Your Words Build Words | What Do You See? Week 4

Uh, we are in week four of this little mini season we're in, and if you've missed any of the weeks, go back and watch it. If you're a first time guest, we're so pumped you're here. Welcome. We're honored that you're here. Um, you can go on YouTube or on our website to check out some of these other messages. Let me just recap. All right. Um, so we're in this season called, what do you see? And we're looking at that. We pulled that phrase right out of Jeremiah chapter one, when God looks at Jeremiah and asks Jeremiah, what do you see? And he's taken Jeremiah through this journey of discovering in himself things he was Jeremiah is about to go and do amazing things for the Lord, become one of the greatest prophets in the scriptures. But in chapter one is where God confronts Jeremiah and challenges Jeremiah and encourages Jeremiah and inspires Jeremiah and has all of this deep work in Jeremiah before he goes and does what God's calling him to do. And we are Jeremiah. God is doing the same work in us. And so we're just looking at this week by week. We're just letting the Bible preach to us. If you missed the weeks, let's recap. Week one. We, we, we wrestled with the question. What do you see when you see yourself? What do you see when you see yourself? It's a, it's a, it's a question of identity. Jeremiah, when he looked at himself, he said, I'm too young. I'm too young.

That's how he saw himself. And so God had to tweak his identity and he said, don't you say, don't say that. Don't say you're too young. So week one, we talked about that week two, we posed the question, what do you see when you see people? What do you see when you see people? Because God told Jeremiah in verse eight, he said, don't be afraid of the people. Don't be afraid of the people. So in week two, we talked about fear of man and how fear of man paralyzes us and keeps us from doing what God's called us to do. And it causes us to become people that we're really not. We'll pretend to be something we're not just to appease people. And our fear of God has to be greater than fear of man. Last week, we talked about what do you see when nothing seems to be happening? When everything you pray, everything you hope for, there's just nothing, nothing's happening. And, and, and we walked through that last week. This week, this is the question we're going to wrestle with. Here's the question. Ready? What do you see when nothing seems to be happening? No, that's not, that's last week. I was just making, seeing if y'all were paying attention. All right, here we go. This is my third time preaching it. You think I'd have it down by now. What do you see that needs to be built up or torn down? Okay. Now you'll notice that, that I've been going week to week, verse to verse, but this week I inverted it. Last week we talked about verses 11 and 12, but we skipped nine and 10 and we're doing

nine and 10 this week. I'm doing that on purpose because verses nine and 10 is a fantastic Father's Day verse. And so I inverted them today. Disclaimer, before we get started today, anytime there's Mother's Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, this is the 12th year, maybe the 13th year that I've preached Mother's Day, Father's Day. I try my best to preach a sermon that's explicitly to the mothers or explicitly to the fathers, but I also want to thread the needle in a way to where it's applicable to all of us. So you don't have to be a father to be encouraged today or challenged today. But my disclaimer is that I will be talking to the fathers primarily. All right. But if you're a mother, if you're a grandmother, if you're a son, if you're a daughter, you can still get nuggets from this, from this truth today. All right. So let's go to the scriptures. Let's go to Jeremiah four. Again, we're going to read verses four, Jeremiah one, verses four through 10, because we're going to stop at nine and 10 today is where we're going to dig in. So verse four says, the Lord gave me this message. I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and I appointed you as my prophet to the nations. Oh, sovereign Lord, I said, I can't speak for you. I'm too young. But the Lord replied, don't say I'm too young for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don't be afraid of the people for I will be with you and protect you. And I, the Lord have spoken. Here we go. Verse nine and 10. This is us today.

Then the Lord reached out, touched my mouth and said, look, I have put my words in your mouth. And today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms, and some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow, and others you must build up and plant. Every father and mother. and daughter and son, wherever you're at today, every father has a kingdom. Every father has a nation. What do you mean, John? I'm not over a kingdom. I'm not over a nation. A kingdom is simply a place where your influence carries weight. A kingdom is a place where the words that you speak alter the trajectory of that kingdom. It's a place where my decisions, the decisions that I make, affect people. You have a kingdom. You have a nation. A kingdom is a place where words matter. And every single one of us, every single one of us have a kingdom. We have a nation. And your nation or your kingdom might be your marriage. It might be your family. It might be your children. It might be your business. It might be the department that you lead. If you're a stay-at-home mom, that is your kingdom. If you're a teacher, the classroom is your kingdom. It's your nation, right? It's something that you lead, that you influence. It can be a group of friends. And if you're like, John, none of those examples fit me, then look in the mirror. That's your kingdom. You're your own kingdom, right? So every person has a sphere of influence and every person has a kingdom. I believe we all have influence in many ways, but I believe that there's a particular measure of influence that fathers have. And when a father walks into a room, the atmosphere changes. It changes. Fellas, when you get home from work, the atmosphere of the home changes. If you don't believe me, then why does the mother look at the kids and say, just wait till your father gets home? There's something about a father that comes into the room and a father's words matter. A father's attitude matters. A father's temperature matters. A father's presence matters. And alternatively, so, and maybe even more so, a father's absence matters. Absence of a father matters. What the father tolerates matters. What the father says matters. And what the father doesn't say matters. Has massive influence. And that's why I think Jeremiah of chapter one is so fascinating because God is giving Jeremiah, in this moment, God is giving Jeremiah authority over nations and kingdoms. It's like, I'm sending you to nations

and to kingdoms. And his influence is going to matter. He says, I've put my words in your mouth. Why? Why is that so important? He sent Jeremiah off, not with a sword, not with influence, not with a name, not with fame. All God sent Jeremiah with was the words that he put in his mouth. Words. Why is that so? It's because words build kingdoms and words tear down kingdoms. Words are how kingdoms are led or how kingdoms are shaped. And for fathers, this is a heaviness that I feel as a father, is that my words, as a father, have the ability to instill confidence in my kids. And simultaneously, it has the ability to tear down confidence in my kids. My words have the ability to create insecurity in my own kids. Or my words has the power to help establish identity for my children or lose it. I mean, it's sobering to think the magnitude of the power of my words. As a father, my words have the ability to wound and heal just by what comes out of my mouth. It's sobering. I could either launch my children or I can limit them. It's interesting, you know? And my point, really, all I'm trying to say is that your words matter. And the title of the message today to all the dads and to everybody else who wants to pull from it is, your words build worlds. Your words have the ability to build worlds. Your words have the ability to build worlds. Your words have the ability to build worlds. And God didn't give Jeremiah anything other than the words. So, the question we're going to wrestle with is, what do you see, fellas? What do you see that needs to be torn down or built? built up. And the way we're going to do this is I'm going to give you three things real quick that I'm just going to pull from this text that we read in verses 9 and 10 as an encouragement. I'm not here to beat up anybody. I'm not here to step on any dad's toes. There is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. It doesn't matter the mistakes you've made from this point up to this point. It doesn't matter. God can redeem. God can restore. God can heal. And from this point forward, we're going to become, it doesn't matter if you're the greatest dad on the planet, you can still be a better dad. So we're just going to look at the scriptures and pull out three things that help us build up or tear down. All right, so let's go back to verse 9. Verse 9 says, it says, then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth. I love that imagery and said, look, I have put my words in your mouth. So point number one, as fathers, the first thing we have to do, number one, if you're taking notes, is we have to let God shape our vocabulary.

Think back to your childhood. Okay. Think back to your childhood. If you, if you grew up in a home with what, maybe it's not your biological father, but somebody who raised you or, and I want to be really sensitive. I know in a room this big with this many campuses, there are people who never had a father who never had a father figure in their life. And I'm super sensitive to that. But think about the words that, that shaped you as a child, you know, how many of you remember your parents or your father saying things like money doesn't grow on trees? Did your dad ever say that? You know? And it's a, it's a, it's kind of a thing we remember, but even, even in a phrase like that, our fathers are instilling, they're disciplined, they're discipling us. They're, they're bringing stewardship. What they're saying is, Hey, don't be a school brat. Go out and get a job and work and contribute to society because money is not just going to fall in your lap. You got to work for it. It's a, it's a good thing to, to, to, to hear. How many of you can hear your, your father echoing right now, like saying, if you're going to do it, do it right the first time. I remember my parents, I grew up in the country and we lived outside, you know, we didn't, we weren't inside. And every other day I'd come home with a big scrape on my knee and I'm crying. And I remember so vividly, my parents saying, just rub some dirt on it. Come on somebody. Come on. Where's my Gen X and baby boomers at? Just rub some dirt on it. You know? But even that is saying, Hey, the world is tough. I'm not here to coddle you. Suck it up, boy, and get back out there and play some more. You know? Unfortunately, some of you have heard phrases like you'll never amount to anything. Some of you have never, ever heard a father say, I'm proud of you. Some of you have never had a parent look you in the eye and say, I love you. And I'm proud of you. All I'm trying to say is that our words and the vocabulary that comes out of our mouth matters. And long before a father ever leaves an inheritance, he leaves the vocabulary first. And we do this, right? Like we say things like I remember the first time I took my kids on a, on a road trip and we were on a, we were driving to Florida and it was like 4,000 hour drive and I'm sure it felt like it. And several times during the drive, things are going crazy. You know, dads, when you like your two hands, then you switch to one so you can twist and reach and just start swinging, you know? And I remember just like, if you guys don't stop this, I'm going to pull this car over. And the minute I said it, I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm becoming my father.

Have you ever done that before? Like when you say something and immediately you're like, Oh my gosh, that's what my mother always said. It's because it's vocabulary. We learn, we learn from our, from our, from our parents. Um, and so we speak, where does that, where does that come from? When we speak to our kids, where is that coming from? It's coming from many times it's coming from the way you were raised and all the ways that you were shaped and formed. And I love this text, but it's because the Lord is telling Jeremiah, Hey, when you go out to impact these nations and these kingdoms, I don't want you to speak from in of yourself. I am putting my words in your mouth. And so if I want to be a good father, I think I have to first learn how to be a good son because we have a heavenly father that, that will look at us the same way he looked at Jeremiah and said, I want to put my words in your mouth. If it's true that words shape kingdoms, then we have to ask ourselves the questions, what kind of kingdom am I shaping? And so I have to, I have to learn how, before I learn how to use my tongue, I have to learn how to use my ear and hear the voice of the Lord and hear the love of the father and the discipline of the father. And the same way the Holy Spirit corrects us and loves us and challenges us is the same way. that we turn and do this to our children. Deuteronomy 6, even back in the law, you see this principle in Deuteronomy 6, verse 5. It says, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your strength. And you must, you must, you must, you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I'm giving you today. So the Lord is saying, I'm going to speak to you today and you must abide by what I'm saying to you. And then the very next verse says, repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you're on the road

and when you go to bed and when you get up. It's saying, before you turn and speak to your children, hear from me and my commands and my ways and my values. And then what I want you to do is once you receive from the Father, I want you to turn and again and again and again and again. I want you to speak them over your kids and speak them over your kids. And so think about it, he says, do it when you're home and when you're not home. And also, do it when you go to bed and when you're awake. You know what that means? Do it all the time. Never stop speaking over your children. Well, my kids are 60. Never stop speaking over your children. Never stop affirming your children. Never stop loving your children. Never stop loving your children. This is what it's saying. It says, so we got to get God's vocabulary before anything else. Then back to verse 10. It says, today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Now watch this language here. Some you must uproot and tear down and destroy and overthrow. So point number two, if you're taking notes, write this down.

Write down, tear down what needs to end. Okay, fathers, tear down what needs to end. Now, so what strikes me most here is he gives four things, four examples, four adjectives, four verbs, all the things, four things that you need to tear down. Four descriptive ways, tear down, destroy. But he only gives two things about lifting up. He gives more about what we need to stop and cease than what we need to start. In church world, you see this, you hear this all the time at conferences and stuff and they'll say, hey, you just need to have a healthy church, have a healthy church because healthy things grow. And I sit back and I nod, but inside I'm always like, yeah, but so do unhealthy things. I mean, cancer grows. So it's like God is saying, hey, I'm gonna put more intentionality on destroying things than I am on, and I think it's because healthy things grow naturally. You didn't plant the weeds in your yard. They got there all by themselves. So unhealthy things grow naturally, but healthy things grow with intentionality. And so I think for fathers, we have to get really good at what I would call breaking cycles, breaking cycles. You are the man you are because of a lot of different variables. There's a lot of variables, but more often than not,

much of the man that you are is because of the father that was involved in your life or the father figure. Even Gideon, God comes to Gideon and he's like, hey, Gideon, I got great things for you. You're a mighty man. You're a mighty warrior. He's like, no, I'm not. We finally convinces him. And the first thing that God tells Gideon to do, he says, I want you to go and I want you to tear down your father's altars to Baal. Your father worshiped idols. Your father built idols. And before I can ever use you, I need you to go and I need you to destroy what your father built. I need you to tear down some things. And so we as fathers and mothers and everyone else here, we have the opportunity to stop generational cycles. We have the ability to do this. And so if you have an anger issue, it's like, well, my dad had a temper and my grandfather had a temper. You have the opportunity to stop the generational cycle for your family lineage. My father, my grandfather, his name was Ray and he was patriarch in our family. We loved him, but he was just like his father. My great grandfather's name was Elvis. How cool is that? And so as far back as we know,

all the men in our family were great men. They were amazing fathers, but they had one thing where they were not relational. They weren't affectionate at all. So I remember growing up as a kid, Grandpa died just a couple years ago, and it's like 96 To the day he died if you walked up to him and like went out to hug him. He'd be like You just stick his hand out like I couldn't see your son, you know, and he loved us I know he did but he never told me that Not one time that I ever hear my grandfather say I love you Not one time that I ever hear my grandfather say I'm proud of you. He showed it, but he never said it and And My dad when he had kids he just decided that he's gonna stop this generational cycle And so from an early age I have no recollection or memory of my father other than hugs and kisses and I love you and I'm proud of you and look At me in the face and he just decided I'm gonna break this generational cycle and because he did that Guess what? I do. I hug my son. I love my son I saw last night after a basketball game. My son had a basketball game last night I looked him right in the eye and I said, I'm proud Because Not because I Decided that it's because my father Decided to break a generational cycle. Let me tell you fellas. You have the power to do the same thing It's uncomfortable, right? But you have the power you you can say Anger stops with me You can say addiction stops with me my dad was a drunk my grandfather was a drunk I'm not going to be a drunk and my kids are not going to have addiction You have the ability to stop this you can say abuse stops with me the lack You've never seen spiritual leadership modeled in your home ever You never saw your father reading scriptures and praying over you your dad never prayed out loud, but you can

You can you can stop that generational cycle We have this ability to stop this and you may think man John I should have heard the sermon 10 20 years ago My kids are 50 man. Like I we tell you something Never underestimate the power of an apology Never underestimate the power of an apology No matter how old your kids are I apologize to my kids all the time and I tell you guys this all the time I my son 16, I tell my son all the time. Hey, but listen, this is the first time I've ever raised a 16 year old boy First time I'm new at this. So will you please forgive me for that? I should have I didn't I Don't care how old your kids are if you're in your back of your mind go man I should I could have made mistakes sit them down. I'm not don't text them Don't email them Schedule a meeting sit them down Look them straight in the eye with tears flowing down your face and say I should have been there for you And I wasn't I shouldn't have done that and I did and I'm so sorry I want you to know I love you, and I'm proud of you and I haven't been the father I need to be but from this day forward I'm changing as a man and I'm gonna be there for you Whatever it is the power of an apology. All right, let me tell you something men have this feeling that all we have to do is leave the cave and go out and kill dinner and drag it home to the cave like that's the That's the part of us that God put in us and that is something that you need to do You need to provide for your family The Bible says you should leave an inheritance for your children's children Good luck with that. That's challenging, you know and and that's what good fathers do leave an inheritance, you know and good fathers do Attend to every sporting event and and good fathers do you know in Oklahoma in Texas? Anyways, good fathers leave their sons guns, you know, that's what you're supposed to do You leave guns for your kids and no not here, okay, that's cool

Listen there's a lot of things that good fathers do but let me tell you what great fathers do Great fathers leave healing Great fathers raised children that have no wounds have no father wounds And if we've already inflicted father wounds great fathers find ways to heal Father wounds, it's the greatest gift you can ever give your children Greater than leaving your son and daughter a million dollars is leaving them healthy and whole whole So they could grow up and become the men and women that God's calling them to be to be so never Underestimate the power of an apology. All right Number three will be done verse 10. Let's let's read the second part It says today I point you to stand up against nations and kingdoms some you must uproot tear down Destroy overthrow now listen to this others you must build up and plant So it uses two analogies construction If it's not there you build it and if it's not in the ground you plant it So some stuff you need to destroy and tear it down other things. You need to be the one who plants it and So one number three we take a note just build up what's never been built Build up what's never been built Fellas, you're not responsible for what's been handed to you, you know, some of you weren't, you didn't have an example, you didn't have a father, you were abused, you were verbally abused, you were emotionally abused, some of you were sexually abused, and you can't control that, you're not responsible for what was handed to you, but alternatively, you are responsible for what you hand off, for what you turn and distribute to the next. So the principle there is we have an opportunity, fellas, we have an opportunity to be the first, to be the first, instead of making excuses, we can actually become the first men in our lineage. Now there's this guy, many of you have heard of him, he's very famous, his name is Booker

T. Washington. Booker T. Washington was given nothing, Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Virginia in 1856, he was not born with money, he was not born with influence, he was not born with an inheritance, in fact, he was born without a father, no father. And he didn't have opportunities, he didn't have any of those things, and after the emancipation, he became obsessed with education, as a young boy, he always wanted to learn, he always just wanted to learn, but he never had the opportunity to do that until the emancipation. And so he wanted to be educated so badly, and he had heard about this school nearby his house called the Hampton Institute, and when I say nearby, I mean 500 miles away. And obviously he had no transportation, he had no horse, he had no buggy, he didn't have a Tesla even. So he walked, he didn't have an RSVP, he wasn't accepted into the school, he just said, I'm just going to go there, and so he left his house, and for the vast majority of that journey, he walked. And when he got there, he just said, I want to attend this school, and this teacher, the head teacher, wasn't sure whether or not to admit him, and so she gave him a broom and said, sweep this room, just sweep the room. And so he cleaned this room so thoroughly, and with so much excellence, that the teacher looked at him and said, you're admitted, I will let you into the school. And later in some of his memoirs, Booker later said that that broom was the most important test of his entire life. And so some think that Booker T. Washington came to be a teacher, and he did, but he came to do so much more than that. In 1881, he formed and established the Tuskegee Institute, and he was so inspiring that he inspired the students to help him build the buildings, and the students would actually make bricks, handmade bricks, the students would each make bricks, and brick by brick, they would build these buildings that ended up becoming this institute, all from a man who had nothing, who had nothing, and he just decided, I'm going to be the first, I'm going to be the first. And men, we have the same opportunity.

No matter what was handed to you, no matter what difficulties, no matter what you've been challenged by, no matter what this world has done to you and not for you, you have the opportunity to be the first man in your family. Have you ever heard somebody say, I'm the first man in my family to ever go to college? You have this opportunity to be the first man. You have an opportunity to be the first man in your family, not to be an addict. You have an opportunity to be the first man in your life that stays married for more than 20 years, or stays married more than five years. Some of you have the opportunity to be the first man in your family lineage to actually pray with your spouse, to be the spiritual leader of your home. You may have an opportunity to speak life and read the scriptures over your children and tell your children Bible stories every night, because no one ever did that for you. No one ever told you anything. No one ever helped you. No one ever prayed over you. No one ever told you about the scriptures, but you can. You can be the first to do this because there's something that God is going to use you for to do the same thing that he told Jeremiah, I am sending you, I have given you kingdoms and nations and some, I need you to tear some stuff down. Some stuff I need you to not pass on. Sometimes I need you to demolish it and destroy it. But there's other things, fellas, that God needs you to build it. And he needs you to plant it. And real men have the courage to plant trees that you won't get to eat the fruit of, but your kids will. Your kids will eat the fruit of the decisions of what you're willing to plant today. So we should be people that run toward the first. I'll close with this story of this guy in the Old Testament. He was a king of Judah. His name is Josiah, King Josiah.

Not well known. His grandfather was Manasseh, and his grandfather, Manasseh, was one of the most wicked kings in Judah's history. Read about it. It's in 2 Kings 22, 23, right around there. He was one of the most wicked kings, and his father, Amon, continued in the same rebellion, the same thing. And if you read about all these kings, it's kind of depressing, because it'll be like, so-and-so was the next king, and he did not tear down the altars of Baal that his father had built, and he did not tear down the Asherah poles, and he did wickedness and idols. And then along comes this guy named Josiah, who inherited, listen to me, fellas, he inherited a spiritual mess. Just a mess. And he didn't do any of it. His father did it, and his grandfather did it. And he didn't do any of this, but he was passed down destruction and mess. And in 2 Kings 22, verse 1, it says, Josiah was eight years old when he became king. Anybody in here got an eight-year-old? Come on. Let's just make them king right now. How's that gonna go? All right, no. And he reigned in Jerusalem for 31 years, and his mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adiah from Bozkath. Now listen to this. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and followed, this is interesting to me, followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn away from doing what was right. So he refused to become his father and his grandfather. In fact, he went all the way back to the first king, David, and he did what was pleasing

in the Lord's sight by modeling King David. Now what you may not know is that Josiah is the 16th king in the lineage of David. 350 years has passed. He's only heard stories of David. He's only read texts. He's only read the law of Moses that he knew that he needed to abide by. And so he's hearing from the Lord and it changed his vocabulary. And he became a king that the Lord was pleased with and was honored with. And we have this opportunity as men, we don't have to become what our lineages tell us we're supposed to be. And so he doesn't do that. And then if you fast forward towards the end of the story in chapter 23, it tells us what he did. It's the same thing that God told Jeremiah, there's some things I need you to tear down and destroy. And there's other things I need you to build up. And it's the same story for us, fellas. Verse 24, it says, Josiah also got rid of the mediums and the psychics and the household gods, the idols and every other kind of detestable practice, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land of Judah. He did this in obedience to the laws written in the scrolls of Hilkiah, the priest that found in the Lord's temple. Now listen to this, verse 25. Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. Now this is below you even more. And there has never been a king like him since. Why? Because he refused to lead the way his dad led. He refused.

He stopped cycles. And he went all the way back to King David. And we too, fellas, you don't have to continue the way that your family has told you. We have, we have, we can go all the way back to our great heavenly father, who's the perfect father. He's the perfect father. If you want to know how to be a good dad, study your heavenly father, study your heavenly father. Study the heart of your father and let him speak. He's here today with us right now saying the same thing he told Jeremiah, look, I have put my words in your mouth and I've given you kingdoms and I've given you nations and some things I need you to tear down and some things I need you to destroy, but some things I need you to build up and plant. This is how I want to close today. I want to ask all the dads at all of our campuses, if you're here and you're a father, I want you to stand to your feet. All right. I want you to stand, just stand up to your feet at Edmond, at Grave Vine, just stand up at your feet, on your feet. And I want to give another little adage here. If you're here at any of our campuses and you aren't a father yet, but you hope to be a father someday. You wanna be a father, and you may be eight years old, you may be 20 years old, you may be 40 years old, but you still hope to be a father someday. I want you also to stand, all right? So just stand to your feet if you believe that you're gonna be a father someday, all right? So what I wanna pray is I'm gonna pray that over the course of the next several days and weeks,

and maybe even hours, maybe even now, that the Holy Spirit is gonna come and just begin to impress on you, and he won't beat you over the head. Listen, if you feel shame at any course in the next coming months, that is not the Lord, that's Satan. Satan is the only one who will bring shame and condemnation on you. The Holy Spirit will bring conviction, but it's with love, it's with tenderness, it's with care. So I'm gonna pray that the Lord, that the Holy Spirit would whisper in our ears over the coming hours and days and months and years, the things in your life that he is asking you to tear down and destroy, and simultaneously speak to you in ways of things that he is challenging you to be the first, to build up, to plant, generationally, okay? Before we pray, if you're here and you're at Edmond and you're at Grapevine, and your husband or your dad or your friend is, you're sitting by this man that's standing, I want you also to stand up, I want you to stand up too, and I want you to just put your arms around him and just show him some affection. And listen, don't make out, that's super creepy for all of us, all right? But just give him a big hug. Let's get all cuddled up here.

Now, if you see a man, listen to me, at any of our campuses, if you see a man standing by himself, okay, he should not be standing by himself. So if you see a guy standing by himself, it just means his kids aren't here with him, but he deserves affection, he deserves camaraderie too. So if there's any man in the room that you look around right now, if you see a man standing by himself, come on, just go stand by him and just put your hand on their back or something, all right? We're gonna pray, here we go. Well, Lord, before we ask for anything, we want to first acknowledge that we have a perfect father. Our heavenly father is perfect. And so before we can ever love our kids the way we're supposed to love our kids, we have to first receive love from our heavenly father. Before we can ever bring affirmation to our kids, we have to first receive affirmation from our heavenly father. So Lord, I pray right now that you would do the same thing to us that you did to Jeremiah. The Bible says that you touched his mouth, touched his mouth. So I pray that you would touch the mouth of every father under the sound of my voice, and that you would put your words in our mouth.

God, I pray that over the course of the coming days and weeks and months and years that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would challenge us in a tender and loving way to point out things in us that need to be torn down, things that need to be destroyed. Give us the courage and the ability to do so. And simultaneously, Lord, I pray that you would give us ideas, God, that you would plant things in us that we need to build up and construct for our families, that we could be the first, we could be the first one in generations to do what you're calling us to do. And we have the ability to break the curse of family generational cycles and start a new lineage for our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids. And it starts today with me. God, give us the courage to apologize for our mistakes and to own them. And I pray for any brokenness in any families, God, that you would be the healer. God, you're the great physician. And so I pray for any broken relationships in families, Lord, that you would be the healer and that you would mend those relationships, Lord, in the coming weeks. In Jesus' name. We're so grateful that you joined us today.

At Victory, we pray big prayers to a big God and we expect big results. If you would like to receive prayer, you can submit a prayer request by visiting victory.church slash pray. If this message or any of our messages have impacted your life and you would like to partner with us through giving, you can do so at victory.church slash give. Thank you again for joining us. At Victory Church, we live life to the full.