Ep 1004 | Phil Thanks Fans for Their Outpouring of Support: ‘Fight the Fight, Keep the Faith’
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I'm in the last few episodes in the Southern Lair, Southern Lair number one, I guess. Get me a new studio ready, Zach, so I'll send you the bill. But so, Jace, so what did you do during the weekend? You like the way I dropped that in? Well, yeah, it's been a little bit of a whirlwind, but, you know, Phil, we announced...

about Phil's condition and which in our world, which, which come back to kind of bite me, you know, we do something on this podcast, but it doesn't air for four or five days. So you forget that even happened. And actually during that little transition time, Phil had a little bit of a reprieve from, you know, his pain, although his overall conditions remain the same. Um,

He just felt better. Uh, you know, we had gone down and had lunch with him, Missy and I, cause you know, if you bring him really good food, we can persuade him to eat, but it was just fun. We, we've all realized that us as Robertsons are food snobs. So you, we had to upgrade the menu and all of a sudden, you know, he was more, uh, and it, some of that is from his condition. He just, he's not hungry. And, uh,

At all. And so, you know, he just has to make himself eat. But he had a little reprieve from the pain. And I really feel like it was just the prayers because, you know, for months, it just he's been on a downward decline. And it was so crazy that two or three days later, when we went after I had just seen him, which I told my son, you need to go see him because he was just, I think, at the lowest point in this whole process.

And so a couple of days later, we go down there and have lunch with him. And it was the first time I really seen some improvement. He felt a little better and we had a good conversation and he was kind of in tune with the conversation. And so it was really nice. And really the last few days he's been like that. So I went to Kansas for two days to go hunting. And so because my buddy, I have a buddy up there. He said, if you come up here, Zach, he said it would be,

Fantafical bull. And I thought, I don't know. Fantafical bull. And I, I didn't think that was a word, but he's a really smart guy. And I said, I've never heard that word. What does it mean? And he said, this hunt will be somewhere between epic and hunting with Jesus. Yeah.

so i actually looked that word up and guess what it's not a word so i think he meant fantasticable fantastic but i never brought it up again because he was allowing us to hunt and the first day was really good the second day was the opposite of fantafical

and then uh then it reminds me of johnny howard uh cory's dad always says fantastico fantastico which is not a word either but it just sounds but i did want to say that because when he described i i did think boy hunting you know when you think of hunting i mean to put it between somewhere between epic and hunting with jesus i thought

Well, that's quite a statement. Yeah, that's. I've never even thought about Jesus hunting. I mean, I don't know about that. I'd have to think about the theology around that second part. But the first part, what was the bottom of the rung? We know the top rung was hunting with Jesus. What was the bottom? He said it'll be epic. Epic.

All you've got to do is get over Epic. Then he's technically right. Epic's pretty strong. The first day was Epic, but whatever is below Epic, somewhere between almost...

- Well, the deal is, I mean, once you say with Jesus, then that's the top of the rung. So that's always gonna be the upper end of the parenthesis, that's always gonna be the upper echelon. - Yeah, but I did wanna say, I did wanna say that did during the hunt, 'cause when you're sitting there hunting all day, you know, you talk about various things. And he did ask the question based on us having that discussion,

He said, are there animals in heaven, do you think? And I said, well, I believe there's going to be fish. And he looked at me. Of course, I wanted him to say, why do you believe that? But it was just a long pause in the duck blind. Everybody, their minds were racing.

So do y'all know why you know that? Oh yeah. Somebody's been studying their Bible. And so I then quoted John 21 from memory. We had the post resurrection Jesus who orchestrates a massive hall of fish, 153 to be exact without a net mesh being torn. Um,

and then he tells peter to go get the fish and then he organizes a little i don't know i don't it wasn't a fish fry because they were on the bank so there wouldn't have been any olive oil but he might have but he cooks these fish i mean there are olive tree i've been there there's olive trees everywhere i'm not sure how he prepared the fish but here's a resurrected human

who is now eating fish and we know he wouldn't have been eating the fish because to provide sustenance so he could continue to live because he's in a glorified body. Eating is now optional and he chose to do that. So I concluded from that, why is he doing that? Because it tastes good. I think he's given us a glimpse of...

There's some things in the afterlife, you know, when you start talking about heaven and earth coming together, you know, Revelation 21, we have resurrected bodies. Throw in 1 John 3 that our body will be like his glorious body. I just kind of think it's a very good idea to think here I am with my family, my brothers and sisters, and God.

Fish fries are optional. I like it. What it shows you, though, is the Lord's heavy emphasis and care and elevation of the physical world. I think it's a misunderstanding of Scripture to think that when you go to heaven, that somehow you're floating as a ghost in some type of place.

spiritual thing that's not it. We are talking about a place where there's food, obviously, a place where there's bodies. This is a physical, tangible place. It's supernatural. It doesn't

it's not bound by the laws of entropy and decay and things like that, but it is a physical place. And I think that little nugget in scripture is actually a very powerful, it's more than just a nugget. It is kind of a, an anchor to, well, plus Zach, it's a, you know, we were, we were all trained by Bill Smith, who, who led, helped lead dad to Jesus and, and Smith, one of the greatest legacies that he left us was,

was an understanding of the bodily resurrection.

Because a lot of people out there in Christianity don't have a really clear understanding that bodies will be raised. I mean, Jesus, the clear thing about the understanding of the resurrection is a body has to come forth. And so that tie, that idea of glorified flesh is really the key to the good news about what Jesus did for us. And you're exactly right. When you downplay that or you don't understand that, you're missing one of the key components of Jesus.

you know why we're saved i mean it's it's a power it's a powerful thing no that's kind of why you know i went there you know all through my the person i've hunted with the most in my life and fished with uh is my dad so and you know just in the past year i've kind of gone through those memories and i'm i just remember a lot of things that he has said and one of them

was that he said, you know, in the afterlife, of course, he's probably said this 25 years ago. He said, I look forward. I want to see a new earth without a power line, without any kind of human contribution. He said, I would just love to go and see a Cyprus break, you know, a chunk of land without any. He said that many times throughout that.

And, of course, we went through the same fishing story, which we've talked about many times, Phil and I, which is where that came from. We said, you know, are there animals? Of course, I did refer to the Acts 10 also when God let down the sheet of animals from heaven. I said, well, you know, he let it down from heaven. Of course, he was trying to convince Peter that it's okay to eat

the things that he created you remember arise kill and eat but i said where did the animals you know come the sheet came from heaven you know so i don't know that might be a stretch but i think it was funny made a good conversation but uh we've had all these conversations and my dad has always said you know i really believe based on that john 21 that we're going to be together in those settings without any kind of

crying, pain, you know, there's no, uh, there's no concern for, you know, shooting yourself in the foot while you're duck hunting. Cause we, we jumped from fishing. He's like, well, if the fish is there, why not ducks? And, uh, but without that, and I thought, you know, I like this thought. Yeah. And the idea that you would enjoy that. I spoke at a, uh, since we were last, um, uh, on the podcast, I spoke at a wild game supper.

And, you know, those are really neat events because you got all these guys that get together. They love to hunt. And so they, you know, they brought all this different game in. There was deer. So the guys are walking around when people are first getting there. And, of course, it's an outreach tool just to share Jesus with some guys, you know, that may not know him.

But they're walking around with duck bites. They were calling them duck nuggets, Jays. We call them duck fingers, but they were duck nuggets. They were delicious. They fried them. They fried them. And very, very good. Now, what's the recipe Jay uses? He's gotten on that. He calls them duck nuggets.

Got fingers is what he calls it. This is similar. They weren't quite as long as we cut them, but you brine them. Then you do a buttermilk soak and then you fry them. I think Jay adds a little sour cream in the batter. He does. But really, really good. And so they had two big pigs they had cooked.

you know, the, the, we're not big pigs, small pigs, but they cook those. And it was just, I mean, it was a feast, you know, but it was all things that, you know, people would hunt to get, uh,

And then, of course, I share Jesus with them, which is the whole point of it. And so I do think there is sort of a tie there with this idea of loving the outdoors and yet having this connection to Christ. It's always been a part of us, and mainly because of Dad, obviously, which is what we want to talk about today. Because we've been – I told Lisa this weekend I was overwhelmed just by how many –

people. Once we talked about the podcast and Jason's right, it was kind of a delay because it took a few days of a podcast to release. And all of a sudden someone in the media picked it up and then it was off and running. And so the outpouring of love, of support, of prayer, of

just is it's almost been overwhelming for me so i want to talk about that and both in appreciation but let's just you know talk a little bit about the legacy uh that we continue to live through that

So, Jace, Missy was recently on the podcast, and I love the line she talked about that Jesus came to earth through a woman, through the womb of a woman, which is an interesting way. He could have come any way he wanted to, but that's the way he chose to come and be a part of us. It's always been a powerful thought. Being a mom, I think, is the infrastructure to society, especially from a moral foundation standpoint.

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So I don't know. Did y'all have the same experience as me? Did you get a lot of texts? Yeah, I never finished that thought. But once my phone started going off,

it pretty much hasn't stopped for the last 72 hours so my apologies for not getting back to everyone uh meanwhile one of our little ones that we uh care for had a surgery also and so and it was pretty extensive so uh it's been like a hospital ward at my house and uh me and my lovely wife who is a warrior in those types of situations

have been doing that. So we've been preoccupied, but I have checked on Phil and, uh, I was just going to say, because he had been, you know, feeling better. He, he wanted to go to church this past Sunday and, uh, he did, he didn't do a whole lot and he didn't say a whole lot, but he came, uh, for an hour and, uh, which, cause everybody was like,

asking me, do you think this is a good idea? And I was like, this stage of Phil's life and with all the struggle, if he wants to go meet at the church building, I think we should do everything in our power to make that happen. So it did. And I think overall it went pretty well from everything I heard. Yeah. And he had asked George, you know, so the genesis of this, we talked about in the podcast, we started a Bible class at our church and

that dad wanted to lead. And it's basically just him sharing the gospel. And then he kind of took our old pal Jersey Joe under his wing. And Joe's been there with him through the whole process. And so,

The last couple of months since dad's been down, he turned it over to Joe, who's carried it on. And many of you come to West Monroe, you want to meet some of us, but mainly you want to meet Jesus, which is what we want. And he's continued to share that. And so he told Joe, he said, I want to come and see how you're doing with the class, which I love that because even kind of where dad is now, he still understands this idea of

of his investment into all of us. And, uh, the way I compared it to his, his living letters, you know, we're, we're kind of the living Reagan letters of, you know, continuing a legacy of sharing with other people. And so I love that he wanted to do that. And so he did. And, uh, and the fact he felt good enough to do that was encouraging to me, uh, as well. And so, uh,

Just, man, all you guys out there, I heard from people I hadn't heard from in years,

past business stuff, stuff we've done for the old show and for books. And it's just really neat. I mean, it's reminded me of the wide impact that dad has had on culture and on people just from hearing from so many different people. Well, yeah, he, he, uh, when we, the last time I visited him before I left, he was kind of thinking about going and, uh, but you got to remember it's hard for him. I think the, the struggle is it's hard for him. He's a quarterback.

I mean, going back to his days at Louisiana Tech. And I've noticed the biggest struggle in this process from a quarterback background, it's hard to sit on sidelines. And I really think that's the biggest struggle. So even in that moment, he's like, yeah, I think I'm going to go. But he said, now you need to tell, and he couldn't remember his name in the moment, but he was speaking of Jersey Joe,

you need to tell him and he reached out and he picked up his bible but somewhere in there you know which is part of his condition he forgot what he was fixed to go with and uh and so we just had kind of had an awkward pause and i was like i kind of read his mind because phil you know he has one main speech that he gives

And so I kind of, you know, summed it up, even though he never said what it was. And he's like, yep, yep, you got it. And he put his Bible back down, which I thought, well, that was a pretty good moment. You know, I read his mind because I know he has the spirit and I know what that class is all about, which is just simply a declaration of who Jesus is.

And so I think all of us kind of realize that. I mean, look, it's in a lot of people that have written us and, you know, they've had similar situations and it is difficult, but you just manage it. And, you know, he has the Holy Spirit of God in your even though he's not necessarily maybe saying a whole lot.

You know what he's thinking, which I think is the sign of a good relationship. Well, I think the word that's come to mind, I actually put this on my Instagram page, um,

is legacy and it's the, it's the thing that Phil is leaving that I, and I pray that I leave that, you know, for my family and my kids. And that hit me, you know, you were just talking about like him going and watching Jersey Joe, which he's disciple Jersey Joe. And he's been, I mean, he's literally raised him up and discipled him and, and Jesus. And, uh, what's funny as I was thinking about it, we had a podcast. I don't know how far back it was, uh,

But it was far back enough to where we were having internal conversations about Phil's mental status and kind of something's off. And I remember one particular topic we got into was Daniel chapter two.

where there's that story of the statue, like the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had that Daniel interprets. And it's the statue that's made up of four different types of composite. And it represents these four different kingdoms. And then the last one's the Roman Empire that this stone hits and crushes it. And in those days, there's going to be a kingdom set up that can't be shaken or destroyed, which I would argue from a theological and eschatological standpoint in the podcast, that is a

anchor text for us. I mean, it really is. I mean that, that text. And I remember Phil was like a little bit lost in the conversation and

And it's so funny, though, because this week with all the messages that were coming through and all the prayers and all, it's just I started looking through my phone and just I wanted to go back and look at the stuff I had on my phone that related to Phil. Old videos, you know, I've done a ton of interviews, like the movie stuff. I mean, I interviewed him for all that. And when we were writing the script and I had all that stuff, it got all saved. Yeah.

And I found this video and at some point I'll share it with you guys. It's pretty incredible. And I had this, this was probably five years ago. I got this, this is not a video, it's a voice memo. And I just sat the phone down at Phil's house and I put it on record. And I said, Phil, tell me about the kingdom of God. Give me that. Give me the whole, like, give me the, the one hour version. And I've got about 45 minutes of him talking.

I mean, and it's all chapter two of Daniel chapter two. And he's going through that whole thing. And I just thought, you know, it's funny as how much that we learned from him about the kingdom that sometimes you forget, like, and from Bill Smith too. Someone asked us on Instagram or YouTube or somewhere, did anybody disciple Phil? And like, yeah, Bill Smith did. And so that, that legacy just like plays down and just, it just keeps going forward. And so like I,

although this is sad to see Phil decline, also I look at like Sadie and what she put on her Instagram and Willie and Jace and us. The tentacles of a life well lived, they go on far beyond this side of eternity, far beyond. We can't even comprehend it. And I thought that was encouraging. Yeah, I wanted to, Maddie just sent me while we were talking, Zach, a few comments. I wanted to read a couple of them. And this is just indicative of

you know, what we've been receiving all weekend. It says, I'm praying for Phil and the family. They're my friends. I pray hard and I pray often. We aren't just the unashamed nation. We're the unashamed family, which I love that because we talk so much about forever family. This one says unashamed nation sends our love prayers and bear hugs to all the Robertsons and extended family. I'm so grateful for this family, especially Phil.

whose life is proof. We are all redeemed in Christ. Millions of people from all over the globe have been blessed by Phil and this blessed, blessed legacy continues now through his family, which is exactly what we've been saying. And this is, uh, another one says, uh,

This podcast has led me back to the Lord and it's got me into my Bible. Phil and the podcast have helped so many people like myself come back to the Lord. We are praying for Phil and the entire family. Phil is a testament to what loving the Lord with all your heart and being unashamed of the gospel looks like. We love you, Phil.

So just a few, just a sampling of, you know, all the love that's been put out there, which is really. And the prayers. Yeah. I think about, uh, did I, I had some, someone sent me an article about Franklin Graham, um, was sent out a, I don't know where he put it at, but, uh, basically asking people to pray for Phil, uh,

And I got to thank Jace that, no, he wasn't healed, but he has had some reprieve in his pain. And I got to think that that's the prayers of millions of people that went up over the last, you know, four days. It's been shocking.

Jace, we talk a lot about cell phones on this podcast, mostly how dad never has one, but you and I have to stay in contact with the world of irrigate. And do you ever get in situations where you lose that, uh, lose that connection? I was actually there this morning in the duck blind and my phone was just like, all I could see was the time. Nothing worked. See, that was an expensive watch. Uh,

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Yeah, his reprieve was shocking to me, which is one reason I decided to, you know, go hunting a couple days in Kansas. But, you know, I knew it had gone viral somehow because, you know, when we, I go hunting, especially, you know, where I went is when I say in the middle of nowhere and you don't have a lot of cell phone service. So what was happening is we would move locations or whatever. And then all of a sudden it was just bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.

And we actually had some ducks poop on us, which is a phrase of where we were not paying attention. And they literally came through the hole and everybody was either on their phone or just paying attention. And so what was funny is I usually never do that, but...

since it's my dad and I had gotten just a barrage of messages. One of them was from Don Trump Jr., you know, the president-elect's son. So they gave all their excuses why the ducks were coming. And I was like, well, I was actually reading a text from the president-elect's son, which caused just a very crazy look. And I was like, well, it was about my dad, but it was really nice.

And so I knew at that point, I didn't know what had happened, but I thought, well, I guess somebody has picked this story up because there's just too many messages. But I was kind of overwhelmed with, uh,

I mean, I hadn't had this kind of activity since, you know, I guess when we did our little duck show, you know, right in the beginning, all of a sudden, you know, it just kind of went crazy. But this is a lot better, noble venture. And we're very appreciative of all the comments and prayers because I agree with Al that

uh you know you you know i think it fills mine because he said this many times he's like you know i'm gonna i'll be back hunting with y'all for too long you know every once in a while he kind of you see his normal self come out you know he's like you know i got a good sermon i need to get back on that podcast and give you you know but uh

we were more thinking, just give him some relief. I really was. And, uh, even in my prayer, when he was at his lowest point, I was, you know, praying Lord, if you want to, you know, you want to take him cause he was just suffering so much. You know, I, I said that prayer, which was very difficult. And, uh, it was, I think the lowest point was when I literally prayed pretty much all day. And, uh,

So I threw that in there because I just thought he is absolutely miserable. And then the next time I had seen him, it was quite remarkable. And so...

Thanks to God and all your prayers that he's had a, you know, I'd say the last few days, it's been a temporary reprieve from the pain and suffering. And I do want to say something about a lot of the headlines that I noticed and saw was, you know, devastating news, devastating. And I get it. No one likes to, you know, hear that something is wrong with you and something you got to deal with in this life. But

I just want to give you our perspective. Like everything we've been talking about on this podcast the last few years has been about preparing for crossing over and eternity. I mean, like we've lived our lives that way. And so from our perspective, um,

It's not devastating to know that you're not going to be here forever. That's been the setup the whole time. That's why we're living at such an accelerated pace of trying to get the word out to as many people as possible. So I just want you to know. And then we've also, in our family, because we talked about this, Zach's mom, Jan,

who was one of the key factors in dad coming to Christ. I mean, she went through this exact same disease along with some of his other siblings. And so it's, it's not pretty, it's hard, it's difficult, but I'm saying that that's, that's this life. That's, that's the life we live. That's why we look beyond the temporary and we look to what is unseen and eternal and,

So I just want you to hear that from us and our perspective. You know, nobody likes getting bad news about someone they love, but we, I mean, dad has said he spent his whole Christian life saying the resurrection looms large because we're not designed to be here forever. We're going to be in heaven forever. So we want to just want to impact as many people as we can while we're here. And Zach's made the point. We want to try to help heaven impact earth while we're here, but ultimately we're,

We're all going to the hole in the ground unless the Lord comes back. And it does sting. We're not saying death. Yeah, it does. It stings. First Corinthians 15 says it stings. But in light of the resurrection that we know is coming, we can say where, oh, death is your sting, where, oh, death is your victory. Death has been swallowed up in victory. And so that's fascinating.

I mean, we stand firm on that. But, you know, I'll give you a sermon off the top of my head that I've never given before. It just popped into my head. You know, we started this podcast talking about John 21 because my dad's always been an outdoorsman. You know, I brought up the football thing. He turned down an NFL career because they play football in duck season. And the first time he said that, people kind of gasped. Like, what?

But that's who he is. And then he would say, it worked out. And, you know, the famous story about Terry Bradshaw, you know, because then Terry Bradshaw was able to take over the starting position at Louisiana Tech. Well, it worked out pretty well for him. He won four Super Bowls, you know, from a worldly perspective. But my dad would always say, I didn't do bad myself.

doing what I love to do, which was hunting and fishing and living out in the outdoors. And so when I read that, quoted that verse about that conversation, because this is two of our, I mean, you know, Phil and I, it's our conversation.

one of our favorite passages because we were commercial fishermen when we were kids and uh al was a part of that too but i spent the most time out there just because i had that same kind of weird love for even though it was back breaking work it was just something about those fish and those nets i just loved it despite how difficult it was but you know when jesus was sitting there i mean just imagine all his disciples

I mean, he was dead. They had left him. They felt shame about that. And now they put two and two together. They're actually eating breakfast with a guy who was dead three days earlier. And he actually said that statement. Jesus said to them, this is 21, 12 of John. Jesus said to him, come and have breakfast. And none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you?

They knew it was the Lord. And so we kind of had fun about that. But I really believe on the other side of death, I love that statement. When we arrive with our new bodies, come, let's have breakfast. I mean, even my last hunting trip, these two days, waking up with the excitement about what's fixed to happen, because I'm duck hunting just...

is one of the greatest hobbies in my life. And having the pre-hunt breakfast, it's not just being out there, it's the anticipation of what's fixing to happen. And so I really think that statement, if you think about it in the post afterlife of our existence, seeing all the loved ones that you had before all together, Zach seeing your mom,

and having that come, let's have breakfast, we're back together again. Don't ever underestimate that. And I really think he, in the verses that happen after, because we know he's fixing to leave and go to the right hand of God, he reinstates Peter because Peter had denied him three times. And then he actually, to your point, Al, about not being devastated because Peter

I will agree at no point in this process would I consider myself devastated. My dad has been a warrior for the Lord, and he's almost 80. I don't know what the average lifespan is, but he has the Holy Spirit of God. I know one thing Moses said in Psalm 90 that 70 years is typical if you have the strength 80.

And so, you know, that was a wise man that lived a long time ago that laid that out for us. And so that's exactly where dad's at. So then when he gets down to verse 18, after he reinstated, remember he asked Peter three times, you know, do you love me? Feed my sheep. In verse 18, Jesus said, now you got to remember, they just had breakfast. He's just reinstated him. And then he says, I'll tell you the truth.

When you were younger, you were dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, follow me.

And we know that Jesus is fixed to go to the right hand of God. So what you just allow yourself to imagine what he meant by that. And we all know from the countless studies that we've had, and we keep referring to when Jesus went to the right hand on our behalf and opening the portal to the presence of God for us, he poured out his spirit. And so then we, in essence, those who surrendered to Jesus, uh,

who received God's spirit, become Jesus through his spirit on this earth. And that's what he meant by follow me. Go, I showed you. Here's how you live. And we know Peter would get his spirit, and we know in Acts chapter 2 what he did with it. He stood up and gave the first sermon about Jesus post-Jesus' resurrection.

But back to verse 20 in John, Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. You know, speaking of John, this was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, Lord, who is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? So now we're talking about death. Even though Jesus has just been raised from the dead and he tells Peter to follow him after he's reinstated, now they're talking about Jesus is discussing their death.

And I think he's giving them a picture of that doesn't mean you're not going to die. I need you to be me until your death. But he's planted this seed. There's going to be a moment that we're going to have breakfast together on the side of this again. Jesus answered, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.

Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die. He only said, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? And I think in our society,

current circumstance this is a good chapter to really think about this is the way this this works you know and it you think of verses like romans 8 11 that says if the same spirit of christ is living in you he who gave life to jesus's mortal body will also raise your bodies

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There's also something, Jase, to be said about his example and how we all have followed that example. I always say, you know, from our perspective,

When Jesus ascended and left here, from my perspective, I'm like, well, I wish he would have just stayed, you know, because like he would we would have been in his presence all the time. And we wouldn't have to worry about false teaching because he would always be there to correct things. And, you know, we've been looking for that situation, even though we've got the Holy Spirit living in us, which he said would be better once he left and he was right.

But, you know, from a human perspective, we're like, just don't go. We don't ever want to say, see you later. We don't ever want to say, wait, we want it all right now. But his example was this. I have a task for you, just like I had a task when I came here. And the task is you're preparing for eternity by now impacting other people with eternity. And I can't help but think about what Paul told Timothy, because I spent a lot of time

you know, these last few weeks pondering that relationship. And I mentioned this before, when I was asked to speak at our mentor, Bill Smith's funeral, the one who I mentioned earlier, who led dad to Christ, I was like, man, I'm just, I'm not worthy to even be speaking. And then I hit me. I was like, wait a minute though. I'm Timothy to his Paul. He's trained me and taught me and discipled me for moments just like this.

And so when I realized that, I realized what an honor it is to live out someone's blessing that they brought into your life. And so in 2 Timothy 4, verse 6, I love how Paul is like closing out his thoughts to Timothy because he knows. I mean, he knows in his spirit that it's coming. He is right there about to cross over. And we know what happened to him, you know, because of history. They cut his head off.

Because of his faith, and yet he went all the way with it. And he's told Timothy in verse six, I am already being poured out like a drink offering. And the time has come for my departure. So he knew he was right there. I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. And so that standard continues on to this very day. And so all of us, when we get to this point where we're ready to cross over and

I want to, that's my final speech. That's the last words I want to be able to say to be able to continue to be a blessing. You, you, you fight the fight, you keep the faith, you impact other people and then, you know, okay, we've crossed. Now all we're waiting on is the final resurrection. One thing that encourages me, like, like when I go through, cause I, you know, I did go through this with my mom and,

you know, lost her to the exact same disease and watch the progression. Also, we've all had pain in our life and lost other ones and gone through things. And I love that Jace brought that verse up that it's kind of a,

It kind of stings a little bit when you read it. What business is that of yours? You're trying to question God, and he's like, none of your business. Some of these things we look into. But I love this other verse in Ecclesiastes. I think it does speak to this longing for eternity. There is this thing in us.

That's like trying to make sense of this all. And I got that. Those were some of the texts I got people that knew my family well, knew Phil well, you know, just angry. Like I just hate, I hate this. And I'm questioning this. And I think what that is, is there is a longing in our hearts that, that the writer of Ecclesiastes says that it's, that he has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men and,

Yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end. So there is this thing, there is this thing in our heart, like we're longing for eternity. God set that in us. He put that in our hearts. And sometimes what we do, though, is we try to ignore that because the pain of death and sickness and all that. But, you know, the psalmist says, teach me, Lord, to number my days.

I mean, we sing a song that has that in the lyrics. I mean, that's the psalm that says, teach me, Lord, a number of my days. And I think what that does is it brings us back to that reality. What is that inner longing in us? What is that? I'm longing for eternity. Yet, I don't know what God has done from beginning to end. I mean, who am I? Who am I to question Him? And who am I to... I don't know. I'm not God. But I...

But I do know that he's faithful, and I do know that he is a God that fulfills his covenant with his people. And God has made a covenant that we will have the ability or the privilege to be in his presence for eternity. And that can start right here today as Jesus defined eternity in John 17, 3, us to know him. That's the promise.

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Yeah, well, I guess I'll go down this road. There was one time in my life that I was angry with God. And even though I had surrendered to Jesus, you know, at 14, and really for two years just tried to survive, I guess. But I had met a girl who, and it wasn't a romantic relationship. I was the shortest kid in the ninth grade, and she was the tallest girl.

And so we were quite the pair. But the only reason that we had a great relationship was because of our faith. She was the only person in my class that was unashamed of Jesus. And so we just became pretty much best friends throughout high school, even though after the ninth grade, she went to another school and I went, you know, I went to West Monroe High School. And so she really helped me.

And her name was Angel Guest. And so when she graduated in her freshman year, she was killed in a car wreck. And I was actually with you in Baton Rouge. And I was mad at you for about two years because when it happened, y'all didn't tell me because it happened right when we were there. I think that was the age before cell phones and all that.

- Yeah, it was. - And I don't think y'all really realized how close we were. Now, I was devastated. - Yeah. - And I was devastated for years. And so really, because I thought, "Well, wait a minute, this doesn't make sense." That was the only person I knew. Of course, my faith had grown somewhat since meeting her.

But I was just so angry. And it really wasn't until our grandpa died. And Mac Owen, of all people, who Phil, speaking of legacy, is another guy that he discipled. And look where he's at now. He was on a podcast not too long ago. He's the head of what is he? Celebrate Recovery. Yeah, Celebrate Recovery. But you know, when our grandpa died,

I was living beside Mac at that time, and he came down. And, you know, even though we knew our grandpa, we were going to see him again, it was devastating in the moment. And I would use that word because all the memories come crashing forth. And I was actually just sitting on the swing of my house, just kind of sad about it. And I just looked up, and there he was.

And so he sat down and he turned to Hebrews 11, which I'm there now. And here's this chapter with all these heroes of the faith that the Hebrew writer laid out. And when it gets down to the end, it says God had planned, which is a very key phrase in verse four. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us

would they be made perfect and you know theologically we tie in how jesus's death-bound resurrection not only went forward for us it went backwards for them but those first three words is kind of what he stressed and uh so then when he read hebrews 12 where it said therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. So what he did was in that moment, he had over in the margins, he had all these names and he wrote, you know, my grandpa's name on

beside all the other names as the witnesses which it was really moving and uh you know profound for me because then i just went ahead and put my grandpa's name and i put angel's name which she had died years earlier but uh i just thought you know god's got a plan on this there's no doubt i'm gonna i'm gonna see this woman again

And so what I didn't know is when I wrote that book, Good Call, a few years ago, I told that story and it was the first time I'd ever gone public about it. But I never thought about what her family was going to think if they read my book.

And so I actually had to call my counselor buddy to go with me because I said, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to handle this because they wanted to meet with me. And old Trent Langhoff went with me. It was very emotional. And, you know, they gave me her freshman jersey and they gave me her Bible. And I think that's the hardest part, Jase, when Zach talked about a certain number of days. When the days are less difficult,

Then, you know, then we think they should be because it's young. It obviously is so much more hurtful to us to deal with that. But ultimately, we trust God, whether it's young, whether it's middle, whether it's old. But we all want to live a life, whatever that life is. We're not guaranteed any time anything can happen. Angel's case, it was a car accident. It could be anything we want to be ready.

And really, that's what this podcast is about. You live unashamed to be ready for the moments. And that's the power of what we do. And I do want to say this. We just got a couple of minutes left. And we wanted to spend this podcast talking about

the appreciation, the legacy that we live and a lot of lives. I'm so glad you brought up Angel J. All of us could think about different people that have impacted. The day before our grandpa died, Charlie Murray died in his sleep at 32 years old. And this was another young man that had such a huge blessing. And so all these people impacted us.

But I wanted to let you know that we are relaying these messages that you're sending to mom and dad. And they are so appreciative of the outpouring of love for them, their legacy, everything that they mean to all of you guys. So just know that we share those with them. As we all know, dad's famously not connected to tech anymore.

But he does love to hear that out there in computer land, as he puts it, there are people that are expressing their love and their appreciation for everything that he's meant to them in their lives. And so we've told you before, we love those prayers. The prayers have definitely given them some peace.

while he's dealing with this, especially from the pain. And so we, we pray that you continue to pray for that. Obviously we don't know how much time he has left and it may be a while and, and that'll be a blessing. And, and who knows, maybe he'll be able to even, you know, have some, some moments where he can share some of, you know, what's going on with him too. So we don't, we don't sell guys short on anything, but we want to let you know, we live our lives together.

for something better. And, and we are, we want to be the witnesses while we're here. When we cross over, maybe they'll write our name in a Bible somewhere, Jace, because we've impacted people. And so really that's all we can ask for is to be blessed by that. So just a big thank you to Unashamed Nation. And as one of the listeners said, Unashamed Family, because that's what you guys are. It's been a great encouragement to us.

We're not devastated. Obviously, it's difficult to go through this as it is with so many of you out there. So many of you have shared that with us, and we just appreciate you. We love you. We love Dad, obviously, and the impact that he has. We miss him not being here to give us his wisdom. But all we can do is be Timothy to his Paul and continue to share with you what impacted us. That's what we're going to do, and we won't stop.

Yeah, exactly. And I think that's the first time I've actually become emotional in a podcast. But I went from being angry to tears of excitement, imagining having breakfast with people like Angel and my grandpa. And that's what we believe. And I just wanted to finish out by saying later in life, I connected with Angel's sister. And we have done many ventures in the name of Jesus Christ.

to help people so we pass our legacy and that's kind of been the theme of this and so I think that's the way God designed it so when you read that God's got a plan realize this is what's supposed to happen to get people to realize that Jesus came here to save us all and there's no shame

in what's going to happen on the other side. So we're grateful and thankful. Absolutely. Love you guys. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazetv.com slash unashamed.