March 18, 2025 • 48 mins
We explore how identity as beloved sons and daughters of God reshapes fatherhood, heals performance-driven parenting, and restores joy. Through stories, scripture, and prayer, we map a path from pressure to presence and invite listeners to be refathered by God.
• Sonship as core identity and its impact on families
• Performance parenting and the harm of “daddy ball”
• Adoption by God and being re-fathered
• "Like Father, like Son" as a family blueprint
• Transformed desires: Loving righteousness, hating wickedness
• Joy as strength in daily parenting
• Prayer for prodigals, healing, and renewed hearts
• Invitation to take practical next steps in faith
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
What kind of father do you want to be?
What kind of man do you want tobecome for your family and for
yourself?
If you've ever wondered how tostep into the fullness of your
role as a father, husband, andman of God, then you're in the
right place.
Here at the Father Difference,our mission is to inspire and
equip men to be the best fathersthey can be.
(00:23):
It's a powerful mission.
And today, we're going toexplore exactly how you can take
steps toward that calling.
Whether you're a father, a son,a husband, grandfather, single
dad, stepfather, or just lookingto grow, I believe God has
something powerful for you intoday's message.
(00:43):
Whether you're tuning in live orwatching this later, we are so
excited to have you here.
If this is what you're lookingfor, then subscribe so you can
tune in each week to the FatherDifference Live.
You can sign up below.
And now your host, a husband,father, grandfather, author, and
(01:03):
former NFL player, Pastor EdMcGlass.
SPEAKER_01 (01:18):
So good to be with you here from bright, sunny sun
in California.
And today we're going to talkabout this whole idea about
sonship, or if you're a galdaughtership that's watching
today, and how that affects usand how we see ourselves and
(01:38):
those places in our life thatmight be broken, where identity
is really the key of reallyunderstanding who God has made
us to be.
And when we're not clear aboutwho we are and that core
identity, the result is that uhwe can take on a false identity
(01:58):
and end up doing a lot of damagein our own life and as a mom or
dad, do damage with our kids.
You with me?
So welcome.
I'd love to hear where you'refrom if you want to shoot me a
text.
Um here we have a few peoplethis that are already online and
TikTok, Instagram, YouTube,Facebook on both pages.
(02:24):
Love to hear where you're from.
Give me a shout out.
I'll do my best to get back toyou.
And let's get into the materialand just the crucial role of
sonship.
So if I were to ask you aquestion, who are you?
What is the core identity thatGod has put in your life, the
(02:49):
way you see yourself?
Because it's so easy for us tohave an identity or an
understanding about who we arethat comes out of what we're
broken about.
I meet people all the time thathave been followers of Jesus for
years and are not really clearabout who they really are to
(03:10):
God.
It could be that part of that isbecause of the way your dad
framed who you were when youwere growing up.
And when you don't have a dadthat's that's clear about who he
is, he really struggles to helpyou discover who God's made you
to be.
Identity is central to whatwe're going to talk about today
(03:33):
and how God can take a brokenidentity or an identity that we
build in our life that didn'thappen and keep us stuck.
I got to be with a dear friendtoday, and we were talking about
identity.
And you know, one of the thingsthat he said to me was he has
(03:54):
spent so much of his life tryingto live for the towards the
father that wasn't looking hisway.
No matter what he did, no matterhow much he achieved, no matter
how much he obeyed the familyrules, he never ever felt like
he arrived.
(04:14):
He never ever felt like his dadwas proud of him.
And now, years after of justreal, in his own words, torment,
he has learned to connect to afather finally towards the end
of his life in a way that henever got to have in the early
part of his days.
(04:35):
So part of our conversation wasdo you think that your dad knew
who he was?
And his comment was, no, hedidn't.
And that's one of the reasonsthat we struggle.
It's a reason I struggled as ayoung father with my own
children because I didn'trealize that I was trying to eke
(04:56):
out my identity of being a gooddad or being a father through
the performance of my children.
And so if you've parked how youfeel about yourself to the way
your kids are following therules or producing or becoming
this or that, then you can be ina lot of trouble.
(05:17):
I mean, the I I I, you know, oneof the craziest places for us as
parents sometimes is littleleague.
Especially if you're a coach ofa little league team, and that
gets accused of daddy ball.
And daddy ball is when theyaccuse you of playing your son,
(05:40):
or if you're doing a woman'ssport, your daughter ahead of
their, you know, geneticallysuperior children that should be
playing in your son ordaughter's place.
Oh boy, I tell you, I was acoach for a number of years in
(06:00):
some of the battles that I hadwith parents because they didn't
feel like I was giving theirchildren the same looks or the
same coaching.
And I remember one dad comes upto me and he goes, Why don't you
play my son more?
You know, why why why is healways on the bench?
(06:23):
I said, Well, part of the reasonis because he spends the whole
practice cussing at everyone andfighting with everyone.
And I told him, as long as he'snot a teammate, he gets to ride
the pine, to which he doesn'tlike.
(06:43):
And he goes, he does.
Well, I said, I'll handle it.
And I said, Can I ask you aquestion?
And I said, Um, your son saidthis the other day, and I it's
too profane for me to say onlineto another person, have you ever
said that same thing to yourson?
(07:04):
And it just hit him, and he putshis head down, he goes, Yeah,
I'm I'm like really hard on myson.
Well, how's it working?
Well, he's not listening toanything I say.
I said, Well, maybe if you learnhow to hear from God yourself
(07:24):
about the way God speaks to you,it'll change the way you speak
to yourself, which will changethe way you speak to your son.
And he's got teary eyes andlooked at me, he goes, My son's
really in trouble.
He's trouble in school, he'strouble.
I want him just to have somewins.
I said, Well, here's the firststep as a dad.
(07:47):
Is he winning with you?
Because if he's not winning withyou, he uh he's gonna feel like
a loser and everything becausethe first audience that really
matters to your son is their dadin that stand.
What he's saying, what he'sdoing, what he's looking, how
(08:07):
he's yelling.
And not all dads are equal.
There's some dads that areamazing out there, tremendous
support of their kids.
But I think far too many dadsare out there, they're sort of
living through the performanceof their children.
And when you do that, it reallybreaks them.
So, how do you how do you changethat as we're talking about this
(08:30):
whole issue of identity and howsonship, that that gift that God
gives us as men, or if you're agal watching, can really change
that.
One of the our my friend Ray,who's watching, his dad was like
that.
And uh, and so he was even alocal reporter as uh as a
(08:52):
baseball coach and and uhreported on that and watched
that over and over again, samescenario.
You know, as a matter of fact,in the National Football League,
I watched a number of playersthat were really emotionally
handicapped because of the waytheir fathers treated them.
Drove them, drove them, drovethem, drove them because their
(09:13):
dad wanted them to make thatfootball team or become that
superstar.
Because it's like his wholeidentity depended on the
performance of his kids.
Imagine that kind of pressure.
Did you have some of that?
I had some of that myself.
So, how does God heal that inus?
Well, I want to turn to ouroutline here and share with you
(09:36):
that point number one from ascripture, really powerful thing
to begin for you to begin tothink about.
Because the more you are securein who God has called you to be,
the more that will secure yourfamily and help them discover
that for themselves.
Well, point number one here.
(09:57):
So, why is it really importantto receive our adoption from the
Father?
Because to understand sonship,we got to receive and adopt our
adoption.
It's one of the incrediblepromises in the Bible that you
think, well, I don't need to beadopted.
I had a dad and a mom.
Well, God the Father doesn'tadopt us just because we don't
(10:17):
have.
God the Father adopts us so thathe can be the father of our
story and that we would know it,and that we would have that same
kind of relationship that he hadwith his own son, Jesus.
So why is it important?
Well, number one, we're going tobecome like the man who fathers
(10:38):
us.
So if you want to change yourstripes and have your kids turn
out better, understand that theyare becoming like the father
that's fathering them.
You know, when Jesus said, Who'sever seen me to Thomas have seen
my father?
(11:00):
Jesus represented who God theFather was to its disciples and
to the world.
That same kind of thing happensin a family when, you know,
other people see our children,and then they they begin to
understand how they're fathered.
And is there any greatercompliment?
(11:20):
I've had this a number of timeswhen my children, here's one of
my beloved sons right here.
Hey Edward, I'm live talkingabout you online.
I love you, gotta go.
But is there anything moreamazing than to have my son just
giving you a phone call?
(11:42):
You know, one of the things thatI love, Josh is one of the one
of the jewels in my life, isthat my son calls me every night
on the way home from work.
I love those times.
There's nothing, I don't thinkthere's anything sweeter for you
(12:05):
as a dad than when your childreninvite you into their story and
they want more from you.
They want to learn from you.
And and part of the secret ofestablishing that, because we
have a lot of parents where youtried to do the best job you
did, and your kids are justsideways, sometimes from the
(12:26):
enemy, the devil is you know,sewed things in them, their
friends, drugs, craziness.
But uh, I know this that ifyou're a dad and you have sired
children or been a stepdad whohas fathered somebody else's
sons, your voice over yourchildren and the way you live
(12:49):
out your story is the mostpowerful thing you can do and be
in the life of your children.
See, we can't build someone inkind of somebody else.
I want you to be more like himor her.
We're only able to build andfather based on the man that we
(13:14):
are becoming, the son that thefather has adopted, that that
identity in us, when we when webuild that and we live that in
front of our children, that issuch a powerful roadmap that no
matter what the devil throws atour kids, they're going to know
the way home.
(13:35):
And that's just a promise toyou.
And I'm saying that for somebodywhose children have gone
sideways and you're just reallyconcerned about them.
And they don't want you in theirstory.
And that's a heartache for somany parents and grandparents
today.
Guess what?
God's promised before the greatand coming day of the Lord, He's
(13:59):
going to turn the hearts offathers, us, grandpas, us,
towards our children so that theheart of our children will turn
back to their fathers.
That's uh kind of the lastprophetic salvo from heaven
through Malachi, and that Jesuscame to begin to fulfill, and He
(14:22):
is fulfilling in us as fathers.
He's turning our hearts.
You want to be part of thattroop?
Keep hanging out with me becausethat's where we're going.
That's where I'm going.
I I want to end my race,hopefully, in a lot of later
years, with a lot more grayhair, but have all my children
(14:45):
and my grandchildren and maybe afew great-grandchildren around
my bed to bless them on the wayout.
Is there anything better thanthat?
Okay.
I took a little side thing, butlet me get back to what I was
sharing with you.
See, the truth, number one thingI want to say to you tonight is
(15:06):
that we will become like the manwho follows us.
So think about, take a momentand think about what your dad
sewed or did not sew into yougood, bad, and the ugly.
Think about those things thatare repeated patterns in your
own life that you are like yourdad.
(15:27):
Even if you hated your dad andwanted to do everything opposite
of them, how are you doing withthat?
I had a young man uh not toolong ago I was coaching, and I
said, So, how are you doing?
It's a dad.
He goes, Well, I just doeverything opposite of my
father.
I hate my dad.
I said, if I could have yourwife in on this conversation,
(15:49):
what would she say, or what ifshe says to you about the way
you are fathering her kids too?
Well, she tells me all the timethat I'm too rough, I'm too
gruff, and I just don't get it.
I'm trying to do the best that Ican.
I said, have you noticed how youtalk when you mention your dad?
(16:14):
Could it be that God wants to dosome work in your heart with
your own father so that yourvoice that you're projecting
over your children isn't thisvoice where you're trying to be
the opposite of your dad becauseyou hated him?
That's gonna leak into you.
And so, and I said to him, Isaid, So what do you how do you
(16:35):
handle a situation when yourchildren don't want to do the
good that you want them to do?
I get mad.
And I looked at him and I said,Like your dad?
And he just went, Oh I didn'treally see that.
I said, That's what we do.
(16:56):
Because, see, we've been made tobe fathered, and when we're
fathered by a dad, we're gonnaget the good, bad, and ugly
sometimes.
So he made some big changes, gothis son back.
Next slide.
Not only will we become like theman who fathers us, we will
have, you know, when we learn toreceive our adoption, we will
(17:19):
have a father to re-father us.
I love that term, refathered.
I don't I don't know exactly whocame up with it.
I wish I could say that's me,but I'm sure it's everything
that we have is borrowed fromsomewhere.
And so God the Father doesn'twant to replace your dad, but he
wants to refather those thingsin you and in me that are broken
(17:45):
because of our sin when we'vesinned against God ourselves,
and that sin that was doneagainst us, and maybe the way we
were fathered or mishandled orabused by other people.
And see, God's plan all along isto be in that space where he
re-fathers us, and that that isso powerful.
(18:09):
That is so powerful when weunderstand that no matter how
broken our dads are, no matterhow broken our backstory is, God
the Father's promise is to comein and re-father us along the
same lines as the way hefathered his son.
I just love that picture.
(18:31):
And he goes and it goes on here,and and in John 1:14, here's the
proof of that.
And the word became flesh andblood.
He's talking about Jesus Christand moved into the neighborhood.
I love this.
This is the message version.
And we saw the glory with ourown eyes, the one of a kind
(18:52):
glory, like Father, like son,generous inside and out, true
from start to finish.
Boy, you want to reboot with Godthe Father, receive your
adoption as a son, and live outof that understanding.
Well, the promise right here inin the book of John, chapter
(19:13):
one, verse 14, is that peoplewill see the glory of in their
own eyes of what God the Fathercan do in our lives and with
Christ in our lives when welearn that like father, like son
relationship that Jesus livedout as a man before his father
(19:35):
and before his disciples onpurpose to give them a way to be
different.
That makes us, and this is gosh,this has changed my life.
He started making my heartgenerous, even when my kids were
broken.
And they weren't doing what Isaid because God beelanded right
(19:58):
back to me to show me I was thesame way.
I was the same way, I was justas broken, way more broken than
my kids.
But I generosity started to growin me.
Generosity with God's love,generosity with his forgiveness.
(20:23):
Generosity was walking with mykids when they had broken places
and they didn't feel judged byme.
That is so powerful for us, solife-giving to know that we have
a father that we can come justhow we are to him, and he'll
(20:48):
take what's broken in us andre-father that place inside of
us, and he will make that placeinside of us just like his son
Jesus.
That's extraordinary.
Extraordinary.
Goes on here.
Number three, we will want thesame desires as Jesus, hence my
(21:12):
title, when you receive yoursonship, your desires begin to
change.
You know, there's a there's agreat verse in Hebrews 1:9.
It's the it's the view inside ofthe heart of Jesus.
It's an old testament scripturethat that the writer to the
Hebrews brings up in one versenine and quotes it about who the
(21:36):
Son of Man would be, who the Sonof God truly is going to be.
And it says, in describingJesus, you loved righteousness
and hated wickedness.
Therefore, God your God hasanointed you with the oil of
gladness, with the oil of joybeyond your companions.
(21:59):
See, one of the marks of abeloved son is that your desires
now begin to shift as you openGod's word every day and as you
call on him to change yourheart, you will begin loving
what God loves.
And God loves righteousness.
And that's doing it God's wayand following God's word, no
(22:23):
matter what it takes.
And at the same time, that youyou have this love for
righteousness, you also havethis hatred of wickedness.
And and by the way, thatwickedness comes towards us
first.
And when we deal with our ownwickedness, because sin is
wickedness.
When we when we turn from Godand and we say no to him to our
(22:47):
own things, not receiving thebest, it's wicked to God.
It it needs forgiveness.
That's why we go to him andconfess our sins, the Bible
says.
And not only that, he promiseswhat?
To forgive us our sins andcleanse us in 1 John 1 9 there
of all unrighteousness.
God wants to fill your life withhis righteousness.
(23:10):
But to do that, we've got togive those things that we don't
want him to see.
We talked about this last week.
The very first step in recoveryis that you got to admit that
you're not God, that you can'thandle it.
You maybe your issue is drinkingalcohol, that you can't stop
(23:30):
drinking.
You can say, if you, well, I'mjust a dry alcoholic.
Boy, you're just like a guy whodrinks all the time.
See, part of it is that Godwants to bring us to a place
where we're we're free.
And the only way for us to befree is when we come to him and
we pour out what he alreadyknows is broken in our life.
(23:53):
And when we confess that to himand we bring that, and it comes
not just, Lord, forgive me forthis sin, but when we come and
say, Lord, I can't stop doingthis.
Lord, I haven't been able tostop yelling at my kids or
yelling at my daughters or beingangry with my wife.
(24:14):
Lord, I confess this I am stuck.
I got problems in me, and Ican't stop doing it.
But Father, I know that as Iconfess this to you, forgive me
of my sins, forgive me of thesethings, I need you to put your
spirit in me and to give me awhole new way to live my life.
(24:40):
Let me tell you, when you dothat, he does beloved.
But he's waiting.
It's like we got a lid on our onour we have a lid on how much
goes in to our life, andrepentance is when we open up
and expose what's really goingon in our hearts to the Lord
(25:04):
that he already knows, so thatthe Jesus can grab all those
things and replace it and fillus.
Now, look what it he fills usfilled us with.
This is the sign of the forgivenman, this is the sign of the
righteous man, and he hasanointed you with the oil of
(25:26):
gladness beyond your companions.
Gosh, I love that.
See, what Jesus, you know,embodied was the joy of the Lord
because he had this celebratedrelationship with his loving
father where sin didn't get inthe way because Jesus loved
(25:50):
righteousness and lived forrighteousness and never sinned.
And so the fruit of that wasthis incredible joy.
Imagine, imagine you in your ownlife learning how to live and
(26:12):
love the righteousness of Godand come to him and behold uh in
such a profound way that hefills you with the joy of the
Lord.
You know, they say the joy ofthe Lord is your strength.
It is, it's it's a supernaturalimpartation of the heart of the
(26:38):
Father upon you, of what hereally thinks about you.
His joy overtakes you, and it isa profound thing indeed.
And imagine I I think if we wereable to if we were sitting with
Jesus right now, he would havethis this giggle about him.
(27:04):
It was just so joyful.
So when you get around, ifyou've ever been around Heidi uh
Baker and Roland Baker, who inMozambique, you know, and and uh
just a a really tough,persecuted country, but they
they live in such pleasure oftheir father's bidding, no
matter if it's hard or it'seasy.
(27:26):
They live in this incredible joyof knowing that Papa, Papa God,
absolutely is fond of them, andhe is fond of them.
He's fond of me, he's fond ofyou, and he wants you to
experience that.
And so, not only that, the thenext slide here is that we will
(27:49):
receive that same like father,like son relationship Jesus had.
Boy, isn't isn't that what youwant as a young man or or if you
if you're a gal watching?
Jesus said, Who's ever seen mehave seen the father?
Who's ever seen me, Jesus said?
(28:09):
You could they noticed the wayhe did his life.
He he was fearless.
And it was like nobody really'sever lived that way, where they
lived out of the love andpleasure of the Father in
heaven.
I mean, Jesus, and I've talkedto you this before, he said in
John 5, you said that the secretof his life was, you know, I
(28:34):
only do the things I see myfather doing.
He lived in this place oftrusting the leadership of his
heart, his life, his safety, hisfuture in his father who sent
him.
The Bible says God so loved theworld that he sent his son.
(28:55):
He trusted his father.
And even at the end, he trustedhis father in his death on the
cross to get to cover the sinsof everybody before him and the
sins of everybody after him.
The price that we that wedeserve to pay because of our
(29:15):
sin, Christ paid it all.
And he had great joy infollowing his father, even
though there are times it wasincredibly hard.
But I imagine, you know, if wewere walking around with Jesus
like his disciple.
And you see this in throughoutscripture, and some of its loss
(29:38):
in translation.
Jesus is a funny guy in so manyof the ways he he talked, and
they he got them laughing.
And uh there's just because hewas so full of the joy of the
Lord their lives mattered.
And see, when when you live inthat place, and here's the deal
(29:59):
Jesus.
Jesus never spent any time wherehe wasn't under the gaze of his
loving father and he knew it.
See it it I tell you for most ofus guys and and gals out there,
(30:19):
is there anything more powerfulthan knowing that God is
watching you and He's there andthat He has your back?
Is there anything more profoundthan that in life?
I don't think so.
(30:40):
I meet guys all the time thatfeel absolutely alone They feel
like that the totality of theirlife is just on their own
shoulders and the result of thatis that they think they gotta
work this whole thing out bythemselves and we're gonna tie
(31:00):
this together right here.
I'm gonna give you part two nextweek.
But how many of you guys feellike you're you do a lot of your
life alone?
I mean, even in church, and wehave our churches and our groups
and everything else, but howconnected to God the Father are
(31:22):
you?
It's vital because it's not onlyvital for you and how you feel
about yourself.
But your own your own coreidentity as a son as you receive
that sonship from God theFather, that that that that gift
(31:45):
of of being a son, and that giftof being fathered to becoming
like Jesus Christ.
By the time he's done, you'regonna look just like him.
The scripture says when we seehim one day, we're gonna be just
like him because we're gonna seehim just the way he is.
I think in that moment we'regonna understand in a in a blink
(32:08):
of an eye all of the stuff we'vehad to go through, all the
things our children have gonethrough, our families have gone
through, all the suffering, thegood, bad, and ugly, the purpose
in the way of it it was weavedwith this grand weaver of life
into your story so that youyou're gonna sit back and
(32:33):
realize wow, there's never beena time, father, where you
haven't been shaping me or orwooing me or sending me somebody
to get a word, or some of youhave come tonight.
The Lord has brought you here toto remind you, to encourage you,
to equip you.
That's our mission at the FatherDifference, that you would
(32:56):
connect to a Father whoabsolutely loves you, a Father
who wants to pour his life intoyou so that you begin to you
would experience that scripturethat we read in Hebrews 1:9, in
that you would loverighteousness and hate
wickedness, so that your heart,God would anoint your heart just
(33:20):
like he did Christ, where youhad the you have the oil of joy
above all your companions.
And I've met some amazing saintsin my life that's 68 years old.
I've I've been following andwalking with Jesus since I've
been 24 years old.
That's a lot of moons.
(33:43):
And uh it's been an incrediblejoy.
And I've gotten I've gottenaround to be around so many
amazing saints.
But I'm gonna highlight just oneof maybe the thousand I've
gotten to be around who Iadmire, it's my it's Jill's
cousin Jeannie Anderson.
(34:04):
And Jeannie Anderson was a shewas like a Heidi Baker.
She was one of the mostastounding women I'd ever met.
She got started out in in astory in a real uh broken way,
where no matter how hard shetried as a kid in school, and
she was really smart.
(34:26):
If she got a B and didn't get anA, she got scolded by her
father.
And so she just said, What theheck?
Went out and lived a crazy life,was all over the world and
traveled.
And then my wife, Jill, got tolead her to Jesus and see her
baptized.
(34:47):
And and and Jeannie got it.
She she just fell in love withthis guy, Jesus, who she her
number one value is to be in hispresence and receive his love
every day.
And God began to heal all thistrauma and this stuff to where
she was so gracious to her dadand her family who weren't saved
(35:13):
yet.
And and she would you'd find herin in different places under
bridges with the homeless,loving them, you know.
She didn't care about living inpalatial places, she she cared
about the people that Jesusloved.
And so she towards the end ofher story, she got cancer, and
(35:38):
and she said, Well, if I'mgonna, you know, if Jesus heals
me, that's awesome.
But I'm gonna take everybodywith me I can.
And so she invited me one day tothe cancer ward there out in the
desert.
And you gotta picture it.
There was these tables of allthese gals, and they they all
(36:00):
had individual IVs, you know,and and a lot of them knew one
another just from the weeklyappointment.
They had the very similar weeklyappointment to come in every
week and and get their dose ofchemo.
And Jeannie was there with themand and uh had such a great
heart for them, she decided togo back to that place and uh and
(36:26):
minister to these gals.
And so she invited me, and I wasI was so honored to go there in
that place out in Palm Desertwith all these gals.
And we're driving there, and shegoes, Ed, I've been sharing the
love of Jesus, but I want you togo in and lead every girl in
(36:47):
that place to cry.
There's a lot of girls in therethat got no hope.
Their only hope is in themedicine, and they're mad and
they're angry and they'recaught.
And there was a Jewish gal thatwas sitting next to Jeannie, and
she introduced me to her, andand we watched God save this
(37:09):
girl, give her life all this newbeaning, a number of many more
years of life before I think thecancer ended up taking her.
But the joy that she got, shenever experienced joy before.
She always expected the dread oflife to be it.
(37:33):
Maybe you're in that place whereyou you've just had a lot of
stuff happening, a lot of loss,a lot of things taken.
And so we look at our thingsthat we lose with the problems
in our family and stuff, andit's so easy to be discouraged.
But there is a joy thattranscends all of those things
when you understand your coreidentity of being son or a
(37:57):
daughter.
And Jeannie knew that coreidentity of being a daughter,
that her life didn't didn't itdidn't matter how much money her
husband made.
It didn't matter, you know, theplace that they lived out there
in PGA West.
All she wanted to do is love thenext person that God put in
front of her.
So she was totally free.
(38:20):
And that's how you get free,because that was the way Jesus
was.
He wasn't about building anybuildings or churches the way we
tend to build things today.
He and he loves his church andall his forms, but it was about
the next person, and the onlyway you don't see the next
(38:42):
person is when you're stuck inyour own head about all the
stuff that's happened to you,and you're really good at
rehearsing all the hurt insteadof giving all that to God and
realizing that everything thatGod brings to you and to me,
(39:03):
underneath it all, we can becomemore like him because he wants
to pour his joy into you in waysthat will blow your mind.
And so I want to pray for thosethat are watching right now that
you're in a battle and uh youcan't see the forest because of
(39:26):
the trees, you know, that kindof battle, and you got all these
things, but in the midst of allthat, you know, focusing in on
the righteousness of God and andyour sonship or daughtership if
you're a gal, can unlock yourheart to have joy in who he is
(39:48):
to you as your father, and whoJesus is as your savior that
will empower you to stand up nomatter what's facing you.
Can I pray for you right now?
Lord, I pray for all my friendsthat are watching and from uh
Rumble to TikTok, Instagram, X,Facebook pages.
(40:14):
I speak to all of those therethat are all facing, you know,
insurmountable challenges intheir life.
And uh they know you love them,Lord, but they they're dry and
they want your joy.
They want more of your joy thanwe're talking about tonight.
They want that freedom thatcomes from their sonship or
(40:37):
daughtership of of being abeloved daughter where you're
not naming yourself by yourstuff or your accomplishments.
And I just pray, Father, thatyou would come.
And Jesus, I pray you wouldvisit them right now.
Maybe there's somebody watchingthat that you it's been a long
time since you've been inchurch.
(40:58):
It's been a long time sinceyou've said yes to Jesus.
All you gotta do is do thatright now.
Just say, Jesus, I need youright now.
I'm tired of doing my life in myown strength.
Will you forgive me?
I give you my sin.
(41:19):
Forgive me of all those thingsthat I have I have done just out
of trying to to live my life myown way.
But I don't want my life my ownway.
I want a life that's filled withyour joy.
I want a life that's filled withyou, Father.
I want to be fathered by you,Father, and I want, Jesus, I
(41:42):
want you to to indwell me withyour presence and Holy Spirit,
empower me so that all theseweapons the enemy has been using
to knock me down will bedefeated.
And not only in me, but for mychildren.
And I pray for all of your kids.
(42:02):
I pray for those that are faraway who've run away from Jesus,
maybe run away from you, and Ipray, Father, you'd bring them
all home.
All of them.
I pray that the year two 2025would be the year of incredible
return of lost kids to parents.
(42:23):
I pray, Father, just bless them,have phone calls, conversations,
letters responded to, emailsresponded to, texts responded
to, and give my brothers andsisters as mom and dads that are
watching, given the faith tokeep loving, keep reaching out,
(42:45):
and keep modeling to theirchildren what it looks like when
you learn to lay your down lovelife down for Jesus, being loved
by Him and you, Father, so wecan make the difference you want
us to make.
In the name of Jesus, we pray.
And all God's people said, Amen.
(43:06):
Gosh, it's so great to be withyou.
Um, before I leave, I just wantto let you know that we are
releasing now our FatherhoodAcademy.
And I want to encourage you, ifyou're if you really want to
grow, and and this is gals too,this isn't just men only, though
(43:28):
it might seem like when I sayempowering men, it's also women.
Because I have gals who arereading our material and reading
our books, but we have a specialintroductory price for you to be
part of that, which helpssupport us in everything we do.
Incredibly affordable.
(43:49):
But you can go to my website,and I just gonna put that link
back up there, and I want you tocheck it out.
I think it would be a powerfulway for you to learn how to
receive more from God.
If you want that joy I talkedabout, you want more of learning
how to be a daughter or a son,and receiving your sonship and
(44:10):
the and the power of that andhow that will change your
family.
I want to encourage you to checkit out.
And I I promise you, it it willdo something.
So, you know, we we're all weonly have room at this special
discounted price for the firsthundred people.
And so I want to I want to getevery one of our friends
(44:32):
tonight, and maybe you've notthought about this, and I'm
gonna play a little video thattalks about it.
Go to my website, check it out.
And part of that is thismembership gets some personal
coaching time with me everymonth, a video series on books,
resources, a podcast, you know,a number of things that are
(44:55):
special for our members that arepart of that.
And I've not really talked muchabout this, but I want to invite
you in and check out thisprogram.
And maybe you're in a placewhere you don't necessarily want
to do it for yourself, but youwant to maybe buy a scholarship
for some people that can'tafford it.
Because right now, our ourEuropean subscriptions and
(45:19):
people were we're offering thisas well for people around the
world, and you can help us getthis farther.
So if that's your heart andyou're saying, Ed, you your
teaching is really blessing me,and I want to bless you and
support you.
Just watch this video as weclose, and I'll see you next
week.
I'm praying for you.
(45:40):
I love your comments.
Uh, reach out to me at thefatherdifference.com and we'll
get back to you.
Lord bless you, my friend.
I'll see you next week.
Check this out.
SPEAKER_00 (45:51):
Dear friends, imagine a world where every
father feels equipped to leadwith faith, love, and purpose.
A world where families thriveand communities grow stronger
because of devoted,Christ-centered fathers.
SPEAKER_01 (46:06):
You know, beloved, that is the vision that God's
put in my heart for every singlefamily.
You know, he is on the move, Ibelieve.
He promises in Malachi thatbefore the great and coming day
of the Lord, he's gonna dosomething profound.
He's gonna turn the hearts offathers back towards their
(46:28):
children.
So the hearts of their childrenwill turn back to their father.
That's what God is doing.
I meet dads daily who want tolearn to be better fathers.
Yet many have never been shownhow.
Too many families are beingfractured through bitterness and
with parents and grandparentseven being canceled.
(46:50):
That's why we're launching anonline community to quit and to
be the fathers that God hascalled them to be.
It's more than a program, it's apart of a a movement that God is
already doing to reshapefatherhood.
It's a sacred calling rooted inthe teachings of pride.
(47:11):
And we're calling this theFatherhood Academy, where men
will embark on a journey ofhealing and spiritual
restoration that helps themtransform their family
relationship.
And to make this vision areality, would you consider
partnering with us financiallyas we continue to reach and
(47:35):
disciple every man, dad, andgrandpa that comes our way?
Your donation will help create aripple across the neighborhoods,
communities, you know, andultimately our nature, anchoring
each child, their division, andthe unwavering love and guidance
of a devoted dad.
SPEAKER_00 (47:57):
Will you partner with us?
Your gift, whether a one-timedonation or ongoing monthly
support, will help to transformlives.
Together, we can equip fathersand grandfathers to lead with
faith and create a brighter,hope filled future for
generations to come.
(48:17):
Click the link to donate today.
Thank you for believing in thismission and joining us on this
transformative journey.
What kind of father do you want to be?
What kind of man do you want tobecome for your family and for
yourself?
If you've ever wondered how tostep into the fullness of your
role as a father, husband, andman of God, then you're in the
right place.
Here at the Father Difference,our mission is to inspire and
equip men to be the best fathersthey can be.
(00:23):
It's a powerful mission.
And today, we're going toexplore exactly how you can take
steps toward that calling.
Whether you're a father, a son,a husband, grandfather, single
dad, stepfather, or just lookingto grow, I believe God has
something powerful for you intoday's message.
(00:43):
Whether you're tuning in live orwatching this later, we are so
excited to have you here.
If this is what you're lookingfor, then subscribe so you can
tune in each week to the FatherDifference Live.
You can sign up below.
And now your host, a husband,father, grandfather, author, and
(01:03):
former NFL player, Pastor EdMcGlass.
SPEAKER_01 (01:18):
So good to be with you here from bright, sunny sun
in California.
And today we're going to talkabout this whole idea about
sonship, or if you're a galdaughtership that's watching
today, and how that affects usand how we see ourselves and
(01:38):
those places in our life thatmight be broken, where identity
is really the key of reallyunderstanding who God has made
us to be.
And when we're not clear aboutwho we are and that core
identity, the result is that uhwe can take on a false identity
(01:58):
and end up doing a lot of damagein our own life and as a mom or
dad, do damage with our kids.
You with me?
So welcome.
I'd love to hear where you'refrom if you want to shoot me a
text.
Um here we have a few peoplethis that are already online and
TikTok, Instagram, YouTube,Facebook on both pages.
(02:24):
Love to hear where you're from.
Give me a shout out.
I'll do my best to get back toyou.
And let's get into the materialand just the crucial role of
sonship.
So if I were to ask you aquestion, who are you?
What is the core identity thatGod has put in your life, the
(02:49):
way you see yourself?
Because it's so easy for us tohave an identity or an
understanding about who we arethat comes out of what we're
broken about.
I meet people all the time thathave been followers of Jesus for
years and are not really clearabout who they really are to
(03:10):
God.
It could be that part of that isbecause of the way your dad
framed who you were when youwere growing up.
And when you don't have a dadthat's that's clear about who he
is, he really struggles to helpyou discover who God's made you
to be.
Identity is central to whatwe're going to talk about today
(03:33):
and how God can take a brokenidentity or an identity that we
build in our life that didn'thappen and keep us stuck.
I got to be with a dear friendtoday, and we were talking about
identity.
And you know, one of the thingsthat he said to me was he has
(03:54):
spent so much of his life tryingto live for the towards the
father that wasn't looking hisway.
No matter what he did, no matterhow much he achieved, no matter
how much he obeyed the familyrules, he never ever felt like
he arrived.
(04:14):
He never ever felt like his dadwas proud of him.
And now, years after of justreal, in his own words, torment,
he has learned to connect to afather finally towards the end
of his life in a way that henever got to have in the early
part of his days.
(04:35):
So part of our conversation wasdo you think that your dad knew
who he was?
And his comment was, no, hedidn't.
And that's one of the reasonsthat we struggle.
It's a reason I struggled as ayoung father with my own
children because I didn'trealize that I was trying to eke
(04:56):
out my identity of being a gooddad or being a father through
the performance of my children.
And so if you've parked how youfeel about yourself to the way
your kids are following therules or producing or becoming
this or that, then you can be ina lot of trouble.
(05:17):
I mean, the I I I, you know, oneof the craziest places for us as
parents sometimes is littleleague.
Especially if you're a coach ofa little league team, and that
gets accused of daddy ball.
And daddy ball is when theyaccuse you of playing your son,
(05:40):
or if you're doing a woman'ssport, your daughter ahead of
their, you know, geneticallysuperior children that should be
playing in your son ordaughter's place.
Oh boy, I tell you, I was acoach for a number of years in
(06:00):
some of the battles that I hadwith parents because they didn't
feel like I was giving theirchildren the same looks or the
same coaching.
And I remember one dad comes upto me and he goes, Why don't you
play my son more?
You know, why why why is healways on the bench?
(06:23):
I said, Well, part of the reasonis because he spends the whole
practice cussing at everyone andfighting with everyone.
And I told him, as long as he'snot a teammate, he gets to ride
the pine, to which he doesn'tlike.
(06:43):
And he goes, he does.
Well, I said, I'll handle it.
And I said, Can I ask you aquestion?
And I said, Um, your son saidthis the other day, and I it's
too profane for me to say onlineto another person, have you ever
said that same thing to yourson?
(07:04):
And it just hit him, and he putshis head down, he goes, Yeah,
I'm I'm like really hard on myson.
Well, how's it working?
Well, he's not listening toanything I say.
I said, Well, maybe if you learnhow to hear from God yourself
(07:24):
about the way God speaks to you,it'll change the way you speak
to yourself, which will changethe way you speak to your son.
And he's got teary eyes andlooked at me, he goes, My son's
really in trouble.
He's trouble in school, he'strouble.
I want him just to have somewins.
I said, Well, here's the firststep as a dad.
(07:47):
Is he winning with you?
Because if he's not winning withyou, he uh he's gonna feel like
a loser and everything becausethe first audience that really
matters to your son is their dadin that stand.
What he's saying, what he'sdoing, what he's looking, how
(08:07):
he's yelling.
And not all dads are equal.
There's some dads that areamazing out there, tremendous
support of their kids.
But I think far too many dadsare out there, they're sort of
living through the performanceof their children.
And when you do that, it reallybreaks them.
So, how do you how do you changethat as we're talking about this
(08:30):
whole issue of identity and howsonship, that that gift that God
gives us as men, or if you're agal watching, can really change
that.
One of the our my friend Ray,who's watching, his dad was like
that.
And uh, and so he was even alocal reporter as uh as a
(08:52):
baseball coach and and uhreported on that and watched
that over and over again, samescenario.
You know, as a matter of fact,in the National Football League,
I watched a number of playersthat were really emotionally
handicapped because of the waytheir fathers treated them.
Drove them, drove them, drovethem, drove them because their
(09:13):
dad wanted them to make thatfootball team or become that
superstar.
Because it's like his wholeidentity depended on the
performance of his kids.
Imagine that kind of pressure.
Did you have some of that?
I had some of that myself.
So, how does God heal that inus?
Well, I want to turn to ouroutline here and share with you
(09:36):
that point number one from ascripture, really powerful thing
to begin for you to begin tothink about.
Because the more you are securein who God has called you to be,
the more that will secure yourfamily and help them discover
that for themselves.
Well, point number one here.
(09:57):
So, why is it really importantto receive our adoption from the
Father?
Because to understand sonship,we got to receive and adopt our
adoption.
It's one of the incrediblepromises in the Bible that you
think, well, I don't need to beadopted.
I had a dad and a mom.
Well, God the Father doesn'tadopt us just because we don't
(10:17):
have.
God the Father adopts us so thathe can be the father of our
story and that we would know it,and that we would have that same
kind of relationship that he hadwith his own son, Jesus.
So why is it important?
Well, number one, we're going tobecome like the man who fathers
(10:38):
us.
So if you want to change yourstripes and have your kids turn
out better, understand that theyare becoming like the father
that's fathering them.
You know, when Jesus said, Who'sever seen me to Thomas have seen
my father?
(11:00):
Jesus represented who God theFather was to its disciples and
to the world.
That same kind of thing happensin a family when, you know,
other people see our children,and then they they begin to
understand how they're fathered.
And is there any greatercompliment?
(11:20):
I've had this a number of timeswhen my children, here's one of
my beloved sons right here.
Hey Edward, I'm live talkingabout you online.
I love you, gotta go.
But is there anything moreamazing than to have my son just
giving you a phone call?
(11:42):
You know, one of the things thatI love, Josh is one of the one
of the jewels in my life, isthat my son calls me every night
on the way home from work.
I love those times.
There's nothing, I don't thinkthere's anything sweeter for you
(12:05):
as a dad than when your childreninvite you into their story and
they want more from you.
They want to learn from you.
And and part of the secret ofestablishing that, because we
have a lot of parents where youtried to do the best job you
did, and your kids are justsideways, sometimes from the
(12:26):
enemy, the devil is you know,sewed things in them, their
friends, drugs, craziness.
But uh, I know this that ifyou're a dad and you have sired
children or been a stepdad whohas fathered somebody else's
sons, your voice over yourchildren and the way you live
(12:49):
out your story is the mostpowerful thing you can do and be
in the life of your children.
See, we can't build someone inkind of somebody else.
I want you to be more like himor her.
We're only able to build andfather based on the man that we
(13:14):
are becoming, the son that thefather has adopted, that that
identity in us, when we when webuild that and we live that in
front of our children, that issuch a powerful roadmap that no
matter what the devil throws atour kids, they're going to know
the way home.
(13:35):
And that's just a promise toyou.
And I'm saying that for somebodywhose children have gone
sideways and you're just reallyconcerned about them.
And they don't want you in theirstory.
And that's a heartache for somany parents and grandparents
today.
Guess what?
God's promised before the greatand coming day of the Lord, He's
(13:59):
going to turn the hearts offathers, us, grandpas, us,
towards our children so that theheart of our children will turn
back to their fathers.
That's uh kind of the lastprophetic salvo from heaven
through Malachi, and that Jesuscame to begin to fulfill, and He
(14:22):
is fulfilling in us as fathers.
He's turning our hearts.
You want to be part of thattroop?
Keep hanging out with me becausethat's where we're going.
That's where I'm going.
I I want to end my race,hopefully, in a lot of later
years, with a lot more grayhair, but have all my children
(14:45):
and my grandchildren and maybe afew great-grandchildren around
my bed to bless them on the wayout.
Is there anything better thanthat?
Okay.
I took a little side thing, butlet me get back to what I was
sharing with you.
See, the truth, number one thingI want to say to you tonight is
(15:06):
that we will become like the manwho follows us.
So think about, take a momentand think about what your dad
sewed or did not sew into yougood, bad, and the ugly.
Think about those things thatare repeated patterns in your
own life that you are like yourdad.
(15:27):
Even if you hated your dad andwanted to do everything opposite
of them, how are you doing withthat?
I had a young man uh not toolong ago I was coaching, and I
said, So, how are you doing?
It's a dad.
He goes, Well, I just doeverything opposite of my
father.
I hate my dad.
I said, if I could have yourwife in on this conversation,
(15:49):
what would she say, or what ifshe says to you about the way
you are fathering her kids too?
Well, she tells me all the timethat I'm too rough, I'm too
gruff, and I just don't get it.
I'm trying to do the best that Ican.
I said, have you noticed how youtalk when you mention your dad?
(16:14):
Could it be that God wants to dosome work in your heart with
your own father so that yourvoice that you're projecting
over your children isn't thisvoice where you're trying to be
the opposite of your dad becauseyou hated him?
That's gonna leak into you.
And so, and I said to him, Isaid, So what do you how do you
(16:35):
handle a situation when yourchildren don't want to do the
good that you want them to do?
I get mad.
And I looked at him and I said,Like your dad?
And he just went, Oh I didn'treally see that.
I said, That's what we do.
(16:56):
Because, see, we've been made tobe fathered, and when we're
fathered by a dad, we're gonnaget the good, bad, and ugly
sometimes.
So he made some big changes, gothis son back.
Next slide.
Not only will we become like theman who fathers us, we will
have, you know, when we learn toreceive our adoption, we will
(17:19):
have a father to re-father us.
I love that term, refathered.
I don't I don't know exactly whocame up with it.
I wish I could say that's me,but I'm sure it's everything
that we have is borrowed fromsomewhere.
And so God the Father doesn'twant to replace your dad, but he
wants to refather those thingsin you and in me that are broken
(17:45):
because of our sin when we'vesinned against God ourselves,
and that sin that was doneagainst us, and maybe the way we
were fathered or mishandled orabused by other people.
And see, God's plan all along isto be in that space where he
re-fathers us, and that that isso powerful.
(18:09):
That is so powerful when weunderstand that no matter how
broken our dads are, no matterhow broken our backstory is, God
the Father's promise is to comein and re-father us along the
same lines as the way hefathered his son.
I just love that picture.
(18:31):
And he goes and it goes on here,and and in John 1:14, here's the
proof of that.
And the word became flesh andblood.
He's talking about Jesus Christand moved into the neighborhood.
I love this.
This is the message version.
And we saw the glory with ourown eyes, the one of a kind
(18:52):
glory, like Father, like son,generous inside and out, true
from start to finish.
Boy, you want to reboot with Godthe Father, receive your
adoption as a son, and live outof that understanding.
Well, the promise right here inin the book of John, chapter
(19:13):
one, verse 14, is that peoplewill see the glory of in their
own eyes of what God the Fathercan do in our lives and with
Christ in our lives when welearn that like father, like son
relationship that Jesus livedout as a man before his father
(19:35):
and before his disciples onpurpose to give them a way to be
different.
That makes us, and this is gosh,this has changed my life.
He started making my heartgenerous, even when my kids were
broken.
And they weren't doing what Isaid because God beelanded right
(19:58):
back to me to show me I was thesame way.
I was the same way, I was justas broken, way more broken than
my kids.
But I generosity started to growin me.
Generosity with God's love,generosity with his forgiveness.
(20:23):
Generosity was walking with mykids when they had broken places
and they didn't feel judged byme.
That is so powerful for us, solife-giving to know that we have
a father that we can come justhow we are to him, and he'll
(20:48):
take what's broken in us andre-father that place inside of
us, and he will make that placeinside of us just like his son
Jesus.
That's extraordinary.
Extraordinary.
Goes on here.
Number three, we will want thesame desires as Jesus, hence my
(21:12):
title, when you receive yoursonship, your desires begin to
change.
You know, there's a there's agreat verse in Hebrews 1:9.
It's the it's the view inside ofthe heart of Jesus.
It's an old testament scripturethat that the writer to the
Hebrews brings up in one versenine and quotes it about who the
(21:36):
Son of Man would be, who the Sonof God truly is going to be.
And it says, in describingJesus, you loved righteousness
and hated wickedness.
Therefore, God your God hasanointed you with the oil of
gladness, with the oil of joybeyond your companions.
(21:59):
See, one of the marks of abeloved son is that your desires
now begin to shift as you openGod's word every day and as you
call on him to change yourheart, you will begin loving
what God loves.
And God loves righteousness.
And that's doing it God's wayand following God's word, no
(22:23):
matter what it takes.
And at the same time, that youyou have this love for
righteousness, you also havethis hatred of wickedness.
And and by the way, thatwickedness comes towards us
first.
And when we deal with our ownwickedness, because sin is
wickedness.
When we when we turn from Godand and we say no to him to our
(22:47):
own things, not receiving thebest, it's wicked to God.
It it needs forgiveness.
That's why we go to him andconfess our sins, the Bible
says.
And not only that, he promiseswhat?
To forgive us our sins andcleanse us in 1 John 1 9 there
of all unrighteousness.
God wants to fill your life withhis righteousness.
(23:10):
But to do that, we've got togive those things that we don't
want him to see.
We talked about this last week.
The very first step in recoveryis that you got to admit that
you're not God, that you can'thandle it.
You maybe your issue is drinkingalcohol, that you can't stop
(23:30):
drinking.
You can say, if you, well, I'mjust a dry alcoholic.
Boy, you're just like a guy whodrinks all the time.
See, part of it is that Godwants to bring us to a place
where we're we're free.
And the only way for us to befree is when we come to him and
we pour out what he alreadyknows is broken in our life.
(23:53):
And when we confess that to himand we bring that, and it comes
not just, Lord, forgive me forthis sin, but when we come and
say, Lord, I can't stop doingthis.
Lord, I haven't been able tostop yelling at my kids or
yelling at my daughters or beingangry with my wife.
(24:14):
Lord, I confess this I am stuck.
I got problems in me, and Ican't stop doing it.
But Father, I know that as Iconfess this to you, forgive me
of my sins, forgive me of thesethings, I need you to put your
spirit in me and to give me awhole new way to live my life.
(24:40):
Let me tell you, when you dothat, he does beloved.
But he's waiting.
It's like we got a lid on our onour we have a lid on how much
goes in to our life, andrepentance is when we open up
and expose what's really goingon in our hearts to the Lord
(25:04):
that he already knows, so thatthe Jesus can grab all those
things and replace it and fillus.
Now, look what it he fills usfilled us with.
This is the sign of the forgivenman, this is the sign of the
righteous man, and he hasanointed you with the oil of
(25:26):
gladness beyond your companions.
Gosh, I love that.
See, what Jesus, you know,embodied was the joy of the Lord
because he had this celebratedrelationship with his loving
father where sin didn't get inthe way because Jesus loved
(25:50):
righteousness and lived forrighteousness and never sinned.
And so the fruit of that wasthis incredible joy.
Imagine, imagine you in your ownlife learning how to live and
(26:12):
love the righteousness of Godand come to him and behold uh in
such a profound way that hefills you with the joy of the
Lord.
You know, they say the joy ofthe Lord is your strength.
It is, it's it's a supernaturalimpartation of the heart of the
(26:38):
Father upon you, of what hereally thinks about you.
His joy overtakes you, and it isa profound thing indeed.
And imagine I I think if we wereable to if we were sitting with
Jesus right now, he would havethis this giggle about him.
(27:04):
It was just so joyful.
So when you get around, ifyou've ever been around Heidi uh
Baker and Roland Baker, who inMozambique, you know, and and uh
just a a really tough,persecuted country, but they
they live in such pleasure oftheir father's bidding, no
matter if it's hard or it'seasy.
(27:26):
They live in this incredible joyof knowing that Papa, Papa God,
absolutely is fond of them, andhe is fond of them.
He's fond of me, he's fond ofyou, and he wants you to
experience that.
And so, not only that, the thenext slide here is that we will
(27:49):
receive that same like father,like son relationship Jesus had.
Boy, isn't isn't that what youwant as a young man or or if you
if you're a gal watching?
Jesus said, Who's ever seen mehave seen the father?
Who's ever seen me, Jesus said?
(28:09):
You could they noticed the wayhe did his life.
He he was fearless.
And it was like nobody really'sever lived that way, where they
lived out of the love andpleasure of the Father in
heaven.
I mean, Jesus, and I've talkedto you this before, he said in
John 5, you said that the secretof his life was, you know, I
(28:34):
only do the things I see myfather doing.
He lived in this place oftrusting the leadership of his
heart, his life, his safety, hisfuture in his father who sent
him.
The Bible says God so loved theworld that he sent his son.
(28:55):
He trusted his father.
And even at the end, he trustedhis father in his death on the
cross to get to cover the sinsof everybody before him and the
sins of everybody after him.
The price that we that wedeserve to pay because of our
(29:15):
sin, Christ paid it all.
And he had great joy infollowing his father, even
though there are times it wasincredibly hard.
But I imagine, you know, if wewere walking around with Jesus
like his disciple.
And you see this in throughoutscripture, and some of its loss
(29:38):
in translation.
Jesus is a funny guy in so manyof the ways he he talked, and
they he got them laughing.
And uh there's just because hewas so full of the joy of the
Lord their lives mattered.
And see, when when you live inthat place, and here's the deal
(29:59):
Jesus.
Jesus never spent any time wherehe wasn't under the gaze of his
loving father and he knew it.
See it it I tell you for most ofus guys and and gals out there,
(30:19):
is there anything more powerfulthan knowing that God is
watching you and He's there andthat He has your back?
Is there anything more profoundthan that in life?
I don't think so.
(30:40):
I meet guys all the time thatfeel absolutely alone They feel
like that the totality of theirlife is just on their own
shoulders and the result of thatis that they think they gotta
work this whole thing out bythemselves and we're gonna tie
(31:00):
this together right here.
I'm gonna give you part two nextweek.
But how many of you guys feellike you're you do a lot of your
life alone?
I mean, even in church, and wehave our churches and our groups
and everything else, but howconnected to God the Father are
(31:22):
you?
It's vital because it's not onlyvital for you and how you feel
about yourself.
But your own your own coreidentity as a son as you receive
that sonship from God theFather, that that that that gift
(31:45):
of of being a son, and that giftof being fathered to becoming
like Jesus Christ.
By the time he's done, you'regonna look just like him.
The scripture says when we seehim one day, we're gonna be just
like him because we're gonna seehim just the way he is.
I think in that moment we'regonna understand in a in a blink
(32:08):
of an eye all of the stuff we'vehad to go through, all the
things our children have gonethrough, our families have gone
through, all the suffering, thegood, bad, and ugly, the purpose
in the way of it it was weavedwith this grand weaver of life
into your story so that youyou're gonna sit back and
(32:33):
realize wow, there's never beena time, father, where you
haven't been shaping me or orwooing me or sending me somebody
to get a word, or some of youhave come tonight.
The Lord has brought you here toto remind you, to encourage you,
to equip you.
That's our mission at the FatherDifference, that you would
(32:56):
connect to a Father whoabsolutely loves you, a Father
who wants to pour his life intoyou so that you begin to you
would experience that scripturethat we read in Hebrews 1:9, in
that you would loverighteousness and hate
wickedness, so that your heart,God would anoint your heart just
(33:20):
like he did Christ, where youhad the you have the oil of joy
above all your companions.
And I've met some amazing saintsin my life that's 68 years old.
I've I've been following andwalking with Jesus since I've
been 24 years old.
That's a lot of moons.
(33:43):
And uh it's been an incrediblejoy.
And I've gotten I've gottenaround to be around so many
amazing saints.
But I'm gonna highlight just oneof maybe the thousand I've
gotten to be around who Iadmire, it's my it's Jill's
cousin Jeannie Anderson.
(34:04):
And Jeannie Anderson was a shewas like a Heidi Baker.
She was one of the mostastounding women I'd ever met.
She got started out in in astory in a real uh broken way,
where no matter how hard shetried as a kid in school, and
she was really smart.
(34:26):
If she got a B and didn't get anA, she got scolded by her
father.
And so she just said, What theheck?
Went out and lived a crazy life,was all over the world and
traveled.
And then my wife, Jill, got tolead her to Jesus and see her
baptized.
(34:47):
And and and Jeannie got it.
She she just fell in love withthis guy, Jesus, who she her
number one value is to be in hispresence and receive his love
every day.
And God began to heal all thistrauma and this stuff to where
she was so gracious to her dadand her family who weren't saved
(35:13):
yet.
And and she would you'd find herin in different places under
bridges with the homeless,loving them, you know.
She didn't care about living inpalatial places, she she cared
about the people that Jesusloved.
And so she towards the end ofher story, she got cancer, and
(35:38):
and she said, Well, if I'mgonna, you know, if Jesus heals
me, that's awesome.
But I'm gonna take everybodywith me I can.
And so she invited me one day tothe cancer ward there out in the
desert.
And you gotta picture it.
There was these tables of allthese gals, and they they all
(36:00):
had individual IVs, you know,and and a lot of them knew one
another just from the weeklyappointment.
They had the very similar weeklyappointment to come in every
week and and get their dose ofchemo.
And Jeannie was there with themand and uh had such a great
heart for them, she decided togo back to that place and uh and
(36:26):
minister to these gals.
And so she invited me, and I wasI was so honored to go there in
that place out in Palm Desertwith all these gals.
And we're driving there, and shegoes, Ed, I've been sharing the
love of Jesus, but I want you togo in and lead every girl in
(36:47):
that place to cry.
There's a lot of girls in therethat got no hope.
Their only hope is in themedicine, and they're mad and
they're angry and they'recaught.
And there was a Jewish gal thatwas sitting next to Jeannie, and
she introduced me to her, andand we watched God save this
(37:09):
girl, give her life all this newbeaning, a number of many more
years of life before I think thecancer ended up taking her.
But the joy that she got, shenever experienced joy before.
She always expected the dread oflife to be it.
(37:33):
Maybe you're in that place whereyou you've just had a lot of
stuff happening, a lot of loss,a lot of things taken.
And so we look at our thingsthat we lose with the problems
in our family and stuff, andit's so easy to be discouraged.
But there is a joy thattranscends all of those things
when you understand your coreidentity of being son or a
(37:57):
daughter.
And Jeannie knew that coreidentity of being a daughter,
that her life didn't didn't itdidn't matter how much money her
husband made.
It didn't matter, you know, theplace that they lived out there
in PGA West.
All she wanted to do is love thenext person that God put in
front of her.
So she was totally free.
(38:20):
And that's how you get free,because that was the way Jesus
was.
He wasn't about building anybuildings or churches the way we
tend to build things today.
He and he loves his church andall his forms, but it was about
the next person, and the onlyway you don't see the next
(38:42):
person is when you're stuck inyour own head about all the
stuff that's happened to you,and you're really good at
rehearsing all the hurt insteadof giving all that to God and
realizing that everything thatGod brings to you and to me,
(39:03):
underneath it all, we can becomemore like him because he wants
to pour his joy into you in waysthat will blow your mind.
And so I want to pray for thosethat are watching right now that
you're in a battle and uh youcan't see the forest because of
(39:26):
the trees, you know, that kindof battle, and you got all these
things, but in the midst of allthat, you know, focusing in on
the righteousness of God and andyour sonship or daughtership if
you're a gal, can unlock yourheart to have joy in who he is
(39:48):
to you as your father, and whoJesus is as your savior that
will empower you to stand up nomatter what's facing you.
Can I pray for you right now?
Lord, I pray for all my friendsthat are watching and from uh
Rumble to TikTok, Instagram, X,Facebook pages.
(40:14):
I speak to all of those therethat are all facing, you know,
insurmountable challenges intheir life.
And uh they know you love them,Lord, but they they're dry and
they want your joy.
They want more of your joy thanwe're talking about tonight.
They want that freedom thatcomes from their sonship or
(40:37):
daughtership of of being abeloved daughter where you're
not naming yourself by yourstuff or your accomplishments.
And I just pray, Father, thatyou would come.
And Jesus, I pray you wouldvisit them right now.
Maybe there's somebody watchingthat that you it's been a long
time since you've been inchurch.
(40:58):
It's been a long time sinceyou've said yes to Jesus.
All you gotta do is do thatright now.
Just say, Jesus, I need youright now.
I'm tired of doing my life in myown strength.
Will you forgive me?
I give you my sin.
(41:19):
Forgive me of all those thingsthat I have I have done just out
of trying to to live my life myown way.
But I don't want my life my ownway.
I want a life that's filled withyour joy.
I want a life that's filled withyou, Father.
I want to be fathered by you,Father, and I want, Jesus, I
(41:42):
want you to to indwell me withyour presence and Holy Spirit,
empower me so that all theseweapons the enemy has been using
to knock me down will bedefeated.
And not only in me, but for mychildren.
And I pray for all of your kids.
(42:02):
I pray for those that are faraway who've run away from Jesus,
maybe run away from you, and Ipray, Father, you'd bring them
all home.
All of them.
I pray that the year two 2025would be the year of incredible
return of lost kids to parents.
(42:23):
I pray, Father, just bless them,have phone calls, conversations,
letters responded to, emailsresponded to, texts responded
to, and give my brothers andsisters as mom and dads that are
watching, given the faith tokeep loving, keep reaching out,
(42:45):
and keep modeling to theirchildren what it looks like when
you learn to lay your down lovelife down for Jesus, being loved
by Him and you, Father, so wecan make the difference you want
us to make.
In the name of Jesus, we pray.
And all God's people said, Amen.
(43:06):
Gosh, it's so great to be withyou.
Um, before I leave, I just wantto let you know that we are
releasing now our FatherhoodAcademy.
And I want to encourage you, ifyou're if you really want to
grow, and and this is gals too,this isn't just men only, though
(43:28):
it might seem like when I sayempowering men, it's also women.
Because I have gals who arereading our material and reading
our books, but we have a specialintroductory price for you to be
part of that, which helpssupport us in everything we do.
Incredibly affordable.
(43:49):
But you can go to my website,and I just gonna put that link
back up there, and I want you tocheck it out.
I think it would be a powerfulway for you to learn how to
receive more from God.
If you want that joy I talkedabout, you want more of learning
how to be a daughter or a son,and receiving your sonship and
(44:10):
the and the power of that andhow that will change your
family.
I want to encourage you to checkit out.
And I I promise you, it it willdo something.
So, you know, we we're all weonly have room at this special
discounted price for the firsthundred people.
And so I want to I want to getevery one of our friends
(44:32):
tonight, and maybe you've notthought about this, and I'm
gonna play a little video thattalks about it.
Go to my website, check it out.
And part of that is thismembership gets some personal
coaching time with me everymonth, a video series on books,
resources, a podcast, you know,a number of things that are
(44:55):
special for our members that arepart of that.
And I've not really talked muchabout this, but I want to invite
you in and check out thisprogram.
And maybe you're in a placewhere you don't necessarily want
to do it for yourself, but youwant to maybe buy a scholarship
for some people that can'tafford it.
Because right now, our ourEuropean subscriptions and
(45:19):
people were we're offering thisas well for people around the
world, and you can help us getthis farther.
So if that's your heart andyou're saying, Ed, you your
teaching is really blessing me,and I want to bless you and
support you.
Just watch this video as weclose, and I'll see you next
week.
I'm praying for you.
(45:40):
I love your comments.
Uh, reach out to me at thefatherdifference.com and we'll
get back to you.
Lord bless you, my friend.
I'll see you next week.
Check this out.
SPEAKER_00 (45:51):
Dear friends, imagine a world where every
father feels equipped to leadwith faith, love, and purpose.
A world where families thriveand communities grow stronger
because of devoted,Christ-centered fathers.
SPEAKER_01 (46:06):
You know, beloved, that is the vision that God's
put in my heart for every singlefamily.
You know, he is on the move, Ibelieve.
He promises in Malachi thatbefore the great and coming day
of the Lord, he's gonna dosomething profound.
He's gonna turn the hearts offathers back towards their
(46:28):
children.
So the hearts of their childrenwill turn back to their father.
That's what God is doing.
I meet dads daily who want tolearn to be better fathers.
Yet many have never been shownhow.
Too many families are beingfractured through bitterness and
with parents and grandparentseven being canceled.
(46:50):
That's why we're launching anonline community to quit and to
be the fathers that God hascalled them to be.
It's more than a program, it's apart of a a movement that God is
already doing to reshapefatherhood.
It's a sacred calling rooted inthe teachings of pride.
(47:11):
And we're calling this theFatherhood Academy, where men
will embark on a journey ofhealing and spiritual
restoration that helps themtransform their family
relationship.
And to make this vision areality, would you consider
partnering with us financiallyas we continue to reach and
(47:35):
disciple every man, dad, andgrandpa that comes our way?
Your donation will help create aripple across the neighborhoods,
communities, you know, andultimately our nature, anchoring
each child, their division, andthe unwavering love and guidance
of a devoted dad.
SPEAKER_00 (47:57):
Will you partner with us?
Your gift, whether a one-timedonation or ongoing monthly
support, will help to transformlives.
Together, we can equip fathersand grandfathers to lead with
faith and create a brighter,hope filled future for
generations to come.
(48:17):
Click the link to donate today.
Thank you for believing in thismission and joining us on this
transformative journey.
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