Fatherhood's Hard Truth: Receiving to Give

Ed explores the challenging reality that great fatherhood doesn't come naturally but requires receiving God's love first before we can properly give it to our children.

• Fatherhood is an impossible job that we can't succeed at through willpower alone
• The hard truth is that we father out of what we receive, not what we achieve
• Children often leave the church because they experience conditional love at home
• Our children learn about forgiveness by watching how we ask for forgiveness
• The question "Help me understand how I've hurt you" can heal broken relationships
• What we model for our children will eventually be what they do with their own children
• We're never more like God than when we love our children unconditionally, especially when they fail
• The way we respond to our children's failures shapes their understanding of God
• True fatherhood means being the message, not just preaching it

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to The Father Difference
• 5:41 The Hard Truth About Fatherhood
• 9:47 God's Relentless Pursuit of Us
• 17:37 Loving Children When They Fail
• 29:43 Building Bridges Through Forgiveness
• 42:47 Closing Prayer and Ministry Support

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

What kind of father do you want to be? What kind of man do you want to become for your family and for yourself? If you've ever wondered how to step into the fullness of your role as a father, husband, and man 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 fathers they can be. It's a powerful mission. And today, we're going to explore exactly how you can take steps toward that calling. Whether you're a father, a son, a husband, grandfather, single dad, stepfather, or just looking to grow, I believe God has something powerful for you in today's message. Whether you're tuning in live or watching this later, we are so excited to have you here. If this is what you're looking for, then subscribe so you can tune in each week to the Father Difference Live. You can sign up below. And now your host, a husband, father, grandfather, author, and former NFL player, Pastor Ed McLasson.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17

Hey, welcome. So glad that uh you showed up here tonight. And uh how are how you guys uh how how has it been since through this holiday season? We've gone through a lot, a lot of emotional stuff going on this time of the year, and lots of coaching and lots of things that are happening on our end here, and and also all my grandkids spread around the world. I miss them to death. I wish they were I was with them every day, but we got iPhones, and so that's great. And today, as we get ready to talk about kind of the the hard truth about fatherhood, we're gonna I'm gonna share with you some kind of breakthroughs in chapter eight of my book, The Father You've Always Wanted. Wrote that years ago with Baker. Then we end up buying the rights, and we have that for you. You can get a copy on our website that thinks they're sold out on Amazon, but you can get one in our website or get a digital copy online if you want to read along. We're going through this every week on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. and on Thursdays for the really the difference a mother makes is what we do on Thursdays at 12 noon for your gals. And we have a few guys who kind of slip in there. And so we're gonna actually talk about when motherhood feels like too much. So maybe you get a wife that could really use a little help and a little boost, and you're not the guy to give it to her. Oh my goodness. Yeah, there they're just they're just it's a very tricky thing to go in and uh father, try to father your wife, which you're not supposed to do, to love her, or try to change her when it's just obvious what she needs to change. And God's after what uh working with us. And so today we're gonna get in and begin answering this question out of my book. Now, at any time during our broadcast, if you got a question or something that comes up and something that's said, I just want to encourage you to pop it in there and send me a comment. I appreciate it. If you're outside of Facebook, you can do it on Instagram to me. And maybe uh let me know what you expect, maybe what your questions are, maybe what you're you want to learn that made you want to be a part of this show. So as we uh get ready to get into the slides and and things that I prepared, I want to pray right now for you. Father, I I thank you for my friends that are coming. I thank you, Lord, that you would use this time to speak to them. And that uh all through these holidays, Lord, you would you would make fathers great again. You would encourage them, empower them, and show them the incredible promise and hope they have in you. And Lord, I pray that you would uh heal their families, heal their relationship with their children, maybe they're even grandpas, trying to get their kids back. I pray, Lord, for grandpas as well. I pray that you would restore children, that this year and next year, the year of 2025, would be the year of your restoration of families all across the globe. Father, I pray you would bring our kids home. That's one of your promises that before the great and coming day of the Lord, you're gonna turn the hearts of fathers back to their kids. That's what you're doing towards us. And then you promise, Lord, that you're gonna turn the hearts of children back to their fathers. Restore families, Lord, make them whole again. And all God's men said, Amen. Welcome. If you're joining me, let me know where you're coming from. You just a powerful prayer. If you just tuned in, you can get it on the replay. But let's get into what I wanted to share with you tonight. And just about this whole subject about fatherhood, the hard truth about fatherhood. And I'll tell you the punchline at the end, but you'll discover it as we walk together through this. And so here's the, you know, you know, Philip is with his disciples. He's been watching the way Jesus does his life. And at one point he just he couldn't hold it back anymore because that there's a truth about Jesus, and that, you know, he did life like no other human being that's ever done life in the history of the world. He he did life by connecting to the Heavenly Father, the ancient of days, the Revelation talks about. He connected and only did what he saw his father doing. He he spoke what he heard him saying. He lived this life of receiving all the time, which is a foundational verse for us as men to learn that we can't be the husbands and fathers if by us trying to will it. We can be the husbands and fathers that God's called us to be, the more we receive from him. And that's such a powerful thing. We're going to talk about even some of those mechanisms today and how you receive and how you do that. But uh he talk he goes to Philip, and you know, and Philip sees Jesus and he he just can't quite figure out what's going on. And he says, Lord, show us the father, and that will be enough for us. Jesus' response to him in that moment is basically, Philip, you've been with me so long. How do you say show us the father? If you've seen me, you've seen my father. Jesus was the absolute, you know. We have somebody with the microphone on. There we go. And that was my faithful assistant who's in the background. But what Jesus was saying there is that if you've seen me, you've seen my dad. Matter of fact, isn't that what you would want somebody to tell you about your own son or daughter? Like I just got with my dad, and I mean, I just, you know, you know, somebody I and this has happened to me a number of times. It's such a powerful time, where they come to me and say, you know, I just met your son. And he's so much like you. You've been a really good dad. Isn't that what you want to hear, guy? Not only hear it from our children, but you know, you've made such a significant difference is those good things that you carry, those good things that you learn are passed on to your sons, to your daughters. And it's even the what happens when you're a gal and you learn to receive that blessing and learn to receive more of God's blessing in your own life as a mom, you have things to deposit into your children. Because ultimately, no matter how good or bad you are as a dad or a mom, the truth is that God wants to be the father too of your children. And when he becomes the father, too, it takes him up to a whole new level. That's that's what's happened uh with my own children as I began to learn this. But when Philip said, you know, show us the father, that'll be enough for us. What's Philip? He's he's looking and he's watching how Jesus does his life. And it's so extraordinary. And then you've seen him in all these different scenarios. He's now with his disciples, and his response is if you've seen me, you've you've seen my dad. Such a powerful thing. And you know, C.S. Lewis, the the famous writer who, you know, chronicles of Narnia and so many books, and such an incredible writer, he talks about his own encounter with God in his life. And he writes, you know, you know, he was an atheist and and ends up in the such a brilliant mind, ends up having this encounter with God. He says, You must picture me alone in a room in Magdalena, night uh after night feeling whenever my mind lifted, even for a second, from my work, the steady, I love this line, the steady, unrelenting approach of him who I so earnestly desired not to meet. Gosh, what a great sense. You know, he was he wasn't looking for God, but God was looking for him. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. He felt like, you know, so for someone to lean into God, it meant that they were weak in their life. And so, as you know, a man with uh an incredible resume of education and in early writings, and the pride of you wanting to do your life where you don't really need God because you God's kind of for like weak people, not for me. I have it together. Famous last words. And let's see. He he wrote that that which I feared had last come upon me, I gave in and admitted that God was God. Why is that so significant? Because when you're an atheist, you actually are no less religious than somebody who's following Jesus or whatever religion you have. But what I you you become your own God. You become the rulemaker and the punisher, everything. And C. S. Lewitt admitted that God was God, and I knelt and I prayed. Perhaps that night, I love this line, the most dejected and reluctant convert of all time. And why was he the most dejected? And because he uh he he couldn't prove himself that he was worthy enough. See, what one of the things that that keeps us from receiving from God is not that he wants to bless us, and we have some somehow we don't really kind of, you know, he doesn't want to bless us until we get to a certain place. And anytime you're approaching God that way, as though you're giving him and you're adding into the to his kingdom your proudness, right? I, you know, in the early days of you know meeting Christ, I thought it was like really a cool thing for God to have a you know a football player get saved. And I was leading a lot of people to Christ, and I thought that the favor on my life that I got was because I was so faithful in leading people to Christ. And so, you know, that really impressed him. Oh man, I was so crazy, I was so deluded. What actually impresses him is when we humble ourselves and admit that we're weak, so that he can fill us with his power, so then we we are more than humanly impressive. We're eternally impressive in Christ, because it's the glory of Christ in us that makes us the men that we need to be, and the wives, if you're married, that you need to be, or the or the women, the gals that are watching. And it's all about you letting go of your own personal need to have it together so God will bless you. He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The most proud in the world are usually two classes of people are the hyper-religious, to where they think what they do gets God's attention and therefore God blesses them. The only problem with that is they live this life that's unlivable and not sustainable because you're not perfect and you sin. And the other group of people are those who think they're smarter than God. And C. S. Lewis was one of those guys who thought he was smarter than God in his own words. You know, he the, you know, he writes, and he and he fit me read the end of this. I just love it so much. This uh slide before he he says, you know, he says, that which I greatly feared has at last come upon me. Oh my goodness. I I mean, if you were like totally honest right now in this moment, how many how many of you were incredibly grateful for what God did and at the same time extremely disappointed in yourself? That's what that means. For you not being able to figure this out. It's one of the it's one of the hardest, it's one of the not the hardest, but it's it's one of the sticking places for us as men is that we are we're not quite quite like girls are, we're not very good receivers at all. We basically want we want to be able to take credit for what we do and achieve and accomplish. And so in business, you work hard, you've got a good plan, and you know, those things happen, you've feel the sense of you know partnership with God. That's an awesome, awesome feeling. But even in the midst of that, I mean, what gifts do you have in business that God didn't give you? If he gave you a gift, then you need his power to use that gift. It's the same with being a father. And part of the hard truth about fatherhood is that you can't be a great father just because you will it. You can't be a great wife if to the gals are watching because you just will it. We because at the core of who we are, we're selfish and we're we went our own way, we want to be seen. And when we're not seen, we don't feel great about who we are, or we think that people are seeing us in a in a in a weird way. So everything's about image. And you know, C.S. Lewis, you know, he writes then that I gave in an admitted that he was God. I mean, that is the that's what the revelation of Jesus is when he comes. That you finally say, forgive me for my sin. I I'm admitting that I can't cover my sin. He knelt and prayed, the most dejected of all converts. And I said to you earlier, you know, how many kind of lived in that place? You're dejected because, and reluctant because you couldn't take credit. And then C.S. Lewis writes, the prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet. So now he's even comparing himself to the prodigal son that he wasn't even going towards God, but God was pursuing him. But who can duly adore that love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who's brought in kicking and struggling, resentful and darting his eyes in every direction for a champ of escape? Oh, I love how honest he is. And if you think about your own story with Jesus, I mean, some of you were, you felt like you were dragged into this thing. God captured you. And you didn't just, you know, maybe in the beginning, how many times did you say no to him before you said yes to Christ? And then C.S. Lewis writes, the hardness of God is softer than the softness of men, and his compulsion is our liberation. That's what God wants for you. That's what God wants for me. He wants us to be free. So, how do we kind of get in this place? And and want to share a little uh story with you, you know, and and kind of set it up with something I wrote in this my book, The Father Foot Wanted. To understand God's pursuit of us is to understand what his love is all about. God is a relentless lover. I just love that line. His choice in loving us was not because of the value that we could add to God's great mission on earth. Let that sink in for you. No, he chose us in order to love us for eternity. And in a real way, he chose us so that we would receive it, so that we could realize and know his love for eternity. And he chose us before we were even aware of him. So you didn't, you know, many years ago they had that bumper sticker, I found God. No, no, basically, he found you, and then you discovered how he was looking in your direction, and it changed your heart. You go so I write on, see, we we humans can understand loving a person who adds value. And so you have best friends, and where are they best friends? Well, they're best friends because they're you know, they're reciprocal. And so, you know, my best friends love me back, and yet, and and I choose them in my life because they add value to me. But Christ chose us so he can make have value with us. See, we often, you know, oh misspelled word there, didn't copy over love for the benefits and the perks of somebody. You know, buyer's remorse happens, you know, a lot of time in marriage. After a few years, you go, Why didn't you sign up for this? And it was all it always, you know, kind of around, you know, that there's hurt and my husband's been hurting me, and or my wife isn't what I expected. She's changed. Of course, she's changed, she's older and different. But it it really uncovers that you got married for a benefit that you would get in your marriage. I mean, one of the secrets of marrying a woman marrying a gal and loving her for a lifetime, guys, is choosing to love her whether she loves you back or not. Well, that's just not fair. Well, that's what God did with you and me. He chose you and he chose me. For God so loved the world, he gave his only son. The Father chose to love us, and he never stops loving us, he never stops pursuing us. And somehow, when you can connect that with the woman you live with, there's a sacrificial love that'll flow out of your heart that's just is exactly what your wife wants. And yet we fight for our rights, we we fight to stay out of trouble. We we don't like it when she points out if we're broken. Yet God's made a better way, and so it is something entirely different, however, to love someone you who can't add value in your life, that's godly love, the love that gives the beloved value. That's what the father's love is like for you and for me. And when you begin to understand that you've been called to a pretty impossible job as a dad, part of the hard truth of being a father is that you're not born to be a great dad, you're born, we're all born the same way. We're all born in the sin, and we're born selfish, and we went our own way, and we're always kind of parlaying and and kind of drawing things in uh for our benefit. But when we learn to love our children for their sake and not for our reputation as fathers or for the mom's watching, something powerful happens in that relationship with that son or daughter. I cannot tell you how many because I I I probably should have counted better, but uh there there were too many really to count of young people that I've coached and counseled with who left the church because their father's affection was when they were winning and doing what they're supposed to do, they felt God their dad's affection towards them. But when they were broken and they didn't live up to whatever the standard was, they felt his repulsion. You know, it sometimes it would last for days. And I've even had you know people I've coached that whose mothers wouldn't forgive them for a week or two until they prove that they were completely repentant and never do it again. Well, imagine if we live that way uh with God and Jesus didn't show us any love until we repented and did everything just right. I just moved from from teaching to preaching, huh? Yeah, I mean think about that. Think about how you deal with your children when they blow it. And I would just uh encourage you that one of those unexpected powerful moments you have as a dad or a mom is when you when you pursue your children when they've just blown it just as much, or maybe even more, than when they're scoring a touchdown and you're in the stance. I'll give you for instance. I remember um I mean years ago when my kids were littler, my son did something that one of my sons did something that I was just really angry about. And you know, I was probably more angry than I should have been because it's it's sort of, you know, I I had this early fathering style of, you know, really trying to manipulate them to doing it the McLassan way. Like I'm supposed to build this legacy of righteousness, right? And and then all my kids are gonna do it right, and they're pastors' kids and everything. And boy, is that just a slippery slope and completely broken? I'm confessing right now to you. So I was just really broken as a dad. And uh my kids, you know, I could see them kind of pushing back, not wanting to go to church, and they didn't want to hear any more about it. But it wasn't so much the preaching on Sunday and the service and the worship that the young people run away from. It's this feeling like no matter if I'm perfect, they're keeping the rules. If I break one of my dad's rules, or maybe mom's. And and I mean, I I that's why young people they don't want to go and sit in a pew and listen to a guy who's preaching at them that they're wrong and they're broken, just like they've received it for the last week at home. And so I was, you know, I was thinking about this. The Lord was reminding me that uh that I needed to change. You know, the hard truth to me is that I was I was fathering my children out of my own performance. Or let's let me make it a little bit more accurate. I was fathering my children out of what I wanted the performance of our children to be. And he revealed to me that, you know, you know, this incredible verse we're gonna read in a few minutes, when well, now it's no use of him, Romans 5.8. Christ died for me. He died for all of us. He put his love on the line and he died for us when we were of no use to him. I mean, that that moment hit me so hard as a dad. I realized that I was pushing my children away from the church instead of drawing them to follow me in this incredible life that Christ gives us. And so I had to, I mean, the hard truth for me is I had to learn how to be a father. I didn't, it's not about performance. It was so much more than that. And so now I'll tell you what I was about to tell you. It's kind of a long direction here, but my um where I ended up the Lord showed me just, you know, it says that the it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance in Romans. It was his goodness and his kindness towards us when we're broken, when we're shattered. And and so God he gave me this idea of why don't you celebrate your son? Because he's a son, not because he did it right. And so he wanted, he'd been begging me for months for something, and I ended up going to the store and buying it. And he was in his room, and I just I kind of laid in to him, you know, about the things he was doing, and and uh how I needed to change. And and he, you know, we prayed and he asked for forgiveness, and I realized that I just was just just entirely way too hard on him and way harder on him than God is on me when I'm broken. And I walked in with this bag, you know, and he goes, What's this? He says, This is a token of how much I love you. And I gave it to him. And he opened it up as what he's been asking for, and it was expensive. And he said, I don't deserve this. And I go, No, you don't. We don't deserve God's mercy either. But he sent his son on the cross to die for us so that he could fill us with his gifts. And I'm giving this to you because not that you're perfect or that you aren't. I'm giving this to you because you're my son, and I love you. And I I want you to help me be a better dad. I'm just I'm flawed, and I'm very, you know, I'm an athlete or retired athlete, and I'm you doing everything to push and drive you. But I need your help to help me be the dad I need to be, so that you can be the man one day, the husband, the father, and eventually a grandfather for your family and your children. And I never never forget his response. He just he wept. And he was confused and overjoyed, much like what C.S. Lewis wrote about, and he just jumped off his bed and came and hugged me. And three just embraced and and uh he opened his package. See, we're we're never more like God than when we're when we father our children and love them, or mother, if you're a gal, the way God the Father has fathered you. And so I'm gonna tie this together. This kind of my last point. Because I think I think you get what I'm what I'm talking about tonight. And so where are some places in your life right now? Maybe it's it's in your own story. And I want to ask you this question, how good are you at receiving all that you need from God and letting go of your need for to doing it your way? Think about those those places, even guys, where your wife has asked you to do certain things and you fight her. Where's that come from? Well, it c it comes right out of our pride. We want to kind of be the initiators and the heroes of interaction. There's there's no real hero moment when your wife rolls over at 12 o'clock at night and goes, Did you get the garbage cans out? Oh man, I've missed so many of those moments. Well, I forgot, I get distracted and thinking, you expect me to get up and go out there and take those garbage cans out? And sometimes I just I get up reluctantly, you know, in my PJs and find my slippers and go out there and and and do it. And her response is always the same. Thank you. The next morning she'll thank you for loving me last night. And I'm I'm thinking, love isn't about nice dinners, flowers, valentine's hugs, all that stuff. Well, it's it's about at every every place in us to lay our life down. Because Jesus laid it down for us. That's the the caveat of what happens. And so in this first part of this chapter, about really the hard truth about fatherhood is that we don't get to take credit for it when we have breakthrough. That's the kind of fatherhood you want. You want to be able to love your sons and your daughters the way God has really called you to do it in when it's impossible. And here's just a couple of just little coaching things just to think about. Probably already thought about it. But if you have a daughter or son that's sideways with you, the least useful thing you can do is send them a verse about why bitterness will destroy their lives. Oh it just doesn't work. But I tell you what, it does work, and it's happened to me. I used to do those uh it's kind of like Vince Lombardi football conversations with my my kids when they were acting up, and then I discovered that a sermon lived in front of them is way more than when you preach. And so you want a sermon they never forget that they celebrate you in when you blow it and you sense it, or you sense this from your children, or they're not talking to you, or they're distant and they're in another state, or they're using their grandchildren against you, keeping them away from you, which is happening way too much. And we all know that bitterness is the root and the fruit of broken families. But what would happen if you took Jesus attack, and this is what the Lord showed me, is that my children learn about asking for forgiveness from the way that I asked them for forgiveness. Oh man, but my my son is way more wrong than I am. I I know, but you gotta build a bridge, and somebody's got to build that bridge so that your relationship can withstand crossing back and forth with one another. And when you and here was the question that began the healing of bitterness in my family, and here it is help me understand how I've hurt you so that I can ask for forgiveness. Because, son, I can tell you, I can see you're doing this to me. And the hard truth about fatherhood is that one of the things God calls you and I to do is not to preach the message to them, but to be the message, and so we model what we want them to do. We we stay away from at all costs things where that we're taking credit. And I gotta tell you, when I first started doing this to my children, it was humbling for me. Because if I were just to measure out what they did and I did, they were way more wrong than me. It's the same way in a marriage, you know. I, you know, I just when when I coach couples, I just I say to them, well, let the bigger person go first, you know, the most spiritual one go first. You're waiting on your spouse to do it right. Once you own your side and pray and wait and stand and love and forgive, because that's powerful. And so maybe, maybe somebody that you're married to grew up in a family where no one said that they were asked for forgiveness. They might have said, I'm sorry, or they didn't speak. What would happen in your family if you begin the one to lay this beautiful foundation of humility by asking for forgiveness? Because what that'll do is it will create a way for them. Now, hear me when I say this, because I've seen it and it's true. But they will do that with your grandkids one day. So when I'm teaching my my my adult children things, I'm teaching them things that I am embodying the best I can, but that I want to see in my grandchildren too. And that's powerful. That's all I gotta say. Any prayer requests, please shoot them to me. I love all your your comments. So grateful that you're here every week. If the if this has blessed you, you know, I'm gonna don't leave yet. We're we're getting ready to go. But and this has blessed you every week, and you're you're in a position where you'd like to sew into our ministry and give to us. We I just would be honored uh for you to consider giving an entity or gift. Where, you know, we're we're right now building out this vision of of what I call the Fatherhood Academy, and to really help empower men to be the champions, spiritual champions and fathers their family needs. And we have online courses, books, material, one-on-one coaching. We do a lot. And to be able to sustain this and grow this, I'm looking for people who would say, you know, I want to support you, Ed. You've been ministering to me, you've been helping me with my family. I want to multiply and pay it forward. To be a monthly partner, you can go there. Or you might be in a place to sew a big gift. We we need some big gifts to build out this fatherhood academy. And I'm so grateful that you're here. Would even consider this. Pray about it, ask the Lord what to do. Go to our website, the fatherdifference.com slash donate, and send us something, encouragement, or at minimum, send us her prayer requests so we can pray that God would uh do that. If that's something that you're interested in doing, you have a couple of weeks and before the end of the year, and we would be, I would be blessed. All that to say, thank you for hanging with me. We're growing slowly on our channels. We're on we're on Rumble, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all over the place. And so grateful for you that are here uh with us every week and on Thursdays with the gals at 12 noon. And would love your comments, uh, any kind of things of what what does this show, this time together with me mean to you, and how has it helped you? And uh before you get off, you know, send me an email, a testimonial. You can send me an email to adtandy at blessing of the father.com, and let me know how in anything that we do in our ministry, it's helped you. And uh how's this specifically, and uh and maybe even if there's things that you go, you know, this this I really want this answered. And the other thing with this this email is I love your questions, your comments. I read them all, and I would be honored if you were to share with me things that you want to learn about. Anything at all. I'm I'm in your corner. I feel like God's put me in this place after years of traveling the world. Now we're building something online to the academy, the fatherhood academy that will reach all the nations of where all the books are being downloaded and read. And you want to be a part of that, uh, help me do it. I need your help. I need your maybe you can open up a door for us in your church next year to come and bring our team and to do an event for your whole church and community. It'd be awesome. One of my favorite things to do in the whole world. All that to say, I'm gonna pray for you. And uh drop, I don't see any prayer requests here. There's a chat here, even a private chat that's available. You can send me or send me an email, something that you uh need prayer for, but let me pray before we go. Father, I um I just thank you for my friends that have joined me online today. And this whole understanding of the hard truth about fatherhood, and it you could say it's a hard truth about motherhood as well, is that we've got to receive everything we can possibly receive so that we can be the fathers, the husbands, the moms, the wives, the grandfathers, the grandmothers that you've made us to be. And specifically, Lord, I pray for the families that are watching and being represented. I pray for a miracle, Lord. Some of your children are sideways with you. And I pray that those keys I talked about today, you would practice those. They work, they heal my family. But Lord, I pray you'd be with them and speak to them and use them and and raise them up and equip them. And I pray for those guys that are single now, and maybe they're they're single again, and they're dealing with uh connecting with their children that they're separated from. Father, give them grace and show them ways to connect in and be that father to their children in the name of Jesus. I pray for blessing, Lord, for all my friends. And only that, I pray for healing in families, healing in lives. And Lord, I pray that you would heal them in their spirits too. As uh the holidays for some is just really depressing and really hard. And I pray that because of the loss of people that you're not going to have over to your house and relationships being strained, bring healing, Father, to your family. Before the end of this year, Lord, do miracles that they would tell every one of their friends about. I pray for them physically for those that are suffering at home, isolated. I pray for those that are depressed. And I ask you, Lord Jesus, to heal their minds in the way they think about you and the way they think about themselves. I give you all these things, Lord. I'm so grateful to be here. And all of us pray in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. Do these things, Lord. And all gets people said, Amen. Amen. Leave comments. I love your comments, your questions. Uh, you get Facebook, Instagram, you know, just my YouTube channel. We're trying to grow all these, you know, at the same time, depending on your platform, and uh would love to hear from you. Thank you ahead of time for those of you who are going to give to us and pray about it and sow into our ministry, and uh you'll be changing lives and families. All that to say, the Father loves you, my friend. He gave sent his son to let you know, so you could have a new beginning and give him all the credit. In Jesus' name, all God's people said, Amen. Thank you for being here. Thank you for tonight. I'm encouraged uh uh to have so many showing up. And all God's people said, Amen. God bless you. See you next week.