Today's episode features a discussion with Martin Hale, who opens up about his family's adoption journey and its profound impact on his life.

As a father of three daughters from India, Martin shares the emotional and spiritual challenges he and his wife faced before deciding to adopt.

The conversation takes a deeper dive into the values of intentionality and consistency in personal growth and discipleship.

Martin discusses how being intentional in relationships and community involvement can lead to meaningful change.

Through personal anecdotes, he illustrates the importance of showing up for others in a culture that often promotes isolation.

His practical advice encourages listeners to actively engage in relationships, whether it’s through regular meetings or simply reaching out to friends.

The episode concludes with a powerful reminder of the importance of living intentionally and consistently, reflecting the love and grace that God extends to us.

Martin’s journey and insights serve as a source of inspiration for those navigating their own paths of faith, family, and community.

If something spoke to you, please share it with a friend and like and subscribe to the show.

Takeaways:

The importance of being intentional and consistent in our daily lives cannot be overstated.

Adoption reflects God's love, as we are all adopted into His family.

Building strong relationships through consistent communication is vital for spiritual growth.

Being a parent teaches patience and understanding, making us better individuals.

It's essential to surround ourselves with supportive individuals to navigate life's challenges.

Being countercultural, like stepping away from social media, can lead to a more fulfilling life.

Connect w/Martin:

www.neochurch.org

If you want to connect with Zach, you can find/message him here:

https://www.youtube.com/@ZKosturos

https://twitter.com/zkosturos

https://www.instagram.com/zkosturos/

https://www.facebook.com/zkosturos

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zkosturos/

All right, welcome back to the podcast now called Spoke to Me.

I'm here with a really good friend of mine.

His name is Martin Hale.

Really excited to have a conversation with Martin.

So I'm gonna start off, say thanks, Martin, for being here.

Happy New Year.

Yes.

And let me, I just do a little introduction to Martin and then I'll let him share a little bit about himself.

I've known Martin for several years, met Martin through actually my sister who was in Ywam after high school and she met Martin's wife Emily, and Ywam and I was married.

And then they got married and my sister actually had gone to their wedding.

I think it was overseas, wasn't it?

If I recall, it felt like overseas.

It was in Cleveland, Ohio, over some rivers.

Okay, so maybe you guys went on a trip overseas at one point, but.

Yeah, we've been several, several trips overseas.

Correct.

Yeah.

So my sister Taryn, if you're watching this, thanks for the introduction.

And then, and I'll let maybe Martin share a little bit about this because it's part of his story.

But one of the things that we share in common is a heart for adoption.

So Martin and his wife have adopted several children now from India.

They're actually were the catalyst for why my wife and I ended up adopting from India.

And maybe we can share that story.

So Barnes, a great guy.

He's a dad, he's a husband.

He works on staff at a church, which you can see in the background.

He's got some of the church gear, the there he's recording from his church.

And then he also works at a bank, one of the largest banks in probably the world.

And so just an overall good dude.

And I'm excited to have this conversation with him.

Hopefully you find it fruitful.

So with that, Martin, maybe tell us a little bit about yourself.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Thanks for having me on.

Like you said, my name's Martin Hale and I'm a banker.

I'm an underwriter at a bank based in the US but one of the top five in the US and part time.

I work at a church which is here in northeast Ohio.

And when I say work, that's loose.

I get like a $50 a week stipend to do some of the admin, some of the bookkeeping, lead small groups.

I probably preach and teach maybe five, six times a year.

So I'm an elder.

But I'm also on staff and help out with a Lot of things in the background.

If you look at, like, my spiritual giftings, it would be admin.

It would be teaching a lot of those different things.

And really, when I look at your podcast and look at some of the videos, I'm like, I haven't written 20 books and I haven't made a ton of money over here in this area of business.

I don't host my own podcast.

I'm not on social media anymore, and we can talk about that.

But I'm just a guy that loves the Lord, that works at a bank, that goes to church, is in leadership there, and has a heart for other men and discipleship and evangelism and.

And I think that's the direction that we wanted to take today's discussion in.

So, yeah, if it makes you feel any better, I haven't written any books either.

So we're the same boat.

We're in the same boat there.

And honestly, I think that's part of my desire for even doing this is so much of what you can consume out there anymore is.

It's almost like TV stardom, but it's on the Internet, podcasts, YouTube, et cetera.

And sometimes I think we.

We can get lost in the reality.

That's not reality for most people, right?

Most of us are showing up to work every day and doing the best we can.

And if God blesses that in some crazy big way in terms of how the world looks at it, then so be it.

But for most of us, it's, hey, I gotta show up, I gotta put my.

My, so to speak, work boots on.

I gotta put in the work.

I gotta do all things as the Bible says, as if unto Christ.

And at the same time, I want to be a dad and a good husband and.

And I want to serve in my local community.

And so that's one of the things that I think is, to me, I hope, at least, valuable for the audience is we are just two guys that are trying to navigate life and trying to be successful in terms of.

We could talk about what that looks like, but we want to live a fruitful life.

And for me, I just want to share the story of some of those folks as I meet them along the way.

And you and Emily have always, to me, from the outside, have exemplified to me what that's supposed to look like in so many ways.

And maybe, I don't know, maybe I'd like to organically just go in this direction, if you're okay with it for now.

But love to hear from you why your heart for adoption Because I know that's part of one of the things we share.

And I think, as I think about the next generation, whether it's the young man or the young woman, this idea of the family structure and a life as a father or a mother is so important.

And I think in our culture is maybe not lifted up the way that it used to be.

But I know for me, I can't speak for you, but for me, man, being a dad has been, I would say, the most rewarding thing of my life.

It's probably the thing that I enjoy the most.

And so I would just love to hear and maybe you could share with the audience, like, why the Heart for Adoption and maybe a little bit of your story.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Yeah, we can definitely talk about that.

We are the proud parents of three girls from India.

So Anjali, Priyanka, and Leela.

And they make me a better person and a better Christian.

I feel like.

I felt like I was doing so well in my process of sanctification.

And God's, here goes some kids.

You know, you're like, oh, man, where'd that come from?

Where did this.

That anger?

Where did this explosiveness come from?

And so I really believe, like, being a parent really like iron sharpening iron, it makes you a better person.

It makes you more patient, makes you trust the Lord.

It actually gives you an understanding of God's love for us.

But the way that we love a spouse, the way that we love our children, God so much more for us.

But we got married going on 15 years ago this year, and by about year five or six, we had not had any biological children.

And so we said, what are the next steps look like?

Should we do a bunch of testing and should we go down the road of freezing eggs and all those things?

And I don't know the whole process because we never felt called to do some of those things.

And we just felt like God was saying, now is your time to adopt.

Because our plan was always to adopt after we had our own children, whatever that means.

So I just felt God say, hey, you haven't had any children yet, because biologically, because you don't know what you would do had you had your own children biologically.

So he just said, hey, now's the time to adopt.

So about the same time we were deciding to adopt was about the same time our daughter was being born.

And then about 13 months later, we went to go pick her up in India So we sat down with some families that are already adopted internationally and domestically.

Found out, like, hey, how does this work with financing?

That's when I first learned about, like, corporate adoption assistance.

I was like, man, I've never even heard of that term.

There's companies that will help you finance and adoption.

And my comp.

I'm like, surely my company would never have something like that.

And of course, looked into it, and they did have $5,000 available.

Yeah.

To bring children home.

And so I was like, man, so I really felt God was in this thing, like I said, from the timing, of course, his heart for adoption.

One of the things that you changed the name recently of this podcast, it spoke to me, but I always thought that the Virgin Mary was in the line of David.

And then the more research I've done through this Christmas holiday season, it turns out that only Joseph, whether you're looking at the genealogy of Luke or the genealogy in Matthew 1, I think it's Luke 3 and Matthew 1, the genealogy goes back to Joseph, who of course was not Jesus's biological dad.

He was the one in the line of David, who, of course, the Bible says the Messiah had to be born from.

And so from God's perspective, this thing we call adoption is no different than is not looked at secondary, is not looked at other than is not looked at second chance.

It's looked at the very same as a biological family, a birth child.

The love that you have that we have for our adopted children, it's the same way we have love and emotions and desires for our biological children.

So there's no difference from God's perspective.

And so that's the beautiful thing about this thing we call adoption.

And of course, it shouldn't be different because we're adopted into God's family through faith in Jesus Christ.

And so why would it be anything different with Jesus and Joseph or my daughters and myself, or your boys and yourself.

So that's one of the things that really spoke to me is, man, this thing, adoption, it's no wonder why even in the world, when people said, oh, man, that's a wonderful thing that you've done.

That's so great.

That's so awesome.

Never has someone said, oh, that's an average thing that you've done.

That's an okay thing that you've done.

No, that is an amazing thing that you've done because you've provided a life to a child, someone made in the image of God, that.

That.

That maybe was passed over, maybe looked over, didn't have a Chance.

And of course, God has a plan for every single one of them.

So whether it was my family or yours or a different one, that's something that spoke to me recently here.

It's really.

Yeah, it's funny.

I'm in Galatians right now in my morning time in the Bible, and I'm just.

I think it was the third or the fourth chapter, and Paul starts.

He starts unraveling this whole idea of being adopt.

Right.

Being called sons, and not just sons, but heirs.

And I think that one of the things Christina and I talk about often when it comes up, and I don't know if you've seen it, but there's.

Unfortunately.

I know you're off social media, so I'll fill you in.

But there's this battle that's going on right now in certain little pockets of social media where people think that we shouldn't adopt, or they say that you shouldn't adopt if they're not of your race or this or that.

And man, it just.

And some of these people are going on for years.

Yeah.

And some of these people, that they're Christians, so to speak.

And maybe they are, maybe they're not.

I'm not here to judge that, but I can't help but think, like, how backwards that seems to me, because it's like in Galatians, Paul finally gets to the point where he says, there is no Jew, there is no Greek, there's no male, there's no female.

And he's not saying that because he's confused.

He's saying that because in Christ we're one.

In Christ, we're united.

In Christ, we're all sons and daughters.

And I can't help but think, man, that to me, and part of, I think Christine and I's heart for adoption is it's one of the few things in our physical life here and now that reflects so fully the heart of God and the plan that God had for us.

And we love our adopted children no differently, just like you said, as we do our biological children.

And one of the things I think about a lot, because I know you guys had to go to India to get your children just the same as we did.

And first time we went to India to get our son, his orphanage was actually pretty nice.

It was out in a field and you could tell it was well funded.

It was still an orphanage, but it was.

It was a pretty good one from the ones that.

That I've seen.

And then we went to get our second son and we were in the middle.

Middle of a city, probably, I don't know, three or four or five million people in the city.

And I.

It was just.

It was awful seeing how these kids were living and what they were living in and the kind of shape he was in when we got him.

And to think, like, where he is today and to see this little guy that was.

He was bruised and he had some boils and scars and all these things, and to see where he is today and to think we have the opportunity, when we feel called, to do it, to take a child.

And this is what I tell people all the time.

These children have the same capacity that the children that we have here born to us biologically in the States.

It's the same capacity.

The only thing that's different is the environment.

And obviously there's some genetic differences, but not in the grand scheme as I'm talking about it.

And I think, oh, man, that.

To me, that's a picture of what our life is like right before Christ and then what our life is supposed to look like after Christ, right?

Like we're broken, we're bruised, we're alone, we're afraid.

And then we come to Christ and there's a whole nother life.

So, anyway, I don't know exactly why I shared that, other than to say, for us, seeing that walked out in, like, in flesh and blood through our process of adoption, for me, has done so much for my faith walk that I.

It's hard to explain.

Adoption is not a.

It's birthed out of a fallen nature of the world.

It's birthed out of abandonment, so to speak.

Right.

Yeah.

Either either the parent has passed on or the parent has not been able to take care of that child.

So they've made an adoption plan for them.

So it is to be celebrated.

It is redemptive.

But let's just be honest with it.

It is birthed out of a place of abandonment and hurt and sin and fallenness.

But the beautiful thing is this is what God does.

He's in the business of using our sin, our brokenness, and creating something beautiful out of it.

Of course, in Genesis 50, when Joseph says, hey, you meant evil for all of these things, selling me into slavery.

But God meant it for good.

He meant it for blessing, to save many lives, which, of course, is what we've done with some of these children.

I have a friend, she's adopted a child with no limbs, no.

No arms, no legs.

There's not a whole lot of people, Christians in general included, that would look to adopt a child like that.

And so we are saving many lives, like Joseph said back in Genesis 50.

So, yeah, it's a beautiful.

It's a beautiful, wonderful thing.

Yeah.

If people are interested, they can talk to you or me about it.

Comment.

Yeah, it's just a blessing to be a blessing.

That's awesome.

So I'm going to switch gears here a little bit because I know that we did some prep before the call, before the chat here.

And one of.

But you use the word intentional and you use the word consistent.

And so what I want to do is give you an opportunity maybe to share with the audience why those two words and how maybe how you're using them in your own life, what they mean to you in life right now.

Yeah.

Was this word intentional.

And as of lately, I was sitting in a discipleship group meeting last Saturday and someone just mentioned the word consistent.

And it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

I was like, whoa, let me write that down.

They think about goals, they think about New Year's resolutions, and that's great, and that's wonderful, and write it down and measure it and hold yourself accountable to it.

But unless you have a system that you've designed and that you've been systematic to put into place through intentionality, through consistency, you're going to fall right back into what you were doing last year.

So unless you have something on the calendar to meet with guys weekly, that's why church is such a beautiful thing.

It was nice here in Northeast Ohio, the Cleveland area, a few days ago.

And I see this group of what looks like maybe 9th grade girls running together.

And obviously there's Someone in the front and there's someone in the back and then there's seven or eight girls in the middle.

Why do we train?

Why do we practice in groups like that for sports like running?

Because the person in the front is going to bring the person in the back along and you're also going to work together so that person in front doesn't tire herself out or tire himself out as well.

And so that's the same thing that a church, a good group of friends, people at the office are supposed to do for one another.

Life was never meant to be lived in isolation, which is what so much of our society is based on now with just, hey, you can have friends on the Internet, you can have friends on social media, you can attend church online, which no problem, if you're sick and shut in, you can't get there.

But otherwise, no, go there and participate and volunteer and be part of a community.

And what I've decided to do, like I said, intentional last year was the word.

Ish, when I invited the Lord Jesus into my heart.

And so from there I just have a desire for learning and for teaching.

I describe some of those as my spiritual gifts.

But last year I decided I need to get trained up.

If I'm thinking and I'm hearing this word intentional.

I went to a discipleship training.

It was an all day training.

And prior to that I would say I can just watch a couple more Mike Winger videos online, I can just watch a few more podcasts, I can just listen to and read a few more books.

But I'm like, I'm an elder at my church.

I don't need anybody else to train Martin Hale.

That's foolish and that's arrogant and that's prideful thinking.

And so I went to this all day training and it was so good.

It was coming from more evangelistic and the discipleship background on how to go out and share the Word.

And so now when I do, from that training, birthed out of that training is I look for guys and groups to do.

We call it three thirds.

Okay?

It's a three thirds group.

I have two of them that I help put on.

And you don't have to be a theologian, you don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be an elder to run a 3/3 group.

I do one with some guys.

Some of the, most of the guys go to my church.

One guy doesn't any longer.

That's on Saturday.

Mornings at 7am we meet for coffee.

And then another one is at lunchtime at my church, excuse me, at lunchtime, at my office at noon.

And a three thirds group is the first third, whether it's an hour and a half like we do on Saturday mornings, or whether it's an hour like we get for lunch break.

The first third is looking back, how was your week?

Give me a high, give me a low.

How are things going in your life since the last time we met?

And that's really just an icebreaker to get people comfortable and talking.

The next third is where you dive into a passage of scripture.

Sometimes it's preplanned or you're just going through a book of the Bible.

And the questions you ask, it's always the same questions.

It's very intentional and it's very easy so that anyone can facilitate it.

Like I say, you don't have to be a Billy Graham or John MacArthur.

The questions are, you read 5, 7, 10 verses, maybe 15 verses in the Bible.

Pick Old Testament, New Testament.

And the questions that one of the people who are facilitating are going to ask is after the first third, where you look back, you say, hey, what did you like?

What did you not like?

What questions do you have?

And usually that one question opens up enough conversation to where you could take up the whole rest of the time with that question.

So then you move on from that as people saying some of the same things.

Then you say, okay, what do we learn about God?

Or what do we learn about Jesus from these specific verses?

Oh, we learn that God is good, that God is loving, that God will come back to judge, or whatever.

You're in.

What do we learn about God?

And then you ask the next question.

What do you, what do you learn about man?

What do we learn about human beings, man and woman, from these verses?

Oh, man's prideful man.

Man makes mistakes.

Man says one thing and does the other thing, or what have you.

And then the next question is, where do I have it here?

What do.

Are there any sins to avoid or commands to follow?

That's the last question.

So anyone can do a Bible study, if you want to call this a Bible study.

And he says in this chapter, let your yes be, your yes and your no be or no.

That would be a command to follow in the book of James or obviously in the book of Exodus, he says, thou shall not commit adultery or whatever.

And Jesus says, if you lust after woman, it's the same thing as committing adultery in your heart.

We shouldn't be watching pornography so those are some of the things that we do in this noon group at my big corporate bank.

And we probably have three or four consistent, including myself, that attend.

And we've had up to six at our lunch break at the office.

And like I said, I go deep with four guys on Saturday morning.

So that.

Oh, and then the last third is, hey, what is the Lord speaking to you through these verses and what are you going to do about it this next week?

How are you going to watch your heart?

Are you going to change a subscription that you have?

Because these movies that are all offered on this subscription service don't align with Christian values or what have you.

Or you know what, I'm going to hop off Instagram for a while because some of the things that pop up there really trigger me to look at other things as you said that you were going to do.

We then talk about the next week.

So that's the last.

Or what is the Lord speaking to you about this and what are you going to do about it?

So that's one area of intentionality that I had to get trained on.

I used to always think Bible study was going deep and listen to all these commentaries and bringing something new and showing people how smart I was at Bible study and how much I learned and what can I bring to you guys?

And it's really about what we can gather together and how you can apply it.

Because Jesus called the Pharisees and the Sadducees whitewashed tombs.

He said you tithe mint and cumin, but you've neglected the greater things of the law, which is taking care of the poor and the helpless and the orphans and the widows.

And I don't want to be the Pharisee when I get to heaven.

So it's not about how much knowledge and how much Bible information that it's really about how can you practice it and how can you walk it out?

And, and, and like I said, through these three thirds group, these Bible studies, if you want to call them that, these being intentional has helped me and others to, to do that.

One of the girl, she's a Christian, but she's a very new believer and she's.

I don't remember ever reading this.

And I went to church my whole life.

It's because most Christians, as we know don't study and read the Word, especially when you do it with others is very powerful.

That's really cool.

And I think the thing that I love about it, and maybe this, maybe I'll let you share a little bit about why you're off social media right now is I think that in the world today.

And I know I have felt this at times, right, there's like this, there's like this propensity to encourage us to do something big or to reach all these people or, you know, whatever it might be.

And yet it seems to me like what we're really lacking in culture and society is what you're doing, which is more of this one on one.

It's in person, it's really communal physically.

It's caring for the person and the calling that's right in front of you as opposed to always, like looking out into a future that.

There's a book, it's not Christian at all, but it's called the Gap in the Gain.

And it's written by a guy named Dan Sullivan.

And what he talks about essentially is that so many of us are so focused on the gap between where we are and where we want to be or what we think we're called to and where we're walking, right?

We're so focused on the gap that we always, we.

We neglect to see the gain, the progress that we've made.

When I find myself measuring the gap, right, I'm not grateful.

And when I find myself measuring the gain, I'm grateful.

And so as I listen to what you're saying, because I think so often success in life, whatever it might be, requires some level of being a contrarian, but it requires you to be contrarian in the right things, right?

Because if you're just a contrarian and you're wrong, it doesn't work out very well.

But if you think you're.

You work at a bank in investing, right?

Warren Buffett is so great often because when everyone else is running scared, he's diving in head first, but he's diving into the right thing.

When you think of marriage or you think of relationships, the world's out there telling you, like, hey, try it out before you buy.

You gotta sleep with the girl before you marry her because you don't know what it's gonna be like.

And it's no, you gotta be contrarian to say, no, I'm gonna do it the other way.

But I trust that the other way, this particular way of getting married and consummating my marriage, that's the right way.

So it's contrarian, but it's knowing where to be contrarian you've chosen at this point in your life to go off social media, to go, like, in so many ways, fully in person.

Right.

You're doing the discipleship in person.

So as I hear you say that, I hear a bit of contrarian about your decisions.

Maybe that's true or maybe it's not.

But, like, most people in the world today are not off social media.

And so I just wonder, like, what is it in you?

And it may have nothing to do with success or whatever, but it's like, what is it that's driven you to make that countercultural decision for where you're at today?

Maybe what are you experiencing as a result of that decision?

Yeah, so one of the things last year also, I heard at the beginning of the year, and I'm not one of these guys, they're like, oh, I heard from the Lord, and I had a dream, but he said, hey, I want you to cut out dessert.

I want you to cut out all candy, chocolate, baked goods, and Twinkies and anything that's considered, like, dessert.

And even at birthdays, I'm just like, yeah, I don't need that.

Even at holidays, I'm like, yeah, I could just overindulge in that.

At the same time, I haven't become a Pharisee.

And some.

And I'm at someone's house, they're like, oh, I made these homemade cookies.

I'm like, I'll have one.

Which ends up leading to two, of course, because I'm me.

And so that was the decision I made.

But I don't have.

I'm not in.

I'm not boxed in by listening to God on that.

And it's the same thing.

Four, three, four years ago, I found myself just getting real riled up on social media, and I just felt the Lord saying, hey, I want you to get off of here.

Because you spend more time on here and getting riled up about things from your friends than you do spending, spending time with me.

And I'm just like, I guess that means I got to get off of here.

And then you got to look up how to turn it off, because, like, you can't just deactivate it.

And it's.

Are you sure you want to.

What about all these pictures?

I was just like, the Lord told me to get off of here, so I'm deactivating the entire thing.

And so since then, like, I haven't looked back.

But at the same time, I recognize that we do need the Mike Wingers of the world, the Zach Kasturos of the world, the Alan Pars, the what do youo Memes of the world.

To get information out that way is just not what he's the Lord has chosen for me during this season because like I said, I would spend man an hour just gone by really easily online scrolling through Facebook was the only one I was on.

I was.

But it would have led to Instagram.

And so I'm just really trying to follow what the Lord would have me to do.

And that's really it.

It's not a criticism, it's not a judgment on anyone else.

It's just following, like I said, what the Lord has told me to do this year.

He told me to not snack.

It doesn't mean that you can't ever eat something out of a box or a package.

But he said, I want you to not snack when you're at home from packages and from bags and from boxes.

He said, eat nuts, eat seeds, eat fruit, eat vegetables.

That again, if I'm on a camping trip or if I'm going hiking, you have all the chocolate chip bars you want, granola bars.

But that's just something that if I.

I know that's not for me because I want to just do whatever I want and eat whatever I want.

And so if I hear something, I try and be obedient to it.

And whether it's social media or dieting or working out, I just want to be obedient to what the Lord calls me to do.

That's cool.

It makes me.

It begs the question for me.

And this is.

We haven't talked about this, but I'm sure you'll be open to it when you say that he told you.

How does that typically happen?

Is it like you feel it on your heart as you're reading a scripture or as you're going.

Cause I think there's a lot of people that two camps, right?

You got the one camp who they believe God talks to em all the time, every day, audibly, et cetera.

And then you got the other people who think that he doesn't talk anymore.

And I've always felt myself in the middle where I think like we serve a God who's alive.

And part of what makes him alive and unique is that he speaks to us.

And I think he speaks to us through His Word.

And I think he speaks to us in other ways.

I've never like audibly had God say something to me.

But I think, I think that as I grow in My maturity of my faith, I can tell.

I think I do a better job of discerning.

Jesus said, my sheep know my voice.

I think I'm getting better at discerning when that's something that I feel like God is impressing on my heart versus like maybe just my, my, my conscience or, or whatnot.

So I'm just interested to hear from you and maybe it can help the listeners.

Like, what does that look like for you?

Because I think it's different for different people.

That's like the $70 million question, Zach.

He obviously speaks in his word, number one, because it was revealed to the prophets before Jesus and John the Baptist and of course through the disciples who recorded Jesus's word.

So his word.

I have known people, and I do know people that have said they've heard very rarely.

They're like, I heard a voice and I know it was the Lord.

So he.

And we see him speak, of course, in the Bible that way.

And so he's the same yesterday, today and forever.

So he can speak audibly.

I've never heard the audible voice of God, but it's.

But he also speaks through other believers, right?

My wife being one of them.

She's a very clear picture and voice of the Holy Spirit because she's so bright and she has so much wisdom.

And so through other believers, right?

When you're hearing a pastor preach a sermon, a lot of times you're hearing from God.

There's.

But also, like you said, for me, I've never heard a pastor say, Martin needs to get off of social media.

Martin needs to eat more like this.

So it's that strong feeling, it's that strong pulling on your heart that God's asking you to do something.

And he's not, He's a gentleman.

So he's not going to put his hand on your neck and force you to do anything.

But he's saying, do you love me?

And if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

It's one of those commandments and it's not the Ten Commandments, not the 613 laws of the Old Testament, but are you going to obey and follow me and trust me in what I'm asking you and telling you to do?

And from what I hear when I talk about these things from a dieting perspective, from a social media perspective, the long term, kind of underlying message is you need to be here for these girls, you need to be here for your wife.

You need, obviously there's genes and there's hereditary and all of these things.

But if there's anything in our lives that we can remove that, whether it's plastic, don't need to get into all this stuff.

Whether it's plastic dishware or plastic cups or everything is made out of plastic nowadays.

And of course the things that they put in our food now, and we got a new secretary of health coming in, those are things I want to listen to and follow through on.

If he's in it and he's telling me to, it's no different than when we research something, when we, someone says, hey, watch this podcast, watch this YouTube video.

You're like, oh man, that's crazy.

That's good stuff.

What are you going to do about it?

And you just going to say, that's a good word, that's good for that person?

How?

Like we said, how are you going to apply this to you?

I don't know if that answers the question or not.

Yeah, I think it's, I don't know that there is like a clear answer.

Right.

It's everybody.

And that's where I think earlier you said that.

And we know this, the stats say that a lot of Christians don't even read their Bible.

And so I think for me it's, I find that I'm much more prone to hear and feel like I'm hearing when I know I'm spending time in the Word, I'm spending time in prayer, I'm spending time with other believers.

And I think like you said, it's the multi million dollar question because I don't think there is like a clear cut answer.

I just always find it really intriguing to hear how the Lord speaks to different people differently because I want people who maybe are watching this or listening to this to know that it ultimately to me.

And I shared this in my last video when I mentioned the name change of the podcast.

It's like I spent my whole life really thinking that I had to go out and do something for God.

And when you read the Gospels, what you realize is that actually, no, the message was that Jesus came to do something for us and he came to serve us.

And if, and even there were times when like the disciples would say, no, I can't wash your feet, I can't receive what you have to give me.

And he said, then you can't follow me.

And so for me, I have found that my, my positioning in my mind has changed from, hey, I gotta go figure out how to do something for God to have to receive what he has for me, what he wants to give me.

And then out of response to what I've received, I'll go out and walk it out.

And so I think oftentimes the whole hearing from the Lord is we gotta be in tune to what he has to give us.

We have to be willing to sit there and say, hey, I know, Lord, that you have something that you want me to receive and I'm here to receive it.

And then sometimes you just gotta be quiet and take it in.

So again, I don't think that there's a clear cut answer, but that's how I've been thinking about it.

Yeah.

And I don't want anyone hearing what I've been talking about today is like, hey, you have to work to earn approval from God or work to earn approval from Jesus.

These are just things that, recognizing what the Lord has done for you that you want to go out and do for Him.

But it's not a required.

This is not.

Check the box.

This is just, it does say go and make disciples of all nations, baptized in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

So I want to do follow and do what he tells me to do, but it's not that I'm required to.

Is out of love for him.

Yeah, for sure.

No, I think that's good.

That's a good.

It's good to clarify that.

I think that's clear.

Just so you know, I was clear.

That's what you're saying.

But I think it's always good to make sure people are.

So we talked about, I think you spent some time talking about intentionality and then your word for 20, 25 being consistency.

What does that.

How do you think that going from intention, obviously you'll continue to be intentional.

But what is like consistency bolted onto the back of intentionality?

What do you think that looks like for you and maybe for people who are watching or listening?

Yeah.

So consistency to me is just continuing to do the things that you started to do.

So I remember when I switched over to this job that I have now, I had taken out my 401ks to pay off credit card debt.

And like in the past.

And I remember talking to my wife after I did that, I was like, yeah, I wiped out our credit card debt.

She's oh, how'd you do that?

Well, I took it out of our 401k.

She's not a math person, she's not a finance person, she's not a banker, she's not a money person.

She's.

Are you supposed to do that?

That's not a wise thing to do.

Is it.

And I'm like, they say you're not supposed to do that, but I just wanted to get the monkey off my back.

She's like, how come you need to talk to me first?

And I said something that I will never, ever say.

And I suggest men never say.

I said it was my money.

And she was like, she's your money.

We're married.

And so I just felt so, like, I was like, yeah, she's right.

I may not like it in the moment right now, but she's absolutely right.

I should have talked to her and this was not the best thing to do.

So consistency, as we know with investing, is just doing the same thing repeatedly over and over again, and looking up at the end and then having a bigger nest egg than what you started with.

That, that.

That's what we do with investing.

That's what we do with our 401ks.

Hey, Thursday, I really would love to work from home, and I could.

And we have the flexibility to work from home.

But Thursdays at noon, I know that my coworkers are going to be looking for me to participate and be involved in that discussion.

I have another gentleman that I meet with on Mondays to go through some discipleship material.

And, man, he's got stuff going on and life's.

Life's crazy.

Life's busy.

We both have kids.

He's got kids, but it's.

Nope.

We're going to set the next appointment up once we leave before we leave that next one.

And we have some material that we use.

So I'm not recreating the wheel each time, but that's essentially what it is.

This is not.

It's not difficult, it's not challenging, it's not hard.

We don't have to make it bigger than what it is.

Another thing is there is a group of guys on my street and that live in my community.

I'm always inviting them to church.

I'm like, hey, Christmas Eve service, you guys want to come out and celebrate the birth of Jesus?

I invite them when I'm here at service teaching.

But it doesn't stop there.

There's a new restaurant opening in town.

A Texas guy say, hey, let's get together.

Because so many people, like, they have Their families, if they're married, they may have some folks from the office if they go to work anymore, or maybe they work from home.

And so it's like providing opportunities to meet, to get together, to hang out.

But it's being intentional when I do.

And I'm always the one texting.

I don't know how many friends, guy friends that you have that text you and say, hey, man, how you doing?

Hey, you want to go grab lunch?

Hey, you want to grab some coffee?

Hey, how are you really doing?

I think women do a great job at that.

Us as men, maybe some guys, but not my friends.

So I'm trying to be that guy that's trying to be the glue to bring people together, hang out, but also be intentional so they know when life gets rough.

When you.

When that problem, whatever it is, whether it's drinking or womanizing, whatever, gets to be too much, you have someone who to call that can talk you through these things.

My wife says it a best.

And it's not from her.

It's a quote from like the social work field.

I'm not social worker, but she says never let a crisis go to waste.

So when guys, friends of yours, family members, experience crisis, let me tell you about the person, the one that had the solution to that may not fix everything, but he says they'll give you peace through it.

Being consistent and just texting guys and getting together with guys and when the opportunity comes, talk about Jesus.

Unless you tell me not to.

Unless you tell me, don't text me about that anymore, then.

Then I won't.

But until then, just keep inviting you to church.

Some of those guys have been.

A couple of those guys have been.

Several have not.

Sometimes I get responses, sometimes I don't.

I keep sending them anyway.

Be consistent.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Well, we need that.

Appreciate you doing that.

I'm sure the guys do.

I was trying to think if I've got guys in my life like that, I guess I gotta be more like that because I think that for me it's just so easy to be busy all the time, which I don't love that word.

That's the reality of.

I think what we're fighting against in many ways is prioritizing what is worth spending the time on and what isn't.

And so I like the idea of it's what are you being intentional about?

And then it really is only intentional if you're willing to be consistent about it.

Because if it's intentional for five minutes and then you're onto something else to be intentional about, then you weren't really all that intentional about anything to begin with.

So I think that's good practical advice.

I want to ask you one last question, and then we can wrap this up.

And it may just be an ability for you to summarize into a package a lot of what we've talked about here.

But for me, a couple weeks ago, and part of the reason I decided to change the name of the podcast is I just really started thinking about, am I crushing it in life?

And I have to be careful because sometimes that can come across the wrong way.

And I don't mean it to, like, I really think our life, we have the ability to walk through life.

And I use the story, when I wrote about this about Joshua and Caleb and King David.

It's not so much when I say crush it, that everything's going to be great, and it's a prosperity gospel and God doesn't want you to go through hard things.

It's really more of that.

I think that in Christ, we have the ability to walk through life grateful, excited, peaceful, all those things.

Like, we can walk through life, no matter our circumstances, really going, hey, like, God's given me as a believer and his church, the ability to crush it in life.

What would you tell them?

Yeah, there's a quote, and I'm going to butcher it.

I think it's.

I'm pretty sure it's Aristotle, but it says you are what you repeatedly do.

So therefore, our habits are our lifestyle, something like that.

And I butchered it.

But what you're doing right now is who you're going to be at the end of the year.

It doesn't start in March.

It doesn't start in July.

If you don't have the systems and you don't have the meetings, if your calendar isn't intentional and isn't consistent with the surrounding yourself with guys that you want to look like that, if you're not listening to if you don't have this on repeat when you're working out in the grass or doing the yard or what have you, if you're just listening to the same thing that you did last year, then you're going to be that same person.

What do they say the definition of insanity is?

Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to get different result.

So if you don't like where you're at today, change what you're doing and do it for a long period of time, like I talked about with investing, and you'll notice the change.

You'll notice the difference in your life.

Yeah, I think that's a good place to leave it.

I love it.

So you basically just said, be intentional and then follow through.

Be consistent.

Good advice.

Yep.

Well, thanks, Martin.

It was great chatting with you and I'm sure the audience loved hearing from you as well.

I would tell them to you do preach at church sometimes.

So I was going to say I'd tell.

Tell you to tell them where they can find you, but maybe handles, which is fine.

Is there any place you'd point them to say, hey, if you want to know, maybe not more necessarily about you, about some of the things that are speaking to you that are helping you.

Anything you want to point them to here?

Yeah, I should have mentioned.

So I'm a pastor in training here at my church.

And so this year at some point, instead of just calling me Elder Martin or the executive of ministries, I'll be like our executive pastor at some point.

This year I was taking a class, but it became too much for me.

And part of that class was to develop and to create a social media or a YouTube channel to turn in your assignments.

I was like, oh, I'm gonna be back on.

But I had to drop that class.

So once I finish out with that, I'll probably start my YouTube channel and beyond.

But right now, if you go to.

I have a lot of content.

It's questions that I've had about Christianity, about the Bible, about Jesus.

They're on our website, so www.neochurch.org.

i believe it's under content and then articles.

There's probably seven to nine different articles about, hey, how did the New Testament come to be?

Do we need to follow the Old Testament law?

There's questions about the Passover and whether we should still follow that today as Christians.

So there's a bunch of cool articles that I've written on there.

Questions that I've had about Christianity in the Bible over the years up on our website.

NeoChurch.org awesome.

Well, with that, we're going to sign off.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in to another episode of the Spoke to Me podcast.

Thanks, Martin, for being here, and we'll.

See you next time.

You bet.

See ya.