Ep 1064 | Jase Survives a Bullet to the Head & Why He Never Lost a Fight with Willie Robertson
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blundering of Dallas. His chosen debacle. You showed up at the chosen, but you weren't chosen. He was unchosen. It just shows you. Yeah.

You got chosen. He showed up unchosen, not the chosen, but then got chosen. If you seek, you will find. That is true. Or you will be found. You better hope to have at least some semblance of a recognizable. What story were you telling? I forgot. Well, so I was telling that Zach had, we had met at the airport. Oh, yeah. So then Zach says. Yeah, we literally never got past the first date. That's okay, Jase. You launched in and it was a good story. So.

So Zach says, he said, where are y'all sitting? And I said, well, I'm in three.

And he said, look at there. And he was in three. Well, that's in first class. Exactly. And so Zach, I was like, I thought to myself immediately, I thought, there's no way Zach paid to be first class. I did not pay for it. And I was like, because, I mean, this man, he's so tight he squeaks when he walks. Well, that's what happened to me then. I got upgraded. You got upgraded. I was not chosen, but I got chosen. He got chosen. So he winds up sitting next to me. So he and I are talking. We're talking about today and we're talking about the podcast and like, we're catching up. We haven't seen each other in a while. We're cousins.

And so this flight attendant named Monique, who was unique is what I told Monique that she was unique. So she was like, she, what would, how would you describe her? Feisty. Feisty. And like, she's on the thing, calling out people in the back of the plane. And we're kind of laughing at first. Well, then we're talking all during the safety demonstration, which most people just read their stuff. I've been on a thousand flights, you know, so I'm not, so I'm talking to Zach. Well, she goes, I guess, and looks up our name, uh,

So she comes back up. Mr. Marshall. Okay, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Zachary. And like immediately we stopped talking because I was like, she knows our name. She knew our name. Really? She did. And then she said,

What happens if this plane goes down? What do you do? What are you going to do? And we're like, uh. And I was trying to remember because I've been on the plane. Exactly. Well, you take the large end of the buckle and you buckle it. What do you do? He goes back to the seatbelt. I'm screaming, what do you do? We don't know. She called us out. She was like, I can't help you. I got to be the last one on. Because I said, well, I'm trying to make a joke. I said, well, we're following you, Monique. And she had already said her name. Y'all missed it. You got awkward. You missed the prompt.

See, I went through this whole thing about the kingdom and we live the presence of the king. We should have said we're going to heaven. I would have said, let me tell you when this plane goes down, I'm going to be transformed. This body. Al, we've been doing this podcast and we don't use the phrase going to heaven. Yeah.

I know, I know. But I'm saying, yeah, I get where Jay's just going. But I'm like, I would have gone into the resurrection. That's a good, I should have thought of that. But here's where you dropped the ball. She put me on the defensive, and so then I was like, well, I guess we're going to follow you. And she said, well, you're not following me. I'm not getting off this plane. I'm the last one off. See, there it was again. I know. He said, I'm following Jesus. Part of that following is 1 John 3. We're going to be like him.

We're going to be transformed to be like him. When you're in the moment, it's intimidating because she was very aggressive.

There's always resistance when you live for the king. And she had the phone. She had the license. And she had already yelled at three different people. Sir, sir, sir, sit down. Sir, you're holding up the entire plane. She yelled at the other flight attendant. She said, flight attendants. It's time for the staff. Please take your seat. And she never took a beat. She's like, flight attendants, please take a seat. Flight attendants, please take a seat. Flight attendants, please take a seat.

Please take it. She just kept doing it until the girl sat down. Jace is right, though. We probably would have shut her down if we had gone kingdom. You're right. I have to give you credit. You're right. She was begging. Give me. And then she ends with, as soon as the girl sat down, she goes, I love you.

Which I was like... She did that to the guy, too. I mean, you have love, you have resurrection, you have following. She was so passive-aggressive. She just had... Zach and I were like, she threw us off. I didn't know what to say. She threw me for a loop. And...

Well, I'm trying to rebuke y'all, but y'all are not taking it. Well, your dad is more, you're more like your dad. So you have ice water running through your veins, which is a good thing. But it feels like he was like that. I'm trying to be like Jesus here. Well, I mean, you're emulating Phil as he emulated Jesus. You can give credit to him. So I have a rule that because I believe people, you know, God is seeking everyone. I have the Spirit.

I'm on a plane, which people in that moment are vulnerable. You're trapped. Well, you're trapped, but also due to turbulence. Which we had last night. You know, let's try this. Let's go up and fly, you know, hundreds of miles an hour. Yeah.

In an aluminum tube. People tend to be thinking. More receptive to the gospel. Yeah, they are. Because all you have to see, I've been a part of two emergency. Maybe that's why I'm on me was so chatty. Oh, yeah. I've been a part of two emergency landings. And guess what? It got spiritual. It always does. There were people praying. One of my favorite Phil stories is,

was we were on a plane. I think I've told it on this podcast before. If I have, I apologize. Don't apologize. Tell it again. I've told it again. A good story is worth retelling. I have many planes. That's what this whole podcast is based on. We're on a King Air, 30,000 feet in the air. Just think about that. The name of it is what? A King Air. A King Air.

I don't think so. You're not king of the air. Well, there's a ruler of the air, a king of the air, and then there's a king of everything. And then there's the king of kings. The king of kings. But go ahead. It's me, Phil, my wife, and my son, Bear, who does have a thing, some kind of disorder where he has to touch everything and tear it apart.

I don't know if it's a disorder. It's like a curiosity. He's very destructive. He doesn't know how to put things back together. He walks in a room, there's a bunch of buttons. He doesn't know what they do. He just starts pushing them. I just see what it would do. Well, you don't know. Don't do something you don't know. This was the guy who went out and got in the van when he was 14 and just decided he was going to move it and then ran into another vehicle. He pulled the hubcaps off the van when he was two and a half. But where was he born?

He's born here in this town. Well, there you go. Because this place, that's what we do. That's why the life expectancy. So you've been thinking the whole time it's a genetic disorder. It's all environmental. Something with a paper mill. They dump something in the water, some kind of gamma rays. It's redneck. No, it's just coming up. He's a hybrid. He's a mutant. You try things. That's why south of the interstate, Alamos is, the life expectancy is cut in half.

Because people try stuff and they get blown up.

They die. He's made it to 17. That's pretty incredible. You know, we've gotten further than we thought. We had a Bears 5 and he's a live party. Yeah. So anyways, Bears about. Well, you named your son. You agreed with your wife, apparently, to name your son after an Alabama coach. That's true. So whatever happens in your life. That's true. Now, there's a famous story that happened south of the interstate because these, back when I was a kid. When you say south of the interstate, you mean south of I-10?

No, I'm talking about I-20. We're sitting right here south. We are technically south. We are. So guess what? You're in danger. It is different. But Al remembers this. We have guests here today. You're in danger. Well, we were raised stealing gas was a thing. And look, I will confess my sins. I did it many times. Like siphoning it out of somebody's car? Yeah. We cut so many. Nobody's water hose is.

south of the interstate has an actual nozzle on the end because they've all been cut. Pieces. And they get shorter and shorter because every time you get some gas. When you're low on gas, you pull up. That's what would happen. But it changed when two guys were doing it at night and one of them, they couldn't see. And he's like, shine your light over here. Well, the guy couldn't, he dropped his light, didn't have his light. So he just in a moment of stupidity,

He created light by striking a match so he could see. Bad move. They're not here anymore.

Did that change the gas stealing game? Well, it did. Because word got out. People said, good night. Did you hear about them two old boys? I'm not even sure it's a real story, but it was a story told by redneck parents to keep their kids from siphoning gas. It's like folklore that could be true. I'm sure it's based on a true story. We're on a plane. Yeah. Because we were talking about a plane. Yeah, we started there. We started with a plane. And...

I hear the loudest explosion that you could have, like a shotgun just boom in the cabin of this King Air eight seater, you know, plane and preceded by a sucking or I guess proceed. What comes after proceed? After that came a sucking, a big sucking sound. And, uh,

Of course, I thought Bear has opened the door. I'm thinking Bear did this. I'm out of here. So Phil, he grabs Bear because Bear was not in the seatbelt, yanks him back and puts him in the seat and said, buckle up, son, and then filled the first thing out of his mouth.

He said, well, boys, it's resurrection time. Yeah. So his gut instinct. Why does this seem bizarre to you? This is what's fascinating to me. Because most people have like a flight or, I guess, flight or fight response. Mine is flight. I'm like, whoa, we're dying. This is over. And he's just like, well, just cold water in the veins. All right, boys, this is what we've been working for. Last night, remember we had the pan fall down.

with Monique out there. This is huge. Something's off here, man. More spiritual. I would say top 10 places. I share Jesus is on a plane. Al fast growing trees. What do you have? A fruit tree, a couple of fruit trees, a couple of fruit trees that are doing great. Also have a palm tree, uh,

that is really grown very, very large. Well, I'm in the border business now, so I have ordered and planted my Leland Cypress trees. Leland Cypress trees are a great barrier tree, and they grow fast, by the way. So we're building a barrier, a wall, which we got from FastGrowingTrees.com. It's the biggest online nursery in the U.S. with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers.

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And listeners to our show get 15% off their first purchase when using the code unashamed at checkout. That's an additional 15% off at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code unashamed at checkout. Fastgrowingtrees.com, code unashamed. Now's the perfect time to plan. Use code unashamed to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions do apply. I just make it. Now, I will say the last flight I took,

I thought this is going to be difficult because whoever I'm sitting by, and I've shared many stories here. There was a CEO of a business, a Marine we had at the time before last was a Marine. He was fixing to head to Japan. I'm like, perfect. Yeah. There's a missionary.

And so it took an hour, but we got there. Now, I've had some great gospel conversations on the plane. But the last one, I get in the plane. I sit down. I look up and say, who's God sent me here? This guy had a mask. Now, we're past the COVID, I thought, and a shield. Oh, boy. And earbuds, I thought. That says, leave me alone. This is going to be tough. Okay.

There's no way to the heart here. So I basically wound up, I mean, I said, hey, how you doing? He looked at me. Did you know what? Nope. Nope. Didn't take him out. The whole trip. Sign language was all you had with that one. So what I did was I took my Bible out. I kind of looked in the corner of my eye just to see if he, nope.

Then I started easing over into his section with my Bible. With your Bible. You're like turning it towards him when he can see it. And I studied my Bible with half of it in his space. And you got your finger pointing to the text you want him to read. Oh, my goodness. There you go. That's what I did. That's not a bad point. It's the best I could do in the moment because, I mean, I thought –

I actually, in my prayer, I thought, you know, I thought we had something going here. I mean, you're putting this to the test. So that's what I tried. He had a face mask. He had a mask. He had a shield. Like, we're talking Star Wars. I saw a guy on a motorcycle.

And he had the motorcycle on. He's on it by himself, and he's got a mask on. Underneath the helmet. And I've seen people driving cars by themselves, and they have masks on. I can't figure out what that is. Yeah. He just got used to it, I guess. Well, I actually, at church yesterday, bumped into a buddy of the guy when I told a story a few podcasts ago about the guy, you know, his first time to fly. Oh, yeah. His buddy yesterday said it was the first time he had flown in a while. Wow.

The story I heard was first ever. First ever. And, you know, mid-flight, this hand comes back. Because I thought he was behind me because he had asked where I was sitting, which I didn't understand why he was asking me all this. It was making me nervous because he looked rough, but he was in uncelebrated recovery. Right. And I was like, why does he want to know where I'm sitting on this plane? And I was looking at his bags. I was like, it could be some kind of undercover thing.

Maybe he's going to do something bad. Why do you care where I'm sitting? But then I realized that in case it started going down, he wanted me to pray for him because I'm an unashamed believer. But then he brings that hand back because turbulence was bad.

And I said, hey, dude, I'm not holding your hand. Because it wasn't that bad. You know, there was no, the stewardesses were still standing. Which is what we always say. So he said, yeah, I heard about what happened. And I was like, well, how did he take that? Because I didn't want to offend him either. Yeah.

Because I basically gave him a sermon because he was sitting next to me. I was like, I know you said you're a believer, but either you're going to believe this stuff or not. A little turbulence and all of a sudden you want to hold my hand? No, we're not holding hands. Not holding hands. Nope.

I would have died. Once again, I pray that you're committed. Well, I'm saying you either believe in the resurrection or you don't. I told you. My prayer, I pray always. I'm body, soul, and spirit committed to Christ. If today's the day you take me, then today's the day. Would you get scared in the moment if you heard me? I mean, you'd never be happy about it. But once you've prayed the prayer that you're committed and all in. I didn't know how I was going to respond until they said, we're going down. Make preparations. And they weren't saying, because there's nothing you can do.

So I thought, oh, we got a spiritual guy flying this thing. Make preparation. What does that mean? You're fixing to meet your maker. That's what he was saying. Yeah. And I was like, okay, here we go. This is it. So I kind of passed the test. So when we were, the flight I was taking to go to Kentucky on the same trip, we get in the airport and one of my dearest sisters in Christ in the world, Betty Cooper, she

who just ran for mayor of Monroe recently this last time. She was my very first professor that I knew in college.

And she taught me computers. But she is the most amazing woman. Is that not true? She is amazing. So when she was passing me on the plane, we had talked in the airport. And then when she was passing me on the plane, I said, well, I feel so much better, Miss Betty, because you're on this flight. I mean, they don't get any more of a godly woman than you. And she looked at me and she said, well, I felt the same way when I saw you. And I thought, what a...

What a thing to be like other people are happy when you're on the fly. You want to live your life where they say, Zach, I'm so glad you're here. Maybe we'll make it. What would have been funny is if I would have been in your seat and Zach sat down, I thought, see, from my perspective...

You would have thought I'm going to share the gospel with this guy. Oh, no, I wouldn't have thought. I would have done it, even though you're my cousin. Because I would have thought, the Lord worked this out. So something's going on. Some reason he's here. Well, we did talk a lot, so we even got in trouble. There's something like a schoolmarm. We bought it. Well, I believe this is real. You know what I found fascinating? You know, the first words of John that Jesus spoke, you remember what they are?

The first one. What are you looking for? What do you want? You know what? You know what? I missed something on this. So we're in John four, right? Right. Well, you know where it says, he tells the Samaritan woman, I thought we were done with this, but I guess we're not. Uh,

Verse 22, you Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and it's now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. So we made a big deal about it's a person, not a place, wherever he is. The...

Let's see. The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. So I found that word seeks interesting there, because usually it's all about us seeking. Remember, seek first the kingdom. Matthew 6, 33. I talked about that last time. Well, that's us seeking. But I thought that's interesting that he's saying the Father's the one doing the seeking. Yeah.

Well, so I thought, I wonder how many times that's mentioned. So I looked it up in the Greek. Well, what I found fascinating was I thought that was the first time it was mentioned because that's the first time it's translated seek. But when I look back at John 1, 38, turning around, Jesus saw them following and said, Greek word here, what do you seek? It's the same word, seek.

Where it says want, it's the same word that I just read in John 4. Interesting. In verse, ooh, I was writing that down. I'm writing that down. I think that means good. 23. But here's what I found fascinating. It's mentioned a ton. That's why I said in the last podcast, when you seek first the kingdom, you're never going to stop seeking. Right. Now, God is seeking, and then we become seekers because we surrendered to the king first.

And so that's how this works. When we were in that text, I asked the question, who is seeking whom? Because it was back and forth, right? I mean, Jesus was obviously looking for them. They were going to be the disciples, but they were also looking for him. So it does seem that quid pro quo. I mean, that's the nature of a relationship, if you think about it. A relationship's never a one-sided relationship.

You know, like it's, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's where you seek each other and you find, you find that connection. I think that the Lord, God, the father wants, he's a relational God, even in his inner life. He's, he's father, son, spirit. I mean, he's not one person. He's three persons, one being. Yeah.

So I think we see that. And I think a lot of times in theologies, we'll get off when we miss that. And I understand why we probably miss that sometimes, because we don't want to give man credit for anything in terms of salvation. True. But I am a relational being, and God has called me into relationships. So there is a mutual... I do seek Him. Now,

Now, Romans says that no one seeks God, but the point, I think, is in our own will, it's been distorted. It has been corrupted by the fall. But Romans also says that those by persistence seek glory and immortality, he will give eternal life. So I think there's like this, I think that's the God's, he is connecting with people through a revelation of himself, right?

And we have a, we, when we're in, he, he reveals that to us and we can reject that. We can reject the conviction of the spirit and say, I don't, I don't want any part of that. But to reject that is to actually reject truth. And to reject truth is to reject the very essence of life itself. Cause that's what God is revealing to us. Well, I thought about when, when very, at the very first temptation, when you said that, when the woman saw the fruit was good for food, she,

pleasing to the eye, desirable for gaining wisdom. She took some and ate it. Nowhere in there is the idea about seeking what God wanted for her. You know, everything in that context was only for what she thought was best for her when he told her, you will be like God. I mean, to me, it's like that becomes the ultimate struggle for any of us.

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Go to tomorrowclubs.org slash unashamed today to learn more and become a Tomorrow Clubs ministry partner. That's tomorrowclubs.org slash unashamed. Quoted that Romans 3, which is a quote from what, Psalms 14? Well, you remember, I know the first verse in Psalm 14. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. I'm saying, though, at some point, you look at Jesus because God is seeking you. That's how he draws men to himself. Right.

And then you're like, oh, maybe I should do some seeking. So I'm saying I think God changes the heart, convicts you by the Holy Spirit. But I like the way you brought it up about how even in human relationships we can see that. You remember the old movie When Harry Met Sally? And they kept showing their past and they would run into each other, but

It was never the right, the timing was never right. Somebody was already doing something else. And so at the end of it, they go back and they say, when we first met this, when didn't we met this, and when we met this. But he says an amazing statement at the end when he finally decides we're meant to be together. He says, when you decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to begin as soon as possible, you know, because he wanted to get married.

But you could say that with any human relationship when you look back over a course of time. I don't know how it is with you and Jill, but when Lisa and I share what Christ has done in us, we go back and we were kids and Lisa saw me as kids. I didn't seek her. I didn't even notice her. And then later in life when I got my life right, I sought her because I thought this is somebody I could spend the rest of my life with. And she did.

She was there, but at the same time, she didn't really come fully on board until 15 years into our relationship when...

when we had a tragic fall before we finally both got on the same page. Because what was interesting is now we both sought each other, but more importantly, we both sought a relationship with Christ and it changed everything. And that's what changed for 25 years. So, I mean, you see that human relationship quotient that's in every one of these days. Yeah, you see it. And that's the correlation to the text here is the father wants Christ

worshipers who will worship him in truth and spirit. If your relationship with your spouse or with Lisa, if it was just transactional and you're like, what are the things I got to do? I'm going to study about Lisa. I'm going to know about Lisa. I know all the things that she likes. But if it never moved beyond that to like a real personal connection where your spirit is connected. And then I think the truth comes into play in that, like this is a revelation of reality, right?

And so we can hide behind a lot of lies as humans. We can trick ourselves. I mean, guilty as charged. And the kind of worshipers the Father is seeking is not the Pharisees who had the illusion of

of worship, but really their hearts were far from him. So they had built these structures. It was like a virtue signaling. Or like data-driven. Data-driven or social media. They got social media. You present...

And what's funny about this, by the way, people know this to be true. Like social media, you know if you're looking at someone and you know it's not their real life. Everybody kind of knows that. But it's like still you got to present like it is. It's like this whole weird world of like... Who presents the best fake narrative? We all know it's fake. But the social... You climb the social ladder based on how well... This is particularly true for young people. How well you can present. And...

that's why like, it doesn't even matter like you, but you see this person, you ever saw like a, someone on Facebook or Instagram and you meet them in real life. You're like, Ooh, you don't quite look the same as I thought you would. Yeah. Probably people say that about me, but, but it's, it's like, it's the picture. It's the virtue. It's the whitewashed tomb. And, and this passage in John, um,

Four, Jesus is like disrupting that entire motif and he's saying, like, I'm actually penetrating right to the core of the human. I'm looking for like real relationship, which is why he goes on later in John, the Gospel of John, to define eternal life as a person, knowing a person. Which is why Lisa said when she was on the podcast and we were talking about this, she has such a poignant statement. I don't know if you remember her saying it. She said he, and she could say this from her own experience,

He didn't go to the well for the water. He went there for her. Yeah. And you remember, he never, then the story, he never drinks any water. It said he was tired. It said he's on the long trip. He never drinks any water.

And then she leaves the jar, as you pointed out in the last podcast. So the whole thing is built around, the whole story is built around a well full of water. They had the whole conversation about living water, but nobody ever drank any water or took any water with them at the end of the story. That's why I brought up that illustration about, that's why I don't eat on those events. I've got that from here. I was just like, this is more important. I mean, fasting is...

A very good venture. I mean, my wife does it every year, which is. But I kind of get keyed up before I speak and really don't want to eat anyway. Are you like that? I'm the same way, but I'm saying. Like you're just a little like. Well, I'm jittery. I'm ready to go. You know, I don't want to be weighted down. There's been famous stories of people that, you know, go did some thrashing before they spoke. Well, you just had the guy, what's his name? Throw in the comedian that was sitting at the.

Front row seat, I think the Lakers guy, I forgot who they were playing. What's that guy's name? He's a famous comedian, and he ate something right before the game, and he got food poisoning. Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying. And he threw up on the— And it's like all—it was like all over the papers had pictures of the whole— I mean, that's a vulnerable—you know what I mean? You want to talk about losing your credibility, even though it's like normal. We all do it, but to have that—

broadcasted across the world. That's old Brian Rucker who's been on the podcast before. He's young. He's growing and learning. Because he was on our show, he got these opportunities to go speak. He's a young guy, so he goes in the green room and it's full of food. He's just scarfing it all down. Then he gets up on stage and starts having some

stomach discomfort on stage. He said, the reason I was walking back and forth, it wasn't because I was pacing and trying to move around while I was speaking. I was trying to get away from what I was leaving on the stage. Yeah, this was the Knicks game. It was Tracy Morgan.

Oh, yeah. The guy's on Saturday Night Live. They got him on camera. He'll never be the same. Oh, that's it. His career's over. Oh, yeah. Not really. There's a lot of things you can't do on camera. Vomiting is one of them. Yeah, it's a vulnerable thing. Oh, you don't want to do that. You could get away with it as a disciple of Jesus. You could get away with it. Well, you've never seen yourself do this, but have you ever seen someone else do it? Oh, yes. It's the most disgusting thing. I mean, if I threw up on stage while I was speaking, I would say, evidently, I had a demon. Yeah.

that needed to come out. I mean, I would be... And look, they would laugh. And guess what? I'd keep talking. You'd just keep going? Would you just step around and go? One moment where this all started is I ate something. Oh, my goodness. I can't remember. It was years ago. Then got up to speak. It was like a local event. It wasn't like I got on a plane or anything. And, you know, I started having some...

some digestion while I was speaking and my, my stomach started cramping. And so I was like, yeah, I was like somewhere on that snake story. So I just turned it into, I'm in a lot of pain right now. Yeah. And, uh,

Tried to be funny with whatever I had eaten, but it wasn't working. But then I just turned it on them. I was like, evidently somebody in here needs to repent. That's what you're saying. Because I'm finding. Because I'm feeling the cramps of sinfulness. I'm being attacked by the spiritual forces here. See, that's why he would have taken on Monique. Now I know. You could have handled her. You could have handled her.

Well, look, Lisa, last year, a year ago, this time in February, she passed out on stage. Now we know why, because she had breast cancer. She didn't know it yet. She was dehydrated. But she passes out on stage, like literally falls in my arms, and I lay her down on the stage. It's a huge gasp. Ten people are up on stage. Everybody's checking her. She sits up, and they're like, well, did we just shut this down? And I was like, what do you do? And she's like, no, I ain't finished. I was like, really? Yeah.

She said, yeah, just give me a mic. Everybody likes a comeback story. I mean, and like, it was a comeback. We sat her down on a chair and she went for 20 more minutes. That's good TV. I mean, you got to remember, the reason I am coming across like I am, because my number one fear in life, if you had to say of all the fears that you've ever had in your entire life, if you had to put number one, and you know what it is, right? Public speaking. Public speaking.

I've heard you say that, which is shocking. I never spoke. Al, do you remember me ever talking before the age of about... No, I just thought he couldn't speak. I thought he was mute for the first five years. I don't remember you. He didn't talk a lot when I was a kid either. It was more... Now, if you cross me, I talked to...

Now you were extremely mean. Yes, yes, yes. I was because you've forgotten how you were as a child. It wasn't just me who thought that. No, it was everybody. You see your son who you just mentioned earlier. That was you. Yeah.

By the way. I don't think so. Well, for fun, most kids, what they do is they make fun of other people or they try to hurt other people. Not anything major, but it's like they'll come up and

Like, what'd you call it? The Zerp. Zerp. Zerp. See, that kind of stuff, I hate that stuff. It's never funny. And the Dashers thrive on it. They've got a hundred videos of them doing that to their dad. So you and Willie have that same personality. Yeah. Sick. Most people move from that after the eighth grade. Yeah. Where it's like, oh, I'm going to lick my finger and stick it in your ear or something. That's funny. Yeah.

So you're going to have a big time on the duck car road. I can tell you that already. Jace, what was the first job that you remember having as a kid? First chore? Yeah, did you do chores? You had to earn money, though, for this. The free work doesn't count. We didn't call them chores. We just were told, you're up.

Yeah, I think we can all admit that maybe our raising, they could have done better. They didn't pay us money. It was all freebie work that we had to do. Jason and I hauled hay when we were young. And you got paid for it? We got paid for that from the local farmers. That was probably our first money gig. I really do believe that one of the problems in our American Western culture today is kids do not know the value of hard work and they don't know the value of money.

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So look, I'm accidentally funny. I've come to grips with that. Great. Every time I try to be funny, it's not. My wife has sent that message home. She's like, just be you and I'll laugh when something's funny. But it's always when I wasn't trying to be funny. So I've learned that.

But to me, I'd never like humor where someone else is degraded in any way. That's why I fall. And I still, I don't like it. I was like, if you got to make fun of somebody else...

To be funny, I'm not with you. Which is Willie's modus operandi. Well, you're saying Willie, but I'm saying... You think I'm in the same category? That's what he's saying. Y'all are mirror images of each other. Which is why they fight so much. That's hard to hear. I'm going to be honest with you. We wouldn't have done this through the screen, but now that you're here, this is an intervention. I'm not saying my meanness was justified, but...

Or that he's even right to the Lord. You never laughed as a kid. No. I never saw you laugh. I never saw you smile. No. There's some trauma there. I could not have worked for Mother Teresa.

Up until the age of 14. Because, you know, that was her... She had one prerequisite for working with her, which was you must smile. Yeah. I don't remember having a conversation with you probably the first 15 years of my life. I feel like the relationship started when I was about 17, maybe. Well, that's my point. But the Lord, literally... I mean, it's my...

Everybody has their own quirks. But that was the transformational process of the Lord and the Spirit, which still took two years. I came to the Lord at 14, forgave all grievances, especially with my dad and mom. I was like, let's start over in the name of Christ. But it was still until 16 that I thought, I just kept reading and I thought, dang it, I'm not going to be able to be quiet about this.

I remember thinking that one night. I thought, I'm just not going to be able to do it. When he told the story about the first time he shared with the person on the phone, but they weren't speaking, so that allowed him to do that. It was perfect. I had a prank caller. The first person I shared, like the plane thing, because I was all worked up about it. I kept reading the verses. I thought, man, I think we're called to do something. We're called to be something in Christ. I thought about maybe I could just write it.

and mail it to people. But I started thinking about all my buddies up at school, and I thought, they don't have anything going. I mean, why am I so intimidated by them? So when I did start declaring, which it started that night with the prank caller, which their silence is what really moved me, because I thought, what else could I have talked about where they'd have just sat here and listened for hours?

I mean, that's where it all got started. Yep. And it was never resolved. I tell that story and people are like, don't tell a story without an ending. I'm like, well, the ending was, I realized this is the most powerful message on the planet. I don't know whatever happened to them. I'm not assuming they came around, but it's embarrassing to say, how'd you come to the Lord? Well, actually, there was a guy having a problem with speaking.

And he shared with me, and I was a prank caller. I mean, you would never want that part of your testimony. Will that person find you in heaven, do you think? I think so. I think we're going to have a conversation, if they make it. But I mean, the first person that I shared with was anonymous.

So like if you had a list of people to share with, it was an anonymous person. Well, you know, Seinfeld said that consistently the number one fear of people in polls or public speaking, number two is death. So Seinfeld took that to say, if you're at a funeral, you'd rather be in the casket than behind the podium. I think so. Yeah. Because the first time I did share with my buddies, my hands were shaking. And the first Bible study I had with Blake, we had him on there, you know, I was ripping pages out of my Bible and,

First time I publicly spoke. First time you spoke in chapel, you were nervous when we were in school. But Jace was a natural. He didn't know because he was scared. But, I mean, I'm watching him. I thought, man, he's going to be good. Well, at some point, we are what we are. And so whether the place— I realize it's a gift because I go places and people will open up and, you know, God bless them.

And they'll try, but it's, you know, they probably need to be doing something else. I mean, they, you know. Not everybody can do it. Not everybody can do it. But I think if you try to, you know, we have the, if you try to come at it like I'm a professor and here's what you need to do. And that's why I don't really like points and I don't like notes and,

Because you're revealing a person at the end of the day. I mean, this book is about a person. But by the way, so what we were talking about earlier, Dr. Hite, we had him on. What he described a minute ago, talking about our childhood, we were doing what he was saying. We were having non-risk-averse conversations. We were learning how to deal. Now we're all partners doing this podcast. It was a little risky for some of us, but...

But, yeah, I mean, you were pretty kind. I was. Jace was very dismissive. Willie was. I don't even know who you're talking about. I don't know about you. When? When you were a kid. You were dismissive. You were like, don't talk to me. It was like an unspoken rule that we don't acknowledge each other. If you acknowledge me. Your name's not Robert, so it doesn't really matter. Now, Willie was, I think he intentionally went after and tried to torment

So his was like, I'm coming after you. I agree. You mentioned the wet willy. The wet willy. Maybe that came from him where you lick your finger and stick it in somebody's ear. And what do they call them? The Murphys and all. Anything. Any little trick that could inflict pain. He knew all those. See, there's pain and there's real pain.

And so my response to those kind of things, I got that out of the way early. That's how we learned to get along and live. Did y'all fist fight ever? Not so much. I took his knee out one time. He took my knee out one time. He called it a sucker punch. I broke his arm a couple of times. You fought Willie, though. I do remember seeing a few of those. I had an undefeated record against Willie, which is strange because he outweighs me, obviously. But he didn't back then. Yeah.

what are you talking about? You think I'm skinny now? Well, he was pretty, he wasn't always fat like he is now. It's like one of my Navy SEAL friends told me, it's not the big fat guys you got to worry about. And he meant muscle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, those scrawny looking skinny fellas that look like they can run. Wiery guys. He said, you got to watch them. So I took that as a compliment. Yeah. But I don't know, maybe it was the reach. Maybe. I think my best thing

fight move was because I didn't most people didn't want to put your brother in the hospital or whatever but I'll put you in the hospital if you want to come at me I'm going to hurt you so you're going all in I went all in oh my goodness did you ever break anything on him

I'm sure I did. We had lots of fights. I don't think he ever had. Jay's had a couple of breaks, but the rest, no, he was only one. Well, the night I broke my arm was actually. We were just. We were horsing around. We were horsing. We were wrestling. We didn't realize that if you do those moves like they're doing without being a professional, you'll break stuff.

Yeah, the suplex is not a real... Yeah, when you leg sweep somebody, it's their... Or the DDT or the power drive. They're probably going to break their arm. I would say most of the injuries were accidental. When I got shot in the head, it was an accident. Nobody... You were standing too close to the trash barrel. Got shot right in the head. You got shot in the temple. With what? 22 bullet. 22 bullet or an airsoft gun. But the hole, the hole. When was this? It was a shrapnel. I was in third grade. Yeah, he was little. Third grade was a tough year for me.

I broke my arm. We're going back. I got shot in the head. I got shot in the head. Who shot you? The trash pile. Trash pile. Which we hung around trash piles as kids, which was really weird. I kind of remember. The only whiskey I've ever drank in my life, I was seven, eight years old, and we found a big bottle of whiskey. And Willie's like, what do you think? I was like, that was stuff floating around in the bottom of it.

So he took a full shot. I just took a little. We was, you know, second, third grade. And mine was not digested. Because when it hit my, Willie just went poof. And he's like, whoo. Hello, boys. Call me later. Yeah. Yeah.

I couldn't do it, which helped me because that's why I've never been drunk in my life. I mean, one, I saw my dad, what happened there. But two, I thought... And then not long after that, he was shot in the head. I was shot in the head. There's a lot of songs out there about the heart, about the mind, about emotions. Not a lot of songs about the liver. It never caught on.

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You know what's funny about being shot is you... Because we thought he was dead. The explosion came later, which was...

And we were, what, 30 yards away probably? Yeah, pretty far. 30 yards. We set the trash on fire. We love fire. Of course, back then, you know, we didn't have garbage people and all that. You just burned it, you know? With a barrel? You put it in a barrel? It was just like open range. There's no barrel. Open range. The barrel had already kind of burnt through, so it was just on the ground. Oh, it was the trash. Yeah. It's like, look back at the old movies back in the 30s after the Depression. See how people were living. That was us. So we're walking around.

I'll come back to the house. And we're kind of talking, you know, but for now, Al hears the boom. I just felt a slap. It was like somebody slapped me in the face. And I thought, and then went, boom. But when I remember looking, I felt my side of my face. It was just blood dripping. I mean, it was pouring out. Then I started getting woozy. And that's the last memory I have. I've told this. Al denies this happening. I woke up on the operating table.

with feeling I couldn't feel it but it was like it was like a bunch of critters in my head just like I said hey hey hey hey and they're like oh yeah give me something and I went back up but I could feel them digging around

So then they had the shrapnel in a little medicine bottle, and they gave it to me. That was a whole medicine bottle. Well, I was the cat's meow at school. I carried that thing around. Of course, I lost it, which I wish I'd, you know, been a metal. If we still had it, we could show it on this bug gun. It was bigger than you think. It was the size of a .22 bullet. But it embedded in his temple. I had a big scar there. That's the hair you can't see. It covered that. What did Phil say?

I don't think he was there. He said, one-sixteenth of an inch to the left or to the right, because the doctor evidently told him that. Because it hit that bone and stuff. And you wouldn't be here. That's why you shouldn't play in a trash pile. Why would a man be standing next to a trash pile? I tried it once. I said, we were not playing in the trash pile. I was halfway to the house. He's like...

Kids shouldn't play in trash piles, especially, there was never any, you know. I'm glad you're alive, never like son. Well, he got to the end and he turned it into a spiritual thing. He was a new Christian then. So he was like, well, I guess the Lord's got a plan for you. Yeah.

He wouldn't have saved you. One-sixteenth of an inch to the left or the right, and you wouldn't be here. But he wasn't saying, like, that's why I'm so grateful. He was like, what an idiotic move. You moron. Lucky, lucky. Lucky, lucky.

So what did you think? Did you, like, rush over there and think he's dead? I remember the look on Al's face. I was scared. I mean, it's scary. Yeah, he was terrified. I thought he... He just turned white. Yeah, I thought he was goner. I mean, he's laying there with a hole in his head, bleeding.

They were trying to keep me awake. Yeah, but I was at a sofa. So they came running out, Granny and Paul, but I don't remember Dad even being there. I don't think he was on site. I don't think he was on site. Something tells me that this is not the childhood that Dr. Hite had it at.

in mind when he talked about live with risk. I think as long as you live, well, we made it. I mean, there's a, I mean, because Jeff also drowned in the river and got pulled out by the dog. I mean, you fell through the roof of the grocery store. Oh, I had many stories. Well, that's a true story. Jeff went out there and that dog retrieved

That kid. What's his name? Gabe? Gabe. Gave pulled him out of the dogs matter. He also saved him from a snake one time. Got him, had him pinned down there. Remember on the boat? That dog got in there in between that snake and the kids.

It was one of those old mean water moccasins. He was fixing to go by. That happened multiple times. That's why Phil and them always had so many dogs. They're the first line of defense for snakes or unwarranted guests. We had a very risky childhood, that's for sure. Very risky. I did. I wouldn't have recommended it. I used to be bitter about it, the way my parents. Because when I started raising kids, I thought, pfft.

You know, I mean, because they start griping and complaining. You don't have a clue. It could have been me. Yeah. All alone, on your own, fighting to the death. Because in my, well, that was my frame of mind. What?

I tried to reach out. You wouldn't give me time of day. That's why somebody's asked me. I wanted to be your friend. Well, I told you why now. You made fun of people. I didn't like that. I didn't make fun of people when I was that age. Oh, yeah. No, I learned that. It's been a character trait. No, that was just a business mechanism I learned over the years. So that's why when people said after the movie came out, they were like, was that hard to watch? I said, oh, it was much harder to live. Yeah. The watching of it was like, meh. I got that first cut of the film back.

I told them when they made the film, I said, here's the devil. Here's the vision. We're going to show the depravity of man. We don't want to water this down. That was my instruction. No, I know. I saw the first cut and it was rated R. I was like, I need to go back to it because all our Christian people. But I tell you, our lives were rated R. It was rated R. I don't know what else to say. Which is why the Bible gets so much bad publicity. But I'm like, life is rated R, you know? It just is.

Now, whether we want to watch it or not and pay money, okay. But they made it PG-13, which was my only deal. I was like, a lot rougher than what the movie showed. Yeah, there were some scenes, because you can't go back and you have an hour and a half, two hours to tell a story.

The hardest thing to do is to show someone who really was depraved and then bring them out. You can do it in a series. So I just had a woman at this last event I was at. I'm glad you brought it up because she came to me and she said, I'm a recovering alcoholic. It almost ruined my life. And I said, well, how long have you been sober? And she said, seven years.

And I said, well, thank God for that. We had a little prayer together. And she said, but I tell you, the one thing I appreciated about the movie more than anything else, she said, because it helped me. She said, you didn't make it look attractive. Mm-hmm.

You showed what can happen when it controls you. And she said, and that was my life. And she said, and because of that, I really appreciated what's happened since with you guys and your family. And so I was going to tell you that. That was one of the things that really impacted her. Yeah, because she was like, I mean, that's where I was. Everything about my life was destructive, and it kept going back to me being addicted to alcohol. And so she said, but y'all didn't pull any punches. I said, no. And look, I said, it was way worse than that.

That was a nicer version of how it really worked. What happened is, though, all these principles we're talking about, like the Samaritan woman. I mean, look, we had Samaritan women like this in our house all the time. Consistently. But it just plants a seed.

which is what kind of was his point. He's like, look at the harvest, you know, it's plentiful that there, you can't be too far gone. There's nothing never that is not recoverable. If the God, the Lord God is doing the seeking. And I mean, I think that was the culture we were raised in.

But it's also what made the show so good is because you were looking ahead 40 years and seeing what happens when God's in control. And that's what people love. So when I go and speak places, I show a picture of 2017, the last night we filmed the show together, and everybody's sitting there and everybody's got kids and grandkids and four generations of faith. And you're like, man, yeah, this family. And then I love popping that next picture in from 1972. Yeah.

And it's mom and dad, me and Jay's mom's pregnant with Willie. And I was like, same family. Yeah. But in a way different place. And so this is what God can do.

If you turn your family, your life first and your family over to him, it can become this other picture. And so because, you know, you're speaking to audiences where someone's in that 1972 Robertson phase. I mean, there being some addiction, some whatever, some sin problem, and it's destroying everything they're about. And you're like, yeah, but there is an answer there. There is something that can change everything in your surroundings.

And it's just waiting for you to take the step. Yeah. Well, she, I mean, Samaritan woman, I mean, she played a key part in the gospel advancing in that area. No doubt about it. And, um, I think about, you know, um, once I went to that men's retreat, uh, recently and, um,

It was interesting because one of the guys there was talking about the influence of Phil. The web was so—it was Phil, Bill Smith, Paul Stevens gave his testimony, which is like crazy powerful, who married Bill Smith's daughter.

And then Phil brought him to Christ. Yeah, first guy he led to Christ. So it's like, and then my mom was one of the key figures that brought Phil to Christ with Bill Smith. It was like this web of like reciprocal benefit of the kingdom. And I think, man, you know, you think you've gone too far. You think you've gone too far, but I mean, you had no clue what God can do with you and what, what,

prominent role you're going to play in the expansion of his kingdom. It's very powerful. That's why we were kidding around, but I'm like, if someone's in the air shot, you never know. That's exactly right. All right, we're out of time. We'll pick it up with the next miracle because the next one's around the corner. Yeah, just remember, don't ever, don't ever lay near burning trash.

dangerous out there. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.