00:00 Chris
Welcome to the lion within us, a podcast, serving Christian man who are hungry to be the leaders they’re predestined to be. I’m your host, Chris Granger. Let’s jump in our guys this week. Here you are. You’ve made it to the big episode. And what we’re going to be talking about today is if the tomb is empty and we have pastor Joby Martin with us, that’s right.

Pastor Joby is going to be sharing with us about his book. If the tomb is empty and we’re going to unpack it. But before we get there, remember the versatile, weak acts, 1124, where he was a good man full of the holy spirit and a faith and a great many people were added to the Lord guys. It’s no surprise.

I picked up that verse this week. That is actually pastor Joby his verse. That’s his life verse. I think, you know what? Well, if we’re going to serve pastor Joby, let’s put his life versus the verse of the week so that we can have that decel in our hearts and soak in for us this week. Guys. Now, pastor Joby Martin, for those who do know.

He’s the pastor and the founder of the church of 1122 in Jacksonville, Florida. And since launching the church in 2012, he’s led a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. In addition to providing the church of 1122 with vision and. He’s an author, national and international preacher and teacher, and he’s been married to his wife Gretchen for over 20 years together.

They have a son, JP and her daughter Reagan and pastor Joby considers his life’s mission to live out acts 1124, but he was a good man full of the holy spirit and a faith and a great many people add to the Lord, his passion for proclaiming the gospel and. Last surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

It’s in everything he does, guys. I listen to pastor Joby to every one of his podcasts that come out. We’ll give a big shout out right up front to two to two brothers of mine, Daniel and Luke, pre-term me on the pastor. Joby they’re like, you gotta listen to this guy and I’ll tell you what, when I started listening to them, I fell in love.

It’s just amazing. The way he brings to word all, he’s going to bring just an incredible message to you. And it’s going to be an uplifting. It’s going to be inspiring. They’re not gonna hold you back any longer from him. So here we are guys, pastor Joby Martin.

Let’s get into it.

So pastor, Joby welcome to the line within us. How you doing today? Doing great, man. Thanks for having. Oh, I’m so excited. I’d say what this is. This has been on my counter. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I couldn’t sleep last night. You know, it was, uh, my wife said, you just need to go for a run this morning, calm down. I said, yes, ma’am

02:36 Pastor Joby Martin
there you go. Do whatever she tells you to do.

02:40 Chris
That’s right. That’s right. Absolutely. And, you know, I gave a brief intro for you, pastor Joby, but you know, everyone at the line within us may not know who you are or what’s your, what you’re doing there at 1122. Would you like to just give a little background about you just to kind of help our listeners. To know you a little bit.

02:56 Pastor Joby Martin
Yeah, sure thing, man grew up in a little town outside of Myrtle beach, South Carolina called Dylan. Um, got radically saved at a, at a youth summer camp. And, uh, when I was in college was volunteering at my church and felt like God was calling me into ministry. So, um, I’ve been in ministry.

I barely been on church staff since I was like 19 years old. And then in 2012, we planted a church called the church of 1120. Here in Jacksonville, Florida. And so this fall we’ll turn 10 years old.

03:26 Chris
Nice, nice. Well, I’d say what I, and I, your podcast, it comes out weekly from what I can tell. Cause I’ve been bingeing it for four months now.

It’s just, it’s a, it’s incredible. I’ve gone all the way back through your John series, just working through that and uh, you know, so that comes out once a week. Guys, I’ll make sure that’s in the show notes too, because highly encouraged that because the messages that you drop every week, so how long have you been doing the podcast part as well?

03:50 Pastor Joby Martin
Uh, I mean really since, you know, like podcasts came out, so you can go listen to every sermon, you know, throughout all 10 years, if you want to backtrack and let’s do them all. And then, um, also do a podcast we call deepen, which is right now, it’s just a deeper dive with me and just a couple other guys into the current sermon series.

That’s

04:10 Chris
really cool. I’ll have to check that one out. And, you know, you mentioned, you know, you got saved and I know just by listening to, to your, your sermons, you got save and Bennetsville and you pick on that. Nobody knows where that’s at, but I do. I’ve been to Bennetsville, there’s a paper mill there that I used to call on all the time down there had been this bill and there’s a little restaurant downtown.

04:27 Pastor Joby Martin
It was, it was a quaint little restaurant

04:29 Chris
and they had the best little desserts. I

04:30 Pastor Joby Martin
remember that about Ben. Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, yeah.

04:36 Chris
Not much there that much there, but man, that was a big pay for me over there. So I spent a fair amount of time for sure. Uh, you know, so they sent me your, your book.

If the tomb is empty and I poured through it, I had to print it out. Cause I’m a pen and paper type of guy. I don’t like reading electronic stuff. So I

04:51 Pastor Joby Martin
printed it out. I got notes all over it. And my wife was just like, are you going to ever put that down? I said, no,

04:56 Chris
this is awesome. I gotta get, I gotta get through this.

So, uh, you know, I’m curious just about your inspiration behind the book, you know, what, what inspires you to, to write there? If this room is empty,

05:06 Pastor Joby Martin
uh, w. I mean, you know, it is the bedrock of our, of our faith. We don’t have faith in faith. We have faith in a historical event that Jesus Christ came, lived the perfect life DOD in our place on the cross was dead and buried.

And then on the third day he walked out of the grave. And if we, if he can walk out of the grave, then so can you and I, and, um, really the premise of the book, what we do is we trace the gospel from seven different mounts. Throughout the scriptures. We start on Mount Moriah with Abraham and Isaac, and we trace it all the way through the same mountain, which is most people don’t realize that, that the, that the mountain Mount Calvary, that Jesus was sacrificed on was the same mountain that, that Abraham took his son Isaac, up on too.

And so that’s the title. If the tomb is empty, why the resurrection means anything is possible for years and years and years, I’ve been finding myself. At the end of services, when people will come down to me at the end of the service and say, pastor, I’m in an impossible situation, my marriage is impossible.

My, I just got a scan from the doctor and unless the Lord moves, you know, I’m in trouble or my finances are messed up. And one day this phrase just kind of fell out of my mouth. Well, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Then we can believe in a miracle working God, cause the greatest miracle of all time has already had.

And then he brought his dead son back to life. And if he can breathe breath into his dead son, he can breathe breath into your dead marriage or into your cells in your body or whatever it takes. So that’s really it. I just want to help people be reminded of the good news of the gospel. Well,

06:39 Chris
it’s a beautiful, it’s a beautiful message.

I mean, I definitely liked to unpack those, those seven miles a little bit more because that’s the one part that I didn’t understand either pastor Joby just that the same mountains at the beginning and the end, that was, that was just an aha moment that you, that you were able to connect with.

06:56 Pastor Joby Martin
Yeah, man.

And, and, um, and that’s just what I try to do. I’ve been teaching the Bible now for almost 30 years. And so I just try to unpack the, this, the ancient text in a way that regular guys like me and you can understand.

07:10 Chris
And that’s, and that’s what we’re trying to serve here on the line with Dennis is just those Christian men that they’re trying to be.

The leaders are trying to grow in their walk. You know, when I find resources like this, I definitely want to put in front of them and maybe speak to the men directly. Are there any main points or ideas that she really hoped that they take away from if the tomb is empty, if they, they, they dig into the.

07:32 Pastor Joby Martin
Well, I mean, from the side of your accident, it sounds like you like to do the stuff I like to do, like to hunt and fish and be outdoors and all of that stuff

07:39 Chris
can’t hide it. You just can’t hide it either,

07:42 Pastor Joby Martin
either. Uh, so there’s a whole bunch of illustrations, uh, about me growing up and about hunting and fishing and all of that.

Really honestly, bro, I write to and preach to men. I mean, women in the church have been doing their part since the empty tomb, the first witnesses of the resurrection or women. Okay. And so the women in our churches, they’ve been the backbone of this thing from the very beginning. And it’s time that men stand up and act like men and do our part.

And so there’d be a whole bunch for men throughout the seven mountains. I mean, we start with Abraham and Isaac and every single one. As leaders, as men, as husbands, as fathers, we have been called to be obedient to whatever God calls you to do. Then we talk about Moses on Mount Sinai and who tells you who you are.

You know, when we unpack the 10 commandments, the laws of God, then we’re going to walk into Mount Carmel. I mean, you want to see a man’s man, and then you check out a lie, just standing in front of 850 prophets bail. And the Bible says that he is mocking. Like literally making fun of their false God, which is important because these days, man, if that would’ve happened today, they would’ve canceled him for being insensitive.

Right. That’s right. And not, not all, not all ideas are equal, some are dumb and some are dangerous. Some of them need to be mocked. We need prophets of God to stand up and say, that is evil. That is sinful. That is wrong. Right. So, uh, do we follow. And then, then we go to the mountain of beatitudes where Jesus gives the sermon on the Mount.

Then one of my favorite ones is, uh, the mountain of temptation, the way Jesus answers the enemy every single time as it is written. So every single man needs some serious, it is written in your life. So when the enemy comes and tries to twist the word of God, to get you to question the worth of God or the work of God or the worthiness of God, that you’ve got a solid foundation of scripture to stand on and go to.

And then we go to the mountain of transfiguration. What’s interesting about that. One is there’s a father at the bottom of the mountain of transfiguration. Who’s got a sick son. And if there’s any dads out there that have ever been through pain with their kids, brothers, no pain, like kid pain. Right. And part of what I want people to understand is this was an actual event.

Don’t think Sunday school story don’t think veggie tales don’t think flannel. This dad had a first name. This dad had a job. His dad had a home address, right. And he’s got a sick boy and he’s heard stories. I’m sure that the miracle worker is in his town. If he could just go find him, maybe, maybe Jesus could do something for his boy.

And he brings his six on his demon possessed son to Jesus and says, if you can, will you please. And Jesus has, if I can, all things are possible for one who believes that the Bible says this dad immediately cries out. I believe helped me overcome my unbelief. I think there’s a lot of men and that’s their prayer, whether it’s about their family or their children or their job.

And they want to believe. But they need God to help them overcome their unbelief. And the good news is though it’s not the size of our faith. That matters as much as the object of our faith. You could put a itsy bitsy, teeny little mustard, seed sized faith, and that everlasting almighty God, and it’s exponentially greater than putting an abundance of fate and some promise, braking lying idle.

Right. And then finally we in no Mount Calvary. So this would be a great time to read the book as we get ready for. Right. We walked through the seven last sayings of Jesus on the cross, right?

11:29 Chris
The beauty of this, where this is going to be released in Easter week. So it’s going to be right there and be at time.

And guys, you know, this is, this is not, this is, it’s all intentional. I want you guys to get out there. Now, if you celebrate Easter and you had all your Easter eggs, now let’s go really let’s lean into what is really about and dig into it, you know, dig into it. And, you know, I, I love the seven mountains, you know?

And there’ll be audience as you started off, when you were, you were talking about Abraham and Isaac and the BDS there. I think guys just in general, sometimes we just don’t like to be a in at all. We won’t feel like we’re in charge, right? Yeah.

12:05 Pastor Joby Martin
Let me ask you, how’s that working out for you? That’s right.

The other day, the other day, I have a 16 year old son. All right. If you’ve ever raised one of those, you know what it’s like, or if you can remember when you were

12:16 Chris
16, I can remember I got three girls, so I’m, I’m just, I’m all girls, but I do have one that’s 11. That’s your age? I think your daughter’s age. So yeah,

12:25 Pastor Joby Martin
I got, well, I got one.

Yes. She just turned 12. So I got a 16 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. And, um, my daughter is still sweet. My son is 16, so he’s all, you know, which great. I love him. I’m proud of him and all the things. However, he was, I was disciplining him. Recently made, made some, let’s just call them poor decisions.

Right. And we’re in the kitchen and I’m looking at him. I’m like, bro, do you know how good you have it? I mean, the life you have, the friends, you have the church, you have the family you have, do you know how good you have it? And then I said, these words, something like, boy, if you would just do what I say, if you would just listen to your father, your whole life would be.

And the spirit of God said, say that again. That’s right. And I went, oh yeah. I just listened to what my father says. If I would just do what my father says, my whole life would be blessed. So.

13:25 Chris
hello, the pot calling it black, right. And like, oh man, a little too close from home there. And I just, that’s my encouragement to you guys out there listening to, you know, you gotta be obedient, you know? I mean, we just think about what Abraham was asked to do and there was never a question, never a doubt.

And just the way you unpack that miracle on top. I mean, for, for, for, for the hunters out there around

13:47 Pastor Joby Martin
getting caught in a thicket, that don’t happen. Right. I mean, there’s just unbelievable. A substitutionary male lamb, mature with a crown of thorns around his head. And the angel says, use him as a substitute.

And then a couple thousand years on that same mountain, God loves a son. And that son carries the wood up his back to make a sacrifice in place of. And he is the lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the world. And he has a crown of thorns on his head. Same mountain,

14:27 Chris
unreal. Unreal. Is this, it just sends chills down your spine when you really aren’t paying.

So, I mean, I, I was so grateful for that one for the way you gave me some good visuals on that. And then, you know, you taking it to Alijah. And I think I was listening to your podcast today who came out and you were, you were talking about that, you know, the mocking, the 850 and, and just, uh, the, the brashness that he had just, I mean, like you said, he’d be completely canceled.

You would not hear anyone if it was a today, when the society we live

14:57 Pastor Joby Martin
in. Yeah. Yeah. There’s no doubt, man, but the truth needs to be spoken and, and, and we need profits, man. We need profits. That’s speak the truth. Now there’s no reason to be rude about it. Right? Cause the Bible says that love is not rude.

And the key is, is we’re not trying to be offensive, but the gospel is offensive because the gospel starts with, it starts with you are created in the image of God. But next it is. And you are not a snowflake. You are not puppies, breath. You are not a Skittle. Your kindergarten teachers would lie to you.

You are a wretched black hearted sinner in need of a savior. You’re not a bad person that needs to do better. You’re not a mistake or in need of a life coach. Even I are sinners in need of a savior. And so if people are going to be offended, at least let them be offended by the gospel. Not because we in and of ourselves are offensive.

Mm, but the moment you tell somebody that the problem is not that you sin the problem is that you are a center. Yeah. People get offended.

15:59 Chris
Um, but I mean, I think the way you call out as your job as a pastor, and I think what I’m trying to do too, I’m not a pastor, but you know, you, you said you comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, the comfortable man.

And I mean, that’s beautiful. This is like desert, right? I mean, cause the guys, if you, you know, we’re not here to, to make you a warm and fuzzy, they listen to another show. If that’s what you’re after we’re going here to challenge you and this the way Elijah approached it, it just hit me just like a ton of bricks.

I mean, I’ve heard the story. You know, understand it, but just the way that you unpacked it, it was a visual that I can see better than, than any, any time before.

16:34 Pastor Joby Martin
Yeah. And part of the travel up and down mountains, I mean, part of the reason I was looking at what God was doing in these mountains is because every single one of us are either on a mountain, top or down in a valley or somewhere in between.

Right. Even if you look at the life of Elijah, okay. So Elijah, God shows up, says, Elijah, how about I want you to pray and I’m gonna turn the rain. And so Elijah prays and it quits raining for three and a half years. So if you’re a prophet of God, you’ve got to feel like, well, that’s a pretty high, holy moment in ministry who gets to turn the rain off.

And he goes, And then God tells him, so I want you to go laid by this book and I’m just going to take care of you. The Bible says Ravens, bring him bread and meat every morning. And every evening, this is like the original grub hub. Jesus. I mean, the Lord is bringing, you know, chicken minis and a Chick-fil-A sandwich every morning and evening.

And there’s this little tiny line in the Bible. And it says that one day the Brook dried up pretty low moment. And that’s not Elijah’s fault. He did what God told him to do. And the Brook dried up there. I think sometimes there are men that don’t know what to do because they thought that they were being faithful and the Brook dried up, they got laid off.

Right, right, right. Or they got transferred, whatever it is, the thing the ministry is over. And so then God calls him to get up and go, because he’s got more ministry for him. He bumps into this widow who she thinks he’s about to do. She doesn’t realize that her son has a terminal illness. She thinks they’re going to starve to death.

And so he says, tell you what cook me some cake, which has go when you’re stressed out, you just eat some cake, cook me some cake and you’ll be taken care of. And what’s interesting is that God did not introduce Elijah to this woman. So the woman can be taken care of or so that Elijah can be taken care of because he could have been introduced Elijah to a rich man, but he introduces him to this poor woman.

So that when she trusted God with our first and best with all that she had, then God would be faithful to take care of her. And the reason that God introduced them is so that her son could be resurrected. So her son dies. She freaks out. Elijah brings him back from the dead again, high, holy moment in ministry.

Then the next thing that happens is he calls down fire on the 850 prophets of bale and God consumes the bull and the altar and other high holy minutes ministry. And then right on the heels of that Jessa bale says, I’m going to kill you. Now. You would think he would say, well, bring it on woman. I’ll call down fire on your head too.

Now, man, he goes into this total depression. He goes and lays down by another stream, curl up in a ball to die. And then the word says, God sends an angel to wake him up, go take him into a cave. And then God meets him right in that case. God shows up, not in the fire, not in the earthquake, not in the wind, but in this still small voice.

See, I think oftentimes there are men and sometimes we get down when things aren’t going our way, but the hardest one to understand is what, what do you do when everything’s going? Right? You’re crushing it at home. You’re crushing it in your job. And yet you still feel like, man, I look around and circumstantially, I should be happy, but I can’t turn on that.

Well, the good news is, is that the spirit of God will meet you, whether you’re on the top of the mountain or in the bottom of the valley. And he loves you enough to pursue you and meet you right where you are. That’s the God we serve.

20:07 Chris
That’s right. I mean, I don’t think any guys out there listening could ever have that feeling of crushing in any more than Elijah and once that, that fire rain down and then it just shows his humanists.

And I think you said it best. I know one of your sermons I was listening to, there are no heroes in the Bible except. I mean, Jesus is the man, you know, he is the hero. I mean, because the rest of them they’re there. They had these moments of brokenness and humanists, and that’s why we need to lean into that.

20:34 Pastor Joby Martin
That’s right. Just like me and you. Right.

20:36 Chris
That’s right. That’s right. I mean, cause I mean, they’re, they’re great, you know, people that, to, to learn these stories from, but every one of them had a moment where, you know, they really weren’t walking to where the Lord warm the.

20:50 Pastor Joby Martin
Yeah. Like, I mean, we’ve mentioned Abraham, Abraham pimped out his wife twice, right?

Two separate times lies about his wife. Think about the marriage counseling you have to go through in order to figure it. He’d be like, Hey baby, you can get me some sweet tea. I’ll tell you what I can give you. All right. Quit. Trade me out into these Kings to save yourself. That’s right. That’s a mess, right?

Moses is a murderer. I mean, you could go through it, man. Right? Samson’s a womanizer. Jonah was a racist. Peter was a denied. Thomas is a doubter. I mean, come on, Paul was a, was a religious terrorist and yet God used every single

21:24 Chris
one of them. It’s just unreal.

Satan will do everything possible to destroy you. Are you prepared start trained today with the leadership for Christian man Bible study, the focus of this Bible study will be to help you and your line stand, grow in the areas of health man. And by. Well career

21:45 Pastor Joby Martin
finances and self

21:47 Chris
husbands and dads. We know it can be intimidating.

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22:09 Pastor Joby Martin
for details.

22:13 Chris
It’s not real semi I just, to me, that was that that stood out just so much. And then, you know, just the temptation, the weight on that mountain, the temptation that you talked about, because I think guys, we struggle with that, man. I mean, there’s so many guys that I taught with. I tried to help and it temptations at every corner, you know?

And, and I think a lot of it is in the doggone pockets that just this dove on things that were, that, that we have as idols in our pockets, as he smartphones, it just opens it up. Man. I don’t know what to tell guys. You know, you, you got to figure out what are you going to worship? You going to worship that fricking smartphone, or where are you going to lean to the Lord?

And I mean, what, what’s your advice for guys who may be struggling with that temptation and just ideas?

22:54 Pastor Joby Martin
So, um, John, the apostle John says in first, John do not love the world or to things of this world. Then all this world has to offer is three things. These are the three temptations of the enemy. He says, all this world can offer is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

That’s it. And if you’ll notice in the, when the enemy tempts Jesus in the desert, he offers him three things. He offers him the lust of the eyes. See all these kingdoms. I’ll give them to you the lust of the flesh. Hey man, you

23:25 Chris
hungry.

23:26 Pastor Joby Martin
You deserve to feel better. Turn these stones into. And the pride of life, tell you what I’m going to take you up to the highest point I’m gonna throw you off and the angels have to catch you because you’re a big deal, right?

The enemies only had the same three temptations from the very beginning when he meets with Eve in the garden of Eden. And he’s thinking about this. I mean, if we’re talking to men, the problem of Adam in the garden is not that he did something wrong. It’s a, he didn’t do anything at all. The devil is talking to his wife.

And the Bible says he’s standing there with her elbow to elbow. And the, and the enemy says, did God really say, this is where the enemy always starts is he wants to twist God’s word. Okay. Did God really say? And she says, well, he said, don’t eat it or don’t touch it, which is classic legalism. Cause he never said don’t touch it.

She added some more rules in there. But then the Bible says when she saw that it was pleasing to the eye, less of the eyes. Pleasing to eat less of the flesh and that it would make one wise the pride of life. She took eight of it and gave some to her husband who was with her. So here’s why this is important.

You’re talking about temptation. It is really, really helpful when you begin to identify how the enemy, most often tempts you and then you war against that thing. Because look, man, the enemy is like a bass fishermen. Hang out with. And all he can throw your way is the pride of life, less than the eyes, less than the flesh.

And if one doesn’t work, he snips off that spinner bait and he ties on a hula popper and he throws up there and tries to get you with top water. And if that doesn’t work, he clips that off. And then he puts on a plastic worm and tries to get you with that. And a question I ask, I would ask is this, if you were the enemy, how would you take you out?

And then you war against that. Now it will never be in. So then what you need is the never changing, always dependent word of God. That’s what Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter six. All right. When the enemy is coming against you, you stand firm against the enemy in his evil schemes, and you put on defensive weaponry.

How about a salvation breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the belt of truth, the shield of faith. And then you also have an offensive weapon and you take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of. So when the enemy comes at you, let’s just say, he’s trying to whisper it.

You condemnation, right? Say a man, who do you think you are doing this podcast? Do you know the sin in your life? You know the thing, you know, that kind of stuff. That’s condemnation condemned as a building term. It means unfit for use. And then you need to memorize. You need to have some, it is written Romans eight.

One says, therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus. First Corinthians six says, do you not know. You are bought with a price that your body is a temple, therefore honor God with your body. If, if con if to be condemned as a building term, which means that building is unfit for use, the gospel tells us that you’re not unfit for you.

So you’re actually the permanent address of the holy spirit of God. You see, when the enemy comes at us, we need to have, we need to stand on the word of God. Even if you don’t feel like it. At first, you memorize some scripture and you stay in line with his scripture and over time, maybe not overnight, your feelings can catch up with the truth of the word of God.

That’s what you do with temptation.

27:00 Chris
It’s beautiful. And I think so many guys though struggle with. Just having that word in their heart, you know, and, and we want, we can memorize every, every lyric to a Leonard Skinner song because, you know, guilty party here. But when it comes to, when it comes to, you know, really having this word in your heart, I don’t know.

It’s just, it’s something that, you know, I’m convicted to try to help guys with that. That’s the, we have a versatile week, every week on the line within us. And this week, by the way, acts 1124, uh, no coincidence there where we’re, we’re pushing that for our guys this week, because, you know, we got. Every, if, if we, if we learn one a week, you know, that’s 52 verses that these guys have come away with at the end of the year, listening to the show that, you know, there’ll be ready for those battles that have gone to calm.

27:44 Pastor Joby Martin
That’s right. Yeah. It matters, man. And you, um, I know, and people will say, you know, I don’t have a good memory yet. Come on, man. There’s half of the audience that knows every word, ice, ice baby. And yet you haven’t heard it in 30 years. That’s right. It’s just true. But you can, you memorize, what’s important to you.

Listen. If, if these guys can figure it out, Uh, when the fish bite and when the deer walk, right. And when the turkeys gobble, surely we can figure out some Bible verses that would be very important to have in our equivalent ready to go. That’s

28:16 Chris
right. And again, to me, it comes down to priority, you know, because you’re going to make for you going, what’s important to you that you put on a calendar, you lean into it.

And if you, if you, if you really want it to fight against that and you know, the eyes, the flesh and the past, You’re going to lean into it and you’re going to make that a priority and you’re going to, you know, look forward to that time with God and not look at it is like, you know, something I got to do

28:39 Pastor Joby Martin
rather than something I want to do.

Right. That’s right. So,

28:42 Chris
yeah. I’m curious to know, just to take us back to the book even more, you know, the foreword written by this guy named Tim Tebow. Uh, we all, we all know him and I thought it was pretty cool. Does he? And the four he talked about this book is really for Christians and non-Christians and, and maybe can.

Explain that a little bit, what he was alluding to there.

29:02 Pastor Joby Martin
Yeah. So, um, I had the pleasure of discipling, Tim. You know, he come, he’s a, he’s a member of our church and I was a part of his wedding and my wife and I are a part of he and Demi’s life. And, um, yeah, he was really gracious to, to write the forward and, uh, and you know, whenever he’s in town, he’s in about a third or fourth row over to my right, just taking notes.

He’s he’s. I know sometimes people want to speculate that dude is the real deal, man. He is leveraging the platform that God has given him for the glory of God. And if you knew all the things his brother was doing to, to push back darkness in our world, it would it blow your hair back? I mean, he really is, is leveraging his whole life to make much of him.

And so a party when he was talking about his. The mission statement of our church from the beginning has been that we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. So not only is this book helpful for people that have known Christ and want to deepen that relationship, but at the end of the first chapter, I give a salvation invitation for people to put their faith in Christ.

Uh, I think we’ve had eight people that Mia emails in there, because if somebody does pray to receive. You’re not saved by the church, but you are saved into a fate family and we want to help people get connected wherever they live all over the world. And so, um, we’re having several people a week email in and say, I just prayed to receive Jesus.

What do I do next? But also I mentioned like the mountain of transfiguration before can’t tell you the number of people that I’ve handed the book. Cause I knew they were going through some kid pain and say, just skip the chapter six, just read about. Chapter six, there is a dad that doesn’t understand why his son is sick and he wants to believe he can get better, but he needs help overcoming his unbelief.

Read that. And so while there it’s definitely strong together, you know, you can read from beginning to end. Um, there, I wrote it in such a way that each chapter can stand on its own to be its own message.

31:07 Chris
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And so I’m curious, is this, is this your first.

31:12 Pastor Joby Martin
This is my first one. Yeah.

All right. All

31:15 Chris
right. So I mean, you know, what was the hard part? I mean, it was still out of writing the book, just getting, going. And was there a process, did you, did you have number of words a day you were shooting for I and walk us through a little there.

31:27 Pastor Joby Martin
Well, if you look at the title it says with Charles Martin, Charles was a collaborative writer with me.

He’s a deacon at our church. Uh, Charles has written 23 or 24 books, multiple New York times, best seller. Most of them are novels. He’s written two nonfiction books. One is called, uh, they turned the world upside down and the other is called, what if it’s true? And he was just trying to leverage his platform as an author to point people to Jesus.

And he’s also one of my dearest friends. We bow hunt, white tails together. And so the way it would work is we, we, our church has a retreat center about an hour north of here in south. And we’d go up there during deer season. And basically I had all of the content and I would just download it to him verbally.

I mean, I’m a preacher, it’s what I do. And he’s a writer, so he would just receive it and put it into chapter form and then we would edit it together. So for me, the process, part of the reason I waited so long is because I didn’t, I didn’t want to like go sit in the cabin and pick out a book, you know what I’m saying?

But, um, but that process was really like the Lord show. Yeah. It was like a two man disciple group, man. We, we I’d unpack the scriptures and we’d study them together and we’d pray and cry and laugh. And yeah, so we actually just turned in the second book. So he and I plan on doing this, um, about a dozen more times or so that is awesome.

32:51 Chris
I can’t, I can’t wait to read it. I w what’d you personally learn from that whole process?

32:57 Pastor Joby Martin
Well, one of the things that was really helpful having Charles is. He pushed me to put a lot more of the personal stuff in there about my life, by the way, I was brought up about current struggles about those kinds of things, because I think it was just me sitting down at the laptop.

You know, I wouldn’t, I probably wouldn’t say much about me, but he, he thought it would be a good idea that folks could obviously study the scriptures and, and dig through the text. But yeah. Also personalize it with some things in my life. So yeah, just that kind of application. And then one of the things I learned man, is that it’s so incredible when the Bible says about itself, that it is living and active and it amazing how you can go back to the same text over and over and over.

And the spirit of God revealed to you a new truth. I mean like a life changing reality that shifts everything in your atmosphere, but not one word on that page is different. I mean, these are just the words that always been there. And so it’s even true right now. Cause I’m, I’m preaching through the S like at our church for Lynn getting ready for Easter, I’m preaching through the 700.

So, not only is this content that I wrote years ago, and then I redid it for the book last year, and now I’m reteaching it to our church. Um, and it’s new and fresh every time, man, every time you read through the scriptures, if you’ll lean in, have you’ll really say, all right, Lord. I mean, Jesus promised that he would send a, a helper that would teach.

And so if you’ve ever learned anything from the Bible is because the spirit of God taught you that thing. And so that’s been really refreshing.

34:45 Chris
Absolutely. And I tell you one thing that I would definitely want it to unpack with you is I talked to so many guys and a lot of them have a hard time leaning into church just to be honest.

And, and I, like, there was a story. I know it was in your book, but you also, I’ve heard you preach on it a few times about, I think it was an internship or something you did. You were working at a gym and you ended up taking one of those ladies to church. And I can just, maybe you can unpack that story.

First of all, because as I picture those churches, I’ve been to those

35:17 Pastor Joby Martin
churches, you know, and luckily I’m not a member of

35:19 Chris
a church like that right now, but maybe that, that could be something guys need to think about as they search for a church that, to really lean in and grow.

35:28 Pastor Joby Martin
Yeah. That, that, that event was really a failure.

Of me and a lack of courage and an, I was probably 20, I don’t know, early twenties. And like I said, so I was living, I was living at the beach and I was working at a gym and across the street from the gym was a strip club and the owner of the gym went and gave all the dancers a free membership at the gym.

So it was a brilliant business model because they would all show up about 10, 10 30. Then every dude at the beach was there. You know, time to lift weight stand, right? No doubt. And I mean, no joke, man. These girls were heavily invested in their careers. If you know what I mean? I mean, they’re gorgeous.

Right? So, well, I was also a youth pastor at the time at this little church, about 30 minutes inland. And so I would sit at the front desk in between making smoothies and get people towels and stuff. And I’d write my, my youth pops. Yeah. And over time and these girls would come sit at the counter. And what I began to, what began to happen is they shifted from a category of people.

I’m again, bro, I’m a youth pastor and they’re strippers. And I started to getting to know them a little bit and they all had two names. They had their like given name and their stage name. Right? Almost all of them had kids and none of their kids knew what they did because they were ashamed of it. None of them, none of them planned on doing this or.

They just made so much money. They couldn’t walk away from it. And every one of them had to take something to dance that night they had to drink something or take a pill or smoke something. They could not do it sober well. So I started to get to know these girls. They did not know what to do with me. I was like a 22 year old bodybuilder guy, but I wouldn’t go to the strip club.

You know what I mean? Right. And so we would sit up there and as I’m writing my sermons with the. And I would just go over my, my youth sermons with them. And I figured if, if, uh, if it made sense to the strippers, that makes sense to my high school kids. Okay. Right, right. And if that’s insulting, I don’t know which group it should be insulted, but that’s what we would do.

Then one day this girl says, can, I would invite them to church and then I never expected anybody to go. And then one day this girl says, I go to church with you. And I thought, oh no. Oh no, how’s this going to work out? Cause my church, the one I was on staff on interning for. I mean, this kind of girl just wasn’t welcomed there, but I didn’t know what to do.

Right. So she shows up to pick me up to go to church on Sunday. And I was like, I gotta be there real early. Cause I worked there and I do the announcements. Cause that’s all, that’s all they’d let me do. And a man, she drove, she shows up in a pretty skimpy like sun dress and I’m sure it was nice for her, but she looked like she was going to the club.

She loved to stripping her. And Sandra is, I’m just telling you right now. She has a brand new white convertible Corvette. So it’s not like we can sneak into the parking lot. Or our kid comes with us. I drove the kid, just sat on her lap. There wasn’t even a C C for a kid. We drive to the church. We walk in.

And when we walked in the stairs, the whispers, I mean, they were, they were tangible. The judgmentalism was tangible. The service gets out. One of the deacons comes up to me and says, we need to meet with you in the pastor’s office. Like right in front of her. She goes to pick up her child from Sunday school.

And they said, why are you bringing a girl like that here? Now today as a 48 year old man has been made in the gospel a little longer, I would be able to say, because Jesus died for her. That’s why, why are you here? Same reason, right? Well that coward, because I was afraid I’d lose my job and all this stuff.

And I just, I don’t know. And then one of the guys says this place exists to keep our kids safe from people like her.

So I was like, all right. So I left that meeting. I walk out to the car, she said, she’s leaning by the car and the church parking lot. Everybody’s gone to get Ray-Bans on and just tears. And she goes, that meeting was about me, wasn’t it. And I lied. I was like, nah, no, I wasn’t. It was about something else. She knew I was lying.

So we get in the car and we’re driving back. It’s super quiet. Her daughter is still coloring a picture of Jesus that she just got in Sunday school. And I said, well, so what’d you think about church? And she said, you said that’s the most demoralized, the domain I’ve ever felt my entire. I think about that the night before

dancing in front of a bunch of dudes for a dollar at a time. Right? Right. And then the bride of Christ that Jesus died for made her feel worse. Now I’m not saying she should keep doing what she’s doing, but I’m saying this when they brought a woman caught in adultery before Jesus and says, the law says stoner, what?

Say. You said, whoever’s not perfect. You go ahead and start throwing the first stone. Then he bends down to that woman and he says, who condemns you? She says, no one. And Jesus says, neither do I condemn you. That’s right now. Go and leave your life of sin. Right. And so part of the reason I share that is because is because, uh, when we started the church of 1122, that marked.

And I always thought if I could ever do anything to, if I was ever in charge of a church and who was welcome, then we’d do it differently. And that’s why we’re a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Right? And now we have a ministry of a couple of ministries.

Actually. We partnered with Tim Teebo and one called her song where, um, we rescue women out of human trafficking and there’s a safe house. They live in and they attend our church and we also have another ministry called Odessa. Where my wife and a team of girls goes into the strip clubs. Once a month on Friday nights, brings homemade food and feeds them in during the shift change and invites them to come to church to come meet Jesus.

And then we help them get out of that lifestyle. Um, on Easter Sunday, we’re going to baptize two of these girls. One used to be a prostitute and one was a. And they’re going to tell their story on Easter Sunday and be baptized in our church. And I’m telling you, our church will, our church will throw a party for them.

Like the father and the prodigal son threw a party for his son who was dead and who is now alive and came home. I love it. So, yeah, man, that’s stories in the book.

42:10 Chris
Absolutely. And I’ll tell you what guys, if you know, if you don’t have a church or church. You know, lean in and find churches, but typically like 1122 with pastor Joby is building and I’ll make sure Jovi, we’ll put those links in their show notes.

So guys can check that out. It sounds like those ministries are just phenomenal and be great ways for them to learn and grow. And you know, when you’re in the right church, body and, and, and the spirits moving, you know, I, I can just tell you just as someone in North Carolina, listen to what you guys got going on with Florida.

I get amped up for every one of your sermons that come out. So it’s, it’s something I think can help guys across all.

42:46 Pastor Joby Martin
For sure. Yeah. And, and if guys want to listen in to, um, if you go to, you can download our app, if you just put in 1122, it’ll pop up or you can go to our website dot com and every sermon that I’ve ever preached.

Plus every guest preacher, you know, we’ve got a bunch of my buddies preach here. Matt Chandler, Matt Carter, David Platt, all those dudes preach. But there is a series that I did a bunch of years ago, based on a verse out of Corinthians, maybe the apostle Paul writes and he says, stand firm in the faith, be strong, act like men act like man, but everything you do be done in love.

And so we did a series called act like men. It’s a five-part series on what it means to be a godly.

43:29 Chris
That’s awesome. I’m all, I’m all put that as a resource for forest guys. And I’m going to go personally, go bins down one. And I got the last question for you, pastor. Joby on the, for you. If the tomb is empty, you know what, in your opinion is the biggest obstacle holding these guys back right now from embracing that power and the truth in Jesus’ resurrection.

43:49 Pastor Joby Martin
Here’s, here’s what men have to understand. Okay. The enemy always wants to define you by your skull. Jesus wants you to find you by his that’s it, bro. That’s it. And so oftentimes man, it’s fear that paralyzes men cause the opposite of faith is not doubt. You can have all kinds of unanswered questions and made a great disciple of Jesus.

See all the disciples in the gospel, the opposite of faith. Isn’t doubt. The opposite of faith is fear for your paralyzed. Faith produces action. Paul tells Timothy God did not give you a spirit of. The fear is not a feeling. Fear is a spirit that does not come from God, but he has given you a spirit of power and of love and of self control.

Right? And so the same power that brought Jesus out of the grave resides inside every believer in Jesus. And we have that same resurrection power. And if he walked out of the grave, we ought to be walking out of it too. That’s

44:48 Chris
right. That’s true. Uh, passage over. This has been wonderful. We’ll make sure that the link to the book, if the tomb is empty, is there in the show notes?

Anything else you’d like to share with the line within us, for the listeners out there,

45:00 Pastor Joby Martin
man, that’s it. And maybe one last thing that’s been heavy on me lately. The best advice I can find, I was doing a church planting conference recently, and this guy came up young church planner asked me, Hey, you got any advice for me?

And I thought, man, what am I going to tell this guy? And I think about the very first miracle Jesus at the wedding. They run out of wine. His mom comes to him as we run out of wine and he sees like, it’s not yet my hour. She’s like, all right, whatever. So he brings the servants over and I think Mary has got the best advice and all the Bible, she brings the service over servants over to Jesus.

She says this, do whatever he tells you to do. That’s it, man. That’s my advice. Do whatever he tells you to do. And then when he told him to do it, Go get six jars, fill them up. These are the jars. People would have been washing their hands in. So it’d be nasty water. Get a ladle, take this to the, to the master of ceremonies.

Little, did they know that there was a miracle hanging on the other end of about six steps of obedience,

46:00 Chris
right?

46:01 Pastor Joby Martin
So in your marriage at work, raising your kids with your friends and your community, do whatever he tells you to do that. You have no idea what hangs in the balance.

46:11 Chris
That’s beautiful. Pastor Joby this has been phenomenal.

It’s been an honor, sir. Thank you so much for everything you sharing and, and this, this book has blessed me. I know it’s going to bless so many others and, and, and just, you know, blessed, you just wish you and, and pray nothing but the best for you and your family and 1122 in the future, sir.

46:29 Pastor Joby Martin
Thanks, man. I appreciate it so much.

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46:34 Chris
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our guys. I had to catch my breath from that. When I tell you what pastor Joby Martin is the real deal. I mean, phenomenal. Just, just what a conscience. He just unpacked so much for us guys, if we’re trying to grow in Christ and then we need to lean into the, his teachings and if the tomb is empty and if we believe that, and as believers in Jesus Christ, we know that the tomb is empty.

That’s when you start acting like it. You know the question this week, you know, I said, I told her on a spiritual kickoff on Monday, if the tomb is empty and it is finished, why do you live? Like your life back is not, or that it is. Because the tomb is empty, guys lean into it. So I mean, pastor Joby cannot thank him enough for what he shared with us here on the line within us.

It was just an honor to have him. I pray this message blesses you guys. I encourage you to go share with others. We need messages like this out here and for our brothers to encourage them for their growth. Remember temptation is everywhere. It’s going to be pulling out. It’s going to be pulling out his hard.

We need to know who we are in Christ. We need to know what our identity is. And then at the very end where. Do whatever

48:48 Pastor Joby Martin
he tells you to do that advice. It

48:51 Chris
just take that to heart because Jesus commands. If his holy spirit is telling you to do something, guys lean into it and get it done. So I’m praying that this message was encouraging to you as much as it was to me, share it out there, go to the line within.us, check out all our resources, the Bible study that we developed.

It’s free. Get that, let that help you grow in your walk as a Christian man, we’re trying to help serve you because we know that you want to be that leader. It’s sometimes it’s so hard. We are here to encourage you. We’re here to support you. We here to love on you. We’re here to grow a community of, of lions out there that want to just do everything every day for the glory of the Lord.

So go to the line within.us, give us a rating, write a review. All that stuff makes a big difference, guys. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. If the tomb is empty, how are you going to live? Go out, unleash the lion with them.