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Bold Legacy: Relationship Resiliency | Kevin Schroeder

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Kevin shares how his marriage was on the brink of disaster was rebuilt through repentance, daily habits, and a hope that doesn’t expire. From the Marine Corps to patrol nights to the pulpit, the throughline is a legacy shaped by Scripture, prayer, and people who tell the truth.

• childhood chaos and the “rucksack” we carry
• meeting Rachel and discovering active faith
• early marriage under deployment and distrust
• policing as identity and the slow compromise
• the affair, collapse, and Rachel’s “pray dirty”
• the fatal crash that forced a reckoning
• repentance, return, and rebuilding from zero
• the Four B’s for a durable life and marriage
• corner men, accountability, and honest friendship
• don’t quit on the same day as a practice
• legacy as finishing well, not starting perfect
• hope that does not expire, anchored in Scripture

SPEAKER_03:

My name is Kevin Schroeder. I'm here with my wife Rachel. She'll be sitting up here in a second. Just to tell you a little bit about us. Me and Rachel were high school sweethearts on December 29th, 2025. We just completed uh 35 years of marriage. So praise God for that. I might bust out in Spanish every now and then. I preach in a Spanish-speaking church. It's a bilingual church in uh in uh Brazoria, Texas, Primera Iglesia Bautista de Brasoria. Yo soy un gringo, un guarro cacahuatero. But you know, I'm in uh I'm in Cuba. I'm I'm sorry, I'm in Florida. But when when I tell them, you know, like I was having lunch with somebody, a local, and they're like, yeah, I'm in Miami. They're like, no, you're not in Miami, somebody lied to you. Right? So when I'm here, like I feel like inside uh the Latino uh that's inside me, I have to speak in Spanish. But I have to be careful because sometimes I tell our story in Spanish, and I have to be very careful when I say we've been married for 35 years, because there's some Spanish words that are very similar.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, 35 announcements not cansados, but my sposa is with me, you think we're but uh anyway, uh we have 35 years of marriage.

SPEAKER_03:

Our oldest son, Matthew, uh, just turned 34. Um, and uh we live in Texas in the Houston area. I'm a retired police officer, 21 years in the Houston area, retired in 2018, started working for Mighty Oaks full time. Uh prior to that, uh just uh uh a few months after we graduated high school, that's when we met. Uh, I joined the United States Marine Corps. I was in the Marine Corps for four years, did one combat deployment, Desert Storm, and then when I got out of the Marine Corps, that's when I became a police officer. Um so we have older son Matthew, he's married to Tori, and uh they have two kids, two grandkids we have. Uh Levi is seven, and Maisie's about to be six. She is six, okay. I'm glad my wife's here. Um and our daughter Kirsten, she is 28 seven. Yeah. Super glad my wife's here. Um she is married to a Houston police officer, um, and uh they've been married for almost four years. And uh they have a daughter. Her name is Scotty Brooks, she's our youngest granddaughter, she's a year and a half, and then our youngest son, he is 22, and uh he is in the Marine Corps, uh currently on the USS Cwajima, and uh that's very close to here. They've been uh doing business uh in the Caribbean between here and Venezuela, so he's been a part of that, and uh fortunately right now he's in Puerto Rico on land, so we've had opportunities to talk to him, to FaceTime with him, so that's been great. Um so anyway, that's kind of us in a nutshell. Um, it looks pretty, that story sounds great, but uh I'll unpack of what some of that looks like. You know, I left out a signature way from a divorce seven years in, um and some other things. But we'll get into that. But before, you know, in case you missed the first session that Jeremy did, you know, we are here representing the Lord, obviously. Uh, but he has us working for Mighty Oaks. And um, I have to tell you, you know, having been in the Marine Corps for four years and a police officer for 21, I've tried the VA, I've gotten the prescriptions, right? I've tried um other things outside of faith, right? And uh they have a shelf life. Maybe you found that out, like something might work for a while. Uh but one one one thing or one person that does not have a shelf life, and uh that's the Lord, right? And faith. Uh faith in him, right? And uh that's kind of what we're gonna talk about. So I might chase some rabbits, but um I want to get out ahead of this uh from the front. You know, if you hear anything this morning, uh what I'd like for you to get out is is one word, hope, esperanza. Right? Because whatever you're going through right now, whether it's something that's still haunting you from your past, uh, whether it's a relationship issue right now, maybe you're so burned out, like you're just one call away from doing something bad.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_03:

Or maybe something bad happening to you. There's hope. The Bible speaks hope into every situation in life, and there is no shelf life to that, right? And um another thing, you know, because this is kind of gonna be a combination of legacy and marriage, and uh, if you're not married, uh you're gonna leave a legacy. If you're married, you're gonna leave a legacy, but your marriage will definitely leave a legacy. Matter of fact, the scriptures tell us that marriage is designed to display the gospel, right? And um I I want to finish well, I didn't start well. Um before we go back into that though, back to Mighty Oaks. Uh if you haven't uh just Google Mighty Oaks Foundation and hit the apply now. Whether you're a first responder, retired, or active duty, or veteran, fireman, paramedic, or spouse of one of those, just hit the apply now. We have a waiting list. So after this breakout, get on there and and hit the apply now. I mean, it will not cost you anything but your time. And it's five days. It's five days at what I call a five-star, all our venues are five star, right? But I mean, what can happen in five days? I can't even put into words. I can only tell you one word. Hope. But we have an aftercare program where Mighty Oak locks arms with you until you're out of the ditch. It means in five days and you still need some biblical counseling, you need some marriage counseling, or you know, we have partnered with uh other organizations like Family Life, we'll pay for you to go to marriage retreat. Once you become alumni, we will pay for a weekend remember that you can go to. So uh, you know, it could cost you so much more if you don't go, though. It really could. You know, there's a saying that we have at Mighty Oaks. You know, if what you're doing isn't working, why not do something else? This is that something else. Right? Um so uh, you know, I uh kind of our story, what I was uh kind of alluding to, you know, when I when I talk about 35 years of marriage, that you know, that sounds great, three adult kids, three grandkids, and it is great, it's a blessing. But I have to tell you, you know, our story starts when we were kids, uh, like all of us. That's where our legacies begin, right? And um early on, and I was not raised in a Christian home. I was raised by a Vietnam veteran. I didn't know what it meant to be uh Vietnam mentor as a little kid, right? Uh and so now looking back though, I understand uh just some stories about the Vietnam War and things, what my dad went went through, and maybe that's part of the reason why I was raised the way I was. So um when I was a kid from five years old to 17, I just remember chaos in the house. Alcohol, drugs, a lot of fighting. I don't want to knock my parents too bad because they are the parents that God gave me. I was not uh I was not physically abused. I had three meals a day, I had a roof over my head. I mean, these are uh the parents that God gave me for a reason. Um, you know, but I we talk about a rucksack, or I like to talk about a rucksack, especially when I'm talking about legacy. Uh, because you know, a rucksack, you know, this is a nice bag. Um, but if you you know you figure like a military rucksack, a military bag, or or maybe like a first responder, what a police officer would carry in their car, or fireman, or a paramedic, you know, it's stuff that we stuff inside that bag and we carry, right? Well, we have this rucksack of life, too. La Muchila de la vida. And uh it gets filled up, right? And uh mine started getting filled up as a kid because all this chaos in the house, uh, I didn't know what to do with that. Uh and some of that stuff would get uh would get stuffed down in my rucksack, right? And one of those was I did not know how to resolve conflict. Um because whenever when my parents fought, uh you know, the police came sometimes or somebody would have to leave. It was always my dad. Either he would just walk out or he would uh he would get kicked out. I I knew the parks in the town that we lived in because my dad was a businessman, and so he would be at one of the parks, he'd be smoking his Winston cigarettes and reading the book, and his suit would be in the in the backseat hanging up, and he would take these bird baths, right, in the in the park before work, and he'd go to to downtown to skyscraper that he worked in. And you know, on the outside it looked like man, the the Schroeder's got it all together. But they had no idea that I was looking for at a park. Which park my dad was at, so I could say hi, right? So uh I that you know, that was uh I call one of the things that ends up in our in our rucksack is a chain, right? And that chain got wrapped around me. And I took that into our marriage early on, because you know, we got married um just a few months uh uh after about six months after me being in the Marine Corps, and we had dated for two months in person, right? So yeah, I know it's crazy, right? Locos, un bueno cacahuatero, con una Latina muy bonita, uh but anyway, um you know, so uh that uh inability to resolve conflict early on, whenever I heard crying or screaming, what you would see in Kevin was me leaving. Uh matter of fact, uh when we were stationed in Camp Pounds, I got so mad one time I drove uh Rachel and her son down to San Diego Airport uh and a little TIFF that we had, and uh I charged on a credit card flight for them to go home just to drive back home on a 96 to go pick them up, right? But I was just I was this 19-year-old at the time, I was like, man, I have no idea what I'm doing. I was a I was a new believer. You know, I guess I would have to get to that. When I when I met Rachel in high school, um, you know, she came into our my second semester English class. Uh we went to the same high school for four years and never met each other until our senior year, second semester. Tell me, God doesn't know what he what he's doing, right? And uh, you know, when she walked into the English class, I'll never forget it, I feel like Rachel steals the room. Uh not just because she's beautiful, uh, but I didn't know at that time that what I saw that was resting over her was the Spirit of God.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_03:

And I didn't have that. And when you don't have that, and your life's a mess, and you're carrying around what you feel like you're stuck with, the stuff that gets starts getting stuffed in here when you're broken, right? When you believe those lies that the enemy tells you, and you see the light, it's attractive. And that's what attracted me the most to Rachel. And um, you know, uh we we started dating, and uh I, you know, I had uh my parents got divorced during this same time period, and I didn't know what I was gonna do with my life. So a Marine Corps recruiter came to career day. Uh and this is at the time that I'm gonna I'm about to meet Rachel. What's interesting about that, she comes from a strong, close-knit Hispanic family, and she wanted to be a Marine. And uh her parents uh, you know, kind of dissuaded her from that because in the, as you all know, I'm I'm speaking to the choir here in the Latino community, they're the real tight-knit, right? And um, so she's uh, you know, you but you probably shouldn't do that because we're gonna miss you, right? And uh she goes, well, I'll show them. So she went outside, she goes, I'm praying for a marine husband and a Christian. I was neither. Uh we were, you know, I was raised, you could say, Catholic, but we never went. But when we did, it was just the holidays, right? But one thing I didn't see in my house was faith in action, right? And that's important to see. So I I saw that in her family. When I dated her, I started going to church with them, and the church that we went to was Primera Iglesia Baptista de Brasoria. Her dad was the pastor of that for 42 years. That is the church where they're preaching the gospel. It said bilingual, right? We're like, oh, it's a bilingual church. Okay, well, the good, there'll be some English in there. No, wrong answer. It was all in Spanish, right? So she's got the 17-year-old white boy in this church, right? And they're preaching nothing but Spanish. But you know, the interesting thing is that uh what I saw.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_03:

I may not have understood the spark Spanish, but I tell you what, I saw. I saw uh what I would call people on a rock. You know, the Bible talks about Jesus uses a parable that uh a wise man built his house on a rock, that rock being Jesus. And that the winds and the rain and when the storm came, it blew on that house, but that house stood firm because it was founded on the rock. Right? Uh that was that was their home. Uh it was not a home without tragedy. Uh Rachel, uh, her rucksack was uh started to fill up when she was five by something a lot uh worse than what mine did. And that's something that Rachel had to hide. And if if you want to find out and talk to Rachel, uh, because these breakouts are short, but if you um want to talk to Rachel about what that was offline, uh, ladies especially, um, you know, about something dark and heavy in your life and how to navigate that, uh, Rachel can show you how you can uh how you can um overcome something that through faith in Christ, right? And that's been another testimony to me is to see Rachel walk that out. So anyway, we met and uh I signed the dotted line to be a Marine, and you know, the night before I left for boot camp, I'm like, okay, I'm 17. Uh I had to get my dad to sign for me to go to boot camp. We'd been dating for a couple months. I'm in uh this hotel, they're about to ship me off to boot camp the next day, and I was like, man, what are we gonna do? Four years apart? Like I didn't think that far forward. So I was like, I think we're ready to get married, right? So they say you shouldn't get married to your Lance Corporal, but I'm an overachiever, right? So I did it as a private first class. Uh but anyway, I called her on the phone and I'm embarrassed to tell you this. Uh, but I had given Rachel a promise ring uh for you youngins. You know, we you buy like a seven dollar ring back then, and like it's like you just make I don't know what the promise is, like, hey, we'll be we're gonna be together forever, right? And lo and behold, you know, I said, Hey, can we turn that uh that promise ring into an engagement ring? And she said, Yes. So I would go to boot camp, marine combat training, she would prepare the wedding, we I'd take leave, we'd get married, and then uh just uh we were only together a couple weeks, uh, and I got shipped off to Okinawa where I would deploy to Desert Storm and I'd be gone for a year. But when I first got to Okinawa, she said, Hey, that few weeks that we were together, uh, you left something, and it'll be here in nine months. So when I came back from uh that year of being away, I'd been married for a year and I had a three-month-old son. And I'm like, Man, this marriage stuff is easy. Right? And then uh, you know, we're in Camp Pellenton their last two years uh in the Marine Corps, and um uh all hell broke loose. Like the contents of her rucksack would start to overflow. Like why she didn't trust men. I didn't know then why she didn't, right? And uh I had stuff in my rucksack that was overflowing, stuff that I was that was even building up on the deployment and being in the Marine Corps, and uh we were just it was just it was on and off chaos, right? And I was still a fairly new believer, you know, because right before I went to boot camp, going to this church, you know, when I saw the gospel, it was it was explained to me, and I surrendered my life to Christ. And Rachel's dad baptized me the day I left for boot camp. And what's interesting, I don't know if you've connected the dots, my father-in-law, who's 83, um he started he planted this church, and uh it's the church I got saved in. He had a stroke a year ago. And they looked for they were searching for a pastor to be a pastor of that church, and that is the church that I pastor today. So I work uh full-time for Mighty Oaks and I'm a bivocational pastor of that church. It's it's bilingual um church, Spanish and English. It's a weird makeup. So uh, but anyway, you know, that chaos uh would would continue. We would we would get out of the Marine Corps and um uh move back to Texas, and then that's when I became a police officer at 20. I got out when I was 21, so a couple years after that is when I became a police officer. And um, you know, I started off in that career, you know, it that the the police job to me was there were it was militaristic, and uh I have to tell you it it was my identity, it was my new identity, and as a a new Christian with still hasn't figured out how to deal with what's inside this rucksack, um, you know, I I I I was I was struggling to connect the dots. Like, how do I walk out this faith in this profession? Um, you know, so at this time in our life, you know, uh I'm excelling in a police career, and uh Rachel and uh Matt, Matt's uh about seven, and um we now have a daughter, and she's at this time close to a year old. And uh I would start to make compromises in my faith because my identity was wrapped up in my job. And uh those two things, uh God does not want those to conflict with one another, but to intertwine. Right? And uh, you know, this next part I really don't want to share. But I was uh I was looking for a verse earlier. Revelation 12, 11 came to mind, and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives even unto death. So there's power in the testimony, right? Testimony is what the Lord does in our lives. So I was making compromises and not dealing with the stuff that was stuffed in here, and uh I um I was so I became married to the job. And uh everything else in life, faith, and family and stuff would get put on the backboard. And I was so frustrated because as a police officer, I was going to work, and they're like, Man, you would look at Kevin and be like, oh man, that guy was a Marine, you can tell because he's extra sharp in his uniform and all that, right? And and he's taken names and stuff, successful as a police officer, but you would have no idea the the wreckage that was inside here, and that was starting to spill over. You know, uh the contents of our rucksacks can spill over into our wives, right? I think it takes a special person to be a wife of a veteran, somebody in the military, or a first responder, right? But we can start to to dump that in into their lives. So uh I just, you know, I there were some warning signs in my life where where guy was trying to get my direction, uh my attention. And maybe some of you are going through that. Maybe you're in a spot right now in life where you feel like, man, it's make or break, I'm at a cross. Crossroads. And I was at a crossroads, but I wasn't listening. And then tragedy would happen. And if I can spare you from diverting yourself from the legacy that God wants you to leave and to finish your lives well and your marriages, then I'll share this story with you. I would uh enter into a relationship with another woman. And I thought the only way to overcome that would be to run. I said, there's no coming back from this, right? And I left. I walked out of my family. We were married seven years, I had a seven-year-old and a year old daughter. And uh, you know, uh when I when I pursued this path of destruction, uh, Rachel would have a different um response. Like there was at one point, we were literally signature away from divorce, and she's at church, and there's a lady that approached her and said, Hey, we have this divorce care program, you should come to that. And Rachel's like, uh-uh. She goes, I'm not walking by sight, I'm walking by faith. So if you're in a hard time right now, hey, and things look bad, and I know they do because I see some of your faces, and I've looked at that same face in the mirror, and it's got life all over it, right? Don't walk by what it looks like, because the Bible says to him who is able to do more than we can imagine or think.

SPEAKER_01:

I say it better in Spanish. El que pueda ser muchísima mas que nosotros podamos imaginarnos.

SPEAKER_03:

So um she uh coined this term called pray dirty. And um what that means is like uh if I'm gonna cheat, uh, I want the best weapon out there. And uh the best weapon is the word of God. And uh she would uh pray dirty for her. Um she would lock arms with this black lady, and uh they would pray Colossians one. So if you want to leave a legacy, if you want to fight in your legacy, if you want to fight in your marriage, and you're having a hard time and you don't have to pray, I would encourage you to pray dirty. And this is what it sounds like to pray dirty. This is some of the practical application of this breakout. Colossians 1 9. So you just whatever pronoun is in there, you just replace that. I hate saying that word these days, pronoun, right? But that's what it is in here. Uh, but you know, when it says I or him or whatever, you put that person's name. And this is what when Rachel's in the fire, when she's in the flood that's up to her neck, when she is not sure if if her marriage is going to be restored. One thing what Rachel said is that I don't I don't know that necessarily I want Kevin back, but I know that that's not the new creation in Christ that Kevin is, right? And so she prayed Colossians 1, 9 through 14. So it's sound like this. So from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for Kevin, asking that Kevin may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that Kevin would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. So do you get that? You don't even have to do it in Colossians, you can do it in any part of scripture. Maybe your life first is start praying that that's praying dirty. Because you're praying the word of God. You know what the word of God says? It will not return void. It is sent out and will accomplish what it's supposed to accomplish. Right? So um I'll tell you, a couple things happened that God would get my attention during this time that she's praying dirty. I'm pursuing this divorce, uh, I'm down in this drug avenue, you know, and there's uh uh this guy down there, and uh I stopped him on a traffic stop, and I knew he had dope on him, and he was a young kid, he's probably about, I don't know, uh 24. Anyway, he got out of the truck and uh he had these white shrimp boots on, and he's like, Man, my life's going down tubes, and uh I'm losing my business, I'm a shrimper, and uh, I'm just down here, I'm trading my catch for crack. And uh he had some traffic warrants, so I end up arresting him and towing his truck, and I had no concern for him. I mean, this is a Christian man. A Christian man that is not walking out their faith or a woman, if you're if you're not walking it out, then you're dangerous. You're a dangerous person. This is how dangerous you could be. Now, I just put him in jail and I continued on my path of destruction. I would see him a month later in the same area, this time he's walking. I didn't even get out of my car. I just rolled down my pasture window at Drug Avenues, and and uh, you know, this he's he's screaming out something that he wants to die. And uh this buddies with him says, Hey man, don't worry about him, I got him. And I wasn't. I didn't get out of my car, I just kept rolling down the street. A month later, I'd see him for the last time. I shouldn't even be at this accident. It was out in the county, but there were no county guys because it was so devastating, close, so they sent city officers. So I responded to this accident, and it's probably the worst accident I've ever been to. The debris was spread for miles. He would get his truck out of impound. The autopsy on his body would show that he was uh had over the legal limit of alcohol and cocaine. And witnesses would say that he was intentionally trying to cause a head-on collision, which he did. So when I walked to his truck, uh his engine was in the seat that he should have been in. And uh he was face down on the road, and he was dead. And uh the vehicle that he hit, uh, the 18-year-old man I pulled out of there. Uh, human body shouldn't do what his did. He should have graduated high school that year. He was dead. Outside that vehicle was an 11-year-old sister. She was face down, she had curly hair, pink pants on, purple and pink shirt, and she was dead. Uh, their mom, who was a driver of that vehicle, all of her body came out except for her head. It was pinned under their car. She would be in a coma for months, it would miss the funeral of her kids. But the worst part of that is that traffic was backed up for miles. And I'm walking down a traffic line letting people know what's going on. And I recognize it was a girl. She was the wife of one of our officers, a canine officer who I policed with. And uh, I can still see her smile almost 30 years later, now as I tell this story. And uh the officers pulled me away and they said, Hey man, that uh that boy and that girl that died in that accident, that's her brother and sister. So I have to tell you that I thought this time of my life, like strike three. You're out, there's you're going to hell, like there's no hope for you, there's no recovery from this. You're just gonna be buried under this rubble of a rucksack, right? But I I encountered hands of grace, though. You know, there's a uh the word's not in the scriptures, but the scriptures talk about it. It's called providence or sovereignty, that God is in control, right? Use words like omnipresent, omnipotent, right? He's a John Piper put it best, he's a pastor. If if a hand or if my hand represents a mass in somebody's body, and this microphone is the last ingredient to make that cancer, God is in control which way that goes. And what I found out in this time of my life is God is not depending on Kevin to prevent an accident. God wants Kevin to align his life with Philippians 3:8. Where Paul says this I consider all things loss in comparison to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Let me tell you, if you want to dig deep into your legacy, if you want to finish well, get that verse inside your bones. Deep into your soul and make Christ your treasure. When you do that, it's called aligning your life with the life that God created you to live. And you know, the scriptures talk about, as we talk about some legacy verses for me, Philippians 1, 6. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion, that he will finish it. Hey, if you have never been told this or have been told this in a long time, you might not even have a relationship with Christ. But if you're here, it's because he wants to start one with you. Because our plans aren't going to work. This damage, this destruction that I described to you, Kevin can do that all day long. But he has a purpose and a plan for us, and this is what legacy means. That not that we do, that our life looks like this and it shines on what we have done, but what God has done in our lives. So the reason why we share like 35 years of marriage and what it is today, because God has taken beauty from the ashes. You know, during this time period, uh I just felt like God was doing this work in my heart. I felt this impending doom after this accident. I felt like God was telling me, look, you're a child of God. You're not gonna live like this. Like something's about to happen if you don't change. And uh I I would I called Rachel and we got back together, moved to a different town, and that's where outside of Houston, where I retired as a police officer, and this is this is where we'd start over, aligning our lives with the life that God created us to live. And let me tell you, it was it was not easy. I'm not gonna blow smoke and tell you that if you got some work to do in your lives, in your marriage towards your legacy, it will be hard, but it will be so much better if you stay the course. And uh so I remember when we were when I started with this new agency, like I remember one night uh Rachel and I were having some words. She was pretty much like, I don't know if I can look at you. And I was like, Well, I don't I don't know if I can hear about my past anymore. How audacious of me to say something like that, right? How arrogant. And uh it was the beginning of my work week. I said, Hey, go home, go home to your parents, take the kids, this whole watch, and uh, you know, while on this whole watch. Those were almost my last words. I went to work that night and uh I was only at work for six hours, and uh I was involved in um a pretty serious situation where lots of bullets were shot from me, another officer, and a bad guy. And uh fortunately uh we did not uh take any rounds, but the uh that suspect died. But what's interesting about that call was I just kind of looking back now, I was just I just look, I'm outside looking at that guy. And I was like, man, if I would have died that night, that bullet that they said that came by my face and hit the tree, uh, my legacy would look like a broken woman that I damaged. A seven-year-old, because our kids see what's going on. Matthew at that time had asked Rachel and said, Hey, uh, can we find a new dad? And this would be the guy that would ask me to be his best man 20 years later. Uh and uh so they they see what's going on, right? And um that would that would have been my legacy, or and my our daughter at that time was one, she would have just looked pictures at me and said, Oh, that that was my dad. Right? But at that point in my life, that's when I started to make intentional decisions. There's a more practical application of this breakout, intentional decisions to make changes for me. That meant coming off night shift and start going to church with my family. We have this thing at Mighty Oaks we talk about, it's called the four B's. Uh, our plan that you'll learn at when you come to a session, it sounds so simple, uh, but it's extremely hard. Be in the Word, be in prayer, be in fellowship, and be in touch with a corner man. The word where the word of God is living. This stuff that I'm telling you, this hope right now, this this is where we get our instructions. You know, I if you don't take anything away from Kevin's words tonight or this afternoon, but from the the scriptures that I've shared. Uh being in prayer, you know, I'm talking to the choir when it comes to communication. I mean, what are some words in the first in the police in the police world? There is uh two words that will get the cavalry to come in an instant. What are those two words? Officer down. That's right. What is it in the fireworld? One word fireman down or mayday, right? That's uh right. And in, I mean, I remember uh in an officer down, I was the subject of an officer down. And when officers didn't know what's going on, they just saw blood coming from my body, and uh there was a different incident, and officer down, and I remember that night, there were there were I smelled, I smelled breaks, I smelled rubber burning. You can there's some people smiling, like, yeah, you can you can make some breaks catch on fire, right? And these guys had no idea who I were. I looked at some of these guys from other agencies in their eyes and I saw fire. Let me tell you, God, when he hears your prayers in Psalm 18, it says that our prayers go directly to his ears. If you go to Psalm 18, you'll hear that in the first few verses, and then all the way to Psalm 50, we get a depiction of God crashing through the heavens, getting to us. And then, you know, finding a local church that preaches the Bible and corner man and corner woman, these are people in your life that'll tell you the things that you need to hear. You know, there were guys at work that were telling me, it's like, hey man, are things okay in your life? And I would tell them something, they're like, Well, as long as you're happy, right? But Christian men, this is what this is what one Christian man would look at me when me and Rich were trying to get back on the path. He would look at me in the face with anger, and he'd say, You need to buckle your pants up and be a man. And the Bible talks about how to do that. And these guys, I call them that they're they're this kind of man I want to be, legacy. I want to, the cracked hands and cracked Bibles, right? Like working hands and a Bible that I live in, that I live in the Word, right? And uh they would walk me down this path, and that's what we do at Mighty Oaks, is we help uh start uh you down that path. Uh, you know, uh I'm I'm not gonna pick on them too much, but uh my brother here has been to Mighty Oaks. I was at his session. Uh another brother here in the back. I don't know who else, if anybody else has been, but um uh if in case you're like, well, that's just it's that's Kevin's a special case. Now there's there's other guys here in your area in your camp that can tell you some powerful stories as well. So uh I think we have a couple minutes left. Um, you know, and you know, as we started to walk through this path, it would take several years, but we would reach a point where Rachel would tell me, she would say, Man, if if we had to do that all over again for you to be the man that you are today, I'd do it.

SPEAKER_02:

I left out a lot of dirt. I left out a lot of dirt.

SPEAKER_03:

So the Bible is true when it says that he can do above and beyond what we imagine or think. And I don't know if you've ever been told this, or maybe you haven't been told a long time. I need to be told it because I serve a ministry and sometimes I forget. God loves you. The Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. This is how I finish a legacy class when I teach it at my because we share the gospel. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3.23 says that. Right? It gets worse, the bad news gets worse. Romans 6.23 it says, um, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. But there's some good news. Like imagine I'm standing on one side of a cliff, there's a cliff on that side, and there's this big abyss, this big muchila de la vida that's separating me from God. How do I get there? John 14, 6 says that just imagine a cross coming across that. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless they come to the Son. And Romans 8:1 is my favorite. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. On my days where I remember the past or the enemy reminds me of my past, I replace those superficial feelings with the promise of God's worth that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. So there is hope for you, for your families to leave a legacy through your individual lives, but also in your marriages. And uh I believe that marriage is is the battlefield, that some of the heaviest heat comes from the enemy. And if he can get to the leader of the home, you know, there's there's a there's a man crisis in church. The church that I pastor will seat a hundred people. But I'm lucky if there's 30 there on a Sunday. And I would say, especially so in the Hispanic culture with men, in my experience, where I live, um, there's a man crisis. And if you can keep men out of church, I wonder how many generations of kids we're talking about legacy here, that we can keep out of the church, right? Before we close, uh Rachel, do you have any input that you would like to add?

SPEAKER_00:

We have something that we call don't quit on the same day. Sometimes when uh I see that Kevin is struggling, it's my turn just to just buckle up and and help and support him. And when he sees me on the ground not wanting to move on and and struggling, it's his turn to just be the man that God created him to be and to help me be able to navigate through the things that I need to navigate through and help me out. So uh don't quit on the same day.

SPEAKER_03:

Also push your back up against mine. You know, the man is supposed to be the leader, the head, that's what the Bible talks about. And it says that the wife is a helper. And sometimes we like we like we look at a helper as somebody insignificant, but if you look at the original translation of that word, uh it is somebody that holds you accountable. She helps in the battle, she helps in the decision. Rachel sees things in our relationship in life. I can't. I don't see what she sees right now. I need her. She's not the enemy. Tell your wife tonight she needs to hear it. Look at her in the face and tell her you're not the enemy. And uh, you know, the person that's looking back on you in the mirror, he's not the enemy, or she's not the enemy either. You're a creation of God. He has you here for a reason. He wants you to leave a Philippians 1-6 legacy. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. So that when you're gone and 20 years from now, and your kids are drinking Cuban coffee and getting all gacked up on it like Jeremy was, and I've been on it so far. We're we might have an addiction going. I saw there's a kit out there that you can buy and take. So I don't know if I can buy one here. They said they'll mail it for free, but I'm thinking, well, the quicker I get that, the better. But um You know, then they'll be talking about the things of the Lord because there's power in the testimony and the blood that purchased that testimony. So we're gonna be here uh until this is over today. We have one more breakout in here after lunch. I know there's some other breakouts, but we just want to encourage you to lean into that relationship with him. If you do not have a relationship with Christ, talk to your pastor or me or somebody here. Don't wait. Surrender your life to him and say, God, I can't do this. I turn from my sin. You know, the Bible talks about a word called repentance, and it means to turn, to change direction. Like Kevin's down this path of destruction, everything that I explained, that chaos. And repenting is turning from that and aligning my life with the life that God created me to live, believing in him, trusting in him, and walking that out in every area of my life. This is a sword. This is the Bible calls this the sword of the spirit. I I forgot my gun when I was a rookie. I I uh I was gonna start the police agency, and I was like, you know, I'm a Marine. What do these guys got on me, right? I got all dressed up in this uniform looking nice and I'm going to work. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna stop by my karate instructor from when I was a kid and I'm gonna show him. Look at me, the guy you used to mop the floors with. Yeah. I was like, look at this guy, and I show up there and I go in front of him and I look at him, and he is not impressed. He looks down at my holster and he says, They don't let you carry a gun. I was like, and I was like, my gosh, what a blessing that I came to him first. Because if I would have gone to work, I would still be hearing whatever nickname they were gonna coin me with, right? Cops come up with the best nicknames and you never outlive it, right? But you know what? We're in a battlefield. Anything that you've seen or done on the streets of the United States of America or in a foreign country pales in comparison to spiritual warfare.

SPEAKER_01:

And God has created us to be more than conquerors, nosotros somos que vencedores in Cristo. Él es el Todo Poderoso.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna end this session in prayer, okay? Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be here uh this morning uh to talk about legacy, to talk about marriage, to talk about you. Lord, you know the hearts of each person that's in here today. Maybe uh they're a believer that's strong in their faith and have no idea uh the struggles that's coming. Lord, would you prepare their hearts, their marriages, uh, man or woman in here? We were all created for a purpose and a plan to bring glory and honor to you. And I pray for those people as they continue and leave lasting legacies in their marriage, in their individual lives. Uh, Lord, perhaps there's some Christians in here that are struggling and they've been on the struggle bus for a long time. Lord, would you do a work as seeds are planted today and from last night in their lives to draw them out of whatever pit they might be in and just make yourself known to them in a special way. And Lord, for those that don't know you, that are struggling, that have no idea what faith in you means, Lord, would you would you guard, would you guide their hearts as they surrender to you? Lord, we commit our way to you as as flawed, sinful men and women who need you. Lord, we cling to the promise that you can do above and beyond what we imagine or think. That I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

SPEAKER_01:

Lord, help us to be the men and women that you created us to be in all areas of life. Señor, gracias por lo que has hecho in nuestras vidas, por tu amor, tu bondad, tu gracia. Ayuda, Señor, a put in practica lo que dice tu palabra matrimonio, the ligado, que nosotros seamos hombres anders valientes, los hombres anders que tú quieres que seamos, Señor, por tu honor anda gracias, Senhor, por lo que has hecho y por lo que harás. Amen.