Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 968 | Jase & Tim Tebow Make for an Odd Pair of Friends & Phil Gets ‘Run Over by the Grace Train’

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Phil and Jase are pleasantly surprised by their simpatico relationship with Pastor Joby Martin of the Church of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, Florida. Jase admits that he and his good buddy Tim Tebow only have one thing in common, and Joby tells a few of the most entertaining stories from his new book. The guys emphasize the power of authenticity when speaking about Jesus, and you don’t have to go to preaching school to share Jesus effectively. Find out more about Joby’s ministry at https://www.jobymartin.com. In this episode: 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. Zach, you're coming to Louisiana, Zay? And I'm going to North Carolina. Are we literally going to pass in the air? Like, as you're flying by me, I'll just wave, okay? Just wave out of your point. I'll be down in Angola Prison. They finally got you.

You know, I told you this statute of limitations hadn't run out on that. I know. We're excited about that. Are you turning yourself in? Turning myself in. We're going to go see about the revival that's going on in Angola. We're going to have some music, some preaching, maybe some baptisms. So that's exactly what Dad and I did a few years ago. And it was quite the amazing event. Of course, it was funny because it was so exciting to worship and we're in Dad's preaching. You know, and he had the classic, wonderful opening line that you read it. Galatians, three, I think.

And you said, just because you're behind bars doesn't mean you can't be set free, which, not it was, it was just because you're under locking key. There you go. You can still be set free. Yeah. Well, that rhymes. It had a little bit of a rhyme. All of those guys were there.

They died. They was going to bury them right there. Yeah, about 90% of people in Angola will never leave there. So they're going to be buried on the premises, which is pretty amazing. that they can go out victory. Well, it's funny because dad was talking to one of the guys that's in charge, like the deputy warden, and he said, I just can't believe. I mean, these people love Jesus.

This is amazing. And he said, I thought this was some of the roughest people in the state of Louisiana. And he said, oh, they're here, Mr. Phil. They're just not in here. There's still some here that aren't in the raising hands. They're the ones we got locked up somewhere else, you know. But there is, somebody asked me a question because, you know, you hear a lot of prison ministry stories.

He's a prison conversion. I've heard people criticize prison ministry to say it's easy to get people baptized or whatever, and it's almost like there's no discipleship that goes along with it. But someone asked me about that. I said, you know what's interesting at Angola and San Quentin as well, but Angola particularly, they have, and I've mentioned this on the previous podcast, they have churches that had been planted inside the prison. They have seminaries that are going into the prison.

They're New Orleans Theological Seminary. training up pastor. So this is a, this is not a, this is a long-term thing that's happening that's been going on for years. And a lot of them, Zach, get transferred to other prisons in the state Louisiana and then plant churches in those prisons. Oh, it's happening. It's incredible. I mean, it's so powerful to think about what, I mean, like it, it, we're going to have Joe Bion a second to talk about just the power of grace. I mean, it's like grace is a freight train, you know, that it is, it is even storming the walls of these prisons. And it gets me fired up. I'm excited to see what God does down there. That's awesome.

Whoever told you that was never been there. I mean, my two-year stint, the people that remain, because I had the sentencing block, so they would go there because they thought it would help their case. I'm already dealing with people who are trying to use this to their advantage. But the ones that would get out, I would say, meet me and I'd give the address to the church bill. And not one who got out ever met me. But a lot of them that their sentencing didn't go so well and they stayed, they wound up. They wound up.

Making a decision. Yeah. Making a decision. So it was kind of crazy. But I would never say it was easy because, you know, I had one guy who, I mean, I wouldn't let him talk because he was obviously, you know, I had the typical argument. I'm like, whatever your philosophy is, you wound up here. because he was he was trying to rebut my presentation. And so I took him on and wouldn't let him talk.

Well, then he threatened to kill me and my wife and my kids. And I was like, guard. But, you know, I was locked up in the cell. And he's like, you don't have time for a guard, you know. But in it, you say, well, nothing happened, but it could have. I mean, I thought this guy could kill me. Every time we were going into Angola and another door slammed behind me and there were many doors that we went through, I was thinking we're getting deeper and deeper into the enclave here. So I was aware of the setting. I felt the same thing. I mean, you know, they...

I found out what they, I don't want to go there. They had a show sometime on TV where they would take young people there and just watch. Because it is, it does something to it. Oh, it does. I mean, I was there. It scared me. Yeah, as a volunteer. But, uh, But you're right. I mean, it's, it's the best medicine for not to ever be there. Exactly. You can have.

Except to brain Jesus. I had a strange, I had a very strange sensation when I was in Angola a few years ago. I did a, sent a whole day down there. And there was a moment where we're in this particular part where they handled the horses. They got like a horse farm out there and some animals. And they raised dogs out there too. It's amazing. Oh, yeah.

Well, where I went, they grew peas. Yeah. You know, they were out there. working and angola makes the best hot sauce i've ever had by the way but uh and they sell it but anyways i'm in this area and it's me i feel like we're doing an ad for angola well i would don't go there you know the hot sauce is great you know i love their biscuits well i did tell the story about the guy trying to kill me which my response was you can't kill me because i just went psycho crazy you know i was like i got the spirit of god he'll probably strike you down for you even try you

I'm like, I'm not taking lip off somebody who's in here, and I got the spirit of God. That's what I've been there for. I ain't taking no lip off no louder. I was kind of bluffing, but he didn't know it. I think he thought I was as crazy as he was. You did have the spirit, but he could have killed you that. Yeah. Well, I was like, no, you can't.

I'm going to come back and haunt all your crew. So what was your, that finish your story? Oh, I'm sitting there with like 50 guys, and there's me and the deputy warden, I think Her name was Warden Fottino. And she's a petite woman, and there's me. And no guards. And so I'm like, oh, these must be like the petty thieves, you know. What are these guys all in here?

There's no petty thieves in Angola. She's like, most these guys in here for murder. And I'm like, and weirdly enough, I felt strangely safe. And I said, wow, there's no guards. And she said, no, these guys are awesome. These guys are awesome. They've been, you know, reformed. And most of these guys are like in church.

they're leading in the ministries here. And I felt strangely safe. And it was just interesting to think about the power of Jesus to change people and transform people. I mean, I think about Phil's journey. I mean, look at Phil now versus who Phil was at 26 years old, different guy. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I felt that.

I felt that in certain parts of the prison. Yeah, sounds like a good way to get the gospel out on a dateline episode. Yeah, exactly. here was Zach thinking everything was okay. He felt safe. He felt safe until he wasn't. I made it out. I made it out.

So they trained those dogs in foreign languages so that none of the prisoners could ever, you know, try to intercede on their behalf, which I thought was interesting. So nobody knows what language they're using as if the guys that trained them. So it's pretty good. When they yell out whatever in whatever language, look at it. out because here comes the dogs without those. So they're ready for whatever happens. And the dogs are half wolf and half. Yeah.

Like I think German Shepherd. Yeah, that's what they are. Well, this morning's hunt, I was the dog. And because Phil says I'm better than a dog, which is technically true. You're a good retrieved. Does he obey as well as? Oh, I did. Phil said, them two trees there.

Nope. Nope. The left, two trees. You got a whistle? Is he whistling with the hand? He was. He actually do hand gestures? Well, it's kind of crazy.

We had a crazy hunt today. We don't have a blind where all these teal are going. And every year's different because you're like, how long have y'all had that place? How long have we had this place? 30 years? Yep. 30 years, we used to have a blind on this point

because there was another time 30 years ago where the water conditions were exactly like they are now and all the ducks wanted to light there. but when we built a blind there, that never happened again, and we literally never shot a duck there. And so that blind's long gone. So we've noticed this is happening. So today we decided to do a double dope option.

So we sent the A team, and I'm only set. Say that word again, double what? Do popption. That may not be a word. Maddie, look that up. Double do popption. We've used it for years. Like do poppin?

Yeah, like a do pops. The fact that Zach does not know a word that I just uttered is making me feel like I just got out of prison myself. Double doop-option. Let's see. Double-dop-pop-son. Okay, not a word. However, it should be, and what it means is if two groups of people go hunting the same area, but they're not together. Right.

So you're catching them coming and going is the idea. Call, who's the guy that wrote the dictionary? Webster. Webster. Carl Webster and get that in the next. He's been dead a long time. Oh, is he dead? Yeah, he's been dead long. All right.

Well, I just would have been a good story. So we have two groups of people because at our age, and I'm just saying an hour because the group I was with, we're past the getting a chair sitting in the brush right by the cotton mouse. Yep. They don't have a blind. So Jay had two guys that look like he does in shape guys. Young bucks is what Phil called. Of course, they're all 40 years old, but...

They're not even breathing heavy when they walk out there. So me, Phil, and Jersey Joe, I'm now referring him to that because after he's been walking around for about... He is breathing heavy. He is breathing heavy. I can relate to Jersey Joe. He was actually on opening day kind of dry even like a dog after we got in the blind. It was one of the funnier things I've ever seen.

But we couldn't laugh because he said, I think I'm having a heart attack. Which has happened out there since I had a... hard to take it. But he did better today. So we got in there this morning. Of course, then it becomes a competition no matter what, because they're just right down the way. And so the first little bunch came in on us, four, but it was early.

It was legal, but it was early. Two went in on my side of the decoy spread and two went in on Phil and Jersey was in the middle. So I said, shoot them. I shot the two on my side, and Phil and Jersey did not fire their weapons. I'm like, why didn't y'all shoot them two? I'll let Phil answer why they didn't shoot the two. They were hanging kind of to the right of me.

Yeah. And there was Jersey Joe. We don't shoot over people's head. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. You were doing blind etiquette. And I had a thicket in front of me that I had Dan cut it down where I could see over it. Well, he cut it down, all right.

but not where you can see over it. Where nobody knows he is, I slipped out there before when I heard the motor crank up the way that were there other cohorts, and I got out there and I trimmed that down so. After the hump. The very thing that you would get on to us for, my whole lives, now you know what it is like.

I think the problem there. I've already hit that right at the 70 mark. When you hit 70, there's a lot of things. You can trim down brush if you want to. You have to be slippery about it, though. You do, because you told us to never cut the breath. Then we had a single end, we got him, a dove came by, I got him, and that's where that dove fell 100 yards.

But that's what I was most proud of, because he's better eating. We had a bunch of ducks this morning that came from Mexico. That's what I was going to tell. And I got some footage of them. 30? I'd say 30. Would you say 30? They lit right in our D course and played around there all morning.

Well, they speak in Spanish? No, they're called a Mexican whistling. tree duck. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And they're actually talking about next year having a season for them. Really? So you can't kill them. They're not in the, there's no season for them.

I mean, there's, no, you can't even kill them. They came in and, you know, when you get in your 70s, everything looks similar. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. So, and they were whistling, and it was really beautiful. They're not very smart because they, we were talking soft. We didn't want to scare them off. And finally, I said, Who cares if they get up?

We stood up, waved at them, and they just sat there. No, there's a, Alex lived in town right by the church building, and she had a pond, and they came in every year there about 50 of them. Oh, yeah. So that was fun. That's the best decoys you can get there, right? But then later on in the morning. I did add, when somebody looked up on one of them blocks, you know, and they looked.

The phone? Yeah. Had the phone that they called somebody, but they said they're good to eat. Very good to eat. Oh, really? That's good to know. So, wrap it up. They recommended them for food stuff.

So we got to take a break and welcome our guests. But then the young bucks got two bunches in and they wound up strapping us six to four. So B team, B team or were y'all B team? Are you now? You were A team, but now we're known as the B thing because we got strapped. All right. Well, let's take a break and we got a very special guest. Well, we already told you it was Joey, but we'll bring him on.

It was interesting, though, the guy was talking about big words, and now you're dropping in the dope what was your word? Doopption. What was it again? You can't even say it. And you're the wizard of vocabulary. Dopopchin. Zach, look.

Double do popption. You know who came up with the word, though? I had to give credit. I don't know if he listens to the podcast. W.E. Phillips was the first person that came up with the do popption because they have a setup where they have two blinds, Joe, where so they fly by you here, but they won't leave.

They just turn around and come back. So as they come back by, he says, we got the double dope option. Well, the key is, you all know what you're talking about. It's from the root word dopeop. I don't know if that's a word either.

Yeah, but the key to communication is do the people know what you're saying? That's it. So whether it's a word or not, is irrelevant? When you go into the duck blind, group A and B, know exactly what you're talking about, that is the key to communication.

And this is coming from a pastor that communicates all the time. Well done. Where have you been all my life? You should be here. I'm feeling better about this already. So, Joby, welcome to Anishan. This is Joby Martin. For those of you that don't know Jobie, he's a founding pastor of 1122 church,

which is in Jacksonville, Florida. And I noticed, because I read your book, which I can't wait to talk about it, you're from South Carolina. Right. You live and work in Florida, but you pull for the bulldogs in Georgia. Go dogs. So how does that all come to be? How does that happen?

Well, I'm a Christian. Because you're basically covering the whole southeast corner. Yeah, my Bible's written in red and black. And so I wanted to be for the Lord's team. Yeah, we. What about that, Zay? Well, you're in Gator Country. I grew up around Jacksonville, but I used to live in McClainty, Baker County.

Oh, let's go. We have one of our campuses there in Baker Correctional. Okay. Yeah. We're just talking about prison. Jay. Yeah, Florida, that's a swimming basketball school. Yeah, just Florida still play football?

It is right now. I can't talk trash, man. Let me give you an advice. Pick another year. Yeah, no doubt. Now, they're real smart. They're just not good at sports. But there, you got to be real smart to get in there.

I thought Tebow went to your church. He does. He is. He is. He's, yeah. That was my next question I was going to ask you because we all know Timmy and his wife. And they've been here a few times. and they usually stay with Jace.

They do. Because when I think of two people who are just like as Jace and Tim Tebow. Yeah, and Tim. Miss Universe. They're like twins. It's like twins when I see them. We have an odd friendship. I told you, nothing in common except Jesus.

But I learn with my wife, that's really enough. That's all you need. 100%. So, yeah, Tim and Demi go to our church and Tim's parents do. And I honestly think one of the reasons he asked me to play a a discipleship role in his life maybe starting 10 years ago or something. And I think a huge reason is because I'm such an avid dog fan. Never once have I said, oh, remember that time you were in college?

Because he used to whip us. And I hated him when he was in college. I did too. And everybody's like, you need to meet Tim Tebow. And I was like, and he prays every time. He broke Herschel's record against us. Oh, wow. I didn't know that.

Anyway, but he is the literal best dude. He loves Jesus. I've never seen somebody leverage their platform for the kingdom like that, like that man. So, yeah, it's an honor to get a good church. Well, Joby, I've heard good things about you. I asked our mutual friend probably about six months ago, Shane Everett. Oh, let's go. I said, who's the best preacher in America right now?

He gave me two names, and one of them was yours. Wow. He said you were one of the time. And the other one was mine, right? I'm not going to say the other one because he's got a lot of pastor friends. So you may be in that other category. I hope it was me. The Shains are also awesome.

Yeah, we love the Shands. They've been on here a couple times. They had them on and sang some of their songs on the podcast, which is amazing. Yeah, they're great. And Shane, he's a hunter, man. He's like an actual hunter. He just sent a hunter of a big elk he killed. He killed a massive elk.

I know. He sent it to me. We do this thing at 1122. We call it saturated. We invite a bunch of, hopefully, some of the other best pastors in. And it's basically like a week's worth of camp. We would call it a row. revival, but it's hard to schedule when God might unleash his spirit on you, but we posture

ourselves for that. And he sent me a picture of his big elk during saturated. Normally, the Shane's come and lead worship for us and stuff. So I got to give a shout out to Kyle Thompson, who does on Dawn at Life, because I never would have met you or us by text and email if he hadn't mentioned that he knows you. Yeah, I'm wearing a shirt. And he's, yeah, there you go, right there. And we've had him on the podcast several times.

So thank you, Kyle, for introducing us. And I would have mentioned one more thing before we get into the ministry stuff. The last night you were at the Dry Bones men conference, which was here in Monroe. Yeah. It was their first one to do it. Just some guys, you know, that aren't even full-time ministry or anything, but they do something else. And yet they said, you know, we need a men's event here. They put it together.

You were the kind of the keynote, but there were a couple other local guys that were there as well. I hear it went great. I mean, it was. The Spirit of God was here. Oh, yeah. These men were fired up. Awesome. I've never been to Monroe before.

Kind of reminds me where I grew up. And there were over a thousand men worshiping the Lord, just studying his word, and just calling men to do what Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 16, to stand firm and act like men. Yeah.

And so... You're the first person I've ever heard mention that verse, but I always loved that verse. Act like men. Yeah. And when he got to the end, yeah.

That's it, man. Yeah, that's it. Right. He says... Be watchful. Be strong in the Lord. Stand firm and act like men. Let everything you do be done in love.

I actually think that verse, act like men, is like the hub of the wheel and all the other imperatives are on how you do that. Yeah. And so anyway, that's what I talked about last night. Oh, that's good.

So tell me, so I want to know first a little bit about you. I know you were from South Carolina. So tell me a little bit about how you came to Christ and how you wound up in ministry. Because why? Very begrudgingly. That's why I said they dragged Jason and kicking and scream.

Oh, my goodness. So I grew up hunting and fishing in Dillon, South Carolina. If you've ever been driving up I-95 and see south of the border, the gas station fireworks place, that's the little town I grew up in. And I've, you know, I would have said I was a Christian just because I was Southern, and I believed in the Second Amendment and SEC football and Santa Claus and God, you know. And then gotten some pretty. significant trouble when I was in high school. And a JV football coach that I had known, he started taking me to this camp, this little Baptist camp that he ran. And they, the counselors reenacted the crucifixion of Christ. And I'm sitting there as a teenager,

watching this thing happened. And it was as if I was transported to Galgotha 2,000 years ago. And all of a sudden, this thing that I'd heard was a story. You know, we would go maybe like Christmas and Easter, so I'd heard of the Christophistic and resurrection. But those were just big words, right? Yeah, man. I mean, I don't know. I just, I believe that it probably happened,

but I didn't believe in or believe that it counted for me. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's a Baptist camp. So we sang just as I am about 17 times. I don't know, about the 17th one, Coach Bulley, stands up. And you had those white knuckles? Oh, my gosh.

I was like, all. all right, Lord, I might go to heaven, but I'm not getting in front of these people, you know. And he said, I believe there's one more out there. And I was at one more. And I, you know, it's a Baptist camp, so you can't get saved where you are. You got to go down front. And so I went down and asked Jesus into my heart. And then a few years later, I was a counselor at that camp.

And, but I was like, I didn't do anything imported. I was like the grass cutter and the, you know, lifeguard and all that kind of stuff. And one night, this is back in the day when there was a guy at front singing with a guitar and he had an overhead projector. Remember those? And he was singing, I am a C. I am a C. I'm a C.

H. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I was from Dillon. So I was in the 11th grade where I realized we were singing I'm a Christian. I didn't know what we were doing. I thought we were speaking in tongues, baby. I remember this. I am a C.

That's it. I'm a C.H. Coach Lee leans over to me and says, how far into it before you realized when he got to Christ? Years. No. Well, how many letters, though? Oh, my God. When I spell Christian, I still have to sing the song in my head.

When he leans over, he's like, Joe B. Martin, he always called me a homily. Jobby Martin, when the singing's done, you're going to preach. When I was 19 years old, I was like, what? I said, coach, I don't feel comfortable speaking in front of people. And he said, boy, I mean, think South Carolina football coach. Yeah. He said, boy, did you say comfortable? Boy, do you think Paul and Silas were comfortable in prison?

Boy, do you think Daniel was comfortable in the lines then? Boy, do you think Jesus Christ was comfortable on the cross? I was like, uh, no, sir. I said, well, what do I talk about? And he said, boy, that's easy. Talk about Jesus. Talk about 30 minutes. Come on.

Go. And so, first message I ever preached, and I preached John 316 because I knew I could find it, literally. You had seen it on, Bill. Right. So I preach, a couple kids get saved, a couple of that middle school kids get saved. I'd never done this for in my life. Yeah. And I walked off of that little tiny platform, about 100 middle school kids from Benitzville and Dillon, South Carolina.

And I walked off of that little. thing and coach lee put his finger in my chest and he said boy when you teach the bible i see two things happen i see you come alive i see them come alive and i said coach i'm never going to work at the church a few years later i call me in the ministry and now pretty much from that moment until now every week of my life i've opened up the bible and taught god's word that's so powerful because you think about everybody wants to go into full-time ministry to think to do the work of the kingdom but you had a football coach spoke prophetically into your life and put that calling on it. Put that in your seed in your heart that God called you to later.

That's powerful. Yeah, I don't believe there's a sacred, secular divide when it comes to vocational ministry. I actually think when I went into the ministry, I'm not really in it. According to Ephesus chapter four, my job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. That's right. So the duck hunters and the duck callers of the world are really. the front, I mean, most of the, I got to work hard to get around a bunch of non-believers. Part of the reason I coached my kids' teams forever was to just, you know, so that I could

share the gospel with folks. And so, yeah, you know, I also, I did about 15 years in student ministry first. I never in a million years thought I'd be on a podcast with you people. I mean, this is crazy. I was just doing a Bible study with a bunch of teenagers. Yeah. And then God kept bringing people and, as I was just faithful with the ministry that was right in front of me. Remember, we're on the same. Phil's doing the church and the steeple. Church and the steeple.

What is that? Guy brings us together. I am a sea. Why does that worry? This is the church. Here's the people. Here's all the people. Look at the side.

There's all the people. Yeah. But like one of the things this podcast, actually this and when Kyle does the forging table, I give this podcast out, way more than I give out like commentaries and, you know, the professionals. Because a lot of guys, especially at our church, a lot of guys, a bunch of guys get saved as adults, which honestly doesn't happen very often, but it's happening by the thousands at our church at 1122. And when they're like, well, what do you mean to a Bible study?

One of the, I can say, here's two Bible studies you can watch, just a bunch of grown men. I mean, I know you're a pastor. Yeah. But, you know, that have regular lives, that love the Lord and are just marching through the scriptures saying, what does this word say about me, say about God, say about the gospel, say about Jesus? Yeah. Trying to take out as much church speak as possible. Yeah.

And just let the Bible deal with us and who we are. I appreciate it. Yeah, because it's real. And your story is eerily similar to mine. Because, I mean, my biggest fear was public speaking. I was just real shy. And so I think God uses our weaknesses, you know, for his strength. Because I always, even today when I get up, I think, what do I have to say?

Yeah, I'm a nobody. I'm a duck called belt. I am a duck called builder. It's never been connected to like it's a ministry that somehow, I mean, it's just what we believe. And I believe it to be true. And I'm like, there's a way to duck hunt forever. This is probably it based on what I've heard. So, you know, I think maybe the authenticity wins out, you know,

in our ministry. But sometimes you actually have an advantage over me because they expect, I mean, I'm the paid professional pastor guy. Of course, I'm going to say these things. But when the guy that is just living his life but loves Jesus with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength,

sometimes your voice can be louder. Maybe so. And I think those are the people that show up and the expectations are so low. Because they're like, just think people have seen us, especially me and Phil on our little duck show that we had, well, then we're going toward the stage.

Well, look, everybody's thinking, well, I bet this is fixed to be profound. Because they haven't, if that's all you knew, because it was pretty silly side of us only, because they would edit out anything serious. But I think that's a good platform to hear Jesus. It's the same thing with Godwin, because I do some events sometimes with John Godwin.

And so from the show, you know, John just drops him. in random words because it's funny. Yeah. And he realized that was his role in the show. So when he's walking up to the stage, I'm seeing everybody looking at each other and says, he's going to speak the whole time.

And it'd be like they're thinking you when you were 19. And he gets up there and he tells the story about how when Jesus got a hold to him, how much it changed his life. And he just lays it out so beautifully. And I can tell the audience is shocked, you know, that he can even have three sentences. So I think it's interesting the way God builds platforms. I mean, when I go out and speak,

I talk about our family. Of course, now we have a movie about our early life. So you saw out of the pain and difficulty, then we wound up in a great church community setting and learned a lot from people about how to minister and love people and serve them. And then God built this thing that we could have never imagined, like you're describing,

that we would somehow be on national television and then be able to go and speak and instantly people would know who you were and want to listen to what you have to say. So, I mean, only God could do something like that. And families like my family were tuned in. in every single week. I mean, first of all, you know, when it first came out,

my kids were much smaller. It was one of the very few things we could watch as a family. And that's true. And then what's funny, where I'm from, I live in Jacksonville, Florida. You know, I hunt fish all the time, hunt a lot. And the fact that you're believers and I'm a believer,

everybody just assumes on my end that we all know each other, as if there's like every hunting Christian. There's like a camp that we all meet up at every year. It's a big rally. Share beard oil or something. Like, what are we doing here? One of the lines I've been using our get up, and there'll be people who drive down there because they saw the podcast. So we got a little room for the regular church starts over here.

But I usually ask them, I say, what year is it? They'll say, what, 2024? I said, 2024, something major happened. 2,024 years ago because all of you are saying that's the year, one after the other. I said, if you're counting time by somebody, and for the people who say, he didn't exist when you're counting time by him by the thousands worldwide. I said, give me a break. 2024, big year.

It's always a good argument, Phil. It's always a good argument. All right, so I want to talk about your book. Here's what's interesting. So, Jobie's not on here because he wrote a book because that just happened to be the timing you were in town. But you wrote one and you sent me one. And so I've read a lot of books in prep for podcasts because a lot of people do come on to promote their book or movie or whatever in which we love. So I read this book mostly in the air because we're just at three events in a row, at least an idea.

And so I read it in about two and a half days. And it is outstanding. I can't recommend a book any higher run over by the gray strain. And there were a couple of stories. First of all, let me just tell you when I was reading it. I was like, this guy is us. So by the way, we're like, you're talking about think the same. All of the scriptures, listen to this, Jay.

I want you in Zach to listen to these scriptures. I took copious notes. So Ephesians 2, Romans 3, John 8, Luke 15, Psalm 51, combined with 2nd, Samuel 11, John 4, Matthew 18, John 21. I mean, are those not our go-to passages? I mean, we're so sympathetic of the way we think in terms of just seeing grace throughout all the scriptures. I think that's what struck me first about the book.

So it was really, really well done. I appreciate it. I think, I wish I was smart enough. I notice you're preaching it now as a series. And I was thinking, yes, that's what I would do. If I spent that much time working, let's get that out every chapter as a sermon. Yeah, our church is incredible. and our elders are incredible.

And so when I am able to release a book, our whole church just focuses on that content for seven or eight or nine weeks, however long it is. And so I wish I was smart enough that a year ago I was so strategic that I thought, you know what we need next year is grace. But then even as it was coming out,

I thought, man, our society, our country needs grace. It's one of the most misunderstood concepts in the church. some people think grace is like licensed the sin which is the farthest thing's from the truth or the other extreme is some people think that grace isn't offered to them because they're too far gone and there's more grace than Jesus than sin and you.

Yeah and you kept saying that throughout the book. Well the whole point of the book is this is like the anti-cheap grace book. So the freight train idea is if you were to show up late to church and I was like, hey man, where you been? And you said, well, I just got hit by a freight train. I would look at you and they,

Jay's, I don't think you did. Because your hat's still on your head. You got both your eyeballs. You're not bleeding. You have all of your limbs, right? It looks like you're just late. And yet so many people claim that they've encountered the grace of Jesus, and it is exponentially greater than any powerful freight train you could run into.

Yeah. And so the first two chapters, Ephesians 2 and Romans 3, or just to establish what grace is, then basically all of the other chapters are people that, encountered Jesus in the Gospels and how their lives was changed forever and ever, never. So I want you to tell a story because, I mean, there were certain things. I knew we've only got a short amount of time to talk about the book. And I want people to get it and read it.

But you tell a story, and it's in the, in Grace Save, so it's early in the book about Samson and Sadie. And I thought it was one of the best illustrations about exactly what this thing is all about. And then the way the story worked out, especially in life, I hope you remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, good, good. So because of Jace's legal issues that we talked about on the last podcast, when I was reading this. I thought we were done with that.

I just opened that kind of worms. I'm just referencing it. I experienced the grace of the state of Lizzie. He did. I'm a free man. Well, he's got a story, Jase. It's a lot like this one about Samson and Sadie. So tell the story.

So we lived in Athens before we came to Florida. That's why we're such avid bulldog fans. And I wanted English Bulldogs, but couldn't afford them. I was on a youth pastor's budget. So we got, we got boxers because they're kind of like the much cheaper version. You know, they kind of got the look, but whatever. So we got Samson at first. He was great until Sadie came along, and then he, you know, he was terrible.

And so we got to the point where we had to keep them in the backyard all the time. We had kids, and you know how it goes. Like your dogs are precious and all that until you have kids, and then they had to go to the backyard. We built in this fence because the fence was because we love our dogs. they always wanted to get out, but it was provision and protection because we love them. Well, one day, the dogs get out. This girl's watching my kids. She calls, says, I hadn't seen the dogs all morning.

I get home. The gates open. I know what happened. Sadie went first. Samson was probably like Sadie, don't do it. The master built this fence for our provision and protection. They take off running. And every time we disobey the authority above us,

every time we step out on God's provision and protection, It can only lead to one of two things. I know it feels like fun at first, but it can only lead to death or bondage. And so I'm doing what every dog owner in the neighborhood's done. I'm riding around with cheese hanging out the window. And your neighbors are like, hey, did you lose your dogs? They're like, nah, Grandpa and Nana got out, but they love the gun-down some cheese.

Gretchen calls me, my wife calls me, and she's like, I found them. They're on the internet. I'm like, what? They started a go-fund-me page? What are they doing? Well, somebody found them and took them to the pound. downtown Jacksonville. So I go downtown, which I hate going downtown. I live at the beach. And the only time I go downtown is disappointment because I go to the Jags games every week. And so I go down and their, my dogs are locked up. And I'm like, and they're mad at me because they're not, they're not tagged properly. And the boy hadn't been fixed because, you know, he and I were trying to hold out at my house. And so there they are. So I'm like, all right. Well, what do I do? We've all been there. Right. I just didn't have it in my heart. And so they're like, well, it's $290 per dog to get them back. Oh, wow.

And I thought, huh, I didn't know boxers accrued value over time because I think I spent 50 bucks a puppy on these things. What? So sure enough, I walked down the little like jail cells that they have and there are my dogs, right? Sadie didn't even know. She just was like, hey, where have you been? And Samson sat down, looked very sad. And he's like, my bad dog.

So I look at the girl and I'm like, well, what? It was the woman. Right? Yeah, this woman you gave me. And so I asked the girl. I was like, well, what if I don't have almost $600? Like, what do I do? And she's like, well, you relinquish ownership over to us.

Now, here's the truth. My dogs had incurred a debt that they can't pay. Yeah. And if I would have said, all right, kids, I'm going to get you out this time, but you owe me $600. What are they going to do, rates of Greyhound or save Timmy from a well or deliver a paper? Like, they can't. And even if they would have promised, if you'll just get us out this time, we promise,

boss from today on will be perfect. It still doesn't pay for the debt that they had incurred. So go back to the desk and I'm trying to figure out what to do and I look over my shoulder and there's this big poster right in the middle of the pound and it says adopt a dog today for 30 bucks. And I was like,

I would like to relinquish ownership to my dog and she treated me like I was Hitler himself. I filled out this paper. She notarizes it gives it to me. I take about three steps. I turn around. I come back and go, I'd like to adopt two dogs. Those two.

And she goes, you can't adopt your own dogs. I go, well, that's cute. I've got a notarized piece of paper in the city of Jacksonville that I don't own any dogs. You've got two. I'll take two. I'd found a loophole. Yeah. I'd give them 60 bucks and fill out an official application and legally adopt Sadie and Samson back into the Martin family.

Well, there's the grace of God right there. And that's the gospel. That's it. That's the gospel. that you and I. Tell about the white three days. Tell that. Oh, and this is great.

And I was like, so I kind of take them home. They're like, nope, we got to keep them for three days. Oh, wave them, clean them,

put this little low jack system in case you ever lose them again. We can find them. And so of all things, three days later, I show up and they're spick and spanked clean toenails cut. Three days.

They had like dental work done. It was unbelievable. Yeah. And what an illustration of grace? I loved it. Because you said it's something we don't deserve, can't pay back, and yet it cleanses us and puts us in a relationship. I mean, it was just, I thought it was real. And you planted the seed to the, to the person in charge

about the death, barrel, and resurrection of Jesus. Amen. Amen. And you got the $60. Hey, Jobby's a guy you need on your team, James. If you had Jobb is warming up, you know. I mean, I had to say if somebody would have came in and said, somebody said, you've been hit by a train. That's why I was late. We have a guy. our family who does things like that, his name is Uncle Si. Okay. It's train-like stories, I think we can all agree with that. I haven't yet met him, but I can concur based on the evidence that I've seen.

Lower your expectation. So I love that story. I wanted you to tell it because it's so good. It illustrated it so beautiful. And I was literally laughing out loud on the airplane. So when you say that you were reading the book and we were texting and you were like, man, I feel like, you know, we kind of think the same, especially when you're, as you call it, your little duck show came out.

Yeah. There are a ton of similarities. A huge part of how I learned to preach is I grew up in a storytelling family. Yes. Just a bunch of guys that hunted and fish. And it was like, it's always the same guys telling the same stories. And it was like, the older I got, the more to the center of the storytellers I got. And I'm not even close to the best story.

tell her in my family, man. I mean, my dad and uncles and they have all the, you know. Yeah. And don't you see, Joey, that a good story, you may have heard it 10 times, but you can hear it again. For sure. Because it's so good. I mean, tell this one. Tell them that story.

Because every time, that's what we grew up with dad telling stories and people would come in. And we'd get going. He'd get going. And we'd say, Dad, tell him about this. Tell him about that one. Tell them about that. Two hours later, he had been telling stories the whole time. That's why I brought up Uncle Sy.

He's actually the greatest story. And he is fantastic. But some of his stories defy the laws of nature and physics. I mean, he was chased by wolves. Everybody has a chase by wolf story. But his rubber, well, yeah. Not really. Well, the boy cried wolf, whatever.

But his tennis shoes made of rubber, he was, the friction that was caused as he was running caused his tennis shoes to explode in flames. He could feel him melting as he was running. The way he tells the story is so funny because he's like, so there I was. I was being chased by wolves and I'm breaking every track record in the history. If they could have had a stopwatch on me, you world record holders went out of it.

He said, I ran 100 meters and under 10 seconds. But then he says, but then I smelled something. And I thought, is that a tire? somebody burning some tires. And then I realized that my tini loafers had burst into flames, Jack. So how did you start that story? You said, so there I was. There I was.

Page one. So there I was. So there I was. That's all I started out of every good story. That's why I was telling you that there was so much in there that just felt so common to us. That's why I told us that you're one of us. I mean, it was just like. You don't learn that in seminary.

No. Oh, I did terrible in preaching class. I think it's the way our brains, though, to get something simplified. I mean, because, like, to me, I'm a human. I'm living on the planet. And newsflash, I'm going to die. And I'm stumbling across reading the Bible at 14 years of age. And when I get to John 21, I was like, this human claiming to be God is now eating fish on the bank post death.

I mean, to me, to simplify at all, I thought, well, if I want to live, I need to quit being such a skeptic about this and realize there's nobody else that has accomplished this. So I said all that to say, when you said that first line, a couple podcasts ago, I shared one night about a week ago. I just read the red letters because I hang out in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because I'm trying to get to know Jesus better. and 40 years into this. But I just, for fun, I just read the red letters. And I was so shocked that his first line that's recorded from John is a question. It's, what do you want? And I don't know, that question hit me like a ton of bricks.

And I thought, in that, as a human, you've got to ask yourself, what do I want? They were following Jesus. He turned around and said, what do you want? But it's a very profound question, if you were the son of God, to ask. fellow humans, what do you want? And we all have something. And it's not Jesus before we meet Jesus. And I just, I thought, once we encounter him, it changes us. This is why we tell stories, though, and it's filled with those little questions of life that make you reflect. You know, what am I doing here? Well, look at how Jesus taught. The Bible says he never taught without stories or parables.

Exactly. And they weren't big fancy, like synagogue type things. It was just, fishing and farming and these kind of stories that. And a part of the reason he would do that is so he would teach a parable about scattering seed. And so then two days later, nobody can take home their copy of the New Testament. It's happening real time. And the next time that guy's out there scattering seed, he's like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. It's teaching and reteaching and reteaching again.

So part of the reason I'll do dog stories and that kind of thing is because when people go home and they see their dogs, It reminds them once again of the story I told, and so that they're rehearing the gospel over and over and over and over. Oh, exactly. Well, and then in the book, you told a lot of stories. One of the things I appreciated, Joey, that you were super transparent when you were in a chapter that's something you're not good at. Anger.

And like anger, which, by the way, on the anger chapter, I want to mention this, Jay's. He quoted Tim Keller. So obviously, and you say it got rest in peace or something like that. Obviously, you were a fan. Jace loves Keller. and this was from his book, The Healing of Anger. It said, in its uncorrupted nature, anger is actually love. Yeah.

Yeah, that's good. Which was pretty good, the points you made there. But you were so transparent about the idea that that's something you struggle with. And yet at the same time, as we talked about on the podcast, because we just dealt with anger and Ephesians, God is the ones who's the most angry in the Bible. I mean, most of the anger passed or him. So it tells you, you laid it out beautifully. how that leads you into sinful situations, but we should be anger about some things,

both in our own life and what's going on around. If he just doesn't say no anger. That's right. It's just be slow to anger. That's right. It's what you're angry about also. In fact, if you're not angry about the things that God is angry about, you should really check yourself, especially in our culture a day.

Oh, I agree with that. And that was another thing that really was just, I'm so excited that you were bold about things that culturally people want to run away from, but you said, look, I'm just a mailman here. You know, I'm laying out what God says, and that's what I have to do. And sometimes in large churches, especially in places, you know, in certain cities and certain states, they tend to want to back off the message because, you know, it doesn't fit into the cultural deal. Yeah, a couple things. One, you know, you guys studied Hebrews. I mean, Hebrews makes it clear that one day I will stand before the Lord and give an account for what he has put under my purview in regards to being

the lead pastor of the Church of 1122. And one thing I just refused to do is for him to look at me and say, so why didn't you teach this part? Yeah, right. So I'm just going to teach it as is, hopefully full of grace and truth. But I just refused, I didn't know it's going to work. Like when we planted our church, I didn't know a bunch of people were going to show up. Everybody told me to not do all the things that we're going to do. Like they said, make sure you keep all the religious icons at a minimum, so we put a 50-foot red steel cross right in front of the church. I don't want anybody be confused about what we're doing.

We want to point people to the cross. Exactly. And the reason that I can share the struggles that I have, it's because the good news of the gospel of Jesus has out of us every single one of us. Exactly. I'm not a mistakeer that needs to try harder. I'm a sinner that needs the grace of Jesus. Yeah.

And so, yeah, I got a long way to go when it comes to anger. So on that chapter, I just share some of my worst moments. Also, as a preacher or a communicator, listen, man, when you share your success stories, almost nobody can relate to you. And when you share your failures, I'll never run out of material. Yeah, that's right.

I mean, I'll never run out of material. Right. Which is why we say we won't either on the Unashamed podcast because we're constantly there. We're out of time, man. That went by fast. My dick, by fast. I have a feeling.

I haven't figured this is not the last time we had Jovey on the pikeus. Jobie Martin.com, because I went there to kind of see a little bit about what you're doing and things you're doing both there in Florida but also around the country. So if you want to check him out, do that. But, man, Jobie, thanks for being on. You till hunted this morning. I did. My first time ever duck hunting.

How about that? And you all got them. We limited out. Full limits. And then in the true spirit of what we share in common, I said, where'd you go? And you went, Louisiana. I bet. I don't even.

You know what, that's a good duck hunter because a duck hunter would never tell you where they were. Never. I knew he got him when he said, the state of Louisiana. You find out and then you let me know. That's it. Well, thank you, Jobie. My pleasure. Hey, honestly, I know you're just being obedient to what Jesus has told you to do,

which is the best advice in the whole Bible, by the way, John 2.5, Mary looks at the service at the wedding in Cana and says, do whatever he tells you to do. I love it. Well, I know, Mr. Phil, years ago, you said, yes. And then you said there's a hundred more yeses to follow that. And there's a bunch of us. There's a bunch of us around the country, at least in my little neck of the woods. And we are blessed because you guys said yes to what Jesus told you to do.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, brother. Amen. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes.

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