Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to another episode of ten More Minutes. I am your host, Kevin Neville, and I'm here with Pastor Michelle Lupo.
Yeah, Lope. I almost got it.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: I practiced it, like five times. All kinds of. Of names.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: What's, like, the weirdest version you've heard?
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Probably like Lo perfredo or Le perfido.
We get it all.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Well, I'll call you Pastor Michelle, if that's okay.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: That sounds great. Michelle's even.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Even better. Right? From. From Freedom Life Church in South Butler.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Which is like the dream team.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Oh, you're so.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: We.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: We.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: We. You. We. We've started to get to know your kids, pastor. We've known your youth pastor forever. You and your husband.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: And your kids, your daughter.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Oh, I.
And my sister's actually on staff as well, so it's just. It's an amazing story. We're just so grateful, so kind. When we became the senior pastors 10 years ago, we've been at the church for 25 years. But when we became the senior pastors, we had served Chris and carol ball for 15 years, and they were called here. And so we became the senior pastors, and we were like, well, who's going to be us? You know, it was just. It was us, Derek and I, Pastor Becky, our children's pastor, and our secretary. That was our staff at the time. And we would have these staff meetings with four of us, and we were like, who's going to come to South Butler? It's not. There's no.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: South Butler is, like, out there.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Out there, you know?
Y. Yep. It's a little hamlet, and God's just brought people, and it's amazing.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And you say that and you, you know, you expect this tiny little church when you get out there, and it is thriving.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: It is.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: It's growing.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: We're so humbled.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: God's doing some really cool things, and we just love seeing people free. We have a passion for our region, a passion for our community, and just people to experience freedom and freedom in Jesus Christ.
That's our goal. And we're just humbled to be able to be a part of it. We do have incredible staff, but not only staff, we have incredible. I was just telling someone today, we have an incredible core group of people that are just so. Just passionate and ready to go. Like, they're like, we gotta climb this mountain with you. You know, we're gonn on take the world. And it's just really neat.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: And the energy level, you know, you say when you. When you have people that are in love with Jesus.
Passionate and you know, like you said, just like electric.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: They are, they're just hungry. They're hungry for God. We just had 20 something baptisms on Sunday.
We, we do Freedom conference at our church, which is a powerful, just a 12 week course and then a conference that just brings real freedom to people.
And it's just really, really neat. It's really neat to see people just hungry for God. And I think that in this world, and that's where kind of like all of my message even came from, is this world is just hungry for authenticity and truth. And we have just one of our culture codes at Freedom Life is Jesus first. And if we can keep Jesus at the center and that's what it's all about, then nothing else matters. And I think that that's what we, where we've been striving for. And I think people are hungry. They're hungry for truth. There's so much chaos and so much disruption and so many voices out there. And so I think that the voice at Freedom Life is the voice of the Holy Spirit. Just like we just want to speak the truth of the word of God. And so you speak in my language.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: This Jesus centric humanity, Jesus, you know, it's something that we'll all sort of longing for, especially in this world of, you know, chaos.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: It is, it's chaos. And I think people just, they just want to know like, they just are, they're like, okay, I had this experience or I had this, this encounter with God as a child and I walked away. But I have my own kids now and they want to come to church. I mean, we had just stories after story of that or, or I was, I was hurt, I was broken. And you know, I just knew I needed to come. People like, I drove by on my motorcycle and I knew I needed to come to this place like, because I think they're just longing for something that the world can't satisfy and they want the truth. And that's what we just are passionate to bring is just the truth of his word.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: I love that. I love that. Now Michelle, first of all, thank you for being part of Oasis 2025.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: And you are our anchor speaker for the conference. How does it feel to be the anchor speaker?
[00:04:41] Speaker B: It's very humbling, just very like, okay, I'm just bringing, I'm tying all of the pieces together, these ideas of wells.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah, how can you, how many messages can you have on wells? I know apparently you could have a lot and keep going. This is amazing.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: It is. It's amazing. And there's been so many beautiful stories, beautiful moments, beautiful prophetic moments, beautiful encounters with God, beautiful times of worship. And I just love how every speaker can come and bring their piece of the pie, you know, and their heart for what God is bringing, what God is speaking to them and everyone.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Unique.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Unique word, isn't that. It's just so powerful to hear God just, okay, this is what you need to say. And that's what was just like, over and over in my heart, like, God, I just. I want to say what you want me to say, you know, how do you want me? I think I literally did my message like three times because it was like, is it this angle?
[00:05:46] Speaker A: No.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Is it this angle? I just kept having so much angst, like, no, it's not that. And finally, as soon as I just like, just started typing, actually, like last night, I redid it all. And it's the same passage, but it just. From a different angle. And finally my heart was at peace. And I was like, this is it.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: This is beautiful.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: This is it.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Okay, now with a lot of the other speakers, we heard the speaker first. I was able to talk about it, then you discussed it. But with you, I was saying I'm kind of excited about this way. Yeah, we're actually interviewing you before the message before. So I'm going to ask you give us a sneak peek.
Everybody else will have heard this. We'll take this at the end, but for me, it's a sneak peek.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: It's a sneak peek for you. So about two months ago, I was reading in my devotions, the Bible plan I have takes me from, like, in the Old Testament, if I've read the story in Kings, it'll take me to the same story in Chronicles. And I just love it because it just kind of, for my a little bit distracted personality, like, oh, this is new. You know, I'm not kind of stuck in one in one book for a while.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: You sort of see in the parallels and different point of views and perspectives.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: And the different connections. So I just love it. It's really great.
But so I read the story of Manasseh in Second Kings, and so I was like, wow, you know, that was a very moving passage where Manasseh is the son of Hezekiah, who Hezekiah was, you know, a king after God's heart.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Which we just got the sermon from Josh about Hezekiah, right?
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So the king, you know, that, you know, Hezekiah was this, you know, amazing king, godly king and manasseh steps in his son. And the verse, the first couple verses says that Manasseh rebuilt the high places that his father tore down.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Ouch. And it was like, oh, like God, like man. Like, first of all, on so many levels, right? So this is the extra 10 minutes. Maybe I'll give you a piece of what I was going to share.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Because one thing. It took us so long in the story, so long to get him torn down in the first place.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. So it took time. And all this time that Hezekiah took, like, to rebuild. To rebuild the temple and bring. Because Ahaz was his. Was his dad. So it was like, very evil, very godly. And Manasseh came, and I was like, man, as.
As a parent, like, as a parent, you're just like, well, what happened? Like, I raised my kid in this godly culture, and then he just. He just tore it down. Like, he. He totally rebelled against what his father stood for.
And so I. I read that. I was like, God, what have I rebuilt, you know, in my temple? Like, what.
What are the things. What are the idols that I've. That I've, you know, rebuilt that either I tore down or, you know, that someone else has. Has brought down? Like, what are the things that.
That I've come in that have muddied the waters?
What have I brought in that isn't of you? And I just feel like in. We just talked about it. In this day and age, there's so many things that can cloud our view, and there's so many voices, and God is calling us to be a spotless bride, and he doesn't want anything that's gonna take away from his glory and from his holiness, from his honor and his fame. So I was like, wow, God, he came. He rebuilt those high places. And then it says in there, it says that Manasseh led his people astray. And as a leader, I was like, oh, man. Lord, please let me never, ever.
Like, the weightiness of leadership, the weightiness of people following me, the weightiness of what have I brought in?
And.
And just I was responsible for leading these.
These people, like, this group of people astray.
And so that just hit me. So in kings, that's where the story ends. And I was. So I plan.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: No, no hope.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: There was no hope. I was just like, oh, Lord, forgive me. Like, I don't want to be leading. You know, I'm just like, you know, just kind of a dagger. And so I went to the next, you know, the next chapter and took me to Second Kings 33 or Second Chronicles 33. And that's the story again. So I was like, well, okay, you know, I know how this is. Spoiler alert. You know, this is how the story is going to go.
So I'm reading along, and all of a sudden it says that they took Manasseh, you know, that God allowed Manasseh to be taken into exile by the. I think it's the Assyrian army to Babylon. And while he was in exile, it says. It just says while he was in distress, he called out to God and he humbled himself before the Lord.
And I was like, man.
And it says that God restored him to his kingdom and brought him back from exile. He brought him back to his kingdom.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: You hear that? You wonder how the writers of Kings. Why did you leave that out?
[00:10:49] Speaker B: I know I tried to do so much research to be like, okay, so is this a valid part of the story? You know, like, I just wanted to be able to speak truth today or tonight, and.
But I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything as of why that was left out.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Well, that's the beauty of the Scriptures, right? You know, reading it in context, that the whole story's there, but sometimes we have to dig.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Sometimes we have to dig.
And so I just was amazed at the grace of God that he.
And it says that God heard his supplication. It says he heard his entreaty. And I was like, what is that, Lord? And it's supplication. Like, he heard his heart and he restored him. And just the incredible grace of God that he gave him back what he didn't deserve.
And then it says that Manasseh, he rebuilt the walls of his city, he brought back protection, and he.
He tore down the altars and he told his people to follow God.
And it was just like, it was just the redemption story. Like, God has always been about restoration, always from the beginning of time.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: It seems like this is sort of a nutshell of the story of the captivity and then Nehemiah and Ezra, you know, as a nation. But this is how it happened with an individual.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: Totally. I totally agree. That's such a great point.
Um, so, yeah, so that's really from that place. I've just been, you know, personally, just really asking God, like, God, give me revelation in your scripture. You know how some years you're just like, God just wants you to plow through and do your year Bible in a year and, you know, kind of accomplish that. But I felt like this year I was just supposed to, like, if there's like meat in one verse. Then that's okay.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Just walk slowly. Yeah, get the thing. I go on the Appalachian Trail and there's people, oh, we've done this trail in 85 days.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: I said, but you didn't get to take the side trails. You didn't get to take your time. And sometimes we race through the Bible so fast that we miss something that was there just waiting for us to take it slow.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So this is my take it slow year. And just really, really, like, sitting and pondering, like, what does that mean for me? You know, what does that mean for me as a leader, as a parent, as a. As a wife, as a disciple of Christ? And so I just think that the Lord's just been taking me personally on a journey of, like, nothing else matters.
Nothing else matters. Jesus is the only one that matters. He's the only one that will satisfy. And I know Sean Smith, he talked about encounter. Having an encounter last night. And I just really feel like he.
I wonder. It just says that in his distress, Manasseh humbled himself before God. Like, did he have an encounter with the Holy Spirit where it was just like, God, I know I've messed up. Like, I messed things up. I tried to do things my own way.
And I just wonder, like, did he have an encounter? Did he have a moment with the Lord?
[00:13:56] Speaker A: In that little verse, it says so much, and you have to say, I want to know more of the story.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Well, totally. And you just have to kind of have your imagination. But he had some kind of, you know, heart change he had to have, you know, because here he is in exile. They took him away with, like, a ring in his nose and, like, and they took him away just in a terrible way. And he was there. And maybe sometimes we're left with our own thoughts or reassessing our lives in those moments. I'm not sure. But in that, God heard him and God heard him. And that's one thing that I just really feel like I want to encourage people into that. Even in our distress, in our darkest moments, you know, when we cry out to God, when we humble ourselves before God, he hears us. And then I used in the passage. Just a little sneak peek when that. In that passage where it says 2nd Chronicles 7, what happens when we humble ourselves and pray?
It says, God hears us and will heal our land.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: And I was like, yeah, like, that's how it happened.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: You saw. He humbled himself. He prayed. God healed his land.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Exactly. Wow. Exactly.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: I got goosebumps.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Yeah. It's.
And I'm finishing with a very emotional, moving story of a word that the Lord gave me for my son.
So, yeah, it's been.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: I want to hear that, but I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna wait. That's something we have to hear there.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: I love it. Love it.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: And that kind of answers the question, you know? You know, how have you been learning this lesson? Yeah, I'm gonna save that. We'll play that. Love it, because that's how God's doing it. But now the big question. Okay, You've went through these three versions.
You only have so much time.
Some of the saddest things when I'm preaching is what has to go on the cutting room floor. It's beautiful. It's God. It's just not necessary for that time.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: But now it is. So what fell to the cutting room floor? That needs to be shared.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Literally. I have, like, 10 pages of notes and 20 pages in the file, but 10 of them I'm preaching. So it's literally, like, half.
One thing that God's really been speaking to me, and I wish I could have, like, weaved. Wove it. Wove it in.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Weaved it. Wove it. Yeah.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: Is. I feel like the Lord is really asking us to see things from a more eternal perspective.
And I really feel like we look at our lives like, you know, the Bible says that this. This life is just a blink of an eye compared to what, you know, we have an eternity with Christ, and we. We kind of look at our lives in the natural. From the natural perspective. Like, and. And I think that that's. We have to. Right. Like, we have to talk about destiny. We. What's my call? You know, what's my destiny? That's, you know, just lots of buzzwords about that.
But I think that sometimes it can limit us because we're not thinking eternally. We're thinking naturally. We're only thinking about our time on this earth.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: What does he have? For me personally, what is. What is my.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Who are gonna be?
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, what's the end of my journey? You know? Like, what is that end Destination, you know, And I think that I heard Chris Valatin share on a reel or something that I watched just about how we have to look at things more from an eternal perspective, because, you know, we ask God, God, you know, why did you make me move to this godforsaken land? And why did you make me move to South Butler? There's nothing out here, and I. I don't have any friends. And there's, you know, there's no stores and I'm miserable. And, And. And Chris said. He said, well, maybe it's because your great great grandson is supposed to do something that will change that region two generations down the line.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Right. And telling the story about his grandparents and his grandparents. Grandparents and how they'd been there and they were faithful to the word of God. And yes, that made impact that you would never have seen or guessed. Guessed at.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: And just how, you know, we have. We. There's so much that, you know, kind of like what Manasseh, the leading part I wanted to really share about, like, people are watching us.
We're influencers, whether we want to be or not, no matter how many followers we have on Instagram, like, we're influencing our families, our communities, our churches, our friends. And it's a really weighty thing to really realize that, like, if we think about the eternal perspective and the weight of what our decisions are going to make, like, it's pretty humbling to be like God. I want to make sure that my heart is always for you, and my heart is always leaning into what you have for me and my family and my church.
And I don't want this to ever be about me because this is about an eternal purpose.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: And I love that because we have a God that if we ask him, will give us that eternal perspective. Because it's his perspective.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. Like, think about, doesn't it say in Hebrews 11, where it's like, these men and women of faith, they didn't get to see the fulfillment of the promise that God gave them.
And here we are just waiting out our time, like, God will show my promise. But it's like, well, maybe. Maybe it's just a gradual healing, or maybe it's a gradual thing, or maybe you're just setting it up for the next generation or the next person. And what are you doing with the influence and the power that you have? Right.
Yeah.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: I've always said that. Even speaking about this time period in Jeremiah, he says, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. And that's being said before they're going into captivity. What is the plan that you go into captivity?
But that's not the end of it.
And it's not even that you come out of captivity. What is the plans he had for us? It's Jesus.
He's talking about the plans he had for us to help us. And that's the eternal perspective that takes us through the hard time.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Absolutely.
So that's what made.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: So how did that fall on the floor, though?
I don't know. Maybe the Lord will give you a way to weave that in. If not, we'll shout this from the rooftop from here.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it was just like, okay, Lord. You know, I had to just focus in because it's like, almost like I had a series or something.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Maybe I have a series, and maybe this is the beginning of that, you know? Yeah. And actually, I definitely want to remind me, at the end of your year, walking slowly through the word of God. That's a story I want to hear.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: How was your year?
[00:20:41] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Let's plan on doing that.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: I love that. That would be fun.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Put it in my notes.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Sounds good.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: December, December or early January, we'll have that conversation.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: I love that. That's beautiful.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Thank you, Pastor Michelle, Any final words? Any final thoughts for us?
[00:20:56] Speaker B: I'm just so incredibly humbled to be able to share tonight. And I pray that my heart of, you know, just nothing else matters.
That's what comes. Comes out of all of this. Because I just feel like we can get. Especially as leaders and as church. Church, you know, people that we can just. We can get so focused on so many things because not being. And this is a thing.
The Lord spoke to me and said, people's hearts are so pure for him. I grew up in the church, and my heart was pure for the Lord. But it was like, I saw success as like, well, I'm just gonna serve, and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that. And it was like, no. Like, it's not about all the things that I do for Christ. It's about my heart and how he loves me and my heart.
And that's just the process that I've been in and just how it's all about Him. And when we can get to that place where nothing else matters, it's just such a beautiful, beautiful, freeing place.
And so I just think that that's my heart, is that we can get to that place where it's just truly all about him, even though our hearts are for him. It's like, I think he just wants. He's doing a deep work.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: That's the word he's been giving me. Deep is calling out to deep. We're doing things for him. We're talking with the director Thomas here, how we love doing things for him. But he's like, no, I want you to do things with me and in me. I want it to go deeper.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: I love that. I love that. Like, it's just I think it's happening all over the world. I just keep hearing all about it, and it's just the taste of revival.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: That's how it's going to come.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: I do, too.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I do, too.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: So act surprised, you know?
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Sounds good.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Pastor Michelle. I. I know the Holy Spirit's going to move because he's right here, right now. And this is just a preamble.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Amen. Yeah. Thank you.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: So it's going to be amazing.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to be great.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us, and thank you, guys. Well, pleasure. Thanks for joining us on 10 more minutes. We'll see you next time.
