Ep 1039 | Phil's Difficult Recovery from Surgery & the Jase Namesakes Spawned by ‘Duck Dynasty’ Fans
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I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. I'm back here in the, what are we calling this? Is this the? It's called the studio. The studio. We're in the new and improved Unashamed. I guess we haven't named it yet, actually. I know. It's kind of like, because we had the lair, and that was unique to its spot, so we need to think about that. Let's call it the upgrade. Let's call it the studio with no name. Okay.

There you go. Remember that movie series, The Man With No Name? That's where I was going with that. It was so good. I was thinking of the producer with no name, the one that Phil would not. Oh, yeah. His name actually was Connor, by the way. He's a good guy. So Jason and I are here, Zach. It's a good thing you're not living in Louisiana this week. It is a miserably cold, wet place.

damp environment and we're both sick, which is typical this time of year. I mean, say I'm sick. Well, it sounds like you, well, here's what happened. You're sick. Trust me. What had happened was it was 80 degrees in Louisiana. That's right. Two days ago. And I flew to Nashville and I,

I thought I was doing an event in Nashville, but it was actually in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Yeah, you told about that. The big men's thing, right? Did I tell about that? Yeah, you said you were going. You previewed it. Oh, yeah, because they hadn't sold out. So I did a little blurb. And thank you, Unashamed Nation, because they sold out in a matter of minutes once the podcast was on. See the power of Unashamed Nation. What was funny was then it attracts –

When you do that, it attracts the real fans of Unashamed Nation, which makes for interesting stories when Jace gets to meet them. Because we had a little meet and greet that they said was supposed to be. Because they forget nothing. So let me ask you, Jace, what would you say the percentage of the audience listened to the podcast, if you had to guess?

Well, half the people were there because they listened to the podcast. So at least 50%, Zach. Do the math. All right. I would say most people there listened to the podcast. Yep. But it was one of those events where it's a little awkward because they were doing a fundraiser for a guy who basically challenges men to

to be men of God. And so they had a dinner, and it was swanky. I was the most underdressed person there. Yep. I found myself that way at a lot of events. I'm fine with it. I'll tell you, I'm just kind of like, well. So, however, I had one of my honey hole shirts on during the plane ride because, and I told you, you know, in a weird way, I'm kind of a fashion model, so I like it.

And the person I'm fashioning for literally used to be a 7-Elevenist right down the street here. That's where Jace is. Jace is the new model for 7-Eleven type fishing stores. Yeah. So I like that because I think it's funny. And I like their product. But I have to have the hoodie because my layover in between Atlanta, once I got to Atlanta, it was a very short time. So I had to put the hoodie on.

I didn't run, but I was walking fast, which did draw security. Of course. I noticed several security people following me because I had my hoodie on. There's nothing sticking out but the beard. So once again, a victim of facial profiling.

Because it's easy for you to make that crossover with your attire, Jace, from unity man to unabomber. That's the transition that happens when you put the hoodie on. Well, and I had the shades on. So it's like, this guy looks like he's trying to conceal his identity. And so when confronted with that by a security person, I said, well, I'm in a hurry.

But they didn't get it because they didn't know who I was. I thought that was funny. So anyway, we get in this little whatever you call it, the meet and greet room. The first, not the first, I'll tell you the story, but the first person there was a 13-year-old kid that had a brain tumor. And they had reached out to us. And so we reached out to the event. And we were like, can we arrange a meeting?

Because his story was he discovered us when he was four, and he was in a hospital bed, which a lot of kids have this happen. And, I mean, he has a brain tumor. He's going through one miserable procedure after another. Yeah. And so when you're a kid in that situation, you want to have a way to have a distraction, break the cycle. Right. So he started watching our little duck show, and he was just real thankful for

Because he, in his words, you know, that really helped him go through the process. I've heard that so many times from people that have gone through something difficult that the show really helped. Yeah. So here he is, 13 now, still has the brain tumor because they can't remove it because of where it's at. Yeah.

And, you know, it's touching because these guys, that little boy, he never, and I say little, he's 13 and he's bigger than you. Just a huge mountain of a young man. And kind of had a mullet and kind of his hairdo looked like mine, you know. So we were having a lot of fun. I was making him laugh about it. I was like, man, I feel at home. I mean, because he's...

He had redneck tendencies. Just a fabulous kid. Had a smile on his face the whole time. So I thought, you know what? I'm going to make him a part of the show. And so I said, I want to introduce you because you need people praying for you. And never underestimate the power of prayer. Of course, we gathered around him and said a prayer while we were back there, but...

So this is kind of where it went wrong. I had a great idea because I thought, man, let's give this guy some attention. I mean, he's a warrior. He's going through all this struggle, and he's got a smile on his face. So I said, look, I'm going to introduce you when I first come out. And when I introduced you, I gave him one of my duck calls off my lanyard and signed it. And I told him to wash it first or whatever. But...

And he was real excited getting the duck call. So I said, when I introduce you, I want you to blow the duck call. Yeah. I was like, then I'll make some jokes about it. So he's like, okay. I was like, and then what we'll do at the end is like, I'll give you a job to do, to be like my assistant. And so wait for further details on that as we go. So, I mean, I thought it was a great plan. Sounds great, right? We're drawing attention to this kid. What could go wrong? Yeah.

Well, I introduced him. I told his story. And he doesn't blow the duck call. He just kind of is looking with a grin on his face. And I'm like, blow the duck call. And so then he blew it, which he was actually pretty good on a duck call. I said, now, here's what you do. At the 35-minute mark from right now, blow it again. And so then I know.

My time is up. So I thought, what could go wrong? Oh, boy. Well, I do the speech, and at some point I'm like, this has to have gone over 35 minutes. Because you've done this enough now where you kind of, yeah, you're going to turn the clock. Has it not been 35 minutes? And he just kind of looked at me with a grin.

But he still didn't blow the duck call. So I went ahead and quit, got off stage, and my assistant was like, you went 53 minutes. And I thought, well, maybe it was the 35, the 53. And she's like, why would you do that? So she was like chastising me. And I was like, he had one job. I thought he would do it.

So then I was like, well, I hope I didn't embarrass him. But then he came up after, and I kind of had tears in his eyes, and we hugged, you know. And I was like, it truly was, I think, a God-orchestrated encounter. He didn't want you to stop. Well, that's what I thought. I know exactly what happened. Well, he gave me no explanation. I was like, why didn't you blow the duck call? And he's like, well, I didn't know what time it was. Well, I thought, in our world, I figured everybody had. He's a redneck. He doesn't have a watch. He didn't have a watch. So I was like, well, okay.

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in the little green room for the meet and greet.

He had the shirt on from the honey hole that I had worn in the airport. And look, this was a swanky thing. He had a suit coat, but he had the shirt under it. And it had the little tag. I was like, dude, this is weird. And he said, wow. I was like, I just had that shirt on and I took it off. I put one on that had unashamed. I was like, it's kind of weird you're wearing that shirt that I had on. I mean,

That's weird. But he was just looking with a grin, and I was like, okay, he must be kind of a weird guy. Well, then the next couple that came, I was like, what are y'all doing here? And they said, we have no idea. We heard you say you were going to be here, and this is our date. And we drove an hour, which I thought was weird, don't you think? Oh, it happens to me all the time. I was like, well. That's not weird. I'd take chill. If I listened to a podcast or something, I'd go crazy.

listen to somebody speak be a good little date night so anyway uh it was fun i mean we did the event and i had my son and his wife and three grandkids come they made because you were close to nashville well i was like an hour and a half but i didn't even know they were coming yeah which turned into chaos i mean they my grandkids are three and under three of them you have three under three yeah yeah so uh

But overall, it was the first event. So then that night after the event, it got a little scratchy. And then the next day I woke up and I had zero vocal ability. That's why you were saying you weren't really sick, but you've... Well, I felt fine. Yeah. But now since then, I'm like, well, maybe I got some kind of virus, you know. Yeah. I mean, but...

It was weird because I literally couldn't make a sound. So then it got weird on the way back because all I could do was basically grunt.

I was like, what is that? There's some star in Hollywood that all he does is grunt. He makes millions of dollars, but I don't know who that is. I just heard somebody say that. I don't know. But I could not make an audible sound for 24 hours. The old football player Marshawn Lynch, that's what he meant. He wouldn't speak. He just grunted. Didn't he? Yeah. I kind of liked it. But then he wound up doing a bunch of ads because he talked and made millions of dollars, which is really smart. There you go. There you go. So I did do some of our...

Kind of new stuff in my speech, which just kind of came out about the kingdom and all. I did a thing about conversations, which goes in with the book of John, because I had an interesting conversation on the way there. So a guy is sitting next to me, and it's 7.30 in the morning, and...

When I passed him, because I was sitting by the window, I was like, boy, you got quite the bar going here. Because he had a, I thought it was orange juice, and he had a cup of coffee, and he had a bottle of water. And I was trying not to knock any of it over with my bag. And he said, oh, yeah, I got the Holy Trinity. And I thought, what does that mean? And he said, yeah, I got the Holy Trinity. I got some caffeine.

I got the alcohol with the screwdriver. Oh. And I have some water to wash it all down. I thought, that's an odd way of using the Holy Trinity. That might be bizarro, Trinity. Yeah. So I said, well, what do you do? And he said, well, I'm a sports agent for the NIL, you know, in the college world, because that's all just exploding. Oh, yeah. It's big money there. But.

Like, while he's telling me what he's doing, he's getting him another screwdriver. I mean, he put that thing down. I thought, it's kind of early to be knocking back whatever this is. Well, that's why I needed the other two-thirds of his equipment. So then the more he talked, and he was, you know, using some four-letter words and the descriptions of, and I thought,

I need to have a conversation. And so it's like, but time was racing because he was a talker because that's what he is. He's an agent. He's making the sale. So then when he just asked me, he said, well, what do you do? And I just thought, I'm cutting to the chase right here. I said, I'm a disciple of Jesus. That's how they call you, cut to the chase, Jace. It was like sound effect head because he said, what do you do? And it was like, whoop. And I said, a disciple of Jesus. I was like, now what?

To make money, I build duck calls. I'm an entertainer, and I brought up our little duck show. And he's like, you're one of those people. And I was like, yeah, who would look like this without some reason? And so I started talking about Jesus because I said, what do you do? And I'm saying I got that from Jesus. I just thought, what if this is a God thing?

architected encounter. Yeah. And what's so weird is, is that after I got through with my speech, the, never heard another four letter word. And at the end, it was so funny when he got up, cause it was only a 37 minute flight. He's like, and, and God bless you and all that, that y'all do in that,

God bless him. It was kind of a weird, and I don't know, it may have been because he had done had about four free drivers. But I thought, you know, it changed the whole conversation and narrative. And I thought, you never know just that one encounter where that will go. Yeah, because it's a little uncomfortable for them to continue down a trail when you've kind of introduced that. So I made a point, though, when I got to the book of John. I said, most encounters...

with Jesus starts with a conversation. And you really see that in the book of John. You have these portraits once we leave chapter one of these just everyday conversations that came up. Yeah, they make the impact. Jayce, when you were doing Bowling Green, so I was on my way home from the Southern Lair to come home to preach this weekend. And so we stopped and did a little marriage event. It was just kind of impromptu. A guy I met

pastor there at Bethel Baptist in the metropolis of Citronelle, Alabama, which is just north of Mobile. I mean, our kind of folks, you know, and so they had a little marriage event and they're probably, I don't know, 50 or so couples at this event. Lisa and I shared a little bit about what God's doing through us and our ministry, but that little cool thing they were doing, because it was their marriage enrichment event.

So they put these little verses on every table. And so you had about six or eight couples around every table. So we were at ours and they'd put a verse from Song of Solomon. Now, I just got to tell you, if you ever go and read Song of Solomon, it's quite the book to read because Solomon... It's at least PG-13. At least. And so they had all these verses from Song of Solomon and you were supposed to, your table was supposed to read the verse and then come up with a pickup line

from the verse to your spouse. If you were going to say, hey, here's a pickup line from Song of Solomon. That sounds dangerous. It was, and it was very funny because all throughout the night at different points, they would have someone from the table come up on the mic and tell what their pickup line was from the verse. They'd read the verse and tell the pickup line. So our guy at our table had a pretty funny one

I can't remember what his was, but the one I remembered, I wanted to tell you because it was so funny. I laughed so hard. So here's the verse. It's the Song of Songs 17. And this is in the Bible, by the way. So some of you out there said this is in the Bible. Yeah. Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies.

That was the verse, which is, you know, and so Solomon's describing his, you know, the love of his life in this song and song. So he had to come up with a pickup line. So these are Alabama, you know, these are our kind of people. And the guy's pickup line was, let's grab some cheap wine and make some biscuits. Yeah.

And I laughed so hard because of the wheat. It was just funny. It captured the moment just right. So they had several of those. So it was fun. And yet we got up and shared some of what God does in marriage. And then I had some couples afterwards that really shared some life-changing stuff. So it was really good. ♪

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Tell us about your travel too, because before we get into the text. Well, when y'all were complaining about the weather, I just, I was in Portland, Oregon. And so it was, yeah, it's like a, it's like a mist all the time. It's like a, like someone's got a spray bottle and they're just spraying you the whole time. So yeah, we went up there and it was good. We got to go to the Bible project and see what they were doing. Um,

I love that ministry. I did tell him about Phil not knowing who Tim Mackey was and who is the whole who is Mackey. Still one of my favorite cold opens of all time. Who's Mackey? Remember Chase? I think you had put it on some notes that was...

that we were going to talk about something. Yeah, it was in my notes. I was like, Jason's going to mention Mackey's outline. We were studying Ephesians. Yeah. And Mackey's outline was what we were using. And Dad, he said, Al says here, you know, as he's reading our internal notes, you know. But it comes from something that I've heard Phil do a bit on, and I've said the same bit. Because it always fascinates me, like when preachers get up to preach, Al,

I realize you're a preacher, so don't get offended. But here's what I don't understand. I'm not easily offended. Most preachers that I hear, they get up and they'll have a text and they'll start, but then they'll preach a sermon and they have like 30 quotes from people who wrote books. And that's where Phil gets at. He's like, who is that? Because you feel like...

Is this book not big enough for you? Are there not enough references in the Bible to quote? And I do think that when someone continues to quote other people's books in sermons, and most of the preachers that do that, they do it on a consistent basis. But I'll tell you why they do it. And Zach can back me up on this. It's the same thing you learn in college.

that you're supposed to quote sources. And so it's so ingrained in you. You could just tell a story.

And it would be just as effective. But it's structured into your education that you've got to quote where you heard this or you're stealing the idea. It's like plagiarism. Well, because think about it. You read someone's material and if you learn anything from it. But to Jay's point, though, the Holy Spirit does it. I mean, we really shouldn't have to. I do it, too. My point is, do you not have enough material in this book called the Bible? You do. I mean, I'm saying, okay, it's okay to quote somebody every once in a while.

But if he didn't write a book in the Bible, I got him way further down the list. But that doesn't mean his story is irrelevant. It's just like Sunday in my sermon, I quoted N.T. Wright. Speaking of Mackey, there's another one of our guys. What you got to meet us, Zach. Did you meet N.T. Wright? I didn't get to meet him, but he was... You heard him. He spoke and he...

And he, oh, so he was great. So, so I quoted him, but I didn't quote, I quoted a book because he told a fantastic story that illustrated the point I was trying to make days in my sermon. So that's why I did it. But the Bible certainly is big enough to your point. Yeah. I think it's a, it's a, it's kind of an honor thing and you don't want to steal it, like steal someone else's material, like it's your own. But I will say that if you think about truthfully, I think it's,

That's kind of funny that I'm saying this. C.S. Lewis said. Thank you, Zach, for illustrating this one. I think we need to have an invitation song right now. I mean, Zach literally in explaining it is now doing it. But Zach's like, we shouldn't steal people's material. I'm like, this is the material. It's been provided. He said in our quest to be original,

Basically, when you quit trying to be original, you actually become original. But it's really all God's in the end. You think about it, we're all borrowing from His revelations. I do think there is some truth to that, and people get really obsessed with wanting to get credit for their work. But I think there is something to be said for it's all His material in the end. And what we're doing is just taking what He's revealed and

trying to explain it the best we know how, you know, as broken as that may be. And if someone can take that and expand upon it, great. Yeah, that's, we're all kind of working off someone else's material anyways, all back to who. Well, and plus, how do we know that our original thought was not somebody else's original thought somewhere else? And who thought it first? I don't feel like you necessarily have to do that. If I hear somebody say something that I say a lot,

One is I'm flattered that they're saying it. And I'm thinking, well, maybe they just thought that up just like I did. Do you ever Google something you think you come up that's original? Oh, yeah. And then you look at it and say, oh, that was already a thing. There are very few truly original ideas. That is true, James. Exactly. Every once in a while, I'll come up with one. Oh, Missy. Missy.

Just come up with something no one's ever thought of before. She's like, well, how do you know? I was like, because I looked it up. I didn't. She's like, I'm sure somebody said that somewhere. You just don't realize. She's probably right. But what I thought was, I don't know if y'all watched the Supo, but the commercials seem to have a different...

vibe to them. Yeah, I noticed the whole thing didn't really. Yeah. And I thought it was more positive overall. But one of them that caught me was, there was a, I think it was a Jeep commercial that they had Harrison Ford. Oh yeah. I thought it was a good commercial. It was very good. But he said something in there that caught my attention because he was talking about humans and,

And he's like, there's no owner's manual for humans. And I thought, objection. She's like, I want to hear the commercial. You were objecting during the commercial. I said, no, no. I was like, what is the Bible? And of course, she had a really good point. She's like, well, I think the same thing when people say there's no owner manual for

For parenting. Yeah. She's like, objection. Of course, it's the same book that I had, which I do think it is an owner's manual for humans. It is. So even though I thought the commercial was pretty good. Yeah. Did you like the commercials? Well, I liked them overall. I mean, what's the best commercial?

Was obviously, did y'all watch the Super Bowl? Yep. Yeah. What was the best commercial? Well, my favorite was the WeatherTech commercial because it was hilarious. The ones I always laugh at are the ones of some little business that you've never heard of before, and you know they just roll the dice. It's usually in the second half, which rates are probably cheaper, and it's just some company that's just some random business thing, and you're like, what? What?

What was that? That was somebody taking everything they had and putting it all out on the table and saying, I'm hoping this will get us some more business. Well, 30 seconds cost $8 million. $8 million. I kept looking for the unashamed ad. What was crazy was all of a sudden it was just kind of to go in with your Song of Solomon theme.

It was just a breast commercial from every conceivable angle. I hate to say this, but I didn't miss that one. And I thought, this is terrible. What are we doing? But then when it got to the end, I thought, okay, I forgive you. Because their point was...

A pretty good one. Which actually, you're right. When we were all watching that in real time, because all my grandkids are there, we went from like complaining and, where's the remote, to then cheering by the end because it's like, oh, you know, ma'am's got breast cancer. You know, so it was like. Well, that's what I thought. I thought if you want to just really draw people's attention to something,

I'll offer you forgiveness on that. Yeah. So I saw someone posted on Instagram. It was a picture of the halftime show. And I'm Generation X. And it said Gen X is

I want to say something about how there's never been more confused in their life. I, like I didn't, I didn't quite get the whole, I feel like the pop culture is like leaving me behind. I couldn't, well, my take on it was it, I didn't understand it at all. Cause it's obviously not my genre of music or whatever. Cause I, I just couldn't understand it. Like I couldn't hear the words or get them, but I thought, well, they're not show exposing body part. Some of the halftime shows in the last 10 years have been just lewd. Um,

And it wasn't that. So I thought, well, that's good. And they had the red, white, and blue light dancers. And I thought, well, there's a little bit of patriotism. So I took the positives out of it. But I have to admit, I don't get it. It's not my – it obviously wasn't made for me.

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LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Y'all should follow my lead. I mean, once they went in a different direction for halftime shows, which Missy and I was trying to figure out when that was, but it's been at least a decade. Yeah, about a decade. We don't even watch it. Yes, that's time to go. I feel like it was the Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson. Yeah, that kind of started it. Maybe that's when I left the building.

But then we muted it and actually we called one of our kids, I think. We just talked the whole time. I mean, I had a hard time watching the game. I mean, it was just a strapping. I mean, it was. Well, we watched it because we were kind of rooting for the Eagles. Yeah.

And I really don't know why. Well, it's funny because I didn't have a dog in the hunt, but then Lisa and I are going to Kansas City later this week because we're doing an event this weekend near there. And so I found myself pulling for the Eagles because I thought, oh, man, I don't want to have a parade in town while we're there and trying to get around and get to my event. Well, that reminded me why I was rooting for the Eagles. Duh.

I have an event in Philadelphia this year. And I was like. Now you got a lead. I said, babe, if Philadelphia doesn't win this, my opening line is going to be, are y'all over it yet? I was like, so I think I'd rather them win. And I told her, I said, I really, because I watch football.

And without commercials and without the halftime show, you know, I watch the Red Zone. I don't like commercials or any kind of outside influence. And I met Scott Hanson at the Tebow event who does the NFL Red Zone, and I love this guy. He's awesome. He loves the Lord. He's a good guy.

And so I just told her, I was like, I think Philadelphia, before the game started, I said, I think Philadelphia is the better team. I picked them by 10. And I think they're going to win. Yeah, I picked them by 10. So then we were kind of, we were rooting for them. And...

And so now I can't wait to be in Philadelphia. Of course, I saw the way they celebrated the win, and I thought, now I realize why I'm called to Philadelphia. It's a mission field. Yeah, well, I just need to teach them the proper way to celebrate. But when did that, how many years has it been since that called on them? Like, okay, we won, we're happy, so let's destroy things. I think it has to do with the amount of outpouring.

We're back to the screwdrivers. Do you think they were drinking there, Jace? Do I think they were drinking there?

What gave it away? Tearing down stop signs and traffic lights. Well, I read one headline. The fact that if you look in the backdrop, Zach, there's people falling down without people pushing them. They're just staggering and falling down. It looked like a big wind was blowing. I did see the cocktails at the actual Super Bowl. I didn't do the research on it. I just read the headline. It said $60 for a cocktail. Wow.

You're going to pay for it if you want to get drunk. Well, the Super Bowl was at New Orleans. All the Philadelphia, I think they were just getting hammered watching it. And then they went to the streets. Did you notice, I think it was in the pregame, they showed the comparison. So the very first Super Bowl, the average ticket cost was $12.

And this year it was $5,850. Yeah. The average ticket. Well, I saw somewhere that in the late 60s, a Super Bowl ad cost $37,000, which is a lot. Yeah. And now it's $8 million. Yeah, exactly. So in that era, they had a...

And that thing has gone straight up. Were y'all as shocked as me that no sitting U.S. president had ever been to an actual Super Bowl? I was surprised. I was shocked. Because I think that's low-hanging fruit. Like, if you're the president. And I was really surprised that he got cheered and Taylor Swift got booed. Got booed. I know. It was crazy. It was bizarre. I thought, what?

what's happening, which kind of talks about that different mood change. You were talking about just kind of general. Well, I actually brought up Lauren Dago, knocked it out of the park. Oh yeah. I had our own Lauren Dago. Yeah. And a girl, she was awesome. Yeah. And she sings about Jesus. Yeah. She's a real deal. I went to an event at Angola prison and she was there with us. And there was about 15 of us that went back into the death row area. And, uh,

and just kind of met with some of the inmates, prayed with them. It really just bring hope, hope behind bars. You know, you think about, I mean, Phil spoke there before, have one of the greatest lines ever. You can, you can be under lock and key and still be free. And I was, we were, me and Jill had commented just watching her interact with people. Uh, she's such a,

A sweet person, amazing, genuine, loving person. But she did great. I thought she represented Louisiana very well. I agree. And Mary Connick Jr. Was he on there? Was he on there?

Yeah. I missed him. Yeah, he did at the end of the pregame show. I didn't see all the pregames. I love the tribute stuff they did, like to what had happened in New Orleans. And I just thought that was really well done. Yeah, I thought it was better. Yeah, and it's not, you know, like you think about even in five years, just the idea that we're like saying, man, yay to law enforcement, to first. It was just, I thought it was very, very popular. I thought the NFL did a nice job with that, you know, because some of the stuff they've done in the past, I'm like, yeah.

I thought that was a lot better. How is Phil? Well, it comes and goes. It comes and goes. I mean, I think he had a pretty rough week. He had another back procedure, which I think this is number six or seven. Seems to get a little harder to come out from under the anesthesia every time. He did. He was seeming a fog for a few days and kind of doing a little bit bizarre things. But...

A week later, I mean, yesterday he seemed to be doing a little better. A little more targeted. It's like we're losing each time. It's like it's that much harder to come back mentally. I mean, he's kind of got two things working against him physically and then mentally. Yep. And so they're compounding each other. So we're doing our best to make them comfortable. Yep. We've gotten them closer to town, uh,

Which has been much more helpful for us to take care of them properly and cook for them and everything. That's a big deal. It is, but they seem excited about it for the most part. Last thing Dad said to me yesterday, when I was leaving and telling him bye, he said, I don't know, keep visiting us. And I said, okay, Dad, I will. I promise. When I'm in town, I'll be here every day. Yeah, we appreciate your prayers. But that's the goal now. I think they both realize that

you know, we're, we're in the past and the legacy down stage. Cause there's really no cure for my dad's condition. And, uh, and we're not underestimating the power of God. He can do anything he wants at any time, which to go back to that, that boy I met and his name is Mason. So for you prayer warriors, if you want to put Mason on your prayer list, I mean, the boy has a brain tumor and they can't do anything about it. And, uh,

Despite this kid's attitude being great, I mean, I know that's got to be difficult. And so, you know, we don't underestimate the power of God. But where things are now with my dad, I mean, there just seems to be no way to reverse what's going on. Yeah.

And so we appreciate the support because now it's more just us making sure that they're comfortable and taking care of them too. Zach, I forgot to tell you, I met a couple when I was in Citronella, Alabama that has met you and Jill. They actually brought supplies up to you guys. And they have a son named Slade who met Bear at camp here at Camp Chioka. And he's coming back this summer. Do you remember them? Yeah.

I do. They were at that little church I was at way up there in central Alabama, and they said, tell you hello. But I just thought, man, what a small world that I run across this couple who had actually physically come and supported the hurricane relief work in your area. Oh, yeah. It was a lot how many people we had come up from the Unashamed Nation to help us. I mean, it was a lot, quite a bit. And one of my favorite stories was a lady who –

had listened to the podcast, wanted to be baptized. I think I've told this story before. I think it's cool that she wanted to get baptized. I connected her with a local church in another part of North Carolina. She gets baptized in that church, becomes part of that church, her and her whole family. They all come to know Jesus. And then they brought an entire group from that church to come

I served here for about four days and I thought, man, the kingdom is just amazing when you see God's people come together. And one thing happens today that has repercussions three years later that you never see coming. This episode is brought to you by MeUndies. Underwear drawers are like the Wild West. You never know what you're going to pull out or what shape it's in.

Well,

Well, there was a couple there, Jace, that had two. There were two boys there, and I guess there were two different families. They were about 11 and 12. And so the boys were there at the beginning, and then they left, of course, when the marriage event started. But one of them's name was Jace.

And he said, this is Jace. I said, hey, Jace. And I said, how old are you? And he said, I think he said he was 11. I said, were you named after our Jace? And he looked at me and he said, yes, sir. And I said, I'm so sorry. And everybody started laughing. But I mean, he was literally named after you. And then the parents told me they love the show. But I just wonder how many...

Young Jaces are out there running around America. I don't know. It's a big responsibility. I know. I just hope they turn out well. Yeah, me too. Well, that's why I'm talking about Jesus so much, which in our prep for where we are in John 1, when we left off where it says the next day John was there again with two of his disciples, that's in verse 35. So when he said, you know,

He saw Jesus passing by and said, look, the Lamb of God, which we had discussed earlier what that meant. But then these two disciples come up there, and he's like, well, what do you want? But I've been thinking about that a lot because here we are. When I was in that airplane seat talking to the agent, I basically made that same claim. I was like, he's like, what do you do?

which most in our culture, we always say, what do we do for money? But I've tried to change that. So when people ask me, what do you do? That's my answer. I'm like, I follow Jesus or I'm a disciple of Jesus. Because it immediately then breaks the ice for what that means. Then usually when they hear what they wanted to have answered, which is what do you do for a living?

Which they think is interesting. Yeah. Oh, you're on TV, make duck calls. These are interesting things. Because if you just say, you know, I'm an attorney, an accountant. I mean, like, it's not that those aren't important. We love it. But at the same time, it's like, would you say, I mean, that's a lot of people doing that. But when you say, you know, I make duck calls and I'm on TV. Yeah, I'm an entertainer. People are like, oh, well, that's interesting. But I like the fact that they think that,

It's more interesting that I didn't lead with that. Yeah. I mean, I just was laying down who I am here. And now we can talk about this other stuff. Right. Which what my point was when the conversation ended, he didn't end on duck calls or TV or agent. He was like...

He was trying to then assert his religious background, which was, may the Lord bless everything. I remember something I heard in a class somewhere. But I was bringing that up because I had all these notes on what I was going to do for my speech. Wow.

which none of that worked. When you get up, it's just like you tend to go to default setting. And so I never looked at them. But what I wanted to bring up with y'all, what I found interesting is in this little interaction of making the disciples, and I might have read this somewhere, but when you think about why God chose this plan and why John goes through and writes the way he did, because this first chapter is like,

It's kind of an overview of the big picture on the plan of God. Yeah, it's more than an overview to a letter. It's an overview to everything. Yeah, so then as you read this, you're constantly going back to what he introduced. So I've really been looking at it through those...

glasses, I guess. And you know what really kind of just hit me between the eyes, which I guess I knew this. I'd never thought about it. But think about what Jesus did and why he had to go to the right hand. Now, one, we make the point accurately from Hebrews that he's there on our behalf and

in God's presence because he's made atonement for our sins. You know, think about Hebrews 1 where it says, after he provided purification for sins, this is 1 through 3, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty of heaven. And so I get that's a part of it. But when you read chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8 of Hebrews, it's kind of deeper there. It's like he's our sacrifice that's living forever. But also another thing,

is by him doing that and remaining a man, he's bound to one location. So if he then could pour out his spirit, and think Galatians 4, 1 through 6, where it says he's given us the spirit of his son. Well, he now could be in multiple places at one time.

which would become a ministry of showing humanity

heaven, and God on the earth. Yes. So what hit me in that was, you remember in 2 Corinthians, I didn't notice, because it made me go back and read 2 Corinthians 2 all the way through the first part of chapter 6, on how many times he's talking about this ministry, this ministry, this ministry, and he calls it the ministry of the Spirit. Yeah. And it's like humans that have become Jesus on the earth,

And I thought, what a plan this is from God's perspective. Yeah. Have you ever thought about that? Yeah. And I love it that you're in it. It's a multiplication model idea. Because I always say Jesus could have stayed on Earth and then beamed himself around the planet to do whatever he wanted to. But in his infinite wisdom, he understood it was better to have us do that. It was like we were just describing on this podcast. I mean, this past weekend, you...

You were in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I'm in Citronelle, Alabama, and Zach is in Portland, Oregon. The three of us do this podcast, and we share our Bible study together, and it beams out to a lot of people. But then sometimes we go out, and we were in three individual places the same weekend sharing the same message face-to-face to people. That's exactly what Christ did through the Holy Spirit.

You've got the central message of who God is, but then by giving us the Spirit, now we're able to be literally around the world at the same time. I mean, it was a brilliant plan. So 2 Corinthians 3, 7 actually uses that phrase. It says, if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, because he's talking about Moses and the Ten Commandments, it says...

came with glory so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be ever more glorious? I like that little phrase, the ministry of the Spirit, which then he leads to something that we've read many times where it says in verse 17 of chapter 3, now the Lord is the Spirit.

And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. But it made me think of the big picture of John when he said, in the beginning...

was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then the Word became flesh, verse 14. But when you go back to creation and you have God,

And the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters. And then God said, let there be light. So boom, then creation is born. And they go through it all. And it's all good. It's all good. It's all good. And then it gets to 26. And it's like, and let us make man in our image. Well, I started thinking about this. Here's Jesus becoming a human as the image of God. Then here's us becoming a new creation. Yeah.

who were originally made in the image of God. And what is the image supposed to represent? It's reflecting people who come to you back to the original creator. Right. Which I thought, man, this thing is going full circle here. That's what the intent of humans was.

That was the intent of having humans. Right. Is that we then could be used by God to show who he is on the earth to other humans who haven't figured it out yet. Yeah, I love it. And in fact, one last thing before we wrap, because since we've been talking about the Super Bowl,

By waiting to the end of the game, which was obviously over, but we just kept watching it because we were just watching the commercials and talking. And I'm so glad I waited to the end because when it ended and then they were doing the interview with the coach and Jalen Hurts and the winners, obviously –

God and Jesus were mentioned so many times. I was shocked. The coach mentioned him four or five times and even made sure and said the name Jesus with God. It wasn't just all glory to God, which I don't take anything lightly, especially when you've got 120 million people watching. I mean, I'm praising God they're mentioned, but it was more, they felt more emboldened.

to invoke the name of God and Jesus in those moments. And it kind of, as we talked about earlier about me being a Dodger fan, it kind of expanded my ideas really more about teams and who wins to really who's out there fighting the big battle, which is the most important. So I had so much respect for those guys for doing that. And I was super encouraged by that. I was too. Which is good. All right. Well, we're out of time. We'll get back to John next time on. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed Podcast.

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