I Buried My Father At 8, Then Jesus Found Me | Feat. Mattie Montgomery

Hey, everybody.

You know, there's many of us that have experienced pain in the area of our fathers and what we've encountered.

You know, we know divorce is at an all time high.

There's many people choosing to live together, and they're committed, but they're not covenanted.

And so we see so much brokenness in family.

You guys know, that's a big thing in my life.

My father dying prematurely, multiple abusive stepdads.

And a lot of you guys, even through the pandemic, call me Papa Siggs.

And so we know that God will actually bring people into our lives as ambassadors of the Father's heart.

And so I really feel like in so many ways, this could be one of the most important broadcasts that you're a part of.

Because if you look at different things happening in your life right now and you're like, why do I struggle with this?

Why do I go back to this sin?

Why do I find comfort in these things, even though I know this is not God's heart for my life?

You probably need some healing in this area.

I think that's why Jesus shows up and he says, oh, this is how we pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, and gives this profound revelation of Abba Father.

And here's the other thing.

I believe that those father wounds could even open in different seasons of our life.

That's my story.

Thinking that I was healed of it.

And then I get to another stage of life and it opens again.

And so this conversation could be one of the most important things that you need in this stage of your life right now.

So I've got a guest with me, and, you know, just.

It's so funny because I'm gonna go there just right off the bat, but, you know, I asked you if you'd be willing to talk about the heart of the Father.

And you know your pastor, Matty Montgomery, there's many people that view you as a father in the faith.

You have biological children of your own.

And I know a little bit about your story.

I just feel like you have so much insight here.

And so when I was praying, saying, like, man, if I can get an opportunity to sit down with Pastor Matty, what would we talk about?

I felt like I just kept Father, Father F.

And so you pull up today in a rental, and I actually walked out saying, like, oh, is he here yet?

And it's a Camaro.

And my biological father drove like a late 70s Camaro.

And so the only memories that I have of my dad is driving in his Camaro.

And so when you pulled up in the Camaro, like, it's obviously a modern one, I was like, wow.

You know, maybe.

You know, I don't want to be weird or hokey, but it just was kind of like, wow, maybe.

Maybe this is one of those little divine confirmation.

So I also asked if you dogged it out a little bit and floored it.

I'm not saying you did.

Can you confirm?

But welcome to my channel.

And for those who don't know you, do you mind just starting with kind of, like, who you are, where you're at in life now, but then going back to your stories?

Yeah.

Well, my name is Maddie Montgomery.

I pastor a church in northeast Tennessee called the Altar Fellowship.

Beautiful, vibrant, colorful community of kingdom people, many of whom have moved across the country, some across the world, to be a part of what God is doing there.

And incredible church.

It's amazing, man.

I love.

I feel like even if I wasn't the pastor, I'd want to just go there.

Yeah, people are incredible, and what God is doing is.

Is unlike anything I've ever seen.

And.

And now we planted this church just five years ago, and it's been explosive.

But prior to that, I spent about 12 years as a traveling itinerant evangelist in one way or another.

Now, I traveled to a lot of conferences and crusades and did that thing.

But at the same time, I also toured in a band called Fortinet.

I was the vocalist of that band.

Had the opportunity to preach the gospel through our music in bars and nightclubs all over the world.

Like, we weren't doing.

We were a Christian band, but we weren't going on tour with Christian artists.

We would intentionally bring out satanic bands and atheist bands and antichrist bands.

And we would do that because we wanted to preach the gospel to the people that needed it the most.

So, you know, we'd go into bars and nightclubs and we'd preach the kingdom.

And you would see, you know, I mean, we'd be spit on and cussed out, but the people doing that would be standing, you know, right next to someone else who has got both hands raised as tears roll down their cheeks.

And they say, man, I've been looking for hope.

And every night, people would respond to the gospel, come to salvation and faith in Jesus.

So we got to do that from 2000.

I joined the band in 2007, and then in 2016, we did a farewell tour.

And so it was just about a decade of fun traveling the world and preaching the gospel.

And some of the least likely places bold too, though.

Oh, man, it was awesome.

I remember those days and just seeing you preach the gospel unapologetically, like on the Warp tour, I mean, it was brutal, like, and, and.

And actually, I want to publicly honor you for that because, you know, there's many people you met from my team last night who were just like, hey, you're my hero.

You know, they were a part of that era as well.

And.

But also, there's that phrase biblically, like fruit that remains.

And just a cool story.

I want to.

I want to actually get this on film.

So after you got done preaching last night, we saw hundreds of young people literally run forward, jump to their knees, like, I want to fully surrender to Christ.

It was super powerful.

And then you walk back and you laid your hand on our music director.

His name's Aaron Craniac, and you just begin to pray for him.

And then he told you in the green room afterward that, like, what was it, like a decade ago?

Or you had basically met him after a show in New York, and you prophesied over him and said, you're going to be raised up as a pillar of the church or a church or something, and there's going to be a weight upon you, and you're going to bear that weight.

And at the time, he's obviously at a whole different church.

Years later, he joins our church, and now he is a pillar of our church, and he's leading five locations worth of worship.

So it's just incredible to think that, like, that season of your life is literally bearing fruit all these years later.

I'm so honored.

It's so cool.

It's like all I'm doing is just running around, you know, planting and watering seeds.

Yeah.

Only God knows what comes from those.

And it's really cool to get to see some of the fruit.

Yeah.

God has pulled out of my little life, you know.

Yeah.

It's amazing.

And we're linking to your church in the description as well, so people can check it out and watch your preaching and, you know, kind of subscribe over there.

So.

But let's talk specifically about, like, going deeper into your past, because I know that.

That you carry, you know, like, you carry the Father's heart as well.

I think that's one of the reasons why people are moving to join your church, and they're attracted to what you're doing because you feel the compassion, the love of Christ just flowing from your life.

But maybe go back and tell the story of your father.

Yeah, well, my father, he was born to a crack addict mother in the projects in Indianapolis, and she didn't know who his biological father was.

She didn't want to raise a baby, so she gave him away to another woman who lived in the same projects.

And he had brothers, sisters, half brothers, half sisters, adoptive brothers and sisters kind of running all around, all over the place.

By the time he married my mother, every one of his brothers and sisters were either dead or in prison.

He was an anomaly, the only member of his entire extended family to graduate from high school.

But he didn't just graduate from high school.

He went to college.

He got his master's degree.

He became a college professor.

Wow.

And when.

When I was born, he was a college professor at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.

And.

And so I was born in Indiana, and then we moved.

Shortly after that, he got a job teaching in a school in Oregon called George Fox University.

But he passed away when I was 8 years old.

He got cancer when I was, like, 3, and it had gone into a mission.

And then we moved, actually from Oregon to Michigan.

He got a job at a university in southeast Michigan, and within two weeks of moving there, he found a lump on his shoulder here.

And within six months, he was dead.

And so, you know, at 8 years old, burying your father is a, you know, kind of an indescribable experience.

You just.

You don't have context for it.

And people tell you all sorts of insane things, like, hey, you know, God works in mysterious ways, and he must be trying to teach you some important lesson.

And so I'm 8 years old, trying to process the theology of loss and suffering, you know, trying to sort of stare into the abyss of growing up without a dad, you know, and deal in an instant with this reality.

My dad's not going to be here when I go on my first date, when I learn to drive a car, when I apply for colleges.

He's not going to be here when I get married.

He's not going to meet my kids.

And, you know, and all of that was, like.

Was devastating.

And so I had.

Even prior to my dad's death, I struggled with behavior.

But, you know, after my dad died, I sort of had a great excuse to be angry at the world.

Yeah.

And so I spent the next years making, you know, the life of my mom and my classmates and my teachers, coaches, just.

Hell, yeah.

You know, I was known for fighting.

I was known for kind of constantly being in trouble, man.

It wasn't until God really got a hold of my life early in college that I was able to finally let go of the the pain that I'd allowed to become my identity.

And how did that happen?

Because.

Because I think what you're expressing is so real, especially for people who are watching right now.

It's.

The behavior was connected to that wound.

Yeah.

It was grief.

You know, and I always say, like, when you read Ecclesiastes.

Right.

Grief is supposed to be a season, not a cycle.

Yeah.

So we have to learn how to mourn.

We have to learn how to lament where.

And that's the one thing I think we don't teach in our churches well enough.

Like, we're always trying to, like, accelerate through that season.

But it's like, man, we've got to learn how to mourn better.

We have to learn how to sit in the suffering, sit in the loss.

But then also, there comes that Moses, or that.

That moment.

Hey, Moses, the servant is dead.

Let's wash our face for tomorrow.

We go in.

And I think what happens is grief goes from a.

A season to a cycle.

Yeah.

You know, and that's like.

There's so many people who come to our ministry that got heavily involved in occult practices that were connected to grief.

So it was like, they.

That's when they're like, oh, I went to the psychic medium, because maybe then I could talk to my dad again.

Yeah, right.

And then that.

That's so.

It's like they didn't say, I want.

They didn't wake up and say, I want to be a witch.

I want to be a warlock.

But that grief was connected.

Or there's so many people who are like, oh, I'm just drinking to get through this season.

And then it becomes a cycle of alcoholism, and that root system is loss.

And I think, for me, that was my story.

It's like, my dad died when I was in my early 20s from a genetic brain disease.

And so.

But before that, he had committed murder.

He went to prison.

It was like manslaughter.

So he eventually got out.

And then when I reconnected with him, I just tried to establish a relationship, and he actually rejected me.

And his last words were to me were, let sleeping dogs lie.

And it was kind of his way of saying, we've never had a relationship.

Why would we start now?

And I think he dealt with a lot of shame, probably feeling like a failure.

There was domestic abuse.

You know, he cheated on my mom.

So I think he, at that stage was probably like, listen, you're a grown man now.

Like, we never had a relationship.

Why should we?

He probably also knew that he was gonna die, and So I think that was his way of just being like, stay away.

It's over.

So when you talk about that destructive behavior, that was my.

That's how I got into alcoholism.

That's.

And it was the same thing.

It was like, if I can't have a good life, no one else is either.

Yeah.

So sabotaging.

Self sabotaging.

Destroying everything around me.

And so when you said that, I just wanted to flesh it out a little bit because there's so many of you watching right now that are realizing that again, I said at the beginning of this broadcast, now you're getting an insight into it, that when you go deeper, you'll see that maybe it's the fatherlessness, maybe it's that wound, maybe it's the grief, and from that is growing out all these other weeds.

So then you said, now you go to college.

By the way, quick side note, we're in Indiana.

Yeah.

So I'm thinking about, like, your dad coming out of Indianapolis and now his son.

And it's like an emotional moment is in Indiana leading hundreds of kids to Christ last night, calling them to repentance, you know, sitting here now, broadcasting to hopefully tens of thousands of people.

But what happened in college that caused you.

Because you just said something happened.

What was that?

Yeah, well, you know, my.

My issue, and I think this is probably the issue for.

For many of you watching, is, is that I.

I didn't know who I was.

It's my.

It was my father's job to tell me who God said that I so am, to see me for who I am.

And I think because he was gone, it's like I didn't know who I was.

So I thought I wanted to be feared, and so I'd fight the whole world.

I thought I wanted to be wanted, and so I'd chase girls, you know, I thought I wanted to be free from control or from boundaries.

And so I walked away from the church, you know, and I felt like I didn't know who I was or who I wanted to be.

And so because of that, I end up being destructive and rebellious and divisive and hurtful to everybody around me.

And I think that's, you know, what is a father, but the one who's supposed to be at the front of the line bearing witness to who God says that you are.

Wow.

And.

And I think this is, you know, fathers.

I mean, the greatest inheritance any of us will.

Could ever receive from a father is identity.

Yeah.

And.

And so for me, God took me on a whole journey, really began the summer after my freshman year of college, I, you know, had left the church.

I had started to study religion, world religions and philosophy.

And I kept running into this issue.

And the issue was, you know, when I'd read Plato, when I'd read Lao Tzu and the Dao de Jing, when I'd read, you know, Buddhist writings and teachings, it seemed like there was this sort of universal acknowledgment of a moral standard.

Yeah.

Everybody, every philosophical, political, religious voice all throughout history said we should be loving and kind and patient and generous.

Cool.

But there was this nagging question in the back of my head, and that is, what about the fact that I have failed miserably to be loving and kind and patient, Generous.

I mean, serious.

If this is what God, whoever God is, if this is what God has made us for.

And it's so obvious that every religious leader, every philosophical voice all throughout human history have all agreed this is what we were made for.

What about the fact that I have failed miserably to meet that standard?

I'm in trouble, right?

And.

And so I'm sitting on the steps.

In July of 2006, I was sitting on the steps of my college dorm, actually reading a book about Buddhism.

And.

And I just kept getting hammered by this thought.

And the way I put it right now, the way I might phrase it right now, is, is this thought that I am a sinner.

Yeah.

Like Romans tells us, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Like that was the reality that was just bearing down on me.

There is a standard, and I don't meet it.

There is a standard, and I've failed to get there.

There is a standard, and I fall short of it every day.

What am I going to do?

What's my hope?

And the wild thing is, throughout the entire expanse of human history, there's only been one answer.

Though there have been many voices that call us to the standard, there's only ever been one answer for the fact that all of us have failed to meet that standard.

And that is that he that knew no sin became sin, that I, through him might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus is that the Lamb of God came to take away the sin of the world.

Yeah.

That's my only hope.

And so I.

God sort of backed me into this philosophical corner.

Yeah.

Sitting on the steps of my dorm in the summer of 2006.

And when I finally set this book down and said, I can't argue anymore, I can't run anymore, there's no way out of this, but to recognize that Jesus is the only answer for me.

It was like.

I've explained it before.

I said it was like waking up in a room full of strangers.

It's like I suddenly became conscious of the fact that God wasn't just a concept or an idea, that God was a real being.

And not only that, but he was very close to me, that he could see me, that he was with me in that moment.

And so his presence became inescapable, unavoidable for me.

And I sat there on the steps of my dorm for what must have been hours, crying and shaking in the presence of God and saying, I mean, I don't know if you can use somebody like me, you know, and all of my.

It was like we had this conversation, this ongoing conversation, and.

And it was like every objection I had, he had an answer for.

I said, God, I'm too weak.

I can't follow you.

And he said, yeah, but I use weak things to confound the strong.

But, God, I'm so scared, you know, I don't think I can do this.

And he'd say, yeah, but perfect love casts out fear.

Every issue that I brought to the table, he had an answer for.

He wasn't intimidated by my weakness.

He was moved by love for me.

And in that moment, man, he confronted my doubt, he confronted my weakness.

He confronted my insecurity.

And it wasn't like, all right, you're done.

You're saved.

You're getting into heaven.

No, it was like, all right, this is where we're going to start from.

Yeah.

You need to know that I love you and I'm invested in you.

This is step one.

Let's go.

Wow.

And so, man, everything in my life changed that day radically.

Well, you know, I'm thinking, you know, when you have a father wound, you go into performance mode.

Well, there's two.

I always say this like, so imagine an orphanage, and everybody's been orphaned.

They don't have a father.

There's typically two types of orphans.

There's the one.

And I've traveled all over the world, and I've traveled to orphanages, whether it's in Ukraine or different regions.

And whenever you walk into the orphanage, it's like, there's one kid that is, like, performing, like, I'm going to do every trick I know how to do, so maybe you'll adopt me, right?

And they're trying to make you laugh.

They're doing magic tricks.

They're coming up to you.

And then there's the other type of orphan, the kid in the corner of the room who's like, I'm so dead inside.

I don't care.

Nobody's coming to rescue me.

Whatever.

And I feel like for me, in my journey of fatherlessness, I've been both orphaned.

Right.

But when you think about paganism, because you were talking about, like, world religions, and I also went on a journey.

Matter of fact, my journey of studying world religions was so intense that Indiana University, Bloomington, during my junior year asked me if I would teach it as an elective course.

So I trained that summer, and then that fall, they allowed me to teach, like, a world religion survey.

And so we went to, like, the Jewish Cultural Center.

We went to the Islamic Cultural Center.

And I was on a similar journey, which is very interesting, because I think one of the things is when you're looking for identity, because father's given identity as an inheritance.

So then what do you do?

Well, I'm gonna go make an identity.

I'm gonna find.

I'm gonna read the Hindu Vedas.

Yes.

I'm going to read the Quran.

I read the Satanic Bible, which is the playbook for American culture.

That's a whole nother.

You know, But I was like, okay, nobody gave me an identity.

I'm going to make one.

And so I started doing.

And then what?

Then what also happened was I was oscillating.

I was like the orphan that was basically entertaining everybody.

And, like, look at me, look at me.

You know, like, I'm playing music, I'm creating art.

I'm doing this.

And then I was the, the other orphan that was like, shunning the world.

I don't care if anybody, you know, And I was oscillating between both of those.

And then at the same time, trying to make.

It's exhausting.

Trying to make your own identity.

That's right.

You know, but when you talk about paganism, and I kind of heard you speaking into that, paganism is essentially, there's this deity, and in order to appease this deity, I'm going to physically do something.

Right.

You know, so, hey, we need rain for our crops.

Let's do a rain dance.

Like, I'm going to do something to appease this deity.

And by that standard, a lot of Christians are pagans.

Yeah.

Because they don't understand the gospel is you bring nothing.

Yes.

Like, you know, and because there's people watching right now are like, I had a bad dad.

I'm going to be a good dad.

Right?

No, you're not.

I, I, I, you know, my dad was a bad husband.

I'm going to be a good husband.

No, you're not.

Right.

Because the devil will get you to the same destination by a different route.

So you think you're going to be different than your dad.

So I always said, I'm never going to be an alcoholic like my dad.

I literally.

The devil got me to the same destination by a different route.

And I was raised in church, but never knew the gospel, so.

Because the gospel is, you bring nothing.

It's all filthy rags.

Right.

And so it was like, I don't.

I don't think I actually understood the gospel until.

Until I understood my total depravity.

Yeah.

And it was when I was in college that I finally got to the end of myself and I was like, I can't be good.

Yeah.

Like I.

I defined myself as my, My biological dad was bad and I'm going to be good.

Right.

And here I am with women doing.

I literally ended up in the same destination.

And then my own.

My.

What I thought was Christianity was paganism.

Yeah.

It was.

I'm gonna fast.

Superstition.

Yeah.

I'm gonna fast.

I'm gonna pray.

I'm.

I'm gon Read my Bible every day.

And I'm like, wait a second.

I'm a pagan.

Yeah.

Because that's how they approach their deities.

And I think what I heard you say is when you were sitting on the steps and correct me if I'm wrong, and you're reading this, you were like, wait a second.

I can't be a good Buddhist.

I can't be like, well, you know.

The idea was there's this standard.

I think everybody.

Yeah.

I can't reach this in our soul.

That this is what God has made us for.

It's what God has called us to.

But everybody's written books about it.

We start entire.

We start entire religions about.

Yeah.

Trying to get to the standard.

Climb the mountain.

Yeah.

And it just dawned on me in that moment.

No one can do this.

That's.

That's the whole point of the law in the scriptures is to teach us that no one can do this.

Yeah.

That we are in desperate need of a savior.

The only people that resented Jesus for his ministry were people that were.

Had.

Had convinced themselves that they.

They were doing it.

Wow.

Everybody else knew, like, there's this.

These 613 mitzvahs.

I cannot keep these.

I'm in serious trouble if someone doesn't come save me.

I'm.

I'm doomed.

Yeah.

And.

And I think that's where I.

Where I came to in that moment.

In 2006, it's almost cliche, but I think about the prodigal, and he just gets to the end of himself, and he's like, maybe I can just go back to my father's house as a servant, right?

And then he shows up and he gets embraced.

And I think that that is that moment where.

And somebody watching right now is getting an epiphany.

You're getting a breakthrough right now.

Because that, for me, it was like, I can't be a good husband.

I can't be a good father.

I do not have the ability to do it in and of.

In my own strength and my own power.

And any attempt to make my own identity is futile.

Right?

All my accomplishments or whatever I thought was an accomplishment, and I really came to the end of myself.

And that's my story, too.

And then from that moment on, I said, if anybody ever calls me a good dad, it's Christ that they see in me being the good dad.

If they ever say I'm a good husband, it's Christ in me.

You know, a story I always tell.

You know, years later, being married to Julie, you know, we used to go and do street evangelism, and we would call it treasure hunting.

So it's like, God, give me a vision.

What do they look like?

What are they wearing?

What are they struggling with?

And we would write it down.

Then we would go into these new northwest Indiana towns and try to find these people and minister to them and say, hey, look, the Lord already showed me you.

Your situation, kind of combining like, prophecy with evangelism.

And so the Lord shows me, woman, blue shirt in a laundromat.

Having a bad day just needs a reminder that God cares for her.

So I go into the laundromat, and this is in the middle of the day, and I see a woman with a blue shirt.

I go to approach her.

She turns around.

It's my wife, Julie.

Wow.

And we had our own home with a washer and dryer.

And I was like, julie, what are you doing here?

She's like, mike, I didn't want to bother you.

She's like, we had a plumbing issue at the house, and we flooded the whole first floor.

It's been the worst day ever.

She's like, I took our clothes and all of our stuff here to the laundromat, and I pull out this piece of paper that says, blue shirt in a laundromat needs encouragement.

My point is, I said, julie, it was you.

But I'm Too stupid to know that.

But the Holy Spirit in me sent me to my own wife.

So then when people are like, man, I wish.

I wish, you know, I had a husband like Mike.

I'm like, no.

Like, yeah, it's.

It was Christ in me to my wife, like, I don't have the ability to be a good husband.

And I think what I hear in your story is like a real gospel moment of surrender, which is the root of being free from.

From all of this.

That's it.

Surrender.

Yeah.

Yeah, man.

It's like, you know, when.

When we surrender, the issue is, I think, so many of us, we trade serving ourselves for serving our image of God in an image that looks a lot like us.

Wow.

And.

And because of that, what happens, What's.

What's produced is, you know, religion, what we call religion.

It's like, it's the idea that I'm going to pray and fast enough to.

To.

To have deserved God's goodness.

Yeah.

And I'm convinced that what he's doing in the church and our age is to deliver us from the kind of.

Deliver us from faith that is built on what we feel we have earned.

Yeah.

You know, I talk a lot about what I call the realm of the 11th talent.

And, you know, in the parable of the talents, you see the, you know, one servant gets five talents.

One, two, and one one.

The five talent man, he produces five more.

The two talent man, he produces two more.

So everybody, they reap exactly what they sow.

But twice in the story, the master is described as a man who reaps where he does not sow and gathers where he does not scatter seed.

I think that's such a profound description.

Who reaps where they don't sow.

Like James tells us, be not deceived.

Whatsoever man sows, that also will he reap.

So there's this idea that has become ingrained in us that we will get what we earn.

And that's.

That's true of the natural world.

I don't think that's true of the kingdom.

Wow.

And here's why we say, well, you reap what you sow.

But the doctrine of grace is in direct contradiction today.

Right.

We are all saved because we've reaped something we never sow.

Yeah.

And so at the end of that story, you know, certainly you have the warning about the 1 talent and who buried what was given to him.

But after that, that one talent is taken, and it's given to him who has 10 talents.

And Jesus says, this is because to him who has, more will be given.

And so there's this idea that, you know, he.

He worked for the extra five talents.

He got five talents, and then he put those to work, and he.

He turned those five into 10.

But at the end of the story, he received an 11th talent.

He didn't do anything for.

He didn't earn.

He didn't ask for.

And I think that's what kingdom faith gives us permission to pursue.

It's the ability to say, God, I haven't earned this.

Yeah, I don't deserve this.

I could never do enough work to produce this.

But I'm going to be bold enough to ask you for it anyway.

Wow.

And that has been, you know, our experience.

The Lord started to speak this to me about five years ago when we moved our family up to Johnson City to plant this church.

And, you know, I had people that had been in ministry.

You say, you know, you got a pastor for 10 years before you can get any kind of traction.

And pastoring is brutal, and it's not fun.

And, you know, it just.

It goes really slow and it's boring and mundane and.

And I was feeling kind of discouraged.

And, you know, one day, just private devotional time, I got to Matthew 25.

I'm reading this.

This parable of the talents, and.

Yeah.

And Jesus, you know, begins to talk about the 11th talent.

And I start to realize, you know, there's a.

That God is better than I thought.

Yeah.

And he will give us things that we didn't earn.

And I had in my life only had faith for that, which I feel like I'd worked for.

Like, I want to have a revival, so I'm going to fast for that revival.

Yeah.

I want to have a, you know, powerful ministry moment.

So I'm going to spend hours every day in prayer for that powerful ministry moment.

And because I have done all this work, now I'll give myself permission to have faith for it.

But we came to Johnson City on day one.

We said, we believe this city is going to be our 11th talent.

The thing we don't have to work for that.

God's going to open it to us not because we are good, but because he that's good.

And so.

So we came into the city, and God has just totally blessed and prospered our work there.

And it has been far beyond, vastly beyond the sum total of our efforts.

And it's the only.

The only attribution is it's not because I'm a great preacher or a good pastor or leader.

I didn't know what I was doing.

I'd never done this before.

It was, it was because God is good and he's better than I could ever be.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's like mercy is when you get what you don't deserve.

Exactly.

You know, living it, living in that realm of mercy.

And you know, it's like, you know, I think right now we're living in this very like PTSD or oriented, you know, it's like we, and we were talking about this last night, but it's just like my whole life I've been fighting.

Then I become a Christian, now I'm going to fight the devil.

And people are stuck in these trauma responses where it's like, but show me a season of peace.

Yeah.

Show me a time when you rested in what Christ already did.

That's right.

The fact that like he secured it.

And it's like, are we resting in our works or his works?

And, and I think for same.

Same for us.

I mean, dude, I showed up to New York city with an 18 person launch team and $50,000.

And what's crazy is, you know, I saw churches come into New York City with a quarter of a million dollars.

And, and they were telling me, we don't have enough money.

And I'm like, can you share what you do have, though?

Or they would come in with like 60 person teams from across the US and within two to three years they'd be gone.

And somehow or another, we just kept advancing.

And here's fatherless Mike Signorelli.

Here's first generation Mike Signorelli here.

And it was like.

And I, and of course I had to deal with a whole bunch of issues in my own soul because like I mentioned earlier, it's like every season of your life, I think has potential to unlock that father wound in another way, you know, because, because you can use it as an excuse and you could say, you know, on your wedding day, you're walking down the aisle, where's my dad?

Yeah.

Then you, the birth of your first kid, where's your dad?

Then you plant a church, where's my dad?

But then the real answer is either he was always there.

If, if, if the true father is your heavenly father, it's like either he was always there or a father wasn't there.

Yeah.

And it's like, so you, the father wound will say, your dad's not here.

But the Holy Spirit would say, yeah, he always was.

That's right.

I mean, it's by the Holy Spirit that we cry out, abba Father.

That's it.

He bears witness to our adoption of sons.

And that's it.

Coming into that reality changed everything for me.

Recognizing that I had not just a heavenly father in a sentimental way, but in a practical, like, he had been protecting me, providing for me, teaching me what I needed to know, when I needed to know it.

There have been seasons of life, and he's been very intentional to say, all right, kids, sit down.

I need to teach you.

You know, before I got married, we spent.

He said, I want you to fast for the next week.

I'm going to teach you how to be a man.

We went on this journey over the course of this week where he said, here's three or four areas that you need to clean up, because I'm going to send you your wife soon.

And so he has been, in a very practical way, as scripture promises a father to the father.

That's literal, what you just said.

Yes.

And I think there's people watching right now that they don't have that relationship.

But I feel like there's salt in this talk because some of y' all are being provoked right now to say, I need to.

That.

You know, it's like, could you.

Could you open up the scriptures and open up a journal and say, okay, this is my conversation with my father.

Because I look back in my life and I see he was guiding me the whole way.

And.

And maybe something to kind of like, close it out on.

I remember when people were checking me all the time, how do you know God called you to New York City?

I'm sure they asked you the same thing about your city.

How do you know?

How do you know?

And of course, I used to try to vindicate it with, like, oh, but I got this sign and this and this.

And finally I was like, you know what?

Who cares?

And here's why.

Because I have two daughters and the idea of going into a store and asking for something, because, you know, I'm the oldest of five kids.

We were on welfare growing up.

We were food stamp family.

So I never.

I was conditioned.

You don't go into a store and ask for anything because you already know the answer.

The answer is no.

And then having two daughters of my own and just seeing how far free they were to be like, dad, can I have this?

And they'll ask, even if they think it's a no, just on the off chance it could be a yes.

And they're daddy's girl.

So it's a lot of yeses, right?

And so then I got this revelation of, like, Because I think like, the hyper charismatic Pentecostal types, you know, they don't have a full revelation of, like, son or daughter.

And we limit God.

We're afraid to ask.

And then you got the reformed folks who are like, oh, we're not prosperity gospel.

Neither one of them have a revelation of sonship.

Yeah.

And so it's like, my girls would be like, dad, can I have this?

Can I have this?

Can I have this?

And finally I started telling people, who cares if God told me to go to New York City?

What if I chose New York City and he chose me?

So therefore, it's irrelevant because there's, you know, people are paralyzed.

Like, you know, should I move to this city?

Should it?

It's like, what if you chose the city, but God chose you?

And him choosing you is more important than you choosing a stupid region.

Yeah.

It's like, well, I'm here now.

Yeah, why not get to work?

It trivializes it.

Even when I was in northwest Indiana, I said, father, I've been faithful to harvest this field.

Will you let me go harvest in another field?

But I'm your son.

And I think, like, for me, breaking free from, like, really slave mindset, you know, and because a slave is always getting assignments, and I think, even for us, God, what's your will?

For my life?

It's like to actually be adopted into my family.

And so it's like slaves are getting assignments, but sons and daughters get opportunities.

Good man.

Well, and the difference, you know, they both work in the father's house.

The difference between a son and a slave is that a son inherits the house he's building.

Yes, but a slave doesn't.

And I think this is our issue in the church, is that we, like the prodigal, say we're happy just being servants.

Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

That's his speech.

So he goes back home with his heart, determined to just say, I don't need an inheritance.

I don't need anything.

I'll just.

I'll just work if you'll help me survive.

And that's how most people in the American church approach God right now.

But the truth is he's called us not to be servants or slaves.

He's called us to be sons.

Now, that may look the same.

We may do the same work on the same stuff, but the difference is what I'm building, this kingdom I'm building, I get to inherit this is my.

So this October and you guys can pre order the links in the description.

I have a book coming out called inherit your freedom.

And so when you talked about that, I mean, got chills all over me because they're both working.

But the difference is there's fruit that remains.

You're building a legacy.

It's bigger than you.

And so like for me, signorelli or signorelli, it literally meant murderer.

It meant spousal abuse, it meant adulterer.

And so it's like by connecting my name to Christ, there's an inheritance of that legacy.

And as I die to myself daily, what's happening is I'm not conforming to the world, but I'm conforming that name.

And it's so funny, bro, because I just got back from Sicily because part of writing this book, inheritance your freedom, I traced my lineage because I had no connection.

And as I got to Sicily, I found out that these Christians out there already knew who I was.

We watch your YouTube channel, blah, blah blah.

And I just got.

Maybe we'll show some footage of it.

But I got asked to preach at this very large church in Sicily where my family's from.

And really big, there's this banner in Italian, it says Jesus Christ is lord, but lord is signore and my name is Signorelli, which my name actually means little lords.

Wow.

So, so like there's a Christian lineage to my last name that basically means like little, little Christs.

Yeah.

You know, so here's me preaching now.

My whole family on my dad's side was multi generational Catholic.

So here I am in a spirit filled church in Sicily underneath this banner that says Jesus Christ is lord.

S I G N O R E.

And my name's S I G N O R E L L I.

Wow.

The.

The little lords.

Yes.

So I say that to say I'm standing under an inheritance and my daughter's like in there.

And I mean, I was wrecked, bro, because I didn't inherit in the natural, I didn't inherit anything.

But in the spiritual, it's like we serve the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and you get grafted into this lineage that's so much bigger than us.

And I see that on your life.

And that's why I just felt like I needed to bring you to the couch to talk about this.

And there's many of you receiving freedom right now.

Strongholds coming down in your mind, patterns of thinking being broken.

So can you just maybe lead them through some prayer right now?

And I want to Tell you this, man, I already had a kid reach out to me.

And they said that last night when you just led them through prayer.

This kid, I think he was like 16 years old, he said, I feel so free after that prayer.

Like, if.

If last.

If tonight was over.

And that's all it was.

I'm.

I'm good.

Come on.

That's so good, man.

So could you maybe just lead them through some prayer right now?

And I want to share.

I want to share an idea with you.

So.

So much of what we call deliverance ministry is built on this premise.

It's built on a false premise.

And the false premise is this.

Okay, I have Jesus.

What else do I need?

The truth is, I think so much of what drives, you know, deliverance, or our pursuit of freedom comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the ferocity of Jesus.

Like, what we experience of Christ is that he's loving and gentle and patient and kind.

But that's not all he is.

The truth is, when hell looks at Jesus, they see something like Genghis Khan.

Yeah, Genghis Khan.

This is one of my favorite stories.

It's a horrible thing, Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan is said to have killed 1.7 million people in one hour.

Crazy.

One hour, 1.7 people dead.

So this is like brutal, relentless, insane, tyrant.

This is a king that you would never stand against.

That's what hell sees when they look at Jesus.

That's what hell sees.

In Colossians 2, it says that Jesus disarmed every principality and power, and he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross.

And so I want you to know, here's where I'm going to pray from.

This is what I want to pray over you, is that the victory of Jesus would be made manifest in your life, that the power of the cross would become a reality that you live in, not just an idea that you consider.

That's it.

Amen.

So let's pray.

Father, I thank you for the blood of the Lamb that was shed on the cross.

I thank you, God, for the power, for our forever freedom that was released there at the cross.

God, I thank you not just for the cross, but I thank you for the life that was given there at the cross.

For our inheritance, for our deliverance, for our freedom, for our total healing.

God, I speak right now to your purpose and plans over every person listening to this prayer.

I pray, God, that those plans would become a reality.

I pray the darkness of despair or captivity that it would be broken right now.

But the lies of life that Jesus came to release into them.

Lord, I pray right now that you would bring them in an instant through decades of trauma, that what could take years and years of counseling.

God, I pray that you would do it right now, in an instant.

I pray over their lives that the Lamb that was slain would receive the reward of his suffering.

That Jesus would be manifested as victorious warrior, as conquering king, and their life would be tangible evidence of that reality.

Lord Jesus, I release healing in your name into the life of every person under the sound of my voice.

I release peace in your name to every person under the sound of my voice.

Let their life become a trophy of your victory on the cross.

I pray this in the mighty name of Yeshua, Jesus the king.

Amen.

Come on.

Amen.