Revival of Hope - Matt Manzari: Finding Your Story Workshop

Welcome, welcome back. How are you guys doing? You guys enjoy last night and this morning? I've heard some amazing testimonies already of how people have been impacted by this revival series and I'm so excited some of y'all came back for this workshop. I get really excited about talking about story if you couldn't tell from last night. You know, I always, I think about where story plays into our life and the role it plays and you know, we think in stories, we think narratively, that's how our brain works. When you go to a get together, there's usually people standing around listening to somebody tell a story. When we go to sleep, we dream in stories. Jesus communicated in parables which are short stories. We were created in story. When you open the Bible, how does it start? It starts not with facts, it doesn't start, it starts with a narrative voice. In the beginning, God created and it tells us the story of us and the story of creation and how we're here. So we're surrounded by stories and one of my favorite things to do is we're going to kick this off with this short exercise. And what I'm going to need you to do is everybody get a partner. We'll try to keep it to groups of two if there's an odd number and one of you guys needs to jump in a group of three, that's okay. And it doesn't matter, you can partner with somebody that is your family member or a stranger next to you because I think it works for both. But everybody, I need you to find a partner and I'm going to give you one word and I'm going to say a word and you have 45 seconds to tell your partner something that that, a story that that word makes you think of. Could be a childhood memory, could be something from last week, could be something sad, something funny, something, you know, that means something special to you. So everyone get your partner, everyone got a partner?

If anybody doesn't have a partner, can you put your hand up so we can see if there's any singles out there? All right, I think everyone's got a partner. All right, so figure out who's going to go first and I'm going to give you this word. The first word I'm going to give you is bicycle. Tell a story about your experience with a bike. Go. All right, we're going to wrap it up. We got about five seconds. You can finish your bicycle stories later. All right, we're going to do, let's wrap it up guys, let's wrap it up. So we're going to do one more word, same thing, 45 seconds and 45 seconds, new word, the word is Christmas. Go. All right, let's finish it up, let's wrap it up. That's a fun exercise, huh? It's kind of cool because that is the power of story in one word. Like some of you may be telling a story to somebody you just met and sat next to, some of you may be sitting with a family member and what I have found is when we do that exercise, you could know someone for your whole life and hear a story you never heard about them off of one word. All you did is create time and space and people give you back their stories. And that's what we're doing is that's what God naturally did. God would give people time and space and he'd give them back their story. In the beginning, he says to Adam and Eve, he says, where are you? They don't say we're right here, do they? They say, oh, well, we hid because we were naked and who told you you were naked? We ate from the tree, the tree I told you not, and they start giving him his story of why they are where they are and why they're dressed the way they're dressed and what they're doing.

But that wasn't the question. He just created that time and space and Jesus says, do you want to get well? He doesn't say, yeah. He says, well, every time there's an opportunity and the water is stirred, somebody beats me and he's been an invalid for 39 years and he starts telling Jesus the story of why he's not well, but that wasn't the question. So when we create that time and space, people will give us back their stories, but a lot of us, we don't do that. We don't learn to listen well. We don't learn to ask questions. We don't learn to ask the questions that will draw out the stories that can help them process. You know, the reason I use Christmas, especially when I do this with kids, is because when you say, tell me a story about Christmas, you get a window into their childhood. You usually find out if their parents are together. It's usually, oh, my mom's house is great and my dad, then I got to go to my dad's. They're usually, there's something in there where they share about whether they come from a broken home. There's something in there where they're, man, I love Christmas. My family, we got these traditions and we go crazy with the lights or man, it's a really hard time. This is when I lost my mom. The holidays is a reminder. So you usually actually, just by asking, hey, tell me a story about Christmas. What do you feel about Christmas? You usually get a window into their life of how you can love and serve that person better, of how you can call them around Christmas. Man, I know you love this season and you're doing all your traditions,

just hoping you guys are having a better season than ever, praying for you. Or, hey, I know this is a really hard time of year. I just want you to know I'm thinking about you. I'm praying for you. Is there anything I could be praying for specifically? And we can help people in their stories, helping them get healing, help discover our own stories off of one word. You know, our brain is like a computer. It's like a processor. It's like this. This is an Apple iPad, and it has a processing system called iOS, and it has apps and algorithms that show me, as I click on things, it'll show me things more like what I click on. And if I'm Googling stuff about trucks, it'll show me trucks. If I'm Googling stuff about good recipes, I'll get recipes. And it shows me what I like to see and the way I think. And our brain will do the same thing. And we constantly tell ourselves stories, thousands of stories a day, without even realizing it in our subconscious. And some of them are really good stories. And some of them are stories based on lies or trauma. And as our processor runs, that reoccurring story of maybe I'm not good enough,

I don't belong, gets told over and over in our life, and we don't even see the way it filters and affects our day and our relationships and everything that we do. So how do we change some of those stories? How do we start to process them, start to unpack them? Well, first we gotta be able to see what they are. So I need a volunteer. Is anybody brave enough to volunteer? Come on up. So give her a round of applause. You can sit down, I'll come down here. So what's your name? Vicky. Vicky, Vicky, where are you from? That's a loaded question. Macclesfield, North Carolina. Why is that a loaded question? Well, because I'm really from New York, and then I moved to Florida for 11 years, and now I'm here. That's like my journey. I was born in New York and then moved to Florida, and now I'm here just for today, but not permanently. So what's something about you, Vicky, that we wouldn't know? What's a little thing that you love that we wouldn't know? Little hobby, little thing you like to do, anything. I love to make jewelry. Loves to make jewelry, that's pretty cool. Well, hey, Vicky, I like you.

I think you're beautiful. I don't really like your shoes. I think those are kind of a weird color, and I don't know why you wore those today, but give it up for Vicky, and thank you for coming up. That was weird, right? That was weird that I ended like that. It's a really weird thing. Call somebody up, build a relationship with them, criticize them, and send them back to their seat. And what does that do when somebody does that? It makes us feel awkward. Maybe it makes us feel defensive. I've done that with kids, and I'm like, how's that make you feel? And I'll interview them on stage, and they're like, I don't care, I don't care what you think, but you can hear it in their attitude that they care, but it's a protection. It bothers us. We get upset, we get angry, we get weirded out. We're like, man, I heard this guy, Matt, speak last night. I thought, you know, I connected in some way. I wanna come back to his workshop, and then he came. I trusted him. Vicky, you trusted me to bring you up here to learn about you, to start to build a relationship with you, and then I criticized you and sent you back, and what happened there is what I wanna talk about, because there's a desire to belong

that was given to us by God. We all want to belong. Even me, I wanna belong to you guys. Knowing what I was about to do, I get, my heart starts pounding, because I'm like, are they gonna kick me off stage? Are they gonna boo me? Are they gonna get mad at me? Is Vicky gonna hit me and slap me? I don't know what's gonna happen, and then for Vicky, there's probably this moment of like, oh, that came out of left field, and there's a desire to belong that kind of makes her feel awkward, and there's two story arcs that I think are in all of our lives and all of our relationships and all of our interactions that help us unpack the idea of story in our life, and they start with the same two parts, and then it ends on the third part, and the most simple version of a story arc is created, which I believe is created by God, fallen or ruined by sin, and then this is where it could take a turn. We either can have redemption, which comes through Christ, or we can have death that comes from not changing that fallen sin, and I think a big issue that we deal with in our lives is we think of sin as an act.

We think of it as something that we did, and we're like, oh man, I was trying so hard not to go back to my, whatever it is, my addiction, my struggle, and I did it again, and I look at it as this one thing I did yesterday, and I'm just going to try really hard not to do it today, because sin is an act. But sin is not an act. Sin is a story in our lives, and the story of sin is told to us in the book of James. If you open up the book of James, chapter one, it says, but each person is tempted, it is starting in verse 14, 1-14, when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. And this is the story of sin in verse 15 right here. It says, then after desire has conceived, what's conceived? Babies. Babies. Conception is a beautiful, um, it's a beautiful thing. When you think of a newborn baby, you think, man, it's, it's innocent. It's not tainted. It's, it's a beautiful thing. Um, you know, I think of Frederick's story. Frederick, I don't know if he's here, but when he was talking, when he was born, he was born with physical annailments, but he was so beautiful on the inside. He was so innocent on the inside. His mom spoke that truth into him. Um, but man, so in verse 15, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. I think that's such a beautifully written passage, because we think of something like birth as something so beautiful, and sin and death as something so final, and so dark, and apart from God, to be separated from God. And so when I think of that in realm of the story of sin in our life, I think of me and Vicki's relationship that we just started. So we, I created a relationship with her. I brought her up. I didn't know her name. I recognized that she was someone that was here, but I didn't know her name yet. I got to hear about that she likes to make bracelets. I got to hear about where she's from. I created a relationship, and then what did I do? I ruined it with sin, and I criticized her, and sent her away. And I could have done that to make an example, and said, no matter who I brought up here, I was going to criticize their shoes, or shirt, or something. Or I could live into that, and say, yeah, I really don't like your shoes, and I don't like you, and I want you to leave. And that will lead to the death of me and Vicki's relationship. She'll be like, man, I came, I heard this guy speak, that the tent revival was good, and then this guy just got weird, and he sent me away. And she'll never have lunch with me, have coffee with me. She'll never want to talk to me, or hear me talk again. She'll probably never read my book. It will give birth to the death of our relationship, unless we do the other story arc. Created by God, so create a relationship. Ruined by sin, I criticize her, and then redemption. I could say, Vicki, I'm really

sorry. I actually picked you, because I like your shoes, and I actually wear hokas myself a lot of times, and I think they're really cool, and I was making an example, and I'm really sorry, and I do love you, and care for you, and we can have redemption in our relationship. And that is the two stories, and the story arc that comes in our lives, in all of our stories, and all of our relationships. Because sin will eventually kill us, if we don't kill it through Christ. What do babies do that grow? And the Bible just said, sin is a baby. It gives birth to sin. And you ever meet someone that says, oh, I was eight pounds when I was born, and then now I'm 37, and I'm eight pounds? No, babies grow, and that sin will grow, and grow, and grow, until it eventually kills you, unless you kill that sin with the blood of Jesus, with a story of redemption in and through our lives. And you know, we're good with the big stuff. We are. Like, I was watching the cardboard testimonies on the stream earlier, and I was thinking, man, a lot of times when we try to think of our struggle or the lie, we think of the big lies, the big struggles, my electrocution. But do I think about the struggle to wake up every day and be a good dad, to be a good husband, to be a good friend? The little stories, because we're good with the big stuff sometimes. We kind of, like, pull up our bootstraps and handle the big situations in our life, loss, grief, things like that. But we don't really walk in discipleship with each other. We're not real with each other daily. How are you doing? I'm good. How are you doing? But are we really good? What is the story that's breaking us down that we need to work through, that we need relationship and community in? You know, how are we transparent? I mean, we hide stuff, and that's the original story of sin. What did Adam and Eve do? They hid, and then they hid their nakedness, and now we hide stuff. We don't use fig leaves. We use social media. We use surface conversation. You know, it was on social media. I just did a little post, and we did two takes. or three takes. And that's what we do. We take 20 pictures and then we post the one that makes us look best. We tell the stories that make us look better. And we hide because we're afraid. And that's why, you know, I believe divorce, and I'll talk more about marriage and how it relates to the Bible in a bit, but I believe divorce has the potential to be, if Jesus doesn't come in and heal people after they go through divorce, it has the potential to be the most devastating thing to our mental state and our psyche. And the reason why is because when you go on a date with somebody, when you go on a date, guys put on their cologne, and they get dressed up, and girls put their perfume on, and they do their makeup just right,

and they present the best version of themselves, and they go meet and eat somewhere and hang out or watch a movie, and then they go home and they take all that stuff off. But when you get married, when you get married, you see somebody for all that they are. You see them on the date night, but then you see them when they got the flu, and they haven't showered in three days, and they're in sweatpants, and they got snot running out of their nose, and they're sneezing. You know, you see them when they're angry, when they're upset, when they're overwhelmed. You see all of who they are. You see them for all their nakedness, physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. And what divorce tells your brain, the lie it tells your brain is, man, this is your brain is, man, this is somebody who's seen me for all that I am and then said it's not enough and walked away. And that could cripple, I'll never let somebody in again. I'll never let somebody get close to me again, because then they won't hurt me like that, and we start to close up if we don't have Jesus step into that and heal. Because the problem isn't nakedness. The problem isn't being exposed. It's not, because all of us today, if we get sweaty and tired today, and we're working, maybe some people putting chairs away later and helping pack this up, you get all sweaty. You go home, and you step in the shower, and you're like, oh, feels so good, that hot water. You're fully exposed, but you don't care because you're accepted because you're alone. But the problem isn't being exposed. The problem is being exposed and not accepted. And what Jesus is offering is he's saying, I see you fully exposed. I see all that you are. I see your deepest, darkest insecurities and fears and doubts. I see the lies being whispered into your ear. And guess what? Through what I did on that cross, you are enough. You are redeemed. You do not have a spirit of guilt or fear or anxiety, but a spirit of peace and joy and contentment. And I want that for you, and I want that in your life and your story. And don't believe the sin stories that are being told in and through your life. That's what he's asking. That's what he's offering, to free us from the abuse, from the addiction, from the abandonment, from the criticism, from whatever story, whatever sin baby is growing in our life, in our hearts, you know, in our default settings. Because this is, I'm condensing what we could do in a whole weekend into 30, 40 minutes. But really, like, this is an exercise I hope all of you do to realize that 80% of who we innately are and how we respond for the rest of our life, our trigger, our knee-jerk reaction that we don't even know why we respond the way we do, is formed by the age of six. You know, in those formative young years, things happen. And then even throughout our

childhood, we have, you'll hear people say, what's your core memories? You know, it could be a good fishing trip with grandpa where you felt, you used a pocket knife and felt like you were a little man. Or it could be when your parents split up and you lost hope and the fairy tale life you had was really broken. And we have these core memories that are good and bad. And when you meet somebody and their worldview is so different than somebody else, one guy is like, oh, it's dog-eat-dog world, you got to look out for number one. No one's going to help you, you got to help yourself. That's somebody who's probably had some core memories, some formative years, where they were let down, where people made promises that they didn't keep. And they said, I got to take care of myself. And then you meet somebody else. I mean, I'm not just saying Christians, Christians and non-Christians. You meet the hippie that's like, oh, it's good karma. You treat people well and they treat you well. You meet Christians, you love and serve people, they love and serve you. And that's somebody who's probably had some people do some really nice things in their life and has some good core memories. And they believe they need to treat people in that way. So when we look at our lives and our stories and these core memories and how we process them, we have to think about what formed that. Was it formed from truth? Because some of them were formed from truth. Or was it formed from the lies? And if it's formed from the lies, the telltale sign is it's usually things that are leading us to depression, to fear, to anger, to anxiety, things that are rob us of our joy, our contentment, our peace. You know, I was exposed to this. You met, if you saw my story last night, you saw Bobby Jean, my wife. And man, I feel like I try to be a really reliable husband. Like I try to, my word, my yes is yes and my no is no. So for the first 10 years of our marriage, like man, we had a great marriage and we have a great marriage. So this isn't, wasn't like a big thing I was focused on. It was just kind of a quirky, like, I know how Bobby is. She doesn't get excited about anything until it happens. I could say, you're never going to believe it

for our five-year anniversary, I booked a cruise and I'll be like, are you excited? And she's like, I'm super excited, but we'll see if we go. I'm like, what do you mean? See, we got the tickets, we got the babysitter, we're going on a cruise. And she's like, okay, I'll be excited when we get there. And it was so frustrating. Cause I'm like, what did, I took it personally, but what did I do to make you so not excited about anything until it happens? And after my burn, I mean, we went from a husband, wife to a patient caretaker and then had to rebuild back into husband, wife. And we were in counseling and working on our communication. And we're in this moment and they start, we start peeling back the layers of Bobby. And this thing I've always thought was just her personality or maybe something I did and I didn't know what it was. All of a sudden she's in tears and she's remembering as a little girl, when her mom said, you're going to have a big brother. Oh honey, we lost the baby. Oh, you're going to have, or you're going to have a little sister. We lost the baby and went through a series of miscarriages. And in a little girl's heart, the way she processed that is if I never get excited about a little sister, a little brother, I'll never be let down when mom loses the baby.

And that was a thing she didn't even know she had that she needed to say, okay, I need some healing in this. It's time to start trusting again. It's time to start getting excited again. And I think there's three major lies that expose where those come from. And it's really, I can't, I don't belong and I'm not good enough. And there's, they overlap with each other. I know for me, when I went through my burn, the I can't, a lot of times it was just the physical. I'd get to that curb. I had a year of five days a week, physical and occupational therapy. And with how deep my burns were, I mean, it felt like I was in a medieval torture machine. It was stretching every joint, elbows, shoulders, neck, every joint in my upper body. They would slow sustained stretch until it broke open and bled. And then it would hopefully heal a little longer. My arms were stuck like this and it was just slowly stretching. And there were times I'd get to that curb and I'd just break down in tears. I'm like, I can't go in there. I'm going in there to be tortured and I can't do it again. I can't do it today to just do it tomorrow, to do it tomorrow. And that was a lie.

And it's like, look, if I ever wanna straighten my arm again I gotta put the work in and he's gonna sustain me and give me that strength. Belonging. Man, I struggled with that. My wife and my family was so happy to have me. Tim and Christy were so happy to serve and help my wife and I. But internally, one of my biggest struggles was I don't belong here. I'm just a burden to everyone around me. My wife is working two jobs with a newborn and I'm just this thing that's more work than a newborn. And she's doing three hour dressing changes. And every morning we wake up and there's blood all over our sheets. And I just, everything, I touch the towels and sheets, I just bleed and I just ruin everything. I don't belong. And I'm not good enough. I used to be a provider protector. I was a professional athlete. And I was at a point where I couldn't open a water bottle. And it's like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm even the guy she married. She shouldn't, why is she with me? Why is she still here? And those were the lies I had to work through to get to where we are now, where our marriage is better and stronger

than it's ever been. And I think about John 10, 10, the thief comes to seek, kill, and destroy. But I've come that you might have life and have it to the full. That's what he's offering in our stories, but we gotta have some healing in them. You know, my favorite exercise, and I'm trying not to go too long, but there's so much here. So we can do it quick, but I really hope you go back to this later. I try to do this at a minimum twice a year, but I usually try to do it if I can every one or two months. But I think the Bible has given us the best, more than therapy, more than anything, the best indicator for finding what we don't even know about our stories and our spiritual health. Sorry, that beeping, if it's making it hard to hear. But it's actually the fruit of the Spirit. And when you hear people say the fruit of the Spirit, I hear people all the time put an S at the end. They say, oh, the fruits of the Spirit. Like there's a banana and an orange and an apple. No, no, no, if you study the Greek, it's a singular word. It's singular, it's one fruit with multiple attributes. An apple can be crispy and tangy and sweet and juicy all at the same time, but it's an apple.

And we either have an apple or we don't. We don't go, well, I got 70% of the fruit of the Spirit, so I'm doing pretty good. We either have the fruit or we don't. And the way we indicate is I just go and I sit by myself. I actually sit on the dock where it's nice and just look out at the water, just go find a peaceful place. And I just take my notebook and I say, love. Do I have love? Would my friends and family, a good question to know because we're not great at filtering ourselves. Ask yourself, would your friends and family describe you as loving? Do I feel like I'm receiving love? Do I feel like I'm worthy of love? And if there's something hindering us from experiencing that love, jot that down and go back to that. And then spend time with the Lord in that. Lord, why don't I feel love? What's robbing me of that? Joy. Do I have joy? What is robbing me of my joy? It could be as simple as how busy life got. And I'm so busy that I get frustrated and angry in traffic and angry when I'm in lines at the store. And I'm not experiencing God trying to have me impact the people around me because my busyness

and my schedule is robbing me of my joy. Or this relationship is robbing my joy. Am I a joyful person? Would people describe me as joyful? Peace. Do I have peace? Do I have patience? Goodness. Self-control. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Go through each one of those. That's my favorite exercise. And man, that will expose what parts of our story need some healing. The fruit of the Spirit. You know, do we love God? Do we know Him? Are we spending time with Him? I love in 1 John 2, 3, it says this is how we know that we know Him if we keep His commands. And I've heard, you know, studies on that verse and people are like, man, it sounds harsh. Like, can I love God and struggle in this area? And I'm like, no, no, you gotta go to the Greek. Because you go to the Greek, in the English, we say this is how we know that we know Him. It's the same word. But in the Greek, those two no's are totally different. And you could amplify that.

The first no is this is how you're sure of. This is how you're positive of something. The second one is know Him. This is how you know that you know Him. That's how you biblically know in a marital relationship. Intimately know. So you could amplify that. This is how you're sure that you're intimate with God. That you're intimate with Him if you keep His commands. And what he's saying, it's not this harsh measure of do you reach this measure? But what it's saying is that the more you spend time with the Savior, the more you spend time with His word and get to know His character and what He wants for you, as that happens, the things of the world mean less. And you'll end up keeping His commands because you see His commands aren't to see if you could live up to the standard, but His commands are to have you live an abundant life that if you steal or you kill or you have infidelity or you lie, it gives you unrest. It robs you of your peace. It takes from you what He's trying to give to you. And when you get intimate with Him, you don't want to do those things. You don't want the things of the world. You want the eternal things that He's offering you. You know, in closing, I've had so many people ask me about the Bible and just, you know, especially new Christians, but even some old Christians

that are like, look, I leave it up to the preacher man because there's a lot in there. And he helps me understand it and connect with it. And I said, look, I know there's Old Testament, New Testament, verses and chapters, and whether you're a new Christian or you've been in it, your whole life, it can be overwhelming to really, where do you start? What is this book? What does it really mean? And if somebody said, Matt, describe the Bible in one sentence. I say, the Bible's a marriage. It's a love story. That's what the Bible is. That's all it is. And that story was being written into history and tradition before people even knew what it was. And we lose it today because it's, you got to go to ancient Jewish tradition. It's not even all found in the Old Testament, but to them, it would be a cultural norm. It would be like referencing a drive-thru or a gas station to us. We'd be like, oh, it makes sense. But now years later, they don't have those things. So just to tell you, in ancient times, if a young man was gonna marry a young woman, he would come up with his mohar, his offer, his dowry. And he'd say, okay, so he'd be like, dad, this girl,

she's everything. I think she's worth, I don't know, 20 chickens, five goats, a cow. Like she's, I'm all in, I'm head over heels. And you're like, Matt, that's pretty messed up. selling women for farm animals. And it would be, I agree with you. But that's one of the biggest misunderstandings. They weren't selling women for farm animals. He wasn't buying a wife. He was buying the chance to ask her. She could say no. So what would happen is he and his dad would get his offer, get his dowry, and he would go to her house, and he would stand at the door, and he would knock. And he'd stand at the door, the knock, and they would build the Jewish homes back in the day where we have the door and the window, there would be a window next to it. And they weren't big homes, so it would actually be kind of awkward if she didn't want to entertain this, because she and her dad would come, and they'd look out the window, and they would analyze the guy, and the offer, and the father, and the family. And she could look at him and be like, no, I'm not interested. And they would leave him standing there knocking

until he went away. Or they would open the door. And by opening the door, that was the first step of the betrothal process. And they were actually, at that point, engaged. That was the first step of the engagement. And then what they would do is they would plan a huge family dinner, a big feast. And they would plan this feast, and at every Jewish feast, this is coming back from the Passover times, there would be these four cups on the table. And he would lay out his whole offer in front of the whole family. He'd say, all right, here's where we're gonna live, and here's what I'm gonna do for work, and here's how many kids I hope we have, and here's what I see for our life, and this is my faith. And he would basically expose all that he is. And then at some point in the feast, there was those four cups, and they meant different things. The first cup, everybody would drink, but some were reserved for some people. At some point, he would turn to what was called the third cup. The cup of salvation is what we know it as now. But back then, it was a cup of redemption and inheritance, because after this moment, if she drank it, if he died the next day, she inherited everything he had, because this was really what made them married.

So he would turn, and he'd say, look, you've heard everything I have to offer. This is my cup, take and drink. And she could say, okay. And she could drink it, which was her saying, I do. And now they were technically married, but there was still a marriage process. The marriage would take up to a year. So he'd say, okay, you may not understand this, but I have to go away for a while. I'm gonna go to my father's house, where there are many rooms. It's actually the word, we say many mansions in the Bible, but it's actually the word by it, which is many rooms or dwelling places, and I'm gonna build one for you and I. And I'm gonna keep working, and you're not gonna see me this whole time, but I'm just gonna keep building. But don't worry, because my best man, this is where we get the best man, my best man, he's gonna relay messages back and forth. Hey, Matt says he wants to put a pool table in the middle of the kitchen living room. No, he just wants to say he loves you. Okay, loves you too. Okay, and he's gonna relay messages back and forth. And I'm just gonna keep building. And nobody knows the day or the time of the hour, but my father knows, because I'm building on his house.

And your job, I don't know if you ever saw a girl on her wedding day, but your job is just as hard. You gotta be ready. You gotta put this dress and your makeup and get all dolled up like you do, remember? If any of you have been married, how long do you get ready on your wedding day? You gotta do that every day and be ready day and night, because nobody knows the day or the time of the hour. It's my dad's house and his rules, but one day he's gonna walk out and say, all right, looks pretty good, son, go get her. And I'm gonna grab my groomsman, my best man. We're gonna come rolling into town, blowing our trumpets and our rams horns. It's gonna be a big commotion production. And you're basically gonna look up and walk down the aisle. And we're gonna be together forever. And then we're gonna have this final toast. They haven't drank that toast. They had that third cup, and remember there was four. We're gonna have a final toast to finalize and consummate to finalize this marriage that started up to a year ago. Does this sound familiar to anybody? Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. And anybody that's willing, I'll come in and eat. He's Jesus, he's the Lord of Lords, King of Kings. He could knock doors down, but he doesn't. He stands and knocks with his offer, saying,

I'm right here, this is what I'm offering you. And then he says, anybody that's willing, I'll come in and eat. And then he gives us, a lot of us say, man, I wanna hear a word from God. I just wanna hear from him. But we don't go to the word of God. He's like, I already gave it to you. I gave it to you, it's right here. Anyone that's willing, I'll come in and eat, I'll reveal. In this, he'll reveal his whole plan, everything he wants for us in our lives, how he sees our relationships going, our relationship with him, his whole plan, everything we need to know to get through this side of eternity. And then at the last supper, he's sitting with a bunch of fishermen and disciples who've been following him. And at any Jewish meal, those four cups would have been there. If you've seen some Renaissance paintings and old ones, a lot of them are inaccurate. Some of them have all four of those cups there. So at some point in the meal, man, I don't think we see the heaviness of that when he reached for that third cup and he said, this is my covenant, take and drink. This is my blood, take and drink. To a bunch of Jewish fishermen, what they heard is, will you marry me? I bet you could hear a pin drop because there was a lot of confusion of what do you mean? And he said, what I'm offering, I want, I'm offering for you to enter a relationship with me, an intimate relationship that will start now and never end, an eternal relationship. And he said, guys, because I know you don't understand this, but tomorrow some things are going to happen and I'm going to go away for a while and I'm going to my father's house

where there are many mansions and I'm going to build one for you and you and you and anybody who's willing to take this cup and drink and say I do and enter this relationship. And he says, but don't worry, because though I'm leaving, my best man, my Holy Spirit, I'm going to leave with you and he's going to communicate. He's going to be a bridge and and be a way that we could communicate in the meantime while I'm up there building and you have a job. You just like the bride, you're the bride of Christ. Your job is to be ready. You got to be ready day and night because nobody knows the day or the time of the hour, but my father knows. And one day my father's going to say, OK, son, go get her. And I'm going to grab my groomsmen, my holy angels, and I'm coming through the clouds with trumpets and ram's horns. And you're going to see the big commotion to walk down the aisle. We're going to spend forever together. That's what he's saying. And then he said to them, he said at the last supper, we miss this first sometimes. He said, truly, I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. That's the finalization, the consummation of the marriage when he has that fourth cup with us one day. And that's what he's offering is my covenant, take and drink. I'm standing at the door knocking who will enter this relationship, this story. That's the story of us. That's a story in all of our lives, a story of redemption that he wants to plow through the lies of the guilt and the shame and the anxiety and everything and say, enter this with me. Take my yoke. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

So what do we do? What do we do? We've got to discover our stories. We've got to discover the stories of the people around us, use the tools we get, go through the fruit of the spirit, find those core memories that need healing and celebrate the ones that don't and live into the story he's created you to be unique, to be a part of this world, a part of people's lives, to be his hands and feet. And I don't know all of your stories, but man, I'd wager that neither do you. And I still don't know the rest of my story, but man, I'm going to keep discovering it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much that you invite us to be a part of your story, that you tell your story of love and redemption in and through our lives. I thank you that you have gone to the cross and resurrected so that we can have life and have it abundantly. Lord, that there's been many, many people that have come through this earth and said they're the Messiah. A lot of false messiahs have come through. But your story that qualifies you to be the true Messiah is that your identity is the son of God. So when you said your mission is Messiah, there's truth in it that you can't overcome the grave because of your identity as son of God. And you have called all of us to have an identity, to have a story as your children, to be parts, to be sons and daughters of the Most High. And Lord, I just pray that we would never be content with who we are in our relationship with you, that we'd always be content with what you've given us and what we have, but never in our relationship with you that we'd keep discovering our stories. It's so easy, Lord, for us to say, oh, my dad was a pastor, my grandpa was a pastor, my parents were Christians. It's a blessing to come from a family of faith or to have people of faith in our life. But Lord, salvation is not inherited.

We are all first generation sons and daughters of you. And that's our story of who we are, Lord. I pray that you'd break through the walls in our hearts, that you'd break through the blind spots, that you'd reveal the areas of our story that we need healing and the areas of our story that we need to go and share. and tell and listen. Lord, I ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. Thank you guys for coming to this workshop. I love doing it. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents, PO Box 2751, Greenville, North Carolina, 27836. Or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098. Or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.