From Identity Confusion To Christ-Centered Fatherhood

What if the pressure your kids feel to “find themselves” is actually pulling them further from who they are? We take on identity confusion, comparison culture, and the restless guilt that makes families feel stuck—and we chart a clear way forward grounded in the gospel. As dads, we want to fix what hurts. But lasting change doesn’t come from tougher rules or trend-chasing advice. It comes from naming the deeper tension our sons and daughters carry: wanting to do good, yet slipping into patterns that don’t match who they hope to be. We unpack a simple, vivid cross illustration and the Roman Road scriptures to show how Jesus bridges the gap we cannot cross on our own. This is less about behavior management and more about heart transformation that restores peace, purpose, and resilience at home.

If you’re ready to anchor your home in Christ and become the father your kids can trust, this conversation gives you both language and tools. Subscribe to The Father Difference, share this with a dad who needs courage today, and leave a review with one practice you’re adopting this week. Your feedback helps other families find hope.

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

Support our ministry by checking out the donation link here!
https://www.thefatherdifference.com/donate

Transcript

Welcome And Mission: The Father Difference

SPEAKER_01 1:02

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 McGlass.

The Dissonance: Wanting Good, Doing Wrong

Phones, Comparison, And Anxiety

Psychology, Guilt, And False Identities

Introducing The Roman Road

A Father’s Tool: Explaining The Cross

Sin’s Consequences And Lost Peace

God’s Free Gift And True Change

Leading Kids To Christ At Home

The Salvation Prayer And Next Steps

Community, Resources, And Fatherhood Academy Appeal

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Hey, beloved ones, this is Ed Tane McGlass, and I am so excited about being with you today, sharing with you. It's been quite a week for the Church of Jesus and so many people, their reactions back and forth. All about in these talks about identity. How did that young man raised in, I guess, in a Mormon family, how did he go so sideways in his life? And his parents maybe understood that, did not understand that. Not uh pointing any blame here, but I just began thinking just about, you know, something that's some of the lies that are actually talked about out there in culture, about, you know, children and kind of the strategy against our children right now when they get to college and high school and and even elementary school in some places, because there's some core things that you and I have together, if you've walked with Christ at any time, that really help us. And when we live in those, we we begin, we understand when the devil is trying to reshape us and reshape our identity, because he's constantly trying to be the author of your future. The devil wants what God has, what God paid for with the Son. He thought he won the game back in Genesis when he got Adam and Eve to bite into that fruit, and their eyes were open, and the promise was they're going to be like God, knowing good and evil. And the result was they lived in shame and sinned against God and were separated, and all their children from then on weren't born good. They were born with this nature of sin that they have in them, where the where we choose not to, you know, follow God. We want to do our own way. See, the the promise from the devil is you get to set your own rules, you get to discover your own identity, and it's the same tactic that back in the Garden of Eden, he's doing the day with our young people, with a number of broken people that are influencing them. And so this young man, without trying to kind of exegate who he was totally in the mist, and a lot of things are coming out about him, but but the truth of the matter is that he never really had an encounter with Jesus. Because when we have an encounter with Jesus, we understand one incredible truth that we're able to love because he first loved us, we're able to forgive because he first forgave us. We're able to walk with God and be a new person because of something that Christ did in our life. And I want to encourage you today to, I'm gonna share with you something that I walked every one of my kids through when I was raising them. Not that it's this this is a secret formula, about helping them understand the core issue that every one of us face in our life? And that is this. How many of you want to do good and you don't? How many of you have promised God that this is the last time that you're gonna sin and you do it again? How many of you have kind of hooked your train to maybe the wrong identity over your life, and then you end up wearing that label in your life, that brokenness. Identity is a powerful, powerful way we see ourselves. It's the way we see the world, it's how we deal with the world through those ways that we believe about ourselves. But one of the things that happens in the midst of having this dissonance in us when we want to do right, but we keep doing what's wrong, is how do we get healed from the trauma of that in our life? I mean, some people try to heal by you know doing drugs, changing their identity, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And your children, just like you, have this same dissonance in you. Now, I want to share with you before I get started an absolutely world-changing, great book on apologetics to one of my great Lutheran pastor friends, Alfred Espinoza. It is just out right now, and it is it is a beautiful, powerful reference to teach you how to in a real way do what we witness, and what we witness at you know, uh Charlie Kirk and the kind of way he spoke to these kids. I mean, I've there's things that he said that I wish he wouldn't have said, and things that we all do and say that we wish we wouldn't say. But one of the things that I loved about the way he was is he was able to be kind and have conversations with some of the most confused kids on every college campus, and he gave them a real turning point from their way of seeing things to Jesus' way, and it's it's a massive thing going on around the world. You might not like him, you might be a different party. I mean, isn't it even strange that we live in a day where our political power party shapes our identity more than scripture does? Just a thought. So I don't want to get into all that. I want to talk about those core things in your kids that you can really help them discover that's gonna change their life. And so I want to uh take you to my little mini outline here to share this with you tonight, because it's really a really important thing. Here's the first slide here, and here's the truth about parenting parenting isn't easy, and the reason why it's not easy is that all of your children are wrestling with who they are, and they're costly wrestling, and they they wrestle with how do they you know match up compared to their friends. They have this little uh device here, many of them there that are on it, and now they're comparing themselves to worldwide children, worldwide money earners, worldwide everything. And here's the other thing that I just you know the stress that this produces when we're complete, when we when we grab this and they're we're consuming the world, you know, all over. And one of the strategies I think of of the enemy, and I'll come back to the rest of that slide, slide, is that this device might be really great in quick communication, being able to buy stuff, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But your children and you yourself were created by God to live in a time, in a space with the gifts you have, with the body you have, with the identity that He has given you. And when the Bible was written, people lived in time and space. They weren't international Christians, they they weren't protesting because of something that was happening across the world. And and now we we're consuming so much news and information and stuff, and our children are being bombarded. And most of the time, from the young people that I talk to, they're trying to figure out who they are compared to everybody else, and that's that stress on them emotionally is enormous, something that you and I didn't really have to have. I mean, we had stress of figuring out who we are with sin and everything when we're in high school and we're dealing with people in our high school. But today, kids are interacting with people in every high school, every problem, every political affinity, you know, every kind of distraction, every kind of entertainment, every kind of everything, constantly bombarding them with one goal. And hear me when I say this is the devil wants to use this thing. And I'm not saying this is wicked, but what comes out of here, there's incredible wickedness here. I don't, I didn't, I wasn't able to cue this up, but there was a a young person on Chat GPT that was going to Chat GPT for counseling. And this on Chat GPT was talking about depression and etc. The counsel that came out of Chat GPT towards that child was it'd probably be better if you you you uh killed yourself. I mean, the the devil set our children up with all this. So I'm not just saying you grab every of their phones and you burn them and you run your car over them and all this kind of thing. The issue is for you and me as a as a dad, and if you're a mom watching this, it's all about us helping our children discover an identity that the devil doesn't have the same kind of access to them that he does to the rest of the world. Because the way he is hooking them, okay, hear me when I say this to you, is it's he's getting them to focus on this dissonance that they have inside of them because they want to do good and be good, but they keep doing bad. They keep sinning, not using probably those words. And and so what modern psychology has done inside of the the gospel, not all of it, but some of it is trying to convince these kids that their problem is with other people and systems that they were born basically good, and because they were born good, if they feel bad about themselves, then it's somebody else's fault. Think about that. That's what they're dealing with. We dealt with some of those same temptations, but as as modern psychology has grown, influenced, and grabbed people, and many of them atheistic psychology, people that are do not fear God at all with reverence, they they think that the end of man is just between your ears and is what you think. And yet mental health today is just skyrocketing. And what other people don't seem to understand is that the suicide rate with children, you know, that are struggling, they want to label their condition as gender dysphoria, but it's the attempt of children to try to create an identity in themselves that they're gonna love who they are. And yet when they get into this new identity that they're fashioning to try to heal this dissonance that they have in their heart, because they're not able to do to do good, they keep blowing it over and over and over again, and so they're they're being taught that it's somebody else's fault, or or for some parents, it's your mom and dad's fault because they're they're preaching at you, and and because of that, if you remove yourself from your parents and create a boundary around yourself from this abuse of them making you feel guilty, then they're gonna be, then you're gonna really love who you are and really be able to discover without their help who who you've been truly meant to be. Here's the problem the Bible is really clear that one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit and 24 hours a day is his job is to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness. And so the guilt that people end up blaming other people on is the very guilt that's inside of them because they uh aren't able to live or keep their own truth, much less God's truth, in their own life. They have this this feeling like there's something broken in me. And I want to share with you what is known as the Roman Road, it's a powerful, it's how I I met Jesus. It's the scriptures that a young campus minister, Bill Romanowski, shared with me in Kilkali dormitory. Then he prayed for my knee, and God healed my knee. And I, and you know, with all these incredible revelations of scripture, I gave my life to Christ, and I've been following him ever since. But it was the word of God, the the revelation of God's word to me, helped me understand my condition and what I needed to do to be able to fix it, and how I needed to respond to God. So let's look at that right now. So back to the outline. So part of what you're struggling with as a parent is to try to help your kids to walk them through the confusion they have. Notice the confusion that the kids are having is over identity. Is in our marriages sometimes where we think we need somebody different. Here's my buddy Ray Diggs. Good to see you, my friend. You got a lot of friends here. Good to see Miss Kay, Titus. Good love, love your comments. Keep uh if you got comments, go ahead and shoot them to me. And I need to pop over to my comments. Here we go. Oh uh, yes, and and I'd really love to know where you're you're watching from. And so, how do I walk with them through their confusion? We're gonna talk about that. And how do I stay close enough to be a trusted voice in their life? Because how you share with your children will really determine their ability to hear you. And third, how do I support my child without losing my voice as a parent? And we're gonna talk about that as well. So let's dive in with some tools here that are right from the Word of God. So, so the number one issue with your children is why I am not happy with who I am. That's one of their core questions. They feel like they're behind, or depending on how you father your kids, and if you're not given a lot of praise, they're measuring their worth by how you celebrate them or not. By the words you speak. Sometimes we frame in our children a real, we we grow the self-critical spirit they already have. Because they're already, you know, they know when they blow it. You don't have to, you you don't have sometimes have to discipline them because they already know it's on their face. And it's a good thing. It's a it's a conviction of the Holy Spirit to showing them, but they don't know how to, they don't know how to really change your spots. They they have been taught maybe, you know, you got to go to church every week. If you go to church, then you'll be a good boy. I have a lot of parents who tell me, oh, my son was such a good kid. He, you know, he went through catechism and he was in the Catholic church, or he thought they talk about the Baptist church, and he got baptized, and I don't understand what happened. And I and I asked him, I said, you know, he did all these events. Maybe maybe they were real, maybe not, but how much of those events were they doing that because they were really honest about how broken they were feeling about who they were? See, at the core of your kids' struggle is there because they've not encountered Christ yet. You know, and and for themselves, the many many kids I meet have received the Jesus that dad believes in. Or mom believes in. Oh, there's my buddy Jeff Waggin in the house. One of my great, great friends in my church for many years. Matter of fact, on an Easter Sunday, his dad he said, I will never go to church. Remember that, Jeff? Love you too, Jeff. I walked up to this old cranky guy that worked for the Orange County Register. He was a hero in the war. And I remember I'll never forget the kind of the encounter of Jesus that we're talking about. I remember walking up to him, and and and I and he looks at me and he goes, nice speech, but I've heard it before, not interested. And I looked at him and I had one of those moments, and I said, John, how would you like to become a new man and be completely forgiven for everything you've ever done? And he just starts bawling. He just starts bawling. He says, I'm such a bad guy. I just I'm so mean to my wife, and and I just such I'm so hard sometimes on my kids. I and you know, I I don't know how to change myself, and I share with them what I'm sharing with you, and he gave his life to Jesus, and he got he encountered. Christ and Jeff will give testimony. He got saved at 83 years old. Never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks, right? And he was tender, loving, serving. I mean, some of the best years of their whole marriage were in those days. And we sent him off to heaven. That was a powerful, powerful day. So here's the first thing. The Bible says it this way, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Most kids don't understand this. And so I have a a little tool that I use with my kids that's really helpful. Let me let me let me grab a piece of paper here. And uh just just hang on. I'm I'm gonna show you something. I'll be right back. And so one of the things my wife uh my wife was really good of knowing it's a time when my kids were ready to be saved. And just because they're born in a pastor's house doesn't mean they come pre-saved. Oh, on the contrary, man, they knew everything about dad. They know everything about mom. But they had they have this understanding many times that they they gotta perform well so they don't make their dad look bad as a pastor. And that's why there are a lot of pastors' kids where they've received the Jesus mom and dad walks in, but when they have their own private life, they're gonna do what they want to, still trying to work on this thing in them about choosing you know who they're gonna be one day. And so when the Bible says that all of sin have fallen short of the glory of God, so I want you to see this. This is a this is a cross, of course, it looks like. And if at the top of this line is Jesus, right? Because the Bible says you've got to be as perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. And I I like drawing and doing this, and then say down here at the very bottom, that's the devil, okay? That's just total evil, right? And so if this was a graduated and this was zero.com and this was a hundred percent Jesus, and this was his goodness and life and love, who would you say? And I I did this with my kids, I said, Who would you say is like the best person in the whole world? The the the when compared to Jesus, who would you say is like an incredible human being? And I remember I asked my daughter Mary one time and she's young, and she said, Mother Teresa, how many would say Mother Teresa? She's in Calcutta, she's serving. Well, Mother Teresa, when she compares herself to Jesus, she actually thinks she's right here, right here in the middle, Mother Teresa. Still a long way up, because the Jesus said, You've you've got to be as perfect as my heavenly father is perfect. Well, that seems kind of impossible, doesn't it? Well, yeah, it does. And compared to there, she's there somewhere around 35, 40, almost 40 percent. And so, you know, here's a line of a guy that we all know and love, and and his name's Billy Graham. When he asked about how he was on his walk with Jesus, he said, Well, I'm, you know, I'm I'm growing, but I'm sort of right here. You know, I'm way ahead of where I was here when God saved my life. But compared to what he wants out of me, this impossible thing of being perfect, like he's perfect, this life that he's given us to live, I'm sort of stuck here. And so then I I looked at my daughter and I've shared this with guys and and people that I coach, and I said, So where are you on the list? Well, compared to Mother Teresa, you know, my daughter said, you know, I'm down here, Dad. I'm not even close to Mother Teresa. My son said, I'm not even close to Billy Graham. I said, Your problem is God wants you to be this way. How in the world are you gonna get from here to here? And then I draw this line across. I said it's the cross of Jesus. Jesus did what you could not do to yourself to become what God has called you to be. His beloved sons and his daughters. Who Romans says they become the righteous of God, and so part of sharing with your sons or your daughters, they might be grown, is that most kids don't know how to change these things in them that they know, that dissonance of they want to do right, they want to do better, but they keep getting in that same kind of place over and over again. And they're they're too proud, like we were in those early days, of telling anybody. Sometimes we do that today, and they don't know how to, they don't know how to get right. And but see, the but the Bible goes on and says it this way that you know, Addis is written, they're you know, because when they're thinking there must be something wrong with me. And this answers this incredible question because the the lies of the devil that are being perpetrated, unfortunately, through some college professors and and and and people that you know, I would say are they're lost as a goose in the hailstrom. They don't know what they're talking about. They're trying to offer an answer to a kid who's confused about their identity, and they're and they're trying to impact them in some kind of way, what they know, which is not much. And because they believe that that we're basically born good. And if, and I said this earlier, if that if I feel bad about who I am, that's somebody else's fault. So I'm gonna create a boundary around me. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go to my, I'm not gonna hang around my parents, I'm gonna discover my own identity, my own sexuality, my own, etc. That's the devil's gigantic trap. But the problem is the Bible says it this way, as it is written, there's none, none is righteous, not even one. No one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless, and no one does good, not even one. Now, the word good, by the way, the world, you know, for our children wants to translate good as better than somebody else. You know, I I had a guy that was commenting on on a post that I did, and he did it all in red. He was really angry with me because I had mentioned Charlie Kirk in a couple of posts on our daily devotional because of things that I admired about him. And and the thing that I admire about him the most is how he is can he is connected to the forgiveness of God through the father's son Jesus, and how he with with reckless abandon to his own personal life and safety, he steps in to the more most tortured, separated kids from families. You know, we we've been praying for for years for God to do something with our kids, haven't we, as parents? We see the the evil in the world that's being done by those who don't know Christ, and the evil that's been doing to some of our children. And we wonder how in the world are we gonna uh affix all these things? And God raised him, not a perfect man, a flawed man like you and me, like one of my heroes, Martin Luther, who you know, we have the Bible because of him in so many ways, you know, said, I'm the worst sinner that I know. And so when you know that you're a sinner, that you're saved by grace, not by your works, least any man should boast. That was kind of his core scripture. And it's like that we're saved by grace. And so the only way to fix this thing inside of me, this broken part of me that I don't want to look at, because I'm trying to hide it. And that's what we do. We we sort of hide that false identity of our brokenness. You know, the scripture says, look at how it's described. This is God's word to us. Their throat is an open grave, and they use their tongue to deceive. The venom, the venom of asp is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. You know, there's a there's a story about a guy who actually in a horrible plane crash was saved, and he was interviewed, and and and uh said, Well, what did you what did you experience when the plane was going down? He said, So many people around me were just cursing God, angry. Because, you know, when that comes out of a heart, that's a picture of a heart that isn't forgiving. And when you're you've not been forgiven, you know, we're we're able to love because he first loved us, but we're also able to forgive because he first forgave us. That's kind of the state of their heart. And so he even goes on to say their their feet are look at this, swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruined and misery. I mean, nobody wants to uh point out the obvious for all of this, you know, and this tortured a young man who ends up uh becoming an assassin, you know, with now with that label on his life, is that the wages of sin is death. It's death to you spiritually, it's death to you physically, it's death to how you see yourself, you see the world, your your mind gets skewed, the mental illness. Sin causes us to die on the inside. Sin causes our children to die on the inside. And so when we when we model, even in ourselves, dealing with those things in our life, even in front of our children, it's such a powerful way for them to find a road home. And here's the last thing there in the way of peace they have not known. And and uh, you know, and there's and there's no fear of God before their eyes. Now we're fear, there's no, there's not this reverent reverence or worship. And sin makes us look at everybody else as a problem, where there's such vehement anger. And we have that. It's you know, this issue with Charlie being assassinated, just the gut reaction of people, their absolute hatred of him, is incredible. But you know, the truth is, and you're so right, Jeff, the the gift of God is is eternal life where you get to live now and you get to live with him forever and ever. But there's a way that has to happen in our life. How does he change us our life? Well, the the wages of sin is death. And you know, how many of you, you know, that there's times in my life where the Lord has shown me how how I remember in the early days, and even now I'm a 69-year-old follower of Jesus. I try to be as fast as I can to deal with those things that the Holy Spirit reveals in me that are broken. But the wages of sin is death. It's a it's a it's an eternal death separated from God, to where the spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, is not poured into you in your life, and your only source of understanding who you are is your own spirit, your own personality, in your own soul, in your own mind. You're you're the death you have is that you're separated from God's love. And that goes back right into Genesis that when God commanded them to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of evil, and the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And the death that Adam and Eve experienced was the separation of the love and blessing of the Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right there in the garden. But God had a plan. And he sent his son to die in our place so that we could experience this gift. And it's a and here's the other part of this scripture: it's a free gift. So you can't earn it, you don't deserve it, you can't be better than other people with it. Because one of the one of the the most important things, uh one of the signs of somebody who really is being effective for Jesus is they're really in touch with how generous God is with them, with forgiveness. And it makes you tender. And there's there's times, uh, let me, you know, there are times when I'm not being a very good Christian, you know, because I'm judgmental or I'm I get stuck in things just like anybody else does. But when I'm in control of my heart and how much I'm receiving from God, and I'm sort of cutting him off, I'm distracting myself with other things, it does something inside of me. I feel dissonant. That that dissonance is the Holy Spirit that's in us that gets grieved when we start going back in our old ways and we feel that disconnect. Well, when someone hasn't been regenerated or or saved, they don't feel guilty. I had a neighbor that uh used to live in our block, and he had a life partner, he had a husband, and they were a gay couple. And and so, you know, we we were I was really friendly with them, and you know, we they served us, they you know, they're always bringing over cookies and stuff, they love to cook, and but they those two were just I I watched them and they would just suffer so much physically just from the the crazy lifestyle that is and and the drugs that they were actually growing in their garage to try to deal with stuff. And so I I um one day they you know we were talking, and I said, Hey, can I ask you a question? Do you ever feel guilty for your lifestyle? And this guy he looks at me because I was so you know direct with him, and uh he said, Well, yeah, I feel guilty all the time. And I said, Can I ask you a question? Do you feel guilty because some some Christian came over to your house and started, you know, preaching against you because you were living a homosexual lifestyle? You said no. I said, Well, then why do you feel so guilty? And he put his head down for a minute and he looks up. And he says, you know, when I was a young boy, I was in the Baptist church and I and I said yes to Jesus. And the reason I feel guilty is because God is convicting me. I said, um, how do you deal with feeling that way? I mean you have that dissonance in you to where you want to do right and you don't. And he looks at me and he says, Well, we drink. Matter of fact, all my gay friends, we have them over for parties and we drink, and we smoke dope. I said, Well, does it help? He goes, No. And I smiled at him and I said, Well, you know, my friend, there's another way. And he goes, Okay, Padre, I'm not, I'm not quite ready to give this up. And I said, Well, why why would you choose all I mean, have you ever thought about why you choose this lifestyle that's so hard, the rejection of it, the physical damage that happens to your bodies, the just uh, you know, all all the stuff, the the potential disease and all that stuff. And he and he looks at me and he goes, Um, well, I know exactly why I do this. And I said, Tell me, and he said, because I hate my father. And he goes, I know that's wrong. My dad was a monster. But somehow when I'm with my partner, I get the the the love that that I would have gotten from my dad. You see how the devil set this guy up? He set him up because there's a you know, every person gets stuck, even your children, they have this this emotional need inside of them to try and heal on their own. And if they go outside of the revelation of the word of God, they're gonna choose something that's gonna cause their demise. And so I I prayed for him, and eventually they they moved away. But he came over some weeks later and said, I I I just want to tell you. I that meant so much to me that you would listen to me. And let me tell my story, and you didn't judge me. And I said, Well, I can I can't judge you, man. That's that's not my job. My job is to connect you to a guy who can save your life so you'll never be judged. And my prayer is that God will open his heart to this truth that we see that the wages of sin is death. It's not that other people are doing something to me or persecuting me. You know, that's one of the posts that from this shooter, why he's so angry at Charlie Kirk, because he felt judged for his sin that he was involved with with his partner. And, you know, I don't know much about the Mormon church, but I know that's probably not copacetic, you know, in the Mormon church, but he felt judged. And that chart if you remove Charlie, then I won't feel bad about myself. That's the way the devil works. He just he's he, you know, and when you're when you're sin sick in your life and you don't have a revelation of Jesus, or you're Or you've opened yourself to patterns of sin in your life, and and now you're being dominated by other voices, demonic spirits in your life. But right here, the the truth is in sharing with our with our kids or family members or people that we meet, how does God change our life? It's a free gift that's in Christ. And so how does that happen? But God showed his love for us while we were still sinners. I I remember when I when I first heard this, it was just as a profound moment for me. Um that God didn't love me because he wanted to use me and he was trying to find some football players to save. And sharing that with your children is such a powerful understanding of the gospel that's sometimes lost in this new kind of hyper-grace environment where unfortunately pastors or some have left the preaching of God's word and they've gotten into their to a version of grace that's not biblical to where you know God understands if you sin. That's okay. You're not no judgment here, and they give this this delusional take on the gospel of Jesus, and they rob his power. And yet the Bible says, While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He died for you, he died for me when I was graveyard dead. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved uh by him from the wrath of God. You know, something that God's been speaking to me about is that the thing that Jesus saved us from was the wrath of his father. Because, you know, the the father, you know, in Romans says that the wrath of God is poured out against all unrighteousness. So one of the things that Jesus saved you and I from is he saved us from the wrath of his father. Because if we are object of the wrath of God, we look like this guy that was just arrested. Because he didn't know the love of God. And when you don't have Christ, there's no way to know his love. And maybe, you know, maybe he had an encounter at some point in his life, but it those things that we partake of and we get we get we enter into the life of being dead in sin, it destroys us. And a lot of our kids don't understand this about God and his word, they don't understand how he does that, how he changes our life. But he goes on, and so how does someone give their life to Christ? Maybe you've never uh had the opportunity to lead one of your kids to Christ, or you're you'll you're taking them to church to you know have somebody else do it. But you know, I think some of the most profound kids that I know, moms and dads were part of that story, not only modeling that life of receiving Christ, but helping your kids. And I know for Jill, she she just like knew as a mom that her son was ready. And she prayed for Edward and come running in and said, Edward just gave his life to Jesus. Mary just gave her life to Christ, Jessica just gave her life to Christ. Lucas, he just gave his life to Christ. Josh just gave his life to Christ. My wife was there in the in the in that nexus of that moment. I celebrated with them and talked to them about what it meant. So how do you how do you get that? Maybe maybe you're in a place where you're a little sideways or you're really angry with things in your life. Maybe you're you're angry with you don't like Charlie at all. You know, you don't like what he did with the kids. And maybe you're you know, you're just you're angry at somebody else. You're you know, projecting all this stuff. So so how do you how do you come to this place? Well, God's got to open your heart and and this this prayer here in Romans is what I prayed when I met Jesus. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. If you confess with your mouth. So it's Paul's writing in Roman church, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord. That word Lord there is we we think of Lords and ladies, but Lord is means the supreme ruler of your life. The supreme ruler over everything. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. That's why when you know you lead somebody to Jesus, uh don't pray it for them, have them pray it and own it for themselves. And get them to pray with you. I I get people to pray out loud with me. It's one of the it's one of the joys of my life, part of the gift I have in evangelism in my life that that people have seen and and I love where you get to lead someone to Jesus who never's never known him or received him. And it can be anywhere. And you know, pray this prayer with me, dear Jesus. Right? You are Lord, you are my supreme commander. In other words, I'm firing myself from being the head of my life, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. I mean, that's when you understand that God raised Jesus from the dead, that's a different faith than someone who goes, Oh, Jesus was a prophet and he was a good man. No, because you know that he raised him from the dead for you, you shall will be saved. With a heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth he confesses to save. Because there will be a day when the the all the whole creation will stand before the Lord, and they will realize they blew it. That's why it's so important to know this Roman road. Romans 3.23, 6.23, Romans 10 9 through 11. And you know, the the truth is, and I love this in Romans 10.13. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus is the Lord. If you call on him, you'll be saved. Maybe that's your story. Maybe you need, maybe it's been a long time since you've done that, or you just want to be able to lead somebody else through this process. And I would just love just to pray with you right now. How many of you want to be able to walk your kids through this? And uh, of course, everybody's responding. Maybe you have, maybe they have other questions around that. But the the simple basic gospel for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us. You confess with your mouth, Jesus is the Lord, and that He's raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. The simple thing that's called the Roman Road of Salvation is something I put to memory, and I use it every day. Most days I share the Word of God with people more than the great stories of Ed is but the Word of God. That's so much more powerful. Because it will help them understand that that broken thing inside of them that's normal because of the wages of sin. It causes that death in them, but they need a free gift from Jesus. It wasn't free for him, it's it's free for us to receive it, and others can't earn it. And all we got to do is receive it. And so I want to pray with you and then pray for maybe kids in your family. And we're gonna pray for them right now. So, Father, I pray for everyone who's watching this right now. And maybe there's somebody that says, Ed, I, you know, it's time for me to be all in with Jesus. I think I've been maybe that was a something that happened early in your life, and now you're you're older, and you realize it's time for me to change some things in my life. There's some brokenness in me that's ruling me more than God's love and God's presence and God's truth. And so if that's your place, just would you pray this prayer with me right now? Just say, dear Jesus, forgive me for all the sin that I've done. I can't save myself. And I confess right now, I confess that you are my Lord. You're my you're the only way I can be saved. And so I ask you to come into my life and save my life and forgive me for all of those sins that I've done in my life, and I ask you to come and save my life. And I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit in a such a way that you give me a heart for my kids again. You teach me how to reach him and love them and pray for them. Give me a heart for my neighbors that are broken, that's in obvious places. And Lord, I pray you'd give me a heart for those who are politically opposite of me, that I wouldn't demonize them or put them down, but I would listen and pray for them and understand where they're coming from, so I can share your love, Jesus, and your gospel. And I pray these things in the name of Jesus. And all God's kids said, Amen. The simple gospel is never too simple. I'd love to hear from you. You want to send me an email, connect with me online. Maybe you this was a time for you to pray. And for the first time, you maybe you need some more prayer, you can connect to me online. You can email me at edtandy at thefatherdifference.com. And if you just prayed that prayer, I'm gonna send you a book. But you gotta, you got, you gotta send me an email. Connect with me and say, hey, Ed, I I prayed that again, or for the first time. And uh I I want to walk with Christ the rest of my life. And and also I have a daily devotional that I send out every day, and and I'd love to send it to you. And you go right to that website, it's fatherdifference.com, and free devotion. It's right on the front page, and I'd just love to send it to you. And I'm so grateful that you're here and you're here in our show, and bring your friends. Make sure you click on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, you know, all of them, even rumble, if you want to get alerts to future shows. So we went a little longer tonight, but it's such an important thing and a reminder of a way to through the word of God share with our children the truth of how they can deal with that their own dissonance because what they're learning in college is not the gospel, unless they're going to a great Christian university. But the best person to preach this to your children is you, Doug. I'm not talking about preaching and having them in there and have an altar call, but share with them what these scriptures mean to you and let them ask questions. You know what this means. Where where's your heart with God right now? How can I pray for you, son or daughter? And you keep pursuing them, not so they act good and you're happy with them, but because until they get to that place where you know you see it in them and you celebrate it. You see Christ resurrected in their heart. Thanks for coming. Love you guys. Praying for you. It's an honor every week. Don't forget Thursday, gals, the difference a mother makes. Uh, gonna be 12 o'clock p.m. Excited about that. If you're maybe your wife would want to join us, you go to my YouTube channel, you'll see the advertisement. You can sign up. Would love to connect with you. All that to say, God bless you.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

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_00 58:55

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 to bitterness and with parents and grandparents even being canceled. That's why we're launching an online community to quit 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 Christ. 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, an ultimately our nation, and create each job, your division in the unwavering love and guidance of a devoted dad.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:45

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.