Ep 1099 | Uncle Si & Martin Tearfully Reflect on Phil’s Eternal Impact
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I am unashamed. What about you? We came unarmed. This is beauty and the beast. There's the beauty and I'm the beast. I like the seating arrangement. You like it? Yeah. You're easy on the eye. You're so sweet. Yeah, welcome back to the Unashamed podcast. As you can tell, we have a little bit of a different group here today.

We brought the other podcast in, which we were talking about the jokes before. You said, Daddy, I don't joke on this podcast. What did you say? Yeah, I said, well, we can't laugh in here. It's got to be serious. Yeah, we've got to be serious. We were telling jokes and carrying on because, man, it is a tough day. Yeah. We even preloaded. We brought those, even though Phil said don't cry.

We're going to cry. I've already cried once this morning. Let's do it again. Let's try to run out. Let's get dehydrated. But yeah, man, the boss is home, man. So what a life. Yeah. So we're...

The guys will be back at the end of the week, but we wanted to get on here and tell you guys that we love you and thank you for all your prayers. I mean, both from the Duck Car Room and Unashamed podcast. If you're listening and not watching, that was Martin. We got Martin and my Uncle Si here. Yeah, and by the way, you got to understand, when you go to the throne room of God and mention our name, it is appreciated. Amen. Amen.

Okay. I always say we need the prayers and they need the practice, right? Oh, yeah. I need to support. You can lay me down at the feet of Jesus anytime you want to. Yeah, I need to support. Wow.

We felt it. I mean, the response has been overwhelming. So we're here. I just pulled into town late last night. Jill and I did. Jill, welcome to the podcast as well. Before we started, Si said, this looks like Beauty and the Beast. And I'm assuming you were the beast. Yeah. And Jill was the beauty. Because I ain't no beauty. I don't know, Si. I've always told everybody when I see our pictures, I say, you've told me. Yeah.

That boy's been hooked with an ugly stick very often. Oh, man. I will say, though, I would have had Cy wearing the Dickies jumpsuit over Jill. So I would probably look good in a jumpsuit. Jill walks in and Martin's. This is actually a two-piece Dickie.

I know. I didn't know they made that. What did you say when you walked in? You said, I didn't know Dickies made anything like that. And I certainly didn't know they made a two-piece. Yeah, I thought all Dickies. The first thing that hit me was, it's got to be real comfortable. It looks like it's just. Are you comfortable, Jill? I'm very comfortable. Yeah, it is. I had a boss that my first job outside of everything was landscaping. Landscaping, mowing grass, fire beds, all the things. And he wore a light blue jacket.

Dickie's jumpsuit every day to mow grass, work in the flower bed. He's like, hey, man, it's the easiest thing ever. So then I had to go buy one, and I was like, I get it. Then I was like, but I'm 15, so I can't. This isn't it, but when I get to 60, we're going full boy. It ain't cool at 16. It looks right. But you let me get to 60? Would you wear one, Si? Would you wear a Dickie's jumpsuit? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would wear one. Yeah, we need to get Si one of those. That'd be tough on him. He pees too much.

That's a hard thing to get to. That prostate's wearing out. That prostate's like an old leather bag right now. I wouldn't comment, but I ain't going to do that. No, it'd be all right. Oh, Lord. There's been a lot of laughing in the last few days, but there's been a lot of crying, too. We did the best. Yeah, but here's the thing. The laughter and the crying...

Okay. There's not tears of, of y'all sadness. Yeah. Okay. This is celebration time. Okay. He's done, done his stay on this earth. Yeah. Okay. And this, this place is wicked and it, it seems to be getting wickeder. Yeah. Okay. But that's probably just me thinking, you know, out loud, but I just always, you know, go to the prodigal son.

When is this human race going to come to its senses and turn to the Almighty and try it His way? Yeah. But really, two commandments. Love Him with everything you got, and then, hey, come back down, and then

you know horizontally no is that right yeah yeah horizontally then love your neighbor i use the big words and phil used to say this if we could just pull them two off yeah we would be pretty on a pretty solid foundation yeah so if we could just get them two started

Well, he was an icon for sure. When you found, so you said, before we started the podcast, you said that you had a feeling. You woke up Sunday. Oh, yeah. No, like I do before the phone call came. Yeah.

Okay, because when I got up, y'all, I just felt totally alone. And that's not true. I'm never alone. Because Jace preached a sermon the other day, the Father's for you, the Son's with you, and the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Yeah. So I'm not ever alone. But I felt totally lonely. And then all the way to church, I sit down in the pew and I start preaching.

Just, you know, it was a quote a movie thing. Okay. There's been a huge major disturbances in the force. Something ain't right. And I don't feel right. And I'm not, you know, so then Phillip called and said, Hey, look, they'll pass away at five o'clock. Yeah. I said, well, I already knew.

I'd already felt it. And I said, like I said, I told you I'd been praying. Lord, he's ready. Yeah, call him home. Yeah. We were all praying for that. Amen. I mean. I've been selfishly praying for his will to be done, right? Yeah. Because Phil wasn't Phil. Well, his quality of life was not there. Yeah. Okay. He hurt his back doing something he shouldn't have been doing. He should have let the younger man.

But that's my brother. He is doing it himself. And to be fair, if we all had our wish fulfilled, right, he would have either gone out chasing ducks or sharing the gospel. Yeah. Right. And I can tell you this. He went down swinging on sharing that gospel, even where he was. Yeah. Because I had moles on the inside. They would tell me, you know, when y'all leave, he walks around with his Bible, right?

And just goes and sits. He walks around with his Bible and goes and studies in the place at which they were. And I said, oh, so he's just miserable while we're there. I got you. Okay. So even in where he was, he found ministry. And so that is typical Phil. But for him to...

to not be on his land to not be doing whatever he wanted to do you just there was mercy involved and thank god for it right well he couldn't go out in creation yeah and that was one thing that i told uh alan jace i said y'all need to just go pick him up take him out on the land y'all i was telling willie really willie said hey look we would do that but

Then we got to fight to get him back in. And I said, I didn't think about that. But I know that, you know, he's going stir crazy. I said, this is a man that spent his life in God's creation. And I said, for him not to be able to do that, he's going to lose his mind. And I said, and I didn't think about it. Well, hey,

Because when I went and visited him, first thing he said, he said, hey, get in your truck and go to your house. Get me out of here. Get me out of here. I love those Babylon B articles. I feel about this. I'm tall because I can't help you, bro. He wanted out there. I was going to say one of the things I thought was so cool when we got to visit with him, we actually, your sister and I had a beautiful visit with Phil and Kay probably a couple months ago, about a month and a half ago.

And we were up there, and, you know, Phil always drew a crowd. People were all – he always had people following him, whether he realized it or not. And even there in the home they were at, there was a little man that just was a resident there. He had a sidekick. He just followed around. He lost his main sidekick. He lost his main sidekick. Jason was telling me about it. I said, well, how's Phil doing? He said, well, fine, except for one old boy that just, you know,

He's like a leech. Everywhere Phil goes, Phil's coming, hey, who is this crazy? He was the main character. It's always been, no, no. I was telling Martin, I said, well, I'm kind of just out of my, I don't even know how to word it. I don't feel good. Something's missing.

I said, I'll use Western. I said, you got Gene Archer and then you got Frog Milhouse as sidekick. I said, that's me and Phil. He said, hey, no, you're Butch Cassidy, you're Sundance. Phil's Butch Cassidy, you're Sundance. Well, you got to be the kid, right? You got to be the kid. You were always okay with that. Well, no, no, because Christine was telling me, well, I feel real sorry for Kay right now. And I said, well, Kay's doing all right.

She said, yeah, but you don't. I said, I know what you're saying. I said, hey, you know, we've been together ever since she was 13 years old, for crying out loud. And I said, when they went on their first date, guess who was in the back seat?

Yours truly. You were there. We caught that in the movie, by the way. No, no, yeah. Your mama said, hey, take your brother. I said, I might feel hated being away because all he ever was doing is that, take your brother. Oh, mama, I'm going on a date for crying out loud. Take your brother. Take your brother. Hey, we use that trick with our boys, don't we, Zach? Take your brother. And I look back, you know,

So, you know, none of the other family members expected me. Yeah. I guess it's because, you know, we're so close. ♪

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I literally, I believe with all my heart, the devil was torturing her while I was there visiting with her. Because she was sitting there and she'd be fine, be talking and then just, you know, and I said, if I could get my hands on him and had the power, I'd kill the devil. Yeah. I said, he'd be gone. I said, because I was watching him torture my sister.

Because of what she stood for. And I said, I always tell everybody, Dan Robertson was the only one that didn't give up on Phil when he was running with the devil. He said, y'all have no idea how many people he's going to bring to Jesus. And she was right. Yeah. He said, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. That's your brother. He's blood kin.

I got that picture. Look at this picture up here. It might have made me cry while I was looking at that. While Phil may have been the main... That is a powerhouse. Them are the two people that brought him to Jesus. That's what I was going to say. While Phil may have been the main character...

There's your two producers right there. That's right. The director was the almighty. There's your two executive producers right there of Phil's main character. Because Dan Robertson would not get off Bill Smith's back. He kept going back to him saying, hey, you've got to go preach the gospel to Phil Robertson. That's the only reason he finally ended up in the bar. I'm telling you, he wasn't going to get off of it.

And she always said that if he came to know the Lord, that he would share with hundreds or maybe even thousands. But Zach, what did Ben, our brother-in-law, was... Oh, so Ben, my brother-in-law, he ran it through chat GPT of how many people...

How many people did Phil Robertson, or how many people heard the gospel or heard about Jesus through Phil Robertson? Oh, God. And it does the calculations, and it was like, I want to say it was like 40 million people. And it cited the podcast, cited the show, Duck Dynasty, cited all the sermons. You know, I'm going to even say that that's low. I think it's low. I mean, I think it's low, and I think that number's only going to grow. Even in the state of which we're in. Yeah.

Like, I've read a lot of this, and you start talking about Phil's ripple effect, and we're not even to the ripples yet. No, no, no. Phil Robertson's still got a tidal wave right now. We're still in the first little, the big part of the splash. We ain't even crested yet to get to the ripple, because the ripple's going to extend through my children, through y'all's children, through...

And thankful for the world in which we live in, for like Duck Dynasty Fast Channels. There's a whole crop of children that this thing... Because what's crazy is ultimately your mom and Bill. Yeah. Unbelievable. Which is crazy for me, being your wife. When I look at that picture, you know...

They have, they're a lot of the reason that you're the faithful man that you are. And I had no idea, had I met you two years earlier, I

We would have never worked. Had I met Zach two years before I did, he was living in the world, chasing the things of the world, and I wouldn't have had it. And he was just doing God's work going into Alabama getting a roll of tats. That's right. You know what I'm saying? He had to go rescue the lost too, you know? I'm sorry. I think about Phil, what he did for Zach.

You know, so many times we say to our kids, we say things like, be your own self, be who you are. But I think that's bad advice because what if you don't know who you are? What if you're 16, 17, 8 years old and you're trying to figure out who you are and Zach didn't know who he was? That's the problem. That's the problem. None of us know who we are. Yeah, we don't. And Phil gave Zach an imagination for not only a man that loved the Lord but was bold in his faith.

And I think that changed the trajectory of your life. I thought, I'll be honest with you, I mean, I kind of viewed Christianity as a kid as kind of a wimpy thing. You know what I mean? No, no. But I knew what I was doing. I didn't want to live the way I was living. And I went on a vacation, went to Robertson's and whatever.

I'm sitting out there on the beach with Al, and he invites me to camp, Chioka, and I went. And that's when I really found the Lord. But really sitting under Phil's discipleship, I was like, oh, you can be a real man and still love Jesus. Well, I'll say, because for most people, a real man don't cry. That's bull.

I'm a mouse, but you're a human being. Yeah. Sure. You cry. You hurt just like anybody else. But like the, the, you know, talking about here reminds me of when he, when he met Jesus and the one time, the most important thing he told me, okay, was I'm down there visiting with him. Yeah. On leave all his rowdy buddies showed up.

Let's go get drunk, chase the women. You down there with him? Yeah, I'm there with him. This is after he's come to know Jesus. Yeah, he's a babe in Christ. Yeah. And when they showed up, they said, hey, let's go. He says, y'all don't understand. Y'all looking for a dead man. And I'm sitting there looking, and the story goes on. He said, you're looking for a dead man. I buried that fool.

And what's their response? Oh, no. They're just getting big. He said, you boys go on. He said, you don't know where you're going. You're going to hell is where you're going. No, I'm serious. He said, but you're looking for a dead man. I buried him in good riddance. Yeah.

He said, this is the new me. I'm a new creation. Yeah. And hey, I don't want none of, no part with any of you. Get out of here. Well, it's a hard part to think about that. Like, think back to being new in Christ. You wanted to be bold, but it was so easy to slip back into the old thing. Yeah. Because the old thing was comfortable. Well, don't say, because you don't understand. Yeah. At that point. You don't understand. You've got to, you're new.

Jesus talking. When you come out of that water, I've washed you clean as white as snow. And God talking. You're a new creation. The old has gone away. We buried him. That's what's so great about it. We're a new creation, but then here's the catcher. That's your part slipping back. Well, all them people you run with when you was running with the devil?

You can't be with him anymore. Yeah. I did the same thing. You can't be with him anymore. Actually, you came in. How did you come in? Because you got... Were you working for Duck Commander? Is that how you got into this? Well, so I was...

You know, I'll give the short version. Born and raised in church. My grandfather, a preacher at Assembly of God Church, a little small one right down, actually right down the road from here. You were like me. I was there, but I really wasn't there. No, I was there, but I was only there to beat all, because I was the baby cousin, right? So I was there to just beat everybody. Yeah. It was, I knew the verses better. I was faster. I did all, it was a competition driven thing.

environment for me. I got everything but the relationship with Christ. And then, you know, high school happens.

We're not going to list those faults. They're in there. That was before cell phone BDS. They're in there. They're all listed in there. Yeah, pretty much you name them, did them. Ended up going to college, going to graduate school, where then you're getting a graduate degree in biology, faith.

is out. Like you can't, like you, as much as you want to say, because that's the way God made them. You, you can't, you've got to be able to explain. Yeah. And what you really do. And now that you look back on it, you're explaining creation, not that there's not a creator. You're just explaining how he created it. And so, but that's just, that's looking back on it. So anyway, just living for the world. And I ended up,

Um, working at Tyner Petrus, um, TP Outdoors got invited to, um, from an employee there to go to Phil's house church of all things. Like then, and of course I knew Phil. I mean, I knew who Phil was. Duck Hunter from Western River, Louisiana, but it's kind of like,

He was kind of like this mythical creature because you never saw him. I mean, you knew you could find him at White's Ferry Road, but who wants to go to a church and find him? That wasn't really on the top of the list of things to do as a heathen either. But ended up down there, didn't really know what to expect and walked in and there was Phil in his recliner with his Bible open and like, come here, sit on down. I was like,

He goes straight to the Bible study. Oh, straight into it. And then when we got done, he told me, he said, you got a minute? And I was like, yeah, I got a minute. What's up? And he was like, let's take a ride. I need to go do something over at the land real quick. And I was like, okay. That's the hook. Yeah, he got me because he knew my biology nerd. Like he knew like this boy's in all this. It's like, I was telling them this earlier. Yeah.

We got to the gate and, you know, he killed the four-wheeler and he unlocked the gate and that's when he knows he's got you. When you get to the gate on his, where else are you going? Yeah. He locks it. You don't, I don't know

I don't know where I'm at. You don't even know where you're at. I don't know where I'm at. Smartphones, Life 360, Find My Friends, none of that is going on. We're still chasing snake on an Nokia. He had your attention and you just didn't really acknowledge it enough. Yeah. So that's why he took you to the lab. Yeah, he took me over there. You got phase two. Yeah. When he killed the deal, he said,

Now, Martin, do you know Jesus? And I was like, like any good heathen, yeah. ♪

So I've got five kids. You guys are into the grandkid phase. So you are a different level than me. Yeah, you'll get there, Zach. You know, those kids of yours are growing up quick and they just keep going generation to generation. Zach, it's the gift that keeps on giving every day. It is, but you got to give back, Jason. I'm telling you, I've been thinking a lot about my kids and I want to provide what's best for them. And I don't

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I also knew what he was asking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the answer to that was unequivocally no. Like, no, I don't know Jesus. What did you say? I know, but I said yes. Yeah. Of course. I'm like, man, this guy got a .22 rifle. It looks like him. I'm like,

I mean, I don't know if we're starting to make a Netflix documentary or what's going on here. Because Phil kind of carried himself. And he said that, I'm ready for a gunfight or a Bible study. You made a good point, Walter, about that. You knew about Jesus, but you didn't have a relationship. Oh, yeah. That's the biggest problem with people. Absolutely. I could have quoted you half a John at that point. It's personal.

But I didn't know. It's a personal. You've got to have a personal relationship with the Savior. He died for you for crying out loud. You don't get no personal than that. And Phil was good at cutting to the chase on that, which is what he was doing. Yeah, he ripped that apart. And at this point, see, I still didn't work here. But that was my first introduction to the gospel in its simplest form, to be fair. He was the first person that shared it with me that it made sense.

Because he was me. We were the same. We were rednecks who loved nature, who chased ducks. He was the first one on common ground with me, I guess, that our minds kind of thought the same way. We ticked over the same thing. What he said meant something to you. And it really started a thought process, but I didn't think that because I went back to work, went back to school, doing all my things. And then eventually Willie takes over the company while I'm working there, invites me to work.

Play golf. And the next thing we know, we're playing poker and we're doing all these things. And then I end up working here. And Jace is actually, I actually, Jace was the one who brought it all home for me because I just asked Jace one day in a duck call room. Well, I call it a duck call room, but then there is a metal building right by Phil and Kay's house. Like, and it was me, Si, Jace, and God went in there. And I just looked at Jace and I said, I need to know more about Jesus, man. And he said, well, it's about time.

And I was like, what do you mean? We have been talking about it. What do you mean it's about time? When is he going to come? Yeah. I said, well, I appreciate you going to let me burn before you share it with him. He said, no, man, I done figured out if I brought it up to you, you'd run.

And he said, was I accurate on that? I said, yeah, I'd have ran. I would have got away from it. Yeah, I'd have thought of anything. I said, but I'm not ready to run. Because you were incubating it all the time, being around. Well, when you're around these guys, you're around Jace,

Si got one for eight hours. Well, he wasn't in there eight hours, but when he was in there. Were you slacking on the job, Si? No, he just napped a lot. He was taking a nap. Yeah. They never run out of room. I can't tell you how many times I walked into Phil and Kay's house and you were on that blue couch. On that blue couch. Yeah.

Jason and all of them got mad with Telfield. Hey, you need to do something about your brother, y'all. They're sleeping. But they didn't. Hey, leave him alone. The beauty of it is they didn't have to say it. That's what made their relationship with Christ so beautiful was they didn't have to say it. You saw it. It was lived in action.

It was done every time I bowed my head. Cause what people don't realize, and I don't know how much I've talked about it on here. Y'all are like a thousand episodes in, but Phil or Kay and Kay cooked us lunch. Oh,

Every day. Every day. Every day. I mean, you find one. Every day. The only time you didn't get lunch by them, they were out of town speaking somewhere at a beast feast or something. That's why everybody that went to work down there a year later was morbidly obese. Yeah. Yeah. The Duck Commander 50. Oh, yeah. Because we didn't understand to not go back. Yeah.

It took a little while to... It's high-calorie food. Yeah. It's straight butter and carbs, buddy. There was no keto to be found down there. No keto. Like, no, none of that. But it goes down so good. Oh, I'm telling you.

Oh, man, that was the worst thing about moving up here. Well, I mean, honestly, I think you bring up what we learned. So we, you know, we obviously, you know, we moved to Asheville, North Carolina, which is a little different than West Virginia, Louisiana, to say the least. And we started a church there on accident in our in our house.

But what's funny about that is that the embers from what we learned really from Kay and Phil started a fire in Asheville. And a lot of it centered around food. It's centered around open up your home. It's centered around like doing life with people, having people. I mean, there's no like limit to it. I mean, look at how they lived, how Phil lived his life. I mean, he opened up his life. Well, no, no, because that's one of the things Barton said it. Okay.

You know, someone can tell you something about something, but that ain't enough. No. Okay, because then next time you see them, they're totally different. Well, no. Like he said, we showed it. Mm-hmm. You know, because there's been so many crazy things happen that, like, you know, a person be converted not because of what he heard, but because of what he didn't hear. Sound man.

He said, what is it with y'all? He said, I seen, you know, Phil hit his thumb hammering something the other day. And all he said, yeah. He said, anybody else would have said a bad word or something like that. He said, what is it with y'all? Y'all don't do that. And Phil said, well, you got a couple of hours. He said, you know, after we get through film and come on back to the house, I'll tell you.

Famous last word. You don't need your boots. You don't need your boots. No, come on. Did you guys ever like... I don't know if you ever did this, but I used to bring people down to Phil's house. Like, they'd go, I want to meet your uncle. And I'd always have to give them a speech. Well, let me warn you. Yeah. Like...

I don't care who you are, Baptist preacher. I mean, you are going to get in a Bible study. Like he's going to see, he's going to assume you don't love Jesus. As the guy who handled all the corporate sponsorships and partnerships from when I got here, every time somebody show up, I'd be like, I need you to listen. I don't care where you stand.

And wherever you think you stand, you're going to get this. I said, and I don't care what your answer is. If he says, tell me about Jesus, and you tell him everything you know about him,

you're going to get his version of it too so just i just need you to know yeah he's gonna have guns and you're gonna be a captive audience and if that's cool with you then we'll go if not we'll go do something else somewhere else bart when he said he come down there he's sitting down in his recliner yeah and i always as soon as i start to say it on the podcast but then i said well you know you know you see on when he's in that recliner

There's an M16 fully loaded with two 30-round clips hanging right there next to it. It's a little intimidating. Let's be honest. He said, hey, here's the deal. We'd rather have a Bible study with you, but if you want a gunfight, we can oblige you on that too. I said, he's got an M16 fully loaded.

and that Bible in reach. I said, he would rather pick that Bible up and tell you about the creation. He's like that. And I mean, they had several people show up. Oh, they had some characters show up. throughout the years. Oh, he spent people at the door. Yeah. Be careful. Hey, there's a gate up there. How'd you get in? He,

He said, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, he said, Phil reminds me of that. Uh, I don't know if y'all seen that movie. I think it's called the prophets got Robert Duvall and, uh, Billy Bob Thornton. And so Robert Duvall is the pastor. He's a little bit older guy. And so Billy Bob Thornton, he comes up to that church building. He's on, he's got it on a bulldozer. He's on, he's on tear down the church. Like he's angry. He's angry at the church. He's mad. And he's, I'm taking it. And the pastor, uh,

who is Robert Duvall's character, he goes up in that tractor and he yanks him off that tractor and just beats the mess out of him. I mean, works him silly. And then the very next scene, he's sitting on the curb and Billy Bob Thornton's character is all bloody and Robert Duvall's got his arm around him. He said, now, son, I love you. Now, let me tell you about Jesus. That's kind of like Phil. Let me tell you about Jesus. Be careful. Be careful. He does love you. I think about what Phil did.

In my life, obviously, you guys have done all the duck hunting with him, and I did a lot more of the business stuff with Phil and the productions and movies and stuff we've done all over the world together. And one thing that you guys will probably testify to this, that I think what he was able to do

that he was uniquely gifted in is that when he talked about Jesus, when he talked about the Bible, he did not talk about Christ as an idea somewhere floating out there in the atmosphere. Every time he would talk about Jesus, it was Jesus in real space and in real time. And he just had a way with doing that that I think it brought it home. And he would say something like, he would say something like,

I spent 28 years drunk, high, getting laid, in that order, or something like that. He said, till I ran into the man from Nazareth who lived on planet Earth. We're telling time by him. But he lived 2,000 years ago. So he would phrase things where he was... So you hear this...

And, you know, coming out of like a, like you said, you grew up kind of religious. You did too, really. I mean, I grew up that way. But he had a way of communicating that was, it would cut through all of the religious language. And it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And I think it was effective. I was going to ask you, Cy.

Was he always had that ability to tell a story like that? No, no. It's always, you know, there's a song, I'm a simple man. Leonard Skinner. Yeah. But anyway, that song, he was a simple man, just a country boy. But okay, he was very intelligent. Yeah. He had a photostatic memory. He could read two chapters.

And if he had a baby, he could even as a kid, tell you the whole thing, you know, word for word, you know, that's why he never studied in college. He gave a lot of fish away, but I mean, you know, he got a degree. He bargained. Being the type of person he was and spending 90% of his lifetime. That's why I always looked at it. It's so crazy that here's a man that's been his entire life.

and out in God's creation. Didn't know him for the first 28 years. Summertime is here, and that means the kids are home from school. And in my family, that means the grandkids are home from school, which means a lot more time with ma'am and pap. That's who we are. And we need something to do with them. And one of the things we'd love to do with our grandkids, maybe you do with your children, those of you out there in Unashamed Nation, is read books. And

And we have some books you need to read. They're called Brave Books. They help parents raise strong families, and they use the Bible to teach values that are powerful, that are faith-filled, and make a huge difference. Each month, Brave sends out a new book that teaches lessons like courage, forgiveness, or standing firm in your faith. And our own Jace has an author that he knows well. My wife...

participated in because you're my family, which is a must read. Because one of our favorite things to do, well, I better say my favorite thing to do is tell my grandkids, go read some books.

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You'll not only get a new book each month, you'll also get access to Brave Plus. Their new streaming platform is packed with safe, uplifting shows like Strawberry Shortcake, Bob the Builder, and Iggy and Mr. Kirk with Kirk Cameron. Here's what you do. Head to bravebooks.com slash unashamed. Use the code unashamed to get Missy's book, Because You're My Family, and Jeff and Jessica's book, Dear Valor,

For free. That's bravebooks.com slash unashamed. Raise them with truth. Raise them brave. With that, that was where that came from. It's just so simple. Okay. And when, like you said, I heard him speak so much. You know, he's talking.

It's like Jesus is right there beside him. Yeah. You know, this ain't religion, okay? And I think that's where we messed up as human beings. We took the word religion, okay, and it's not. The definition, they've destroyed the whole set. God's religion is, hey, love me and then love your neighbor. And look, hey, I'm going to take care of everything. I'm going to give you everything first class.

All you got to do is follow me and try. Are you going to be trials and tribulations? Of course. You're human. Yeah, you're human. Of course you're going to have that. But Phil and I always got it too. They have a unique way of saying things. It's sticky. People both smoke so badly. Okay.

No, that's just a good storyteller. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about yourself in third person again. I'm sorry. If you're listening, Martin was giving a passive aggressive pointing ad. Maybe that's a passive aggressive pointing ad. Because Phil was not a Bible scholar. But he used to, y'all put a picture up there of Jan and Phil and Bill Smith. Well, I loved how simple Phil really was. Okay?

Because he asked Bill Smith one time, said, Bill. Because Bill was a scholar. Yeah, yeah. And Bill was a biblical scholar. Yeah. But he asked him, he said, hey, y'all, I'm doing the best I can, but hey, when am I going to stop fighting all this crap? Y'all, and Bill said, well, how long did you run it and wallow in it? Y'all, and Phil says, about 28 and a half years. He said,

Patience, Joe. You got to have a little patience, okay? Yeah. Joe, you've got all this junk that you've got to throw that junk out. He said, then here's the key to it. Then replace it with what you find in there. Yeah, I love that. And I love that picture we put up earlier because for me, it has like, okay, you're downstream of everything.

my mom, and Bill, right? Then my mom and Bill go into the bar to chase after Phil because my mom had a prophetic word, honestly, of what this man was capable of in Christ. And then her son, me, was the one who benefited from

greatly benefited from it. No, you're not the only one. I mean, it's just a downstream of this. Well, I told Martin, I said, I'd like to see the scale, just the scale. Yeah. Of all the people Phil's contacted and had a...

Positive impact. Well, buddy, I can hand you my phone right now. You can just go through my phone and the rest of it wouldn't even be there. Well, yeah, my phone. Man, it's just so wild.

Because of Phil's boldness, it's encouraged other people to be bold about what he did for them. And man, my phone has blown up. And I'm so thankful. It's so cool to hear the stories, to read them. The beauty of Phil was that simplicity. Because we can get bogged down. That's a big book, man. We can get bogged down all we want to in it. And we can worry about...

different languages and origins and all the thing. But Phil was so dialed in on the message that mattered. On the simple gospel. The simple gospel. And it, golly. And he never, never, if he wanted to say it, he didn't say it. As far as my life is concerned. And I can't speak to early Phil, but for the past year,

golly, I've been here a while, almost 20 years. Um, you know, I, and I've heard it, you know, when you're that close to it, you hear it so many times you start laughing and like, and I sit there, I was going through my phone, watching videos of Phil. Thank goodness. Like the last five years of duck hunting with him when I would go, I didn't hunt. I sat there and just watch Phil and thank, thank God for the moments to just sit there and watch him. Cause I'm never going to get to do that again until, um,

To be fair, it's kind of hard to hunt there because every time I've been down there, there's two windows you can hunt out of. Yeah. And then there's everybody in the middle has got a hole like that big. Yeah, which is fine. And that was great. Even as they got more lax and didn't really care about that stuff, I still just was like... Just watching. Even when he was fine, when he was healthy, I was just, let me watch this man. Let me watch him and see what he does because...

I want to be that for somebody one day. Not to Phil scale. I don't want to be Phil Robertson. Phil Robertson was Phil Robertson. But I want to be Justin Martin to somebody someday the way that Phil Robertson was Phil Robertson to me. I love that. You said it once when you were okay. And all you was doing was okay. You're sitting there enjoying the moment and learning. Okay. And you was talking about when you watched him when he was calling it ducks.

Bill never lost the wonderment. Okay, there's a song a lady sings about, I hope you tell their children. Never lose your sense of wonder. Yeah, don't ever lose your sense of wonder. Oh, that look in his eyes. Don't ever get so old.

That you're just not in awe of what you can see. Oh, they're my favorite pictures. I got so many pictures of him on my phone of him just cutting those eyes, watching the ducks. I mean, those are the things that I remember. Yeah. When I close my eyes and think of Phil, those are the things. I see him squatted in that corner of the duck. I don't know how that man.

even at his age could squat for hours on end without a seat in the corner of a duck blind and be fine just chilling yeah i wouldn't be able to get up yeah somebody would i'd say i'd say lift me up and crack my bones yeah you're gonna move oh you're going to call plunks to get me i didn't know this about him how ripped he was but when we started doing this podcast

Um, I guess I've been working with Phil on production stuff for almost 10 years. It's crazy. But we did a little show called in the woods and the, um,

Jill was there for this. She'll remember. It got kind of awkward for a moment, but we built this big bonfire and then Phil had to, I feel this awesome intro of Phil like building a fire. And it was like the fire of the kingdom. And so Phil's like, he has a whole line and we feel it looked amazing. Well, he got so hot, he takes his shirt off.

And he's like 68 years old. Jill's like taking, whoa. Yeah, and he's ripped. He's over-exaggerated. But she's like, he was ripped. And then she's telling me, why are you ripped like that? That's impressive. That's in your family. No, no, no, yeah, he's ripped. I mean, he was chiseled even at 68, 70 years old. No, no, because I was telling Martin in the podcast when we were talking, I said, well, he was in high school.

I said, I actually tried to tackle him one time. He dropped back for a pass. And you couldn't do it? And while I hit him, and I said, he weighed about 175. I said, but he was like running into a stupid oak tree. I said, he did this little spin maneuver, and then through the pass to the full back, going out. He picked up about 15 yards, and I said, I was so worried I'd hurt.

You know, I said, he was so strong when he was fishing, okay, to feed his family. You know, I come in to visit with him on leave. I'll always stay at Phil's house. And he was like Popeye the Sailor Man. His forearms were as big as Martin's right here, and then his biceps were littler.

And that was just from hauling, pulling fish up in them nets that he wore a one-inch groove in solid aluminum with a soft cotton rope.

That's a lot of hauling right there. The man was down. I want to read this scripture because I actually thought of it last night. But when you were talking, Martin, just about watching him and imitating him. And I was thinking about Zach when he was first coming into his boldness of faith. He used to imitate Phil's voice. I mean, boldness.

He would talk like him. And I would say... It's kind of hard not to. He would get the one line, he would talk like him. Yeah, it was a good thing. How would Phil say this? You just sounded just like Phil. But now it's so beautiful to me because there was a whole group of you that talked just like them. We were cronies. We were.

They have that. Did he ever drop that? Oh, all of it. All of it. He had it. I mean, he can still imitate him better than anyone else. I mean, it became part of me, though. You know what I mean? But it's like, I think that the point is, is when you're in, I was an insecure teenager. Yeah. But I wanted to be a man. And this is something that...

Well, I want to read the scripture because this is what you were doing. You say that, then I'll tell you what I'm going to say. Okay, go ahead. The scripture, I'm sorry, is Hebrews 13, verse 7. It says, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. And I just think of how many boys have become men because they are...

Thanks a lot, Jill. I got to go back to the box. Thanks a lot. Appreciate that. But it's true. Roll tide, baby. To what I said at the beginning about telling our kids to be your own person. No, no, no.

Find someone that is following after the Lord like that. And if you have to imitate them, imitate them. The Lord will grow you into your own person. But man, be a follower of someone who is following so close to Jesus.

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That's the John Eldridge. That's who said it was the quote. I think he said it about masculinity. And while at heart, he said it, you don't just become a masculine man. He said that has to be bestowed upon you by another man. Well, no, no, because that was my kids. Yeah. Okay. We had my daughter's 16th birthday. And all of her friends was over the house. And their parents come and said, oh, yeah.

Do you really, is it okay for our kids to come over here? And I said, well, you better ask another question. Do you actually want your kids to come over here? I said, because there's no taboo in this house. No subject. No subject. No subject. And I said, hey, and when they ask it, they're not going to get a bunch of bull. I'm going to be blunt and to the point about it. I said, so you may not want your child to be here.

And that's one of the things that y'all, like Phil, I told Al, a bunch of boys is, y'all get together, a bunch of boys, they're going to be boys. But when y'all all went and got drunk, okay,

And they knew what Phil felt about alcohol. Yeah. Because he had problems with it. Okay. And they knew, hey, you think it gets your butt beat? And how old were they? They was like 16. Okay. So look, they do. They get drunk. Neighbor comes by and says, hey, I just was with your boys down at the camp over there, and they all fired up on liquor.

Well, Phil says, okay, I appreciate you stopping by and telling me. He goes, you know, tell me, Al. Al comes out. Yes, sir. You know, he said, hey, you and everybody else in there, you know, you got two choices. They all hit the road. They don't ever come back to this house again. Or they come down there and take their butt whooping.

And I told Al, I said, Al, you got some friends. I said, because if I'd have been there with them, I said, hey, Al's been nice doing you. You wouldn't have taken the butt with him? Yeah. I'm gone. So now I'll take the butt with him. Oh, look. I've been a flight risk his whole life. No, I just told him flat out. I said, hey, look, it's been nice doing you, Al, but hey, I'm gone. I ain't that crazy man. Yeah. But what,

Because we're talking about a chiseled man at 68. So can you imagine Phil Robertson in the early 40s? Oh, no, like 28, 25. Yeah, 25. Just a bitch. I wouldn't do this with him. So, hey, they come down there. I was scared of him. Me too. When I was a kid, I was very scared of him. As a grown man, I was. Phil had whooped all of them at once. He grabbed him and said, I don't know who you are, but hey.

Tell your mama and daddy that I'm the one that whooped your butt for being drunk. Yeah. Hey, at 30 years old, I thought— Times have changed. Hey, I ain't kidding. At 30 years old, I thought I was about to have to bend over and grab my ankles and take one from him. So—

And you know what? I was prepared to do it. You know what I wasn't going to do? Run. Yeah. I knew better than that. You run from a grown man, they get mad at you. So I was like, well, I guess, and it all started with him. It's the old deal, but I know where you live. Yeah. I just, I said, well, I ain't been whooped in a long time, but I guess I'm about to take one here. I thought he was going to line us all up on the tailgate and get every one of us. I love it. You know what? I'll tell you what, though. What I think about Phil is,

You had that vision of him looking up at the ducks. When I think about Phil,

And I close my eyes. I will tell you the word, the one word that pops up in my mind when I think about that man and his life and his legacy. And it's the word resurrection. He talked about the resurrection of the dead more than any person I have ever known in my entire life. And he believed it to the core. We were on a plane one time. I think I've told this story before. I don't know if y'all have heard it. We're on a plane coming back from South Louisiana.

We get up about 25,000 feet in the air, and all of a sudden, it's just this, I mean, like a shotgun going off. And we didn't know it at the time, but the cabin had depressurized. And I'm thinking, and then there was this sucking sound. Oh, yeah, yeah. And it was very, very scary. And, I mean, before we could realize what was going on, he grabbed my son Bear, throws him in the seat because he was standing up, and then he looked up at the rest of us, and Phil goes...

well, boys, it's resurrection time. And I thought in that moment, like the plane's going down. And Phil's like, all right, boys, this is what we're doing. And he would say that the resurrection is looming. He talked about the resurrection of the dead so many times. And so I don't want to end this podcast without us at least acknowledging this, that the body that Phil has left for the moment is

He will be reunited with that body. That body that we do believe in a bodily resurrection. Phil preached on it. He taught it. He lived his entire life on the truth of the physical resurrection of the dead because Christ was raised from the dead. And not only that, it will be glorified. Yes. Yes. Okay. That's the thing, because I tell people all the time, I'm big on resurrection too.

I said, because, hey, you dummies need to open your eyes. Hey, winter's over. Guess what's coming? Spring. I said, oh, you don't believe in dead men raising? I said, hey, you better look at spring coming up, boys. And I said, you better keep your eyes open and be thinking about it. Because I said, hey, it'll do it before you even see it. All right.

Oh, I know that. And the twinks of an eye. And I want to encourage you all with that because you think, well, we're sad. I mean, I know I miss Phil already. We've been missing him for a while. This is for us. Selfishly, we're sad. Yeah. We're being selfish because, hey, he's gone. But we don't mourn. Like you said, why are you still laughing? Because we have a hope. Yeah. We hold the same faith that Phil held to.

And that's in Jesus Christ, who was resurrected from the dead. And one day, we do believe that will happen for all of us. I'll put it this way. Paul Harvey, okay, hey, his body, okay, we're going to view it a couple of days here. Say goodbye to him. But, hey, that's his earthly tent. Hey, he ain't there, okay? I'll tell you about Ecclesiastes, okay? That earthly tent's going to return to the dust from where it came.

But the Spirit, that's Phil Robertson. Hey, it's up there with the Almighty, we're a creator. Okay, because that's what Ecclesiastes says. Yeah. Hey, the Spirit returns to God who gave it. And wildly enough, Sunday morning, Tom Lowe preached from Acts 3, basically the same message that the first house church I went to, Phil's. Mm-hmm.

And, you know, it's awesome. It is. Well, that's why I said, hey, look, when you come down to it, okay, what's the conclusion of this matter? We're disgusting. Okay, hey, the conclusion is fear God, keep his commandments. Because guess what? Everything else,

is a pile of dung. That's what I did. Silver or gold, I do not have. Silver and gold, I have you not, but hey, here, I've got something more important than that that I'll share with you, okay? And since we're on resurrection, I'll share it with you. I know the man, he hung the sun, the moon, the stars, okay?

He also raises dead men. Come on. Okay, because he raised first. Amen. He's first and foremost, okay? His name is Jesus Christ. He's the Messiah. There's 66 books written about him. When are you going to come to your senses, human race, and say, hey, oh, okay, you're talking about the God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. That's why, hey, I'm never alone.

The Father's for you, the Son's with you, and hey, the Holy Spirit indwells you. Okay? Look, that's my team. Okay? That's who I'm going to go with because guess what?

He's promised me a mansion, a robe, and a crown. That's what we're waiting on. And baby, hey, I'm going to take him up on it. You're going to look good in that crown. I've already seen you in a robe. That's a wrap right there. So I want to thank you guys. We'll be back with Al and Jace, and we'll unpack everything and kind of let you know how everything's going. But we're, you know. Hey, this is a celebration. Celebration. Amen. Okay. Phil Robertson is home now.

and at rest with the Creator. Amen. And whole. Fully whole. Love it, man. Thank y'all. Hey, we don't get to cross that wall. You don't. It's been a nice upgrade. Thank you, guys. Yeah, I preach too. Unshame ain't the only place. Throw that in there, boys.

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