Born Wild: Sunday 11:00 AM

00:00:30

[music]

00:04:06

- Good morning. Welcome to Crossroads, everybody.

00:04:09

My name is Brian.

00:04:10

I'm what's known as a Senior Pastor around here.

00:04:13

And today is going to be a special day.

00:04:16

Hey, how are you? How are you?

00:04:20

Oh, aren't you sweet?

00:04:22

You actually look a little high strung to me.

00:04:24

I'm becoming an expert now.

00:04:27

This is the eighth one of these we have done,

00:04:30

the eighth one of them that we have done.

00:04:32

And we've been doing this for,

00:04:35

I don't know, 3 or 4 years, maybe.

00:04:38

So, I've probably been -- I've seen probably

00:04:41

about 20 of these so far.

00:04:43

I've sat through all of them.

00:04:44

I'm certainly by no means an horse expert at all,

00:04:48

but it seems to me that this one's

00:04:51

got a bit, has more fight and spirit

00:04:54

than the other ones.

00:04:55

So we might be in for a show today.

00:04:58

Now, let me tell you a couple things

00:05:00

in case you haven't been here for one of our horse weeks.

00:05:03

First of all, this horse is obviously going,

00:05:05

"What is going on here?

00:05:06

I've never been on a stage before.

00:05:07

I've never seen an LED with my kinfolk on there before."

00:05:14

But there's nothing harming this horse at all.

00:05:18

In fact, it's louder out here than it is there.

00:05:20

The speakers aren't pointing this direction.

00:05:22

This horse is just fine.

00:05:23

In fact, this horse is going to be

00:05:25

the better for what it experiences today.

00:05:29

This horse is going to have increased capacities today.

00:05:34

This horse is going to be stronger as a result of today.

00:05:38

There's a percentage of this room,

00:05:41

you're going to find yourself

00:05:43

getting very emotional, because there's

00:05:45

a percentage of this room that is going to find

00:05:47

that you identify with this horse.

00:05:49

This horse represents many of us.

00:05:52

There was a horse yesterday

00:05:53

that I really identified with,

00:05:55

and I was a weeping mess because I saw myself in that horse.

00:05:58

Todd, my friend, is a verifiable horse whisperer.

00:06:02

He hates when I say that term.

00:06:05

But he can do -- He's going to do in an hour,

00:06:08

what if you own this horse,

00:06:10

it would take you to a week to do.

00:06:13

It's pretty, pretty profound.

00:06:15

Todd clued me into the fact that

00:06:18

a person that's on a horse, a trained horse,

00:06:22

this is an untrained horse, unridden horse.

00:06:24

This horse has never been ridden before.

00:06:26

There's never been a human being on this horse.

00:06:28

This horse has never had a saddle on its back.

00:06:31

Once it allows somebody to have

00:06:34

an authority position in its life,

00:06:36

once it allows itself to be ridden,

00:06:39

it will be unlocked.

00:06:41

One horse with a trained rider

00:06:45

can round up an entire herd of wild horses.

00:06:50

This is the way God is with us.

00:06:52

He comes and He unlocks something in us.

00:06:55

He gives us increased capacity.

00:06:58

He doesn't kind of clamp us down, He releases us.

00:07:02

And it happens because He comes

00:07:05

and He cares for us and he leads us.

00:07:08

Todd is going to do that with this horse.

00:07:10

Todd was a professional rider on the pro circuit.

00:07:17

He was a bareback rider.

00:07:19

I got to know Todd several years ago.

00:07:21

He was on my podcast called The Aggressive Life.

00:07:24

And then he called me sometime later and said,

00:07:26

"Hey, you want to go hunting with me in Idaho?"

00:07:28

And I said, "Sure, I'll go hunting with you."

00:07:29

And while we were hunting,

00:07:31

I learned actually what he did.

00:07:32

And I thought, "What?

00:07:33

You you get on horses never been ridden

00:07:36

and you connect it to who Jesus is?

00:07:39

Wow. We need to have that at Crossroads."

00:07:41

He said, "Oh, well, churches always say that,

00:07:43

but they'll never do it because

00:07:46

the insurance gets out of whack

00:07:48

and people are concerned about it

00:07:49

jumping out of the corral and hurting people

00:07:52

and all that kind of stuff."

00:07:53

And I said, "Well, we'll be your first."

00:07:55

And so we were and have been, I think,

00:07:57

I don't think there's any other churches

00:07:59

that still have done it, like five years later.

00:08:01

A good friend of mine is doing it.

00:08:03

He came yesterday and brought

00:08:04

a whole bunch of people from Colorado

00:08:06

to look and take notes,

00:08:07

and they're doing it in August, so pretty cool.

00:08:09

Anyway, all that to say, tonight is going to be a --

00:08:12

Or today is going to be

00:08:13

a pretty cool, cool event for us, I think.

00:08:15

Let's welcome up on stage, my friend, Todd Pierce.

00:08:18

Come on up, Todd Pierce. Come on up. [applause]

00:08:29

No, you don't want -- There you go.

00:08:31

He likes you. She. She. I keep saying he.

00:08:34

She's got food hanging out of her mouth

00:08:37

and it's embarrassing.

00:08:40

It's like friends will tell you

00:08:41

when you got a booger on your face.

00:08:44

You need to be kind to her.

00:08:46

- Now this, again my untrained eye,

00:08:48

she seems to have more life in her

00:08:50

than even the one last service that

00:08:52

was very, very lively and very intense the last one.

00:08:56

First couple, earlier on in the week,

00:08:58

Todd was getting basically trained guinea pigs.

00:09:01

They were just very small and docile.

00:09:03

- It's easy to say that when

00:09:05

you're sitting in the chair over there.

00:09:07

- That is true. [laughter]

00:09:08

But she looks like she's got a bit more.

00:09:10

- No, she does.

00:09:13

So she's got an aggression to her

00:09:15

and a confidence to her that

00:09:19

unfortunately for her sake, she --

00:09:21

It's worked for her for a while

00:09:23

because of the environment she's been into.

00:09:26

But she's in a new environment now

00:09:27

and going to be presented with some different things.

00:09:30

So hopefully we can help her

00:09:32

not to use those pushy, aggressive ways.

00:09:35

- Yeah.

00:09:36

- Because that gets dangerous for me.

00:09:38

- Part of what I don't like about

00:09:40

the size of Crossroads is that

00:09:44

there's a percentage of people that

00:09:46

are always paranoid about big churches,

00:09:48

always think there's some conspiracy happening,

00:09:50

always think there's something weird,

00:09:52

always think that you're not really getting

00:09:54

the full story and they're shading the truth.

00:09:56

And so people just won't believe me

00:09:58

when I tell you, that you've never seen this horse before

00:10:01

until just now when we came down.

00:10:03

These are not pre-picked horses.

00:10:06

There's an X factor here.

00:10:07

And I just, please, just know that this is legit.

00:10:11

This is for real.

00:10:12

And it's pretty special every time for me to watch.

00:10:16

- Well, yeah, it is.

00:10:17

And I'm skeptical, like, mega-churches to me

00:10:21

are like I'm not really sure what to think about it

00:10:24

until I came here four years ago.

00:10:25

And I thought, "Oh, there's a tremendous value

00:10:29

to building a place where a bunch of people

00:10:32

can come and just worship and adore God."

00:10:35

And you guys are doing so many other things

00:10:38

that surround that to make it to where

00:10:39

people are actually getting connected

00:10:41

and learning how to be discipled

00:10:42

and Fathered and mothered and all of those things.

00:10:45

And so I get the skepticism.

00:10:49

But for real, yeah.

00:10:50

I have a guy that picks the horses for me,

00:10:52

and so I don't see them or know anything about them

00:10:55

until I get here.

00:10:57

And it helps me too, because otherwise

00:11:00

I would overthink some things.

00:11:02

And so you're going to get to --

00:11:04

Well, you're going to get to see what I see

00:11:08

is my goal.

00:11:09

- How would I interpret this horse

00:11:11

that seems to like me?

00:11:13

You know, she comes up, she's just breathing on me.

00:11:15

Am I -- is that what it is?

00:11:17

She's just curious, or what?

00:11:19

Give me some horse behavior. Why is she --

00:11:21

- Okay, I didn't notice, but notice that pile right there.

00:11:23

- Oh, yeah.

00:11:24

- Every horse walks up and sniffs you.

00:11:26

- Did she do it again just this time?

00:11:28

- Craps. -Every single.

00:11:29

- I don't know why. - Why is that?

00:11:31

You must smell good. - [laughs]

00:11:34

- Or you smell very familiar to them.

00:11:36

You smell like a horse. [laughter]

00:11:42

- All right, well, I'm going to let you do your thing.

00:11:44

Oh, geez. - Thanks.

00:11:47

- Jittery. - Yeah.

00:11:48

- Thanks. - Jittery.

00:11:50

- All right. Hey, let me pray for you

00:11:51

before we go any further. - Oh, yeah.

00:11:53

- Yeah, let's do that.

00:11:54

Oh, also, if you want to be generous,

00:11:56

if this moves your heart somehow, we don't

00:11:59

pass bags of Crossroads or plates.

00:12:00

If you want to, you can go to crossroads.net/give.

00:12:03

Crossroads.net/give.

00:12:04

So God, thank You for our morning.

00:12:07

Thank You for Todd.

00:12:08

And I pray that something really good happens

00:12:10

in this horse's life and something happens in our life.

00:12:13

- Yeah.

00:12:14

- Help us to see You in ways that we may not have before.

00:12:16

Unleash us. Get us to a better place.

00:12:20

I pray these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.

00:12:22

- Amen. [applause]

00:12:31

I don't know how many people get permission

00:12:33

to just be themselves, show up

00:12:34

and just be themselves, but that's

00:12:37

what you all have provided for me in this church

00:12:40

has -- it's a family.

00:12:42

And so let's not call this the House of God.

00:12:45

Let's call this the Home of God

00:12:46

because people live in houses,

00:12:48

but families live in homes. [applause]

00:12:50

And if we're going to be like family today,

00:12:54

boss, we haven't done this yet, but.

00:12:58

Okay, if you don't like it, I'm just --

00:13:01

You don't have to, put your hand

00:13:02

on somebody's shoulder or something,

00:13:04

but I'd like us all to hold hands.

00:13:07

And because why this matters is

00:13:10

there's a ton of effort, there's a lot of risk

00:13:13

on my side, there's sacrifice involved in this.

00:13:18

And I don't want us to miss a moment.

00:13:19

So, Father, we hold our hands simply because

00:13:23

we just want to honor You with the idea

00:13:25

that You wanted us to become one with You,

00:13:27

and that You wanted us to become one with each other.

00:13:30

And as though we're sitting at a table

00:13:32

with a meal that's being prepared before us,

00:13:35

that we just ask You to bless these words

00:13:38

so that they'll nourish our souls,

00:13:41

and that everything that You have to say

00:13:46

we say ahead of time.

00:13:50

Just tell me what we need to do next.

00:13:53

And all of us to become one, in Jesus name. Amen.

00:13:58

Oh, wow. That's felt --

00:14:00

That felt really, really good. [applause]

00:14:08

So there's almost a danger to familiarity.

00:14:10

It's like we take a lot of things for granted.

00:14:13

How many of you turned on the water this morning

00:14:16

and the water came on?

00:14:19

You ever turned on the water faucet

00:14:21

and the water doesn't come on?

00:14:23

Like, in Idaho, we live on a well,

00:14:25

and in the spring time, the aquifer drops.

00:14:30

I don't know why it's that way,

00:14:31

but the aquifer drops and our well's not deep enough.

00:14:34

And it's amazing how much you take for granted

00:14:41

the fact that you can turn on a water faucet

00:14:43

and water comes out of it.

00:14:44

And there's a thousand things that we all just do that.

00:14:47

We take a lot of things for granted,

00:14:49

and we get desensitized and we feel entitled,

00:14:52

like we deserve something.

00:14:55

And I just think it's healthy for us to get

00:14:59

to a place where we realize that, man,

00:15:03

if it wasn't for the grace of God,

00:15:05

I'm not really sure where our lives would be.

00:15:07

And the fact that you're in America and you're here

00:15:10

and that you made your way to a building,

00:15:13

you're some of the richest people on the whole planet.

00:15:18

And we're not going to take it for granted, right?

00:15:25

So we're here and we're going to absorb

00:15:27

everything that it is that God has to offer.

00:15:30

And we have hearts that are just filled with gratitude.

00:15:39

Okay. We're just going to let her do this.

00:15:45

Because she's seen, been around plenty of people

00:15:48

I can see and pretty comfortable with that.

00:15:59

But why I said that we take things for -- [laughter]

00:16:01

Mr. Ed. [whinny] I know. [laughter]

00:16:13

Born entertainer.

00:16:38

I don't normally do this, but for some reason

00:16:44

it feels like the right thing to do.

00:16:51

I want to do something different because

00:16:59

when I said that I get to just be me,

00:17:02

I actually am trying to do what I would do

00:17:04

if y'all weren't staring at me.

00:17:08

And right now, I just don't know that it's necessary.

00:17:11

Normally I'll push him around the pen for a minute

00:17:13

and try and help them see me differently

00:17:17

than they've seen before.

00:17:18

But for her and her level of confidence,

00:17:26

I want to see if I can help her

00:17:28

understand me differently in a different way

00:17:30

than I have in the past.

00:17:32

Because I'm afraid once I upset her

00:17:38

and don't do what she wants me to do

00:17:43

that she might not get over it very quickly.

00:17:56

[music]

00:19:32

So just so you know what she's saying,

00:19:36

that we've we've gone both directions

00:19:39

and she had to deal with all of the lights

00:19:43

and you people and the sound

00:19:46

and the distraction of all of it.

00:19:48

And I just waited for her

00:19:49

to give her attention back to me.

00:19:53

And she's perfectly at peace right now.

00:19:57

She's dropping her head.

00:19:58

She's showing me that she's actually

00:20:01

submitting herself to me.

00:20:03

And it's a really sacred thing

00:20:07

when somebody submits themselves to you,

00:20:10

and especially in this thing that we call marriage.

00:20:18

It's not very popular language

00:20:20

that wives submit yourself to your husbands.

00:20:24

And I think there's a lot of reason why.

00:20:26

Because men have used that as a reason

00:20:30

or an excuse to mean that that gives you

00:20:38

permission to dominate somebody.

00:20:41

Her submission to me doesn't give me

00:20:43

permission to dominate her.

00:20:46

Her submission to me means that

00:20:47

I've got something very, very precious

00:20:49

that I better better figure out

00:20:51

how to steward and how to take care of

00:20:52

and how to give her more power and more permission,

00:20:56

and that she'll find that her with me

00:20:58

that she's far more than

00:21:00

she could have ever been apart from me,

00:21:02

and I'm more because of it as well.

00:21:07

It's the beauty of the covenant of marriage

00:21:09

that my wife and I, we've

00:21:10

become something that we never could have been

00:21:12

apart from each other.

00:21:15

And it was a really hard learning curve

00:21:17

because that wasn't modeled to me.

00:21:19

I could read it, but no one modeled to me

00:21:24

how do you -- How do you actually treasure

00:21:26

something that's going to submit itself to you?

00:21:31

And I truly married a woman

00:21:33

that submitted herself to me

00:21:35

and I used -- I took advantage of that.

00:21:41

I didn't do it on purpose, by the way.

00:21:44

I just didn't know another way.

00:21:46

I thought, that's just how it works.

00:21:47

And she was so gracious about it that

00:21:51

it took some years before the top blew off that.

00:21:54

And she's a really strong, courageous woman.

00:21:58

So, she finally let me know that

00:22:00

it doesn't work that way.

00:22:06

And so I hope all of you men are listening.

00:22:14

And there's a level of confidence, like,

00:22:16

we can't do it because we feel shame

00:22:17

or because we're being told we have to do it.

00:22:21

We need to know what it's like to

00:22:22

be fathered by God for us to have

00:22:24

a level of confidence that makes it to where

00:22:25

we actually earn the right to lead somebody.

00:22:33

I've got two of my sons here with me.

00:22:37

And there's a lot of things that I've taught them

00:22:42

by just telling them what to do.

00:22:45

And I'm like, "You guys got mud in your ears or something

00:22:51

because how many times have I told you

00:22:55

not to do this or to do this?"

00:22:59

And they do it anyway, or they don't do it.

00:23:01

And but what I've found

00:23:03

now that I've raised three sons is that

00:23:07

I don't know how much they listened

00:23:10

to what I was saying, but I guarantee you

00:23:11

they were watching everything I was doing

00:23:15

and I see those attributes, for better or worse,

00:23:20

being played out in them.

00:23:22

And so the instruction is important.

00:23:24

And if we actually have ears to hear,

00:23:26

we can be taught verbally.

00:23:29

But Jesus chose to do it in a different way.

00:23:32

He modeled it and He said, "This is the way.

00:23:37

Walk in it."

00:23:39

And then he didn't just talk about it,

00:23:42

He showed them.

00:23:43

He said, "I've been given all authority.

00:23:47

Everything is submitted under me.

00:23:51

But I'm not going to use it to control people.

00:23:54

I'm not going to let the people that are

00:23:56

doing it in My Father's name do it anymore.

00:24:01

They call themselves sons of God.

00:24:02

I say, you guys are orphans

00:24:04

and you've been slaves your entire life."

00:24:06

And they said, "Who are You to say that to me?

00:24:09

Our father is Abraham."

00:24:10

And He said, "Your father's Satan."

00:24:14

Them's fighting words, man.

00:24:18

But He loved them enough to be honest with them

00:24:21

that you're not who you think you are.

00:24:23

Just because you're a religious person,

00:24:25

just because you call yourself a Christian,

00:24:27

there's going to be mobs of people, apparently,

00:24:30

that are going to come before the throne of Jesus

00:24:32

and say, "Have I not done all these things in your name?

00:24:35

Have I not given all my money to do these things?

00:24:38

Have I not served these people?"

00:24:39

And He's, "I don't even know you.

00:24:42

All those things you did weren't even authorized.

00:24:45

You were doing them just because you're --

00:24:49

It made you feel better about yourself."

00:24:53

Wow. I'm preaching at you. [applause]

00:24:58

Thank you.

00:25:04

But He had such a better way.

00:25:06

He's like, "If you need to be born again."

00:25:09

He was telling this man, He's like,

00:25:10

"You've done all the things that you know to do.

00:25:12

And I can see, I can see what your heart is

00:25:15

and what you really want, but you can't do it.

00:25:17

You're going to have to be born again."

00:25:19

And the guy He was talking to didn't get it.

00:25:21

He's like, "How am I going to be born again?

00:25:24

I'm a man.

00:25:26

How am I going to go back into my mom's womb?"

00:25:30

And Jesus said, "Everybody is born of the flesh,

00:25:33

but everybody must be born of the Spirit

00:25:36

and of water, and that there's a different birth

00:25:40

that we become sons and daughters of God."

00:25:44

And He said that He gives us the right

00:25:46

to become sons and daughters of God.

00:25:48

And I want to give her the right

00:25:50

to become something that she's never been.

00:25:54

She's compliant.

00:25:55

She's figured out some of the rules.

00:25:59

And right now she's actually,

00:26:01

she's still got that hanging out of her mouth.

00:26:12

But she's never experienced anything beyond this.

00:26:15

So, for me to become one with her,

00:26:18

I'm going to ask her permission to do it.

00:26:20

And she's feeling what's going on inside of me.

00:26:24

And so, just even there with her chewing

00:26:28

and I'm squeezing on her,

00:26:31

it's just a really good sign

00:26:32

that she's okay with where we're at right now.

00:26:43

May I?

00:26:52

Okay. Remember, nobody's been on her.

00:26:55

She's never had a saddle on her.

00:26:58

Now she's twitching

00:26:59

like she's going to get a fly off her.

00:27:06

And if that don't work, she's got other ways.

00:27:20

[applause]

00:27:26

I love you people. Thank you.

00:27:32

Normally the applause

00:27:34

she doesn't know what to do with that,

00:27:36

but she handled that brilliantly.

00:27:46

This can be so dramatic.

00:27:48

It can be, you know, dangerous.

00:27:50

It can be a lot of things.

00:27:57

But there's an air, there's an atmosphere,

00:28:00

there's a Spirit about the this home right now

00:28:04

that's making it where everybody's

00:28:06

got this access to the love of God.

00:28:08

That being a son and being a daughter

00:28:11

just feels really good right now.

00:28:17

There's more.

00:28:24

Your feet still move.

00:28:27

She's like, "I don't know, man.

00:28:33

I'm 150 pounds heavier now."

00:28:41

[laughter]

00:28:47

Yup.

00:28:52

Wow. Remember her up here when we first got here?

00:28:58

Like, just all the energy, all the --

00:29:03

What happened?

00:29:07

It's a good question.

00:29:10

What happened?

00:29:13

Because she's almost out ready to go to sleep now.

00:29:18

This should be all systems alert.

00:29:33

Stay. [laughter]

00:29:38

I told you I was a horse trainer.

00:29:45

Hmm'hmm.

00:29:50

What a good girl.

00:29:52

Gosh, that was not what I expected.

00:29:57

Yeah. You're so good.

00:30:03

I'm going to see if I can't help her

00:30:06

get a little bit more confidence here

00:30:07

because this is like --

00:30:11

I don't know if you guys have ever seen this.

00:30:12

You ever seen where people, like,

00:30:14

someone prays for them and they fall on the ground?

00:30:18

I've never experienced it personally,

00:30:21

but I have people that I actually trust

00:30:22

that that happened to them.

00:30:24

My wife is one of them.

00:30:26

Someone was praying for her

00:30:27

and she just literally, like, went to the ground.

00:30:31

I'm like, "Oh, my God, they killed her."

00:30:34

And you know, she was just told something over --

00:30:37

You know, the Holy Spirit just overwhelmed her

00:30:39

and that's what happened.

00:30:46

I didn't do it.

00:30:49

But very, very, very sensitive animals,

00:30:53

very emotional.

00:30:55

Some have a problem with this,

00:30:56

but I would say spiritual.

00:30:58

That there was a reason why

00:31:00

God put them in the garden with His original intent.

00:31:05

And, Oh, wow.

00:31:11

Jesus is coming back on a white horse.

00:31:14

I'm just saying, like, they're special.

00:31:17

They are special.

00:31:22

Go for it, Justin.

00:31:29

[music]

00:35:19

All of her instinct, like,

00:35:25

it's just what took over there for a second.

00:35:27

And she's like, "Okay, I'm moving,

00:35:28

but this isn't supposed to be happening."

00:35:34

Her DNA, like, it's the same way that

00:35:37

when she came out of her mama, she actually

00:35:40

went straight to the udders looking for some milk.

00:35:44

Nothing had to teach her that.

00:35:45

Nothing had to teach her to want to get me off her back.

00:35:50

That was an instinct.

00:35:52

So we're overriding a system right now, literally.

00:36:02

And the fact that I just came off when she bucked,

00:36:06

I didn't do it on purpose,

00:36:11

but it worked out pretty good

00:36:12

because she didn't even realize what happened.

00:36:15

And because all of her defense mechanisms,

00:36:21

I don't want her to have to live in survival mode anymore.

00:36:28

And every one of us, we've built systems

00:36:33

to help us make sense of our lives.

00:36:36

And there's things we've put,

00:36:37

we've had to put our guard up

00:36:39

and we've had to make ourselves feel safe,

00:36:41

some of it like physically we've had

00:36:45

to do something so that we could be safe.

00:36:49

But so much of it is mentally and emotionally.

00:36:53

And so as we're challenging some of our thoughts

00:36:55

and some of the reasons that we are the way we are.

00:36:59

Some of you are struggling with fear

00:37:00

and insecurity and doubt and anxiety.

00:37:05

All of these symptoms of the lack of being fathered

00:37:09

and loved in these areas of our life.

00:37:11

That's what's being made available today.

00:37:14

Because she's not going to spend her life

00:37:16

going around just with the same --

00:37:18

It's not like her past is going to continue

00:37:21

to dictate what it is that she's going to do with herself.

00:37:25

And she's not doing it because

00:37:28

somebody's making her do it.

00:37:34

She's finding the freedom in it.

00:37:37

And it's the fruit of the tangible reality

00:37:40

that she's having right now is that,

00:37:43

"Man, there's love and joy and peace

00:37:46

and kindness and gentleness and self control.

00:37:51

And it's on me.

00:37:55

I trust it. I want it."

00:38:00

And the instruction that comes with it,

00:38:02

the ways that I want to continue to lead her

00:38:04

and give her gifts, give her new ways of doing things

00:38:11

that her navigation system has always been

00:38:15

either she's driven to do it

00:38:17

because someone's making her do it,

00:38:19

or she's drawn to it because she's hungry

00:38:22

or has some physical impulse for it.

00:38:48

[music]

00:40:52

It's not magic. It's an encounter.

00:40:56

And she can't go back now.

00:40:58

Like, she'll never be the same.

00:41:01

And the parts of herself that

00:41:05

she felt like she had to protect,

00:41:07

those things that are inside of you that

00:41:10

you're not sure if you can trust anybody with,

00:41:12

maybe you can't trust a person with yet.

00:41:15

But I promise you, our Papa, He is so kind.

00:41:19

He's so gentle. He's not ashamed of you.

00:41:23

You don't have to use the same strategies to get by.

00:41:27

There's parts that He wants to heal in us

00:41:29

and this affection that she's showing me,

00:41:33

I just I love it.

00:41:35

This is -- This is me as a little boy.

00:41:40

This is what I loved.

00:41:42

I had a white horse named Sugar.

00:41:51

Like, she was the safest place in the world for me.

00:41:56

And I don't know, it's like

00:42:02

when nobody else could get it, she did.

00:42:05

And she carried me all over the place

00:42:07

and I did so many stupid things.

00:42:10

I can't believe she still trusted me.

00:42:14

There was this day when, it's like

00:42:18

if I pointed her towards it, we'd go for it.

00:42:21

And as a little boy -- sheesh.

00:42:23

She was so kind and so brave.

00:42:54

So anyhow, it was springtime in Idaho,

00:43:00

and there was this cornice that had formed,

00:43:04

a snowdrift that had formed up above our house.

00:43:06

And it was there every year.

00:43:08

And I was excited to get out

00:43:12

and try some new stuff with Sugar,

00:43:14

because I just watched a movie

00:43:16

called Man from Snowy River.

00:43:20

Now, I didn't grow up watching other men ride horses,

00:43:23

so for me to watch men ride horses on TV was,

00:43:27

I was like, "Oh, my God, they can do that?

00:43:29

I didn't know that horses could do that."

00:43:31

And so Sugar and I, we went

00:43:33

and started doing all sorts of stupid stuff.

00:43:35

And so I got it in my mind that,

00:43:38

those of you that haven't seen the movie,

00:43:40

this dude rides a horse at a full run

00:43:42

down a mountain.

00:43:43

And I thought, "Well, we can do better than that.

00:43:47

We're going to jump the snowdrift.

00:43:50

And we're going to run down the mountain."

00:43:53

And Sugar was like game for it.

00:43:55

I was -- I couldn't believe it,

00:43:57

but we had a field up above that,

00:44:01

up above where the snow was.

00:44:02

And we took off running and she did her best.

00:44:07

She was just a little horse, and she'd leaped off there

00:44:10

and we landed downhill of the snow,

00:44:13

and so it was muddy.

00:44:14

So she sunk clear up to her knees, I'm sure.

00:44:17

And anyway, by the time we landed,

00:44:21

it was like head over heels down the hill

00:44:25

and should have killed both of us.

00:44:27

And we're both laying there on the ground

00:44:29

and we're covered in mud.

00:44:30

And she looked at me and I looked at her

00:44:33

and I was embarrassed and I'm apologizing to her.

00:44:39

And she just stood up and I got on her

00:44:42

and we walked off like nothing ever happened.

00:44:52

But I just really love the fact that when,

00:44:55

even though I didn't know what I was doing,

00:44:59

that God created ways for me to learn and to trust

00:45:05

and to to become someone

00:45:07

that could be trustworthy to lead others.

00:45:10

And it's been quite a journey.

00:45:16

I think we should give her a saddle.

00:45:32

[music]

00:47:57

This is my son.

00:48:11

I don't know what you put in that coffee,

00:48:13

Brian, but I'm a mess.

00:48:45

Some of you have got kids and they're not --

00:48:49

They're not staying close to you

00:48:50

and you're scared for them.

00:48:54

I don't deserve this, like, any of it.

00:48:58

And God gave us a power and even some strategy

00:49:05

that I would love to one day be able to talk about

00:49:07

on what it's like to have a son

00:49:08

that's scaring the hell out of you

00:49:10

because of his choices.

00:49:14

And to see what Jesus can do with someone

00:49:18

and the restoration of relationship

00:49:22

and the healing of family.

00:49:30

I'm going to laugh now. Let's just laugh.

00:49:38

He still really is laying on the floor.

00:49:43

You awake?

00:49:49

It is intoxicating.

00:49:53

And I'm glad that you all can feel it.

00:50:06

So, when you watch on the movies,

00:50:08

there's a reason why horses buck and throw fits

00:50:11

and there's ropes on them

00:50:12

and there's a lot of force.

00:50:18

It's just that's the only way they know.

00:50:20

And they're bigger than you,

00:50:21

so you're going to have to figure out

00:50:23

some ways to to dominate them.

00:50:26

And I used to be that guy, but I hated it

00:50:28

because I loved animals.

00:50:29

And I'm like, "There's got to be a better way."

00:50:33

And I had a friend, I trained a horse for him,

00:50:38

and then the horse broke his daughter's arm.

00:50:40

And so it might have been part of him

00:50:42

bringing me a videotape on how to train horses,

00:50:47

but it was a video by a guy named John Lyons,

00:50:49

and it was just like a one hour video.

00:50:52

It was on a VHS tape.

00:50:54

Kids, you don't -- ask your mom what that is.

00:50:59

And I watched it and he had a round pen.

00:51:06

And it was just very little instruction,

00:51:08

but it was like I got it.

00:51:12

Just gives him some choices.

00:51:14

You can run if you want.

00:51:17

But when you don't want to run anymore,

00:51:19

I've got something better for you.

00:51:23

And that happened the same time that I got born again.

00:51:27

And so there was a lot going on in my world

00:51:34

and seeing that I do have authority.

00:51:40

I've been trusted with authority.

00:51:41

What am I going to do to this animal

00:51:45

and for this animal with that authority?

00:51:50

Apparently, sedate them. [laughter]

00:51:57

But she will wake up.

00:51:59

I don't know if she will.

00:52:00

Like, I'm not going to force her to do anything

00:52:03

just for Brian's -- Brian loves

00:52:05

to see me get bucked off again, so.

00:52:08

But all that energy, all that vibrancy

00:52:12

that you saw before we started,

00:52:15

it's going to come back in a really childish,

00:52:17

playful way and she's going to carry me with it.

00:52:27

Wow, this is where you have a big church

00:52:28

and you have a big audience.

00:52:30

Brian, there's going to be a lot of critics.

00:52:32

We haven't done anything to this horse,

00:52:35

untouched mare, filly.

00:52:39

She's only two. Never had anything on her.

00:52:42

Never been ridden. No drugs.

00:52:46

Like, all the stuff that people are like,

00:52:49

"No, something's not right."

00:52:51

You're right. This is not normal.

00:52:54

This is not natural. This is supernatural.

00:52:57

And I don't know if there's people in here

00:53:00

like me that say like

00:53:02

I'm tired of just doing the natural things,

00:53:04

doing what man can do.

00:53:07

I want to do the things that Jesus said I can do.

00:53:10

And there's actually healing in the room.

00:53:13

There's there's supernatural things that make it

00:53:16

to where there's stuff that I can do,

00:53:18

but then there's stuff that I can't do,

00:53:19

and that's for all of us.

00:53:25

Come on, sweetie.

00:53:40

[music]

00:57:02

I don't know what's left for us to run from,

00:57:04

what's left for us to hide.

00:57:08

And there's those unconfessed things.

00:57:11

It's like you just can't bring yourself

00:57:13

to be honest about some things

00:57:14

that are just wrecking you inside.

00:57:18

You thought that somehow your,

00:57:20

if we keep it hidden it's not real.

00:57:24

We just got to get real today.

00:57:49

- There's a number of --

00:57:51

I asked Todd sometime when we were together.

00:57:54

I said, "How many of these horses do you have

00:57:57

and you say, 'Man, I'd just like to keep that horse"?

00:58:00

This has got to be one of those horses for you, Todd, right?

00:58:03

- I can't hear you in here.

00:58:04

- Oh, you can't hear me in there?

00:58:06

See, I told you, there's no speakers back there.

00:58:09

I said if you could keep that horse,

00:58:12

would you take that horse?

00:58:14

- Oh, yes, sir, I --

00:58:17

I won't get on my dreaming,

00:58:19

but I just want to take them all home with me

00:58:22

and adopt them all and then help them

00:58:26

become what they're supposed to become,

00:58:28

and then find families that

00:58:30

actually know how to appreciate them.

00:58:32

But unfortunately,

00:58:34

I get a really sacred moment with them

00:58:36

and they they go -- they go home.

00:58:39

But she's being well taken care of.

00:58:42

So that's just selfish.

00:58:44

- I mean, we've seen her literally come alive,

00:58:46

right? Have you seen that thing?

00:58:48

I mean, it's just like she's more content.

00:58:50

She feels more confident.

00:58:51

She feels more powerful. She is more powerful.

00:58:54

She has, like, a great future ahead of her.

00:58:58

And this is the way many of us are.

00:59:01

We -- many of us feel like, you know,

00:59:03

if I really came under the authority of Jesus,

00:59:06

I would lose my freedoms.

00:59:08

I would lose my rights, I would lose whatever it is.

00:59:12

And so we try to game the system.

00:59:14

We just have just enough of God

00:59:17

so that we don't fear going to hell maybe.

00:59:19

Or we have just enough of God that

00:59:22

if I can't find a doctor to heal me or to fix me,

00:59:26

then maybe I have just enough faith,

00:59:27

I'll go to some somebody to pray for me.

00:59:29

But many of us are like, "Man, I don't want to.

00:59:32

I don't want to give up control to God."

00:59:35

And the problem is the system has duped you,

00:59:38

the system of this world that tells us

00:59:41

you have to be your own man, your own woman.

00:59:44

You have to not come under anybody.

00:59:47

It keeps us from becoming powerful.

00:59:49

It keeps us from becoming free.

00:59:50

It keeps us from becoming light and cheerful

00:59:54

because we're meant to have God

00:59:58

as our authority and our master

01:00:03

and look like this horse here

01:00:06

with somebody in control of it, who loves it

01:00:09

and wants the best for it.

01:00:10

That's what God is for you.

01:00:11

He loves you. He wants the best for you.

01:00:13

He wants to go places with you.

01:00:15

But we've got to -- We've got to submit.

01:00:18

We got to do that.

01:00:20

We're going to sing a song, all of us together,

01:00:22

all of our campuses everywhere.

01:00:24

And is there anything else you want to say?

01:00:27

- Yeah. Can I do something else?

01:00:29

- Yeah, sure.

01:00:32

- I know there's just significance

01:00:34

in us making a decision.

01:00:36

If we just do it mentally, sometimes we feel like,

01:00:38

"Well, that was just another thought."

01:00:40

And so you might see yourself as a believer.

01:00:45

You might see yourself as a Christian.

01:00:48

Maybe not.

01:00:49

Maybe this is all brand new to you.

01:00:51

But we started this thing

01:00:53

by holding hands as a family,

01:00:54

and we're making some decisions individually.

01:00:58

But there's enough power over this room

01:01:02

right now that something --

01:01:04

Well, a lot of things are going to change right now.

01:01:06

And so if you don't know that you're --

01:01:10

Well, if you haven't experienced

01:01:12

being fathered by God, being mothered by God,

01:01:15

this tenderness and this instruction

01:01:17

and this empowerment.

01:01:20

If that's new to you and you want more of that,

01:01:24

would you stand with me? [applause]

01:01:31

Yeah, I would say who doesn't want more of this?

01:01:50

I'm already standing, but I'm standing because,

01:01:52

like, it's an unquenchable thing.

01:01:55

It's I can't get enough.

01:01:57

And it's this paradox, almost, where Jesus says

01:02:01

we've been filled with the fullness of God.

01:02:03

How do we remain hungry?

01:02:06

It's so cool.

01:02:07

Like, I've got the fullness of God

01:02:08

dwelling inside of me, yet I'm still hungry.

01:02:12

That can only happen in the Kingdom. [applause]

01:02:17

Yeah, that's. Thank you, Brian.

01:02:22

- So we're going to sing a song together,

01:02:24

all of our sites sing this song talking to God,

01:02:27

telling Him we're thankful for Him.

01:02:29

And while we do that, we're going to invite

01:02:30

at all of our sites prayer folks are to come forward.

01:02:33

These are people who are trained.

01:02:34

I call them prayer ninjas.

01:02:36

They walk in prayer.

01:02:38

God says yes to them many, many, many times.

01:02:40

And maybe you want to get prayed for.

01:02:42

In fact, I would encourage you to get prayed for.

01:02:45

You've done the whole experience.

01:02:46

You've come in, you've done the thing.

01:02:48

And one final element is go to somebody

01:02:50

that can help you lean into God.

01:02:51

Maybe you -- we had a horse yesterday

01:02:54

that had a tick on it.

01:02:56

Maybe it was on it for like a year.

01:02:57

The tick was like this big and Todd plucked it off

01:03:00

and then threw it over into that section.

01:03:01

So, if one of you gets itchy.

01:03:05

I was like, "You didn't kill the thing?"

01:03:06

He said no, I said that was stupid, but.

01:03:09

But maybe there's something on you that you just,

01:03:11

it's sucking the blood out of you

01:03:13

and you can't figure it out.

01:03:14

Maybe you need someone to pray for you.

01:03:16

Maybe you want to be with somebody

01:03:18

who is going to lead you to the Father

01:03:21

and help you pray a prayer of commitment

01:03:23

to let Jesus in your life.

01:03:24

Maybe you've got some other thing

01:03:26

that's weighing you down

01:03:27

and they would love, love, love to pray with you.

01:03:30

They'll be up here during our song,

01:03:32

after our song as people are leaving,

01:03:34

you can come up at any moment, take advantage of them.

01:03:36

Let's all sing this song together to God.

01:03:44

[music]

01:07:39

-You know, there's a -- [applause]

01:07:43

You ever hear of you ever hear of equine therapy?

01:07:46

You know, it's horses are just very sensitive

01:07:49

to the moment.

01:07:51

And in equine therapy,

01:07:52

horses can sense what the person's feeling.

01:07:54

And I've never been through it, but people talk about it.

01:07:56

I think it's kind of what's happened with this horse.

01:07:59

I mean, let's just go back to where we were an hour ago.

01:08:01

Do you remember? We all saw it.

01:08:02

When I touched this horse's side how it twitched.

01:08:05

Do you remember that?

01:08:06

Oh, every muscle, everything just, it just.

01:08:09

And now calm. Calm. All good.

01:08:13

And it's like, it's like she's right here

01:08:16

in the front, inviting you to experience

01:08:19

the transformation she experienced.

01:08:22

It's like she's right here by all the prayer going,

01:08:24

"Hey, this is real. I got it. You should too."

01:08:28

That's what she's saying, pretty crazy. Pretty crazy.

01:08:32

[applause] Yeah.

01:08:35

This horse the whole time, like, right here.

01:08:37

Such a transformation with this horse.

01:08:39

The only one the whole time, all week,

01:08:41

just parked right here as an invitation.

01:08:43

It's really wild.

01:08:46

All right, enough deep thoughts.

01:08:48

Have a great day. We'll see you next week.

Recent Series