generous.

Right. Just be generous. And the way it turned out here with this particular group, it paid rich dividends. I never thought God would be so generous toward us. Right. And the idea was he called it first fruits. He said, look, you're out here growing stuff. I'm just saying, you know, I'm the pattern for me is I'm God, I'm the creator.

I should always get the first fruits. And so whether there was sacrifice or whatever. Now you come forward and see people are like, oh, you got to give to your local church, you can't give to ministries, you can't do this, you can't do that, all these cans and can't. They get it down to a percentage. Well, under the law, it was at least 10% and you better do better than that. I mean, all these percentages, you say, don't worry about all this. Just be generous.

We scroll through some of these questions y'all sent in and try to address some of them, but I noticed one of them, I don't know if it was on the list today, but I want to bring it up. There was one guy who was like, it was like he was at war with himself and the question over over working. You remember that question? He was like... Yeah, y'all sent me a note on that. I read that.

Yeah, I wanted to mention that. And I thought it was a good question. I thought it's a great question. It's Brett from Ohio. I'll read exactly what it said. I think it goes in with this idea of being generous. Yeah, I think you're right. And I think it addresses a lot of folks.

I just don't read you what he said. He said, I got an important question to make a good topic, and he's right. Something he's struggling with. And so he's like, he says, Christian, I surrendered to Christ, and here's his I'm generally a happy person, but my struggle is, is that my full-time job basically is taking all his time, is what he's saying. He said, I'm not lazy. I do work. I get up, I go to work, and all this. But he said, my question is, how can people have a full-time job and still be happy? I want to bring, I want to bring this up.

His labor has become a scourge to him. Right. Well, and that's why I want to to bring this up. How would you answer that, Jays? Well, here's my take on it. Y'all can argue with it or whatever. But my take is there's a lot of volatile scriptures about working or the lack thereof. And I always bring up that. I think it's First Timothy 5, 7, where it says a person who does not work and provide for his family.

I think it says especially his immediate family has denied the faith. and it's worse than an unbeliever. Yeah. So it's a scary passage. Yeah. And so on the other hand, you have that we're surrendered to Christ, and that is supposed to be our number one thing, you know, live in the principles of Christ.

Here's what I think the problem lies for this fellow. I think he's looking at life as compartments, which I think is the number one problem in Christianity in the religious world. Right. I think people view their job and their church as separate. Right. They're like, I go work because I have to because God said I need to provide for my family. You see, they use that verse.

I'm working here. I mean, how many movies do you see where the guy's in the office for years? You know, and he comes home and his kids are rebels. And they're like, well, you didn't spend any time. And he's like, well, I got to provide. I was providing for you. It's like a major point of confidence. conflict in all movies, you know, because he wasn't there.

So my point is, I think, I view this way, whatever God is giving you the ability to do. And Phil has taught me this. Usually there's something that you can make money from that you do well. Even some of these, I've seen Phil ask many a time, he's like, what do you do? Or what do you like to do? You know, because he'll be sharing Jesus and this person won't have a job or whatever. But I'm looking for them to discuss their skill set. Well, right.

Because everyone, I know it sounds crazy, down to the oldest woman, you say, everyone has a skill set. They may not know what it is, but everyone is worth something. And that's why I key in on that, I know I'm kind of rambling, but I'm like, well, if God made you, if you'll agree that God made us, he made us with a skill set. Now, you may not have discovered it yet. Correct. That's correct. But it's there. He wants you to work, and that's a noble thing.

But I view work as the platform by which you share Jesus. And so, and the reason I'm saying that is in Colossians 3, you know, where it says, let me just read it. Hang on, Jason, let's take a quick break. Then you read it. Okay. In Colossians 3, you know, first he says he goes through the relationships, wise, husbands, children. This is in 321. Fathers, don't embitter your children.

And then he gets into these earthly masters, which I think it's more the working class of people, you know. And then it says, whatever you do, verse 23, whatever you do. Which therefore leaves that up to you. Yeah. Is what he's saying. He's not saying, here's what you must do. He said, whatever you do. So that's the choice.

Work at it. Work at it. with all your heart. But it's in the context of this having earthly bosses and being in classes of people. Whenever I see that slaves and masters, which is a point of conflict in the Bible

for a lot of people, especially non-believers, but in their culture, it was more, and I think you'll back me up on this, it was more the social class structure. You know, you're in some situations like with me for Duck Commander for years,

you know, my boss, was my brother, Willie, which was terrible for me. Because we argued. But at the end of the day, you know what? I had to submit to whatever the final word was because he was in charge. I mean, I hated to be under him in that way, but technically he was kind of my master because he was like, you want to work. And that's usually the way he ended. He's like, well, that's all well and good.

But if you want to work here and you want money, this is what you're going to do. When we looked at the four sons, there's two of you. sitting here, Ms. Kay and I, the mom and the dad said this one, and it came up on the third one, Willie Boy, it came up, we said, Willie is, he's, he's, he's the financial guy. Well, and you were right. I think it was true. You were right. Well, his skill set is that domain.

He's a, y'all see all these. Well, that and he married well. That helped. Well, he had some money. When your wife has a trust fund, that helped. But anyway, I want to finish this. It says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. as working for the Lord, not for men.

And that one little phrase is what I want to zero in on that question. Wherever you do, whatever you do, you're not working for men. This is in the context of slaves and masters. You're not working for that guy. You're working for me. Now, part of that is you tie that in with Ephesians in chapter 4 where he said, you shouldn't steal. He said, don't steal, but you must work.

Well, he puts that one step in between the next one, which is so that you can share. You know, we were talking about giving is why I made this connection. So you said, well, wait a minute, let's back this up. The reason I'm working, because I'm working for the Lord, is so that I can share. Well, that's sharing with others is actually the opposite of stealing, not working. the sharing is where you want to get to. You don't want to steal from someone. You want to share.

Well, there's a process. And in between there, there's a fine and a pride in your work. So let me make a little – I'll do it with just solid scriptures. I'll just read the scriptures. What's our man's name? Brett. Brett. Brett, listen to this.

When you – next time you think about it, turn to Ecclesiastes, chapter 3. This is the wisest man who ever lived, verse. nine. What does the worker gain from his toll? Because our man, Brett, is saying, you know, I don't, I'm not happy with this. I'm not happy having to go to work. Well, what does the worker have to gain? I've seen the burden God has laid on men. Now, you know, the scourge of work. That's the way Brett's viewing it. He's made everything beautiful in his time. He's also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Brett needs to remember, he's on planet Earth, and God has set eternity in his heart.

That's what God has done for us. He's fixed it so that we can be like him. We inherit what he has. Just think about it. If we just stay the course, we be generous, we love him, and we love our neighbor. watch. I know that there's nothing better for men than to be happy and to do good while they live. It's good advice, Brett, that every man may eat and drink and check this out, Brett, and find satisfaction in all his toll. This is the gift of God. I know that everything good, God,

everything God does, will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing be taken from it. God does it so that men will receive him. Now, he needs to keep his situation on planet Earth in context. He said, there's an eternity waiting on you, Brett. You say, I'm working hard, but I'm just not seeing it's become a burden to me, almost like a scourge. Well, just remember what Solomon said, and then I'll read you, Ecclesiast's 5, Ecclesease 5, verse 15.

I've seen a grievous evil under the sun. It sounds like Brett. Wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, of wealth lost through some misfortune. So that when he has a son, there's nothing left for him. naked a man comes from his mother's womb and as he comes so he departs so if you just put them two together and say you know naked i came from my mother's womb and that's the way i'll leave here too i better keep eternity in mind as i labor and as i toil at my job just remember it's all the gift God, we work, you get paid for your work, and you use that in wise ways.

It's just the nature of being a human being on planet Earth. You don't want to come up with a system by which you work your whole life, make a bunch of money, retire, and then your kids and all your family members despise you. And being frustrated and unhappy, as Brett has said, while you're doing it. It is a scurder. That's why it's more important. important to focus on the relationships than these things. I wanted to read.

Let's take one last break for you to read that. By the way, Jase, if you look back at our roots, think about it. We depended on the hook nets and the trammel nets and the trot lines to catch the fish. And then we would sell the fish, 70 cents a pound on the catfish, 30 cents a pound on everything else. And you say, y'all actually put out. It was not enjoyable work. Would you say that was head down and tail up work, Jace? Yeah.

Huh? Yeah. But I mean, look, there's great things about it. But we weren't singing the blues. That's why I wanted, I referred to this passage in Ephesians 4, but once I read it, I want to read it. Because what it says specifically is what you just described. It says he, this is 428. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work.

doing something useful with his own hands that he may have something to share with those in need. Well, that's what we were doing. We were doing something useful because we were feeding people through the fish. I mean, thousands of people because we were catching thousands of fish. It was something useful. And it brought us together. The difficulties of it is what made it fulfilling. By the way, it's worth it.

I'm looking at what Brett said and what comes. of mine is 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 11. Make it your ambition. Now listen to this, Brett. Make it your ambition to live a quiet life to mind your own business. Think about what goes on on the internet and all that. You're like, boy, pull back from that. To work hard with your hands, just as we told you. Listen to this, Brett, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and Brett, here's the kicker, so that you won't have to be dependent on anybody, not the government, not your neighbor bailing you out. You say you live a life of quietness, mind your own business, and you work hard, and you won't have to be dependent on

anyone. Well, that's the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal. It's to achieve that. But I'll also say this. Don't forget that, Brett. Look that up, dude. I think there's something to you being a person of integrity, honesty. You know, one of my best friends who owns a plumbing company, you think, well, how can that be a platform for Jesus? We've had numerous conversations where some of his employees, if they're doing something unethical or not spiritual, I mean, he forces them. He's like, if you want to work here, you go apologize.

In every instance, he always puts the principles of God as the number one priority. Even when his employees makes a mistake. He uses that as a way. And he says, that's why I have the most successful business in our area. Because people know, I'll tell you what, if they say something, he's going to do it. If they give me a price, it's going to be fair. He's like at every turn, if their employee messes up, we apologize. You know, he said, I'll give them, give them whatever happened free and saying,

look, our bad, we made a mistake. He said, you'd be amazed that when people see that, they're seeing the spiritual qualities of Jesus in that business and the work ethic also. And he ends up, yeah, being one of the top plumbing outfits. Well, that's right. And he says when people ask him why, he said, then there's his platform to share Jesus. Because he then says, we're based on a set of fundamentals, just not of the world. And I think that's what I would like to convey to this concern.

if you're not sewing the principles and spiritual seeds of Jesus at your workplace, and I mean by, you know, as famously Tim Tebow, one of the things he does in his speeches is he'll read that Colossians 3 about whatever you do, you work at it with all your heart. He's like, if you're a disciple of Jesus and you're on any venture, whether it's playing football or whether it's, you know, a job at a bank, you don't let anybody out work you. And he goes on this deal about, we have the Holy Spirit of God, we're the most powerful people on the planet. We have every reason in the world to overcome adversity.

And it's very inspiring. But he's like, you'll know the Christians. You'll know who the true Christians are. You just watch them because they're out working you. That's what Brett needs to grab a hole of. That right there. By the way, dude, we're glad you contacted us. Another thing is, what I didn't mention is that Brett's only 20 years old.

So my take was you're still, you're just starting out. I mean, you don't even know yet. This may not be what you're going to do the rest of your life. At least he has a job at 20 years. That's right. And he works hard. So part of it's finding that out. I thought about Godwin.

You know, Godwin, who works for a duck commander. Godwin worked from when he was a teenager all the way up for 21 years. So he's up now in his 30, late 30s, at the mill. And he hated it. I mean, he did not love it. He was swing shift for all those years. He wasn't a follower of Jesus either. He wasn't.

And so he didn't know that, you know, but he's just grinding. You know, he was supporting his wife and he was grinding, but he hated it. And then he became a Christian. And so he still worked at the meal and he still was grinding. But now as a believer, he's trusting in God for the first time of his life. Well, guess what? We had a little open for expansion. You guys needed a guy.

And I said, hey, what about Godwin? You know, my neighbor. And we're like, yeah, to send him on down here. He comes down and he talks now for the last 20 years, now he's past 20 years with Duck Commander, he's been doing what he loves. You know, he's able to do outdoors and the Duck Commander. So what I'm saying is the point is sometimes we have to do something for a while and it's not pleasant. And that's the difference in happiness and joy. The Bible talks about you can have joy in any circumstance, quarantine, whatever.

But I think if he was in Jesus, his attitude would have changed even at the mill. I mean, I know people right now they're at the mill who love Jesus and they use it. as a platform. Chad Johnson. Yeah. Chad Johnson is the most positive person I know. And he works at the mill. I mean, that dude is bringing people to Jesus. Because what I'm saying is, being in Jesus validates your working. Because it then gives you a respect that, oh, God is giving me this and this ability to do this. And I'm going to be different from the other. When they're complaining, I'm being positive. I'm going to lead this place. You're storing up treasures in heaven.

And when I come home, I'm going to feel like God is validating my role in this. That's why in Colossians, I brought up that about husbands and wives. So then you're looking at that like, yeah, I'm doing my job here and I'm leading. And even if it's underappreciated, it at least gives me the respect to know that I'm doing God's will the right way. And it may just like I said, it may be, you know, there's a principle in the Bible that says he that can be trusted with a little, can be trusted with a little, can be trusted with a little. lot or a lot with a little. So, I mean, you may just have another door that's going to open up for you. So you've got to trust in them as our point. So it was a great question. Great thing for us to talk about. Today is Easter Sunday, which is one of our, I guess, our biggest days of the year in terms

of what we talk about the resurrection and the spiritual world. By the way, the quarantine, it being Easter Sunday, the quarantine didn't dampen that whatsoever today. I mean, the grave is still empty, right? What are you talking about? That's what we all live for. Pandemic. I'm like pandemic. Forget the pandemic. I said, you know, the resurrection of the dead. That's the only shot we got here. That's exactly right. So I want to mention a couple of things to our audience. First of all, thank you guys for sending in your questions. We're going to do some more of those. And also just for watching, telling other people, because our podcast, our unashamed nation, I call it, is growing. And we thank you guys for that. A couple of things. One is,

we're doing our live stream. If you're church or you don't even have a church family, you want to check it out. It's WFRchurch.org. We've been doing live stream sermons on Sunday, and they're all there. So I do a lot of them. Jay's does some in the past, and even got dad in there on some of the old stuff, too. So that's something you may want to check out, some added stuff. And also, we mentioned in the quarantine with Phil, for a couple of month period here, you can basically get $30 off the yearly subscription. Normally it's $99 a year. Right now, because of the coronavirus and all that, they're offering a $30 savings, which is really good. It's five bucks a month.

And so the content we were talking about earlier, you can get that. So check that out, this blazedTV.com. And hang safe. So we're so glad you guys were with us today. You can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or YouTube or Facebook. And be sure and rate us on iTunes so that other people can know about the podcast.