Surviving Cancer at 21 years old - Billy Heather
[00:00:00] Steve Gatena: Welcome to Pray.com's Relentless Hope, a podcast that'll help you love your life, lead with purpose, and leave a legacy of helping others. I'm your host, Steve Gatena. Let's get started with today's episode of Relentless Hope.
[00:00:23] In 2012. Billy Heather, a valet parking employee was called into the doctor's office to review his CAT scans after having excruciating back pain.
[00:00:36] Billy Heather: And I remember sitting there. Across the table from this doctor, this little crammed up room in North Hollywood. And, uh, he was shuffling through papers and you could tell that he had so many other things going on.
[00:00:48] And I'm sitting there waiting for him to tell me, what do I ha, just tell me what the news is. Like what's the deal? I, I got stuff to do today. And, uh, it was that day, I'll never forget it, in 2012, uh, that I was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer. I was 21 years old. The doctor looked across and said, Mr.
[00:01:05] Heather, um, I don't know how to tell you this, but you have cancer. And like, there's those moments in life when you hear that kind of news that you just, you don't know what to do. You just go into shock. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. This doctor looked at me and he says, if you would've came a few years earlier, we might have been able to save you.
[00:01:32] Steve Gatena: In part one of this three part series on Relentless Hope, we hear about the life of Billy Heather, the youth and young adult pastor at Destiny Church in Indio, California. He explains how he was able to get right with God and how God developed his life from drug abuse to rave parties to getting stage four testicular cancer.
[00:01:59] This is Pastor Billy's life.
[00:02:09] Billy Heather: My name is Billy Heather. I'm, uh, 28 years old. I live in Palm Springs, California, and I have the privilege and the honor of being a part of Destiny Church. Uh, I'm the youth and young adult pastor out here in the Palm Springs area. My pastor, pastor Obed Martinez and Pastor Lizette Martinez started our church 14 years ago.
[00:02:30] And I've been a part of this movement for six years now and uh, it has been incredible. Um, I grew up in church when I was a kid, I was used to going to church. My parents would wake me up in the morning from the time I was three till I was about 10. Church was just a part of what we did. I remember. Going to youth camps.
[00:02:52] Remember singing in the choir when I was a kid, uh, had one Sunday where I even got to play the organ. And it was a real organ, y'all. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like the keyboard sounding organ, but uh, church was always just a part of something I did. It was just. A box that I would check off as a kid.
[00:03:10] My family went just because that's just what you did. And, uh, so it was just something I just, I, I grew up in, I, I hear a lot of people say that they grow up in church, um, learning as I get older that there's a difference between growing up in church and, and growing up in Christ, growing up in who Jesus is.
[00:03:28] And so, uh, when I was 12, my parents. Went through a terrible divorce. They had a very dysfunctional relationship. Um, I remember nights when I was a kid sitting there with my sister holding each other, as our parents would argue. Uh, my mom. I had a very abusive behavior and, uh, she was a drug addict. She struggled with alcohol.
[00:03:50] My dad would always work. It was just a really unhealthy relationship. And so when I was 12, my parents split up and um, that was all that I knew about church. From that moment on, I made a decision I would never go to church again. And I had seen people going to church, my parents went to church, but then they would come home and treat people the way they did.
[00:04:09] And so, It was just something was fake to me. And so when I got into high school, uh, God was out of the equation. He was never a part of my life. And remember going through high school, just kind of like a normal high school kid, wasn't popular, wasn't trying to party or do nothing crazy. Uh, but when I was 16, I really got heavily involved with drugs, started using marijuana regularly.
[00:04:32] Um, from there, moved on to some more heavier stuff. Uh, was using cocaine for a couple years after high school. Um, from the time I was 18 to 21, I had a big, big ecstasy problem. As a kid, I, I just remember going to raves, going to concerts, going to all these places. I would go to try to escape, uh, things that I didn't want to deal with.
[00:04:55] Especially these raves. I mean, I'm, I'm sure you're aware of what some of these festivals are like. I mean, I was one of those kids that would be counting down the time until the rave would come and used to dress up, used to do ecstasy, would go out into these environments and was just trying to do whatever I could do to fill some sort of void in my life.
[00:05:14] I remember one night in particular, I was in San Bernardino, I was at a rave and, um, Just remember taking some bad pills and remember just sitting there on the, on the floor of the dance floor. Everyone around me was dancing and I literally was miserable. I was upset. I, I was struggling. I couldn't breathe.
[00:05:32] It was almost as if I was so close to what I thought was happiness. But yet, so far from it, and I'm, I'm learning this more and more today about following Jesus, that Jesus never wants us to escape reality. Uh, he comes to be with us so we can conquer reality. But as a teenager, all I knew was escapism. I just wanted to get away from stuff.
[00:05:53] And so when I was 21, I was living in, in Hollywood, um, was doing valet parking. I did that for like six years and just kept trying to find what I was looking for. I was doing drugs, I was dating different women. I was just doing all kinds of stuff and I never forget one day I was at work and, uh, was,
[00:06:14] parking cars. The Burbank Marriott was parking cars and just had this terrible pain in my lower back. It was like this gnarly pain I had and, and I'll never forget that as long as I live. It was like this pulsating pain, like it was just so bad. After about a week of just dealing with it, I finally went to the doctors and I remember sitting there with a doctor, uh, on Van Nuys Boulevard in North Hollywood, was just sitting there talking to him.
[00:06:38] and he told me that something was wrong. He said, it doesn't make sense that that pain would be there. We wanna run a couple tests. And they ran some tests and I came back a few days later and they told me that there was a tumor, um, not in my back that they noticed, but in another area of my body. And so they had that.
[00:06:54] They removed that tumor from me. And, and again, I'm 21. I smoke weed every day. It was just another, another thing that I was supposed to do. I was just like, ah, I'm going to the doctor, not a big deal. And so I had this surgery and they removed this tumor from my body. And then, uh, I went back two weeks later to get a CAT scan.
[00:07:10] And I remember sitting there. Across the table from this doctor, this little crammed up room in North Hollywood. And, uh, he was shuffling through papers and you could tell that he had so many other things going on. And I'm sitting there waiting for him to tell me, what do I ha, just tell me what the news is.
[00:07:26] Like, what's the deal? I, I got stuff to do today. And, uh, it was that day. I'll never forget it, in 2012, uh, that I was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer and I was 21 years old. The doctor looked across and said, Mr. Heather, um, I don't know how to tell you this, but you have cancer. And like, there's those moments in life when you hear that kind of news that you just, you don't know what to do.
[00:07:51] You just go into shock. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. This doctor looked at me and he says, if you would've came a few years earlier, we might have been able to save you. Now when you're 21 years old and you live in the kind of lifestyle I live, you're wondering what kind of doctor tells that to a patient.
[00:08:13] I mean, to this, I'm still like, I cannot believe that he would say that, but I think about that today. If you would've came a few years earlier. We would've been able to save you if you would've came when this problem first happened. If you would've came when these symptoms first appeared, you might have had a better shot or a better chance of living.
[00:08:38] Um, I left that office. I called my dad. I was riding the bus home, and I just cried. and it was the first time that I really experienced, I think, true brokenness. Um, I had gone through all the ups and downs of, of partying and doing drugs and all that stuff, but that wasn't brokenness. That was just a facade.
[00:08:55] And I remember calling my dad and, and um, you know, we made the decision that I was gonna move back to the Palm Springs area. And so I moved back to the Palm Springs area and the first thing I did in 2012 is I went to church the first Sunday of 2012. I went to church and I went to Destiny Church. I heard about this pastor, pastor Obed.
[00:09:13] Uh, people had always talked about how he preached and, and so I remember going and I sat in about the middle section of the middle, middle row of the section there in the church. And when the time came, at the end of his message, he asked, if you wanna receive Jesus, I want you to come down to these altars and your life is gonna change.
[00:09:31] And I said, you know what? If I'm gonna die, I might as well get right with God. And I talked to people today and, and, and, and I know it sounds crazy, but people all the time are like, you know, you only come to Jesus as a crutch or you only come to Jesus because you don't know how to deal with stuff on your own, and it's a hundred percent true.
[00:09:51] The moment that I said yes to Jesus was when I realized I cannot do this on my own. And I, I, I, I'm, I'm going to die and I do not wanna die alone. And I went to the front. I received Jesus that day. Next Sunday, they were doing baptisms. I got baptized and uh, I started my chemotherapy treatments that same year.
[00:10:12] And I remember going into chemotherapy just wondering like, okay, what's this gonna be like? What's the point of this if I'm already dead? If you're telling me it's already too late, why am I even going through this? And I sat in the chemo room five days a week. I would do eight hour sessions because I was so young, they were able to do a more intense regimen of chemo.
[00:10:34] And so I'd be sitting in a room with people that were four times my age, would be sitting in a room with people that were only there for 30 minutes a day. And here I am for eight hours a day. And uh, after about two weeks of chemotherapy, I lost my hair, lost my eyebrows. Any kind of reproducing cells in my body began to die, began to waste away, and the entire time I'm going through chemo, I'm, I'm going to church.
[00:10:58] And remember, I, I didn't want anything to do with church. I had no. No understanding of church. I didn't understand God. I, I, I, I, I believed that he gave me cancer. I believed that he was mad at me. And to this day, I tell people, man, God doesn't do things to you that aren't of his, his nature, but he does allow things to get you in the right place.
[00:11:20] And sometimes he has to allow things to get our minds focused and our hearts back onto what really matters. And that was a pivotal moment for me. You know, to sit there in a chemotherapy room and then go to church the same night. It was a pivotal moment for me to try to understand Jesus. While I literally was upset and disappointed, um, in myself, I was frustrated.
[00:11:42] I was angry, and all the while people are telling me God is good. God is good. I remember going to church every Sunday. People would lay hands on me. They would say, oh, your cancer's leaving your body. You're healed. You're healed. Then I would go to the doctor on Monday and find out my cancer was still there and I had to
[00:12:00] start chemo again. And I think, I think that was a huge moment for me. You know, I'm only 28 now, but, um, seven years ago, this moment in my life when I was going through chemo, when I was literally facing death, it matured me in a way that not a lot of other things can, and I just kept going to church. I kept being around people.
[00:12:21] Um, literally I was known as just the cancer kid in church. I was balded. I had no eyebrows. People would just pray for me every single week. And, uh, after about eight months of chemotherapy, I did 39 sessions. 39 sessions of chemotherapy, eight hour sessions, and my body was down to 120 pounds. Was unable to eat, was just wasting away.
[00:12:42] After my 39th session, they scheduled surgery and they removed all the chemo, uh, all the chemo infiltrated areas, any, anything that had been killed by that chemotherapy. They removed all that. And three months after that surgery, I found out September 11th, 2012, that that cancer was outta my body and I was officially in remission.
[00:13:03] And that, that really set up where I am today. Um, obviously I say this in a delicate way and, and it's, it's, it sounds odd, but I always tell people. Getting cancer was the greatest thing that ever happened to me because it put things into perspective. You know, we all know stories in the Bible where people go through things and, and I'm sure that now that thousands of years have gone by, we're like, wow, that makes sense.
[00:13:29] Uh, but when you're in the middle of it, you don't know why you're going through it. It's often after God brings you out of the storm that you realize why you were in the storm and... today I can just see life so much more clearly. I think God's given me a better perspective on what it means to be a son and what it means to be a brother on what it means to be a human being.
[00:13:51] Um, I think that. Things are more important in my life now. You know, when you're faced with death, you start to realize what really matters in life. And you start to realize, man, family matters. People, uh, that you once kind of got annoyed with people that you really didn't pay a lot of attention to cus they were always there.
[00:14:09] Uh, when you go through something like that, you realize like, wow, family really does matter. Uh, faith matters. My God. I mean, I, I trip out sometimes because when I was a kid going to church, The scriptures never changed. The same scripture that I believe today. The same stories in the Bible that have grounded my faith as an adult.
[00:14:31] They were the same words back when I was 10 years old. But it's almost as if you have to go through some sort of crushing to recognize and realize what was before you the entire time. And I think about moments in chemotherapy. Man, I remember one time just sitting there, I had a needle in my arm and, and I was just sitting there with my headphones on and.
[00:14:51] There was this older, uh, Hispanic man that came in, was getting treatment next to me. He didn't speak any English and all I could, all I could do was just, just kind of sit there. I couldn't talk with him, and he pulled a book out of his bag and it said Santa Biblia, and that tells you how good my Spanish is.
[00:15:07] Santa Biblia, I, I don't even know. Uh, but he pulled this book out and I knew it was a Bible and I just saw him reading his Bible and he would look up and just smile at me. And it was almost as if like I was starting to realize why the scriptures are the way they are. They're not just great quotes that we're supposed to put on our social media timelines.
[00:15:28] The Bible is not just something we put on our resume. Like, yeah, I know a bunch of scriptures, but it's literally a rock that we hold onto when we are in the darkest moments of our life. And I, I just remember sitting there being hopeless and the only thing I could do was just keep holding onto that book, keep holding onto these words that at one point had no meaning in my life.
[00:15:52] Uh, but sometimes the most difficult seasons produce the greatest things in our lives, and I just, I just started to recognize like, man, that's, that's who, that's when Jesus really met me was in that dark place, was in that I'm about to face death kind of moment. And I would say that's the most difficult thing that's ever happened to me was going through that.
[00:16:15] I mean, today I'm, well, I just got outta remission last year. It's been five years now that I've been cancer free. But those moments produce something in me that really set up for what God is doing now. And, uh, I, I got, I got saved when I had cancer, a year after I got saved. I, I, I, I just started volunteering in our church and just started doing whatever they needed me to do.
[00:16:38] And then, um, it was in 2013, about a year and a half after I'd got diagnosed, and then I started asking questions about our youth ministry. I was asking my pastor, I was asking some of the staff, I'm like, Hey, what's up with all these kids here? What are they all doing? And after about three or four questions they told me, they said, you are gonna start leading these kids.
[00:16:56] And I was like, well, what do you mean? And they're like, you're gonna preach a sermon every week. And I'm like. What's a sermon? And so a year and a half after being saved, I found myself trying to put together messages that would help young people. And uh, we started our youth ministry with seven kids. We just pumped it out every week, about two years, it grew to 30.
[00:17:17] And then, uh, it was about in the third year of our youth ministry that we just saw incredible growth. And today it's just hundreds and hundreds of students on a regular basis that we get the opportunity to minister to. but back when I was going through that cancer season, I never saw what God had. Now, back when I was stuck in the middle of that, that, that, that difficult time in my life, I never thought I would be sitting here today recording a podcast for Pray.com.
[00:17:46] I mean, it's almost as if like, it's, it's, it's, it's almost funny that we, we, we think that our problems are the end of our lives, and I understand it's the only thing we can see in that moment. But I just believe it's like I never would've predicted this. And uh, I think when I look at my life now, I never would've predicted being a pastor.
[00:18:05] I never would've predicted being an author. I never would've predicted putting on a youth conference in Palm Springs, one of the least likely places to see a move of God. Like I never would've expected this. It would've been impossible. And today I talk to a lot of people. They're like, I'm called to ministry.
[00:18:21] I'm called to preach. I'm called to be a pastor. And I often. Go back to my experience and I never felt like I wanted to be a pastor. I never felt like this is what I wanna do with my life. Um, it was almost as if God just took me and put me there. And I think it's the moments, you know, like that, that really determine our faith.
[00:18:41] We can put ourselves somewhere for a moment, but when God puts you somewhere. Uh, he has a plan to develop your life, and that's kind of how my life has become what it is today. I've been married three and a half years to my wife. She's a worship lead at our church. True story. When my wife met me, it was the last, uh, last service I went to before I had my final surgery for chemo, uh, for cancer.
[00:19:04] And so my wife's a worship leader, so like I'm there in church worshiping and she's on the stage every week. So it's like hard to focus on Jesus when a beautiful woman is worshiping on the stage. I mean, at least the woman you're supposed to marry. But, uh, I remember she got off the stage and, and she came up to me and she said, Hey, I wanna let you know I've been praying for you.
[00:19:22] And I was like, what do you mean you've been praying for me? She's like, yeah, we all know that you have cancer and I know your surgery's tomorrow and I just wanna let you know I'm praying for you. And, and I thought it was the coolest thing. And again, I, I'd been a Christian for like eight months. I didn't know that people actually cared about each other like that.
[00:19:37] I thought that was just what we did. Um, And so I went to surgery the next day. It was a 12 hour procedure. My dad wakes me up from my surgery and he says, there's a girl here from church to pray for you. And, uh, sure enough, here comes my wife, Randy. And the rest was history. But just to see, you know, those moments develop things in your life.
[00:19:57] There's nothing truly like it. I look back today and, and I just think, man like , this is, this is the story that reinvigorates my life. You know, when I go through, through seasons of up and ups and downs in leadership, when things start to get mundane or start to feel bored with my routine, I start to feel like, okay, I'm just going through things.
[00:20:16] I have to remember what God saved me from. And I believe my pastor always says, it's not what God saved you from. It's what he saved you for. And sometimes we get so confused by what he saved us for, because I think we forget what he saved us from. I think sometimes we get caught up and we think, well, this is who I am now, so I, I gotta figure this out.
[00:20:35] But the reality is God did it before and so he's gonna do it again. And I believe that's what the gospel is. It's the good news about what Jesus has done. It's not the steps that we need to take before it's the announcement of what he's done. And that's the message that's defined my life. That's what's really changed me.
[00:20:54] Um, as a younger person. That was my defining moment. You know, 21 years of being on this earth, doing drugs, looking for love, doing all the crazy things that I thought were gonna bring me life. The defining moment was when I sat across the table from that doctor and he told me that I was going to die. Sometimes it's not until you realize you're going to die, that you start to learn how to really live, and that is really what my life has become because of it.
[00:21:24] When Jesus isn't just in the church world, when Jesus isn't just a part of my Sunday morning experience, when he's a part of my life, every single moment, that's when people really tap into who he is. And I think that's when you really develop followers, when they see your values, when they see who you
[00:21:43] are.
[00:21:44] Billy Heather: And, uh, for us here in our youth ministry, that's how we cultivate a healthy environment. We keep Jesus on the forefront. We keep Jesus as the main thing, and we never apologize for telling the gospel every single time.
[00:22:02] Steve Gatena: In part two of this three part series on Relentless Hope, pastor Billy Heather talks about the genuineness of disciple. Following Jesus and invigorating your faith. Leadership is about what has been done for others. Pastor Billy explains how to be truly great in leadership by doing the little things first.
[00:22:35] Billy Heather: So today, um, my role and responsibility at our church is I'm the youth and young adult pastor. I oversee, uh, youth ministry on all of our campuses. Uh, that's our junior high ministry, our high school ministry. As well as our young adult ministry. And one of the things that I've really learned over these years, just following my pastor, pastor Obed, learning from him staying close to him, is that you'll never truly lead a movement until you understand what it's like to be a part of that movement.
[00:23:04] And, um, I love seeing revival happen in our students. I love getting reports of young people praying for people at their school. I love hearing about people getting healed in hospitals because kids have faith just to pray. And, um, I feel like the Lord has done so much in my heart as I lead young people, but I can't lead them if I don't know where we're going.
[00:23:26] And so countless times God challenges my beliefs about what it means to disciple people. I truly believe that discipleship is not just, Hey, you, come, follow me. I think discipleship is let me open up my life and invite somebody in to watch. I want my disciples, I want the people that I'm raising up to see the real me.
[00:23:49] You know, I want us to be at the coffee shop, and if the Lord prompts me to pray for somebody, I want it to be genuine enough that I'm not doing it just to show them, Hey, look at me. I know how to pray for people, but I want it to be genuine enough that they, it matches my life. Um, I, I really believe that this is how you create a great environment of discipleship, is you set an example and you lead the way.
[00:24:10] Um, not too long ago, I was out here in Palm Springs. I was at the, I was at a coffee shop on the strip, and I love coffee. I mean, I probably drink too much of it, but I just believe it's like, From the Lord. I believe heaven is gonna have some amazing coffee. But uh, I was drinking coffee downtown and it was just a weird, windy day here in the desert.
[00:24:30] And I remember going outside and I saw this man across the street. He was barefoot. He was wearing a wife beater shirt. He was on like a tank top shirt and he was just dragging a suitcase. And I remember looking at him and, and I just walked in my car and I got in my car and I opened up Twitter and I saw a tweet that said it's foolish to pray for somebody to be warm without being willing to give them a jacket.
[00:24:51] and uh, it was cold that day in Palm Springs, which is like crazy. But that tweet convicted me and I thought about that man, and I was like, whatever. So I started driving and I'm just kind of fighting the idea of like, nah, I'm not gonna go up to this guy. What if you think something crazy or something like that.
[00:25:05] I turned in my backseat and I had a jacket in my backseat. So sure enough, I pull back around, I park on the street. This guy's like three blocks away from me. I just start walking after him. He must have saw me cuz he started walking even faster. And uh, I finally caught up to him and I'm huffing and puffing.
[00:25:20] I'm like, bro, take my jacket. I saw you, I want you to have my jacket. And uh, he's like, no thanks man. I don't need it. I was like, brother, I just walked, you know, five blocks to get here to you. Please take my jacket. And so I gave it to him and I started talking to him, asking him about his life. And he's like, why'd you bring me this jacket?
[00:25:38] And I just told him, I said, man, I follow Jesus. And I just feel, you know that we're not just supposed to say stuff, we're supposed to do stuff. And I just feel like. You know you needed this jacket. I just wanna let you know, like, here it is. And he said, oh, so you're a Christian? I say, yeah. And he says, oh, okay.
[00:25:52] I could get in a lot of trouble talking to you. I'm like, what do you mean? And he said, my whole family, we are Muslims. We worship Allah. And I'm like, oh, okay. Right on. You know? I mean, what do you tell someone in that moment? And he says, so, yeah. And I'm like, okay. Well man. Well, hey, I just wanna let you know, man, like God loves you and regardless of what you believe, I feel like he wanted me to come talk to you today.
[00:26:14] About 15 minutes go by and I could tell this man had been broken. He was just telling me about his family that walked out on him. He was just telling me about what was going on in his life and how no one seemed to care. And I just kept just telling him I care. I'm like, it's great to meet you. You're awesome.
[00:26:27] At the end of those 15 minutes, he looked at me and he says, so tell me about Jesus. And so I told him the gospel message and at the end of it he says, how do I become a follower of Jesus? And right then and there at the best Western parking lot in downtown Palm Springs. This man who at one point in his life worshiped Allah, met Jesus, like met the real Jesus.
[00:26:49] And I think in leadership, those are the moments that define our leadership. Leadership is not just what comes from our mouths. Like when we teach a sermon or when we do a staff meeting. Leadership. This is what I've learned working with young people too. Man, leadership is not just what I tell them.
[00:27:05] Leadership is first what I experience and what I'm willing to share with them. I want people to see leadership. I want them to experience leadership. So many times I think we get caught up in, and leadership is, is what we say. But leadership is more than what we say. It's how we live. To truly disciple somebody is to allow them to see our lives.
[00:27:27] It's to allow somebody to get a sneak peek on what really matters in our hearts. Uh, you know, I mean, people will know what we actually believe by what we actually do, and I think that that right there, like that's an extraordinary moment. Meeting a Muslim in a parking lot, leading him to Jesus. It's not just so people can say like, oh wow, pastor Billy, that's amazing.
[00:27:49] No, but it's like, look at Jesus. Look how powerful his name is. God is into using people that won't take the credit for what he does. And I just think in our community of young people, it's stories like that that invigorate people's faith. It's stories like that in our ministry, stories like that in our community that really bring people to life.
[00:28:12] You know, one of the mottos that we have in our ministry is we don't want to tell young people what to do. We want to tell them what's been done. I believe leadership is constantly looking at Jesus and reminding people of what's been done for them, because we will never get anybody to do anything until we first convince them and remind them about what was done for them.
[00:28:34] The gospel is not advice. The gospel is not a strategy. The gospel is not a self-help program. The gospel is not something that just gets our life right, so we look good. The gospel is news. It's an announcement of what was, what was done for us. And I think to truly be great in ministry, to truly be great in leadership, you can't lose sight of Jesus.
[00:28:59] It's so, it's so crazy because everything I do in my work, whether it's a meeting, whether it's filming a video, whether it's coming up with a sermon series, whether it's mopping the floor, uh, in the bathroom at our church. Everything that we do is so that someone will meet Jesus. This podcast you're listening to, whether you're a leader, whether you don't even know Jesus, you're just here because you thought it was something else.
[00:29:24] Everything we're doing is so that someone gets an opportunity to meet Jesus. So everything is for him. All the work is for him. But too many times I see people that are working for him, but don't have him involved in the work. They're not in the process. Jesus is not in the meeting. Jesus is not in the email that they send.
[00:29:43] Jesus is not a part of the conversation when they had to correct somebody. If the work is for Jesus, I think that means Jesus has to be in the work. And I just know that when, when we, when we keep that truth in our community, everyone's inspired. Everyone is ready. Everyone is focused because they realize the message that changes people's souls is not a great self-help book.
[00:30:07] It's not a great teaching. I love all that stuff. But what changes someone's soul is the message of a God that came to us. That's at least what saved me. Like when I got saved, it wasn't just because, like I felt bad for myself and I was like, I'm, you know, but there was something enticing about realizing how loved and valued I was.
[00:30:28] There was something like super captivating that, that I didn't have to work to get this love. I didn't have to go out and try to do something to get this love, but this love came and met me in a chemotherapy room when I realized that my own friends wouldn't come and sit with me cuz it was too awkward for them in chemotherapy, but Jesus would come and sit with me,
[00:30:48] it changed my whole perspective on what it means to follow Jesus. And so I truly believe, man, that the best leaders are always the best followers. They're always the ones that. keep Jesus at the forefront. And I think when it comes to leadership, that's often the difficult part of it, is keeping the main thing, the main thing.
[00:31:08] If we're honest, we get so caught up in what we do for Jesus that sometimes we forget about who we are in Jesus. You know, that's, that's a difficulty I think in all realms of leadership, is keeping your eyes on what really matters. Keeping your eyes on your values as a person, okay? Because you don't lead from vision.
[00:31:29] You don't lead from what you see ahead of you. You lead from a place of who you. vision can change. One week we're gonna do this, we're gonna raise this, we're gonna build this. But let's say a week later, that doesn't work. So that vision has to change. If I'm leading from my vision, that means my leadership is changing.
[00:31:47] But what makes a great leader is when they can lead from a place of who they are. When Jesus isn't just in the church world, when Jesus isn't just a part of my Sunday morning experience, when he's a part of my life, every single moment, that's when people really tap into who he is. And I think that's when you really develop followers, when they see your values, when they see who you are.
[00:32:11] And uh, for us. Here in our youth ministry, that's how we cultivate a healthy environment. We keep Jesus on the forefront. We keep Jesus as the main thing, and we never apologize for telling the gospel every single time. Um, you know, uh, something that really shifted my understanding of, of, of the gospel, um, was again, another encounter I had with some, some guys at the mall one day.
[00:32:37] Uh, I had been preaching for like two years already. I was a youth pastor and again, you know, our, our youth ministry was starting to grow. But when you're a youth pastor and you got like 30 kids, you know, your messages are, you're just doing whatever you can do to get them involved. And um, I remember I had been preaching, but I don't know if I was really sharing the gospel.
[00:32:56] I know that sounds weird. But I think that you can preach about God and still miss Jesus. It's, it's crazy to think like this, but I know again, in the context of young people, and I think it's the same for a lot of people today, but I don't think that people want God. I think people want Jesus. and I, I wanna be, again, careful how I say that because we know that Jesus is God.
[00:33:20] God is Jesus. I get it. And, and, and go to the Theology podcast if you wanna break that down, you know, which I'm not doing. Uh, but, but I think that God means a lot of things to a lot of people today. I think God is very generic. I think God is, it can mean anything. When you start bringing Jesus into your leadership, when you start bringing who he is into your leadership, it changes people.
[00:33:42] It changes their perspective, and sometimes it makes people uncomfortable. And so I've been preaching for two years and one day my wife. She, she had to go to the bank or something like that. And so I dropped her off at the bank. She, she was gonna be there for two hours. She was opening up some accounts, doing some things.
[00:33:55] And so while she was there, I said, Hey babe, I'm gonna drive to the mall and I'm just going read a book or something. And so I, I went outside Barnes and Noble, there's a little seating area, opened up a book and started reading. And uh, I noticed there was a man sitting next to me and you could tell that he was homeless.
[00:34:08] You could tell that, um, he had been living outside. in the desert, extremely hot, uh, pretty much all the time where I live. And so I could just tell that he, he had, he had been burned. He was just out there. He had a shopping cart, some newspaper, and I'm sitting there and I'm, I'm, I'm reading about Jesus. But yet something inside me was like, no, don't talk to him.
[00:34:30] And I think this is the test of a true leader. Uh, leaders don't just lead when everyone is watching leaders don't just lead when they have a mic in their hand. Leaders don't just lead when they have a following. Uh, leaders lead them those in those moments when no one is around. And so I'm reading about Jesus, but yet I don't feel like I should talk to this man.
[00:34:49] So after about 10 minutes of wrestling, I just looked at him. I'm like, Hey man, do you need anything? And he's like, yeah, man, I'm really hungry. And so I said, Hey, there's a food court over there. I'm gonna go get some food. I'll come back, we'll talk, you know what I mean? What do you want? He's like, I could really go for some Thai food.
[00:35:04] I'm thinking like, okay, Thai food. It is. And so I go and get Thai food. I come back and I bought two boxes of Thai food. I was, I was gonna have one with him. And so I sit down and I give him his, and I leave mine there on the table and I just start talking. Start learning about his life, how long he's been homeless, and we just have a conversation.
[00:35:20] We start talking about the Lord, start talking about life, and told him my story with cancer and just how it changed me and gave me a new perspective. And, and I was trying to, you know, show him that problems sometimes are the best things for our perspectives because they show us what matters. And as we're talking, there's this older gentleman, this white gentleman walks up and he says, oh, that looks like a good meal there.
[00:35:40] and I said, oh yeah, this is my friend. We're just sitting here talking. And so the gentleman sits down, uh, about five feet away from us, and he just starts listening in and he says, uh, what are you guys talking about? Said, I mean, we're, we're talking about God. And this is my friend Vincent. I introduced him and, and you know, they, they shook hands and, and then this man just kind of starts like looking and just starts shaking his head.
[00:36:01] And I'm like, what's going on? And he says, this is, this is just so embarrassing for me to say. And I'm like, well, what's going on? He's like, I, I've been homeless. For three days and I'm just miserable and I come in trying to get some air conditioner and here you are talking about God. And I say, wow, that's so funny you say that, sir, this is my friend here.
[00:36:18] He's been homeless and this guy Vincent starts telling this other man about his story. And this guy is like, no, this is ridiculous. I never should have got myself into this. And. and Vincent's like, man, it's not so bad. Like, I'm talking to Billy here. We, he's telling me about Jesus, like it, God is with us.
[00:36:35] And he says, yeah, right. This is, I, I haven't eaten in three days. If I could just get some food, I think I would be okay. And I looked at my other box of Thai food and I'm like, well, hey, I got an extra box of food. Do you want this food? And he goes, no, no, no, I can, this is so embarrassing for me to ask someone else for food.
[00:36:53] I should be able to get this on my own. And I sat there and I had a moment and I realized, here's two men in the same situation. One accepts the gift of this Thai food. The other one says, no, I can get this on my own. After a few minutes of conversation, he finally took the food and I got to pray with both of them, but it, it, it did something in me where my perspective about the gospel changed.
[00:37:19] My perspective about leadership change there. Sometimes we don't need to lead people to what we see in their future. Sometimes we need to lead them to, in the moment, that's right then and there. We have to show them what's going on in that moment because here's a man that that needed to be fed. But yet he wanted to work to get it himself.
[00:37:39] Here's a man that knew he was broken, but was trying to fix himself, and on the other end of the couch, there was a man that knew he was broken and accepted, the gift that was that box of Thai food. That moment right then and there, that one story changed me forever. There's a scripture in Isaiah chapter 55 where the prophet is talking about, uh, come, you know, he says, come all you who are thirsty, come and buy milk and bread and wine.
[00:38:06] Those that have no money come. And it's so funny because he says, come buy it to one group who has the money. And then he says, those that have no money still come. There's two groups of people in this world that I think we're called to reach: people that have no hope, and people that have hope in the wrong things.
[00:38:24] I think when you're truly leading people is when you're getting their hope aligned on the right thing. I think in business, when you're truly leading in an organization, you're getting their focus and their vision on what really matters. I think in personal leadership with people, whether it's discipleship, whether it's working in ministry, whether it's preaching, whatever it is, we are not really doing something until we're getting their hope back on Jesus.
[00:38:49] I think about prayer. We're not really praying until we're getting our hope and our prayer focused on Jesus. And it was that moment that changed my leadership forever. I think that's how I learned to lead those kind of ups and downs in my life. Those kind of moments where I realized like, man, this is what it's about.
[00:39:06] It's about getting people's focus. Back to where they're supposed to be, and that's my conviction today. I don't want to talk about anything unless it's about Jesus. I don't want to preach a message unless it's about Jesus. I don't want to change a plan without talking to Jesus. I think sometimes we get so focused on Jesus saving us that we forget we need Jesus to sustain us.
[00:39:28] He's our savior and our sustainer. And constantly I'm challenging those undertones, those underlying beliefs that sometimes I forget about. I'm constantly wanting to get my eyes back on him and that my friends is something that, that we need, uh, every single day when we are leading people.
[00:39:50] And I'll never forget one day just jumping up there and just standing on this bench and just started telling people about Jesus. Just started sharing the gospel message cuz I believe that's the times that really define us as people. Is, are we gonna wait until people come to us or are we gonna meet them right where they're at?
[00:40:06] And I just remember sharing the gospel and just people getting saved. And our friend was in a coma still, and just after a few more weeks of just these revival nights, he got outta the coma. And I remember just sitting there being an awe of God.
[00:40:21] Steve Gatena: And in part three of this three part series on Relentless Hope, Billy Heather talks about his experience with changing people's perspective. He doesn't want to just be a Christian, but also be a great follower of Jesus. He describes moments of focusing on what's right in front of him, sharing the gospel message and being loved by God so he can save his friends.
[00:40:55] Billy Heather: You know, today, um, I'm 28 years old and, um, People all the time tell me I have an old soul and I, I don't know whether or not to be offended or whether that's a good thing. Uh, but I, I know what they mean. I know, I know it's a good thing. But, um, you know, over just the, the few short years that I've been here on earth, um, You know, reaching people has really resonated in my heart.
[00:41:17] Not just, you know, let's get them saved. I think that's a very broad calling. Um, but I feel a strong urge to help people rediscover passion and express their passion in a way that sometimes people have never seen before. And, uh, I look at my life, I look at my story, I look at getting cancer. I look at, um, you know, raves, look at doing drugs, look at my parents' divorce.
[00:41:41] I look at the ups and downs in my life. And the cause of, of giving people hope is really what resonates in my heart. Like, uh, all I want to do is get people to realize what life is and, and how they can truly experience it. You know, there's been some times that I've been in church and, and I see our church doing things that, that, that moves my heart in such a way, um, that I'm just in awe of what God is doing.
[00:42:11] You know, uh, a couple years ago we had a, a young person in our church. He was on our, on our church leadership team. Um, we found out that he had been dealing with severe depression, and I remember sitting, talking with him, counseling him through some things, and remember him walking away from our last meeting with Smile on his face.
[00:42:28] And, uh, never forget it was two weeks later we got a call that he had tried to take his life. And when you're a leader and you realize you had a moment to shift someone's perspective and you get a call like that, it really makes you think. Um, how important every moment is. You know, it's one of the hardest lessons I've probably learned is that experience with this guy is every moment someone's in front of me, they need to be the most important thing in my life.
[00:42:53] Whether it's a 16 year old girl telling me she's now pregnant. Or a 35 year old man telling me he just cheated on his wife or a 40 year old businessman that's about to make the biggest investment of his life. Sometimes we need to just focus on who's in front of us. And, uh, that's been a lesson I've had to learn.
[00:43:09] And so we got the call that he had tried to take his life and my wife and I rushed to the hospital. We met with the family and uh, we got the news that he was gonna be in a coma for quite some time. And um, about a week later, his brother called me and he says, Hey man, uh, a couple of us are gonna go pray tonight over by the hospital.
[00:43:26] Would you be willing to, you know, Round some people up and come and I said, sure. And so I text out a few people from our team, uh, on the way to the hospital. He calls me, he says, Hey man, there's about a hundred people here. We're gonna have to go outside. And when we got to the hospital, we saw a hundred people outside of the hospital just praying, just praying, just singing, just.
[00:43:44] Just asking the Lord to do something. And so we were there for a few hours. The next night we came back again. This time we brought a guitar and someone started singing. And we're outside this hospital and just in this courtyard area, it's about a hundred of us. And we're just singing to God. We're just, we're praying, we're just asking him to do something.
[00:44:00] And we came back the next night, and this time it was about 150 people there. At this point, people in the hospital started to recognize what was going on. We had people walk out of the hospital, ask us what we were doing. Uh, we had people in the hospital that were sick. Their family members came down, asked for prayer, and then they went back up and found them healed.
[00:44:19] We had doctors that would come and get prayer from us. About two weeks into this. We had almost 300 people in the parking lot at this hospital, and I'll never forget one day just jumping up there and just standing on this bench and just started telling people about Jesus. Just started sharing the gospel message cuz I believe thats the times that really define us as people is, are we gonna wait until people come to us or are we gonna meet them right where they're at? And I just remember sharing the gospel and just people getting saved. And our friend was in a coma still, and just after a few more weeks of just these revival nights, he got outta the coma.
[00:44:52] And I remember just sitting there being in awe of God. And I think when I look at my life and I look at, you know what I'm gonna leave behind, I wanna leave moments like that behind. When I think about leaving this earth and people still being here and thinking about what my life was about, I want people to, to know that I had a passion for Jesus that was beyond any kind of plan, a passion for Jesus that was beyond the four walls of a building, a passion for Jesus that was bigger than something I could put on social media.
[00:45:26] When I leave this earth, I want people to know, like I, I was a follower of Jesus. I wasn't just a Christian. I think Christians know what Jesus did, but I think followers do what Jesus did, and that's what I want people to know about me. You know, I have the privilege of, of being under a great leader. My pastor, pastor Obed, he's more than my pastor.
[00:45:45] He's my spiritual father, you know, and, and, and I've become a son to him. I have no desire to. Do my own thing. I have no desire to go and, and become something on my own. God's placed me with that man and I look at his life and the legacy that he's gonna leave behind, and it just makes me wanna raise up sons and daughters, makes me wanna father people so that one day I can leave a legacy for them and I'm, I think about my wife, think about our life.
[00:46:13] I think about getting caught up sometimes so much in what we do that we forget about who we are. And I think personally, you know, that's what I wanna leave behind. I wanna leave a legacy of, of following Jesus. I think people in this life are so confused when it comes to church. We make following Jesus so difficult sometimes.
[00:46:34] But the reality is I want to make the gospel simple for people. I want people to understand how loved they are, how valued they are. And if I leave this earth, And let's say I leave this earth and all I can leave behind is three things. I'm not, they can't read my books, they can't read my pod, they hear my podcast.
[00:46:51] They can't listen to sermons. If someone says, who was Billy Heather? I want them first to know he was loved by God. I want people to know like, He was loved by God, not because of what he did, but because of what Jesus has done. I want people to know he is valued by God because of who he is in Christ, not because of what he can construct or build, not because of how clever or how brilliant people thought he was.
[00:47:14] Who cares about that stuff? I want people to go. He truly loved God. The second thing I would want them to know is I would want them to know is that he had a passion for people like we today have to make people our priority. People make problems, but people are not problems. I think too often we look at people as, as seasons or we look at them as projects and we think, I just gotta do this, meet with them, do that, do that.
[00:47:39] No people are not projects. They are part of our lives. So I want people to know that he had a passion for people that, that he loved people. And then thirdly, I want people to know that he took risks, that he stepped out of the boat, that he lived on the edge of safety, because we're not gonna do something great in this world if we play it safe.
[00:48:00] I don't want my sons to look at me and say, oh man, he, he was a good person, or He did some great things. Now I want people to look at my life and said, man, he really tried some things that I thought were crazy, man. He really came up with some things. His vision was beyond what we expected. I think to truly leave a great legacy, you have to do something you've never thought you could do before.
[00:48:19] If you always do what you've always done, you're only gonna be where you've always been. And I think to truly be great, we have to be willing. To new, to do new things. And so I think now what I'm doing now, I think pastoring people, fathering people, it's always gonna benefit my life. But in this next season of my life, these next 20 years, I wanna start fathering people.
[00:48:39] I wanna start fathering sons and daughters. I want to give my life to them so that they can go further than I could ever go. You know, I, I love looking at the ministry of Jesus and his life, and there's one story in the Bible. Where disciples come back and they've cast out demons. They've, they've done amazing things, and they come back.
[00:48:56] They're like, Jesus, they're like, even, even the, even the demons are subject to us. Jesus says something so profound, and I think it defines us as Christians. He says, do not rejoice. The serpents and scorpions are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In other words, don't rejoice in what you can do for me.
[00:49:17] Rejoice in who you are because of me. That's what I want my life to be. I want my life to be about rejoicing and who I am in Him, and I think that's what will change our churches, that that's what will change our leadership styles. That's what will change our world. When we can keep Jesus as the focus. He's why we live and He's who changes people's souls.
[00:49:43] Steve Gatena: Thank you for listening to Pray.com's Relentless Hope podcast. I'm your host, Steve Gatena, and I'm here to help you love your life, lead with purpose, and leave a legacy of helping others. If you enjoyed this episode of Pray.com's Relentless Hope podcast, be sure to share it with someone in your life. You never know the impact you can make on someone's.
[00:50:09] By sharing one piece of inspiring content. Until next time, always remember to give hope a voice.
Surviving Cancer at 21 years old - Billy Heather
[00:00:00] Steve Gatena: Welcome to Pray.com's Relentless Hope, a podcast that'll help you love your life, lead with purpose, and leave a legacy of helping others. I'm your host, Steve Gatena. Let's get started with today's episode of Relentless Hope.
[00:00:23] In 2012. Billy Heather, a valet parking employee was called into the doctor's office to review his CAT scans after having excruciating back pain.
[00:00:36] Billy Heather: And I remember sitting there. Across the table from this doctor, this little crammed up room in North Hollywood. And, uh, he was shuffling through papers and you could tell that he had so many other things going on.
[00:00:48] And I'm sitting there waiting for him to tell me, what do I ha, just tell me what the news is. Like what's the deal? I, I got stuff to do today. And, uh, it was that day, I'll never forget it, in 2012, uh, that I was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer. I was 21 years old. The doctor looked across and said, Mr.
[00:01:05] Heather, um, I don't know how to tell you this, but you have cancer. And like, there's those moments in life when you hear that kind of news that you just, you don't know what to do. You just go into shock. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. This doctor looked at me and he says, if you would've came a few years earlier, we might have been able to save you.
[00:01:32] Steve Gatena: In part one of this three part series on Relentless Hope, we hear about the life of Billy Heather, the youth and young adult pastor at Destiny Church in Indio, California. He explains how he was able to get right with God and how God developed his life from drug abuse to rave parties to getting stage four testicular cancer.
[00:01:59] This is Pastor Billy's life.
[00:02:09] Billy Heather: My name is Billy Heather. I'm, uh, 28 years old. I live in Palm Springs, California, and I have the privilege and the honor of being a part of Destiny Church. Uh, I'm the youth and young adult pastor out here in the Palm Springs area. My pastor, pastor Obed Martinez and Pastor Lizette Martinez started our church 14 years ago.
[00:02:30] And I've been a part of this movement for six years now and uh, it has been incredible. Um, I grew up in church when I was a kid, I was used to going to church. My parents would wake me up in the morning from the time I was three till I was about 10. Church was just a part of what we did. I remember. Going to youth camps.
[00:02:52] Remember singing in the choir when I was a kid, uh, had one Sunday where I even got to play the organ. And it was a real organ, y'all. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like the keyboard sounding organ, but uh, church was always just a part of something I did. It was just. A box that I would check off as a kid.
[00:03:10] My family went just because that's just what you did. And, uh, so it was just something I just, I, I grew up in, I, I hear a lot of people say that they grow up in church, um, learning as I get older that there's a difference between growing up in church and, and growing up in Christ, growing up in who Jesus is.
[00:03:28] And so, uh, when I was 12, my parents. Went through a terrible divorce. They had a very dysfunctional relationship. Um, I remember nights when I was a kid sitting there with my sister holding each other, as our parents would argue. Uh, my mom. I had a very abusive behavior and, uh, she was a drug addict. She struggled with alcohol.
[00:03:50] My dad would always work. It was just a really unhealthy relationship. And so when I was 12, my parents split up and um, that was all that I knew about church. From that moment on, I made a decision I would never go to church again. And I had seen people going to church, my parents went to church, but then they would come home and treat people the way they did.
[00:04:09] And so, It was just something was fake to me. And so when I got into high school, uh, God was out of the equation. He was never a part of my life. And remember going through high school, just kind of like a normal high school kid, wasn't popular, wasn't trying to party or do nothing crazy. Uh, but when I was 16, I really got heavily involved with drugs, started using marijuana regularly.
[00:04:32] Um, from there, moved on to some more heavier stuff. Uh, was using cocaine for a couple years after high school. Um, from the time I was 18 to 21, I had a big, big ecstasy problem. As a kid, I, I just remember going to raves, going to concerts, going to all these places. I would go to try to escape, uh, things that I didn't want to deal with.
[00:04:55] Especially these raves. I mean, I'm, I'm sure you're aware of what some of these festivals are like. I mean, I was one of those kids that would be counting down the time until the rave would come and used to dress up, used to do ecstasy, would go out into these environments and was just trying to do whatever I could do to fill some sort of void in my life.
[00:05:14] I remember one night in particular, I was in San Bernardino, I was at a rave and, um, Just remember taking some bad pills and remember just sitting there on the, on the floor of the dance floor. Everyone around me was dancing and I literally was miserable. I was upset. I, I was struggling. I couldn't breathe.
[00:05:32] It was almost as if I was so close to what I thought was happiness. But yet, so far from it, and I'm, I'm learning this more and more today about following Jesus, that Jesus never wants us to escape reality. Uh, he comes to be with us so we can conquer reality. But as a teenager, all I knew was escapism. I just wanted to get away from stuff.
[00:05:53] And so when I was 21, I was living in, in Hollywood, um, was doing valet parking. I did that for like six years and just kept trying to find what I was looking for. I was doing drugs, I was dating different women. I was just doing all kinds of stuff and I never forget one day I was at work and, uh, was,
[00:06:14] parking cars. The Burbank Marriott was parking cars and just had this terrible pain in my lower back. It was like this gnarly pain I had and, and I'll never forget that as long as I live. It was like this pulsating pain, like it was just so bad. After about a week of just dealing with it, I finally went to the doctors and I remember sitting there with a doctor, uh, on Van Nuys Boulevard in North Hollywood, was just sitting there talking to him.
[00:06:38] and he told me that something was wrong. He said, it doesn't make sense that that pain would be there. We wanna run a couple tests. And they ran some tests and I came back a few days later and they told me that there was a tumor, um, not in my back that they noticed, but in another area of my body. And so they had that.
[00:06:54] They removed that tumor from me. And, and again, I'm 21. I smoke weed every day. It was just another, another thing that I was supposed to do. I was just like, ah, I'm going to the doctor, not a big deal. And so I had this surgery and they removed this tumor from my body. And then, uh, I went back two weeks later to get a CAT scan.
[00:07:10] And I remember sitting there. Across the table from this doctor, this little crammed up room in North Hollywood. And, uh, he was shuffling through papers and you could tell that he had so many other things going on. And I'm sitting there waiting for him to tell me, what do I ha, just tell me what the news is.
[00:07:26] Like, what's the deal? I, I got stuff to do today. And, uh, it was that day. I'll never forget it, in 2012, uh, that I was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer and I was 21 years old. The doctor looked across and said, Mr. Heather, um, I don't know how to tell you this, but you have cancer. And like, there's those moments in life when you hear that kind of news that you just, you don't know what to do.
[00:07:51] You just go into shock. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. This doctor looked at me and he says, if you would've came a few years earlier, we might have been able to save you. Now when you're 21 years old and you live in the kind of lifestyle I live, you're wondering what kind of doctor tells that to a patient.
[00:08:13] I mean, to this, I'm still like, I cannot believe that he would say that, but I think about that today. If you would've came a few years earlier. We would've been able to save you if you would've came when this problem first happened. If you would've came when these symptoms first appeared, you might have had a better shot or a better chance of living.
[00:08:38] Um, I left that office. I called my dad. I was riding the bus home, and I just cried. and it was the first time that I really experienced, I think, true brokenness. Um, I had gone through all the ups and downs of, of partying and doing drugs and all that stuff, but that wasn't brokenness. That was just a facade.
[00:08:55] And I remember calling my dad and, and um, you know, we made the decision that I was gonna move back to the Palm Springs area. And so I moved back to the Palm Springs area and the first thing I did in 2012 is I went to church the first Sunday of 2012. I went to church and I went to Destiny Church. I heard about this pastor, pastor Obed.
[00:09:13] Uh, people had always talked about how he preached and, and so I remember going and I sat in about the middle section of the middle, middle row of the section there in the church. And when the time came, at the end of his message, he asked, if you wanna receive Jesus, I want you to come down to these altars and your life is gonna change.
[00:09:31] And I said, you know what? If I'm gonna die, I might as well get right with God. And I talked to people today and, and, and, and I know it sounds crazy, but people all the time are like, you know, you only come to Jesus as a crutch or you only come to Jesus because you don't know how to deal with stuff on your own, and it's a hundred percent true.
[00:09:51] The moment that I said yes to Jesus was when I realized I cannot do this on my own. And I, I, I, I'm, I'm going to die and I do not wanna die alone. And I went to the front. I received Jesus that day. Next Sunday, they were doing baptisms. I got baptized and uh, I started my chemotherapy treatments that same year.
[00:10:12] And I remember going into chemotherapy just wondering like, okay, what's this gonna be like? What's the point of this if I'm already dead? If you're telling me it's already too late, why am I even going through this? And I sat in the chemo room five days a week. I would do eight hour sessions because I was so young, they were able to do a more intense regimen of chemo.
[00:10:34] And so I'd be sitting in a room with people that were four times my age, would be sitting in a room with people that were only there for 30 minutes a day. And here I am for eight hours a day. And uh, after about two weeks of chemotherapy, I lost my hair, lost my eyebrows. Any kind of reproducing cells in my body began to die, began to waste away, and the entire time I'm going through chemo, I'm, I'm going to church.
[00:10:58] And remember, I, I didn't want anything to do with church. I had no. No understanding of church. I didn't understand God. I, I, I, I, I believed that he gave me cancer. I believed that he was mad at me. And to this day, I tell people, man, God doesn't do things to you that aren't of his, his nature, but he does allow things to get you in the right place.
[00:11:20] And sometimes he has to allow things to get our minds focused and our hearts back onto what really matters. And that was a pivotal moment for me. You know, to sit there in a chemotherapy room and then go to church the same night. It was a pivotal moment for me to try to understand Jesus. While I literally was upset and disappointed, um, in myself, I was frustrated.
[00:11:42] I was angry, and all the while people are telling me God is good. God is good. I remember going to church every Sunday. People would lay hands on me. They would say, oh, your cancer's leaving your body. You're healed. You're healed. Then I would go to the doctor on Monday and find out my cancer was still there and I had to
[00:12:00] start chemo again. And I think, I think that was a huge moment for me. You know, I'm only 28 now, but, um, seven years ago, this moment in my life when I was going through chemo, when I was literally facing death, it matured me in a way that not a lot of other things can, and I just kept going to church. I kept being around people.
[00:12:21] Um, literally I was known as just the cancer kid in church. I was balded. I had no eyebrows. People would just pray for me every single week. And, uh, after about eight months of chemotherapy, I did 39 sessions. 39 sessions of chemotherapy, eight hour sessions, and my body was down to 120 pounds. Was unable to eat, was just wasting away.
[00:12:42] After my 39th session, they scheduled surgery and they removed all the chemo, uh, all the chemo infiltrated areas, any, anything that had been killed by that chemotherapy. They removed all that. And three months after that surgery, I found out September 11th, 2012, that that cancer was outta my body and I was officially in remission.
[00:13:03] And that, that really set up where I am today. Um, obviously I say this in a delicate way and, and it's, it's, it sounds odd, but I always tell people. Getting cancer was the greatest thing that ever happened to me because it put things into perspective. You know, we all know stories in the Bible where people go through things and, and I'm sure that now that thousands of years have gone by, we're like, wow, that makes sense.
[00:13:29] Uh, but when you're in the middle of it, you don't know why you're going through it. It's often after God brings you out of the storm that you realize why you were in the storm and... today I can just see life so much more clearly. I think God's given me a better perspective on what it means to be a son and what it means to be a brother on what it means to be a human being.
[00:13:51] Um, I think that. Things are more important in my life now. You know, when you're faced with death, you start to realize what really matters in life. And you start to realize, man, family matters. People, uh, that you once kind of got annoyed with people that you really didn't pay a lot of attention to cus they were always there.
[00:14:09] Uh, when you go through something like that, you realize like, wow, family really does matter. Uh, faith matters. My God. I mean, I, I trip out sometimes because when I was a kid going to church, The scriptures never changed. The same scripture that I believe today. The same stories in the Bible that have grounded my faith as an adult.
[00:14:31] They were the same words back when I was 10 years old. But it's almost as if you have to go through some sort of crushing to recognize and realize what was before you the entire time. And I think about moments in chemotherapy. Man, I remember one time just sitting there, I had a needle in my arm and, and I was just sitting there with my headphones on and.
[00:14:51] There was this older, uh, Hispanic man that came in, was getting treatment next to me. He didn't speak any English and all I could, all I could do was just, just kind of sit there. I couldn't talk with him, and he pulled a book out of his bag and it said Santa Biblia, and that tells you how good my Spanish is.
[00:15:07] Santa Biblia, I, I don't even know. Uh, but he pulled this book out and I knew it was a Bible and I just saw him reading his Bible and he would look up and just smile at me. And it was almost as if like I was starting to realize why the scriptures are the way they are. They're not just great quotes that we're supposed to put on our social media timelines.
[00:15:28] The Bible is not just something we put on our resume. Like, yeah, I know a bunch of scriptures, but it's literally a rock that we hold onto when we are in the darkest moments of our life. And I, I just remember sitting there being hopeless and the only thing I could do was just keep holding onto that book, keep holding onto these words that at one point had no meaning in my life.
[00:15:52] Uh, but sometimes the most difficult seasons produce the greatest things in our lives, and I just, I just started to recognize like, man, that's, that's who, that's when Jesus really met me was in that dark place, was in that I'm about to face death kind of moment. And I would say that's the most difficult thing that's ever happened to me was going through that.
[00:16:15] I mean, today I'm, well, I just got outta remission last year. It's been five years now that I've been cancer free. But those moments produce something in me that really set up for what God is doing now. And, uh, I, I got, I got saved when I had cancer, a year after I got saved. I, I, I, I just started volunteering in our church and just started doing whatever they needed me to do.
[00:16:38] And then, um, it was in 2013, about a year and a half after I'd got diagnosed, and then I started asking questions about our youth ministry. I was asking my pastor, I was asking some of the staff, I'm like, Hey, what's up with all these kids here? What are they all doing? And after about three or four questions they told me, they said, you are gonna start leading these kids.
[00:16:56] And I was like, well, what do you mean? And they're like, you're gonna preach a sermon every week. And I'm like. What's a sermon? And so a year and a half after being saved, I found myself trying to put together messages that would help young people. And uh, we started our youth ministry with seven kids. We just pumped it out every week, about two years, it grew to 30.
[00:17:17] And then, uh, it was about in the third year of our youth ministry that we just saw incredible growth. And today it's just hundreds and hundreds of students on a regular basis that we get the opportunity to minister to. but back when I was going through that cancer season, I never saw what God had. Now, back when I was stuck in the middle of that, that, that, that difficult time in my life, I never thought I would be sitting here today recording a podcast for Pray.com.
[00:17:46] I mean, it's almost as if like, it's, it's, it's, it's almost funny that we, we, we think that our problems are the end of our lives, and I understand it's the only thing we can see in that moment. But I just believe it's like I never would've predicted this. And uh, I think when I look at my life now, I never would've predicted being a pastor.
[00:18:05] I never would've predicted being an author. I never would've predicted putting on a youth conference in Palm Springs, one of the least likely places to see a move of God. Like I never would've expected this. It would've been impossible. And today I talk to a lot of people. They're like, I'm called to ministry.
[00:18:21] I'm called to preach. I'm called to be a pastor. And I often. Go back to my experience and I never felt like I wanted to be a pastor. I never felt like this is what I wanna do with my life. Um, it was almost as if God just took me and put me there. And I think it's the moments, you know, like that, that really determine our faith.
[00:18:41] We can put ourselves somewhere for a moment, but when God puts you somewhere. Uh, he has a plan to develop your life, and that's kind of how my life has become what it is today. I've been married three and a half years to my wife. She's a worship lead at our church. True story. When my wife met me, it was the last, uh, last service I went to before I had my final surgery for chemo, uh, for cancer.
[00:19:04] And so my wife's a worship leader, so like I'm there in church worshiping and she's on the stage every week. So it's like hard to focus on Jesus when a beautiful woman is worshiping on the stage. I mean, at least the woman you're supposed to marry. But, uh, I remember she got off the stage and, and she came up to me and she said, Hey, I wanna let you know I've been praying for you.
[00:19:22] And I was like, what do you mean you've been praying for me? She's like, yeah, we all know that you have cancer and I know your surgery's tomorrow and I just wanna let you know I'm praying for you. And, and I thought it was the coolest thing. And again, I, I'd been a Christian for like eight months. I didn't know that people actually cared about each other like that.
[00:19:37] I thought that was just what we did. Um, And so I went to surgery the next day. It was a 12 hour procedure. My dad wakes me up from my surgery and he says, there's a girl here from church to pray for you. And, uh, sure enough, here comes my wife, Randy. And the rest was history. But just to see, you know, those moments develop things in your life.
[00:19:57] There's nothing truly like it. I look back today and, and I just think, man like , this is, this is the story that reinvigorates my life. You know, when I go through, through seasons of up and ups and downs in leadership, when things start to get mundane or start to feel bored with my routine, I start to feel like, okay, I'm just going through things.
[00:20:16] I have to remember what God saved me from. And I believe my pastor always says, it's not what God saved you from. It's what he saved you for. And sometimes we get so confused by what he saved us for, because I think we forget what he saved us from. I think sometimes we get caught up and we think, well, this is who I am now, so I, I gotta figure this out.
[00:20:35] But the reality is God did it before and so he's gonna do it again. And I believe that's what the gospel is. It's the good news about what Jesus has done. It's not the steps that we need to take before it's the announcement of what he's done. And that's the message that's defined my life. That's what's really changed me.
[00:20:54] Um, as a younger person. That was my defining moment. You know, 21 years of being on this earth, doing drugs, looking for love, doing all the crazy things that I thought were gonna bring me life. The defining moment was when I sat across the table from that doctor and he told me that I was going to die. Sometimes it's not until you realize you're going to die, that you start to learn how to really live, and that is really what my life has become because of it.
[00:21:24] When Jesus isn't just in the church world, when Jesus isn't just a part of my Sunday morning experience, when he's a part of my life, every single moment, that's when people really tap into who he is. And I think that's when you really develop followers, when they see your values, when they see who you
[00:21:43] are.
[00:21:44] Billy Heather: And, uh, for us here in our youth ministry, that's how we cultivate a healthy environment. We keep Jesus on the forefront. We keep Jesus as the main thing, and we never apologize for telling the gospel every single time.
[00:22:02] Steve Gatena: In part two of this three part series on Relentless Hope, pastor Billy Heather talks about the genuineness of disciple. Following Jesus and invigorating your faith. Leadership is about what has been done for others. Pastor Billy explains how to be truly great in leadership by doing the little things first.
[00:22:35] Billy Heather: So today, um, my role and responsibility at our church is I'm the youth and young adult pastor. I oversee, uh, youth ministry on all of our campuses. Uh, that's our junior high ministry, our high school ministry. As well as our young adult ministry. And one of the things that I've really learned over these years, just following my pastor, pastor Obed, learning from him staying close to him, is that you'll never truly lead a movement until you understand what it's like to be a part of that movement.
[00:23:04] And, um, I love seeing revival happen in our students. I love getting reports of young people praying for people at their school. I love hearing about people getting healed in hospitals because kids have faith just to pray. And, um, I feel like the Lord has done so much in my heart as I lead young people, but I can't lead them if I don't know where we're going.
[00:23:26] And so countless times God challenges my beliefs about what it means to disciple people. I truly believe that discipleship is not just, Hey, you, come, follow me. I think discipleship is let me open up my life and invite somebody in to watch. I want my disciples, I want the people that I'm raising up to see the real me.
[00:23:49] You know, I want us to be at the coffee shop, and if the Lord prompts me to pray for somebody, I want it to be genuine enough that I'm not doing it just to show them, Hey, look at me. I know how to pray for people, but I want it to be genuine enough that they, it matches my life. Um, I, I really believe that this is how you create a great environment of discipleship, is you set an example and you lead the way.
[00:24:10] Um, not too long ago, I was out here in Palm Springs. I was at the, I was at a coffee shop on the strip, and I love coffee. I mean, I probably drink too much of it, but I just believe it's like, From the Lord. I believe heaven is gonna have some amazing coffee. But uh, I was drinking coffee downtown and it was just a weird, windy day here in the desert.
[00:24:30] And I remember going outside and I saw this man across the street. He was barefoot. He was wearing a wife beater shirt. He was on like a tank top shirt and he was just dragging a suitcase. And I remember looking at him and, and I just walked in my car and I got in my car and I opened up Twitter and I saw a tweet that said it's foolish to pray for somebody to be warm without being willing to give them a jacket.
[00:24:51] and uh, it was cold that day in Palm Springs, which is like crazy. But that tweet convicted me and I thought about that man, and I was like, whatever. So I started driving and I'm just kind of fighting the idea of like, nah, I'm not gonna go up to this guy. What if you think something crazy or something like that.
[00:25:05] I turned in my backseat and I had a jacket in my backseat. So sure enough, I pull back around, I park on the street. This guy's like three blocks away from me. I just start walking after him. He must have saw me cuz he started walking even faster. And uh, I finally caught up to him and I'm huffing and puffing.
[00:25:20] I'm like, bro, take my jacket. I saw you, I want you to have my jacket. And uh, he's like, no thanks man. I don't need it. I was like, brother, I just walked, you know, five blocks to get here to you. Please take my jacket. And so I gave it to him and I started talking to him, asking him about his life. And he's like, why'd you bring me this jacket?
[00:25:38] And I just told him, I said, man, I follow Jesus. And I just feel, you know that we're not just supposed to say stuff, we're supposed to do stuff. And I just feel like. You know you needed this jacket. I just wanna let you know, like, here it is. And he said, oh, so you're a Christian? I say, yeah. And he says, oh, okay.
[00:25:52] I could get in a lot of trouble talking to you. I'm like, what do you mean? And he said, my whole family, we are Muslims. We worship Allah. And I'm like, oh, okay. Right on. You know? I mean, what do you tell someone in that moment? And he says, so, yeah. And I'm like, okay. Well man. Well, hey, I just wanna let you know, man, like God loves you and regardless of what you believe, I feel like he wanted me to come talk to you today.
[00:26:14] About 15 minutes go by and I could tell this man had been broken. He was just telling me about his family that walked out on him. He was just telling me about what was going on in his life and how no one seemed to care. And I just kept just telling him I care. I'm like, it's great to meet you. You're awesome.
[00:26:27] At the end of those 15 minutes, he looked at me and he says, so tell me about Jesus. And so I told him the gospel message and at the end of it he says, how do I become a follower of Jesus? And right then and there at the best Western parking lot in downtown Palm Springs. This man who at one point in his life worshiped Allah, met Jesus, like met the real Jesus.
[00:26:49] And I think in leadership, those are the moments that define our leadership. Leadership is not just what comes from our mouths. Like when we teach a sermon or when we do a staff meeting. Leadership. This is what I've learned working with young people too. Man, leadership is not just what I tell them.
[00:27:05] Leadership is first what I experience and what I'm willing to share with them. I want people to see leadership. I want them to experience leadership. So many times I think we get caught up in, and leadership is, is what we say. But leadership is more than what we say. It's how we live. To truly disciple somebody is to allow them to see our lives.
[00:27:27] It's to allow somebody to get a sneak peek on what really matters in our hearts. Uh, you know, I mean, people will know what we actually believe by what we actually do, and I think that that right there, like that's an extraordinary moment. Meeting a Muslim in a parking lot, leading him to Jesus. It's not just so people can say like, oh wow, pastor Billy, that's amazing.
[00:27:49] No, but it's like, look at Jesus. Look how powerful his name is. God is into using people that won't take the credit for what he does. And I just think in our community of young people, it's stories like that that invigorate people's faith. It's stories like that in our ministry, stories like that in our community that really bring people to life.
[00:28:12] You know, one of the mottos that we have in our ministry is we don't want to tell young people what to do. We want to tell them what's been done. I believe leadership is constantly looking at Jesus and reminding people of what's been done for them, because we will never get anybody to do anything until we first convince them and remind them about what was done for them.
[00:28:34] The gospel is not advice. The gospel is not a strategy. The gospel is not a self-help program. The gospel is not something that just gets our life right, so we look good. The gospel is news. It's an announcement of what was, what was done for us. And I think to truly be great in ministry, to truly be great in leadership, you can't lose sight of Jesus.
[00:28:59] It's so, it's so crazy because everything I do in my work, whether it's a meeting, whether it's filming a video, whether it's coming up with a sermon series, whether it's mopping the floor, uh, in the bathroom at our church. Everything that we do is so that someone will meet Jesus. This podcast you're listening to, whether you're a leader, whether you don't even know Jesus, you're just here because you thought it was something else.
[00:29:24] Everything we're doing is so that someone gets an opportunity to meet Jesus. So everything is for him. All the work is for him. But too many times I see people that are working for him, but don't have him involved in the work. They're not in the process. Jesus is not in the meeting. Jesus is not in the email that they send.
[00:29:43] Jesus is not a part of the conversation when they had to correct somebody. If the work is for Jesus, I think that means Jesus has to be in the work. And I just know that when, when we, when we keep that truth in our community, everyone's inspired. Everyone is ready. Everyone is focused because they realize the message that changes people's souls is not a great self-help book.
[00:30:07] It's not a great teaching. I love all that stuff. But what changes someone's soul is the message of a God that came to us. That's at least what saved me. Like when I got saved, it wasn't just because, like I felt bad for myself and I was like, I'm, you know, but there was something enticing about realizing how loved and valued I was.
[00:30:28] There was something like super captivating that, that I didn't have to work to get this love. I didn't have to go out and try to do something to get this love, but this love came and met me in a chemotherapy room when I realized that my own friends wouldn't come and sit with me cuz it was too awkward for them in chemotherapy, but Jesus would come and sit with me,
[00:30:48] it changed my whole perspective on what it means to follow Jesus. And so I truly believe, man, that the best leaders are always the best followers. They're always the ones that. keep Jesus at the forefront. And I think when it comes to leadership, that's often the difficult part of it, is keeping the main thing, the main thing.
[00:31:08] If we're honest, we get so caught up in what we do for Jesus that sometimes we forget about who we are in Jesus. You know, that's, that's a difficulty I think in all realms of leadership, is keeping your eyes on what really matters. Keeping your eyes on your values as a person, okay? Because you don't lead from vision.
[00:31:29] You don't lead from what you see ahead of you. You lead from a place of who you. vision can change. One week we're gonna do this, we're gonna raise this, we're gonna build this. But let's say a week later, that doesn't work. So that vision has to change. If I'm leading from my vision, that means my leadership is changing.
[00:31:47] But what makes a great leader is when they can lead from a place of who they are. When Jesus isn't just in the church world, when Jesus isn't just a part of my Sunday morning experience, when he's a part of my life, every single moment, that's when people really tap into who he is. And I think that's when you really develop followers, when they see your values, when they see who you are.
[00:32:11] And uh, for us. Here in our youth ministry, that's how we cultivate a healthy environment. We keep Jesus on the forefront. We keep Jesus as the main thing, and we never apologize for telling the gospel every single time. Um, you know, uh, something that really shifted my understanding of, of, of the gospel, um, was again, another encounter I had with some, some guys at the mall one day.
[00:32:37] Uh, I had been preaching for like two years already. I was a youth pastor and again, you know, our, our youth ministry was starting to grow. But when you're a youth pastor and you got like 30 kids, you know, your messages are, you're just doing whatever you can do to get them involved. And um, I remember I had been preaching, but I don't know if I was really sharing the gospel.
[00:32:56] I know that sounds weird. But I think that you can preach about God and still miss Jesus. It's, it's crazy to think like this, but I know again, in the context of young people, and I think it's the same for a lot of people today, but I don't think that people want God. I think people want Jesus. and I, I wanna be, again, careful how I say that because we know that Jesus is God.
[00:33:20] God is Jesus. I get it. And, and, and go to the Theology podcast if you wanna break that down, you know, which I'm not doing. Uh, but, but I think that God means a lot of things to a lot of people today. I think God is very generic. I think God is, it can mean anything. When you start bringing Jesus into your leadership, when you start bringing who he is into your leadership, it changes people.
[00:33:42] It changes their perspective, and sometimes it makes people uncomfortable. And so I've been preaching for two years and one day my wife. She, she had to go to the bank or something like that. And so I dropped her off at the bank. She, she was gonna be there for two hours. She was opening up some accounts, doing some things.
[00:33:55] And so while she was there, I said, Hey babe, I'm gonna drive to the mall and I'm just going read a book or something. And so I, I went outside Barnes and Noble, there's a little seating area, opened up a book and started reading. And uh, I noticed there was a man sitting next to me and you could tell that he was homeless.
[00:34:08] You could tell that, um, he had been living outside. in the desert, extremely hot, uh, pretty much all the time where I live. And so I could just tell that he, he had, he had been burned. He was just out there. He had a shopping cart, some newspaper, and I'm sitting there and I'm, I'm, I'm reading about Jesus. But yet something inside me was like, no, don't talk to him.
[00:34:30] And I think this is the test of a true leader. Uh, leaders don't just lead when everyone is watching leaders don't just lead when they have a mic in their hand. Leaders don't just lead when they have a following. Uh, leaders lead them those in those moments when no one is around. And so I'm reading about Jesus, but yet I don't feel like I should talk to this man.
[00:34:49] So after about 10 minutes of wrestling, I just looked at him. I'm like, Hey man, do you need anything? And he's like, yeah, man, I'm really hungry. And so I said, Hey, there's a food court over there. I'm gonna go get some food. I'll come back, we'll talk, you know what I mean? What do you want? He's like, I could really go for some Thai food.
[00:35:04] I'm thinking like, okay, Thai food. It is. And so I go and get Thai food. I come back and I bought two boxes of Thai food. I was, I was gonna have one with him. And so I sit down and I give him his, and I leave mine there on the table and I just start talking. Start learning about his life, how long he's been homeless, and we just have a conversation.
[00:35:20] We start talking about the Lord, start talking about life, and told him my story with cancer and just how it changed me and gave me a new perspective. And, and I was trying to, you know, show him that problems sometimes are the best things for our perspectives because they show us what matters. And as we're talking, there's this older gentleman, this white gentleman walks up and he says, oh, that looks like a good meal there.
[00:35:40] and I said, oh yeah, this is my friend. We're just sitting here talking. And so the gentleman sits down, uh, about five feet away from us, and he just starts listening in and he says, uh, what are you guys talking about? Said, I mean, we're, we're talking about God. And this is my friend Vincent. I introduced him and, and you know, they, they shook hands and, and then this man just kind of starts like looking and just starts shaking his head.
[00:36:01] And I'm like, what's going on? And he says, this is, this is just so embarrassing for me to say. And I'm like, well, what's going on? He's like, I, I've been homeless. For three days and I'm just miserable and I come in trying to get some air conditioner and here you are talking about God. And I say, wow, that's so funny you say that, sir, this is my friend here.
[00:36:18] He's been homeless and this guy Vincent starts telling this other man about his story. And this guy is like, no, this is ridiculous. I never should have got myself into this. And. and Vincent's like, man, it's not so bad. Like, I'm talking to Billy here. We, he's telling me about Jesus, like it, God is with us.
[00:36:35] And he says, yeah, right. This is, I, I haven't eaten in three days. If I could just get some food, I think I would be okay. And I looked at my other box of Thai food and I'm like, well, hey, I got an extra box of food. Do you want this food? And he goes, no, no, no, I can, this is so embarrassing for me to ask someone else for food.
[00:36:53] I should be able to get this on my own. And I sat there and I had a moment and I realized, here's two men in the same situation. One accepts the gift of this Thai food. The other one says, no, I can get this on my own. After a few minutes of conversation, he finally took the food and I got to pray with both of them, but it, it, it did something in me where my perspective about the gospel changed.
[00:37:19] My perspective about leadership change there. Sometimes we don't need to lead people to what we see in their future. Sometimes we need to lead them to, in the moment, that's right then and there. We have to show them what's going on in that moment because here's a man that that needed to be fed. But yet he wanted to work to get it himself.
[00:37:39] Here's a man that knew he was broken, but was trying to fix himself, and on the other end of the couch, there was a man that knew he was broken and accepted, the gift that was that box of Thai food. That moment right then and there, that one story changed me forever. There's a scripture in Isaiah chapter 55 where the prophet is talking about, uh, come, you know, he says, come all you who are thirsty, come and buy milk and bread and wine.
[00:38:06] Those that have no money come. And it's so funny because he says, come buy it to one group who has the money. And then he says, those that have no money still come. There's two groups of people in this world that I think we're called to reach: people that have no hope, and people that have hope in the wrong things.
[00:38:24] I think when you're truly leading people is when you're getting their hope aligned on the right thing. I think in business, when you're truly leading in an organization, you're getting their focus and their vision on what really matters. I think in personal leadership with people, whether it's discipleship, whether it's working in ministry, whether it's preaching, whatever it is, we are not really doing something until we're getting their hope back on Jesus.
[00:38:49] I think about prayer. We're not really praying until we're getting our hope and our prayer focused on Jesus. And it was that moment that changed my leadership forever. I think that's how I learned to lead those kind of ups and downs in my life. Those kind of moments where I realized like, man, this is what it's about.
[00:39:06] It's about getting people's focus. Back to where they're supposed to be, and that's my conviction today. I don't want to talk about anything unless it's about Jesus. I don't want to preach a message unless it's about Jesus. I don't want to change a plan without talking to Jesus. I think sometimes we get so focused on Jesus saving us that we forget we need Jesus to sustain us.
[00:39:28] He's our savior and our sustainer. And constantly I'm challenging those undertones, those underlying beliefs that sometimes I forget about. I'm constantly wanting to get my eyes back on him and that my friends is something that, that we need, uh, every single day when we are leading people.
[00:39:50] And I'll never forget one day just jumping up there and just standing on this bench and just started telling people about Jesus. Just started sharing the gospel message cuz I believe that's the times that really define us as people. Is, are we gonna wait until people come to us or are we gonna meet them right where they're at?
[00:40:06] And I just remember sharing the gospel and just people getting saved. And our friend was in a coma still, and just after a few more weeks of just these revival nights, he got outta the coma. And I remember just sitting there being an awe of God.
[00:40:21] Steve Gatena: And in part three of this three part series on Relentless Hope, Billy Heather talks about his experience with changing people's perspective. He doesn't want to just be a Christian, but also be a great follower of Jesus. He describes moments of focusing on what's right in front of him, sharing the gospel message and being loved by God so he can save his friends.
[00:40:55] Billy Heather: You know, today, um, I'm 28 years old and, um, People all the time tell me I have an old soul and I, I don't know whether or not to be offended or whether that's a good thing. Uh, but I, I know what they mean. I know, I know it's a good thing. But, um, you know, over just the, the few short years that I've been here on earth, um, You know, reaching people has really resonated in my heart.
[00:41:17] Not just, you know, let's get them saved. I think that's a very broad calling. Um, but I feel a strong urge to help people rediscover passion and express their passion in a way that sometimes people have never seen before. And, uh, I look at my life, I look at my story, I look at getting cancer. I look at, um, you know, raves, look at doing drugs, look at my parents' divorce.
[00:41:41] I look at the ups and downs in my life. And the cause of, of giving people hope is really what resonates in my heart. Like, uh, all I want to do is get people to realize what life is and, and how they can truly experience it. You know, there's been some times that I've been in church and, and I see our church doing things that, that, that moves my heart in such a way, um, that I'm just in awe of what God is doing.
[00:42:11] You know, uh, a couple years ago we had a, a young person in our church. He was on our, on our church leadership team. Um, we found out that he had been dealing with severe depression, and I remember sitting, talking with him, counseling him through some things, and remember him walking away from our last meeting with Smile on his face.
[00:42:28] And, uh, never forget it was two weeks later we got a call that he had tried to take his life. And when you're a leader and you realize you had a moment to shift someone's perspective and you get a call like that, it really makes you think. Um, how important every moment is. You know, it's one of the hardest lessons I've probably learned is that experience with this guy is every moment someone's in front of me, they need to be the most important thing in my life.
[00:42:53] Whether it's a 16 year old girl telling me she's now pregnant. Or a 35 year old man telling me he just cheated on his wife or a 40 year old businessman that's about to make the biggest investment of his life. Sometimes we need to just focus on who's in front of us. And, uh, that's been a lesson I've had to learn.
[00:43:09] And so we got the call that he had tried to take his life and my wife and I rushed to the hospital. We met with the family and uh, we got the news that he was gonna be in a coma for quite some time. And um, about a week later, his brother called me and he says, Hey man, uh, a couple of us are gonna go pray tonight over by the hospital.
[00:43:26] Would you be willing to, you know, Round some people up and come and I said, sure. And so I text out a few people from our team, uh, on the way to the hospital. He calls me, he says, Hey man, there's about a hundred people here. We're gonna have to go outside. And when we got to the hospital, we saw a hundred people outside of the hospital just praying, just praying, just singing, just.
[00:43:44] Just asking the Lord to do something. And so we were there for a few hours. The next night we came back again. This time we brought a guitar and someone started singing. And we're outside this hospital and just in this courtyard area, it's about a hundred of us. And we're just singing to God. We're just, we're praying, we're just asking him to do something.
[00:44:00] And we came back the next night, and this time it was about 150 people there. At this point, people in the hospital started to recognize what was going on. We had people walk out of the hospital, ask us what we were doing. Uh, we had people in the hospital that were sick. Their family members came down, asked for prayer, and then they went back up and found them healed.
[00:44:19] We had doctors that would come and get prayer from us. About two weeks into this. We had almost 300 people in the parking lot at this hospital, and I'll never forget one day just jumping up there and just standing on this bench and just started telling people about Jesus. Just started sharing the gospel message cuz I believe thats the times that really define us as people is, are we gonna wait until people come to us or are we gonna meet them right where they're at? And I just remember sharing the gospel and just people getting saved. And our friend was in a coma still, and just after a few more weeks of just these revival nights, he got outta the coma.
[00:44:52] And I remember just sitting there being in awe of God. And I think when I look at my life and I look at, you know what I'm gonna leave behind, I wanna leave moments like that behind. When I think about leaving this earth and people still being here and thinking about what my life was about, I want people to, to know that I had a passion for Jesus that was beyond any kind of plan, a passion for Jesus that was beyond the four walls of a building, a passion for Jesus that was bigger than something I could put on social media.
[00:45:26] When I leave this earth, I want people to know, like I, I was a follower of Jesus. I wasn't just a Christian. I think Christians know what Jesus did, but I think followers do what Jesus did, and that's what I want people to know about me. You know, I have the privilege of, of being under a great leader. My pastor, pastor Obed, he's more than my pastor.
[00:45:45] He's my spiritual father, you know, and, and, and I've become a son to him. I have no desire to. Do my own thing. I have no desire to go and, and become something on my own. God's placed me with that man and I look at his life and the legacy that he's gonna leave behind, and it just makes me wanna raise up sons and daughters, makes me wanna father people so that one day I can leave a legacy for them and I'm, I think about my wife, think about our life.
[00:46:13] I think about getting caught up sometimes so much in what we do that we forget about who we are. And I think personally, you know, that's what I wanna leave behind. I wanna leave a legacy of, of following Jesus. I think people in this life are so confused when it comes to church. We make following Jesus so difficult sometimes.
[00:46:34] But the reality is I want to make the gospel simple for people. I want people to understand how loved they are, how valued they are. And if I leave this earth, And let's say I leave this earth and all I can leave behind is three things. I'm not, they can't read my books, they can't read my pod, they hear my podcast.
[00:46:51] They can't listen to sermons. If someone says, who was Billy Heather? I want them first to know he was loved by God. I want people to know like, He was loved by God, not because of what he did, but because of what Jesus has done. I want people to know he is valued by God because of who he is in Christ, not because of what he can construct or build, not because of how clever or how brilliant people thought he was.
[00:47:14] Who cares about that stuff? I want people to go. He truly loved God. The second thing I would want them to know is I would want them to know is that he had a passion for people like we today have to make people our priority. People make problems, but people are not problems. I think too often we look at people as, as seasons or we look at them as projects and we think, I just gotta do this, meet with them, do that, do that.
[00:47:39] No people are not projects. They are part of our lives. So I want people to know that he had a passion for people that, that he loved people. And then thirdly, I want people to know that he took risks, that he stepped out of the boat, that he lived on the edge of safety, because we're not gonna do something great in this world if we play it safe.
[00:48:00] I don't want my sons to look at me and say, oh man, he, he was a good person, or He did some great things. Now I want people to look at my life and said, man, he really tried some things that I thought were crazy, man. He really came up with some things. His vision was beyond what we expected. I think to truly leave a great legacy, you have to do something you've never thought you could do before.
[00:48:19] If you always do what you've always done, you're only gonna be where you've always been. And I think to truly be great, we have to be willing. To new, to do new things. And so I think now what I'm doing now, I think pastoring people, fathering people, it's always gonna benefit my life. But in this next season of my life, these next 20 years, I wanna start fathering people.
[00:48:39] I wanna start fathering sons and daughters. I want to give my life to them so that they can go further than I could ever go. You know, I, I love looking at the ministry of Jesus and his life, and there's one story in the Bible. Where disciples come back and they've cast out demons. They've, they've done amazing things, and they come back.
[00:48:56] They're like, Jesus, they're like, even, even the, even the demons are subject to us. Jesus says something so profound, and I think it defines us as Christians. He says, do not rejoice. The serpents and scorpions are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In other words, don't rejoice in what you can do for me.
[00:49:17] Rejoice in who you are because of me. That's what I want my life to be. I want my life to be about rejoicing and who I am in Him, and I think that's what will change our churches, that that's what will change our leadership styles. That's what will change our world. When we can keep Jesus as the focus. He's why we live and He's who changes people's souls.
[00:49:43] Steve Gatena: Thank you for listening to Pray.com's Relentless Hope podcast. I'm your host, Steve Gatena, and I'm here to help you love your life, lead with purpose, and leave a legacy of helping others. If you enjoyed this episode of Pray.com's Relentless Hope podcast, be sure to share it with someone in your life. You never know the impact you can make on someone's.
[00:50:09] By sharing one piece of inspiring content. Until next time, always remember to give hope a voice.
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