I love his vote of confidence that in the next 50 minutes something amazing’s gonna happen. <Laugh> what’s gonna happen in the next 50 minutes is it’s pretty unscripted. I don’t know. Like I have so much admiration for men and women that can prepare a message and properly communicate what it is that’s in their heart to communicate to the family on a day like today. But I don’t know how to prepare messages one. And secondly, it probably wouldn’t matter anyway because this guy has a whole lot to do with what it is we’re gonna talk about. And I think it’s a super special day for them to choose. Whoops, she, that’s really important nowadays to distinguish <laugh>. How old is she Britain?

Three,

Two. So she’s two years old for use the, that care about the horsemanship side of this. But because she’s never had anything on her back, she’s gonna be a really visible image of some invisible things. And I’ve been literally in bed sick for two weeks. And the last horse that came in this last service actually was, she was, or he, now I’m confused. He was sick as well, and, but she ain’t, so this could be a little bit different.

But I can promise you this us just sitting back here, it’s kind of weird for me because I’m gonna do the same thing right here that I’m, I would do if I was working with a horse at home. And it just, it’s kind of, I, I’ll never get used to the fact that there’s people that are, are sitting watching this. But something super sacred happened to me a number of years ago where I wanted to, I wanted to be a Christian. I wanted to follow Jesus, but I didn’t trust people and I didn’t know how to read. And so what Holy Spirit did for me was very, very personal in that while I was working with horses, he began to teach me. And he taught me about who he was as a father and what it is that he wanted with me. And that on this Father’s Day, I hope we can really celebrate the reality that when Jesus walked on the earth, he said that if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. And that there was this abstract, what clearly was very confusing for God’s people was to understand who God was

And it got Jesus killed. But when he walked on the scene, he made some really, really wild claims. And he said that, I want you to know that I am the one and only begotten son of God. Meaning that I, I came from heaven to earth and I was the word of God that was made light. I was the word of God that was made flesh. And I’m now here dwelling among people and in the culture that he was living in,

Wow,

We’re doing something quite different with her because what I can see is that she’s got enough of a story and she’s highly emotional and whatever it is that her life has been up until this, she’s got a lot of questions about me and what it is that my intentions are for. And I fear that if I would’ve mo moved her around much, just see what she’s doing right now, I think it’s so beautiful that Jesus didn’t just make those claims that He said that if you’ve seen me, that you’ve actually seen God. And they started asking him questions, most of ’em weren’t the right questions. So Jesus would ask my question back and he would say, who do you say that I am? And right now I’m asking her the same question. ’cause I want her to know who I am. I want her to properly be able to communicate. And what she’s gonna do is she’s gonna be able to become the words of God made flesh. And she’s gonna dwell among you and she’s gonna show you what it looks like to be one that’s been caught up in a reality that she can’t put words to, even if she had ’em.

That there’s a force and there’s a love that is so powerful that it starts rewiring and changing the things that are inside of you. And even though she’s got a lot of history and she’s got some stories and she’s got things that have happened to her that’s made it to where she’s would have a hard time trusting, I am not gonna be able to educate her out of it, and I’m not gonna beat it out of her. For those of you that know your Bible, the entire Old Testament, there was a people that were called God’s people. And when they pray they would, they wouldn’t even use God’s name. They wouldn’t address him

Proper.

It was so reverent, so distant, he would appear as a killer of fire or smoke or something that was so glorious that even Moses himself decided that he would veil his face because of the glory of God that was on him. And Jesus showed up and said that I am the word of God made flesh and I am dwelling among you. And I want you to know this God. And I want you to know him as something super special today. He wanted him, he wanted humanity to know him as Father. And so whenever he was going to teach his disciples to pray, and again, it wasn’t a small thing,

And he,

He said, when you pray, I want you to pray like this. Our father who aren’t in heaven, you guys probably know the rest, but think of what happened, something that literally split the heavens and the earth and made it to where there is no longer any separation between us and God. And that when he gave us permission to address him as Father, that everything changed. Now the people had a hard time with that. There was a lot of opposition to him. In fact is the only way to shut him up was to kill him. And for those of you that don’t know the rest of the story, the good news is, is they killed him because when they killed him, they killed everything that could possibly separate you and I from the Father. They killed sin. They killed death, they killed fear. They killed everything that you might think comes between you and God. And so now truly we could say, Papa, thank you for trusting us with your spirit. And thank you for giving us permission to say that. Would your kingdom come in this place today? Would your kingdom fall upon us in the same way it’s being done in heaven,

That we would be these living tabernacles, the temples that carry your glory, that us as humans, your sons and daughters, would be so filled with your love and with your presence, that fear and sin and death no longer have any hold on us in all the instincts that we have, the instincts that make it to where we will lust and we’ll crave and we’ll settle for temporary things.

And

Just so you know, she just got born again. There’s a lot of hard things going on in the world right now, and I know that most of you here have a device ice that puts you in touch with everything that’s going on on the planet right now. And at the click of a button, you can find out the top 10 worst things that are going on. And if you allow it to be, you will live your life in response to the world, the world around us. And it’s gonna be the exact opposite of what it is that Jesus offered to us. The reason Jesus continued to demonstrate the power that he had was that everything around him would shake, and the people around him would be making accusations and doing everything they could to stir up fear and violence. And Jesus would stand in the middle of it with his peace, with his joy, with his love, with his patience. And everybody would wonder, what is wrong with this guy? Or what is it that’s so right with this guy that makes it to where I’m so attracted to him that when he speaks, there’s like life on his words. He’s not speaking the words of man, he’s speaking the words of God. And when he speaks, something inside of me comes alive.

Instead of responding to the things that were going on around him or reacting to the things that were going on around him, no one could tell him what to do or how to feel. He said, I only do the things that I see my father doing. I only say what he’s saying. He’s a good girl. This is a lot, especially ’cause right now I can feel every muscle in her body is tensed up, had a girl, she is gonna lick her lips and she’s gonna take a deep breath and it’s gonna be like, I don’t know if you remember the story of Jesus was in a boat with his man and there was a storm going on and they woke up, Jesus. I don’t know what she said. They woke up Jesus and actually accused him of not caring. Do you not realize there’s a storm going on and we’re gonna die? Man, I wish that wasn’t true of me. Like when storms are going on in my life, there’s been times when I’m like, Jesus, do you not care that my world is falling apart? Like the sky is falling and you act like you’re not even there?

A man that I really love to listen to said that the only storm that you have power over is the storm that you can sleep through. And I love that Jesus was asleep in a storm and then showed us what it was like to have authority to calm the storm you’re doing so good

To.

It’s amazing. If you can look at a living par parable and find yourself in this story on what it’s like to live a life of instincts that makes it to where you’re only gonna, you can do everything you can to stay alive. You are gonna do everything you can to protect yourself. And that God gave us those instincts and then ask us to rise above that. And that being invited into a place where we become one with him and he becomes one with us, that we get to see ourself and the world around us differently. Because what she would be left to apart from me right now, and this is where a lot of people come and ask me this question afterwards, what happens to the horse when you’re done? Well, in nearly every case, I have no idea. It’s kind of a heartbreak for me. But this horse was found here on a local ranch. I live in Idaho, so this is the only time that I get to have with her. And I know that apart from me or apart from somebody, they will love her and protect her and fight for her and give her wisdom and guidance that she’ll go right back to where it is that she started,

That this isn’t a one off thing. And we come to church and we hear things and we educate ourselves

And

We’re fighting against this instinct that makes it to where we just want more stuff. We want more security, we want more entertainment. It’s natural. Like that’s, that’s an instinct kind of living. But because as I mentioned before, we’re so aware of what’s going on on in the world that humans are actually capable of doing things that even animals wouldn’t do that apart from Jesus. I’m capable of doing things that even go against my own nature, that it’s not an instinct. It gets even worse than that. And I love the fact that we have a guy that was like wrote most of the New Testament and he said, even though I haven’t arrived, I’m, I’m not perfected. There is this one thing that I’ll I will do. I’ll forget the things that are behind and I’ll press forward to those things that are ahead. And why it is so important that I continue to ask her to move is this isn’t, hello, this isn’t about what it is that’s happened in the past anymore. And I don’t expect her to forget everything that’s happened that’s made it to where she’s fearful or the attitude that she might have from time to time.

But there’s this future and this hope, this thing that made it to where Jesus, the last message that he gave his disciples was he held up a vine in a branch and he said, man, I’ve given you the case of the kingdom. I’ve given you out the wisdom of heaven. And if you can’t understand these things that are natural, how could I explain to you things that are spiritual? And so I’m gonna ask you cherry heels, if you can’t understand things that are natural, how is it the Holy Spirit’s gonna reveal to you things that are, that are eternal? And I’m not saying this to y’all just as a family, but if it’s Father’s Day, we might as well get back to the basics of what does it look like to be a man and to lead a home and to be a father. And because Jesus was a perfect model of it, he didn’t just leave the disciples with a model. They didn’t, he didn’t leave the disciples with here’s what to do now try really hard to do those things. He did quite the opposite after he modeled those things and showed him how it can be done,

And he cast out demons and he raised the dead and he healed the sick and he cleansed the lepers and he embraced the things that humanity despised. And he broke the rules that they made a God out of their own religion. You know how dangerous it is in our culture with all the knowledge that we have, that we would make our own knowledge God, meaning that your understanding of who God is is what you worship. It’s way bigger than that folks. We don’t get to confine God to our own little understanding of it, but he’s such a good father that he’ll take us where we’re at and then he’ll reveal mysteries to us about who we are and what it is that we’re capable of. And so when he held up a vine in a branch, he said that this, this branch isn’t gonna be any good unless it stays connected to the vine. And this oneness that we’re invited into is that this is her with me. This is her connected. This is the oneness that, that we’re invited into. And because it’s the wisdom of heaven that is this weighty presence that she gets to carry.

She doesn’t have to guess what to do next. I’m literally leading her steps. And all of this was done because she said yes to me. And the invitation, my gosh, the invitation, I was having a little bit of a come apart back here a little bit ago, and it’s kind of like I don’t know how to say thank you enough. Like I can’t, I can’t express my gratitude. Like it’s not something that I can just find the words to express my gratitude to how God has loved me and fathered me and continues to do so. I need him to father me more now than ever. But if what is so great about a father is the fact that I’m here without my three sons on father’s day, and the thing that brings me the greatest joy wouldn’t be for my sons to be here saying thanks for being a good dad. They’re actually doing what it is that they were raised to do. And they’re about the kingdom they’re doing the works that their father, the king of heaven and earth has established for them to do. I think we should sing a song. I don’t know what song to sing, but

I think it’s kind of a sacred moment. And there’s something beautiful about us just having a melody over us because if we’re not careful, we will take something that makes it to where do you see how easy it is, the simplicity that’s in the gospel, why it is that we have a book that’s that thick and he whittles it right down to one thing and he says that I desire that you would become one with me. This is what a father wants, is this oneness. And it’s just as real actually, it’s more real spiritually than it is physically. He says that the things that we can see, they’re temporary. Everything that we put our hands to, it’s temporary. But the things that we can’t see are eternal. And it’s what most of you are feeling right now is that you can feel just a tangible presence of love in the room. That there’s a kindness and there’s a gentleness, there’s a stillness, and that’s impacting, it’s impacting your body, but it’s at a soul level. This isn’t just new thoughts, maybe some new imagery, but more than that, the horse is doing a, a brilliant job of being a mirror to what’s going on in this unseen realm.

I’m not trying to be weird, but Jesus addressed all this unseen realm all the time that we have a hard time believing because we can’t see it. But right now, it’s tangible, it’s in the room.

I love, I’ve known you, I’ve known you as

My goodness. I could stay here forever. I can’t imagine my family coming to me and saying, father, would you teach me something? And me turning them away and saying, nah, not today. And so y’all came here expecting something. I’m not really sure what that was, but I know that it’s the kindness of God to to speak. We all want to know how to become more whole, how to make it to where we can lead better. How it is that we can love better. This is, this is Holy Spirit in us revealing to us things that we haven’t yet seen. Animals don’t do that. So you guys are like the opposite of what it is that we see in the culture. But because there’s not a whole lot of permission being given on what to do with the power that’s been entrusted to you, that if you have a desire to become more whole hole, that didn’t just come from you, that’s not normal human response. Typically, we wanna figure out how we can justify where we are. So if you’re one of the select few that are roaming on this planet right now at this critical time

That have this desire inside of you to become more whole, I think raise your hand if, if you desire more wholeness in your life.

I

I think everybody raised their hand. If not, it might be because you just didn’t understand the question I just asked. My wife’s a school teacher and she’s really good at asking questions. I’ve found that I’m not so good. So just in case you missed the question, if you would like to become more whole healed up from the past wounds to become more emotionally aware,

To

Be more connected to yourself and know why it is that you do what you do to be able to love your family better, to be able to love your peers better than raise your hand. That’s what I thought. So at least I’m talking to the right people. I would hate it if I found out that I’m a, you guys are like no, not, not me. I’m fine. Everybody else is messed up, but there’s nothing wrong with me. If that’s you, raise your hand.

<Laugh>.

Oh, I was looking for one brave man. I meet him all the time, by the way. And it’s heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking that we’ve been invited into this likeness of God, that Jesus actually invited us to become his visible image. The word of God made flesh dwelling among people. It’s not blasphemy for us to say that in the sense that that’s exactly what it is, that Jesus was crucified so that we could do is we could become like him. And because you like me, know that we’re not yet there. Then there’s this beautiful, humble approach that we can take to life and it’s gonna make it to where we’re gonna be really, really quick to say we’re sorry and not just say the words like confession time, but we’re gonna be able to present to our wives. Oh man, I’m speaking to you man. Sorry. It’s Father’s Day. This is really gonna help though. We’re going to, she loves y’all. We’re gonna learn that it’s the most attractive, most desirable trait that we carry, is our ability to be humble. And that that humility is gonna be demonstrated in lots of willingness to learn. And it’s also gonna be demonstrated in power

That you men have been given the authority to lead your homes, but most of that’s not fair. A lot of you have lost your influence. Can I say it one more time? God gave you the authority in your house that because of unhealed wounds, pride, fear, whatever it might be, you’ve lost your influence with your family. And I say that on Father’s Day, we take it back and that there’s something worth fighting for and that there’s gonna be some beautiful, humble conversations today where fathers are gonna get the greatest gift that a father could get on today. And that is that they become more whole. And that forgiveness doesn’t just mean that they know that they’re gonna be able to get to go to heaven one day, but forgiveness now turns into a lifestyle of repentance. And this lifestyle of repentance is my safety. It’s the gift that I get to give my family that when they have the, the guts to communicate to me that I’ve hurt them, that it’s gonna collide with humility and love and make it to where, what can I do? What can I do to bring healing to that?

How is it that we can move forward? I don’t wanna just sweep it under the rug. I’ve caused real damage in my home and I need to clean up the messes. I thought by now I’d outgrown that, but I haven’t, I still have to continually be confronted whether it’s Holy Spirit confronting me or my wife. Sometimes it’s easier to understand my wife. She’s clearer, but the invitation still stands. But because we’ve almost in the most damaging thing that we could do as we’ve diminished the authority that’s been put on men to be dads and to be husbands. So I think before we go, I would like to have an opportunity to pray for all the dads in the room. So if you’re a dad, would you stand? What do you say, folks? Jesus said that there was a hope that was set before him that made it to where he could endure the cross. That there was a picture he could see you and I standing here right now, that we were worth fighting for that whatever whooping he was gonna have to take, whatever it looked like for him to feel the separation from Father,

Like he had to become sin. Whatever it was that Jesus needed the courage for, he had a vision of the prize that was set in front of him. So Holy Spirit, I pray over these fathers right now, that you would help them see the faces of every one of their children and grandchildren, and let those be the joy that is set in front of us, that we’re willing to endure whatever it is that we need to endure, to humble ourselves and make it to where our families fall in love with the kindness that we represent, the willingness to live a lifestyle of learning and growing and becoming more whole and cleaning up our messes along the way. God, the world’s dying to see you man in the marketplace. Everywhere you go, they’re so confused. What do us as men do? One thing we can do for sure is we can make, I’m glad that we have a, a girl because I’m married to a woman that she loves, that I’m strong, she loves that I’m not, she loves that I’m capable, but that’s not what makes her feel intimate with me. It’s the humility, it’s the kindness, it’s the gentleness. It’s the willingness to listen,

Actually listen to what it is that she’s saying, and then it gives me something that I can go back to my brothers with and say, I need help. How can we fight this fight together? Amen. what do you say? Your call? Yeah. Okay. I think we’re gonna have a song. So you, I think y’all should stand for this then

My hands and on my soul. My soul. So

You guys see that? But I,

Man, that is so good. There’s gonna be a team of people up front that are willing to pray for you. And we just don’t want anybody to leave here with a bunch of unanswered questions. And I know that my heart is to just give you everything I’ve got and unfortunately, we got an hour to do it. So as much as I know how to love I love the body of Christ. I love the church. I love those who have called on the name of Jesus and are my brothers and sisters. But this crazy thing is that, man, I love those who are outside of Christ. And if you’re here and you don’t know what to do with all of this, if you got someone that you really trust, grab hold of them and ask questions. Don’t let, don’t let the sun go down on this. There’s sacred moments where you’ve gone this far through your life without, without doing something about it. But now I feel like it’s super important that you don’t, you don’t waste this turn and that you get your questions answered. So if you’d like to pray with someone, you’re welcome to come forward. Other than that thank you guys for being so hospitable. I had someone show up at my hotel last night and bring me chicken noodle soup. Okay? So I know I’m talking to family here. You know how to make a guy feel better. So thank you all and happy Father’s Day.