Have you ever wondered how your personal story shapes your future?
In this episode is Pastor Lou Perez from Destiny Christian Church, shares the importance and the principles of framing our life experiences into a God-designed narrative. Pastor Lou reveals how to transform painful experiences into testimonies of growth and divine breakthroughs.
He tackles the dark side of storytelling, from the dangers of false narratives in relationships to real-life cautionary tales like the "Tall Hot Blonde" documentary, emphasizing the need for truthful and constructive self-perception.
Discover practical insights on maintaining accountability and avoiding misinterpretation by engaging with scripture within a community. Pastor Lou shares personal anecdotes and biblical stories, such as Nehemiah's steadfast mission, to illustrate how to replace false narratives with the truth of scriptures, leading to a life of purpose.
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Have you ever wondered how your personal story shapes your future?
In this episode is Pastor Lou Perez from Destiny Christian Church, shares the importance and the principles of framing our life experiences into a God-designed narrative. Pastor Lou reveals how to transform painful experiences into testimonies of growth and divine breakthroughs.
He tackles the dark side of storytelling, from the dangers of false narratives in relationships to real-life cautionary tales like the "Tall Hot Blonde" documentary, emphasizing the need for truthful and constructive self-perception.
Discover practical insights on maintaining accountability and avoiding misinterpretation by engaging with scripture within a community. Pastor Lou shares personal anecdotes and biblical stories, such as Nehemiah's steadfast mission, to illustrate how to replace false narratives with the truth of scriptures, leading to a life of purpose.
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Welcome to Limitless Spirit, a weekly podcast with host Helen Todd, where she interviews guests about pursuing spiritual growth, discovering life's purpose through serving others and developing a deeper faith in Christ. Welcome to Limitless.
Speaker 2:Spirit. I'm your host, helen Todd. Today I'm sharing with you a wonderful teaching by Pastor Lou Perez on learning to read your own life story. How you frame your past and present experiences in your mind affects your future. Your mind is the battlefield of the flesh and the spirit, and the winner weaves a story that affects your emotions, your hopes and even your faith. Lou Perez is the lead pastor of Destiny Christian Church in Niagara Falls, new York. He has over 30 years of pastoral experience, holds a master's degree in theological studies and presently hosts a podcast called Soul O2. This message was shared last month at the Greater Purpose Conference hosted by World Missions Alliance, and I know it will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Speaker 3:I'm always heavy-hearted for people's hearts and whenever I minister, I've had chances sometimes to minister to leaders or pastors or you know just different various types, para church organizations. My concern isn't what they're accomplishing as much as what is the condition of their heart. What good is it if I gain the whole world but I lose myself in the process? And I've seen so many, so many ministers become cold, professional leaders that are very, very good at what they do and doing a product, but they don't know God in the process. They've lost a sense of his presence, or their marriage is in trouble or they're just living groundhog day every day and they're just kind of, you know, on this steam that they don't know how they're surviving. So I'm going to pray for all of us because we maybe we've all been there. You know, I don't know your journey. Can you lay your hand on your heart and can you say this with me Lord Jesus, help me to master my story, about what you say about me, about what I say about myself and what people say about me. In the name of Jesus, amen, amen. Please be seated. There's so much to say but so little time, and I want to talk to you today about what you, what is your story and who's telling it?
Speaker 3:And the reason why I'm framing it this way is because there is God's story about your life, but then there's Satan's story about your life, and in the 1600s this is true there was a Native American custom that required one member of the tribe to make a blanket or cloak each year out of buffalo hide or deer, and they were instructed to sketch the most noteworthy events from their year onto that blanket. It might be a devastating storm, a sneak attack by the enemy, it might be a, you know, an outbreak of smallpox or some kind of epidemic, a drought. Here's the point the blanket was always filled with dark images of hopelessness. So the question I want you to keep in your mind today as you look at your life is if God gave you a blanket today for your life, what would be on your blanket? Would they be stories that, although difficult and traumatic, found God on the other side of them, or are they just stories of hopelessness? And this is why I always encourage Christians read the Psalms a lot, because one third of the Psalms are lament Psalms, and lament Psalms are known because of this. This is how you know them. They always begin with pain and protest, but they always end with praise. That's why good songwriters, man, they're into the Psalms, and the only, the only exception is Psalm 88. That is the most depressing Psalm in the Bible. It starts out with hopelessness and it ends with hopelessness. So we kind of like gloss over that and go okay, keep going. You know what I'm saying is the way you frame your story. The way you frame what happens to you becomes the reality of your life. And the past should never define you. It should only develop you, and we have to keep that in mind.
Speaker 3:This morning I want to tell you another true story written by Scott Gorto. He's a counselor and just a great writer, but it was a family that was visiting Florida on vacation. And as they sit on the beach, dad's phone continues to buzz. As he's walking back and forth kind of restlessly on vacation, and so he picks up the phone, his wife gives him one of those withering looks I'm sure men, you know what I'm talking about and he says honey, it's work, I'm sorry, but I just want to make sure everything's OK. While he's picking up the phone, he looks across the beach and sees his 16-year-old daughter with an older guy who's too tanned, too good looking and too big to be with his daughter, if you know what I mean. So he says I'm going to deal with that later and we'll hear about that story later on in what I'm sharing today.
Speaker 3:So the phone buzzes again and his wife finally throws her hands up and she walks away. She's done so. He swipes and checks his messages and here's what he and this really happened. Here's what he saw. It's his boss saying I need to see you in my office as soon as you get back period. How would you take that so? Instantly he feels a pit in his stomach. You ever feel that like whoa. And so here's the point. There was what happened.
Speaker 3:But then there's the story you tell yourself about what happened, and those two do not always coincide, and that's why the greatest battle often is, that is, is the battle in your mind, that four inches of real estate between your ears. Those are the greatest battles you will fight, that no one has any idea what you're fighting and you may smile and say I'm doing fine, but there's a battle going on inside your head and you're doing ministry and you're serving, but there's this battle happening and I want to speak to you today on this. So think about it this way One experience, two stories. Think about Jacob and Rachel, right, jacob and Rachel? So Genesis 35, 16 says Rachel was in childbirth and she was in hard labor. When she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her don't be afraid, for now you will have another son. And as her soul was departing, the Bible says for she died, she named him Benoni, but his father called him Benjamin. And you see what those mean there. One means son of sorrow, but the other son of my right hand, which is the hand of favor. Two perspectives, but the same experience. Husbands and wives can have the same experience and tell two different stories about their marriage, about their lives, and that's the hard part about it. And often we bring our stories into our relationships. So here's what a story is, here's definition your experience is organized into a narrative that makes sense to you. It makes sense to you.
Speaker 3:We're living in a postmodern culture. That is now many Christians are deconstructing have you ever heard of that? Anybody deconstructing anybody right? And they're starting to make their own truth and the scriptures are being laid aside and say well, you know, that's kind of like that's a book of oppression. They oppressed women. They had slavery. God abused his son by putting him on the cross, so God's an abuser. This is the language they're talking in deconstruction. It's horrifying, and some of these are former assemblies of God, former charismatics, and they're changing their story. And God is saying to somebody today here it's time to get your story straight about yourself, because you've been believing something that is keeping you stuck in your story, something that is keeping you in a bondage of fear or doubt or anxiety.
Speaker 3:So what happens when we tell ourselves stories that are not true? Think about the flat earth believers. For the first time in my life, I met someone who believed in flat earth and as I was looking at them while they talked, I kept waiting for the Prozac to kick in and I'm like what's wrong with this guy? And he just went on and on about why, why, why, why, why. And I said I said you know, okay, what? If it's true, how does what you believe address the brokenness of the world? And they could never, they can't answer that, because this is the question that this conference answers how does my life address the brokenness of the world? If I can't do that, then I'm just navel gazing, I'm just living for myself. Do you follow me what I'm saying?
Speaker 3:So people once believed that the earth was flat. So they were. You know, sailors were afraid to sail too far unless you know they might sail over the edge of the world, unless they might sail over the edge of the world. And this story produced fear. This was the narrative of the time. There was another narrative called the angry sun, another true story that ancient Greeks believed, the story that a solar eclipse was a sign that the gods were angry and disasters were coming. And someone told me, I think yesterday, that some people are prophesying online now saying, well, you better do all these weird things, because weird things are going to happen with the solar eclipse. Man, don't believe these people. They're on something. Man. I grew up in the Bronx and my mom would look at you and say, boy you on the pipe. You know, do you follow what I'm saying?
Speaker 3:Legalism, pentecostals once believed the story that holiness was based on how you looked on the outside. Right Women only could wear skirts. Growing up, right Men couldn't have long hair, and if you went to a movie, that was sin. So this was a story that produced legalism and bondage. So a story is like a movie inside your head. We all have this, right. You can go to that next one If we have it there. It is Thank God for AI, right. A story is like a movie we make inside our heads, and in the movie we write, we direct, we set up props, we even have characters, and usually we're the hero and everybody else is the villain. That's the way it is, and these stories are so important because they can become as powerful as reality if we're not careful. So we have to know what we believe and why we're believing it, and we have to make sure it's the right thing.
Speaker 3:There's a bright side to storytelling. Thank God for stories, because God has given us the ability to think in creative ways. We each have our creative gifts. This worship team is amazing. I want to steal them, bring them to Niagara Falls. Phenomenal. Yeah, you guys aren't far are. Come on, hook, hook. A brother up man, come on. Stories help us to put life into some kind of meaningful explanation. That's why, when people ask you what is your story, we already have a pre-edited version of our life, depending on what season we're in, because it changes right, right.
Speaker 3:Asaph, who wrote the longest Psalm, said this in Psalm 119, 71. This was his story of how he framed his pain. He said it is good for me that I have been humbled. Another version says afflicted so that I might learn your statutes. Some theology teaches that if you suffer that sin, that's wrong. That is not. That is not true. A broken world implies that you will suffer because through tribulation we, we, we get into the kingdom.
Speaker 3:But there's also a dark side of storytelling and that is when Satan tries to tell your story. And I don't know about you, but it happens every day to me and every day you wake up you have to speak to yourself because if you don't, somebody else will speak to you and for you, and you won't like what it says. Those words Are you with me? So in this movie in your head, when it's dark, words become twisted, experiences become skewed like houses and mirrors, assumptions are made and opinions are formed and judgments are passed. That's when the dark side of storytelling happens in our heads. Especially see that in marriage, when you're inside your head and you had a fight, maybe a disagreement, with your spouse and you're like, oh man, you know all these things inside your head and this can happen in your head without anybody even knowing it ever happened to you. So what lies can you be believing today that are keeping you stuck in your story? Because my goal is today is to talk to you about a little bit, not about missional as much as maturity, about growing up in the faith.
Speaker 3:But here's another true story that was a documentary it was made, called Tall Hot Blonde hey, I don't make this stuff up True story and this is a dark story. It's a story based on an internet chat room murder involving a man named Thomas Montgomery and Mary Shiler. The real story began in 2005 in New York. Shiler the real story began in 2005 in New York, where police say that a 47-year-old, thomas Montgomery, shot and killed a 22-year-old, brian Barrett, so that he could have Jesse all to himself. And here's what happened Jesse, who went by the screen name Tall Hot Blonde. She struck up a conversation in a teen chat room in a teen chat room with Thomas Montgomery and Jesse sent sexy pictures of herself and he sent a picture of him in a Marine uniform, looking good and handsome, and the two became involved online and the affair lasted two years.
Speaker 3:According to the court records, thomas became so obsessed with Jesse that his wife noticed something was off about him. So she checked out his emails and stuff and she found she found these conversations online with with this woman. So here's what she did she went on his, on his computer and she she got in touch with Jesse and she said this is what he really looks like. And he was a 47-year-old guy, balding and kind of packing the beef a little bit, you know. And so Jesse quickly distanced himself from this man Quickly, and then she went after his much younger workmate, a guy named Brian, and when Brian and Jesse began to get together they started making fun of Montgomery in the chat room and he became jealous and shot the man. He shot Brian. So during the police investigation it was revealed that 18-year-old Jesse was actually not so young. And well, you know the rest 45-, 45 year old housewife named Mary Shiler, and she confided to the police that she had to use pictures of her daughter, of her teenage daughter, to lure men online. And she said I had no idea somebody would die over this. So here's my point All of this happened because two people told a story about themselves and about each other that was not even true.
Speaker 3:That's how powerful your story can be. It can keep you bound, it can keep you afraid, it can keep you doubting yourself. It can keep you having a skewed version about your body, your mind, your talents, your future. What does the Bible say about worshiping a wrong picture in your head? Exodus 20, one of the Ten Commandments you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness or anything that is in heaven above or in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. Now, we're Westerners and we don't bow down physically to images, right? So surely this verse can apply to us, can it? Ooh, watch out.
Speaker 3:The second commandment is not just about worshiping physical images, but mental images. That's why God told Ezekiel as he told the people he said these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed their obstacles leading to their iniquity right before their faces. So we can have this image in our minds that God never gave us, that we feed with story and we narrate it and we create a whole movie with special effects and everything. And it's, it's a great movie that we tell ourselves because it keeps us in a certain state that God never called us to be in, and the pictures we carve in our minds become the images that we worship and the things that define our life, because that's what we believe. Proverbs 28 to 26 says whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in in wisdom will be delivered.
Speaker 3:How many of you know that sometimes you can't trust your mind? That's why we need community. I and, by the way, I love the Anglican tradition. One of my favorite theologians is NT Wright and he's Anglican. Okay, but one thing they push a lot, the Anglicans and other faith traditions, is they say you have to read the scriptures in community. Why? Because then you're not in your basement at home just reading it by yourself and making stuff up and making up your own story. There's another proverb that says whoever isolates himself rages against all judgment. When you're isolated, you just make stuff up and there's no accountability. That's what's happening on YouTube today. People just put these, they crank up these videos like tuna that have no meaning. They haven't been vetted, there's no academic body to hold them accountable and they can say anything. That's why we have to know the scriptures for ourselves. We have to know what the scriptures tell us and we have to do it in a community, because there's accountability in community, amen. So how do you know? If you are making up a story, I want to give you that. Toss it out there. How do you know?
Speaker 3:First thing is this you become anxious and insecure. You begin anxiously entertaining the why and the when and the how scenarios. Now, if you're a type A personality this is you you struggle because type A people are always. They have to be in control of everything. They have to control everything in the future. That's how God made them. You know they're administrative, they're focused and planning. And when something comes at you from sideways, you flip out Well, I can't control that. Or how about? Someone said or did something to you, or they didn't return your call and you begin, kind of, you know, becoming anxious about that. Well, why didn't they return my call? What did he mean by that? Why didn't they return my call? What did he mean by that? Your mind begins turning like gears on a clock and you begin processing. And the more insecure you are, the more elaborate your story begins to become, as you tell it in your head.
Speaker 3:But number two here's another way. You know that you're telling a story. You fill in the blank, it in your head. But number two here's another way you know that you're telling a story. You fill in the blanks in your head, you jump to conclusions and run ahead of yourself. You go to the doctor. He says I want an MRI. You walk out of there and says that's it, this is it, it's a tumor. Lord, thank you for the years you gave me. You know what are you doing there. You're telling your story why? Because you don't really know for sure until you get there and you jump to conclusions and you run ahead of yourself. You know the Greeks, philosophers, were asked by the peasants where did thunder come from and lightning? And so they invented Zeus. To fill in the blanks, they said that's why there's. You know, I mean, I grew up thinking it was God rearranging the furniture. That's what my mom told me. I'm sure you have a version of that. One right, everybody right. But here's number three how do you know you're telling a story?
Speaker 3:Your story begins to overshadow the other person's words. This happens in marriage a lot, unfortunately, and I'll admit I've done it to my wife, she's done it to me. She's an amazing woman. I hope she can come someday. You know she's hearing impaired, so crowds are very. It's very hard for her in crowds and she's very busy she's. She does finances for the red cross, so she's a big shot. Um, she's amazing.
Speaker 3:But your story overshadows the other person's words, even people you love, and in a conversation you only hear your story. You don't hear their words. And that's why I was taught years ago like we used to submit our marriage to this counselor that we love. That was like a mother to us and she said okay, lou, I want you to, I want Louisa to talk, and then I want her to, then I want you to repeat what she just said, and then so I would say it and she goes and that's not what she said. Why? Because I was telling my story through her words and I was overwhelming her words.
Speaker 3:And we tend to label everything about things and people in our heads, and labeling is very, very dangerous because whatever you label, you tend to dismiss. So watch your labels. And here's what happens sometimes All day we get stuck inside our heads and we stew like a crock pot and we have these desperate thoughts and we've been quarreling all day in our heads and when we see the person that maybe we are offended at or angry with and we let them have it. We're not even fighting them anymore, we're fighting the story inside her head. Do you follow what I'm saying? I've seen that in ministry People come to me and, man, I have no idea how I offended them, what I said or did, but they let me have it. Then I realized, hey, you know what, going low, I said, hey, if I did offend you, please, please, forgive me, but obviously they're struggling with something.
Speaker 3:Number four you automatically assume the worst. You make judgment. You say, well, this has to mean A, b or C and this movie in your head that you're making this story, it has time travel. You even go to the past and revise it and say, well, this is what it actually meant. Or you speculate about the future in a way that God never gave you to speculate. There's a reason why he says don't boast about tomorrow. Back to the family on vacation. I'm going to refer to them again because that's a great story.
Speaker 3:Later that day, the man who got the weird text from his boss. He's getting ready for dinner and he asks his wife where's Anna, our daughter? He says she's not here. Where is she? She's out with that boy. What I told her, you know, he starts going off, you know, and all this, and, and, so he.
Speaker 3:Finally, that night they go to bed and his back is towards his wife, her back is towards him and he's thinking and he's writing his story. He says what does my boss want? Is it because I did a B or C? Or is it because I didn't do a B or C? Is it because John and accounting wants my job? Oh, maybe it's a promotion, maybe it's a raise, maybe I'm getting fired, maybe I offended someone. Then he fills in more blanks. Man, I'm too old to start a new job. How am I going to write a resume at my age? What am I going to do? What do I do? Join LinkedIn? You know I'm not going to do that now.
Speaker 3:My wife hates me, my daughter, she's not listening to me. Why am I doing this? Well, he doesn't realize. Realize and this is a true story is that next to him, his wife, she's awake, with her eyes wide open and she's thinking her thoughts, her story, and she's saying he loves his job more than his family. He just doesn't care. He's with us, but he's not with us. Is there anything in this marriage to save? We've been doing it so long.
Speaker 3:But then their daughter Anna. She's out walking and again, this is a true story and she's out walking by herself because the boy who charmed her never showed up. So she's really sad and depressed and she's saying you know, my parents don't get me, they don't love me. He didn't call me back. I knew he was the one. Maybe I'm not pretty enough, maybe he thinks I'm stupid, maybe he saw something in me that's wrong. So what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? So each had their own story in their head and the rest of the vacation no one spoke to each other. So we're anxious and insecure. We fill in the blanks. Your story overshadows all those words. But here's the last one.
Speaker 3:You start becoming the story that you are telling yourself, as a man think is so is he right? You know the scripture and this has already happened to a point, whether you realize it or not. You get your first stories from your family how dad treated mom, how mom acted, how siblings dealt with problems in each other, dealt with problems in each other, and these things form the default storyline of your life and that's why we always have to give our family to God and that's why, when people get married. You know they. Often you have these two stories clashing together in an explosion and I always tell couples love is not enough, it's never enough. You have to be going in the same direction. And what happens is in marriage, since each of us have our story, we each have our own idea of how things are done. I'm sure you've never had those conversations.
Speaker 3:If you want a storytelling test, it's very simple, here it is. When you first encountered the situation, it's very simple, here it is. When you first encountered the situation, what did you assume to be true? When you found out the truth about the situation, what parts of your story turned out to be false? And then, before you found out the truth, how did you treat, how did you think about or treat the other person? Have you ever felt convicted? Because, man, you really messed up the way you thought of someone.
Speaker 3:You said that guy, he's a shlemiel. That's my Yiddish. I'm the only Puerto Rican who uses Yiddish terms. You know shlemiel and shlemazel. You know the story right, you don't? Okay. The Shalmeel is the guy in the party that he accidentally, you know, dumps a cup of coffee on the other guy's lap. The Shalmazel is the guy who gets the coffee dumps on his lap. So that's worse. Being a Shalmazel, yiddish humor is weird, but it's funny.
Speaker 3:Years ago I remember when one of my apostolic fathers did return my call for three months. I said, oh man, what's going on here? Is he offended by me? Is he going to kick me out? Is he going to call me in front of the group and kind of dress me down or something? I was really scared but I was also offended. I said why would he do that? He's my friend, you know. And one day he calls me after three months and says I'm so sorry, man, my wife, she was in the hospital for months and man, and I'm like, well, I'm glad I didn't mess that up, like by calling him and, you know, doing the story in my head.
Speaker 3:That's why we have to persevere with being patient with one another, because love always believes the best first. So I see all that to say this this morning we must become the story God tells. That is so important. Satan is always trying to give you a script to believe in your life, whether the script involves your job, your family, your struggles, your children, your own self-esteem, how you see yourself, how you see your life, your own personal vision. Satan wants to hand you another script that is otherwise. So we master our story through the word that God speaks. That's the best way to master your story, through the scriptures, and that's why the number one story killer that will kill your story in a bad way is Bible illiteracy. That is so dangerous.
Speaker 3:There are Christians that have just there's this mixture happening today more than ever, where Christians, you know they're saying well, what's wrong with having a little Buddha and a little of this, a little of that? And there's, you know, we live in a postmodern culture, which means people don't believe in absolute truth anymore, or that truth is objective, something outside of myself, that, whether I agree with it or not, it is still true. Instead, it's become my truth, which is horrifying. And that's why we must know the scriptures, because the scriptures are absolute truth that never change. When I say scriptures, I don't mean my Bible, you know, like they say, I mean the scriptures and community our Bible together and with the word we destroy and we revise the movie in our heads and we retell the story the way God wants us to tell it.
Speaker 3:I want you to think about Nehemiah for a minute. I think we're good on time. We have about an hour left, right, right, helen, helen will tell you for sure. Think about Nehemiah. You know, god wanted to restart Israel's history by commanding them to rebuild the wall and return from exile after 70 years. It's an incredible story. So they begin to build a wall and, of course, the minute you do something to write a story, satan sends somebody to retell your story. So here he sends someone named San Ballot, and San Ballot was the adversary of Israel, and he started to retell Nehemiah's story by suggesting that Nehemiah wasn't just building a wall, but he was leading a revolt against the emperor of the time, and so he was spreading rumors and writing letters and, you know, trying to get the whole work stopped. We know the story. So here's what Nehemiah said. He takes back the story.
Speaker 3:He says this in Nehemiah 6, 8. You are inventing them out of your own mind. In EMI 6-8. You are inventing them out of your own mind. What I'm saying to you is don't let anyone put their story on you. Only God can tell you your story. Culture can't tell you your story. Satan can't tell you your story. The person who doesn't like you can't tell you your story. Only Jesus can tell you your story. Let God tell your story.
Speaker 3:The word calls story destroying. When we destroy it in a good way, the bad stories. It calls it vain imaginations. 2 Corinthians 10.5. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Are your thoughts and your stories obeying Christ, or is it the Wild West in there? Sometimes I appreciate the honesty. I think we've all been there right.
Speaker 3:So, as Proverbs 3.5 says, stop leaning on your own understanding. It doesn't mean you can't think, but we have to think with a transformed mind instead. Salvation doesn't discard your mind. It transforms it so that you can use it for God's glory. So God's story is always based on love. 1 Corinthians 13.17,. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And that's the part that I mean about maturity in all of us. Sometimes we have disputes when we work together in ministry because we need to learn what it really means to love each other and to lay down our life for each other. So what happens when you live out of God's story? You exchange fiction for fact. My story is a fantasy, but God's story is real and it will happen because he said it will happen.
Speaker 3:So how did this story end? With this family on vacation? Well, the man, he marches back to his office. It was the longest drive of his life back home and he's sweating it, he's depressed, he feels sick, you know, and he's like man. I just don't know what to do. So he marches back in his office and he even brought a box with him, you know, because he figures I'm getting fired. So he had his box ready in his office.
Speaker 3:He marches into the boss's office and knocks and says, hey, walk in. You know, come on in. And he goes have a seat. He goes, I think I'll stand. He says what do you got for me? He goes oh, you know, you forgot to sign this before you left. Can you just sign this? That was it. That's the story, and all that anguish and torment and pain he caused to himself because he told himself a wrong story. But maybe you're hearing this today and you say well, what if my story is true, a traumatic story or a story that really happened in my life of pain and abuse? Well, don't you think that God can retell your story redemptively? Because everything God does is redemptive in nature, always.
Speaker 3:One of the greatest words in the Hebrew language is chesed. My Hebrew friends have taught me how to say that chesed. You have to say it like gutturally right. There's over 250 different meanings for it in the scripture, but they all mean the same thing the loyal love of God.
Speaker 3:When God confronted Moses and he showed him himself, he said I'm going to show you myself, I want to pass before you. You know, the previous day the Lord had showed Israel the scary side of himself, on the mountain where everything shook and there was thunders and lightnings and fear and the law and everything was was horrifying. But when he reveals himself to Moses, he revealed himself as chesed, the loyal love. It's in there in the Hebrew and those are parental terms he uses in that scripture. But he revealed himself first as your father in heaven who loves you, not as the boss who wants you to toe the line of the law. And that's what amazes me about the father no matter how I may mess up in my own head, he still loves me, no matter what, no matter what story I've made up, how much I've struggled.
Speaker 3:And we find that when we finally get the story straight, we begin thinking in the right way and we begin realizing that. Hey, you know what. I'm more than a conqueror, even though I don't feel like it. You know what Emotions have nothing to do with it. I've been relying on them too much anyway. In fact, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. What am I doing? I'm letting the scriptures correct my thinking. I can do all things through Christ, who thanks me. Let's stand together.
Speaker 3:I'm going to pray over you. I hope you got something out of this today. Very simple, but it's like a sauce you never know how it's going to come out. That's my wife saying. You know she's Italian. She has a big wooden spoon and when she's mad I just run out of the kitchen. You know, but that big wooden spoon. I want to pray over you.
Speaker 3:How many struggle with your story Sometimes, raise your hand. You struggle with your story, man. A lot of hands are up. I know I do and I feel like God is saying to all of us today get your story straight. Believe who I said you are. Believe what the scriptures say about your life, your calling, how I feel about you. Like Henry, I love Henry Nowen. You ever read Henry Nowen? He said you know long before you receive your wounds and your scars and your pain and your abuses. You were held safely in eternity in your father's arms. That's who you are. That's who you are, and nothing less. So, father, I want to pray for everyone who raised their hand today.
Speaker 3:And, holy spirit, I just ask you to break through. Break through the narrative that has become toxic, poisonous and damaging to the spirit, to your work in us, to your purposes in us. Release us, holy Spirit, from the lie that we have believed In the name of Jesus. We break the lie by your spirit and we speak the truth of the gospel of Jesus and the truth of the word of God to come to bear in that story and we ask you to narrate the story. You want us to believe, lord, and to live by.
Speaker 3:In the name of Jesus, forgive us for believing stories about ourselves and about each other that are just outright wrong. Father, I release those that maybe that have hurt me, and I do that by faith, because it's not always easy. But, holy Spirit, we ask that you work in everyone today and someone who looks at their body and just feels disgusted. Lord, in the name of Jesus, we rebuke that. That is not of you, that is a Western construct. That is not you at all. Holy Spirit, work in everyone today in the name of Jesus, and we ask God that you narrate something new, a new beginning for someone, a new way of seeing it, in the name of Jesus, and we thank you, father, amen, amen, thank you.
Speaker 2:If your past or negative thoughts about your future are holding you back in your God-designed destiny, now is the time to apply the principles Lou taught us in this message and win the battle in your mind by applying this proper framework to your reality. Make sure to check out his podcast, soul O2. It is available on all major platforms. Your past is your story and if God plays a central part in it, this is your testimony that equips you to share Christ with others. Your testimony that equips you to share Christ with others. Great commission is God's way to include us in building his kingdom on earth and to promote us into life of fulfillment and eternal significance and greater purpose. At World Missions Alliance, we want to give you an opportunity to connect with your greater purpose through short-term missions. Check out our website, rfwmaorg, to find the opportunities to become involved. Until next time, I'm Helen Todd.
Speaker 1:Limitless Spirit Podcast is produced by World Missions Alliance. We believe that changed lives change lives. If your life was transformed by Christ, you are equipped to help others experience this transformation. Christ called his followers to make disciples across the world. World Missions Alliance gives you an opportunity to do this through short-term missions in over 32 countries across the globe. If you want to help those who are hurting and hopeless and discover your greater purpose in serving, check out our website, rfwmaorg, and find out how to get involved.