Ep 922 | Phil Robertson & Family Deliver a Strong Message About the Attempted Trump Assassination
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I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome to Unashamed. It's been a madhouse since I got here. I was a little bit late because mom had to get her 25,000 words in in 10 minutes to me. So we got Uncle Si in the house. Always good to have Si on Unashamed Podcast. You got a new sleek look. I got to start with that, Si, because

I actually think it's made you look a little younger. Are you wearing contacts too? Yeah, I've had so many people tell me because I need to actually shave again and clean it up.

but when i did it i had more people come up and say good grief that knocked off 10 years off of you off of your age i said well i appreciate that i was kidding i said would you lose a bet and he went yep no that was philip that started oh well that's what he said philip mcmillan started he lost a bet and i said i didn't lose well i've been hearing about it and uh i

I think Stone has sent me a picture of you on our brother podcast. I've quickly gone with our sister on our brother podcast, The Duck Call Room. And so I saw you, but I hadn't seen you in person until today. Well, I just looked in the mirror and I said, good grief, son, you look just bushy, out of control. Yeah.

Si? Really? Oh, look. I see what happened. They fixed your eyes. Then you went to the mirror and went, oh, no. Yes, I'm a good thief. Don't I always look this bad? Si hadn't been able to see it so long. He had no idea what it was. He had eye surgery and he completely went a whole new look. Well, they call that a new look. You reinvented yourself. No, no. Here's what's so funny about that. Okay. I went to my wife's hairdresser. Okay. A woman.

Oh, boy. Yeah. You know, I figured. A woman's hairdresser. Well, no, no. I figured she would know what she was doing since she's a hairdresser. Well, she cut it. You know, she cut it. And I went home and looked at it. I said, that ain't what I told that woman to do. Uh-oh. So, look. I said, well, I went in the mirror and I said, I don't know how people do this. You know, trim it and get it. Make it look good. Yeah.

So I said, okay, let me go up to Red. So I thought Red was a man. Yeah. Well, I walk in there and it's another woman. Did she have red hair? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So I said, baby, what I want you to do. I said, hey, I want to kind of a goatee.

I said, then shave it. Well, she just took clippers and... Well, I got home and I said, God. I said, I hate not to... You're a kind of goatee. Not a goatee. Kind of a goatee. What you got going on, Si, you look like a hipster now. You've got a hipster look. I've always been a hipster. You didn't know a hipster before hipster was cool. Before they even come up with the word, I was a hipster.

You look younger, Si. Well, no, no. It's kind of relative. You do look younger. I've had a lot of people tell me that. Yeah. And I said, well, I appreciate that. I said, me and Phil both are on our bonus years with the Lord. Yeah. I said, so, hey, knock it off anything. I've had a bunch of people ask me. They were like, now,

size is the older than your dad, right? And I'm like, no. He's a couple years younger. I said, but he smoked a long time. He's in the military. You know, he's had some challenges in his life. Yeah, the military will make you look old. But now you look younger. With all the stress. Yeah.

Anyway, that's welcome. Welcome to the podcast. I got a question. What did you get? I heard you. You didn't have your headset on, but I just heard you say this is so. So someone and I don't and I apologize for not having their name in front of me is Tim. I think is his name, Tim Oliver from Lubbock, Texas, because we get gifts and we appreciate the stuff you guys send us.

Because we get tons of stuff. And this is a big one. Well, this is quite a gift. This is a big hunk of silver. I noticed they have a landscaping business, but there must have been the silver business too. And if you guys are watching, I'm holding it up. And it's got the gospel symbols. And he even mentioned Bill Smith in his letter to me. He put those on the front of this hunk of silver. And I didn't know until I got here down the back. It says unashamed. It says Al.

Mine says unashamed Jason. It's a pretty big hump. This thing is heavy. Oh, no, this thing is heavy. And guess what? Zach, Zach, I got to apologize to you. Mine says Zach. So you got weeded out there, son, somehow. I weeded out, man. So when I came in. Are you going to keep it or are you going to give it to me? No, I'm going to keep it.

He cut his hair. Look, the only name that's really important is Jesus. So, hey, I'm going to give it. Oh, man. That was nice of you, Zach, to give that to your Uncle Si. He's got 2024 on him. Hey, I appreciate it. And so if Si gets in a poker game and he runs out of money, Zach, he's just going to lob in this Uncle Silver. I'm going to put the Gospel of Silver on him and tell him, hey, this covers every bet, Jack. Ha, ha, ha.

So thank you, Tim and company. We did, you know, Zach, that's part of the problem of not being on set. You know, you're out there in North Carolina. Whoever would have been here today was going to get your hump. There was something valuable because they are, y'all are all like, I could hear y'all talking about it. I didn't know I have a name on. I didn't know it was silver.

Well, once I realized that you were not in the next room, that you're about 12 states away, I really don't think you'll ever. I'd have to sneak out of here. Well, you're silver. So thank you, Zach. Once more, Zach is dumped. For the last two. Yeah. The Robertson clan, that crop. Yeah, when I read. Carol, Judy, Tommy.

Me, you, and Jan, but there's two left. Well, they've always said I've been sick with everything since I was born. They've said I have dementia and everything, you know, at an early age. Well, Dad said you were born with it. We just got used to it. That's what I'm talking about. But, you know, it's funny because Dad now...

I don't know if y'all realize this, Jimmy Frank, who was the oldest of the clan, he and I were always close because I was one of the older cousins. So I spent a lot of time with Jimmy Frank. He was kind of the family historian, knew all this stuff. And I was into that kind of stuff, you know, talking about great grandparents. Well, he was 78 when he had a heart attack.

And so, Dad, you're now 78. So you're the oldest living Roberts at this point. You know, I mean, none of the rest of them have lived past that point. So it's almost like everybody was a meteor. I think that with Jan, Zach, you know, everybody just was like had a shorter, I guess, than normal maybe lifespan. But everybody seemed to like shine brightly, you know. Because Mom and Daddy, Daddy was 84. Mom was 94. Yeah.

Yeah. Which is kind of amazing that none of their kids lived as long as they did. Yeah. You know, of course, you know, Paul's health was, you know, five packs of Winston's a day.

Yeah. I'd do anybody now. His final years, he'd quit smoking. I don't know. No. Once he was in a facility for the last few years, so he couldn't smoke there. But he did sometimes when I'd visit him, his fingers would be empty. Of course, they were stained with nicotine, but in his mind, he was still smoking. Yeah. He was still there. What were you going to say, Zach? I said part of me thinks maybe the short lifespan and maybe some of the personality –

What's the word I'm looking for? The eccentric personality traits could have been linked to the fact that my mom said I used to run behind crop dusters.

And mosquito foggers. And mosquito foggers. Yeah. She said y'all would run in the fog. I used to say that was cool. He thought it was just like a racetrack. You know, I bet that was good for our health. Yeah. Well, y'all did live close to a lot of agriculture and some of the stuff they used in the past. Well, I remember me and him would walk in a cotton field. And here come, he was spraying some fields. And he come, he seen us. And he dive bombed us, y'all. And he turned it on.

The airplane, you know. Sure it is. So you think he was thinking, wouldn't this be funny if I sprayed these two kids? He done it as a joke. He was spraying DDT and all that other junk, you know. It wasn't a joke. Me and him about to crawl like 300 yards. Didn't even get up. And I mean, hey, we was moving on our hands and knees too to get away from that guy.

You sure you didn't dream this? No. Oh, no, this ain't a dream. This is real life. We had another one. We was on Red River catfishing, throwing out throw line, and one was going to land on the sandbar we was fishing on. I mean, he had already cut his engines and was coming down, and he didn't. It went on, and he done the wing deal. Yeah. I better not do it. Oh, wow.

Did you catch that generational gap difference? I said they were online catfishing.

Now that's a whole other meaning now, Si. Oh, yeah. You were on a childlike catfish. That's a whole different story now when they say you're online catfish. Online catfish. Yeah, it's not good now. So it's a whole different thing. No, it's not. Well, it's been quite a weekend. Al, you preached, I noticed, yesterday, and it was a fantastic sermon. Yeah, it was. Y'all series in Hebrews, which I guess I've contributed twice to. You have. You preached. Yeah, it was good. But, you know, everybody...

everybody's talking about what happened with the former president Trump. Yeah. Cause I'm not sure when this is going to air in, in relationship. It'll air, uh,

Today, Matty? Okay, good, good, good. So we kind of moved it up in the line because everybody is talking about it, right? You can't turn on anything. I've watched the news more in the last 48 hours than I've watched in the last 10 years. That tells you how much I watch. Well, I said yesterday at the – because it's been a couple of days for us here today recording since it happened. And I was driving home on Saturday from Alabama –

from Gulf Shores, and I get a text, which is how you get all your news these days, seems like, if you're not watching something, and it says Trump has been shot. And I couldn't believe it. But you're not supposed to be reading your text while you're doing it. Well, I wasn't. BK was with me. She got the text, my 16-year-old. And that's what I said yesterday. It was kind of one of those moments where it was like deja vu. As soon as she said it, immediately my mind went back. And I didn't even think about BK being 16, but I was 16 years old.

I was coming home from school. I was a junior at West Monroe High School. It was March. I remember it so well. And it's just one of those days you remember. And I heard on the radio that President Reagan had been shot. And, you know, I'm not even old enough to vote. But because we talk so much about politics with Granny and Paul and all that, I was very aware of what was going political. And I really loved the idea of Ronald Reagan. So I was like visibly upset. I was 16 years old. But I got home. I ran home.

to granny and paul's house because i knew that have you know have it on the news

And so we sat and listened. And so when this news came, I immediately thought of that moment. And then it was kind of ironic because I had my 16-year-old granddaughter with me. And now she's asking me all these questions about assassinations. And she's intrigued by it. Maybe not quite at the level I was at 16. And it made me think. I didn't mention this yesterday. But it made me think of what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes. There's nothing new under the sun. I thought...

These things, violence, evil, all the things you think about, they've been around for a long time. And they just rear and come up over and over and over again in our system. So it was insane. Well, y'all know us. We mainly talk about the Bible and the one who wrote it. But when you have moments like these, it's interesting to see the response. Because here we are, I mean, we're in the very text in Ephesians where we're

the temple of the living God, spirit-filled people. And it calls us a holy nation. And we live here as foreigners and aliens. But when you see this, it's amazing how, you know, what struck me was about three things that happened here. One is that, you know, two of the statements that Trump has given since then, one was kind of calling for unity. But the next one on Sunday,

There was a quote in his statement that said that God alone saved him. And really, you couple that with what his wife wrote. I encourage people to write. She wrote a letter. And it was basically... It was very powerful. Oh, it was powerful. It was like, look, you got to realize politics is a vehicle for...

Making a, you know, cultures, but the foundations are, and she starts about love and family and compassion. Yeah. She was like, these things are the foundational principles for any thriving, uh, society. And it closed with a statement, something like you have to remember behind a politician is a family that loves the politician, you know?

So when you combine those things, I was doing this on a text today to our little, my little investing group. Everybody knows I do my own investing, but it takes a lot of time. So we have a little group of people who all love Jesus, but we all do our own thing. And we, you know, we hold each other accountable. And cause they were saying, we, we watch these shows that talk about stocks, but today it was all about what happened.

And there were more positive things said about Donald Trump because it's not even a, you know, I would say a right leaning show because we're just watching it from the business standpoint. I was like, it's kind of shocking. So that stood out to me, though, because when you think about what happened, you put the pieces together and I feel like we can offer some insight because in the moment when this was happening and I'm looking at all these people,

entities that are sharing the news. Well, some of them are obviously detaching, like they're viewing it from a bubble. Like, you know, people who are not lined up with Trump politically, they're like, oh, he, you know, he gets up and he's like fighting.

And they were looking at that as a negative thing. And I was thinking, what are they crazy? I mean, that was the most impressive part of the whole thing. Because what I realized in that moment is like what, you know, we have firsthand experience on what happens. And I go back to that day when I'm on my couch taking a nap at my house and I hear gunfire.

It was two o'clock in the afternoon and it woke me up. I thought somebody shooting a gun at two o'clock. And then my phone rings and it's a law officer saying, there's an active shooter in your neighborhood. Take precautions. We're on our way. Well, I was like, somebody is shooting. And he said, they're going from house to house. Now, in the moment, because people heard about what happened to us and they thought, well, everybody lived. They caught the guy who did it.

No harm, no foul. But all I get was a phone call after hearing gunshots. So here's what happened. This is why you wouldn't be able to commentate on that. In one minute, I had gotten quite the arsenal. Look, I had my wife and my two daughters, who were the only people in our house. And I said, there's somebody going house to house of Robertsons attacking our family.

Well, we had just acquired this girl from Nicaragua who is our daughter. Well, I looked in her eyes and it was sheer terror. Because she lived political violence. Oh, right. She was looking at me like, I mean, terror. And I just very boldly but lovingly.

said, this is the hand we've been dealt and we fight for each other. And here's how you operate this. Because I had a self-defense shotgun. I loaded it. I explained to all three of these women who had never fired a gun. If anybody walks in that door besides me, y'all figure out which one's going to do the shooting. But do that because I'm going to, you know, because I went out and took my 30-06 because I thought,

This is my family. I'm going to protect the perimeter. And it was terrifying. You went to high ground like the snipers. Hang on a second. Let's take a break. So we want to tell you about NetSuite by Oracle. Jace, you know a little something about Oracle. I do. I do my own portfolio. I invest in companies that I think are

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head over to netsuite.com slash phil that's netsuite.com slash phil check them out netsuite.com slash phil yeah i was just using that as an illustration though it's a difference that that you have a when you something like that happens

There's really you can cower, you know, you can run or you can say, you know what? They're attacking my family. And that's just what comes out in the moment. And so I was I was really proud of the president. And I do think that when that happened, I mean, that's sending a message of even if he does become president of people in the world, they're like, I'm gonna tell you something right now.

If you shoot at him, you better not miss. I mean, because it just, his character came out. Well, no, no, people are forgetting. That's the commander in chief. Yeah. Of the military. Yeah, or possibly. That's his mindset. If he's elected. Right. Yeah. Because he had already been, he's already been president. He's already been commander in chief. Well, hey, look, you shoot at me? Yeah. Hey, okay, dude. It's on. Right. Yeah. So the second thing I thought too was, you know, just because you know he found out

unfortunately, this firefighter loses his life. Yeah, this story touched me too. Well, this was the second big thing, though, because now think about Trump's perspective here. He learns that this guy who...

you know, they said. And he was protecting his family. This guy goes to church every Sunday. They didn't say he goes to church. Every Sunday, he's there. He's there with his family. The shooting starts. He jumps over his daughters to protect them and unfortunately, you know, loses his life and gets shot. But just think about what he's doing there. I know. The very thing Ephesians 5 will get to that just jumps off the page. I mean, this guy's

protecting his family. Lost his life. He gave his life for his family. This is God's love in action with scriptural evidence. This is the love of God being revealed, a person who would do that. But just think of Trump hearing that story and thinking, well, he came an inch from being that guy. Because just like the Secret Service,

You know, jumped on him. Which was it? What does everybody say? A great act of courage. Most people don't know. He called us going down the road. Al was driving. Remember that conversation? And he was wondering about being baptized on exactly what was going on there. It was a very godly conversation. But when you come close to losing your life and seeing someone else do a heroic thing and give his life up for his family,

It makes you reflect on your own mortality. And it returns you to a God spiritual moment, which is why I said that I wasn't surprised that the second letter that he wrote out was given thanks to God. Because that's what happens in the real world. When you try to make everything political or look at it from, oh, what does this mean? And that's why I shared that story with us, which I didn't really finish. But, you know, it turned out.

where the guy who had shot at our houses, he did it on the road. But I didn't know that. And my family didn't know that. I got the report. He's going house to house. And they were alerting me, which I was very thankful for. You have a threat.

Before we get there, do whatever you need to do to protect yourself. You called me and told me the same thing. Like you said, the next thing. That is true. I forgot about it. While I got my weapons. He was calling me. The side doesn't live in our neighborhood. It seemed like the report they gave me was someone has targeted multiple houses because two of them have already been shot at.

And I thought, okay, there's some kind of organized operation against my family. Did I ever tell you all that we found one of those bullets in my pool?

No, I didn't know that. And you know how far away my house is from the road down there. One of those bullets traveled all the way in my pool. We found it and gave it to the sheriff's department. So, I mean, it got real. And when those things happen, it does reveal character. And I'm really proud of, you know, of those things. But the third thing, and really, I mean, we're not getting into the, you know, the things that made me mad, which is, you know, I was talking to Chad Robichaux about,

at one o'clock in the morning because he popped up he's been on this podcast before and i endorsed his book well he popped up on uh fox news yeah it was literally one o'clock in the morning and uh i sent him a text you know and he's texting me while he's talking he's like i can't hear the questions they're asking me you know i was like hey do the best you can but he did fantastic but you know and i was aggravated as he was yeah that how's a guy get 130 yards

you know, on a rooftop. With a weapon. Yeah, with a weapon. And all of us who know who hunt with scope weapons realize how close that is. Well, right. I mean, you know what I'm saying? That's not very far away. Kids can make that shot. I'm talking about kids of hunters. My granddaughter can make that shot. Oh, yeah. In a heartbeat. Definitely. But without getting into that, we all realize that you don't have to have some expert to get up there and say, oh, well, that might have been a problem.

Every person with any kind of common sense, there was a breakdown. But what I was going to say is it's also a sign on whoever this kid was. And I say he's a kid. He's 20 years old. You also see there's a breakdown in the family at some point. I mean, his dad bought him the gun. Because I thought, what would I do in that situation? And I thought, you know what I'd do? I would get up and...

and get a microphone and say, I just want to apologize for dropping the ball here in some way. I'm not saying he should do that. I don't know the situation. But that's what I would feel like because I was like, when you have a breakdown in the family structure and you have what they kept calling him as a lone wolf where he was detached, he was bullied and all this. As soon as I saw a picture of him, I mean, I've known so many kids that look like that that I went to school with, and I thought, I bet this kid –

Had a rough time coming up. And then got isolated and lonely and then could pull something like this off. And again, I don't know anything about this person. Well, and then the political climate with so much vitriol going both ways. And look, people who have fallen through the cracks of society are

This is the things they do for whatever the motive they'll, they'll figure out the motive probably at some point if they ever do. Right. But still that that's just the things that I thought off the bat, because it did get spiritual, uh,

Because that's what life reminds you of that and tragedy does. And you see these moments of the love of God being revealed that shows God's presence is real. I mean, I'm going to tell you that. It's a moment of clarity. Yeah. The one guy that lost his life is doing that to protect his family. And by all accounts, he's just a wonderful human being making the world a better place.

I just don't believe in accidents. Let's take another break. Have y'all noticed there's a lot of songs about the heart?

but not too many songs about the liver. I have noticed that, but I have also noticed there's a lot in the Bible about the heart, but there are a few about the liver, and they all revolve around if something happens to it, that's not good for you. That's exactly right. In fact, Jace, your observation, the American Heart Association has made the same observation that adults with fatty liver have

are three and a half times more likely to have heart failure than those without. This is something I've suffered with in the past with high liver enzymes. A hundred million Americans have this fatty liver, which means it puts many people at risk. And when you think about it, your liver is like this great filter system the Almighty gave you, and all these things get thrown at it.

And when that happens and you have a sluggish and fatty liver, it makes you gain weight, lose energy, and your liver can't perform the 500 key functions that it needs to every day. So we want you to help your liver, and you can do that with one of our sponsors, Liver Health Formula. Zach and I have both taken this product. It's worked wonders for us. My numbers are online. It's an all-natural supplement which contains 11 clinically proven botanicals that help recharge cells

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I think the default position I think that a lot of Americans are in right now is you're vacillating – we're vacillating between fear and rage.

And I think the kingdom has something to say about this. When we pray the Lord's prayer, we pray that your kingdom come, your will be done on earth right here, just as it is in heaven. So I was just reminded of that passage in Daniel, what says we belong to a kingdom that can't be shaken or destroyed. So our foundation is not destroyed.

You think about what would like what is it in our culture that is leading to such just vicious anger that someone would climb up to the top of a of a building and.

to shoot and murder the president, the potential president of the United States of America. I mean, that, that has to be examined as a culture and whatever we're doing with this, with our language and the way the rhetoric that we use, like that's got to stop. I mean, it's like, we can't even have a dialogue anymore. And so I was just thinking for kingdom people, you know, we can really speak into this moment, uh,

in a way that, yeah, we're not, as you said, Jace, earlier, you were kind of hitting on this. We're not separatists. We're not disengaging from the world. In fact, we believe the kingdom's here and now, but it doesn't mean that we retreat from the world. We're in the world, and we believe that we should fight against injustice and the killing of innocent people, which we do. But at the same time, we're to embody a spirit that

at the end of the day is not one of fear and timidity or one of rage and anger, but we kind of stand in that gap as, you know, citizens of the kingdom. I think our country, I think our world needs that type of sobriety right now. And I was really encouraged when I saw that, um,

Trump said that he was going to change his entire speech at the convention based on what happened. I thought that was an interesting comment. He said, how could I go in there and

and just rip my opponents. He said, after what's happening, he said, we need something that is going to be unifying. So I think that's the direction I hope that the whole culture moves is how do we start having a different conversation? Well, that's what I was going to... The reason I brought up the kid, which nobody's really bringing up stuff like that, and the reason I think parents...

You know, when you break down that family dynamic, these types of things happen. But to try to combat that, I'm not just like thinking of this just in this moment. You know, my house is designed, it's kind of strange. I should be an empty nester.

Because all my kids have grown up. But we have a little one that we, that I've talked about before, that who I saw yesterday, that we're kind of like the godparents. But what's happened is for years when I had four teenagers come up, when we opened up our home,

to all their friends and you say well how do you what does that mean cook the best food that money can buy in the best way possible and guess what young people will show up it don't matter what you're gonna do if you just say look tell your friends we're eating here on wednesday night friday night and so well we we got to know these people and my house has become one of these houses where they come to especially during the summer because they have camp there's a lot of them

So I'm having large groups of young people that view that we call it the Jesus house because everyone that comes in, I'm like, no, we love Jesus here. Nothing immoral or illegal is going to happen here. That's how this wrote. And they're like, sounds good to me. And it's kind of a joke, but not really. And so just in the last month, I would say dozens of people the same age

They come in there on that couch and they sit down and they start firing questions about life, about Jesus. There was one that was baptized just two or three nights ago. That's my point. We as members of the kingdom...

We have to be active in giving young people an alternative, and Jesus is the best alternative. Well, the evil one has attacked the family unit from the beginning. Exactly. Okay, that's where a lot of this junk we're talking about and facing now, okay, is because he's won the battle, you know, because we're not combating it in the right way. Yeah.

And I do think we need to be looking at that. You know, I mean, the guy needs a friend. I mean, look, they're hard. We've all had experiences with people, you know, who just show up at the church building or some situation. But at least you give it a shot. Yeah. You know? Well, and then I'm glad you brought that up, too, about the idea about already seeing some changes in even Trump's reaction. You know, a near-death experience.

At that level. I mean, we're talking about less than an inch, really. I mean, if his head's turned the other way. It was a nanosecond. It was a nanosecond. This would have been a Kennedy situation. It was, yeah. But, you know, I remember I changed my whole life over a near-death experience. I mean, a guy was going to kill me one day.

And I realized in that moment that, man, I can't be this guy. Something has to change about who I am. How old were you? I was 18. But that changed my whole life, my whole perspective. That goes back to the prodigal son. Yes. Okay.

It was two involved, the older brother and the other one. The young one said, gave it, and he went to a distant land. Squandered. Squandered it. Okay, and then he's envious of pigs eating slop. Yep. That's right. Yeah, that's about as low as you can get. Well, no, no. That's when you've hit rock bottom. That's why I said, hey, this moment is a clarity. Yeah.

Because then, hey, all the pretense is gone. All this junk that you think is important disappears. Yeah. Because this is where the rubber meets the road, Jack. Yeah. Okay. And, you know, you better start, you know, like Jason was talking about when he got the news about a shooter.

Well, what are you going to do? You're going to run? You're going to stick your head in the sand like a stupid ostrich? Or are you going to face up to it and deal with it? Because, folks, that's where we're at. And the best way to deal with this is you've got to have Jesus in your life. And I do like the fact that, for Trump's sake, when he was under that sort of stress and shock, I mean, you know, there's a picture now of,

that they've slowed it down so much, you can see the bullet. Oh, yeah. Right after it left his ear, they've got a picture of it going by. Now, to me, that sunk in. I was like, that's how real that was. He was about that far from death. That far. But his initial character response in that moment, because none of us never know until you're in the moment,

was defiance, was fight. Fist up, you didn't get me, we're fighting. And I do think that's interesting that in a moment like that, the deepest part of your character comes out and that's his.

The man is a fighter. You can say what you want, but when you come within centimeters of killing him and his answer is defiance, not cowering down, crawling off the stage, his thing was, well, that that's why I brought that up because the only time I got angry besides the perimeter, not being covered just out of common sense was when I heard a few flippant comments about that. And I thought, well,

What are you talking about? That wasn't something he decided to do. He almost got his head blown off. That was complete, literal reaction. That was a natural reaction. There was no fault press involved. No, you couldn't think that one through. It was mad. And to think of that as anything other than a positive reaction for a leader, you know, was just...

Well, especially this particular election and the alternative. I mean, it really did paint that rather clearly. Let's take another break.

So I think, Jace, one of the things I really appreciate about our unashamed audience is the time that they dedicate to listening to us. I mean, we're taking the time to do these Bible studies, but, you know, people are spending a lot of time listening to us, and we know that's valuable, right? Exactly. So time is a precious commodity, and so we're always trying to find better ways to spend it. And one of our sponsors, Hillsdale College, said,

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It's easy to get started. That's hillsdale.edu slash unashamed to register. Check them out. Hillsdale.edu slash unashamed. But I'm like you, I think in terms of looking at this, how you're going to look at this going forward, Zach is right. I think we had gotten to this place and I'd say this for Trump too. I mean, cause he brought a lot of this really acerbic stuff into politics eight years ago. You can't just vilify everybody. Um,

to the point where it seems like you got to start shooting each other to get your point across. Well, yeah, on both sides. We can't get there, right? We can't get there. We got to get back at least where we can sit around a table like this. That's one of the things I've been surprised about. All of a sudden, they're dropping the charges on kind of the weaponization of the government against him, and both sides are like, hey, let's back off, pull the ads, and

Because you realize that this thing gets going. And the reason they use these types of campaigns is because they work. I don't really think there's any other motivation except that. And then all of a sudden, when something like this happens, everybody realizes, now, wait a minute.

This is not the answer. Well, the war part, okay, that should be the last alternative. Like everything else, you've got to try everything else.

Yeah. Well, and you, you realize in our society, there's a lot of mentally challenged or frail people mentally that they're, they're listening to all this stuff and they're like, you know, I need to go do something, you know, a loner. He doesn't have anybody holding him accountable or, and, and whatever. And I think that's the idea. And I think that's a fine conversation to have, especially in our social media age and phone age where people just get into illusions and,

Well, they say stuff on their phone and all that and on computers that they wouldn't say face-to-face. Well, they lose touch of reality. Love God. Love your neighbor. Yeah, why don't we try God's way? But love is a... I don't think we really know the definition of love.

Well, not the way God meant it. I'll give you one in 1 John 4 that says God is love. When you think about how did God choose for us to communicate with him, and it's love. That's why he said the greatest of these is love. But he didn't nullify the other things. That's why we share Jesus. You remember in Hebrews where it says without faith, it's impossible to please God. So at some point,

You're going to have to acknowledge whether you believe him or not. But the way we communicate with him is love. And he gave you a nice little definition there, Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. And then he has that profound statement about looking into a mirror that's imperfect. But really, true love is seeing God face to face. And remember how he closed that section out, 1 Corinthians 13, 13.

When everything is boiled down, it comes down to three things, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love, which is powerful. I mean, because hope and faith are amazing. But when you read the Gospels, look, there's so many stories where you see Jesus kind of giving us this picture. I mean, the one that popped in my head because I'm a fisherman and I like to fish is,

But you remember the first time they had fished all night, they hadn't caught anything. I mean, this is their livelihood. Because most people are like, oh, what's the big deal? But, I mean, Phil, you remember when we were trying to fish the river and had no money? We were borderline panicked when we couldn't catch any fish. I mean, because we're like, well, you can't make any money. Because you pay the bills. I'm fixing to get hungry. And how you eat. And so then he's like, throw your net on the other side. Well, you're like, what kind of picture is he giving you? It's like.

You don't want to trust him in that moment. You just tried everything you could do. You're disappointed. You're depressed. You've been knocked down. And he's saying, in this worst moment, I'm asking you to trust me. Yeah, that fits what we were talking about a while ago, though. The last thing. Because they had fished all night long. They wasn't catching nothing. Then Jesus walked up and said, hey, look, guys, throw the net on the other side.

And they probably are looking at him, thank him, saying, well, we done fished all night. Exactly. Well, you just wouldn't want to do it. But Peter says, hey, but because you said it. Yeah. Well, and here's what's interesting about that. It happened twice. So in Luke 5, when Peter is first called, he's preaching in the boat, remember? Yeah. And Peter and them are over there cleaning their nets, and they're listening. Yeah.

And then he says, hey, come on, get in the boat. Let's go out for a catch. And then that's when Peter said, Lord, we've fished all night. We ain't caught anything. But because you said so. In other words, because that sermon was so good. We'll go give it a shot. And then now you fast forward to the point when Jason was mentioned in John 21 where

It's the second time for Peter. And Peter's in the boat now. He's dead as far as they're concerned. And think how low, though, they were then. Oh, lower than low. I was going to bring that up. So the second time he does the same miracle, they just did the worst thing that they could possibly do on the planet, which was turn their back on Peter.

on Jesus. And Peter literally denied him three times after he told him he was going to do it. I was saying that God's love just transcends our understanding so much that that was why he was doing that. In your lowest moments, when you're like, I tried everything I could do. That's when you need him the most, though. Which is where I got to yesterday in my sermon. Let's take our last break. Where I got to in my sermon yesterday, the crux of the moment is

which we'll talk about this, I guess, maybe in the next podcast, but to set it up in Hebrews 10, when you face the impossible,

In other words, when you get to a point where you're like, I got nothing. Yeah. I got no answers. I got no way to deal with this situation in my life. And I'm sick of it. And I'm sick of it. Yeah. I want to do something about it. I said yesterday, you can either double down on that and keep going to the same thing that hasn't been working. You can shift off to some new way to try to solve your problems that won't work. That ain't going to work. Or you can finally just give up and say, all right, Lord. Yeah.

I'm ready for you to tell me what I need to do. So that's exactly... Well, you were defining the human existence. I mean, you need to give those three things again. I mean, what...

So the first one is you double down. You keep doing what's not working. And some people do that. Well, that's the definition of insanity. That's right. I thought the same thing. But that's what they do. People do it. And the whole book of Hebrews was written to people that were doubling down on a system that wasn't working. It wasn't working. So the second thing is you can find a new thing to do. Try another outlet. Try another outlet. And so people, I mentioned atheism.

- But I thought, yeah, I thought drugs, you know. - All the things people try to do to fill it. - Or if I had the right woman or, you know. - If I had a new relationship. - If I got a new job. - But we all know, 'cause we're all human beings and some of us have tried it, it doesn't work.

It just leads to disaster. Or the third one is you finally throw your hands up and say, you know what, God, I'm just going to, you tell me something different. You tell me something new and I'm ready to try. That's where the point comes in. Talk about not my will, but yours. Yep.

I've tried everything with mine. Yeah. It ain't working. My will does not work. I'm throwing mine down and throwing my hands up and saying, okay, Lord, I'm ready. Well, you were using it to the positive, you know, give up to God. But I think, unfortunately, some people just give up without coming to God. I do. Then you get into what just happened. Well, no, no. Yeah. Yeah.

What were you going to say, Zach? I think the submission, the giving up is what you're submitting to is ultimately him. And that's why you mentioned, Jason, 1 John 4, 8, he is love. So you're submitting to love. And I think that's the weapon. When the Bible says that we don't fight with weapons of this world,

I think that's the core of the weapon that we're supposed to fight with is a weapon of love, not a weapon, these weapons of the world. And someone sent me a quote this week about what's happening that said, he who fights with monsters should look

to it that he himself does not become a monster. And so as we kind of engage the evil that's around us, we have to be careful. We're not co-opting what another group is doing. Sure. We, I mean, I experienced frustration whenever this whole story was happening. I'm reading all the news articles and I'm just like, you know, and the news articles that would say something like popping noise and, and,

banging sounds. I'm like, no, it's called gunfire. And you can feel the marginalization. And so the temptation in me is to now let me fight back with that same type of, let me marginalize the opponent. Let me, but that's not what I think the Lord's calling us to. I think he's calling us to a certain kind of sobriety that I think is actually rooted in an ethic and a spirit of love as displayed in the cross. And I think that's what's going to change the

hearts is that. So I think what we're surrendering to in all of our issues is we're surrendering to the love that Christ displayed on the cross. And it's, and what that manifests in is, is a little word we like to call peace. And I, I come up with two other things. Okay. There's, I think it's in first Corinthians, uh, uh, eight, I think chapter one, eight, where it says all the answers are,

in Christ Jesus is yes. - Yes, oh yeah, Jase was just talking about that. - Then the other part of that is, okay, there's no condemnation in Christ. - Yeah, Romans 8:1. - That's Romans 8:1. Your first verse was 2 Corinthians 1:18. - Okay, 18, I was close. - Well, not really. - You had a Corinthian and an eight. - I had a Corinthian and an eight, I was close. - Well, to follow up. - Okay, but, that's why when you've reached the bottom of the barrel,

And you finally, and the Bible uses the word, you need to surrender and submit yourself. Yeah. Okay. And hey, you need to do it to the one. And that would be Jesus Christ, the man himself. Yeah. Because all the answers that you want are yes in him. Exactly. Well, I think a lot of people, when you start talking about the love of God, you know, people are like, well, that seems like such a weak thing, you know, when someone's

firing bullets, you know, at the president. But I think the point is, the reason I brought up this young man, you know, if I'd had an opportunity to

you know, to talk to him before, well, I would have loved him and shared Jesus. Cause I know that could change his heart and give him a purpose and, you know, or, you know, pray for him or whatever. You don't underestimate the power of that weapon. Uh, you know, we talk about Phil's convergent story all the time. I've seen what the love of God can do. And it's way more powerful than a bullet.

Because it can take somebody being a very terribly human being and... It's going to cut you to the heart. Yeah, and completely turn it around. Well, that's true power there. You can change a person like this. But there's also something to be said about, I mean, the three or four near-death experiences that I had, because I'm glad you brought that up. I was pretty proud of the way I handled myself. Because you can't... You can think it. You can say what you're going to do, but...

Nobody knows till the bullets start flying. I was in the cockpit on a private plane, and the pilot's like, we have to make an emergency landing. Well, I looked at him.

And I thought, well, he needs some encouragement because it shook him up. I handled it way better and I wasn't even flying the thing, you know. But it hit me in that moment. The reason I handled it better is because I knew I was going to be raised from the dead. Now, did I think I was fixed to die? Yeah, because we literally just started falling out of the sky. It was like the worst roller coaster ride you've ever been on. Donald Trump knew what the gospel was.

And he knew the ramifications of turning his life to Jesus. And the reason I know that

So you told him. I told him. That's right. Our first meeting, he was like, yeah. Which dad is so, it's almost surreal for us to be sitting here talking about this. You gave him that. Right. The symbols. The symbols. The same one that they gave us in the silver. But to think about that, dad, is so surreal that the reason you were given the opportunity to even do that

is because you've been doing that your whole life. Yep. If you haven't been doing it your whole life, you never got the opportunity to go into that room. That's correct. Because of your reputation, because of what you had done, that man and his team said, we'll give that man 15 minutes to hear what he has to say. So it's a great testament, Dad, to living our lives for the cause of the kingdom because you never know.

when the consistency of your life will give you an opportunity to share the gospel with the president. When I first talked to him and first met him, he had no idea what the gospel was.

And like Jay said, that's where the power is. That's where the power is. Well, that's why there's so much in the book of Acts, even when you get to the last chapters, you know, where Paul's on trial and he's before these kings. And, you know, what's amazing to me is that story when I think it was King Felix, you know, he, Paul comes out there and he starts giving the case for Jesus. And the king is kind of baffled. He's like, do you think that,

In such a short time, you can persuade me to be a follower of Jesus. And so I just think in this political structure, and we live in a country that's governed by the Constitution, and we're grateful for that. And we've set up a system that there's plenty of verses in the Bible that says that God sets that up. Because imagine life without it.

But we still have a responsibility to speak truth to powers, not just the things we do in our neighborhoods and taking care of orphans and widows and looking for people who are falling through the cracks. I mean, that's the church's job. I'm calling people everywhere to look for these opportunities. But we also use opportunities like this to say, well, maybe we can get God back at the center of our country. Sometimes it takes...

these kind of reminders like you did in your sermon excellently yesterday to show why that old Jewish system wouldn't work. It wasn't producing a functioning God-centered culture. The Apostle Paul was in prison. They locked him up as a prisoner for the Lord then.

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you receive. Be completely humble, gentle, patient. I mean, he's behind locked doors. He's still saying, no, this is what you do. Yeah, and Peter would also say, you know, after all about, you know, submit to the governing authorities and you're going to suffer and all this in 1 Peter 4. And then he finally gets down and you say, why?

He's making the point, Christ didn't call us to a life that wasn't going to have suffering and tragedy and all that. But he said he left you an example that you should follow in his steps. That is correct. And so that's pointing people to God, no matter what the consequences are. That's the guts of Ephesians. That's the power of it. So we're out of time, amazingly.

That went by really quick. We didn't really plan on spending the whole podcast talking about what happened, but it's such a powerful event. I'm glad we got an opportunity to remember it's not political parties ultimately that save us. It's Jesus. That's right. So that's what we have to put our trust in. I think we should pray for our country. I think we should. And we'll close it out that way. I think that's a great idea. You want to do that, Jay? Yeah.

Father, we love you. We do pray for our country and our leaders. And Father, we pray that through this, that you will be the focus. People will turn their hearts to you because we know that your love in societies across this entire globe truly works.

And it makes functional societies, but it also is the pathway to be a forever family with you. And we look forward to spending eternity with you. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Simon. King of kings and Lord of lords, boys.

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