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How to Fight Back

1 hr 15 mins 57 sec
00:01
00:00

Fatherhood is a Fight

When you’re gone, what will actually outlive you? It won’t be your job title, your achievements, or even how hard you worked to restore your 1978 Jeep Renegade. The truth is: your legacy isn’t built through success—it’s built through people.

In this powerful message, Brian Tome delivers a direct challenge to men everywhere: Fatherhood is a fight. And whether you’re a biological father, a father figure, or someone who’s never had kids, you are called to step in, show up, and build a legacy that truly lasts.

  • 00:00:02
    - Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.
  • 00:00:03
    We are a church for people who might have given up on church
  • 00:00:06
    but haven't given up on God.
  • 00:00:08
    And on weeks like this we're also the church
  • 00:00:10
    for people who like vintage Jeeps.
  • 00:00:11
    It's actually going to be
  • 00:00:12
    a part of our Father's Day raffle later.
  • 00:00:14
    No, I'm just kidding.
  • 00:00:15
    Our senior pastor is going to talk about
  • 00:00:16
    why this is here in a little bit,
  • 00:00:18
    but I want to introduce myself. My name is Andy Reider.
  • 00:00:20
    - And I'm Arturo, and I love that church
  • 00:00:22
    can sometimes be two guys talking to a screen
  • 00:00:25
    to a community that's found all over the world.
  • 00:00:27
    - That's right. - It's weird and it's beautiful,
  • 00:00:29
    and it's probably more comfortable
  • 00:00:31
    than sitting in a church pew, right?
  • 00:00:32
    - I think so, but you know what is
  • 00:00:34
    the most comfortable thing?
  • 00:00:35
    It's the Crocs and socks. Love it.
  • 00:00:39
    That is dad certified.
  • 00:00:41
    - Andy, they scream: I do my own yardwork.
  • 00:00:43
    - Do you do your own yard? - Yes.
  • 00:00:45
    - Hey, it is Father's Day and we're so glad you're here.
  • 00:00:48
    Whether you're a dad or whether you're just somebody
  • 00:00:50
    with incredibly strong convictions about
  • 00:00:51
    the exact right way to start a grill,
  • 00:00:53
    we're so glad you're here.
  • 00:00:55
    - Yeah, Feliz del padre a todos.
  • 00:00:57
    And this message really is for everyone,
  • 00:00:59
    regardless of what your relationship
  • 00:01:00
    with your earthly father looks like,
  • 00:01:02
    just know that there is a Heavenly Father
  • 00:01:04
    that is for you and loves you.
  • 00:01:06
    - Yeah, that's the whole reason our church exists,
  • 00:01:08
    and we're going to spend time right now
  • 00:01:10
    to connect with our Heavenly Father,
  • 00:01:11
    actually doing something that followers of Jesus
  • 00:01:13
    have done for thousands and thousands of years,
  • 00:01:15
    forever, which is using songs to connect with God.
  • 00:01:18
    And that's what we're going to do right now.
  • 00:01:19
    - So grab your cafecito. Let's go.
  • 00:01:21
    - Let's go.
  • 00:05:59
    - Come on. We sing to the one who has all power.
  • 00:06:02
    We sing His name.
  • 00:12:08
    - We sing this prayer.
  • 00:15:20
    - God, it's not -- it's not lost on me
  • 00:15:22
    that those are heavy words to sing,
  • 00:15:27
    that I would remind myself to lay all that I desire
  • 00:15:32
    and all that I want down in exchange for what You want.
  • 00:15:39
    It's a heavy thing to say.
  • 00:15:42
    So, God, what my prayer is that You would help me
  • 00:15:45
    to mean those words, that You'd start to show me
  • 00:15:49
    over time areas that I haven't laid down,
  • 00:15:54
    areas in my life that I haven't handed over to You.
  • 00:15:58
    God, would you show me? Would you show me?
  • 00:16:03
    Would you show us so that we can look in the mirror
  • 00:16:07
    and hopefully one day not see our own reflection,
  • 00:16:12
    but see the reflection of Jesus.
  • 00:16:15
    God, you're so good. Help us to mean those words.
  • 00:16:21
    It's in Jesus's name I pray. Amen. Amen.
  • 00:16:26
    Y'all know I love when we sing in this room together.
  • 00:16:29
    Hey, those words might have been hard for you to sing.
  • 00:16:32
    If you're like, "Ah, I don't know that I'm quite there,"
  • 00:16:36
    I want you to know that that's okay.
  • 00:16:38
    We sing tough things, and sometimes
  • 00:16:41
    it's getting ourselves to a place,
  • 00:16:43
    and sometimes we're not all there,
  • 00:16:45
    sometimes we're learning,
  • 00:16:46
    and this is a safe place for that.
  • 00:16:48
    So I just want you to know that.
  • 00:16:49
    If you put in a little bit of a burden,
  • 00:16:51
    maybe on yourself, because you don't mean
  • 00:16:54
    those words as much as you would want to,
  • 00:16:57
    or as much as you might perceive us to up here, don't.
  • 00:17:02
    Don't do it, because we're all figuring it out every day.
  • 00:17:06
    And Jesus loves that. He loves it. Yeah.
  • 00:17:10
    Hey, why don't you find somebody next to you,
  • 00:17:12
    give 'em a high five. Tell 'em your name.
  • 00:17:15
    We're all one big family here.
  • 00:17:16
    You can have a seat.
  • 00:17:21
    Guys, thanks so much for being here with us.
  • 00:17:23
    We're so glad to have you.
  • 00:17:24
    Hey, we're talking about fathers today
  • 00:17:26
    and the importance of fathers.
  • 00:17:28
    And before we get into that, though,
  • 00:17:30
    let's get a 10X update from our Senior Pastor Brian Tome.
  • 00:17:36
    - Hey, my name is Brian, if we haven't met yet.
  • 00:17:38
    I want to give a bit of an update
  • 00:17:40
    before I launch into my talk.
  • 00:17:42
    People are often asking, "Hey, what's going on with this?
  • 00:17:45
    What's going on with that?"
  • 00:17:46
    I want to give you some numbers and some info,
  • 00:17:48
    because I think you'll find this very, very encouraging today.
  • 00:17:51
    A number of months ago, we ended
  • 00:17:53
    the discernment part of the journey that we called
  • 00:17:56
    The Push for 10X, where we were pushing
  • 00:17:58
    each other spiritually, pushing each other financially,
  • 00:18:01
    and looking to 10X the size of Crossroads,
  • 00:18:05
    looking to 10X the impact and the depth of Crossroads,
  • 00:18:08
    looking at 10X the the way the Kingdom of God
  • 00:18:11
    manifests itself and the regions in which we are.
  • 00:18:14
    And I thought you might want a little update
  • 00:18:16
    that's encouraging. Would you like some encouragement?
  • 00:18:18
    Would you like that? Yeah, yeah, I hope you do.
  • 00:18:20
    So first of all, for the number geeks,
  • 00:18:22
    because we don't share these very often.
  • 00:18:23
    Let's go through some numbers here.
  • 00:18:25
    We had total commitments above and beyond
  • 00:18:29
    what we regularly give for three years,
  • 00:18:31
    those total commitments came out to be $210,675,562.
  • 00:18:38
    Good job. [applause]
  • 00:18:40
    That was committed by 8586 people.
  • 00:18:46
    1461 were brand new givers,
  • 00:18:49
    never gave anything to Crossroads before.
  • 00:18:51
    That's really neat. Thank you. Well done.
  • 00:18:54
    To date, commitment is one thing. Fine.
  • 00:18:56
    Commit whatever, but like what actually is happening?
  • 00:18:59
    How much is actually coming in?
  • 00:19:00
    We have right now $43.4 million has come in,
  • 00:19:04
    which is 21% of that total,
  • 00:19:07
    above and beyond regular giving.
  • 00:19:09
    That's great. It's all good news.
  • 00:19:10
    It's all good news today.
  • 00:19:12
    There are -- this basically puts us,
  • 00:19:15
    if we look at similar things we've done like this
  • 00:19:17
    over the last 30 years, we would have expected
  • 00:19:21
    to be not doing as well.
  • 00:19:23
    We're actually $9 million ahead of pace.
  • 00:19:26
    Every way we look at this is good news.
  • 00:19:28
    We've had of those givers, 8586,
  • 00:19:32
    we've had 6707 givers who've given to the 10X so far,
  • 00:19:38
    including 708 of you who didn't make commitments
  • 00:19:42
    but you gave, or are giving.
  • 00:19:44
    That's cool. That's great. Thank you.
  • 00:19:47
    So there's obviously, I don't know what the math is
  • 00:19:49
    right there, 8586 minus 6707.
  • 00:19:54
    One of you people who wear pencil protectors,
  • 00:19:56
    pocket protectors will let me know.
  • 00:19:57
    Whatever that difference is,
  • 00:19:58
    that's the number of people who have not started.
  • 00:20:01
    They committed, but they haven't started yet.
  • 00:20:03
    That's not good news.
  • 00:20:05
    We all need to finish what we start.
  • 00:20:06
    And a good place to start is just start.
  • 00:20:08
    But having said that, that's actually 40% better
  • 00:20:13
    than historical data would cause us to expect.
  • 00:20:16
    So everything around is really, really good stuff.
  • 00:20:18
    Now, what have we done with this money?
  • 00:20:20
    That's just the dollars. What's happened?
  • 00:20:22
    Well, a few things.
  • 00:20:23
    One, we've finished Dayton, our next generation facility.
  • 00:20:27
    We finished that and Dayton is screaming
  • 00:20:30
    in three short months they've tripled in attendance.
  • 00:20:35
    Tripled. [cheers]
  • 00:20:39
    It's just really weird, like, Kevin Costner
  • 00:20:41
    apparently was right, at least in Dayton,
  • 00:20:43
    build it and they will come. Crazy.
  • 00:20:45
    We have -- Actually, that wasn't Kevin Costner.
  • 00:20:48
    That was, uh, Earl Jones. Earl Jones.
  • 00:20:53
    James Earl Jones, James Earl Jones. Got it. Yeah.
  • 00:20:57
    Columbus has moved out of their temporary,
  • 00:21:00
    very, very small rental facility.
  • 00:21:02
    We've gotten them property. They're in that property.
  • 00:21:05
    They're meeting in one of
  • 00:21:07
    the outer outcropping areas on that property.
  • 00:21:09
    And we're getting ready as resources come in
  • 00:21:12
    to actually overhaul that entire campus.
  • 00:21:14
    That's really great news.
  • 00:21:19
    Where I'm standing right now is in Oakley.
  • 00:21:21
    We call this our broadcast campus,
  • 00:21:23
    because this is where we broadcast
  • 00:21:25
    the teaching to other places.
  • 00:21:26
    And I would love the idea of going around to every campus,
  • 00:21:29
    whoever the teacher is going to different campuses
  • 00:21:31
    and doing that, but we can't do that
  • 00:21:33
    and we don't do that because the amount of money
  • 00:21:35
    it takes to broadcast, the cameras, the expenses,
  • 00:21:39
    it's just not good stewardship to put them
  • 00:21:41
    in a bunch of different campuses.
  • 00:21:42
    So this is the place where that technology is loaded up.
  • 00:21:45
    And this is the place where we started
  • 00:21:46
    with our new rollout of different technology packages
  • 00:21:49
    to all of our sites.
  • 00:21:50
    Here we have started as a result of The Push, the Wonderwall.
  • 00:21:53
    I'm standing on before and in the Wonderwall.
  • 00:21:56
    Actually, if you're in the lower level of Oakley,
  • 00:21:58
    it doesn't look like any big deal,
  • 00:22:00
    but actually at sites and online
  • 00:22:01
    it looks much, much better.
  • 00:22:03
    It looks, it looks amazing.
  • 00:22:04
    And Wonderwall is about at 50% capacity right now.
  • 00:22:08
    It's going to be twice as good. We're still learning things.
  • 00:22:11
    There's some other things that are being bolted on,
  • 00:22:13
    but those of us who are encouraged seeing it,
  • 00:22:15
    we kind of like it, right?
  • 00:22:16
    The worship has been pretty powerful.
  • 00:22:17
    The graphics, squashing the scorpion,
  • 00:22:20
    the pickleball court, a lot of --
  • 00:22:22
    A lot of fun stuff there.
  • 00:22:23
    By the end of summer, here's where we get to another gear.
  • 00:22:26
    We as a church aren't just into tech.
  • 00:22:29
    We're not into numbers.
  • 00:22:30
    We're into lives, all types of lives.
  • 00:22:33
    That includes the least of these.
  • 00:22:35
    Jesus says, "You didn't visit Me in prison.
  • 00:22:37
    You didn't see Me when I was hungry.
  • 00:22:38
    You didn't see Me when I was naked."
  • 00:22:40
    And people said to Him,
  • 00:22:41
    "What are you talking about we didn't see You?
  • 00:22:43
    What? We never saw You in prison.
  • 00:22:44
    We never saw You naked. We never saw You hungry."
  • 00:22:47
    And Jesus says, "Well, I identify with those folks.
  • 00:22:50
    So you didn't do it for the least of these,
  • 00:22:51
    you didn't do it for Me. You never visited Me in prison."
  • 00:22:54
    So we take people in prison pretty seriously.
  • 00:22:55
    We want to bless them.
  • 00:22:57
    And as part of the 10X we want to be
  • 00:22:59
    in every single state in the entire nation.
  • 00:23:02
    As a result of your giving and finding the right partner
  • 00:23:05
    we're now in 36 states, 36 states. [cheers and applause]
  • 00:23:13
    We have some tech that we're still now writing software
  • 00:23:17
    to be on the iPads or to be featured front and centered
  • 00:23:20
    in all of those prisons. 36. It's up behind me.
  • 00:23:24
    165,000 tablets, and hopefully it's going to grow from there.
  • 00:23:28
    We're not in all of those right now,
  • 00:23:29
    but we now have a path and we're making it,
  • 00:23:31
    and it's happening because of your giving.
  • 00:23:33
    How does it feel to be used by God with what you give?
  • 00:23:35
    Huh? Feels pretty good.
  • 00:23:38
    We sent last month $150,000 to Anjali,
  • 00:23:43
    who we have a partnership with in Nepal,
  • 00:23:46
    who has that school. That's good news.
  • 00:23:48
    And the 210,000 square foot recovery campus
  • 00:23:52
    for girls who've been in the rape for profit industry,
  • 00:23:55
    who we've rescued, we like to use that phrase.
  • 00:23:57
    It's a little jarring, just so we're all jarred
  • 00:23:59
    of what the stakes are.
  • 00:24:01
    And just to say human trafficking, which is awful,
  • 00:24:03
    just use the phrase for what it is,
  • 00:24:05
    the rape for profit industry.
  • 00:24:07
    In the center we want to rehab people in that campus.
  • 00:24:11
    We were hoping to get going this fall,
  • 00:24:13
    but we can't go this fall because, what do you know?
  • 00:24:16
    They have government and bureaucracy over there too,
  • 00:24:18
    so it's going to be waited a bit.
  • 00:24:19
    But our giving is facilitating the breaking of that ground
  • 00:24:23
    when it happens somewhat soon.
  • 00:24:24
    And we've also started base camp improvements
  • 00:24:27
    for Man Camp, Woman Camp, Couples Camp,
  • 00:24:29
    The Revival, all that stuff.
  • 00:24:31
    Now all this means great job, good and faithful servants.
  • 00:24:34
    Really good. How's it feel to be used by God?
  • 00:24:36
    It feels pretty darn good, doesn't it?
  • 00:24:38
    I love it, it's good.
  • 00:24:40
    There's no ask in here. Here's the --
  • 00:24:42
    It's not an ask. It's just an awareness.
  • 00:24:44
    For those of us who have made commitments
  • 00:24:47
    and are fulfilling them. Thank you.
  • 00:24:50
    You didn't commit to getting it done in this time period
  • 00:24:53
    or that period you just committed to
  • 00:24:55
    over a three year period.
  • 00:24:56
    Awareness is this, if you can, the sooner
  • 00:25:00
    you can start and fulfill, the better for us
  • 00:25:04
    because as cash comes in, we can start doing things
  • 00:25:09
    that we have committed to do.
  • 00:25:11
    As cash comes in, we can start doing anything
  • 00:25:13
    from 1824, expanding our student ministry sections,
  • 00:25:16
    getting the tech we need and want at other sites,
  • 00:25:19
    putting the 80 foot dam in at Base Camp for a lake
  • 00:25:22
    for baptisms and ambiance, and on and on and on and on.
  • 00:25:25
    So if you can start or accelerate your pace,
  • 00:25:30
    if even fulfill early if God has done something, great.
  • 00:25:33
    That will help us get things done.
  • 00:25:35
    Because as money comes in,
  • 00:25:36
    that's how stuff is getting done.
  • 00:25:38
    Cool? Cool? All right. Good. Let's pray.
  • 00:25:40
    And then I'm about ready to start my talk proper.
  • 00:25:44
    So God, I am honored and humbled to be a part of
  • 00:25:48
    a community that can celebrate things that we just heard about.
  • 00:25:53
    I am humbled that I get to be a part of it,
  • 00:25:57
    and humbled that I get to talk as well about things today
  • 00:26:01
    that are of a transcendent and primal nature.
  • 00:26:04
    We thank You for being good to us,
  • 00:26:06
    and I'm praying that You also would help me
  • 00:26:09
    to be true to Your reputation and character,
  • 00:26:12
    and to communicate well who You are as a great Heavenly Dad.
  • 00:26:17
    I pray these things according to
  • 00:26:19
    the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:26:27
    - Ring Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen.
  • 00:26:31
    - The fight isn't won out there in the spotlight.
  • 00:26:36
    It's in the shadows.
  • 00:26:41
    - Ring Announcer: The fight of our lives.
  • 00:26:45
    - When the time comes, you don't rise to the moment,
  • 00:26:50
    you fall to the level of your training.
  • 00:26:53
    - Ring Announcer: Six rounds, each different opponent.
  • 00:26:58
    - To defeat your opponent you need to know your opponent.
  • 00:27:03
    Your opponent wants you to think
  • 00:27:05
    you can't finish the job, you can't keep going.
  • 00:27:14
    RING ANNOUNCER: Round three: Stand firm against lies.
  • 00:27:20
    Let the fight begin.
  • 00:27:33
    - We're in week three of a series of Standing Firm.
  • 00:27:36
    Standing firm because the world is blowing resistance
  • 00:27:40
    against us all the time.
  • 00:27:41
    Standing firm because if you want to spiritually grow,
  • 00:27:44
    if you want to connect with God, it's a fight.
  • 00:27:47
    It's a difficult, difficult endeavor that,
  • 00:27:49
    quite frankly, many people aren't up for.
  • 00:27:52
    And as soon as resistance come, they drop away
  • 00:27:55
    because they thought life and God was all about
  • 00:27:58
    rose gardens and beautiful thoughts and feelings
  • 00:28:01
    and nice grand visions.
  • 00:28:02
    And certainly that stuff can happen and does happen.
  • 00:28:06
    But the heart of walking with God is a fight
  • 00:28:08
    that you've got to stand firm
  • 00:28:10
    in whatever God is asking you to do.
  • 00:28:13
    I am up here with a vehicle and today, by the way,
  • 00:28:17
    Happy Father's Day, everybody.
  • 00:28:19
    I'm talking about fathers today. Good to be with you.
  • 00:28:21
    Although, as you'll see in a moment,
  • 00:28:23
    if you're a mother, pretty much everything applies to you,
  • 00:28:26
    whether you have kids or not have kids.
  • 00:28:27
    There's something here for everybody.
  • 00:28:29
    But on Father's Day, which is a fight to be a good dad,
  • 00:28:32
    the last time I did a Father's Day talk
  • 00:28:34
    a couple of years ago, father's talk was
  • 00:28:36
    I had this on stage, but it was a stripped down version.
  • 00:28:41
    Because I had this identical Jeep, same year, 1978,
  • 00:28:45
    same engine, 304, when I was in college.
  • 00:28:48
    But I had to sell it because I couldn't afford the gas.
  • 00:28:50
    And as I was leaving the parking lot, I said,
  • 00:28:53
    "Someday I'm going to have that exact same vehicle,
  • 00:28:55
    someday I am."
  • 00:28:57
    Well, this is the day.
  • 00:28:58
    And so as I bought it, I've been making this.
  • 00:29:01
    It looks exactly, except way nicer,
  • 00:29:03
    because it's basically brand new,
  • 00:29:05
    exactly like the one that I had in college.
  • 00:29:07
    I'm its daddy. I'm this thing's daddy.
  • 00:29:10
    Every, every bolt has had my fingers on it.
  • 00:29:14
    Every gear has had my palms in it
  • 00:29:18
    mashing grease around the bearings.
  • 00:29:20
    Every square inch of paint I've painted.
  • 00:29:23
    Every, every piston, every, every, every everything.
  • 00:29:27
    I haven't paid anybody to do anything on this.
  • 00:29:31
    I'm its daddy. I'm its daddy.
  • 00:29:35
    The interesting thing about this,
  • 00:29:37
    which it was kind of therapeutic for me because
  • 00:29:40
    when I would get away from doing whatever project
  • 00:29:43
    I was doing on the Jeep, I could look at something
  • 00:29:45
    and say, "Oh, I did that."
  • 00:29:46
    So much of the time in my life,
  • 00:29:48
    there's nothing for me to look back on and see I did that.
  • 00:29:50
    There's a calendar, there's a meeting schedule,
  • 00:29:52
    there's a Word doc or excuse me, a Google doc
  • 00:29:55
    or something like that, but there's nothing,
  • 00:29:56
    nothing to like, "Oh." So it was really meaningful.
  • 00:29:59
    And the other thing that's really interesting about it
  • 00:30:01
    is no matter what happened in bringing this thing to being,
  • 00:30:05
    I knew I could solve any problem.
  • 00:30:08
    All I needed was a little more time
  • 00:30:09
    and a little more money, another part.
  • 00:30:12
    And I wish I was that easy to fix.
  • 00:30:15
    I wish God could fix me that easily,
  • 00:30:18
    but I'm a living, breathing thing.
  • 00:30:19
    I wish ministry was that easy.
  • 00:30:20
    I think -- I wish helping all of us would be that easy,
  • 00:30:24
    but we're people.
  • 00:30:25
    I wish it was just a program and a little more of this,
  • 00:30:28
    but it's not.
  • 00:30:29
    Now, I'm going to get back to this in a moment,
  • 00:30:31
    but let me make sure we understand how rare
  • 00:30:34
    what I'm talking about today is.
  • 00:30:36
    I'm talking about fathers,
  • 00:30:37
    and people aren't talking about fathers.
  • 00:30:40
    In fact, we have a bitterness towards our father,
  • 00:30:43
    many of us, which I'll explain in a moment.
  • 00:30:45
    If you look on the influencer sphere,
  • 00:30:48
    like, who's influencing other men,
  • 00:30:51
    there's all sorts of influencers.
  • 00:30:53
    There's workout influencers,
  • 00:30:55
    there's health influencers,
  • 00:30:58
    there's hobby influencers,
  • 00:31:01
    like the hunting hobby influencer,
  • 00:31:03
    there's financial influencers,
  • 00:31:06
    there's fabrication influencers,
  • 00:31:08
    there's social influencers of how a man should live his life.
  • 00:31:14
    And some of these people are really, really horrible people.
  • 00:31:19
    One of them specifically is just
  • 00:31:21
    a horrible, horrible individual.
  • 00:31:24
    And yet these people and influencers have millions,
  • 00:31:29
    millions of people who look to them for inspiration
  • 00:31:33
    and how to get to a new place in life. Millions.
  • 00:31:37
    You know what there's not any of?
  • 00:31:38
    There's no father influencers.
  • 00:31:41
    There's no father influencers. Why is that?
  • 00:31:45
    You know why? It's always follow the money trail, right?
  • 00:31:49
    And the reason is because they can't figure out
  • 00:31:52
    a way how to monetize a father influence.
  • 00:31:54
    You can monetize other things
  • 00:31:55
    because guys want to be hunters.
  • 00:31:57
    They want to be manly men. They want to be this.
  • 00:31:59
    So I'll follow you and you can get advertising off me.
  • 00:32:01
    But no one thinks that men are interested in being dads
  • 00:32:06
    and so why blow out a channel
  • 00:32:08
    and start doing something like that?
  • 00:32:10
    It's just, it's just not out there.
  • 00:32:12
    I want us to have kind of three understandings
  • 00:32:15
    today as we get through this.
  • 00:32:17
    First is this: there is a father framework.
  • 00:32:19
    As you look throughout the the whole Bible,
  • 00:32:22
    through all of history and in your own primal DNA,
  • 00:32:27
    there is a father framework.
  • 00:32:29
    The Bible never refers to God as a mother.
  • 00:32:32
    The Bible only refers to God as a father.
  • 00:32:35
    Now, the Bible does make it very clear that God
  • 00:32:38
    does have some stereotypically feminine aspects.
  • 00:32:42
    He has all the beautiful things about femininity,
  • 00:32:44
    all the beautiful things about mothering,
  • 00:32:46
    God has all those. He is all those.
  • 00:32:49
    But the Bible always calls Him a Father.
  • 00:32:52
    In fact, all the metaphors there are for God,
  • 00:32:55
    there's a lot of metaphors for God,
  • 00:32:57
    the most common one by far is Father.
  • 00:32:59
    It's used 165 times in the Old Testament
  • 00:33:04
    and in the New Testament.
  • 00:33:05
    I'll give you a couple of examples from each.
  • 00:33:07
    The book of Matthew 6:9,
  • 00:33:09
    Jesus, when trying to get us to understand prayer.
  • 00:33:12
    I know it is the Lord's Prayer.
  • 00:33:14
    You may know it as the Lord's Prayer.
  • 00:33:15
    If you have Catholic background,
  • 00:33:17
    you may know it as the Our Father.
  • 00:33:18
    You know the very beginning of it.
  • 00:33:20
    It says, Our Father who is in heaven,
  • 00:33:23
    or our Father who art in heaven.
  • 00:33:24
    Our Father who's in heaven, our Heavenly Father.
  • 00:33:29
    We can understand something about God if we
  • 00:33:32
    understand something about how a fathers should operate.
  • 00:33:35
    Isaiah 64:8, Old Testament:
  • 00:33:37
    But now, O Lord, You are our Father:
  • 00:33:41
    we are the clay, You are the potter;
  • 00:33:43
    we are the work of Your hand.
  • 00:33:45
    Like I said, I'm this thing's daddy.
  • 00:33:47
    It's the work of my hand, and that's what fathers do.
  • 00:33:50
    They take a life and they mold it, they shape it.
  • 00:33:54
    Which is part of why many of us don't like Father's Day
  • 00:33:58
    and part of us, part of us are doing
  • 00:34:00
    all we can to hang in there emotionally in here.
  • 00:34:03
    Because you don't have a good earthly father
  • 00:34:06
    that reflects at all on what a Heavenly Father is.
  • 00:34:10
    It's very difficult.
  • 00:34:11
    They didn't mold you, they may have put their hands on you,
  • 00:34:15
    but they never beautifully molded you
  • 00:34:18
    like Isaiah talks about.
  • 00:34:20
    I really wanted for this talk to have, like,
  • 00:34:23
    what would be the like?
  • 00:34:24
    I just want to hang out in like one chunk of scripture
  • 00:34:27
    and just do that. What the best chunk of scripture
  • 00:34:30
    that really describes what a dad does,
  • 00:34:33
    defines what a dad does?
  • 00:34:35
    And as I went through my mind all the times
  • 00:34:37
    I've read through the Bible and all the times
  • 00:34:39
    I've studied man stuff, I realized there is no --
  • 00:34:42
    There's there's no, like, chapter in the Bible
  • 00:34:44
    or section in the Bible that says here's what a dad does.
  • 00:34:47
    None. There's no checklist.
  • 00:34:49
    For mothers there's maybe one,
  • 00:34:50
    maybe Proverbs 31 for mothers, for women,
  • 00:34:53
    but none for dads.
  • 00:34:55
    Instead, what the scriptures do is
  • 00:34:58
    they regularly keep tying back, like,
  • 00:35:00
    there's a Heavenly Father, and that should be like you.
  • 00:35:03
    Your Heavenly Father does these things,
  • 00:35:05
    so you should do these things.
  • 00:35:08
    Here's some examples that are just rich.
  • 00:35:11
    They're rich to understanding our Heavenly Father.
  • 00:35:13
    All of us have a Heavenly Father
  • 00:35:15
    and rich to helping us understand be a dad.
  • 00:35:18
    In the book of Matthew, Jesus puts it this way:
  • 00:35:21
    Which of you, if his son asks for bread,
  • 00:35:25
    will give him a stone?
  • 00:35:27
    Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
  • 00:35:31
    If you then, who are evil,
  • 00:35:33
    know how to give good gifts to your children,
  • 00:35:36
    how much more will your father in heaven
  • 00:35:39
    give good gifts to those who ask him!
  • 00:35:43
    It's a pretty interesting verse, really.
  • 00:35:45
    It says that Jesus is saying that
  • 00:35:49
    our Heavenly Father likes to bless you.
  • 00:35:52
    Meaning, there's some things you're not going to get
  • 00:35:55
    until you ask Him.
  • 00:35:57
    It's kind of interesting to say that, right?
  • 00:35:58
    I mean, it says something to my kids.
  • 00:36:00
    I mean, I've got, by the way, I've got three kids,
  • 00:36:02
    I got six grandkids.
  • 00:36:04
    I don't advertise that too much because you guys
  • 00:36:06
    are going to start thinking I'm really old.
  • 00:36:08
    Three kids, six grandkids, and they're all wonderful.
  • 00:36:13
    They're all great.
  • 00:36:14
    And my kids, at some point you just stop
  • 00:36:16
    trying to figure out what they want.
  • 00:36:18
    You just ask them, "What do you want?
  • 00:36:19
    What do you want for your birthday?"
  • 00:36:20
    Because you don't know.
  • 00:36:21
    Now they're into the weeds on something in their life,
  • 00:36:24
    you can't keep up with it all.
  • 00:36:25
    And they're a little, like, six years old,
  • 00:36:27
    they don't need to ask.
  • 00:36:28
    You go, "I'm going to get you a toy gun,
  • 00:36:29
    because you're going to love that.
  • 00:36:31
    I'm going to get you this. I'm going to get --"
  • 00:36:33
    Some of you, "You got them a toy gun?"
  • 00:36:35
    My son, yes. He was making guns out of toast
  • 00:36:38
    by the time he was five years old.
  • 00:36:39
    And I was like, "It just didn't matter." But you ask.
  • 00:36:44
    You ever consider maybe there's some things
  • 00:36:45
    God has for you, but you have to ask.
  • 00:36:47
    This is what Jesus says.
  • 00:36:49
    And He's saying, we know God is good,
  • 00:36:51
    but He says even the worst father,
  • 00:36:53
    when his son asks for a piece of bread,
  • 00:36:54
    I'm not going to give him a stone.
  • 00:36:56
    No one's going to give him a poisonous snake.
  • 00:36:58
    We've had some parents that have done
  • 00:37:00
    some horrible things for us,
  • 00:37:01
    but none of them have done that sort of stuff.
  • 00:37:04
    Jesus is reminding us this is what a father is.
  • 00:37:08
    He's generous. A father wants to bless.
  • 00:37:11
    A father is responsive,
  • 00:37:13
    not just the good ones here on earth,
  • 00:37:15
    but we're that way because
  • 00:37:16
    that's how our Heavenly Father is.
  • 00:37:18
    Now, on the other side of the perspective,
  • 00:37:21
    because all of us are like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey,
  • 00:37:23
    yeah, yeah, yeah, a father whose generous, loving.
  • 00:37:25
    Give me some more of that. Yum yum."
  • 00:37:27
    On the other side, the other perspective
  • 00:37:29
    is a dad who disciplines.
  • 00:37:30
    Hebrews chapter 12, my son, do not regard --
  • 00:37:35
    By the way, when I say, I'm going to say
  • 00:37:37
    all these verses have sons.
  • 00:37:38
    You know why it has sons instead of
  • 00:37:40
    my son and daughter or my child?
  • 00:37:43
    You know why the Bible says that in the first century?
  • 00:37:45
    It says that because in the first century culture
  • 00:37:48
    where it was only the sons got an inheritance,
  • 00:37:54
    only the sons did.
  • 00:37:55
    And the Bible goes out of its way to say,
  • 00:37:57
    when you come to know Christ
  • 00:37:59
    and you're in the family of God, whether male or female,
  • 00:38:01
    culturally speaking, we're all sons
  • 00:38:03
    because we all get the inheritance, male or female.
  • 00:38:06
    There's no gender in the eyes of God, so it says in Galatians.
  • 00:38:10
    There are neither male nor female, slave nor free,
  • 00:38:14
    Jew or Gentile, were all one in Christ, all one.
  • 00:38:17
    So ladies, this is meant to be very inclusive for you.
  • 00:38:19
    Let's keep going.
  • 00:38:20
    My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
  • 00:38:23
    nor be weary when reproved by Him.
  • 00:38:26
    For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
  • 00:38:29
    and chastises every son whom he receives."
  • 00:38:32
    It is for discipline that you have to endure.
  • 00:38:36
    God is treating you as sons.
  • 00:38:37
    For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
  • 00:38:41
    If you're left without discipline,
  • 00:38:43
    in which all have participated,
  • 00:38:45
    then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
  • 00:38:49
    Discipline of the Lord. Woo.
  • 00:38:51
    This is something we don't, we don't like very much.
  • 00:38:53
    In fact, some of us are having a problem with God
  • 00:38:56
    right now because we think He's ignoring us.
  • 00:38:58
    We think he's making life too hard on us. We think --
  • 00:39:01
    And we're getting upset with Him.
  • 00:39:03
    You have to open your mind, He might be disciplining you.
  • 00:39:07
    And you know who gets disciplined?
  • 00:39:08
    People who get love.
  • 00:39:11
    You might get some annoying kid on your street
  • 00:39:13
    who's not your kid, some annoying kid,
  • 00:39:15
    you might vent at them,
  • 00:39:16
    but you're not going to discipline them
  • 00:39:18
    because it's hard.
  • 00:39:19
    It's very, very difficult work. It's hard work.
  • 00:39:23
    But this verse says God disciplines His sons,
  • 00:39:26
    sons and daughters.
  • 00:39:28
    He loves us and He's trying to develop us.
  • 00:39:30
    He's trying to mold us.
  • 00:39:32
    It's kind of fun to talk about this a little bit
  • 00:39:34
    now that my kids are out of my house
  • 00:39:36
    and people can't call kids and youth services on me.
  • 00:39:39
    But people were aghast at things I would do
  • 00:39:44
    as a dad with my kids around because
  • 00:39:46
    it was completely against the grain,
  • 00:39:48
    totally against the grain.
  • 00:39:50
    Like, I'm one of these guys.
  • 00:39:52
    Get ready for people to walk out.
  • 00:39:54
    I'm one of those guys who spanked my kids.
  • 00:39:58
    Now don't clap. Yeah, all the spankers going like,
  • 00:40:01
    "I just like to hit things like my hand. That's great."
  • 00:40:06
    I'm not going to give a talk on spanking
  • 00:40:08
    because it's a long, drawn out process.
  • 00:40:10
    Spanking is not venting.
  • 00:40:12
    I did it very rarely.
  • 00:40:13
    My girls had less than five spankings in their entire life.
  • 00:40:17
    I was talking with Lib after the last service.
  • 00:40:19
    I guessed it was five.
  • 00:40:21
    She said "No, I think Leanna only had one,
  • 00:40:23
    only one her whole life." Like, "Maybe."
  • 00:40:28
    Jake, my son, had probably less than five.
  • 00:40:31
    I said less than ten to be generous,
  • 00:40:33
    but it was probably less than five.
  • 00:40:35
    Because there's a long drawn out process to do that.
  • 00:40:39
    You're not venting, you're not angry
  • 00:40:40
    and just like taking them out.
  • 00:40:42
    No. There's a level headed,
  • 00:40:43
    I'm going to take you through a process
  • 00:40:45
    to bolt something into your mind
  • 00:40:47
    and form your character so you never do it again.
  • 00:40:50
    And it's very difficult.
  • 00:40:52
    Example, my daughter, Leanna,
  • 00:40:54
    who's community pastor at Eastside, she --
  • 00:40:59
    I know, I always know, whatever she tells me is always true
  • 00:41:01
    because I know she doesn't lie.
  • 00:41:02
    You know how I know she doesn't lie?
  • 00:41:04
    Because she got spanked for it once,
  • 00:41:05
    and she never has since.
  • 00:41:07
    She was a little kid, a little kid,
  • 00:41:09
    and we went to a pet store for something,
  • 00:41:10
    get dog food or something like that.
  • 00:41:12
    And she said, "Daddy, can I pet the fish?"
  • 00:41:14
    I said, "No, you cannot pet the fish.
  • 00:41:17
    Leave the fish alone."
  • 00:41:18
    So I went off trying to find
  • 00:41:19
    whatever the cheapest dog food was.
  • 00:41:21
    And she came back, came back about ten minutes later.
  • 00:41:24
    And there she is in her winter coat,
  • 00:41:27
    and it was wet up to her shoulder.
  • 00:41:31
    And I said, "Did you pet the fish?"
  • 00:41:33
    She goes, "No, I didn't pet." "Yes, you did.
  • 00:41:37
    You're getting a spanking when we go home."
  • 00:41:39
    And she did, and she did.
  • 00:41:40
    And it was a process that brought discipline to her.
  • 00:41:42
    And I think she would say, I think all of my kids
  • 00:41:45
    would say I have great relationship with my kids.
  • 00:41:47
    Phenomenal. Three kids, six grandkids.
  • 00:41:49
    They all live within 12 minutes of me.
  • 00:41:51
    They all follow Christ. They're all part of our church.
  • 00:41:53
    They're all generous. They're all --
  • 00:41:54
    I'm deep friends with them. I'll be friends with them.
  • 00:41:57
    We're going to hang out all afternoon. It's wonderful.
  • 00:41:59
    And it's because, not because I was some great guy.
  • 00:42:02
    It's because I tried to do any learning I could
  • 00:42:06
    from how God has fathered me.
  • 00:42:08
    How can I father them?
  • 00:42:16
    I'm not talking today about being a sire.
  • 00:42:20
    I'm not talking about impregnating somebody.
  • 00:42:23
    I'm talking about taking responsibility for a life.
  • 00:42:27
    Saying this life I will hold and I will nurture
  • 00:42:30
    and I will develop and I will discipline,
  • 00:42:33
    and I will bless, and I will coach,
  • 00:42:35
    and I will prod, and I will hug,
  • 00:42:38
    and I will vision cast for, and I will cheerlead,
  • 00:42:41
    and I'll do that for all of life.
  • 00:42:43
    And by the way, you can do this
  • 00:42:46
    with somebody who you haven't sired.
  • 00:42:49
    You can do this with somebody
  • 00:42:50
    who doesn't actually share your own DNA.
  • 00:42:53
    There's a powerful thing behind a dad.
  • 00:42:57
    It's the reason why some of us have a hard time
  • 00:42:59
    seeing God as Father.
  • 00:43:01
    It's because of the powerful abuse
  • 00:43:03
    and the horrible situation we have with our earthly dad.
  • 00:43:05
    We just can't. We can't make that connection.
  • 00:43:07
    So we just finds some way to explain it away.
  • 00:43:10
    Now, let's not explain it away.
  • 00:43:11
    Let's just camp in here.
  • 00:43:12
    Let's just recognize, like it or not,
  • 00:43:15
    there's a power to a dad. A power.
  • 00:43:20
    Fortunately or actually unfortunately, I would say,
  • 00:43:23
    generally speaking, women still, mothers still do
  • 00:43:28
    more cooking for the children.
  • 00:43:30
    Generally speaking, mothers still do more diaper changing.
  • 00:43:33
    Mothers still do more waking up
  • 00:43:35
    in the middle of the night to feed.
  • 00:43:36
    Mothers still do more teachers conference generally.
  • 00:43:39
    Mothers still generally do more taxiing.
  • 00:43:41
    Mothers generally expend themselves more
  • 00:43:45
    with hands on parenting and hands on love.
  • 00:43:48
    And I can't tell you how many mothers
  • 00:43:51
    over the last, many, many years have said to me,
  • 00:43:53
    and despite all that, their father says something
  • 00:43:57
    that I've said and it hits them harder than when I say it.
  • 00:44:01
    And despite all that, they cling on their father's words
  • 00:44:05
    and affirmation more so than mine,
  • 00:44:07
    and they don't understand. It's frustrating.
  • 00:44:09
    And none of us as dads will understand it.
  • 00:44:12
    We don't like this either, because our words
  • 00:44:15
    are more powerful than we want them to be.
  • 00:44:17
    We're just saying something, and then we've crushed somebody.
  • 00:44:20
    We've ticked somebody off.
  • 00:44:21
    And what's being happened here is a spiritual truth
  • 00:44:25
    in the spiritual realm, it's the power of a father.
  • 00:44:30
    And the words from God the Father are like none other.
  • 00:44:33
    And there's a word, if you're a dad,
  • 00:44:35
    you have to recognize you have a power to your identity,
  • 00:44:40
    whether you deserve it or not, to your words,
  • 00:44:43
    whether you embrace it or not.
  • 00:44:46
    People go to counseling their whole lives
  • 00:44:49
    because what their dad did and didn't do,
  • 00:44:51
    they don't do that because of what their mom did or didn't do.
  • 00:44:55
    And I don't like it, but I have to recognize it
  • 00:44:59
    and I have to live according with it.
  • 00:45:01
    Second thing, this is the father framework,
  • 00:45:04
    and the second thing is that understand
  • 00:45:06
    we're also talking about father figures.
  • 00:45:09
    You can be a father
  • 00:45:10
    even if you've never impregnated somebody.
  • 00:45:13
    You can be a father even if you've never
  • 00:45:15
    formally adopted somebody as a child.
  • 00:45:18
    You can be a father figure any time
  • 00:45:20
    you take responsibility for life and you go,
  • 00:45:21
    "I'm going to be in that person's life for a long time.
  • 00:45:24
    I'm going to be their backstop for a long term."
  • 00:45:26
    The Old Testament hero, Esther.
  • 00:45:28
    Esther was a Jew, and they were captured by the Persians.
  • 00:45:33
    And they basically had a beauty contest.
  • 00:45:35
    She wins the beauty contest, in a sense,
  • 00:45:37
    and she gets a high ranking position
  • 00:45:39
    right close to the king.
  • 00:45:41
    As a Jew this is really, really crazy,
  • 00:45:42
    but she's beautiful, and God has her beauty
  • 00:45:45
    and and she uses it.
  • 00:45:46
    And in a key moment, her father figure, Mordecai,
  • 00:45:50
    it's her father figure who's coaching her
  • 00:45:52
    and has a relationship with her for a long, long time.
  • 00:45:55
    Mordecai comes to her and says, "Esther,
  • 00:45:56
    you got to say something to the king.
  • 00:45:58
    Your people are going to get slaughtered.
  • 00:46:00
    Our whole race, he's going to wipe him out
  • 00:46:01
    because he's getting bad counsel."
  • 00:46:03
    And he says this, "Who knows if you haven't been risen up
  • 00:46:07
    for such a time as this right now."
  • 00:46:10
    It's the words of a father figure
  • 00:46:12
    that spring her into action,
  • 00:46:14
    and she puts her neck on the line because
  • 00:46:16
    the king could have killed her for asking a request like that.
  • 00:46:19
    But he doesn't, and it comes from the father figure.
  • 00:46:23
    The Apostle Paul wrote more of the New Testament
  • 00:46:25
    or penned more the New Testament, under the inspiration
  • 00:46:27
    of the Holy Spirit than any other single person.
  • 00:46:31
    The Apostle Paul never had any kids,
  • 00:46:33
    at least none that we know of, and yet he was a father.
  • 00:46:36
    He was a father figure.
  • 00:46:38
    He was a father figure to Timothy.
  • 00:46:40
    There's a book in the Bible named Timothy.
  • 00:46:42
    And he says this to Timothy:
  • 00:46:43
    To Timothy, my true child in the faith.
  • 00:46:48
    He was also a father figure to Titus.
  • 00:46:51
    And he says to Titus:
  • 00:46:52
    Titus, my true child in a common faith.
  • 00:46:56
    He's nurturing them. He's molding them.
  • 00:46:59
    He's taking care of them. He's protecting them.
  • 00:47:01
    He's envisioning for them. He's resourcing them.
  • 00:47:05
    These are some of the things that a dad does.
  • 00:47:08
    Most powerful person in my life is a father figure.
  • 00:47:11
    My dad is amazing. I'm thankful for my dad.
  • 00:47:13
    I'm going to be calling him this afternoon.
  • 00:47:15
    But there's a father figure who's actually had
  • 00:47:17
    a massive, massive impact on my life.
  • 00:47:21
    His name is Gil Hopkins.
  • 00:47:23
    Gil never had any kids,
  • 00:47:25
    never had any kids, but he had children.
  • 00:47:29
    It was all the people he fathered.
  • 00:47:31
    When I did his funeral, there was guys
  • 00:47:34
    from 20-60 years old who were there weeping
  • 00:47:39
    because they had lost a father. It still gets me.
  • 00:47:42
    It still gets me just talking about him at all.
  • 00:47:44
    He just had my back, as only a father would.
  • 00:47:48
    There was a season of time here at Crossroads
  • 00:47:50
    where people thought it was their job to keep me humble.
  • 00:47:54
    They just assumed that if we were doing really well,
  • 00:47:56
    then I was getting very, very prideful.
  • 00:47:57
    And so they would just always do the jabs
  • 00:47:59
    and some of them were really, really sneaky
  • 00:48:01
    and would underhandedly slander me behind my back
  • 00:48:05
    and try to pull things down.
  • 00:48:06
    I'm so glad those days are over.
  • 00:48:08
    But it was not a fun time.
  • 00:48:10
    I was in a meeting once and some of those people
  • 00:48:12
    were in that meeting and Gil.
  • 00:48:14
    Gil was -- he was salty. Just trigger warning.
  • 00:48:17
    We have two salty words today.
  • 00:48:20
    Gil was a -- he was a former cop, former Chicago cop
  • 00:48:25
    in, like, this 50s and 60s and all of that meant, right?
  • 00:48:29
    Taller guy, but he started shrinking as time went on.
  • 00:48:32
    And he, just very interesting guy.
  • 00:48:34
    He was in this meeting and he said, "I know some of you,
  • 00:48:38
    I know some of you people, you say that
  • 00:48:40
    I'm supportive of BT that I,
  • 00:48:42
    that I always have his back.
  • 00:48:43
    And you know what I say, "You're damn right I do."
  • 00:48:46
    He got really loud, "You're damn right I do."
  • 00:48:48
    And the room. I was like, hmm.
  • 00:48:52
    Good to have someone, like, say that for you
  • 00:48:54
    as a father figure, it was really, really meaningful.
  • 00:49:00
    Too few people have a father and it hurts us.
  • 00:49:03
    I'll come back to Gil in just a moment.
  • 00:49:07
    The greatest -- man, let me I'll tell you this.
  • 00:49:10
    The greatest role you will ever fulfill in your life
  • 00:49:14
    is to be a father. The greatest role.
  • 00:49:18
    It's not being a hunter.
  • 00:49:20
    It's not being a financial guru.
  • 00:49:22
    It's not being a success in X, Y, Z.
  • 00:49:24
    It's not being ripped.
  • 00:49:26
    No. The greatest role you will ever have is being a father.
  • 00:49:30
    It's the most necessitated role in our culture.
  • 00:49:34
    Let me tell you something else.
  • 00:49:35
    There's no problems with our younger generation.
  • 00:49:37
    We all know older people have to crack on the younger.
  • 00:49:39
    There are no problem with the younger generation.
  • 00:49:42
    There's no problem the younger generation would have
  • 00:49:45
    were it not that there's potential father figures
  • 00:49:49
    who are phoning it in and only going golfing.
  • 00:49:52
    The problems with younger people always stem from
  • 00:49:55
    not having a father figure, and that always means
  • 00:49:57
    there's somebody out there who could be a father figure,
  • 00:49:59
    they're just not choosing to be it.
  • 00:50:01
    And generations and culture suffers as a result of it.
  • 00:50:05
    When we go and do Go Trips, which many of us have done,
  • 00:50:08
    you know the drill.
  • 00:50:09
    We want to go and bless people
  • 00:50:10
    and help people who are hurting
  • 00:50:12
    and work and sweat our noogies off and all that stuff.
  • 00:50:15
    And then at the end of it, we go, "Hey, we're in this place,"
  • 00:50:17
    wherever it may be, New Orleans or South Africa
  • 00:50:20
    or wherever it is.
  • 00:50:22
    What's here local that we can kind of enjoy,
  • 00:50:24
    blow off some steam, celebrate what God has done
  • 00:50:26
    and enjoy each other and just we're at this part
  • 00:50:28
    of the world, we ought to take advantage of it.
  • 00:50:30
    So when we go to South Africa,
  • 00:50:32
    a common thing is to go to the national parks.
  • 00:50:34
    The national parks aren't like our national parks,
  • 00:50:36
    which are just beautiful places to go look at.
  • 00:50:38
    The national parks there, they all look the same.
  • 00:50:39
    They're kind of flat. They got the same Africa trees.
  • 00:50:42
    But what they got there is lions and tigers and bears.
  • 00:50:48
    - Oh my!
  • 00:50:49
    - Actually, they don't have bears or tigers,
  • 00:50:51
    but they have lions.
  • 00:50:52
    They have lions and they have elephants
  • 00:50:55
    and they have rhinoceroses and they have water buffalo
  • 00:50:58
    and they have gazelle, all these things.
  • 00:50:59
    You get in basically a big old thing like this
  • 00:51:02
    about, I don't know, four times larger than this
  • 00:51:05
    with an open patch and seats.
  • 00:51:07
    And you drive around and you see these things
  • 00:51:09
    and because you're in a vehicle,
  • 00:51:11
    they don't look at you as a threat.
  • 00:51:13
    You get out of the vehicle, you die.
  • 00:51:17
    The most profound story of those two national parks
  • 00:51:20
    that are in South Africa, Kruger National Park
  • 00:51:23
    and Pilanes National Park is this.
  • 00:51:25
    In Kruger National Park they saw
  • 00:51:28
    that their elephant population was down.
  • 00:51:29
    They're like, "Everyone's going over Pilanesberg.
  • 00:51:31
    They're not coming here because there's not enough.
  • 00:51:33
    There's not -- there's not enough elephants."
  • 00:51:35
    I tell this story in my book on on manhood.
  • 00:51:38
    I'll just retell it here.
  • 00:51:40
    And so they said, "Hey, I know,
  • 00:51:43
    why don't we go over to Pilanesberg.
  • 00:51:45
    And in Pilanesberg they got a lot of elephants.
  • 00:51:47
    Why don't we figure out a way to transport
  • 00:51:49
    some elephants from Pilanesberg here to Kruger.
  • 00:51:51
    And so people keep coming to Kruger
  • 00:51:53
    because they want to see the elephants."
  • 00:51:54
    And so they said, "Okay, how do we do that?"
  • 00:51:56
    Well, they looked at the logistics.
  • 00:51:57
    It's kind of hard to get them to get up, walk up on a truck.
  • 00:52:01
    And that's kind of a tough ride.
  • 00:52:02
    For whatever reason they figure out,
  • 00:52:04
    "Hey, let's take them over by helicopter.
  • 00:52:08
    Let's put a big strap underneath them.
  • 00:52:10
    Let's make a gurney and let's helicopter them over."
  • 00:52:13
    So the first one got this big old elephant.
  • 00:52:15
    They put him there, they put the thing,
  • 00:52:17
    they start lifting up, got a couple feet off the ground
  • 00:52:19
    and it broke, and he came crashing down the ground.
  • 00:52:22
    Fortunately, I don't think he died.
  • 00:52:23
    He just started to get off the ground.
  • 00:52:25
    But they realized, "Okay, okay,
  • 00:52:27
    it's going to be hard to do these big elephants.
  • 00:52:29
    So let's not do the big, let's do the smaller elephants."
  • 00:52:31
    So they went out and got smaller elephants.
  • 00:52:33
    It worked perfectly, got them up in the air,
  • 00:52:35
    got them over to Kruger, dropped them off.
  • 00:52:36
    All was happy. The tourists are looking at them.
  • 00:52:38
    It's beautiful. Everyone's happy.
  • 00:52:40
    And then they find
  • 00:52:41
    the white rhinoceroses are starting to die.
  • 00:52:44
    And they think it's poachers.
  • 00:52:46
    The poachers are killing the white rhinoceroses.
  • 00:52:49
    But they look closer and it's not bullet wounds,
  • 00:52:52
    it's like spear wounds.
  • 00:52:53
    They're going, "Who would spear a white rhinoceros?"
  • 00:52:57
    And then they realize, they set up cameras.
  • 00:53:00
    They realize it's the elephants.
  • 00:53:03
    The elephants are killing the rhinoceros.
  • 00:53:06
    Which makes no sense at all,
  • 00:53:07
    because elephants don't eat meat.
  • 00:53:10
    It's joy killing.
  • 00:53:11
    And we've never seen this. Why would they do that?
  • 00:53:14
    And someone has a theory of,
  • 00:53:16
    "Maybe we got this smaller elephants,
  • 00:53:18
    and we got all the adolescents.
  • 00:53:20
    And the adolescents are just creating problems,
  • 00:53:22
    like smashing mailboxes and stuff like that.
  • 00:53:24
    Maybe, maybe, maybe that's what's happened."
  • 00:53:26
    They thought, "Maybe. Well, let's try something."
  • 00:53:30
    So they go over to Pilanesberg,
  • 00:53:32
    they get the same harness, except they beef it up.
  • 00:53:34
    They do a hyper industrial strength, a huge mass,
  • 00:53:36
    and they start bringing some big boy elephants over.
  • 00:53:38
    And they drop the big boy elephants over.
  • 00:53:41
    And they're hanging, roaming around.
  • 00:53:42
    And one of these young buck adolescent elephants
  • 00:53:46
    that thinks that's really cool comes trotting up,
  • 00:53:48
    trying to show how cool he is.
  • 00:53:50
    And the big boy elephant looks at him, charges him
  • 00:53:54
    and knocks him broadside on his back.
  • 00:53:58
    And the problem is solved. No more rhinoceroses.
  • 00:54:02
    No more rhinoceroses ever get killed
  • 00:54:05
    because a father showed up.
  • 00:54:07
    Because a father showed up and said, "No, no, no,
  • 00:54:11
    we don't do that here. No, no, no, young'un,
  • 00:54:14
    I'm not standing for that"
  • 00:54:15
    . Men who are mature, we need you to be father figures.
  • 00:54:19
    I don't care if you've had kids or not or how many you have,
  • 00:54:22
    people need to come under your covering.
  • 00:54:24
    They need to come under your potency.
  • 00:54:26
    It's the most powerful thing you will ever do with your life.
  • 00:54:30
    Do not be deluded by all the people
  • 00:54:32
    who are trying to not be dads.
  • 00:54:33
    Do not be deluded by the people
  • 00:54:35
    who don't want to get married.
  • 00:54:36
    Do not be deluded by all the people
  • 00:54:37
    who don't want to have kids,
  • 00:54:39
    want to put her off as long as possible.
  • 00:54:40
    Do not be diluted by the people
  • 00:54:42
    who don't want to take responsibility for a life
  • 00:54:43
    and just want to have their hobbies.
  • 00:54:45
    Do not be deluded to think that their life
  • 00:54:47
    is the sum of their net worth.
  • 00:54:49
    No. Your life is the sum of the people
  • 00:54:51
    you bless and build into and cover.
  • 00:54:54
    That's what a dad does.
  • 00:55:01
    And for you to take that call on your life,
  • 00:55:03
    you're going to have to stand firm
  • 00:55:04
    because nothing in culture is ever going to support that.
  • 00:55:08
    Everything culture is going to belittle you,
  • 00:55:10
    show you as a loser.
  • 00:55:11
    How many good, positive father figures
  • 00:55:13
    have you seen in Hollywood? Not a lot.
  • 00:55:17
    This is a big thing, not just for us as a culture,
  • 00:55:21
    not just for people, but it's a big thing for you.
  • 00:55:24
    It's a calling you need to stand firm in and step into.
  • 00:55:28
    Third thing is, the final thing is that fathers finish.
  • 00:55:32
    When's the work for dad done, right?
  • 00:55:35
    It feels like it's going to be done
  • 00:55:36
    when they're out of diapers. It's not.
  • 00:55:38
    It's going to be done when they graduate from high school.
  • 00:55:40
    It's not. Done when they get married, right?
  • 00:55:42
    No, it's not.
  • 00:55:44
    Going to be done when they get their first job, right?
  • 00:55:46
    No, no, no, it's not. It never, never ever, ever ends.
  • 00:55:51
    The worst job I did as a parent, and I've confessed this
  • 00:55:54
    to her a number of times, is my youngest daughter, Moriah.
  • 00:56:00
    Lena, Jake, two years apart and then five years.
  • 00:56:03
    We started Crossroads about a year and a half,
  • 00:56:05
    two years after Jake was born.
  • 00:56:07
    And so we're, like, "Man, we can't --
  • 00:56:08
    We can't take on a church and more of our family.
  • 00:56:11
    Let's pause that for a little bit."
  • 00:56:13
    So we had Moriah five years later
  • 00:56:15
    and it was a huge mistake, actually huge mistake.
  • 00:56:18
    Because -- not her, she was an unbelievable blessing,
  • 00:56:24
    is an unbelievable blessing.
  • 00:56:26
    It was a huge mistake because what do you think happens
  • 00:56:29
    when you're in diaper mode for like four years solid,
  • 00:56:32
    three years, and then all of a sudden you're not?
  • 00:56:34
    What do you think it's like when you're in
  • 00:56:35
    reading book mode going up and little kids going,
  • 00:56:39
    "Daddy, read me a chapter." "Okay, okay, one more chapter,"
  • 00:56:41
    As you're putting them to bed.
  • 00:56:42
    And then you have a five year break
  • 00:56:45
    and you got to restart those engines again.
  • 00:56:48
    It was hard. It was really difficult.
  • 00:56:50
    She got the least of me in those ages.
  • 00:56:53
    She says, "Daddy, read another chapter."
  • 00:56:54
    "No, no, you need to sleep.
  • 00:56:56
    You need to sleep, need to sleep.
  • 00:56:58
    You just, you know, you got to get eight hours.
  • 00:57:00
    Honey, I can't. I got to be --
  • 00:57:02
    It'd be irresponsible for me as a dad
  • 00:57:04
    to give more time to reading you right now.
  • 00:57:06
    I can't. I can't do that."
  • 00:57:09
    2 Timothy 4:7, Paul, the apostle Paul says
  • 00:57:13
    to all of us who'd be father figures:
  • 00:57:15
    I fought the good fight, I finished the race.
  • 00:57:18
    I have kept the faith.
  • 00:57:20
    Finished the race. When do I finish as a father?
  • 00:57:26
    I've come to conclude that I don't finish.
  • 00:57:29
    All of us want dad standing on point.
  • 00:57:32
    I don't care if you're 60 years old,
  • 00:57:34
    you want to feel like you have a backstop.
  • 00:57:36
    You want to feel like somebody thinks about you.
  • 00:57:38
    You want to feel like somebody is praying for you daily,
  • 00:57:42
    that somebody else feels vested interest in your success,
  • 00:57:46
    is going to the Heavenly Father
  • 00:57:47
    and mentioning you by name every day.
  • 00:57:49
    Everybody wants that. So our work is never done.
  • 00:57:52
    But certain parts of the work are done, right?
  • 00:57:54
    You get done with diapers, you get done with this,
  • 00:57:56
    you get done with that. But when does the work end?
  • 00:58:00
    It's hard work. And guess what?
  • 00:58:02
    You know what spiritual growth is?
  • 00:58:04
    Spiritual growth is being like God,
  • 00:58:06
    that's what spiritual growth is all about.
  • 00:58:08
    It's not like, "Well, I want to have ethereal feelings.
  • 00:58:10
    Woo, woo, I want to have visions.
  • 00:58:12
    Woo, I want to have miraculous things happen."
  • 00:58:15
    Those things may all happen, but spiritual growth
  • 00:58:17
    is only one thing: being like God, being like Jesus,
  • 00:58:23
    that's what it is. You know what He's like?
  • 00:58:25
    Well, Jesus tells us in John 5:17, He says:
  • 00:58:29
    My Father is always at work up the present time.
  • 00:58:33
    And I too am work.
  • 00:58:35
    What's God doing right now? He's working right now.
  • 00:58:38
    That's what he's doing. He's working right now.
  • 00:58:40
    I don't know what exactly He's doing,
  • 00:58:42
    but it's working right now.
  • 00:58:43
    So as a dad, it's a hard life.
  • 00:58:46
    That's why people don't want it.
  • 00:58:48
    It's a fight. You work. There's no days off.
  • 00:58:52
    And when you check out, there's often consequences.
  • 00:58:55
    Which is why everyone wants to shirk that possibility.
  • 00:58:58
    But man, is it beautiful. Man, is it rich.
  • 00:59:02
    Who is going to care about my hunting exploits when I'm gone?
  • 00:59:05
    Nobody.
  • 00:59:07
    Who's going to care about your degrees on your wall?
  • 00:59:10
    Nobody. No one cares right now, sorry to tell you.
  • 00:59:12
    No one. No one cares.
  • 00:59:14
    Who's going to care about the digits in your bank account?
  • 00:59:17
    Nobody cares about it.
  • 00:59:18
    They're going to get it and they're going to spend it all.
  • 00:59:20
    And you're going to say,
  • 00:59:21
    "I'm going to make a name for myself.
  • 00:59:23
    I'm going to give it to this nonprofit."
  • 00:59:24
    They're not going to care for you
  • 00:59:26
    5 years when you're gone either.
  • 00:59:27
    You are not -- the only way you're going to last,
  • 00:59:31
    the only way you're going to have lasting impact
  • 00:59:33
    is to have kids. That's the only way. It's the only way.
  • 00:59:36
    You want to have a long lasting legacy,
  • 00:59:39
    have a life that you take responsibility for,
  • 00:59:42
    have a life that you build.
  • 00:59:43
    Leave the world a better place than it was when you came here,
  • 00:59:46
    because you're not leaving with multiple people
  • 00:59:48
    who are further along than you are.
  • 00:59:50
    That's what a dad does. It's who we are.
  • 00:59:53
    And it never ends, just the task of the day ends.
  • 00:59:57
    As I was coming down to -- as I was getting close
  • 01:00:00
    to being done with this, I had in my sights,
  • 01:00:03
    "Here's what my next vehicle is going to be."
  • 01:00:05
    So I called my friend Petey,
  • 01:00:08
    who's helped me understand how to paint things.
  • 01:00:09
    I never knew how to do automotive paint before.
  • 01:00:11
    And Petey, I said, "Hey, man,
  • 01:00:13
    why don't you come take a look at this project?
  • 01:00:15
    I want to get your ideas."
  • 01:00:17
    He said, "Nope, not going to do it."
  • 01:00:19
    I said, "Why?"
  • 01:00:20
    He said, "Uh, because you're not done with the Jeep.
  • 01:00:23
    Don't ever start something
  • 01:00:25
    before you finish what you started."
  • 01:00:27
    And he wasn't really right.
  • 01:00:29
    He was right in the concept, but I was -- I was done.
  • 01:00:32
    Although a Jeep is never done.
  • 01:00:37
    The fuel pump is out right now,
  • 01:00:39
    so I can't even drive this right now.
  • 01:00:41
    I have to replace the fuel pump.
  • 01:00:42
    It was driving one day. It was. It's never done.
  • 01:00:45
    But Petey was right. He was saying,
  • 01:00:46
    "Hey, don't start something
  • 01:00:48
    until you're done with the last thing."
  • 01:00:49
    How many of us go to Home Depot
  • 01:00:51
    to try to finish up a project?
  • 01:00:52
    We go to Home Depot to buy our stuff,
  • 01:00:54
    and on our way out we go, "Oh, I need that.
  • 01:00:56
    Oh, that reminds me, I have that other project."
  • 01:00:59
    And we end up buying more crap for some other project
  • 01:01:02
    and we delude ourselves into thinking that,
  • 01:01:04
    "Oh, if I'm buying things, I'm doing things."
  • 01:01:06
    No, you're just buying things.
  • 01:01:09
    How about finishing what you actually came there to start?
  • 01:01:13
    So as a dad, there's always something we have to do
  • 01:01:17
    and we have to finish it.
  • 01:01:19
    The diapers may stop, but the encouragement never stops.
  • 01:01:24
    You know? The discipline may stop,
  • 01:01:28
    but the counsel, appropriately given and when wanted
  • 01:01:32
    never, never stops.
  • 01:01:36
    And God's not finished with you right now.
  • 01:01:38
    He's still fathering you and I right now.
  • 01:01:41
    He'll get it done. Philippians 1:6 says:
  • 01:01:42
    He who began a good work in you
  • 01:01:45
    will be faithful to complete it.
  • 01:01:47
    So He's still working on us.
  • 01:01:49
    And just like I with my kids who are in their 20s and 30s,
  • 01:01:53
    I'm still working on them.
  • 01:01:56
    I mentioned Gil earlier, did his funeral 13 years ago.
  • 01:02:02
    And he had such a profound impact on me
  • 01:02:05
    and other guys he intentionally chose to father,
  • 01:02:08
    having never had his -- he and Joann never
  • 01:02:10
    had their own DNA kids or never adopted kids.
  • 01:02:16
    And he was such an inspiration.
  • 01:02:18
    This guy, he obviously was a force of nature at one point.
  • 01:02:20
    He was, I think in his prime he was probably
  • 01:02:23
    six five or something like that,
  • 01:02:24
    and he had shriveled down to about, I don't know,
  • 01:02:27
    maybe five eleven in the latter part of his life.
  • 01:02:31
    Just things compress, right?
  • 01:02:33
    But man, the vigor he had was astounding.
  • 01:02:36
    He had this plaque on his cubicle.
  • 01:02:42
    He worked here at Crossroads overseeing our facility.
  • 01:02:47
    At the end, he didn't get paid anything for it,
  • 01:02:49
    but he oversaw our facility, and he had this little scooter.
  • 01:02:51
    He'd kind of go around on the scooter
  • 01:02:53
    as his legs were starting to fail him,
  • 01:02:55
    all his joints were replaced and stuff.
  • 01:02:57
    But he had this unbelievable energy
  • 01:02:58
    and he had this zeal, like, you go, like,
  • 01:03:00
    "Why are you here?" Some people are like, "Why are you here?
  • 01:03:03
    Why aren't you golfing every day?
  • 01:03:05
    Or why aren't you playing bingo or something like that?"
  • 01:03:09
    But he was here because he wanted a father people.
  • 01:03:11
    He wanted to have a lasting legacy.
  • 01:03:14
    And on his cubicle he had this plaque that was his motivation.
  • 01:03:21
    And there's a bunch of different versions of it
  • 01:03:23
    that are out there.
  • 01:03:24
    I don't know who came up with it originally,
  • 01:03:26
    but here was his version, and let me just read it to you.
  • 01:03:30
    This life ain't about playing it safe or staying clean.
  • 01:03:33
    It's about charging hard,
  • 01:03:35
    getting scarred up for the kingdom
  • 01:03:37
    and sliding into heaven, worn out, mud on your face,
  • 01:03:39
    blood on your knuckles and fire in your bones,
  • 01:03:42
    shouting, "Holy shit, Lord, what a ride."
  • 01:03:52
    That's what dads do. That's what moms do.
  • 01:03:56
    That's what everybody does who wants to have a life.
  • 01:03:59
    It's a fight. It's hard. It's difficult.
  • 01:04:03
    Everything of significance is hard and difficult
  • 01:04:06
    and that's why fewer and fewer people
  • 01:04:08
    are stepping up towardr it.
  • 01:04:10
    And they're deluded.
  • 01:04:11
    Don't allow the deluding influence of culture
  • 01:04:14
    dumb you down into having a life that's void of meaning
  • 01:04:17
    and void of building into a life,
  • 01:04:19
    taking responsibility for life and nurturing our life.
  • 01:04:24
    Because guess what? You're meant to be like God
  • 01:04:26
    and God's still doing that with you and I, thank God.
  • 01:04:39
    If you're wanting to draw your line in the sand
  • 01:04:44
    and just go, "I'm done just being like other guys
  • 01:04:48
    who do guy things.
  • 01:04:50
    I want to be a father figure. And this is just a marker.
  • 01:04:55
    I'm going to be a father. I'm embracing that.
  • 01:04:57
    I'm embracing that fight."
  • 01:04:59
    Let's pray. God, I am so thankful, Father,
  • 01:05:02
    that You're a great Father to me.
  • 01:05:04
    I haven't understood everything You've done in my life,
  • 01:05:06
    in the moment I haven't liked
  • 01:05:07
    everything You've done in my life.
  • 01:05:09
    I haven't liked everything You've allowed to happen to me,
  • 01:05:12
    but man, as the Bible says, the boundary lines
  • 01:05:15
    have fallen from me in pleasant places.
  • 01:05:17
    You have been good to me.
  • 01:05:18
    You're a good, good Father, and I want to be more like You.
  • 01:05:26
    And I want to have the kind of influence
  • 01:05:28
    on the people in my sphere
  • 01:05:29
    that You've had on me and so many others.
  • 01:05:32
    So, God take us. We're sorry for our impurities.
  • 01:05:35
    We're sorry for our mistakes.
  • 01:05:37
    We're sorry for just having our eye off the ball.
  • 01:05:39
    But we're making a decision today to be different.
  • 01:05:44
    I want any guy, any guy in the room
  • 01:05:47
    that wants to be a father figure,
  • 01:05:48
    I want you to stand right now.
  • 01:05:50
    Any guy in the room, all of our rooms.
  • 01:05:51
    You want to be a father figure, I want you to stand right now.
  • 01:05:54
    If you don't want to, great, stay seating.
  • 01:05:58
    I'll put a prayer for you.
  • 01:06:00
    God, look at these men in all these rooms.
  • 01:06:02
    Look at these men.
  • 01:06:03
    Look at these potential fathers
  • 01:06:06
    who can bless the young bulls,
  • 01:06:08
    who can bless the young bucks.
  • 01:06:09
    I ask that You put Your Spirit on them in a unique way.
  • 01:06:12
    I pray for grace on them.
  • 01:06:13
    I pray for forgiveness on them.
  • 01:06:16
    That they would stop reliving the ways
  • 01:06:17
    that they dropped the ball and beat themselves up.
  • 01:06:20
    I pray that you would give them redemptive times of healing,
  • 01:06:23
    if they have actual kids.
  • 01:06:24
    And I pray You'd bring the right future children to them,
  • 01:06:27
    for them to father figure and to fight for.
  • 01:06:31
    Restore this generation, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
  • 01:06:35
    - Man, that prayer was so good. - Wow.
  • 01:06:38
    - And I want you to know, like,
  • 01:06:40
    in case you're tempted to believe that prayer
  • 01:06:42
    was for people just in this room.
  • 01:06:43
    No, that was for you.
  • 01:06:46
    We say this all the time around here, all the time,
  • 01:06:49
    but we are not just content.
  • 01:06:50
    We're not just something to watch.
  • 01:06:51
    We are truly a community that you can belong to.
  • 01:06:53
    So if anything jumped out with you in Brian's prayer
  • 01:06:56
    or in his message or your own story with your own father,
  • 01:06:59
    we'd love to talk with you, process with you
  • 01:07:01
    or pray with you.
  • 01:07:03
    You can do that just by chatting in.
  • 01:07:05
    - Yeah. Crossroads.net, hit the chat button
  • 01:07:07
    or text Anywhere to 301301
  • 01:07:10
    and we can start that conversation with you.
  • 01:07:11
    - That's right. Actually a really great way
  • 01:07:14
    for you to connect with the broader community
  • 01:07:16
    and movement of Crossroads is through
  • 01:07:18
    what we call Anywhere Home.
  • 01:07:19
    It's kind of like our own Crossroads specific
  • 01:07:21
    social platform where people pray for one another,
  • 01:07:24
    get to know each other, find people local to them,
  • 01:07:26
    trainings, groups, places where people can hang out
  • 01:07:29
    and get to know each other. It's awesome.
  • 01:07:31
    - Yeah. And again, don't miss the Summer Hangouts
  • 01:07:34
    because that's a great way to get with real people
  • 01:07:36
    in backyards and coffee shops, rooftops,
  • 01:07:39
    maybe even slip and slides. No promises. Hopefully.
  • 01:07:43
    - Hopefully. Yeah. Guys, thank you so much for joining us,
  • 01:07:45
    for being a part of the movement that is Crossroads.
  • 01:07:48
    So good to have you.
  • 01:07:49
    - We'll see you next week.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up! This is content that reflects on the Weekend message and how it can apply to your life. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s your favorite way to unwind after a long day?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. What is a project, hobby, or goal that you have been working on? What have you learned so far?

  4. Read Hebrews 12:5-6.

    What is your reaction when you hear that God disciplines you because he loves you?

  5. Read Matthew 7:9-11.

    Do you ever struggle to believe that God (your Heavenly Father) wants to give you good things? Explain your answer.

  6. Who are some earthly father figures in your life right now?

  7. Is there a lie the enemy has tried to make you believe about fatherhood? What is one way you can stand firm against it?

  8. What’s one way you can step into fatherhood and/or be a parental figure to someone this week?

  9. Let’s end our time praying together. You can say something like;

    “Dear God, You are the perfect example of what it means to be a father. Thank you for caring for us and wanting better for us. Give us patience as you discipline and guide us, and give us wisdom as we do the same with others close to us. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

__Bonus Questions __

Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Read Philippians 1:6. How does this verse reveal more about who God is to you?
  • What do you think it might look like if people around you pursued fatherhood more seriously?

Jun 15, 2025 1 hr 12 mins 16 sec

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