BORN WILD WEEKEND: 11a Service

Wow, thank y’all for coming this morning. I think this is the party crowd, right? The people that don’t come to the early morning service <laugh>. So from what I’ve heard, I just learned that this is a 3-year-old and, and he ain’t scared to party a little bit either. He’s, he’s full of ambition. And so I think it’s really important, especially in the times that we’re living in and the culture that we’re in, that there’s, there’s just a lot of noise and there’s a lot of distrust. We don’t know who to listen to, and there’s a conflicting information, and it’s just really traumatized us as a culture because we’ve lost our center. We’ve, and so before we go any further, I, I don’t want this to be a performance, and I don’t want this to be just another church service, not that I’m saying something negative about church services, but we as humans, we show up somewhere and we kind of just have an expectation and, and it is what you expect it to be. And so it’s really important to me because one, this, this house has put a year of investment into making this happen. And I’m willing to risk whatever it is that is necessary for everybody to have an opportunity to actually feel loved by God. And, and so it’s a sacred thing that we’re gonna do. And you’ve waited your whole life for this day, so we might as well call it, this is the day that the Lord has made. And so yeah, that’s good.

But so Jesus said that I don’t live by bread alone, but I live by every word that proceeds from the father’s mouth. And that his, his, the word of God was food. It fed him. And the part of us that really needs fed this morning is not our bodies. It’s our souls and in our spirits need to be ministered to. And so before we eat as a family, we hold hands and we pray. So if you’re not comfortable holding the person next to his hand, you can put your hand on their shoulder or what on low and elbow, whatever. But when I do this in prisons, they hold hands, man. So it’s beautiful because you don’t do that in prison, in fact is it’s against the rules. And so I’m a rule breaker. But the reason we do this, there’s, there’s like signs of the covenant and there’s, there’s things that he gave us as humans to express our, our devotion to each other and the oneness.

And it might mean a whole lot more to our father that we hold hands than it might mean to you. And so today we’re just gonna honor our father with saying that you died so that we could become one with you, and so that we could become one with each other. And because we’re one with each other, the whole world’s gonna know what your glory looks like. And so Father, we hold hands because we want to love the way you love, and we want to honor the way you honor, and we’re just so excited for this meal that you’ve prepared before us. And the reality that you’d meet us in this place and make it to where you’d bind up broken parts and you would make beauty from ashes. What a beautiful declaration that we just confess that before you as, as one family that’s just honored to be here in a place where we can gather and just eat, just absorb what it’s like to be in your presence. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, hello. We haven’t met yet. And because I I do several of these a year it’s important to me that

The first time I interact with a horse is what you guys get to see. And because being authentic is just a really high value to me, not just for for y’all’s sake, but but for my sake. And it, it protects my own heart while I’m, while I’m doing this, that I could, I think I’m not very good at lying, but I think I could deceive people. No, that’s actually true. I can deceive people. And I don’t want to do that. I, and I can’t deceive this animal. So the great thing about the horse is, is he’ll keep me honest because he’s not ashamed. He’ll just take a dump right in the middle of everything. So no problem with that at all. And very alert. You can see both ears on me. Yeah. Well, hello? Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Oh,

Okay. Well, they’re amazing animals because they’re, they’re always measuring what’s going on around ’em because they’re a prey animal. They’ve got a really hyper fight or flight instinct, and so it happens. So no, that’s actually you, you got the, the SH in front of it. So I’m gonna ask him to move for a second because what, what he’s trying to figure out is, am I a friend or not? And by asking him to move, he knows that I actually mean business. And it’s not a joke. It’s not just another playtime. Although we can have fun and there’s gonna be a lot of tenderness in it. There’s an aggression about King Jesus that makes it where he seeks out, and he saves what was lost. And it isn’t necessarily people that was lost, it was their understanding of who they are. It’s the understanding of who God is. What was lost was he was stolen from him by sin. And the oneness that our father desired from him was lost. And my first touch, there is a lot of communication going on, and I, I’m not gonna burden you with the, the horsemanship side of this because I can’t use my words to talk to him. But I am communicating, and I feel like if we’ve got eyes to see and ears to hear, I declare that over you in Jesus’ name, that whatever it is that stands in the way of you hearing properly,

We destroy that dis that distortion in Jesus’ name. In the same way, when Jesus walked on the scene of, of humanity, he, he brought truth. And he didn’t just speak truth, he was truth. And the difference about that is that we can understand a lot of things conceptually. Like we can believe in an idea and we can be converted actually by an idea. We can get enough information that we just agree with it. And what he’s doing right now is he’s actually agreeing with the idea that, that I’m kind and I’m powerful, but he’s, he hasn’t got his heart yet to believe it. Like intellectually, he’s, he’s done everything that he needs to do to believe, but his heart’s just not following it. And, and we’re, and we’re gonna find out why. And it’s, there’s nothing wrong with it. And that’s why Jesus comes, walks onto the scene of a love story that was set in a world at war. And so you don’t go into a world at war and not realize that there’s resistance and there’s enemies and there’s things that want to take you out. And the fear and the hesitation that would cause this horse to run from me is something that he’s dealing with right now and his heart’s being convinced that there’s something worth taking the risk of trusting.

And we’re, we’re gonna have to do something really aggressive with ourselves family to decide what it’s like to trust again, because Jesus saying that he was the way and the truth in life. He is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life. And that nobody can come to the Father. If you actually want to be one with God and you wanna be a son or a daughter of God, there is no other way. And then he’s the life and this backing away like, we’ll pro probably ask him to move forward again because I want him to have his confidence in this.

Get bored.

So we interface with a lot of people. You go through your days and you, you passively meet and engage with people. You’ve got things going on in your own home. You have things that are going on in your own heart. And if we forget that there’s a story behind all of this, then all we can do is judge someone’s actions. And if I was to judge his actions, then you just end up frustrated because I want him to let me get near him. And Jesus just wanted oneness with, with people, but they didn’t know how to trust because every other rabbi, every other teacher that they had, had interactions with, used their authority to manipulate and to control and literally steal life from them. And then we have the Author of Life walk under the scene and say that, I’m gonna show you what it’s like to be fully human. I would reckon that Jesus, knowing what he knew, there was lots of reports of people walking away from Jesus and how heartbreaking it is when you offering perfect love and it’s being rejected. And we might try something different with him so that he can be more drawn in and give him an option on

Actually feeling me because he’s reading me from a distance and he’s judging everything based on what he’s already thought about people. So I didn’t do this to him. And this is more than just his instincts. This is, this is revealing his story. And intimacy is really a scary thing for him. So if, if this is where we start is it’s great, but we can’t just stay there. Not if he’s gonna be healed because he’s still living a life separated from me and just have an an emotional idea of what it’s like to be surrendered or a logical idea. It’s not really helping. I love you. Come follow me. I will show you things that you’ve never even dreamt of. And I know you’re scared. It’s okay. ’cause I’m not afraid of your fear. And I know just enough about your past to know that there’s a reason why you feel this way. And I come with healing and a boy when we live in a world that requires you to earn love, earn adoration, earn respect. It’s so easy to fall into a lifestyle of performance. And so intimacy is always gonna be a challenge because

You don’t know what they’re gonna make. You do like to be one with God. If you’ve had enough religion, that’s a really scary proposition because it might just look like God’s just gonna now control you and start making you feel shame over where you’re at. And Jesus walked onto that scene where he realized that I’m gonna be dealing with traumatized people because their whole life has been about how they can earn their way. And if they’ll keep the rules, then they can be in right standing. And if they’re in right standing, then they can actually be they can fit in and maybe even be promoted. But the problem is that the promotions came to those who became the biggest violators of the law because they left allowed their knowledge to make them prideful. They didn’t fall in love with people. They weren’t caught up in this realm of what does it look like to be created in the image of God, yet still have brokenness inside of us that looks like sin. And to them, the sin wasn’t them doing wrong things because they would follow the, the letter of the law. They kept all the rules.

And Jesus said, sorry guys. Your father’s Satan. That’s a really harsh thing to say to a whole bunch of really good people that are doing the right things. They’re following all the rules, and it backfired on him because Jesus was gonna make right what was wrong. He was gonna correct and, and clear his father’s name in the sense that I’m gonna show you who God is in flesh. I’m gonna show you what you were made for. What what creation is longing to see be getting revealed. This horse is longing to see what it’s like to see the glory of God in one of God’s sons. It’s in his DNA, and it’s just my belief system. You don’t have to agree with it, but of all animals, horses were built for man, for humanity. They were built to be one with us. They don’t do well on their own, not in the sense of what they’re capable of. If you ever wanna see what a horse is capable of, you won’t see it in the wild. What you’ll see is something that knows how to survive. And if that’s what we’ve re reduced ourselves to, is people that just want to spend our lives surviving.

That sucks. I, I’m sorry, that’s not good

<Laugh>,

Because we were built to be the ones that were actually the light of the world. And that people would be drawn to you simply because there’s just something about you that, that looks like love. It looks like kindness. It looks like faith and joy, and hope that there’s a patience about you that makes it where you can get this trust. You’re doing so good, son.

You’re who you,

He’s fascinated with y’all. This is unusual sometimes just ’cause of the lighting and, and the stress of me being this close to ’em. They’re so focused on me that you guys become invisible. But something just actually got his attention. And now that he’s licking his lips, dropping his head, he’s just settled into the fact that, wow, I’m safe. Finally I’m safe. And Jesus brought this peace to people, not so that he could dictate what they do next. He did it so that they could be filled with the same spirit that he was filled with and that there would be a, an act of the will that would say, when he said, come follow me. They’re like, yes sir, that’s all I want to do. Until he would do something. And then they would go, well, nope. Can’t do that. I’m gonna go that direction. And Jesus say, I love you. See you later. He wouldn’t chase ’em down. He presented them with the truth. And then he let them walk away, which I can’t even hardly read about it and not get, like something happens inside of me. And I’m not sure what’s happened in my journey with Jesus, but

I’m so in love with Jesus. I’m so in love with the Father. I’m so in love with Holy Spirit. And somehow now I can look at a group of people this large and just say that I love you. Like I’m here because I love you. And I can’t stand to let the narrative of what’s going on in our pop culture continue to destroy people that I love. But when the disciples, they, they decided to follow Jesus along with hundreds of other people that would follow Jesus. And this is the gospel, is that as a man, he walked and he, and he led other men and women. And then he presented them with opportunities and taught them how to, how to love in action. And then the day came when Jesus said, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go away. And they, it’s funny, I don’t know why. What was going on i’s smarter people than me that probably tell what happens in the human psyche when they’re so connected to somebody and they say, I’m gonna die. And they’re like, no, you’re not gonna die. You’re the king. Like we’re gonna rule with you and we’re gonna be the bosses. So they still didn’t really get it. And then Jesus,

The day comes when he actually lets him kill him and reminded his followers that when I go away, I’m gonna send the helper. And when he comes, he’s gonna convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And so if you’re still in the world, if you’re apart from Jesus, it’s really important that you don’t have to feel shame over this. But you need to know that you’re separated and that a life separated from God lasts forever.

My uncle Bud just died a couple days ago. His body died. He’s never gonna die. He’s gonna live forever. It’s just a beautiful thing that when you’re one of God’s sons or daughters, we live forever. But if you’re not, you stay separated forever. It’s, it’s not a joke. It’s not something to play around with. And there can’t be any form of manipulation or fear injected into you making a decision today. But there needs to be a decision. We can’t leave here indifferent. We have to decide what we’re gonna do with this. Because if my love being offered to this horse is now going to be the promise that Jesus said that he would give, is that he would become one with us. We could be filled with the same spirit that he was filled with. It was the same spirit that had the power to raise him from the dead. It was the same spirit that it gave him power over sin and darkness. It was the same power that made it to where he would have supernatural wisdom, literally hear from the Father, here’s what to do next. And then we can have strategies that aren’t built on our past that are trying to keep ourselves saved. We can have strategies now that are aligned with the heart of God to make it to where we actually live lives that look like Jesus.

That was really wild, huh? I’ve got a dear friend that’s here today, and he reminded us yesterday. He said, if you don’t like wildness, if you don’t like adventure, and if you don’t like mystery, you’re probably not gonna like following Jesus. ’cause It’s, it’s full of mystery. It’s full of power. It’s full of adventure. Like what’s gonna happen next? I don’t know. He might stomp me into the ground, but I don’t think so. What happens next?

Hmm. Such a good,

I have

The same thing. Jesus. Hmm. So we have things that we wanna hide. It’s like we want intimacy, but some things are too scary to address. And we think that if we keep them hidden, then maybe it’ll go away. It’s a lie. Maybe nobody will find out about it. But it certainly doesn’t go away. It’s killing you. It’s gonna destroy your relationships. It sabotages your soul. You can’t discern truth anymore. You get fearful. We can’t hide things. And what he was trying to do there was he was trying to block, okay, we, I’m not gonna ignore this. If you came here and you are like, I need God to heal me physically, emotionally, relationally, I want you to know that you are so seen right now, and I’m not gonna call you out, but I want you to know that he, he can’t get over it. This horse is way more intuitive than I am. And he’s seeing things that I can’t see and it’s angelic and there’s healing in it. If there is such a thing as angelic hosts, it’s, don’t think I’m weird. I know this this lot. But for real, this unseen realm is more real than the seen realm. Everything that we can see is temporary.

Everything

Unseen is eternal. There’s something really powerful when you realize that Jesus just locked eyes on you. And we’ve got things that we can see in scripture and what happened when Jesus just targeted somebody. It’s like, that’s the one. And he literally would go by, the Bible says that he’d leave the 99 and he’d go after the one. And so if you’re the one feel really, really seen right now, because he’s not supposed to be focused on y’all right now. There’s too much newness to this intimacy.

And because no one’s ever been on his back or he is never been saddled. This is really unfamiliar territory for ’em. But the disciples didn’t know what to do either when they were actually overcome with power. They, there’s reports that they almost acted like they were drunk. They were, they were overcome with this new reality. The last horse that we had here, the owner said she’s normally like paces and anxious. And what happened to her? I don’t know. She got drunk with the Holy Spirit. She actually acted like she was tranquilized, but it wasn’t. It was spiritual. And it’s beautiful. It’s not fully out of control. You get to partner with it and you can stop it if you want. But if you want, you can have all of him. And I want her or him to have all of me.

Yep.

Wow. You’re gonna be a warhorse. No. Notice where his ears are now. His eyes are wide. It kind of like a really big question is being asked. And he doesn’t know what to say. It’s brand new. He doesn’t even have language for it. He knows that something powerful is happening and he doesn’t know whether to just go with it or not. You’ll know if he decides not

Because

I used to ride bareback horses for a living. And I think the only thing that I have from my bareback riding career is my ability to fall off. That was amazing. Yeah. You can clap for him. Look at this. Licking his lips. So much peace. So much excitement

For that

Freedom. There’s something about our declarations, why it is that our words matter so much we can embody freedom, but it’s good that we declare freedom because it was for freedom’s sake that we were set free. And if you need to be free, you need to be free from the power of sin and death. There is nothing left to be afraid of. And there’s insecurities and there’s fears that we carry around with this that make it where we’re missing out on this oneness. This we’re being invited into doing so good, son.

Hm.

There’s a passage in Hebrews that talks about people that are coming out from a place of just being under a law and their faces are veiled. And that there’s this invitation that we can stand before God with an unveiled face and we can actually see his glory while we look in a mirror. Can you imagine what it’s like to look in a mirror and see the glory of God? It’s within you. It doesn’t reside in temples somewhere else built by man. It doesn’t reside in a church. We are the church. We are the temples. We are the tabernacles. We’re the ones that get to be the holy of Holies. And there was a time when the holy of Holies would actually influence the environment around them and that we can carry the power of God that makes it to where we actually can carry the power that makes it to where we can influence the environment around us. And I can’t tell this horse to be safe and be kind and be gentle and be brave, but I can carry it. And he is still gonna have every option in the world on what he’s gonna do with that.

It’s so good. You’re doing so good. Wow. This is twice today. He wants to move, but he wants to know if I actually mean what I said. Do I care about connection more than I do compliance? Will I guard what it is that’s so fragile inside of this powerful animal? Will I protect the sacred space that makes it to where I’m not asking you to perform, son. I just want you to feel free. And freedom is gonna look like movement that we’re gonna progress. We’re not gonna let our past continue to be the thing that’s dictating our future. We don’t have to live in that trap and that we adopt a lifestyle of repentance. And if you wanna see a model of repentance, it’s exactly what’s happened here. He started out afraid, didn’t even want me to touch him. And now he’s let me have this level of connection with him. And there is gonna have to be some times when, so the licking of the lips, again, someone came up to me asked afterward and said, you didn’t actually explain that. It’s almost like right before they take a big deep sigh, they were clenched in their mouth because they’re anxious and they release that and they lick their lips. It’s just a really good indicator of what’s going on inside.

And because he’s actually brilliant at it, he’s not just focused on me, he’s focused on what I’m focused on. And this is what I believe for the church. This is what we’re gonna have to decide. Are we gonna cooperate with this? That we can say all day long that we’re focused on Jesus, we’re gonna do what Jesus told us to do. But if we miss, the most important part of it is that you fall in love with what Jesus is in love with. We’re focused on what he’s focused on. We’re not just focused on him. And what he keeps doing is putting one ear forward and one ear backwards, which is just a really way, great way to go through life because he’s paying attention to what I’m asking him to do, but he’s also looking at what I’m looking at. How about we trot? You wanna do that? Really consider what it is you want today. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. If we want to know the truth, here it is. And I know in the hectic world that we’re involved in that this could just seem super idealistic, but it’s not.

It’s real. And if I could tell you more of my story, you would know what a miracle it is that I’m even still alive, much less somehow functioning at a capacity to where I have a wife of over 30 years that’s still in love with me and three sons that honor me and want to be my sons. With all the things that me, apart from Jesus was capable of doing in a destructive way. There was no way for me to have made it. There was no way for this to happen in 35 minutes for a horse to go from that fearful that that level of distrust to this, it just can’t happen in the natural. It is supernatural. Natural. And we can be believers because we actually believe what the Bible says, that there’s a danger of we, we still haven’t healed our hearts or done the things that make it to where we we’re having this encounter. And I just feel like all over this room, you’re having an encounter with with Holy Spirit that you’ve never had before. You’re feeling things that you haven’t felt before. Don’t chalk it up to just emotions and good music.

Holy Spirit is doing something in this room and making it to where you have access to things that you didn’t have access to before. And you don’t have to stay scared or insecure or fearful of the future or hidden. And then you’re gonna have courage to do things that were impossible before today. Can we get lyrics to that song? If you guys want or are willing, can we stand and sing this together? And you get to decide if you’re singing a song or if you’re making a declaration, because in our heart we believe that with our mouth, we make confessions. It’s not a magic formula, it’s just out of the abundance of our heart. Our mouth speaks. Whatever’s feeling you is what’s gonna be coming, flowing out of you. And if you want to be filled with the author of life, then you get to do that and let that flow outta your mouth to where you’re not gonna be able to withhold the love that you’ve been withholding to the people around you. You’re gonna be able to go and fully repent in relationships and marriages that we’re not gonna make until Christmas are gonna get saved today because of you. Men making a decision

That there are certain things that are worth dying for. There’s work, there’s certain things that are worth risking everything for, and it’s your family, it’s, it’s a legacy. It’s the generations and we’re gonna do things differently.

Yes.

Wow. Sounds to me like I got a whole bunch of brothers and sisters that looks like an army. And we’re gonna be people that flourish in this world at war embracing the love story that’s been presented to us. Because if we can’t live a life falling in love, then please question what it is that you’re doing. And the reason I’m on her now is because she’s free to do whatever she wants to do. What she wants to do is stay close. Fear is lost, it’s grip and perfect love is cast out all fear. And that’s what’s being offered from heaven. You don’t have to be afraid and you don’t have to wonder who’s telling the truth maybe about politics. You’re probably gonna have to figure that out on your own. But when it comes to the things that matter, you’ve just embraced it. If, if you are what the father says you are, then being a son of God is a pretty noble position. It’s what we were created for. So thank you guys for coming.