From Broken to Blessed: The Power of Second Chances - Obed Martinez
About 30 minutes later, I hear a car pull up, and you could imagine there was tremendous fear in me. So I looked over the fence and I saw one of my friends run up to the car. His name was Ridge, that was his nickname. And, um, they pulled out a, a. I saw off 12 Gauge and they shot him. And I remember him flying, literally it was taken off from his feet and, and like kind of hit the curb and then fell face forward and the car sped off.
And I remember jumping the fence, took off my shirt, had a, uh, my jacket, and it was like the size of a baseball. The hole was in his back and I was covering it and I was holding his head and I was telling him, man, you're gonna make it. You're gonna make it and make it. And I was screaming, calling 9 1 1.
I'm really excited about telling you my story because I truly believe that when you begin to tell. Your story, people begin to look into their own story as well. Matter of fact. The one reason why I love the Bible is because the Bible is full of stories. And, uh, Jesus, to me, was one of the greatest storytellers, um, and really, um, came across very strong by telling you the highs but also the lows.
And I think that's what attracts us to people. And I think that's what attracts us to faith. And that is our story. Well, Amma. Fourth generation pastor. Um, I was raised in a Christian home, um, and, uh, had tremendous parents. My dad, uh, was a youth pastor when he met, uh, my mother. And, uh, they got married very quick and had five children.
And, um, dad realized that. You know, his life in some sense wouldn't be as significant to him, at least, um, if he stood in ministry. So he decided to go into a career of, uh, becoming a firefighter and also making it a point that he would serve the pastor and serve the church and be the greatest volunteer.
And so that's where I get really this whole, um, a concept of growing up. We always, in some sense serve. God's house served the church. Um, though dad really had a spirit of entrepreneurship on his life. Mom and dad, um, were happily married, and, uh, all of a sudden they started experiencing some hiccups. And, uh, when I was a, a young boy, my father decided to leave the house and he started to leave the, uh, decided to leave the home, and my mom and dad separated.
And I'll never forget an incident that I would probably say was, Probably mo the most cataclysmic change of my life. Um, and where I can see this was when my life started spiraling downward. Um, obviously being the oldest boy in the house, I had to take on some duties, um, that, uh, were left behind by my father and picking up his responsibility while he was out there exploring the world.
And one day I was at the mall with a couple of friends of mine and. We were just being young teenagers and we're walking, you know, we're going up the escalator on our way to the Foot Locker, and one of my friends taps me and he says, man, is that your dad coming down the escalator? And I look up and sure enough, it was my father with his arm wrapped around another woman.
And I'll never forget, you know, the look on my dad's face as we crossed each other, it was almost as if. We both went silent. It was like one of those moments in, in which life just stood still. And I remember thinking my dad is gonna turn around and kind of run up the escalator and maybe explain what I just saw, but I.
Contrary. My dad, um, just kept on going as if he never saw me. And I remember my friends kind of, you know, saying, oh, look at your dad, you know, he's a player. You know, look at your dad, you know, he's a g I mean, all these crazy things. But deep down inside, it literally fractured my heart. This was the hero of my life.
And, um, and that. And one minute was taken away from that, and that's when I was, uh, 12 years old. And, and, and soon later, I. I started, uh, ditching school and um, started to explore with drugs and, and alcohol and next thing, you know, found a different group of people, um, that would, that I would call family.
And that was my neighborhood and that was, or a neighborhood. I joined in a gang. And, um, from the ages of 12 to 16, um, I was in and out of prison, kicked out of eight schools. And it was all due to the fact that in some sense I was, I was fatherless. Um, I'll never forget a moment in my life, um, I was out on the streets.
It was at four o'clock in the morning and I was, you know, I had a couple of, um, drugs left in my pocket to sell and, and, uh, knew that an early morning rush would come, people would want to get high before they go to work. And so I was out on the streets and a car pulled up. And at that time we were in real conflict with a rival, um, neighborhood.
And, uh, one of, uh, their people got killed by one of ours. And it, the tension was really high and I'll never forget them pulling up. And at this time I thought it was a drug transaction, so I actually moved from under the staircase. Um, and I ran up to the car asking them what they need. And next thing you know, there was a nine millimeter shotgun, uh, fire gun, Uzi, excuse me, that, um, He pulled out, yelled out the neighborhood, and he pulled the trigger and all I heard was click, click, click.
And in the passenger seat the guy, you know, yells at, you forgot to put the clip inside. You forgot to put the clip inside. And I remember running and my I, as I was running, I. I could, I, I was looking for the fence to, to jump over and I could hear the bullets kind of literally ricocheting off the wall and missing me.
For whatever reason, they all missed me and climbing the wall. I got to, next thing you know, the car sped off and I remember just sitting there and I was. I, I had drugs in my, in, in, in my pocket. I was kind of a little bit coming off from a high and all I was coming out of my mouth was, you know, I just plead the blood of Jesus over my life.
I plead the blood of Jesus. And, and I look back and, and, and it always baffles me because I. I was not even involved in church. I was far from church wanting nothing to do with church. Um, I hated the church and um, and yet it was like this seed that was planted to me as a young child that my mom and dad would always take us to church.
It almost came out at the right time and, and I was even sitting there wondering, where's this coming from? And, and I'll never forget. I was sitting there and I was just in this state of shock, like, okay, you almost died. And uh, and, and next thing you know, about 30 minutes later, I hear a car pull up. And you could imagine there was tremendous fear in me.
So I looked over the fence and I saw one of my friends run up to the car. His name was Ridge, that was his nickname. And, um, they pulled out a, a. Saw off 12 gauge and they shot him. And I remember him flying, literally it was taken off from his feet and, and like kind of hit the curb and then, Fell face forward and the car sped off.
And I remember jumping the fence, took off my shirt, had a, uh, my jacket, and it was like the size of a baseball. The hole was in his back and I was covering it and I was holding his head and I was telling him, man, you're gonna make it. You're gonna make it and make it. And I was screaming, calling 9 1 1.
And one of the neighbors heard the 12 gay. They called and, and, uh, my friend, um, died literally, um, in my arms. And I remember that morning, you know, as the sun was coming up, I, I went home and, and, um, just wanted to take a shower. I felt so dirty and, um, so lost in, um, when I, the shower that I would take, would always be in my mom's room.
And so when I walked into my mom's room, um, surprisingly, she was up and she looked at me and she said, these words that changed my life. She said, you know, they almost got you today. And I said, well, what are you talking about? And she goes, they almost got you today. And I'm like, I, I don't understand what you're saying.
And she was like, the Lord woke me up at four o'clock in the morning and said, start praying for your son. And right then and there, I knew why those bullets missed. And that was because I had a mother who was willing to stand in the gap. And you would think after a, a very, very, um, Life-changing experience, you would change.
But matter of fact, it didn't. It just grew worse. My heart got harder. Um, I think at this point I had no fear of death anymore and I kept on selling drugs, kept on getting in trouble, and about two months later, um, I'm gonna make one of the biggest. You know, drug, trans, trans transactions. Um, and, and really felt like, okay, this was my time.
I'm gonna make it, you know, I'm no longer gonna be on the streets no more. I can really just sell to those on the streets and this one transaction was gonna do it. And, um, I. I was in the, uh, passenger seat of a, of a car and we were in the parking lot of a junior college where there was a bunch of traffic going on.
So we realized we could disguise it there. And my, um, it was night school and at night and, um, One of the guys that was there, you know, obviously had a gun and, and um, you know, just kind of put the gun to my head, almost like, calling out your neighborhood, are you down with your neighborhood? And that kind of understood what he was doing.
He was basically saying, Hey, if we're gonna come into this deal, I need to make sure you're not afraid of death. I need to make sure you're gonna stand up for what you somewhat believe in. And, and sure enough I was like, yeah, man, I'm down from my neighborhood. And so, you know, took the gun off my head and, um, showed me the drugs and, and he wanted to see the money and he was like, I want you to count it and.
So I was counting it and while I was counting it, his other friend went to my. My friend that was in the driver's seat and had him roll down the window and put the gun to his head too. And, um, and so next thing you know, I'm, I'm counting it and I land up getting so, um, sidetracked by what his friend was doing.
And then this guy had a gun. I'm thinking, man, are they just gonna take everything from us? And in my nervousness, I dropped the money. When I dropped the money, I bent over to to, to get it. And when I bent over, his friend accidentally pulled the trigger and it kind of blew off half of my. My, my friend's mouth and my window shattered.
Um, and I remember we were so startled, my friend started the car and he, he put it in and, and go and we sped off and his face was bleeding. And, and, and I was, you know, he was driving while I was trying to, you know, hold his face on one end, kind of holding his mouth together because it got ricocheted from a, uh, from, from, from the glass.
And then also from. I, I mean from, excuse me, from the bullet. And, and so then my glass was all shattered. And, uh, we ended up getting in the hospital. And I can't tell the story to, to, to the paramedics. I'm Jehu, I'm just telling you that, that we were playing with the gun and next thing you know, this is what happened.
And, um, and, and so the doctors, uh, after I was done and, and the police was there and I explain it to them, they were like, you know, if you would've had, if you would've been sitting up, um, you would have, uh, had your head blown off. And, um, again, it was one of those moments in my life that was like God was getting my attention.
Like, oh, bed, this is not my destination. And then, you know, about a, about six to six months later I land up getting caught in a, in a drug raid. And, um, I go to prison. And when I go to prison, I'm there. And you know, you're thinking your friends are gonna be there, they're gonna write you No, not, not one letter, not one visit.
The person that visited me every weekend was my mom. And the crazy thing about it was that my mom never drove on the interstate or the freeway, so she had to take the bus. And I knew it was always a struggle every week for her to do it, but she was always relentless to go see her son. And, and, and she would always tell me, I'm praying for you.
And, and so I spent six months. In jail and served my time. And uh, I came out, I'll never forget on a Monday, and my mom and dad both picked me up and I remember all I wanted to do was go to McDonald's, like, just take me to McDonald's. So I go to McDonald's and we land up eating and you know, my dad's asking me, are you gonna change?
And has this changed you? And. You know, I'm looking at him and I want to ask him the same question, like, have you changed? You know, and I'll never forget us kind of getting in this argument like, you started all this, you know? And um, and it's so easy to blame other people when you don't wanna take responsibility for yourself.
And so, you know, my mom, you know, told me, she was like, Hey, look at Wednesday's church. It's youth group. It'd be great for you to go. And I'm like, no mom, I don't want to go, you know, just a bunch of hypocrites there. And. My mom was being a little sarcastic and she says, well, you would fit perfectly in, you know, and I'm like, wow, that's, that's a jab, you know?
And, uh, anyways, she told me there's gonna be some pretty girls there. And I thought, well, six months. All you see is guys, I think, you know, hey, this, this, this, this, this may be the deal. And so I did land up going. And I was in the back and, um, met the youth pastor and, um, they were leaving the camp that Friday and he had just mentioned that it was sold out.
And, you know, they're really excited. They were gonna pray and, you know, they were gonna have a great youth camp. And then part of me, I was like, man, I, you know, I don't want to go, I, I don't, I don't want to go. I really don't want to go. So I'm kind of glad it's sold out. So then my mom doesn't bother me to, to go, well, the next day it's around 10 in the morning or.
Um, we get this phone call. My mom says it's a youth pastor. And I was telling her, mom, I, I promise you I didn't do anything wrong. And she was like, no, no, no. He wants to talk to you about something. And, uh, he, he landed up telling me, he said, Hey, Obed, uh, great to see you last night. And I said, yeah, great.
And he goes, Hey, you know, we have camp coming up, we're leaving tomorrow. And I said, oh, fantastic. He goes, yeah, you know, it's eight hours of basketball, three hours of church. Um, I think you're really gonna gonna love it. And I'm like, oh, well it's sold out. He goes, oh, no, no, no. There's one spot available.
And I'm like, how did one spot open up? He goes, well, there was just one spot available and your mom paid for it. I'm like, there's no way my mom could pay for it. You know, it's too expensive and stuff. Like, he goes, no, no, your mom gave her last $60. And um, so you get to go. And I'm like, wow, $8 basketball, three hours at church.
You know, I think I could dig this. And so I landed up going and when I found out that it was, The opposite. It was eight hours of church and three hours of basketball. Really got me upset. And I told the youth pastor, you lied. And he was like, well hey, you know, I'm sorry, but at the end of the day got you here.
And I'm like, wow, you know, can't trust you. And um, and I remember going up. Hire a little bit on the mountain. I, I brought some, some, some stuff and I landed up smoking a joint and I was kind of high and stuff like that. And I remember coming into church and um, I did, and you know, it was on July 8th, 1989 and the pastor had had a seat for me up front and I said, no, no, I just wanna send the back.
He goes, no, no, no, you need to go up front. And I did. And. And I just remember, honestly, the only reason why I lifted my hand, um, you know, when the worship leader did it was because, you know, I'm in the front row. I didn't wanna look like I was outta place and outta that pressure of doing that, I lifted my hand and it was like a water, like a bucket of water over heaven opened up and just showered me.
And I just remember kind of. Hitting my knees to the ground, and it was like I fell asleep and I woke up two hours later and when I woke up, it was like I was this new person. I couldn't even explain that. I couldn't explain what happened to me. I couldn't explain. It was unexplainable and I had an encounter with God and.
And, and I believe when I look back now, it, it was probably gonna be the only way I could get saved and rededicate my life because he had to, at that time, do it himself because I was so disappointed by so many others. And, um, and next thing you know, uh, my mom picked me up and, you know, I told her and, and, and she just cried inside the car.
And, you know, from that point on, I got involved in student ministry. I. You know, because I was kicked outta so many schools, I had to go to a, um, to a continuation school. And I, and I finished it in record time and the only school district that would let me in was a Long Beach Unified school district my senior year.
And it just so happened to be the same school that my rival gang was from. And I remember trying out playing basketball and uh, and in doing that, um, I'm sitting down on a bench and the guy sits right behind me. His back's rubbing literally against mine, and he whispers to me and he goes, I know who you are.
And I said, well, you, you know who I was. I'm not that person no more. And he goes, okay, well, you know, I just wanna let you know I, I got your back. And he was from that neighborhood. And, uh, it was just began an interesting journey. And my first period was actually, um, working in the counseling office. And so I started working in that counseling office and I remember hearing about all these clubs that were going on.
And so I asked my counselor, Can I share my story with you and give her my testimony? And by the time I was done, she was in tears and she says, oh, bed, you gotta do something. And I said, I, for whatever reason, I feel like I wanna start this Bible club and the name I want to call it is lost and found. And she was like, oh my God, I love it.
I love it. I said, well, Can you work that out? And well, the next week later she comes to me, she says, the only room that's available is the wrestling room. Well, that's a smelly room, but hey, it was worth it. So I started putting up signs all over the, the campus. And we started with seven people, um, in that wrestling room, uh, called Lost and Found at lunchtime every Thursday.
And we were just faithful and faithful and faithful. And to make a long story short, we ended my senior year. Not having it in in the wrestling room, but actually having it in the gymnasium. And we had 274 people and that ministry today continues on that campus. I get the privilege to go speak at it twice every year, but here's ironic, and here's just the testimony of God that when Lizette and I.
Got into ministry and I, I met my beautiful wife and, and, uh, we dated for nine years and got married and I traveled the world, um, in ministering, and then we started Destiny Church, 14 years. Um, I. Ago in, in here, in the desert. Um, our first meeting in a living room in Rancho Mirage was seven people. The crazy thing about it was that on March 7th, 2004 was our grand opening.
And guess what we had, I. 274 people. I mean, you can't put that story together. Only God can do something like that. But here we are now, 14 years later, we have two beautiful children. Um, and, uh, the miracle and even that was that the doctors told us that we would never be able to have children. And, uh, God in his miraculous way gave us our first child.
And then, um, she's our miracle child, and then our second child is in, oops. Uh, we didn't plan him, uh, but we're so glad we do have him. But, It's just been this journey in life that today, now just ministering to young people and, you know, giving them the hope that somebody gave me and having, uh, and giving them the investment of, of what my mom invested in my life and all those years.
And today, my relationship with my father, I. It is probably closer than ever has before. My dad loves the Lord and my mom had gone home to be with Jesus, but at the end of the day, she paid her dues. And today she's smiling every weekend I, every day all her children are serving the Lord. And um, it has been an incredible journey and I pray that my testimony in some sense, I.
Would be a blessing to yours. And the one thing I would say about my story and in every story that I tell people is that the Bible says in second Samuel chapter 20, it's in the message translation. It says this. It says that God is the God who puts all the pieces back together. And he's the God that will take the pen out of your hand to rewrite the story of your life.
And I'm gonna tell you, it's almost a life verse for me because at the end of the day, how many times do we try to take the pen out of the author and the finisher of our faith to try to write our own story? Um, and it lands up, messing it up. You know, you give him back the pen and where the devil may have put a period, God would turn it into a comma.
And you know, I tell people, About their story. I said, you know what makes a great book is that it's the tragedy that turns into the triumph. It's the mistakes that turns into the miracles. It's the brokenness that turns into the blessings. So I just wanna encourage you that if you listen to this podcast, listen, be encouraged that God's not done writing your story.
The good is G. The good is on its way. But enjoy every chapter. If people ask me all the time, would you change anything in your past? And I would say, Absolutely not because at the end of the day, it played a part in my story today that God has wonderfully blessed me with, and I'm just excited about what the next chapters are gonna look like in Jesus' name.
And all throughout the Bible you can see those who lived purposeful lives. And that was simple because they were in proximity to somebody who was willing to invest in their lives. And so when I went on this whole journey of wanting to be a a leader, I realized that it was very important for me to find people in my life that I commit, that I can commit to learning from.
Hey, welcome to today's podcast. My name is Obed Martinez, and I'm so glad that you joined us today. One of the commitments I've made. In life by wanting to be a leader was really not making the commitment to becoming a leader more than making a commitment to being a lifelong learner. I truly believe that that leaders are learners and the more you learn, uh, you are in some sense equipped to lead.
One of my favorite passages. When it comes to leadership is in second Timothy chapter three in the New Living Translation, beginning in verse 10, and, and Paul's writing to young Timothy, and, and here's what he says, he said, but you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach and how I live and, and what my purpose.
Is in life. You know, my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. You know how much persecution and suffering I've endured? You know all about how I was persecuting in Antioch and ra, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. Yes. And everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ, Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil people and imposters will flourish.
They will deceive others and will be the will. The will. They themselves be deceived. But you just remain faithful in the things you have been taught. You know they are true for, you know, you can trust those who taught you. One of the significant parts of this particular passage of scripture is how many times the discipler who is.
Paul is telling the disciple Timothy the words, you know. You know, and I believe that we have a generation today because they're lacking the discipler and they're longing to be discipled. They actually don't know. I've never met a young person that has never wanted to be a leader. They just don't know how.
I've never met a. A person, a, a father, that, that doesn't want to be a great father. The reality is, is that they just don't know. I, I've never met a, a wife that wants to be a great mother and be a, a, a, a great spouse. No, they really aspire to do that. The problem is, is that they just don't know. And so at the end of the day, I think what we are, And what we're becoming is fully determined on who's willing to pour that into our lives and really, in some sense, rub in that association of somebody who's already doing it.
I love what a w Tozier says. He says, when you're in proximity with Christ, You start living for Christ. In other words, proximity magnifies purpose while dis, while distance brings distortion. I'll say that one more time. Proximity magnifies purpose while distance creates distortion. And all throughout the Bible you can see those who lived.
Purposeful lives. And that was simple because they were in proximity to somebody who was willing to invest in their lives. And so when I went on this whole journey of wanting to be a a leader, I realized that it was very important for me to find people in my life that I commit, that I can commit to learning from.
And I knew that it would be a sacrifice of my own life. I knew it would be a sacrifice of my time. It would be a sacrifice of my treasures. Till this day, there's a large portion, um, of my financial life today that is committed to getting around people that I wanna learn from. There are conferences I go to, not to speak, but just to hear and learn.
There are multiple times I'll get on an airplane just to go sit two hours in an office of a pastor that is way ahead of me in certain areas in, in, in, in ministry, just to sit at their feet. And learn from. Matter of fact, there's an old Jewish tradition and it says that when the learners are following the rabbi or the students are following the rabbi, how the rabbi will know by the end of the day who was the closest, was that afterwards when they would sit down and the journey was over with, he would look to see how much dust was on that one person, and the person that had the most dust from the.
Sandals of the rabbi that was flapping would be the one that he knew was closest to him. And that's the, that's, that's what I want in my life. I want the dust of others to be on my life today because it shows the proximity and how I willing to be so close to that, to that discipler that I have chosen.
And given permission to disciple me. I think one of the greatest tragedies today is that we have a generation that's being raised today that in some sense has the longing to go further in life than they want to. Yet they've never found anybody that's willing to pour their life into. I don't think we have a relationship issue today.
I just really feel that we don't have relational. Coaching today that's available to, to people. I don't believe we have in some sense, a financial epidemic of people that don't know how to handle their finances. I just truly believe we don't have financial coaches willing to invest in some sense or in some sense people to really seek it out.
Financial coaches for their life often tell my church, show me the areas you've been coached in. I can tell you those are the areas you're succeeding in, but it also goes. The opposite way, show me the areas you're not succeeding in, and I can show you the areas you're not being coached in. And so it's ama, it's amazing how we have business coaches, we have life coaches, but the two main areas people fail in often is finances and relationships.
And it's because in those two areas, we haven't found mentorship, nor discipleship, nor coaches to learn from. And I truly believe that in order for you to be a leader, And you're striving to be a leader is that you really gotta make the commitment of really being a lifelong learner, and as you're making that commitment of being a lifelong learner, Find somebody, find somebody that you can attach your life to.
Find somebody that will, would be willing to dedicate some time to invest in your life and, and come into proximity with them. Come close to them, see what they do, sit in their meetings and or go home and sit at their dinner table and see how they interact with their children and, and their spouse. I think one of the greatest things Lizette and I did when we first started dating because we wanted to really succeed in our dating was that we found three couples in three different stages of their marriage to attach ourself to and make ourself accountable to, and we often took them out.
We seldom took out our friends. I couldn't even tell you how many times in our nine years of our relationship did we do double dates with our friends. I mean, we always had our. Friends there, but Lizette and I were very, um, we were, we, we, we were very, uh, uh, uh, we, we wanted to make sure that we got around people that were in areas in our life that we desire to have already there.
And so that's where we committed to spend our life. We were very intentional and getting around people that we can learn from. And, and, and, and, and we would always come with a list of questions because we saw something in them that we desired in our life, which leads me to what I call the developmental stage of discipleship.
Or in some sense, becoming that leader by determining to be a lifelong learner. And stage one always begins by learning and observing. In other words, Look for somebody. Look to attach yourself. That's what Timothy did to Paul. That's what Elijah did. To Elijah. That's what Joshua did. To Moses. That's what Peter did to Jesus.
I mean, notice it was Peter who preached the first sermon. It wasn't, it, it, it wasn't ma, it wasn't, uh, a Bartholomew, or it wasn't Thomas. Because at the end of the day, it was the inner circle of Jesus that really had closer proximity to the nine of the rest. It was Elijah who was willing to go with Elijah to the four locations before he was taken up.
It was proximity. It was, it was Joshua. Who was willing to to to go everywhere. Moses went because at the end of the day it was proximity, and so at the end of the day, find somebody that you could be close to and you can learn from. The second is assisting in questioning. Stage two is assisting in questioning, help them out.
Get involved in what they're involved in, see the way they do things, and while you're assisting, at the same time, you can be observing. And then stage three is releasing and teaching. In other words, let them release things into your life that eventually you can use one day to teach others. I think the obligation of being discipled.
It is making a commitment that you will go out and be discipled. It's the same commitment Jesus made when he went in, when he said in Matthew chapter four to the disciples, he says, come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Notice. Um, he said, Hey, if you're willing to follow me, my commitment is to make you, and then I'm gonna give you the outcome, and that's.
Fishers of men. Well, at the end of the day, that was the commission he gave to his disciples in Matthew 28, where he says, go out and make disciples. And so in other words, if I'm gonna spend three and a half years making you, and you're gonna have proximity to my teaching, to my life, and to everything I do, well, I would want you to have that.
Commitment for someone else so that you go out and make somebody the same way I made you. And then lastly, stage four is delegating and reproducing. And that's what I just got done talking about because I really believe that in order for you to be a lifelong learner, to be a great leader is when you become that great leader.
As you're still being a lifelong learner, you're looking for those who want to be lifelong learners, who at the end of the day want to be leaders themselves. I love this quote that says discipleship. Is gained by association before it's understood by explanation. Lemme say that one more time.
Discipleship is gained by association before it's understood by explanation. In other words, the power of association, the closeness of proximity. We'll get you a better picture of what it's like to be a greater learner. I got some great mentors in my life. You know, the Bible says sound surround yourself with a multitude of counselors.
And so I have a financial coach in my life. Lizette and I have made a commitment to certain couples that we feel are our relational coaches and. Obviously being a pastor, being a leader of leaders, I got some people in my life that serve on my board, that serve as those, and you know, because at the end of the day, I really believe it's important that, um, you're constantly infused with leadership and you're constantly.
Being developed. Um, you never want to ever sit there and, and, and, and realize I've made it, you know? But at the end of the day, you gotta continue to push yourself, to push yourself to go further, push yourself to go, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, to go to, to go, to go that distance to becoming everything, um, you desire to be.
Because at the end of the day, the distance a disciple goes is determined by the trust. They have in their discipler. So I understand if I wanna go further, I gotta trust more. If I gotta go, if I wanna go further, I gotta trust more people. And so the distance of a discipler, a disciple goes, is determined by the trust they have in their disciple.
And so at the end of the day, a lifelong learner has these things in their life. Number one, they have intentionality. In other words, growth just doesn't happen. You gotta be intentional about growth. You gotta be intentional about becoming that leader because it's one thing to surround yourself with great mentors.
It's one thing to surround yourself with around great leaders, but you are you intentional on wanting to grow the next, to be a lifelong learners, you have to have personal awareness. In other words, you must know yourself to grow yourself. What are the areas in your life? That are weak and what are the areas in your life that are strong?
You gotta come to that personal awareness. I love to say this all the time. You, you'll never conquer what you're unable to confront. Part of just confronting an issue, 75% of that conquering is just by, by realizing that you have it. And so if you realize you have it, And you confront it, well, then you can easily conquer it.
The third is consistency. In other words, motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you going. And so to be this lifelong learner, you gotta be intentional. You gotta have personal awareness, you gotta have some consistency. Number four, it's gonna require pain tolerance. In other words, good management of bad experiences leads to great growth.
I'm gonna say that one more time. Good management of bad experiences lead to great growth because here's the deal. God is in the business of turning mistakes into miracles. He's in the business of taking brokenness into blessedness, and he's in the business of turning your setbacks into comebacks. So you can't ponder on the bad decisions.
You gotta move on to greater things because at the end of the day, Those will sometimes be your greatest growth seasons in your life. The four, the, the next is modeling your mentors. In other words, it's hard to improve if you only have yourself to follow. I love the fact that I got other people in my life that I can literally look at them and model.
That's what Paul said, that Timothy has, follow me as I follow Christ. I, I don't see that happening today in a lot of people. There's not a lot of leaders that can actually say that. Find a leader that's confident to say, follow me. And you become exactly what you're, look what you're looking at. And then lastly, to be a lifelong learner, you have to have a contribution to your mindset.
In other words, growing yourself helps you grow others. Growing yourself helps you grow others. And as I close, I wanna give you a quote by Alvin Toffler that says, This, the illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but it's those who cannot learn, unlearn, or relearn. This is Obed Martinez on today's podcast.
I hope you were blessed by this.
What God always did. He always looked at at, at what was going on, and he looks at even in our lives and he's never moved by our present circumstances because at the end of the day, he has this outcome for our life. He has, he has what our life should look like, and so he's never moved by the temporal because he has the goal in mind, and I think that's what helps you live.
That life of legacy. And when you begin to live that life of legacy, you begin to realize that my life is no longer driven by the temporal, but my life is driven by eternity.
I wanna talk to you really quick, uh, about legacy, and I truly believe that there's so many different definitions out there when it comes to legacy, but really a simple. Definition of legacy means this. It means where my life lives on. It just simply means where my life lives on. I love this verse. In Psalms 112, verse five through six, it says, good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.
Surely he will never be shaken and a righteous man will be remembered forever. Think about that. A generous. Who lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice is a person who would be remembered forever. I think often we always lead in the moment and we don't often look. At what, in some sense, the outcome of some of the decisions we make will affect us in the future.
I think if we can always lead, lead our life with legacy in mind, then at the end of the day, we will not be so moved by temporary situations to make irrational decisions, rather than us looking down the years and seeing how is that going to affect what we are trying to accomplish. And leave behind. You know, one of the goals in my life is to leave buildings for the next pastor of this church, um, without any debt, because at the end of the day, they can go further than, than maybe I could have.
And take the, the legacy, um, uh, of Destiny Church. Um, to heights in some sense, I would've never accomplished. But at the end of the day, it, it, it begins with you living with this attitude of knowing that living is all about my life. Outliving it. In other words, living. So my life outlives me. When I think of legacy, I think about my life.
That it outlives me and, and so everything I'm trying to do today is really trying to prepare for who's next. You know, the one thing that I love about God is that God always has the now and the next in mind. When you think about Moses, who was now, there was a next named Joshua. When Elijah was now, there was a next called Elijah.
When you think about, uh, Jesus in some sense, the next was Peter and the disciples. When the the now was Paul, the next was Peter. God always has the now and the next. Matter of fact, when God would even introduce himself in scripture, he would often introduce himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In other words, he would introduce himself as a generational God, a God That's just beyond. You know the now, but also the, you know, but looks throughout generations. And so I think in some sense, if we're gonna live a life of legacy, we gotta determine in our life that that legacy in some sense is my life.
That outlives me. The second thing that we gotta learn about legacy is when it comes to giving. That's what Psalms one 12 says. It says the generous lens freely. And who conducts himself with great affairs and justice? In other words, giving to something that will outlive me. So if I'm gonna live this life of legacy, I wanna give to something.
I want to give my time. I wanna give my talent. I wanna give my treasures to the very things that I know. Are gonna outlive me. You know, at the end of the day, I think everybody thinks at a certain time in their life when they want to be remembered. Oftentimes, when they really begin to think like that, it's too late.
I truly believe that where you're at today, whether you're starting a business or you're starting in ministry, or maybe starting a relationship wherever you're at in life. Start leading your life with legacy in mind. What do you wanna leave behind? Ask those questions. How do you want to be remembered?
You know, one of the things that I always tell myself, man, I, I, one day I will physically be gone, but my footprint will be where I serve the most. In other words, what I, what I'm saying is, Is that I wanna give myself to something that in some sense is going to outlive me. So when you think about legacy, meaning where my life lives on, you think about it, it's living so my life outlives me and, and then giving to something that will outlive me.
Then all of a sudden you encompass those three things. The goal isn't to live on Earth forever, but the goal really becomes really to leave something that does. In other words, the goal isn't to live on Earth forever. That's, that's not my goal, but my goal is to leave something that does, it brings so much meaning to why you exist.
It brings so much meaning to the things that you are putting your time and your talent and your treasure in that. In other words, I'm, I'm giving to something. My time. I'm, I'm, I'm intentionally giving all of my attention to the things that I know one day is going to outlive me. One of the things that I believe is kind of the, the thief of legacy is that when we only begin to live for the moment, and that's what the enemy wants to do, the enemy just wants you to be so, Captured by today's problems, by today's situations and today's dilemmas that you're going through, that in some sense you stop thinking past today and your mind is so stuck on what's just going on in the now that you will make a decision.
You know, often I think about. When I go to the store sometimes, and you know, you go to Target or if you go to Macy's or something like that, and you know, you go with the mindset of, Hey, this is how much money I have. I'm gonna buy this one gift, or I'm gonna buy this thing for someone, and it never fails.
And they do it because that's what they're told to do. But they'll sit there and say, um, Hey, by the way, do you have a a Macy's account? And my response is always no. And they're like, well, today you can save 15% on what you just bought. And then in my mind, I always wanna respond back by saying, yeah, but then now I'm stuck to what I'm just buying today to last much longer than what it should have.
Just because I wanted to save 15%. At the end of the day, I'm always thinking long term with my finances and I'm thinking, well, you know, to some people they'll land up biting it. Oh, I can save 15% today because I can take what I'm saving today and use it for something else. But how many know that was a decision that was made in the moment?
Nobody ever walked up to that counter. I've never met anybody that's in line talking about. Wow. I can save 20% when I get up to the counter. Now they're not talking about that. They, they're, they're talking about they want to get outta here real quick. They hope that the line goes faster, but when they get up to pay for what they're getting, they are presented with a decision that if they're not careful, they can bite.
That will have a long-term effect that on something. That never should have. And I think oftentimes that how life is we get, we get slammed with something that, you know, just all of a sudden we get confronted with and we get slammed with it, and it causes us to make a temporal decision that in some sense the consequences become longer than what they should.
That's what you can do, because at the end of the day, you cannot stop. What situations come your way Cannot stop. What type of storms or. What type of wilderness you're gonna, you're gonna go through. But what you can decide is keeping your eyes focused on what's long-term, on what's legacy. And in other words, is this decision that I'm gonna make right now, is it long-term?
Is it gonna, is it gonna be such an impact that it's gonna outlive me? And I, I really believe that's what, what God always did. He always looked at at, at what was going on. And he looks at even in our lives and he's never moved by our present circumstances. Because at the end of the day, he has this outcome for our life.
He has, he has what our life should look like. And so he's never moved by the temporal because he has the goal in mind. And I think that's what helps you live that life of legacy. And when you begin to live that life of legacy, you begin to realize, That my life is no longer driven by the temporal, but my life is driven by eternity.
I'm gonna say that one more time. When you really begin to live a life of legacy, your life is no longer driven by the temporal, but it's driven. By eternity. In other words, I'm thinking what is gonna, how am I gonna affect eternity like that? Are my decisions gonna day? Are my decisions gonna day hinder some of the eternal things that I'm really trying to accomplish according to scripture, I.
And when I'm driven by eternity, I begin to focus on things and not allow myself to be distracted by the things that will come my way. I love what Ecclesiastics chapter three says. It says, he's made everything beautiful in his time, and he also has set eternity in the human heart, so it's not by accident.
That God left a void in every one of our hearts that can only be filled by becoming intentional about being driven in eternity. And I believe this is why we buy things so irrational, and this is why we land up continually spending and spending and spending thinking that's gonna. Kind of fill the void that's in our heart, and so we'll go buy a new car and realize, man, that, that that rush is gone and now I'm stuck with a larger payment, man, we'll go move into a bigger house, man.
It served the temporal, but now we're stuck with a larger payment and you still have that void in your heart because the Bible describes. That God placed that in your heart, that only eternity can fill that up. And so when you're driven by eternal things, all of a sudden you will start seeing that void in your heart being fulfilled because at the end of the day, you stop living for the temporal and you start living for legacy.
So Pastor Obed, how do I, how do I live a life that's driven by eternity? Number one, I will intentionally give what I have. I want to be intentional by giving what I have. In other words, I don't want to be somebody who's just blessed to go bless myself, but I wanna be a blessing to bless others. I realize that my life is a conduit.
I realize that I'm not the person that makes the money. I'm the person that has walked into the inheritance that God already promised for my life. I realize that I don't have no. Ownership. I have to live by the principles of stewardship. And so therefore, if I can decide that I'm going to intentionally give what I have, because I understand that that is gonna cause me to live a life driven by eternity, and what I give to is gonna outlive me.
How many you know, You're gonna begin to live a life of fulfillment. I love giving to new buildings. I love giving to worthy causes. I love giving to, to different campaigns because at the end of the day when I see that building built, or I see that children's facility, uh, a fully, uh, uh, uh, a fully developed, and all of a sudden I see all those kids.
Kids going in there, I realize what I gave to all my hard work is gonna outlive me. How many of you know that is legacy? The second thing is I want to intentionally serve others. I want to intentionally serve others. You know when you realize you're living for eternity and you're driven by eternity and not the temporal, you begin to live with the attitude of not wanting to be served, but actually to serve.
In other words, I wanna make. An eternal investment in people's lives. I, I want to take that person who's striving to own a business and take them under my wing because I own a business today. I wanna make that eternal investment in their life. I'm looking for somebody today to pour my life into, because at the end of the day, I'm looking with intentionality.
To serve others. I truly believe that there is a great responsibility to those who have kind of made it in some sense or kind of come to the place of success, that at the end of the day they start looking for others to serve. I believe that was Jesus's greatest statement he ever made. Here was the son of God that sat in an office that nobody else did.
When people try to categorize him by asking them the question, whom do men say that I am? They all put him in the category of somebody else. Oh, you're a prophet, like Jeremiah, but it was Simon who said, no, you're the Messiah. In other words, here's a man that sat in an office that nobody else sat in, but yet he did something nobody else did.
He didn't come to be served, but he came to serve. In other words, he was extremely intentional on wanting. To make an eternal investment in the lives of others. Matter of fact, one of his last acts of service was not serving the wine or breaking the bread. It was actually grabbing the towel, wrapping it around his waist, taking the water of, uh, the basin of water and washing the disciple's feet.
It, it, it, it, it, it wrecked them so much that even Peter was so taken by it that he kept on saying, you just can't do this to me. And he wasn't saying that of pride. He was saying it at a, out of this. Unexpectedness that at this moment, Jesus was portraying one of the greatest attributes of why he came, and that was, I'm gonna be intentional on serving you.
And so they always say, you'll always remember some of the last things someone's done for you. And so it's not by accident that Jesus wanted them to remember. That I'm about to face my darkest hour, but at the end of the day, I've done something for you that's gonna outlive me. And I really believe that if you wanna live a life of legacy friends, you gotta intentionally give what you have.
Number two, you gotta intentionally serve others. And then number three, you gotta intentionally share Christ. The Bible says in two Corinthians five, there were Christ's ambassadors. Luke 1423 says, go into the country and urge anyone you find to come in so that my house will be full. Mark 1615 says, Jesus said to his followers, go everywhere in the world.
And tell them about the good news to every single person. I want to share the legacy of my savior with so many people because it's gonna identify the legacy that I want to live. I wanna live a legacy the same way Christ left. I wanna live that legacy of being a giver. I want to be. I want to be that. I wanna live that legacy of.
Of, of serving others. And then I want to live that legacy of constantly impacting people for eternity. The best way to live to, to start living a life of legacy is to get past the short term, get past the temporal, and start focusing on things that are gonna outlive you. I hope you enjoy today's. Podcast.
From Broken to Blessed: The Power of Second Chances - Obed Martinez
About 30 minutes later, I hear a car pull up, and you could imagine there was tremendous fear in me. So I looked over the fence and I saw one of my friends run up to the car. His name was Ridge, that was his nickname. And, um, they pulled out a, a. I saw off 12 Gauge and they shot him. And I remember him flying, literally it was taken off from his feet and, and like kind of hit the curb and then fell face forward and the car sped off.
And I remember jumping the fence, took off my shirt, had a, uh, my jacket, and it was like the size of a baseball. The hole was in his back and I was covering it and I was holding his head and I was telling him, man, you're gonna make it. You're gonna make it and make it. And I was screaming, calling 9 1 1.
I'm really excited about telling you my story because I truly believe that when you begin to tell. Your story, people begin to look into their own story as well. Matter of fact. The one reason why I love the Bible is because the Bible is full of stories. And, uh, Jesus, to me, was one of the greatest storytellers, um, and really, um, came across very strong by telling you the highs but also the lows.
And I think that's what attracts us to people. And I think that's what attracts us to faith. And that is our story. Well, Amma. Fourth generation pastor. Um, I was raised in a Christian home, um, and, uh, had tremendous parents. My dad, uh, was a youth pastor when he met, uh, my mother. And, uh, they got married very quick and had five children.
And, um, dad realized that. You know, his life in some sense wouldn't be as significant to him, at least, um, if he stood in ministry. So he decided to go into a career of, uh, becoming a firefighter and also making it a point that he would serve the pastor and serve the church and be the greatest volunteer.
And so that's where I get really this whole, um, a concept of growing up. We always, in some sense serve. God's house served the church. Um, though dad really had a spirit of entrepreneurship on his life. Mom and dad, um, were happily married, and, uh, all of a sudden they started experiencing some hiccups. And, uh, when I was a, a young boy, my father decided to leave the house and he started to leave the, uh, decided to leave the home, and my mom and dad separated.
And I'll never forget an incident that I would probably say was, Probably mo the most cataclysmic change of my life. Um, and where I can see this was when my life started spiraling downward. Um, obviously being the oldest boy in the house, I had to take on some duties, um, that, uh, were left behind by my father and picking up his responsibility while he was out there exploring the world.
And one day I was at the mall with a couple of friends of mine and. We were just being young teenagers and we're walking, you know, we're going up the escalator on our way to the Foot Locker, and one of my friends taps me and he says, man, is that your dad coming down the escalator? And I look up and sure enough, it was my father with his arm wrapped around another woman.
And I'll never forget, you know, the look on my dad's face as we crossed each other, it was almost as if. We both went silent. It was like one of those moments in, in which life just stood still. And I remember thinking my dad is gonna turn around and kind of run up the escalator and maybe explain what I just saw, but I.
Contrary. My dad, um, just kept on going as if he never saw me. And I remember my friends kind of, you know, saying, oh, look at your dad, you know, he's a player. You know, look at your dad, you know, he's a g I mean, all these crazy things. But deep down inside, it literally fractured my heart. This was the hero of my life.
And, um, and that. And one minute was taken away from that, and that's when I was, uh, 12 years old. And, and, and soon later, I. I started, uh, ditching school and um, started to explore with drugs and, and alcohol and next thing, you know, found a different group of people, um, that would, that I would call family.
And that was my neighborhood and that was, or a neighborhood. I joined in a gang. And, um, from the ages of 12 to 16, um, I was in and out of prison, kicked out of eight schools. And it was all due to the fact that in some sense I was, I was fatherless. Um, I'll never forget a moment in my life, um, I was out on the streets.
It was at four o'clock in the morning and I was, you know, I had a couple of, um, drugs left in my pocket to sell and, and, uh, knew that an early morning rush would come, people would want to get high before they go to work. And so I was out on the streets and a car pulled up. And at that time we were in real conflict with a rival, um, neighborhood.
And, uh, one of, uh, their people got killed by one of ours. And it, the tension was really high and I'll never forget them pulling up. And at this time I thought it was a drug transaction, so I actually moved from under the staircase. Um, and I ran up to the car asking them what they need. And next thing you know, there was a nine millimeter shotgun, uh, fire gun, Uzi, excuse me, that, um, He pulled out, yelled out the neighborhood, and he pulled the trigger and all I heard was click, click, click.
And in the passenger seat the guy, you know, yells at, you forgot to put the clip inside. You forgot to put the clip inside. And I remember running and my I, as I was running, I. I could, I, I was looking for the fence to, to jump over and I could hear the bullets kind of literally ricocheting off the wall and missing me.
For whatever reason, they all missed me and climbing the wall. I got to, next thing you know, the car sped off and I remember just sitting there and I was. I, I had drugs in my, in, in, in my pocket. I was kind of a little bit coming off from a high and all I was coming out of my mouth was, you know, I just plead the blood of Jesus over my life.
I plead the blood of Jesus. And, and I look back and, and, and it always baffles me because I. I was not even involved in church. I was far from church wanting nothing to do with church. Um, I hated the church and um, and yet it was like this seed that was planted to me as a young child that my mom and dad would always take us to church.
It almost came out at the right time and, and I was even sitting there wondering, where's this coming from? And, and I'll never forget. I was sitting there and I was just in this state of shock, like, okay, you almost died. And uh, and, and next thing you know, about 30 minutes later, I hear a car pull up. And you could imagine there was tremendous fear in me.
So I looked over the fence and I saw one of my friends run up to the car. His name was Ridge, that was his nickname. And, um, they pulled out a, a. Saw off 12 gauge and they shot him. And I remember him flying, literally it was taken off from his feet and, and like kind of hit the curb and then, Fell face forward and the car sped off.
And I remember jumping the fence, took off my shirt, had a, uh, my jacket, and it was like the size of a baseball. The hole was in his back and I was covering it and I was holding his head and I was telling him, man, you're gonna make it. You're gonna make it and make it. And I was screaming, calling 9 1 1.
And one of the neighbors heard the 12 gay. They called and, and, uh, my friend, um, died literally, um, in my arms. And I remember that morning, you know, as the sun was coming up, I, I went home and, and, um, just wanted to take a shower. I felt so dirty and, um, so lost in, um, when I, the shower that I would take, would always be in my mom's room.
And so when I walked into my mom's room, um, surprisingly, she was up and she looked at me and she said, these words that changed my life. She said, you know, they almost got you today. And I said, well, what are you talking about? And she goes, they almost got you today. And I'm like, I, I don't understand what you're saying.
And she was like, the Lord woke me up at four o'clock in the morning and said, start praying for your son. And right then and there, I knew why those bullets missed. And that was because I had a mother who was willing to stand in the gap. And you would think after a, a very, very, um, Life-changing experience, you would change.
But matter of fact, it didn't. It just grew worse. My heart got harder. Um, I think at this point I had no fear of death anymore and I kept on selling drugs, kept on getting in trouble, and about two months later, um, I'm gonna make one of the biggest. You know, drug, trans, trans transactions. Um, and, and really felt like, okay, this was my time.
I'm gonna make it, you know, I'm no longer gonna be on the streets no more. I can really just sell to those on the streets and this one transaction was gonna do it. And, um, I. I was in the, uh, passenger seat of a, of a car and we were in the parking lot of a junior college where there was a bunch of traffic going on.
So we realized we could disguise it there. And my, um, it was night school and at night and, um, One of the guys that was there, you know, obviously had a gun and, and um, you know, just kind of put the gun to my head, almost like, calling out your neighborhood, are you down with your neighborhood? And that kind of understood what he was doing.
He was basically saying, Hey, if we're gonna come into this deal, I need to make sure you're not afraid of death. I need to make sure you're gonna stand up for what you somewhat believe in. And, and sure enough I was like, yeah, man, I'm down from my neighborhood. And so, you know, took the gun off my head and, um, showed me the drugs and, and he wanted to see the money and he was like, I want you to count it and.
So I was counting it and while I was counting it, his other friend went to my. My friend that was in the driver's seat and had him roll down the window and put the gun to his head too. And, um, and so next thing you know, I'm, I'm counting it and I land up getting so, um, sidetracked by what his friend was doing.
And then this guy had a gun. I'm thinking, man, are they just gonna take everything from us? And in my nervousness, I dropped the money. When I dropped the money, I bent over to to, to get it. And when I bent over, his friend accidentally pulled the trigger and it kind of blew off half of my. My, my friend's mouth and my window shattered.
Um, and I remember we were so startled, my friend started the car and he, he put it in and, and go and we sped off and his face was bleeding. And, and, and I was, you know, he was driving while I was trying to, you know, hold his face on one end, kind of holding his mouth together because it got ricocheted from a, uh, from, from, from the glass.
And then also from. I, I mean from, excuse me, from the bullet. And, and so then my glass was all shattered. And, uh, we ended up getting in the hospital. And I can't tell the story to, to, to the paramedics. I'm Jehu, I'm just telling you that, that we were playing with the gun and next thing you know, this is what happened.
And, um, and, and so the doctors, uh, after I was done and, and the police was there and I explain it to them, they were like, you know, if you would've had, if you would've been sitting up, um, you would have, uh, had your head blown off. And, um, again, it was one of those moments in my life that was like God was getting my attention.
Like, oh, bed, this is not my destination. And then, you know, about a, about six to six months later I land up getting caught in a, in a drug raid. And, um, I go to prison. And when I go to prison, I'm there. And you know, you're thinking your friends are gonna be there, they're gonna write you No, not, not one letter, not one visit.
The person that visited me every weekend was my mom. And the crazy thing about it was that my mom never drove on the interstate or the freeway, so she had to take the bus. And I knew it was always a struggle every week for her to do it, but she was always relentless to go see her son. And, and, and she would always tell me, I'm praying for you.
And, and so I spent six months. In jail and served my time. And uh, I came out, I'll never forget on a Monday, and my mom and dad both picked me up and I remember all I wanted to do was go to McDonald's, like, just take me to McDonald's. So I go to McDonald's and we land up eating and you know, my dad's asking me, are you gonna change?
And has this changed you? And. You know, I'm looking at him and I want to ask him the same question, like, have you changed? You know, and I'll never forget us kind of getting in this argument like, you started all this, you know? And um, and it's so easy to blame other people when you don't wanna take responsibility for yourself.
And so, you know, my mom, you know, told me, she was like, Hey, look at Wednesday's church. It's youth group. It'd be great for you to go. And I'm like, no mom, I don't want to go, you know, just a bunch of hypocrites there. And. My mom was being a little sarcastic and she says, well, you would fit perfectly in, you know, and I'm like, wow, that's, that's a jab, you know?
And, uh, anyways, she told me there's gonna be some pretty girls there. And I thought, well, six months. All you see is guys, I think, you know, hey, this, this, this, this, this may be the deal. And so I did land up going. And I was in the back and, um, met the youth pastor and, um, they were leaving the camp that Friday and he had just mentioned that it was sold out.
And, you know, they're really excited. They were gonna pray and, you know, they were gonna have a great youth camp. And then part of me, I was like, man, I, you know, I don't want to go, I, I don't, I don't want to go. I really don't want to go. So I'm kind of glad it's sold out. So then my mom doesn't bother me to, to go, well, the next day it's around 10 in the morning or.
Um, we get this phone call. My mom says it's a youth pastor. And I was telling her, mom, I, I promise you I didn't do anything wrong. And she was like, no, no, no. He wants to talk to you about something. And, uh, he, he landed up telling me, he said, Hey, Obed, uh, great to see you last night. And I said, yeah, great.
And he goes, Hey, you know, we have camp coming up, we're leaving tomorrow. And I said, oh, fantastic. He goes, yeah, you know, it's eight hours of basketball, three hours of church. Um, I think you're really gonna gonna love it. And I'm like, oh, well it's sold out. He goes, oh, no, no, no. There's one spot available.
And I'm like, how did one spot open up? He goes, well, there was just one spot available and your mom paid for it. I'm like, there's no way my mom could pay for it. You know, it's too expensive and stuff. Like, he goes, no, no, your mom gave her last $60. And um, so you get to go. And I'm like, wow, $8 basketball, three hours at church.
You know, I think I could dig this. And so I landed up going and when I found out that it was, The opposite. It was eight hours of church and three hours of basketball. Really got me upset. And I told the youth pastor, you lied. And he was like, well hey, you know, I'm sorry, but at the end of the day got you here.
And I'm like, wow, you know, can't trust you. And um, and I remember going up. Hire a little bit on the mountain. I, I brought some, some, some stuff and I landed up smoking a joint and I was kind of high and stuff like that. And I remember coming into church and um, I did, and you know, it was on July 8th, 1989 and the pastor had had a seat for me up front and I said, no, no, I just wanna send the back.
He goes, no, no, no, you need to go up front. And I did. And. And I just remember, honestly, the only reason why I lifted my hand, um, you know, when the worship leader did it was because, you know, I'm in the front row. I didn't wanna look like I was outta place and outta that pressure of doing that, I lifted my hand and it was like a water, like a bucket of water over heaven opened up and just showered me.
And I just remember kind of. Hitting my knees to the ground, and it was like I fell asleep and I woke up two hours later and when I woke up, it was like I was this new person. I couldn't even explain that. I couldn't explain what happened to me. I couldn't explain. It was unexplainable and I had an encounter with God and.
And, and I believe when I look back now, it, it was probably gonna be the only way I could get saved and rededicate my life because he had to, at that time, do it himself because I was so disappointed by so many others. And, um, and next thing you know, uh, my mom picked me up and, you know, I told her and, and, and she just cried inside the car.
And, you know, from that point on, I got involved in student ministry. I. You know, because I was kicked outta so many schools, I had to go to a, um, to a continuation school. And I, and I finished it in record time and the only school district that would let me in was a Long Beach Unified school district my senior year.
And it just so happened to be the same school that my rival gang was from. And I remember trying out playing basketball and uh, and in doing that, um, I'm sitting down on a bench and the guy sits right behind me. His back's rubbing literally against mine, and he whispers to me and he goes, I know who you are.
And I said, well, you, you know who I was. I'm not that person no more. And he goes, okay, well, you know, I just wanna let you know I, I got your back. And he was from that neighborhood. And, uh, it was just began an interesting journey. And my first period was actually, um, working in the counseling office. And so I started working in that counseling office and I remember hearing about all these clubs that were going on.
And so I asked my counselor, Can I share my story with you and give her my testimony? And by the time I was done, she was in tears and she says, oh, bed, you gotta do something. And I said, I, for whatever reason, I feel like I wanna start this Bible club and the name I want to call it is lost and found. And she was like, oh my God, I love it.
I love it. I said, well, Can you work that out? And well, the next week later she comes to me, she says, the only room that's available is the wrestling room. Well, that's a smelly room, but hey, it was worth it. So I started putting up signs all over the, the campus. And we started with seven people, um, in that wrestling room, uh, called Lost and Found at lunchtime every Thursday.
And we were just faithful and faithful and faithful. And to make a long story short, we ended my senior year. Not having it in in the wrestling room, but actually having it in the gymnasium. And we had 274 people and that ministry today continues on that campus. I get the privilege to go speak at it twice every year, but here's ironic, and here's just the testimony of God that when Lizette and I.
Got into ministry and I, I met my beautiful wife and, and, uh, we dated for nine years and got married and I traveled the world, um, in ministering, and then we started Destiny Church, 14 years. Um, I. Ago in, in here, in the desert. Um, our first meeting in a living room in Rancho Mirage was seven people. The crazy thing about it was that on March 7th, 2004 was our grand opening.
And guess what we had, I. 274 people. I mean, you can't put that story together. Only God can do something like that. But here we are now, 14 years later, we have two beautiful children. Um, and, uh, the miracle and even that was that the doctors told us that we would never be able to have children. And, uh, God in his miraculous way gave us our first child.
And then, um, she's our miracle child, and then our second child is in, oops. Uh, we didn't plan him, uh, but we're so glad we do have him. But, It's just been this journey in life that today, now just ministering to young people and, you know, giving them the hope that somebody gave me and having, uh, and giving them the investment of, of what my mom invested in my life and all those years.
And today, my relationship with my father, I. It is probably closer than ever has before. My dad loves the Lord and my mom had gone home to be with Jesus, but at the end of the day, she paid her dues. And today she's smiling every weekend I, every day all her children are serving the Lord. And um, it has been an incredible journey and I pray that my testimony in some sense, I.
Would be a blessing to yours. And the one thing I would say about my story and in every story that I tell people is that the Bible says in second Samuel chapter 20, it's in the message translation. It says this. It says that God is the God who puts all the pieces back together. And he's the God that will take the pen out of your hand to rewrite the story of your life.
And I'm gonna tell you, it's almost a life verse for me because at the end of the day, how many times do we try to take the pen out of the author and the finisher of our faith to try to write our own story? Um, and it lands up, messing it up. You know, you give him back the pen and where the devil may have put a period, God would turn it into a comma.
And you know, I tell people, About their story. I said, you know what makes a great book is that it's the tragedy that turns into the triumph. It's the mistakes that turns into the miracles. It's the brokenness that turns into the blessings. So I just wanna encourage you that if you listen to this podcast, listen, be encouraged that God's not done writing your story.
The good is G. The good is on its way. But enjoy every chapter. If people ask me all the time, would you change anything in your past? And I would say, Absolutely not because at the end of the day, it played a part in my story today that God has wonderfully blessed me with, and I'm just excited about what the next chapters are gonna look like in Jesus' name.
And all throughout the Bible you can see those who lived purposeful lives. And that was simple because they were in proximity to somebody who was willing to invest in their lives. And so when I went on this whole journey of wanting to be a a leader, I realized that it was very important for me to find people in my life that I commit, that I can commit to learning from.
Hey, welcome to today's podcast. My name is Obed Martinez, and I'm so glad that you joined us today. One of the commitments I've made. In life by wanting to be a leader was really not making the commitment to becoming a leader more than making a commitment to being a lifelong learner. I truly believe that that leaders are learners and the more you learn, uh, you are in some sense equipped to lead.
One of my favorite passages. When it comes to leadership is in second Timothy chapter three in the New Living Translation, beginning in verse 10, and, and Paul's writing to young Timothy, and, and here's what he says, he said, but you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach and how I live and, and what my purpose.
Is in life. You know, my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. You know how much persecution and suffering I've endured? You know all about how I was persecuting in Antioch and ra, but the Lord rescued me from all of it. Yes. And everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ, Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil people and imposters will flourish.
They will deceive others and will be the will. The will. They themselves be deceived. But you just remain faithful in the things you have been taught. You know they are true for, you know, you can trust those who taught you. One of the significant parts of this particular passage of scripture is how many times the discipler who is.
Paul is telling the disciple Timothy the words, you know. You know, and I believe that we have a generation today because they're lacking the discipler and they're longing to be discipled. They actually don't know. I've never met a young person that has never wanted to be a leader. They just don't know how.
I've never met a. A person, a, a father, that, that doesn't want to be a great father. The reality is, is that they just don't know. I, I've never met a, a wife that wants to be a great mother and be a, a, a, a great spouse. No, they really aspire to do that. The problem is, is that they just don't know. And so at the end of the day, I think what we are, And what we're becoming is fully determined on who's willing to pour that into our lives and really, in some sense, rub in that association of somebody who's already doing it.
I love what a w Tozier says. He says, when you're in proximity with Christ, You start living for Christ. In other words, proximity magnifies purpose while dis, while distance brings distortion. I'll say that one more time. Proximity magnifies purpose while distance creates distortion. And all throughout the Bible you can see those who lived.
Purposeful lives. And that was simple because they were in proximity to somebody who was willing to invest in their lives. And so when I went on this whole journey of wanting to be a a leader, I realized that it was very important for me to find people in my life that I commit, that I can commit to learning from.
And I knew that it would be a sacrifice of my own life. I knew it would be a sacrifice of my time. It would be a sacrifice of my treasures. Till this day, there's a large portion, um, of my financial life today that is committed to getting around people that I wanna learn from. There are conferences I go to, not to speak, but just to hear and learn.
There are multiple times I'll get on an airplane just to go sit two hours in an office of a pastor that is way ahead of me in certain areas in, in, in, in ministry, just to sit at their feet. And learn from. Matter of fact, there's an old Jewish tradition and it says that when the learners are following the rabbi or the students are following the rabbi, how the rabbi will know by the end of the day who was the closest, was that afterwards when they would sit down and the journey was over with, he would look to see how much dust was on that one person, and the person that had the most dust from the.
Sandals of the rabbi that was flapping would be the one that he knew was closest to him. And that's the, that's, that's what I want in my life. I want the dust of others to be on my life today because it shows the proximity and how I willing to be so close to that, to that discipler that I have chosen.
And given permission to disciple me. I think one of the greatest tragedies today is that we have a generation that's being raised today that in some sense has the longing to go further in life than they want to. Yet they've never found anybody that's willing to pour their life into. I don't think we have a relationship issue today.
I just really feel that we don't have relational. Coaching today that's available to, to people. I don't believe we have in some sense, a financial epidemic of people that don't know how to handle their finances. I just truly believe we don't have financial coaches willing to invest in some sense or in some sense people to really seek it out.
Financial coaches for their life often tell my church, show me the areas you've been coached in. I can tell you those are the areas you're succeeding in, but it also goes. The opposite way, show me the areas you're not succeeding in, and I can show you the areas you're not being coached in. And so it's ama, it's amazing how we have business coaches, we have life coaches, but the two main areas people fail in often is finances and relationships.
And it's because in those two areas, we haven't found mentorship, nor discipleship, nor coaches to learn from. And I truly believe that in order for you to be a leader, And you're striving to be a leader is that you really gotta make the commitment of really being a lifelong learner, and as you're making that commitment of being a lifelong learner, Find somebody, find somebody that you can attach your life to.
Find somebody that will, would be willing to dedicate some time to invest in your life and, and come into proximity with them. Come close to them, see what they do, sit in their meetings and or go home and sit at their dinner table and see how they interact with their children and, and their spouse. I think one of the greatest things Lizette and I did when we first started dating because we wanted to really succeed in our dating was that we found three couples in three different stages of their marriage to attach ourself to and make ourself accountable to, and we often took them out.
We seldom took out our friends. I couldn't even tell you how many times in our nine years of our relationship did we do double dates with our friends. I mean, we always had our. Friends there, but Lizette and I were very, um, we were, we, we, we were very, uh, uh, uh, we, we wanted to make sure that we got around people that were in areas in our life that we desire to have already there.
And so that's where we committed to spend our life. We were very intentional and getting around people that we can learn from. And, and, and, and, and we would always come with a list of questions because we saw something in them that we desired in our life, which leads me to what I call the developmental stage of discipleship.
Or in some sense, becoming that leader by determining to be a lifelong learner. And stage one always begins by learning and observing. In other words, Look for somebody. Look to attach yourself. That's what Timothy did to Paul. That's what Elijah did. To Elijah. That's what Joshua did. To Moses. That's what Peter did to Jesus.
I mean, notice it was Peter who preached the first sermon. It wasn't, it, it, it wasn't ma, it wasn't, uh, a Bartholomew, or it wasn't Thomas. Because at the end of the day, it was the inner circle of Jesus that really had closer proximity to the nine of the rest. It was Elijah who was willing to go with Elijah to the four locations before he was taken up.
It was proximity. It was, it was Joshua. Who was willing to to to go everywhere. Moses went because at the end of the day it was proximity, and so at the end of the day, find somebody that you could be close to and you can learn from. The second is assisting in questioning. Stage two is assisting in questioning, help them out.
Get involved in what they're involved in, see the way they do things, and while you're assisting, at the same time, you can be observing. And then stage three is releasing and teaching. In other words, let them release things into your life that eventually you can use one day to teach others. I think the obligation of being discipled.
It is making a commitment that you will go out and be discipled. It's the same commitment Jesus made when he went in, when he said in Matthew chapter four to the disciples, he says, come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Notice. Um, he said, Hey, if you're willing to follow me, my commitment is to make you, and then I'm gonna give you the outcome, and that's.
Fishers of men. Well, at the end of the day, that was the commission he gave to his disciples in Matthew 28, where he says, go out and make disciples. And so in other words, if I'm gonna spend three and a half years making you, and you're gonna have proximity to my teaching, to my life, and to everything I do, well, I would want you to have that.
Commitment for someone else so that you go out and make somebody the same way I made you. And then lastly, stage four is delegating and reproducing. And that's what I just got done talking about because I really believe that in order for you to be a lifelong learner, to be a great leader is when you become that great leader.
As you're still being a lifelong learner, you're looking for those who want to be lifelong learners, who at the end of the day want to be leaders themselves. I love this quote that says discipleship. Is gained by association before it's understood by explanation. Lemme say that one more time.
Discipleship is gained by association before it's understood by explanation. In other words, the power of association, the closeness of proximity. We'll get you a better picture of what it's like to be a greater learner. I got some great mentors in my life. You know, the Bible says sound surround yourself with a multitude of counselors.
And so I have a financial coach in my life. Lizette and I have made a commitment to certain couples that we feel are our relational coaches and. Obviously being a pastor, being a leader of leaders, I got some people in my life that serve on my board, that serve as those, and you know, because at the end of the day, I really believe it's important that, um, you're constantly infused with leadership and you're constantly.
Being developed. Um, you never want to ever sit there and, and, and, and realize I've made it, you know? But at the end of the day, you gotta continue to push yourself, to push yourself to go further, push yourself to go, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, to go to, to go, to go that distance to becoming everything, um, you desire to be.
Because at the end of the day, the distance a disciple goes is determined by the trust. They have in their discipler. So I understand if I wanna go further, I gotta trust more. If I gotta go, if I wanna go further, I gotta trust more people. And so the distance of a discipler, a disciple goes, is determined by the trust they have in their disciple.
And so at the end of the day, a lifelong learner has these things in their life. Number one, they have intentionality. In other words, growth just doesn't happen. You gotta be intentional about growth. You gotta be intentional about becoming that leader because it's one thing to surround yourself with great mentors.
It's one thing to surround yourself with around great leaders, but you are you intentional on wanting to grow the next, to be a lifelong learners, you have to have personal awareness. In other words, you must know yourself to grow yourself. What are the areas in your life? That are weak and what are the areas in your life that are strong?
You gotta come to that personal awareness. I love to say this all the time. You, you'll never conquer what you're unable to confront. Part of just confronting an issue, 75% of that conquering is just by, by realizing that you have it. And so if you realize you have it, And you confront it, well, then you can easily conquer it.
The third is consistency. In other words, motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you going. And so to be this lifelong learner, you gotta be intentional. You gotta have personal awareness, you gotta have some consistency. Number four, it's gonna require pain tolerance. In other words, good management of bad experiences leads to great growth.
I'm gonna say that one more time. Good management of bad experiences lead to great growth because here's the deal. God is in the business of turning mistakes into miracles. He's in the business of taking brokenness into blessedness, and he's in the business of turning your setbacks into comebacks. So you can't ponder on the bad decisions.
You gotta move on to greater things because at the end of the day, Those will sometimes be your greatest growth seasons in your life. The four, the, the next is modeling your mentors. In other words, it's hard to improve if you only have yourself to follow. I love the fact that I got other people in my life that I can literally look at them and model.
That's what Paul said, that Timothy has, follow me as I follow Christ. I, I don't see that happening today in a lot of people. There's not a lot of leaders that can actually say that. Find a leader that's confident to say, follow me. And you become exactly what you're, look what you're looking at. And then lastly, to be a lifelong learner, you have to have a contribution to your mindset.
In other words, growing yourself helps you grow others. Growing yourself helps you grow others. And as I close, I wanna give you a quote by Alvin Toffler that says, This, the illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but it's those who cannot learn, unlearn, or relearn. This is Obed Martinez on today's podcast.
I hope you were blessed by this.
What God always did. He always looked at at, at what was going on, and he looks at even in our lives and he's never moved by our present circumstances because at the end of the day, he has this outcome for our life. He has, he has what our life should look like, and so he's never moved by the temporal because he has the goal in mind, and I think that's what helps you live.
That life of legacy. And when you begin to live that life of legacy, you begin to realize that my life is no longer driven by the temporal, but my life is driven by eternity.
I wanna talk to you really quick, uh, about legacy, and I truly believe that there's so many different definitions out there when it comes to legacy, but really a simple. Definition of legacy means this. It means where my life lives on. It just simply means where my life lives on. I love this verse. In Psalms 112, verse five through six, it says, good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.
Surely he will never be shaken and a righteous man will be remembered forever. Think about that. A generous. Who lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice is a person who would be remembered forever. I think often we always lead in the moment and we don't often look. At what, in some sense, the outcome of some of the decisions we make will affect us in the future.
I think if we can always lead, lead our life with legacy in mind, then at the end of the day, we will not be so moved by temporary situations to make irrational decisions, rather than us looking down the years and seeing how is that going to affect what we are trying to accomplish. And leave behind. You know, one of the goals in my life is to leave buildings for the next pastor of this church, um, without any debt, because at the end of the day, they can go further than, than maybe I could have.
And take the, the legacy, um, uh, of Destiny Church. Um, to heights in some sense, I would've never accomplished. But at the end of the day, it, it, it begins with you living with this attitude of knowing that living is all about my life. Outliving it. In other words, living. So my life outlives me. When I think of legacy, I think about my life.
That it outlives me and, and so everything I'm trying to do today is really trying to prepare for who's next. You know, the one thing that I love about God is that God always has the now and the next in mind. When you think about Moses, who was now, there was a next named Joshua. When Elijah was now, there was a next called Elijah.
When you think about, uh, Jesus in some sense, the next was Peter and the disciples. When the the now was Paul, the next was Peter. God always has the now and the next. Matter of fact, when God would even introduce himself in scripture, he would often introduce himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In other words, he would introduce himself as a generational God, a God That's just beyond. You know the now, but also the, you know, but looks throughout generations. And so I think in some sense, if we're gonna live a life of legacy, we gotta determine in our life that that legacy in some sense is my life.
That outlives me. The second thing that we gotta learn about legacy is when it comes to giving. That's what Psalms one 12 says. It says the generous lens freely. And who conducts himself with great affairs and justice? In other words, giving to something that will outlive me. So if I'm gonna live this life of legacy, I wanna give to something.
I want to give my time. I wanna give my talent. I wanna give my treasures to the very things that I know. Are gonna outlive me. You know, at the end of the day, I think everybody thinks at a certain time in their life when they want to be remembered. Oftentimes, when they really begin to think like that, it's too late.
I truly believe that where you're at today, whether you're starting a business or you're starting in ministry, or maybe starting a relationship wherever you're at in life. Start leading your life with legacy in mind. What do you wanna leave behind? Ask those questions. How do you want to be remembered?
You know, one of the things that I always tell myself, man, I, I, one day I will physically be gone, but my footprint will be where I serve the most. In other words, what I, what I'm saying is, Is that I wanna give myself to something that in some sense is going to outlive me. So when you think about legacy, meaning where my life lives on, you think about it, it's living so my life outlives me and, and then giving to something that will outlive me.
Then all of a sudden you encompass those three things. The goal isn't to live on Earth forever, but the goal really becomes really to leave something that does. In other words, the goal isn't to live on Earth forever. That's, that's not my goal, but my goal is to leave something that does, it brings so much meaning to why you exist.
It brings so much meaning to the things that you are putting your time and your talent and your treasure in that. In other words, I'm, I'm giving to something. My time. I'm, I'm, I'm intentionally giving all of my attention to the things that I know one day is going to outlive me. One of the things that I believe is kind of the, the thief of legacy is that when we only begin to live for the moment, and that's what the enemy wants to do, the enemy just wants you to be so, Captured by today's problems, by today's situations and today's dilemmas that you're going through, that in some sense you stop thinking past today and your mind is so stuck on what's just going on in the now that you will make a decision.
You know, often I think about. When I go to the store sometimes, and you know, you go to Target or if you go to Macy's or something like that, and you know, you go with the mindset of, Hey, this is how much money I have. I'm gonna buy this one gift, or I'm gonna buy this thing for someone, and it never fails.
And they do it because that's what they're told to do. But they'll sit there and say, um, Hey, by the way, do you have a a Macy's account? And my response is always no. And they're like, well, today you can save 15% on what you just bought. And then in my mind, I always wanna respond back by saying, yeah, but then now I'm stuck to what I'm just buying today to last much longer than what it should have.
Just because I wanted to save 15%. At the end of the day, I'm always thinking long term with my finances and I'm thinking, well, you know, to some people they'll land up biting it. Oh, I can save 15% today because I can take what I'm saving today and use it for something else. But how many know that was a decision that was made in the moment?
Nobody ever walked up to that counter. I've never met anybody that's in line talking about. Wow. I can save 20% when I get up to the counter. Now they're not talking about that. They, they're, they're talking about they want to get outta here real quick. They hope that the line goes faster, but when they get up to pay for what they're getting, they are presented with a decision that if they're not careful, they can bite.
That will have a long-term effect that on something. That never should have. And I think oftentimes that how life is we get, we get slammed with something that, you know, just all of a sudden we get confronted with and we get slammed with it, and it causes us to make a temporal decision that in some sense the consequences become longer than what they should.
That's what you can do, because at the end of the day, you cannot stop. What situations come your way Cannot stop. What type of storms or. What type of wilderness you're gonna, you're gonna go through. But what you can decide is keeping your eyes focused on what's long-term, on what's legacy. And in other words, is this decision that I'm gonna make right now, is it long-term?
Is it gonna, is it gonna be such an impact that it's gonna outlive me? And I, I really believe that's what, what God always did. He always looked at at, at what was going on. And he looks at even in our lives and he's never moved by our present circumstances. Because at the end of the day, he has this outcome for our life.
He has, he has what our life should look like. And so he's never moved by the temporal because he has the goal in mind. And I think that's what helps you live that life of legacy. And when you begin to live that life of legacy, you begin to realize, That my life is no longer driven by the temporal, but my life is driven by eternity.
I'm gonna say that one more time. When you really begin to live a life of legacy, your life is no longer driven by the temporal, but it's driven. By eternity. In other words, I'm thinking what is gonna, how am I gonna affect eternity like that? Are my decisions gonna day? Are my decisions gonna day hinder some of the eternal things that I'm really trying to accomplish according to scripture, I.
And when I'm driven by eternity, I begin to focus on things and not allow myself to be distracted by the things that will come my way. I love what Ecclesiastics chapter three says. It says, he's made everything beautiful in his time, and he also has set eternity in the human heart, so it's not by accident.
That God left a void in every one of our hearts that can only be filled by becoming intentional about being driven in eternity. And I believe this is why we buy things so irrational, and this is why we land up continually spending and spending and spending thinking that's gonna. Kind of fill the void that's in our heart, and so we'll go buy a new car and realize, man, that, that that rush is gone and now I'm stuck with a larger payment, man, we'll go move into a bigger house, man.
It served the temporal, but now we're stuck with a larger payment and you still have that void in your heart because the Bible describes. That God placed that in your heart, that only eternity can fill that up. And so when you're driven by eternal things, all of a sudden you will start seeing that void in your heart being fulfilled because at the end of the day, you stop living for the temporal and you start living for legacy.
So Pastor Obed, how do I, how do I live a life that's driven by eternity? Number one, I will intentionally give what I have. I want to be intentional by giving what I have. In other words, I don't want to be somebody who's just blessed to go bless myself, but I wanna be a blessing to bless others. I realize that my life is a conduit.
I realize that I'm not the person that makes the money. I'm the person that has walked into the inheritance that God already promised for my life. I realize that I don't have no. Ownership. I have to live by the principles of stewardship. And so therefore, if I can decide that I'm going to intentionally give what I have, because I understand that that is gonna cause me to live a life driven by eternity, and what I give to is gonna outlive me.
How many you know, You're gonna begin to live a life of fulfillment. I love giving to new buildings. I love giving to worthy causes. I love giving to, to different campaigns because at the end of the day when I see that building built, or I see that children's facility, uh, a fully, uh, uh, uh, a fully developed, and all of a sudden I see all those kids.
Kids going in there, I realize what I gave to all my hard work is gonna outlive me. How many of you know that is legacy? The second thing is I want to intentionally serve others. I want to intentionally serve others. You know when you realize you're living for eternity and you're driven by eternity and not the temporal, you begin to live with the attitude of not wanting to be served, but actually to serve.
In other words, I wanna make. An eternal investment in people's lives. I, I want to take that person who's striving to own a business and take them under my wing because I own a business today. I wanna make that eternal investment in their life. I'm looking for somebody today to pour my life into, because at the end of the day, I'm looking with intentionality.
To serve others. I truly believe that there is a great responsibility to those who have kind of made it in some sense or kind of come to the place of success, that at the end of the day they start looking for others to serve. I believe that was Jesus's greatest statement he ever made. Here was the son of God that sat in an office that nobody else did.
When people try to categorize him by asking them the question, whom do men say that I am? They all put him in the category of somebody else. Oh, you're a prophet, like Jeremiah, but it was Simon who said, no, you're the Messiah. In other words, here's a man that sat in an office that nobody else sat in, but yet he did something nobody else did.
He didn't come to be served, but he came to serve. In other words, he was extremely intentional on wanting. To make an eternal investment in the lives of others. Matter of fact, one of his last acts of service was not serving the wine or breaking the bread. It was actually grabbing the towel, wrapping it around his waist, taking the water of, uh, the basin of water and washing the disciple's feet.
It, it, it, it, it, it wrecked them so much that even Peter was so taken by it that he kept on saying, you just can't do this to me. And he wasn't saying that of pride. He was saying it at a, out of this. Unexpectedness that at this moment, Jesus was portraying one of the greatest attributes of why he came, and that was, I'm gonna be intentional on serving you.
And so they always say, you'll always remember some of the last things someone's done for you. And so it's not by accident that Jesus wanted them to remember. That I'm about to face my darkest hour, but at the end of the day, I've done something for you that's gonna outlive me. And I really believe that if you wanna live a life of legacy friends, you gotta intentionally give what you have.
Number two, you gotta intentionally serve others. And then number three, you gotta intentionally share Christ. The Bible says in two Corinthians five, there were Christ's ambassadors. Luke 1423 says, go into the country and urge anyone you find to come in so that my house will be full. Mark 1615 says, Jesus said to his followers, go everywhere in the world.
And tell them about the good news to every single person. I want to share the legacy of my savior with so many people because it's gonna identify the legacy that I want to live. I wanna live a legacy the same way Christ left. I wanna live that legacy of being a giver. I want to be. I want to be that. I wanna live that legacy of.
Of, of serving others. And then I want to live that legacy of constantly impacting people for eternity. The best way to live to, to start living a life of legacy is to get past the short term, get past the temporal, and start focusing on things that are gonna outlive you. I hope you enjoy today's. Podcast.
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