Podcast Summary: The Daily Blade with Joby Martin & Kyle Thompson

Episode: #260 - Joby Martin // If Shepherds Made The Cut, So Do You
Date: December 30, 2025

Overview

In this heartfelt devotional episode, "If Shepherds Made The Cut, So Do You," Pastor Joby Martin focuses on how God uses seemingly insignificant and overlooked people—like the shepherds in Luke 2—to carry out His divine purposes. Through personal anecdotes, scriptural insight, and encouraging exhortation, Joby dismantles misconceptions about who is “qualified” in God’s kingdom, urging listeners to embrace their value and potential in Christ, regardless of their background.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. God’s Unexpected Choices – The Shepherds as an Example

[00:20–01:50]

• Joby Martin revisits Luke 2:8, where the angelic announcement of Jesus’s birth goes first to shepherds, not to kings or societal elites.
• He challenges sanitized, Western depictions of shepherds in Christian art:

  “It was a humbling thing for God himself in Psalm 23 to say that he is our shepherd… Shepherds in the first century were not wise old men… They owned nothing.” — Joby Martin [00:38]

• Shepherds’ low social status outlined: young, poor, itinerant, with unreliable reputations. Their testimony was inadmissible in court; some were essentially indentured servants.
• The birth announcement’s recipients underscore God’s pattern of choosing the “nobodies, the B team, the JVs, the overlooked, the left outs.”

2. God’s Pattern in Choosing Disciples

[01:50–03:00]

• Joby connects the shepherds to Jesus’s selection of His disciples; the original twelve were not spiritual elites but “the leftovers, the rejects, the B team.”

  “Jesus walks up to these men and says, drop your nets and follow me… They were not the best of the best… but the leftovers.” — Joby Martin [02:24]

• Jewish educational culture: Only the best progressed to become rabbis. The rest went back to family trades. Jesus’s invitation came to those who hadn’t ‘made the cut’ by traditional standards.

3. You Are Not Disqualified

[03:00–04:30]

• Joby emphatically reassures listeners: “No matter who you are or what your past is or how much or little you know about the Bible, you were not disqualified from being chosen by God to be an instrument for God.” [03:10]
• God desires your heart, soul, mind, and strength; He delights in using unlikely people for His glory.
• The theme is stressed: God “chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise” so His glory is evident.

4. Personal Testimony and Overcoming Condemnation

[04:30–05:35]

• Joby shares personal experience, admitting to a past that by human judgment might disqualify him from serving God.

  “Anybody that knows me… knows that I have done many, many things in my past that should disqualify me from God even loving me. But the only one that speaks that word over me is the devil himself.” [04:44]

• He defines the devil’s work as condemnation: “‘Condemned’ as a building term means you were unfit for use.”
• He counters this with Romans 8:1: “Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
• Encourages listeners not to let their scars or past mistakes define them; only Jesus does.

5. Encouragement for the ‘Left Out’

[05:10–05:35]

• To those who feel unqualified, Joby gives assurance:

  “If that’s you, you are perfectly positioned to be used as an instrument of God for His glory and your joy. Don’t you ever give up on you because God never has.” [05:28]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Reality of Shepherds:

  “Most of the time they were very young guys. They owned nothing… so despised locally their testimony was not admissible in a court of law.” — Joby Martin [00:38]

• On God’s Chosen:

  “God finds these shepherds, these nobodies, these B team… and that’s who he likes to use. In fact, God continues to do that.” — Joby Martin [01:20]

• On Qualification:

  “No matter who you are or what your past is… you were not disqualified from being chosen by God to be an instrument for God.” — Joby Martin [03:10]

• On Condemnation and Identity:

  “When the enemy whispers to you that you should be defined by your scars, by your past, by your mistakes, then you just remind him that you are defined by the scars of Jesus Christ and nobody gets to tell you who you are. Only Jesus does.” — Joby Martin [05:01]

• Closing Exhortation:

  “Don’t you ever give up on you because God never has.” — Joby Martin [05:35]

Important Timestamps

• 00:20 — Start of the main devotional, introduction to the shepherds and their true status
• 01:50 — Connection to Jesus’s choice of disciples and cultural background
• 03:00 — Open invitation and reassurance: “You are not disqualified”
• 04:45 — Personal testimony of past failure and rejection of condemnation
• 05:10 — Encouragement for “those who feel like the shepherds”—the unqualified

Tone

• Earnest, warm, and pastorally encouraging; practical and relatable language
• Blends firm biblical truth with candid personal reflection

This summary captures all substantive content from Episode 260, offering both an overview and detailed insight into Joby Martin’s devotional teaching for listeners seeking hope, encouragement, and clarity about their role in God’s story.