Aren't You Somebody? : Joe Phillips - Part 2

Hello this is Willa Hardy with man talk radio. We all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination your chosen Truth Network podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the truth.

Podcast network. This is good Truth Network once a world champion wrestler, now a champion for Christ. Once the Russian nightmare know the devil's worst night in your tagteam partner cheetah call time. Welcome back, this time to read up.

You might remember Pastor Joel from the city of Angels, a man of multi-talents well is not only talented inside the wrestling ring.

I mean he is a community play writer is an actor director or producer. You do not want to miss today's show. It is a pleasure to have back in the studio with me, Joel Phillips. If you missed the first show with you.

Be sure to download. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast go back and get that listen to that you will not want to miss the first part of his story, Joel Phillips, pastor, evangelist, author, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, comedian, husband, dad, granddad, man. That in itself is an accomplishment.

Joe, great to have you back to the studio. Thank you, sir, makes me tired just to know makes a little bit exhausted. You have worn and continue to wear many hats and which I want to pick up for listeners, though she maybe caught the first first show pickup bobcat work where you left off. You just talk about your to see your humble beginnings, it can you just just touch just a little bit more. I will sure. I'm glad to my biological mother three mental illnesses to short severe, one borderline she would put me in the attic. She lived with her parents and I found out before she passed away four years ago that her mother would look at her and say why did you drag this kid into my house.

I raise my living kids.

That's how I began in so you can feel when you're not wanted. I have no memories of my grandmother.

God sometimes gives us a good forget her life. Grandfather was as cool as the other side of the pillow and he loved me and I'm named after him. Classy rolling mills on Roland Joe Phillips and he even he didn't want me to leave the house but my mom biological mother never get Amanda from Dragon kid so she gave me with the judge's signature 1967 she gave me to my first cousin. So my first cousin became my dad. My mother became aunt.

My aunt became my grandmother. My grandparents became a grandparent, grandparent's wife love math. My family tree looks like a shrub. It looks like kudzu but but life was pretty good. You know till I was 15 years of age. My dad got mugged in Tampa if you know this. He got severely beaten and it changes personality changes everything. And so we moved the four states and four years and four years of high school four different high schools, and my parent my doctor parents gonna divorce which shocked me. They'd never fought and it was ugly we lived in a 900 square-foot duplex in about a week after my mom moved out.

Another lady moved in with her two kids and hate moved into my heart.

When that happened and I was just lost just completely lost, unmoored, tethered, not tethered to anything live for basketball is only white kid on my basketball team. They call me the White shadow. I said I don't care, just throw me the rock that's all I care, and a math teacher. My senior year took me under his wing. She was a Baptist guy and he invited me to evangel Temple Pentecostal church. He said the Lord was an assignment for him. He said he was Baptist all his life and just that was open and obedient act of his and he brought me up there and the rest is history. I gave my heart to Christ in 1982, summer after my senior year of high school and is one miracle after another. Since the answer phenomenal story in it and I know I'm trying reflect back on you. I mentioned in the last show that you you'd attended one of our our camps in the past, and I remember it being impacting of the ways something to do with some release.

What I remember is how you used to make references to your father's summit and how the Lord spoke to kind of change that language right well it was on a day where we were required and I want give away any of the sacred part of a but you're required to go find a place basically all day in the woods and had some assignments which they were very easy little assignments. One of them was take a nap which I really liked sure I didn't and then at some point you have to hear what the whole experience anything on it yet to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you and and he brought back my dad's funeral, of all things.

I've never met my step brothers and sisters when I got there to preach my dad's funeral. He died at 63 fell in a creek broke some ribs got some complications of birth, but my adopted I found my birth father which no hold show a private investigator had two conversations he dropped in July 6, 1997 I think so. My dad, my adopted dad always called him dad. When I got to the funeral home. They were in his casket kissing and I thought in that moment your loves is Jesus knowing their thoughts.

He knows our thoughts. I thought in that moment they don't know my dad would be doing so back to the mountain now. When I stopped what are you saying holy strength.

What I heard was they did know your dad and then he began to show me all the things my dad did for me. You been telling the truth.

Joe, when you share your store but you haven't been telling all the truth while and I went home and publicly on social media, repented, asked for forgiveness of us and there's a whole other side of the truth my dad before he had that spiral. He was good to me. He rescued me and that really is 2009 that really put my ministry not into another gear three years ahead. While wow that's which is huge and in and in a sense, just the revelation of that and then bringing that public just really old enough luggage.

When I got home I called the family into one of the bedrooms metal in the cleaned up her room. I said Madeleine there are no dead squirrels and hear what what went on. I saw Bible there and I picked it up as my Spybot even know we had a knack I am hot like I apologize to them for never encouraging relationship with not forbidding it was never encouraging.

I made room for right and I picked up the semantic why he had to spinal and she said little girl.

She said just makes me think about grandpa just rip my my heart. I mean, it was just like wow and and that's just the power of what I in my mind when I hear that story shows just restoration and even words like reconciliation, redemption, adaption, discovery, deeming some things for you. Even with your own children and their relation and then other people how they began to view your dad from their because of how you have a new view of your dad. So that's powerful while well and then I just think courage to let you listeners out there just maybe your babies gas relationships with their there needs to be some reconciliation, some redemption, just take that take the story. The heart that I got sent just the miracle working God and can bring the revelation of what you might need to do in order to restore relationship with somebody whether it's a dad or dad or daughter or son you know anyone right mom and your family friend. So let's let's transition here little bit from from that with a little on a little lighter note, we talked about your ability on the last show about your ability to to to ride before we get there made couple references you know you talk about this movie and will talk about another plated there's another side to you that I've seen and many others have seen in you team up with some guys and you do the clergy collar comedy to her tell her listeners just little something about that wealth to be a youth pastor effectively for 15 years. He had to keep his attention so people do variety of different things.

I just try to use humor and then when I became a full-time traveling speaker.

I'm thinking that the school term. A side hustle. How can I continue to do this and maybe have other streams of income so my friends who are Christians, some of them say I'm not a Christian comedian I'm a comedian happens to be a Christian and God bless. But I am Christian comedian Christian everything that so we can if we do this side hustle and have a standup comic platform at the end point people to Jesus, I'm all about. So we would do things individually and then my best buddy Lee McBride ease of hilarious comedian every now and it will get together will do this clergy collar comedy tour that last year during the Christmas season and it's a lot of fun.

It's mostly people laughing at me laughing at him okay okay and add add that something that like churches could have you here and you still do that, we still do that yet, so you only, but somebody did with their third guy we use third third guys before Johnna Blewett is a hilarious job with his mother so okay so you pastors out there and those to you involved in in ministry will at the end of the show will give you give you some information on how to get in contact with Joe if you want to bring in the clergy collar comedy to her or something else that that fascinates me. Joey not only your ability to ride and the other things you did, but I witnessed a number of years ago a play now I know you and write display.

At least I don't believe you did. Maybe Charles Dickens. I think about Scrooge. You see it.

Did you read Charles Dickens wrote a Christmas Carol which is which is essentially the story of screwed exactly like an ant but you perform that here's a memory I have you you make. This may jog your memory.

It you are sitting your car at a pharmacy in Kannapolis, North Carolina.

I saw in the parking lot and it looks like you're engaged in a conversation, but there's no phone found in and I think I walked up to be tapped on the window or you roll the window down like you like a memorizing lines alike for what goes for this play. I'm doing because you Scrooge or whatever and I now I'll never forget Joe you like yeah I got like like 557 lines to memorize. I walked away going oh my goodness into my best wrestling days.

The court said it had a script for the listeners. They really didn't.

They didn't hand us a script for the interview didn't hand us a script for the match we we just got me. We just went and did okay but in this case Joe's member memorizing 507 in the play, or at the first assembly in Concorde had a pretty larger initially pretty large cast, about 80 people five years. A lot of shows sold out 15 bucks a ticket. It was really wild conception of that was in 2010. I'm sitting in the service and I just hear the Holy Spirit to sound like a mystical guy happened.

He talks to me all the time.

I just don't always hear is like an Aflac duck you know I just don't but to be tuned into what I was tuning that day and he said don't travel next year. Being a play and I'm like I'm in a play since high school I was in Oklahoma my character name was slim many things and change the but I remember that audition the game as a part of Scrooge. I went to a weak rehearsal. I told it was a community theater people from all over all churches and no church agnostics see no just the community interest are at the end of this thing can I share four minutes of gospel reasonably think about that comes back. The next rehearsals as I thought about it, do it and Nick.

Oh, I've done this 80 times Christmas Carol morphed into the Ebenezer experience, which was a monologue. What we want to touch a hot dog only accurate for this research.

Eight 880 times and I think over thousand people filled a card saying that they gave their hearts to Jesus and about and you play the main character, Scrooge yeah that's why did the thing because I'm thinking phone.

Memorize 500 lines and cues to leverage this is what else can I do with this zeitgeist.

Two weekends a year and so you you you you create this Ebenezer what was the Ebenezer experience word like now it's like, not 80 cast members is like you in two or three other people. That's right, and we show pictures on this on the LED screen and we we asked people to use their imagination would we do it for about an hour and 15 or 20 minutes and this year you know this. This year we are making a hybrid Christmas Carol laser experience we have combined those and we are using it travel I'm caught like a Little League traveling baseball team will members of the cash as a skeleton crew were taken at the Huntsville Alabama and Concorde North Carolina two separate weekends and were gonna do.

I'm really excited about it because Jerry's brain, the guy who did this recently. He is so fantastic. We get a lot of different elements to keep people's attention for an hour 50 while while really excited about the well and I know to be phenomenal in an just a thousand people fill out a card to give your heart to Jesus's is phenomenal in and of itself, you feel your receiving value from this show.

It's time to man up and you like to support the show along with cola Christ ministries go to co-op.co-op.org and make a donation of any amount no want my latest book you receive a personalized copy of Nikita my tale of the ring and redemption.

Let's really this is what I really want to get to this, you may reference on the last show that it made references on the ship. The movie I guess my first question is, as you kinda give up an inside peak to our listeners in into this movie in it and it's if it's a the topic is like wall. My first question would be what tell us about it, but what inspired you to do this movie in the hat have tell our listeners whatever you want to look here, but it's a great question.

2015 I went to northern Thailand went to Malaysia to speak at a national conference with a friend of mine and I went to a children's home that had started in Thailand we flew to Bangkok, we went to northern Thailand. We flew up to Chang Rai and I see people and customs in Bangkok.

I see Western men from Germany, US Canada. They got little duffel bags. There is not businessmen and they don't have any families and so Mike was going on here know in a knockout Indian region of northern Thailand. They come into a village know by child for $400 which is a Fortune US dollars as a fortune and Ñ grandparents of the parents we want to take your child to Bangkok, put them in the hotel industry in the wash sheets and clean glasses and then they'll send some money back home. They think they won the lottery, but it is not. It's a trafficking situation, human traffic, human trafficking, and the way that my friends children's home start was a knock at the door at midnight. 1986 and a grown man was trying to sell child and he said what is this what's going on in the cinema called the police. The guy smacked in the sit stay in here. I'll call the police find you in prison. Have you killed, and that started in his brain. Us guys from the deep South and he doesn't know what he's doing but God would let them off the hook and he had started children's home in northern Thailand and he said 500 graduates and their it's very very inspiring. That was the inspiration I'm just sitting there in a meeting with the villagers and I just see this, this film idea unfold like a roadmap and I'm just an old youth pastor, but it would not let me go and I just I just had to obey the Lord. Finally I decided what God you gotta you get this out of my mind. I bought a big Post-it note thing those big huge thing to put on the wall. I interviewed my friend. 914 page singlespaced transcript and headed to a friend of ours named Susan Richard. You might remember that name to her cabin her in Bob's cabinet had a basement that was just perfect for what I was trying to do is pray and pray pray pray God get this out of my mind this. I do this plus is not to pay any dividends for years spiritual. Otherwise, as I'm praying this trimaran a misty corner while this is your homework moment for your podcast might my bladder usually sends my brain and email-that will you get like three minutes and you will be in trouble. I got no email. I'm praying hard man. All of a sudden there's let it just emergency lights go off, and I pull over to a big wide gravel SWAT. I go up into the woods and I see a trash pile about 20 feet away is 4 feet high and I hear there again I hear the Holy Spirit said I got a message for you in a trash pile come out of the woods misting on top of that trash and on the very top. Nick, there was an open hymnal. That said, endure to the end and from that moment to this I even though it got tough over five years making this movie. I never doubted what I was supposed to do it. We showed a nine or 10 times when you get $15,000 to that children's home and Chang Rai, Thailand.

This is about 25 miles from the cave were those boys got trapped that soccer team that trapped underwater. That's about twice that geographical location okay and some of these kids that that are in the string my children. Some were found chained to a bed and so I'm I'm pleased we were doing on 19 March this thing called Corona. Have you read about it heavy, hard look. The governor is no you can't show it so we we've just been trying to figure what to do so. Usually backed off on if you want to say that watershed yesterday she had some viewings of it. I know I know there's been trailers out there that were it in and I see the trailer and I'll just take Joe just seen the trailer and just knowing you and your heart and love for people that that this movie is getting impact a lot of people when it whenever it eventually get out into the public and and I know that's kind of under wraps for now, but for the listeners out there will make it aware link make you aware of the fact that this movie is out and available and getting impact people's lives. And you know that's a huge I'm learning as I had to show recently on human trafficking was someone else and there's a number of high-profile athletes might my nobody staying Ray Lewis attempt I think to comparable Ray Lewis and several high-profile athletes that have gotten engaged with this whole human traffic. It's a big deal if it's just terrible.

People want to talk about it from finding, but it really is a bit in and not just meet certainly big in America but big on a worldwide scale option absolutely Thailand and other places right so will II just I didn't know when we made it that that was easy for five years is easy. Part of making the distribution part is what's complicated, but we got some things are exciting, head spinning that were trying to process is not ready to announce anything but we want the most eyes possible to be upon this film what you envision as far as started impacting people. Okay, so we shone about seven times in the South. Mainly we take up take an outdoor screen is great, great system and we can do it outdoors and do it indoors and people have one church, an associate pastor was raising foster kids and told the pastor got spoke to my wife and I threw that film when I foster anymore when adopt this child. One church lady walks up to me with little clutching her hand and she said please take this. I was going to use this to go to Sam's after church and I was going prepare for what's coming next. Like a proper you know yeah but I want you to go rescue these girls was like 600 bucks and there, and the money wasn't what was so special to me. What was special she was saying I was to say my life with this and I want you to say somebody else's life, almost like a weed with her might.

It really it really move me so people are moving and the drumbeat is how can people see this and were working on. We really are working on. Well, we just managed to. This is such a command powerful topic and do you envision Ms. Farsi much you distribution envision eventually or or will it be on on a worldwide scope or what will I think these will as of today, and don't hold me to this for what I would envision as of today it will land on a streaming platform and it will be offered for minimal or no cost just to get people's eyes on this and it's really a film about real-world problems and all the heroes that solve them. So trafficking happens with the topic of this 59 minute film at the gospel at the end of us in about five minutes was 47 minutes. The gospel message, and with Credit Suisse right underneath an hour and I envision that a lot of eyeballs will be on and not just be motivated by trafficking which is a scourge but also other issues like when a stones throw this radio station.

There are issues that are breaking God's heart, poverty, hunger, loneliness, and keep your head on a swivel and find the problem that you can solve with God's help. That's what I want people to be inspired. This just happens to be scourge of trafficking and herein.

It is goodness on the trailers. It would be more along the lines of of a documentary, not a knock on energetic wishes to standalone stories not really a feature film features or an hour and 20 else I can send morning when we made this was kind of perfect size for Sunday morning service okay and I am in it. People said why are you in it telling Robert De Niro was booked on that particular time. The only guy got a four.

Robert would just wasn't available and not avail you not in my is not in my price range and in and Stallone would not have fit the role right on so weak that we can. I have a 75 page script, you probably don't know about. It's already done and in the can of film that I am more excited about even in this, which I'm extremely excited about, and for that I hope the real actors, casting directors in all well you know it and men just for the listeners out there just just join us in prayer for Joe and just one further for the movie what's what's the title of Archie somebody they can go to aren't you somebody.com don't put any punctuation in a RENTYOU somebody.com they can see the website they can scroll down to see the trailer we were featured on the front page of the local newspaper before the pandemic and we really had some serious momentum.

I would get it will get it back. God knows what it's doing. That absolutely does an and if people wanted to get a hold of you. Joe Phillips ministries.com you can email me joe@joephillipsministries.com and I'd love to hear from folks and pushing this local area and on the Carolinas deep South here will go anywhere we go anywhere were invited but I'd love to love to hear from some folks and see what we can do you mean you travel as people can can can gather you travel worldwide and and I know you're sensitive, as they've already probably picked up on achievements referenced several times hear from the Holy Spirit that you're sensitive to the voice of voice of the Lord might my sheep know my voice and and you clearly Joe have. I think in the last few shows one of the last show in the show today, you've clearly I think conveyed that message that no matter who gave you. You're connected with Jesus.

If you have that relationship with him that then your want to his sheep. You can hear his voice, what would you say to our listeners. In the last 30 seconds what would you say to them in regards to a relationship will not only can your life be changed if you're not walking with me and you do walk within the lives of people around you will be transformed and changed by your transformation. That's what I would say because he loves to take the foolish things of the world and confound the wise things that make no sense like just given away baby growing up, to make a movie that he does know how to make that's not unique to me that's God's deal. He loves to take your life that may not make a ton of sense and make it absolutely lined up with his thoughts for change all around you. That's powerful. Thank you for tuning in to it's time to man up and then again next week. Gentle men I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luther and I and pursuing the heart of ladies listening will send your manhole with God godly husband and God you give them your blessing and sign up today and Thought in full. Pastors you would like to bring Holland for Christ ministries and man up conference to your community.

Go to cloth.org and email me member this, it's time to man up. This is the Truth Network. One of our generous sponsors here. The Truth Network has come under fire fire from the enemy fire for standing up for family values.

Actually one of the biggest supporters of the movie unplanned that talked about the horrors of abortion. Yes, it's Mike Lindell. You've heard me talk about his pillows for a long long time and no doubt big business is responding to Mike Lindell and all this generosity for causes for the kingdom by trying to shut down his business.

You can't buy pillows at Kohl's anymore.

You can get them on Amazon or you can get them at Cosco there attempting to close his business because he stood up for kingdom values. What a chance to respond, especially if you need a pillow live at my now for years and years and years and still fluffs up as wonderful as ever. Queen-size pillows are just 2998.

Be sure and use the promo code truth or call 1-800-944-5396 that's 1-800-944-5396. Use the promo code truth for values on any my pillow product to support truth