You Matter More Than You Know As A Father

What if the turning point for your family isn’t perfection, but presence? We dove into the real work of redeeming fatherhood when the story feels bent or broken. We trace the thread of identity from Enoch to Jacob to David, revealing how God renames men, restores courage, and teaches dads to bless their children with words that heal rather than wound.

Scripture reframes our search for worth: Jacob’s shift from trickster to Israel, Benjamin named from sorrow to strength, and David facing Goliath with confidence formed in obscurity. The question “Whose son is this?” becomes a mirror, inviting each of us to become men whose children stand taller because we stand with them.

This conversation is both pastoral and practical. You’ll learn how to move past regret, forgive what hurt you, and start blessing your kids today. Discover why being fathered by God fuels the patience, humility, and grit every home needs. 

If you’ve ever thought it was too late to be the father your family needs, take the next brave step. Listen, share this with a dad who needs hope, and join our community as we make fatherhood strong again. Subscribe for weekly episodes and leave a review to spread the word.

p.s. Visit www.thefatherdifference.com/links for a free book download and information about personal coaching.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission
• 3:42 Honoring Veterans And Fathers
• 6:56 Redeeming Broken Fatherhood
• 12:05 You Matter More Than You Know
• 18:20 Enoch, Jacob, And Identity
• 27:08 Naming Our Children And Ourselves
• 34:15 Being Fathered By God
• 41:03 David And Goliath: Whose Son Is This
• 48:28 Healing Father Wounds And Forgiveness
• 56:40 It’s Not Too Late To Show Up

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:03

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 McGlass.

SPEAKER_01: 2:17

Well, welcome. I'm so grateful that you're here. We are in November 11th. If you're from the United States, it's our Memorial Day weekend, and it's a powerful time for us, for our families, and I'm so grateful for all those that have gone before us who have served our country. I got to go to my uh kids' school today. That was an exciting thing to my grandkids' school and uh Mariner's Christian School here in Southern California. Amazing program, got to meet some amazing veterans for our country and a bunch of great dads, men who have not only given their life to our country, but also are good fathers, our great fathers. And so maybe you're one of those. And I just want to honor you and really just thank you for the willingness, being a young man, going into the military, and whenever you did, uh man or woman, and giving your life for the sake of our country, the United States of America, if you're from another country or you're outside, and uh I'm grateful for you as well. And so we're we're coming to you live from Southern California. And tonight we're gonna talk about how to redeem fatherhood when it is broken. How to redeem fatherhood when it is broken. And how many know that we're the best guys to mess up fatherhood? Raise your hand with me. All over the world, we're raising our hands. It's so good to have a bunch of guys just like you, just like me. And so I'm grateful for you being here. And wanted just to share a little bit on this this holiday about what why is it that God has put you in this place? And how do you redeem your role of being a father when you know that maybe the first time around with your kids uh you you thought you blew it, and that maybe you know your your kids are going to be messed up for the rest of their lives, and there's not much you can do, or maybe you've been cut off. I just want to uh tonight as a reminder, to remind you who God has called you to be and what you can do as a dad to change and affect uh the lives of your kids. Are you ready? Are you ready to kind of get into that today? So I'm ready to share this with you. So grab your Bible and let's let's look at the difference that you can make as a father in the life of your kids. Maybe you're a grandpa and you are fathering your grandchildren because your own sons are struggling as dads. And we have a lot of those in our Flatitude, uh, excuse me, in our fatherhood academy. I've been talking a lot today, and my tongue just kind of went one way. You know how that works. So let's get into the outline here of what we're gonna talk about. Okay, so how do you redeem fatherhood when it's broken? So what think about your own story with your dad and in the midst of some of the things that you have have gone through as a father, and how has that affected you and your story with your kids? Because that's really one of the most important understandings that you have is you know, really taking understanding that no matter what equipment you got from your dad to be a father, whether it's a little or a lot, you can have the best dad in the world. I've got I've got guys in our academy who had great fathers, but they still struggled as a as a father. They've had uh, or their dads were great providers and they did a lot of things, and yet your own choices as a son went sideways in your life, just like your kids will have. And and so, you know, how does God redeem that story for you as a dad? And I want to just take you right back to some basic, powerful things about fatherhood. Okay, here's number one. And that you you matter as a father and a grandfather more than you know. I I g I gotta tell you something that you probably don't know about me. But a number of years ago, actually during the COVID, you know, issue in in the world, I had a young person uh tell me, he said, you know, if you get on social media, you can have um an amazing impact as a grandfather. And I looked at him and I said, Well, I'm not I'm not cool like a lot of the people out there. We're not kind of slick in the way we do things. And he looks at me and he says, That's because you don't you don't understand how how powerful it is for a young person who's on social media searching all over the world with every kind of video and every kind of entertainment that he can possibly get on this little distraction of device called an iPhone, about how much you really mean to them. And most men that I know don't understand the power of what they carry. You don't understand that God has, no matter how you started your story as being a dad, your voice has incredible power for the sake of your children. And you know, one of the scriptures that I came across uh kind of in my early days was this story about Enoch in the Bible. And it says that after he had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah, one of his sons. That's an interesting name back in the day. And it said that after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah for how many years? 300 years. Can you imagine that? 300 years he ended up walking with God and had other sons and daughters, and thus all the days of Enoch for 365 years. He lived a long time, and yet the change that happened inside of him happened after he became a father. There's something that happens to you when you become a dad. That's why young men today who you know in some places, you know, guys are you know, a large number of young men aren't getting married. They're they're not having children, they're never experiencing that amazing moment of what it means to be a great dad, to look at a human being that's born from your wife that's got 50% of your genetics. There's something just incredibly powerful when you hold that child in that delivery room. I I remember for me, you know, with Jill and my oldest uh son Edward was born, and we had Dr. Metters, who was wife was running all the cheerleaders for the Los Angeles Rams at the time. And uh he looked at me and says, Hey, do you wanna you wanna catch him? And I was, you know, in the midst of trying to coach my wife like a football player tries to get a football player to get another touchdown. And I think she was relieved in the delivery room that I was asked by the doctor to move from, you know, filming the event to being the first hands on the life of my son. And I I remember that that last uh push, my wife pushed with all she had and uh into my hands, you know, with with rubber gloves. I'm really glad I had those on. Not for the sanitary sake of that event, but so that I didn't fumble the most awesome football that I had ever been delivered, and that was my son. I remember grabbing him in his life, and he came out right away just just crying. Didn't need a pat on the bum, and remember just holding him up slightly. I didn't do the full Lion King moment. I even I even had a nerf football there for him next to the incubator to hand him his first football. And I and you know, what's he gonna do? He's just gonna fumble it. He's not, you know, it's just like I mean that was the extent. I I knew how to be there to make a child. I I didn't know how to be a great father. I was I remember just the the awesome weight of that moment holding 50% of me, 50% of my wife, and uh 25% of grandparents and great grandparents. But that God's way of building manhood and fatherhood into us men is giving us that moment of of the super really the supernatural birth moment when this this child comes from being in their mom to to the world in a real way to your hands. And so there's no greater there's no greater calling for a man than to be a father. You know, right after marriage, which is absolutely a sacred trust, God also gives us this moment of of reproduction and and being able to see that. And so how's that how's that going for you? How much are you beating yourself up over your perfection of being a dad? And and is it really ever kind of too late for those things? I mean, when I when I was the first a father, I mean I I knew how to catch his child, but I I didn't really understand how to be a great father. And and quite honestly, I was I was really intimidated by the whole thing. Because uh, what do I do? From changing diapers to late night feedings to learning how to be a father, I mean, it was a huge challenge. It's like I wasn't given the equipment that I needed, and I didn't have my birth dad to be there to call to because he had been killed in action. And so as you can imagine, Memorial Day is a really powerful day for me, is a death. And the truth of the matter is you from that very first slide, you really do matter more than you know. It's not about being perfect, it's about really being there. The power of what that means in the life of a child. It's like your presence in their life is like it's like the keel to a sailboat that keeps it upright when the storms blow. One of the waves that sailboats don't just blow over. They have this centerline keel that this you know out of lead that you you crank down under the biggest storms. And no matter how big the the waves are or the winds are, unless they're tidal waves, of course, that boat doesn't flip over. So is the presence of a father in the life of your child, so it's really never too late. And you know, Enoch experienced that in his own family, and he had you know a number of other sons and daughters. But God moved Enoch into this place of fatherhood, and I remember this incredible story, you know, that you know, I read many, many years ago about Jacob and his wife, who was about ready to give birth to her son, and and he comes across the angel of the Lord, and and so Jacob says, I will not let you go and until you bless me. And so you have you know mankind post uh Genesis and the beginning and now is multiplying and being in the earth. You have this this father named Jacob, where his name, you know, sort of actually meant, you know, you know, the deal maker or trickster. And and yet God meets him there and says to him, But asks him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said to him, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but but Israel. For you have striven with God and with men and prevailed. And so God intervened in the life of this boy named Jacob, who at that point was fatherless and had no child, and he changes his name, he changed his name from Jacob and gives him this identity and this blessing. And the the pre-incarnate Christ is there in his story and gives him this blessing and said, Your name will be Israel, which actually means father of many nations. And so God bestowed fatherhood and the ability to father generations and to be a father on the life of Jacob there in the Old Testament before he had actually had a son. And that just points this incredible picture of how God turns, uh uses us as fathers in the life of our children, no matter how good of a father we've we've become, not no matter how good of a father we see ourselves to be, there's something about this interaction where when you know, if you are tuning in and heard my story of, you know, my our job is as a father starts out catching this child that got that we were a part of making this this baby together with our wives, or maybe it was your girlfriend in the beginning when you had your child, and now into your hands you have this human being who's looking to you the same way Jacob uh was looking to God in this story to really discover what is your true identity. Because at the core of this is where all children are suffering today. If you you think about the rise of social media all over the world, and yet no it doesn't matter how much these these kids have experienced, how many games, how many activities, how many friends they have on on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, no matter how many followers they have. The core of where our children are more than anything else, and how God redeems fatherhood, is he he redeems fatherhood, and I'll kind of tell you the punchline of what we're talking about first by fathering us so that we discover who he has made us to be so that we can father our children and those young people that God puts in your path to make a difference for. You know, one of the one of the coolest moments today of being at the chapel at Mariner's at the end, one of my dear friend, part of our men's uh study, he was a incredible uh track star uh all through college and and was just inches away from missing the Olympics and and got he became a father later on in his life. And so I've gotten to connect with his sons. One of the one things that I love to do with my time is to speak into this next generation. I have a number of these young squires, I call them, that I get to speak life into and to be a football player. And they they they honor me because they they see the jersey I wear or the or the history that I have. But many of them that I deal with, not in Bill's case with his son, but in so many sons, their dads are really distracted by you know them discovering their own names, thinking that if I can make this much money and have this house or have this car or buy this company or work here or live here. Because what what happens with us as men is that that identity is so powerful inside of us to know who God's made us to be, we'll do anything to find out what that is. I mean, look at what's happened to young people all through our country and around the world. In their search to discover who they are and even name themselves. The problem is when you name yourself, you can you're only blessed by the level of blessing the person that names you has. And if it's yourself or the guy on the other side of the football squad in the in the game of life, the devil, he's gonna name you by your sin, by your brokenness, by your hurt, by your pain, and he'll give you things in your life for you to consume, eat, do, or be as a promise that you will truly get that identity that's been elusive to you. And if the devil can keep our children in the midst of searching and watching and playing and doing, trying to find out who they are, they will miss this incredible opportunity they have to build a relationship with you in such a way where you can be a big part of helping them discover who God's made them to be. And there is nothing, and let me say this, there is nothing more powerful than a dad who stays present, who's not altogether perfect in the life of his children. So when the confusion comes and all the changes come and the hormones rage with your kids, and they start going sideways, there's something that doesn't move like a lighthouse. And they they begin to understand that my dad is for me. Can there be anything more powerful than that in the life of your family? Think about for yourself. Some of you will watch this later. We have a lot of festivities in our country on Memorial Day weekend, and you might be watching this the next day or down the road. And and I said from the very beginning, your your life matters as a dad really way more than you know. And that's really powerful because I let me say this. I uh I coach a lot of men who have gotten really discouraged because their kids have gone sideways and they don't know what to do. It's part of what we do in the Fatherhood Academy. We help men not only learn how to connect to their kids to be great dads or grandpas to help them and their family, but we help them solve that core identity issue that they have, where they're they're a little confused about how to minister to that son or that daughter, and not understanding that they're present matters more than they can ever know in the life of their kids. So let's go on. I want to share another slide with you here. And you know, that story about that I just read, you know, when you know Jacob's name gets changed to, you know, by God to Israel. He then gets back to the wagon train where his wife, his beloved wife, was waiting for him to return. And when he didn't return, she pushed out his first son. And when he gets there, he sees his wife who has just died, and he inquires there in Genesis 35, what is the name of this child? And the servant said to him, as her soul was departing for she was dying, she called his name Benoni. Imagine arriving in to the hospital and you were late, and you find out that the wife had already named a child and you didn't get to. And Ben O meen actually in Hebrew means son of my sorrow. And so if she was dying without her husband there, she named him son of my sorrow. And then she died. She had complications in childbirth, and she passed. And when Jacob heard that, he he remembered that moment that he had just had with God Himself, where God changes Jacob's name to Israel, and he says his word, but his father, that's Jacob there, who's now Israel, called him Benjamin, which means son of my right hand. I remember when I first read that, it it was an it was like a holy bomb went off in my heart of the power that uh gets unlocked when we step into the lives of our children. In a real way, we redeem fatherhood because God has redeemed us. And when we receive from him, he changes our name and blesses our life and gives us what we need to be the kind of father that our children need, or the kind of grandfather. No matter what you're doing in your story right now, and no matter how good you see yourself or how bad you see yourself, the way God redeems fatherhood in us, it's He's the one who comes in and changes our identity and our name through his son. And one of the things I love about that is that God's promise through a son, Jesus, is that God the Father is committed to fathering you through a son, Jesus. And if you had a great dad, that's the incredible bonus of eternity. But if you had no dad in your life, God wants to be the father of your story too. And that and that's that's more of my story growing up. And although I had a very heroic grandfather whom I love so much after my dad was killed in action, I my mom moved back into his home in Annapolis, Maryland, outside the Naval Academy. And uh, after a year being a widow and and having me as a single mom, she meets Dan McGlassen, hence my name, Ed Tandy McGlassen. Tandy was my birth dad. McLassan was that incredible supernatural gift of what a stepfather can do in the life of a son. And so I had I had two dads on earth, but I had a father in heaven. Because one of the things I was discovering as a young boy was that I spent so much of my life naming myself by the football team I was on, or the accolades I received, or et cetera, et cetera. What do you name yourself by? That I didn't really understand or discover who it got, it totally made me to be. And so I struggled. And you know, I remember you know, reading. I'm a young dad, I have a couple of kids, and I knew how to change diapers, I knew how to feed them, and I knew how to get them to sleep through the night. That was one of my things so that we could all sleep at nighttime. And and of course, I uh took the rubber nipples because my my sons, when they were born, were so hungry, they would drink their whole bottle and last for about 20 or 30 minutes, and then they would wake back up and I wouldn't get any sleep. I was exhausted. So I'm going, how do I do this? And so I made a bigger hole in the end of the nipple with a knife, way before they had juice bottles that came out. And I would, I would mix uh, you know, I'd make like a super milkshake of Jill's breast milk and isomil extra strong, and I'd throw some cereal in there. Probably the the doctors would say I I totally did the wrong thing, but and I got a flexible bottle and I would shoot that in. And as a result, you know, my kids' eyes would bulge out, they would get enough calories, and they would sleep longer. And so I was trying everything, and I didn't, I didn't know how to do a lot of things because I was I was missing it, and I wasn't a very good dad. I struggled to be a father. How are you doing that being a dad? Because, you know, isn't most of our struggle in being a good father because we're we're not clear about who we are yet, so we we pour everything that we have into trying to discover who God's made us to be. And if you're still stuck in that I identity thing of wondering who God's made you to be, then one of the one of the casualties that can happen in your own life, and the way maybe you discover that is it's real easy to not understand what it means to be a great dad with your kids, or you do, but you spend all your energy trying to arrive yourself. And when you spend all your energy trying to arrive yourself, you never really discover the incredible secret of showing up at fatherhood, not knowing what you're doing, and becoming totally dependent on God to father you so that you can be a good father to your children. We actually call that the father difference, the kind of the branding name of our ministry is when God the Father makes a difference in you, you're gonna make an incredible difference with your kids. As a matter of fact, that the promise of salvation in the Bible and the promise of you know all the all the things in in the Bible that God asks us to do only comes to us in our life when we learn how to receive from Him. Every skill, ability, spiritual gift, even being able to understand the Bible as we're as we're reading this amazing book of scriptures, of God's audible voice to mankind and his stories to them, these were written through the power of the Holy Spirit, as he you know guided the pen of 66 books and and all these writers by the Spirit of God, so that we could have the word of God that's the revelation of God's voice to us and who this man Christ Jesus is. Even understanding this, we've got to we've got to know not only who Jesus is, but our ability to even know who Jesus is is given to us. And so why is it that we look at fatherhood as something we attain because you know we we had a good dad and we could do this because we've learned this, instead of understanding that fatherhood and redeeming fatherhood, it's all about you as a man learning how to do this before the Lord and learning how to be that dad that God has called you to be. That's one of the things that we teach in the Fatherhood Academy. The more you learn to receive, the more capacity you have to be the father that your kids need, to be number two, to be the husband that your wife needs you to be. That's a whole other subject. Because loving a woman over a lifetime isn't a natural thing for a man to do. We need God, or maybe being the grandfather, you need to be your grandchildren. It all depends on how much you learn to receive from God, the same way his son Jesus did when he walked on the earth in front of his disciples. And that's that's what's what's good news about that is that it changes you. And this story that of David and Goliath, one of my favorite stories, there's this gigantic man challenging the people of Israel, and David was you know in front, you know, of the people of Israel. And if you've not seen the movie that's out right now about David, it's powerful and it's you know all through scripture. And and David said that you know, as he's talking about you know, this giant that everybody's afraid of being there. Here he is with the capacity of a young boy, a teenager. And he says, and David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. I just love the boldness that he had. He got that from who? God. And Saul said to David, King Saul, David, go and the Lord be with you. Tried to give him honor, he couldn't wear it. And then as soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, and he said to Abner, the commander of the army, because he had seen many soldiers go and and and not go out and were scared, but he'd never seen a young man go under the power of the Holy Spirit and the favor of God in his life. He says, Abner, whose son is this youth? And I'm a I'm a young father at a conference with my best friend in heaven, James Rile. He's teaching this story, and he's reading this verse, and I'm sitting there on the front row in my own church in a big men's conference that we put together. And I start to read these words, and Abner said, As your soul lives, O king, I do not know. He's not sure who's sure who the father is. Because basically, he wants to know what kind of dad raised a son like this. Because King Saul had his problems with his children. And he said, I'm gonna meet the man, basically, who raised a son like this. And when James Well said those words, it just hit me right between the eyes. And he said, Inquire whose son the boy is. And Saul said to him, Whose son are you, O young man? And David said, I'm the son of your servant Jesley the Bethlehemite. And man, I want to tell you, one of the, you know, that moment that that I had there, was that understanding of of what Saul was really really asking. And this is where I'm gonna tie this together for you tonight. When reading that scripture, what King Saul was asking, is I want to meet the kind of father who raised a son like this. And man, that hit me right between the eyes.

SPEAKER_02: 39:04

I was able to honestly say, I'm not that kind of father. How about you?

SPEAKER_01: 39:13

Yeah, you can claim it and say, Yeah, you know, I know that God's made me for this. But at the core of who you are, do you believe that God's gonna back you up with your children just like he backed up David that day? And Abner, whose son was David? And the truth of the matter is that David was fathered by God out there taking care of the sheep, and Jesus, the most extraordinary man of all history, was also fathered by God. And what would happen in your own story if you also learned to be fathered by God too? And here's a final promise for tonight. And Paul writes this scripture and boiling down just the hope of fatherhood. And the hope of fatherhood is this when when you learn how to receive God as your father through the perfect work of Jesus Christ on the cross, he's not gonna only father you in those places where you're broken, but he is gonna give you the grace to live out the story he has made you for. And here's the promise in the scripture. You got your Bibles. I'd circle this verse, underlie it, memorize it. And he said in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 18, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty. God's promise to all of us through Christ is to be the father that we need so that we can become the sons and daughters to the Lord God Almighty. I meet men all the time who and women who say to me, you know, I'd probably have a much different story if I had a dad like you. Matter of fact, those were the words of a a young girl wearing a green piece t-shirt on on a plane flight from if she was going home from Antarctica from a science exhibition, sitting next to me on the front row in coach, because I like the leg room there, if you can imagine. And after us talking for most of the flight, she looks at me and admitted, you know, if I had a dad like you, I wouldn't be so screwed up. And right there, I I had my my entrance to be able to speak life into her. And I said, Well, you do because no matter how good or bad your dad was, when when Jesus died on the cross, he not only died for to pay a penalty for all of your sin and all your mistakes, he also died on the cross for the mistakes of all of us, his dads and fathers. So that when we for we receive him in our life, and we receive the mercy and the forgiveness that he freely gives to us because he poured out all of his wrath on his son, we can also learn to forgive our dads for not having the not being the fathers that we really needed, but really truly understanding that our fathers in our own story, and my stepdad and my birth dad were limited in their ability as a father to the level that they learned to receive God's grace to be an incredible dad. And the more, you know, my my birth father was a godly man, didn't live that long, died young as a test pilot for the Navy, got to sit with a man today who You know, uh l you know, it was in his nineties and would have been my dad's age at a table today during uh m the incredible celebration for soldiers today at Mariners Christian School. And I just listened to him and it was like um boy, it would have been great for me to know my dad like uh sitting at a table, like I knew this guy. But the truth of the matter is that I d I did know him because those things that he did that he learned to receive from God were things that he sowed into his son with me. And he didn't have a single fathering moment with me because that's what God the Father does. So maybe you lost your dad, he went sideways on you, or it's broken, and you see who you are through the lens of his brokenness towards you. Well, that is the trap the enemy is set, the devil is set to keep you stuck, angry, hateful, reactive towards. But what what would happen if you you came to that understanding that all of those things that God's worked even those really, really hard things and around my neck I wear the actual dog tags of my birth father. I just little rubber protector on it, and I didn't used to wear the rubber protector, but because they were clanging all the time. And uh sound guys and diff conferences I've been in many countries in the world sharing my story encounter uh with Jesus. But these were always around my neck and they cling they clang at times, and and I've gotten used to them. And I was doing an event in Billy Graham's dedicated university and conference site back east many years ago, and and my dog tags were kind of making noise as I was walking up to speak to this large group of broken boys. And they were now men and living crazy lifestyles. And the question that I had my whole life was that although I'd learned so much about God being my father and received all that, still in the back of my mind was a question that we get all get answered when we stand before him, where we we talk to him about loss, right? And no matter what loss we go through, or parents or grandparents or people in our story, he's weaved this, he's weaved himself throughout this story so that it'll make sense, and he lets me know ahead of heaven how he used the death of my father in my life. And so the question that was in my heart as a young man was why did you take my dad early? He was a godly man, why didn't you speak to him and let him know? Oh, there's one of my buddies, Adam. Good to see you, Adam Flores. Amazing, amazing young man. But my question was, you know, why'd you take my dad early? And you know, that internal voice of the Lord, not external audible voice. I I find that people who are always talking about hearing the audible voice of God are pretty must be really hard-headed because God usually speaks audibly to really hard-headed people. So I'm talking about that internal witness where you know that what's coming out of you originated from heaven itself. And he answers my question and says, uh, I let your dad come home early so that I could be your father. So he didn't cause the crash of my dad many, many years ago, 69 years ago. But he works all things together for good for his good purpose of making us like Christ. And and then the second part of what he said to me, the first part was, I let your dad come home early so that I could be your father. And then he said, in the message I gave you, no one will be able to say came from just a great dad on earth. Now go and tell them that I'm the father they've always wanted. And that's the truth for you, that's the truth for me, and it's the one of the most powerful healing moments you can have as a man, where you understand that God the Father sent his son so that not only not only will you be able to receive his mercy and be forgiven and get a the ultimate do-over of being born again. He sent his son so that you could also know the father's voice, just like Jesus. So that you could also learn not only how to hear him, but how to follow him and ultimately be fathered by him, the same way God the Father fathered his son Jesus in the life that he lived. And we we call that the father difference. When God the Father makes a difference in you, you're gonna be able to make that same difference in your children, in your grandchildren, in your marriage. Because there's nothing that you can't receive in your own story from God that that won't have a monumental change in your heart as a man, as a father, as a husband, as a grandpa, or maybe you're an ex. And God can use, and I I met a couple of great grandfathers today at the celebration in Mariner's Christian school. And so I just want to tell you that it really isn't too late for God to do a great thing. And so maybe you're watching tonight and you're you're feeling like you missed out. You still feel like you've missed out with your dad, or your life isn't turned out the way you've wanted it to. And I've learned one thing over and over and over again. It's that you if you want a breakthrough to get to the next level, the next level is not about you being the next level. It's about you inviting Jesus in, who is the ultimate next level in your life, in your story, in your marriage, so that you can become the man he's made you to be, the father if you have children, the grandfather if you have grandchildren, or maybe you're marrying into a family with a wife who's got kids whose dad went sideways. And God has chosen you to come in and do an incredibly honorable thing of learning how to father somebody else's sons and daughters. And imagine where we would be as a world if fatherhood was celebrated. I mean, we only get one stinking day. Right? I mean, if you think about a Mother's Day, boy, those cards come months ahead of time. I mean, that's an amazing celebration. But Father's Day, oh, we get a day. And yet God wants to make Father's Day every day in your life for your sake, for your kids, for your grandkids one day. And so I want to pray for you as we tie this together. Be praying for me uh next week as during our our broadcast times, we're gonna be actually in TBN uh studios with Kurt Cameron filming a special on how to become the husband and father your family needs, and really excited about that. And so we'll let you know when to tune in. So that's what we'll be doing next week. So I'll miss you next week, but I'll be in the south with my grant my four grandkids there for Thanksgiving. And I want to pray for you as a father and for Thanksgiving and what's coming up for your family this next month is really a powerful time. It's never too late for you to be the dad that God's called you to be. But I want to pray for you right now, is what have I shared tonight? His scratch and itch inside of your heart that you're saying, Ed, I I want I want to not only hear more from the Lord, I want to be fathered by God too. So let's pray. Father, I I thank you for my friends that are watching. And on this celebrated day that we have in our country, and every every country has soldiers who have paid the ultimate price, who have survived, who have come home from war. And it's crazy and horrible that war can be. Uh, without them, Lord, there's no there's no freedom when good men do nothing. So, Lord, I pray for every father that's watching, and I pray, Lord, that you would you would minister to them, you would bless them, you would fill them with the understanding and grace about who you are. Maybe you haven't been walking with Christ for a long time, or maybe you've slipped away from church. Well, you know, the best place for you to grow is Bible-believing community. And Lord, I pray for those people. But maybe you'd like to pray with me just a simple prayer that I prayed many years ago that changed my life. And just repeat it with me if you would. Dear Jesus, I ask you to forgive me for all of my attempts to prove myself and for all the the sin that I have done. I receive you into my life as my one and my only savior. Lord, I need you to save my life. I need you to make me the kind of father that makes a difference. Father, I need you to make me the kind of grandparent that makes a difference. And I receive you into my life, and I ask you to save me. Father, I ask you to bless my life with the same blessing that you poured on it on your on your only son when you declared over him coming out of the river Jordan with John the Baptist present. And when he heard, This is my son, my beloved son, and whom I love. I pray, Lord, that you would that would ring over the hearts of of the men that are watching, and there's a few gals on our feed that I see, that you would bless them with that, and that you would secure their core identity above all is to be your beloved sons and daughters. And that you would heal their families, you would help them heal, uh, use them to heal the identities of their children, and Lord, you would bring their family back together in profound ways. And Lord, you would you would fix those broken places where bitterness has crept in and stolen the life of the family. So, fam thanksgiving for many families are dreading. I pray you would make this Thanksgiving a just a all over the world, a place of forgiveness and love and blessing around that table. As the turkey or the ham or the roast beef gives up his life. So, Lord, I pray you'd bless them, be with them, restore everything that the enemy has stolen. In the maestrous name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Hey, if you prayed with me for the first time, I would love to bless you. And you can go to my my website if you want to connect with me every day. I have a devotional that's just from the Bible, some uh something that uh I'm writing that communicates what what it must have been like for Jesus to hear from his father every day. And that's uh a free gift at the fatherdifference.com slash free, uh actually uh free devotion. And you're approaching Thanksgiving, you want to be a better dad, you can go to my website. We have a number of resources, a free book, the difference a father makes, it's all over the world. And all that to say, I'm so grateful that you showed up. I'm so grateful to be with you and you giving me your time on this amazing day in our in our history of our nation. But that ultimately, my very first statement tonight is that your role as a father or a grandfather is way more powerful than you know for the life of your kids, your grandkids, your great-grandkids one day. And what will be those stories that they tell about you and about grandpa? Because we're gonna, I think we're gonna get to hear those for eternity when we all get back together in heaven. Lord bless you. Thank you for your time. I have a short, short little video to close with this. I'm so grateful that you'll spend your precious time here with me. God bless you. I'm Ed Tanya McGlassen praying for you, and can't wait to share our brand new, updated Fatherhood Academy that's coming right around the corner. We'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_00: 59:24

Dear friends, imagine a world where every father feels equipped to lead with faith, love, and purpose. A world where families thrive and communities grow stronger because of devoted, Christ-centered fathers.

SPEAKER_01: 59:39

You know, beloved, that is the vision that God's put in my heart for every single family. You know, he is on the move, I believe. He promises in Malachi that before the great and coming day of the Lord, he's gonna do something profound. He's gonna turn the hearts of fathers back towards their children. So the hearts of their children will turn back to their father. That's what God is doing. I meet dads daily who want to learn to be better fathers. Yet many have never been shown how. Too many families are being fractured through bitterness and with parents and grandparents even being canceled. That's why we're launching an online community to equip and to be the fathers that God has called them to be. It's more than a program, it's a part of a a movement that God is already doing to reshape fatherhood. It's a sacred calling rooted in the teachings of pride. And we're calling this the Fatherhood Academy, where men will embark on a journey of healing and spiritual restoration that helps them transform their family relationship. And to make this vision a reality, would you consider partnering with us financially as we continue to reach and disciple every man, dad, and grandpa that comes our way? Your donation will help create a ripple across the neighborhoods, communities, you know, and ultimately our nation, anchoring each child, their division, and the unwavering love and guidance of a devoted dad.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:29

Will you partner with us? Your gift, whether a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, will help to transform lives. Together, we can equip fathers and grandfathers to lead with faith and create a brighter, hopefully future for generations to come. Click the link to donate today. Thank you for believing in this mission and joining us on this transformative journey.