159 | Zach Neese on Guarding the Doors of Our Kids' Hearts
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Zach Neese
Zach Neese is a Worship Pastor at Gateway Church where he oversees all areas of worship education including discipleship and worship training classes. Zach believes there is a difference between "leading worship" and pastoring people in the presence of God, and his leadership reflects his passion for helping people develop vibrant, transformational relationships with Jesus. Zach is a gifted teacher and writes much of the church worship curriculum. He also trains and advises worship leaders and churches around the world. Before coming to Gateway, Zach taught, worked with emotionally disabled young people, served as a youth and worship pastor in several congregations, and directed the Christ For the Nations Institute School of Worship and Technical Arts where he trained worship ministers from over 50 countries. He is a seasoned songwriter of many popular songs including the following:
Video of this Conversation:
Show Notes:
2:18 - Throw Confetti and please add the hashtag #dadawesomehttps://dadawesome.org/confetti/
2:25 - Throw Feedbackhttps://dadawesome.org/feedback/
2:35 - Throw Some Powerful Prayershttps://dadawesome.org/pray/
5:35 - "That's comforting to me knowing that God knows I'm going to mess it up. And he still trusts me with some of his most precious people." We're never going to get it right all the time. Looking at the dads in the Bible...no one was a perfect dad.
6:40 - "I think we have to give ourselves a lot of grace and a lot of mercy, but I don't think it's ever too late to really begin ministering in your own house."
9:15 - Being a guardian of the doors in your household
12:11 - Story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah
13:42 - The history of entertainment industry and the greek god Dionysus.
16:03 - "So as I'm guarding the doors of my kids' hearts, and I'm teaching them to guard the doors of their hearts, I'm asking questions like this, 'What spirit is this entertaining?' Teach them to ask, 'what spirit is this elevating? What spirit is this welcoming?' Because if this is a door, I get to decide who I host, who I invite, who I welcome and who I host. And everything is entertaining to some spirit."
17:06 - What are we hosting in our home?
20:18 - Telling the story of watching a movie and realized how it affected his kids in their sleep.
21:50 - How to close the doors to darkness once they have been opened.
28:42 - How do we know our kids' hearts?
29:54 - Covenant Eyes
31:12 - "To me, heaven is not going to be paradise unless all my kids are there. So to me, the most important pursuit in my life is the pursuit of God."
33:03 - Zach's prayer
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Full Transcript:
Zach Neese (02:59):We both love being dads. And I really appreciate what I read. I just hopped on your website and read this a quote from you that said "In my free time, I'd like to spend time with my wife and kids. I used to be more interesting, but now I'm just in love." Now I'm just in love. I don't know how long ago you wrote that, but.Zach Neese (03:19):That was a long time ago, I don't feel that way anymore.Zach Neese (03:21):But I mean, this is our heart. A lot of us dads feel like we did, maybe we loved, these were our passions, but now we've just fallen in love with this role. Or we want to fall more in love with the role of being a dad. So talk about your heart for, for being in love with being a family man,Zach Neese (03:39):I'll tell you the truth. I mean, and I'm not just saying this. I would rather hang out with, with one of my kids or all of my kids than what most people would consider the most interesting person, you know, give me an athlete or, or a, or a politician or a church leader or whatever. I'd rather be with my kids. I love being with them. I love our walk together. I love our conversations. I love our adventures. Um, and it just, it, this must be what it feels like for God, you know, to have this many kids. And we think sometimes his desire is to dominate us, but God's not a dominator. You know, he just wants to dwell with his kids. He just wants to have family time. He, he loves having his family together. And the ministry of Christ was to, was to draw sons and daughters to the Father. You know, so man, somehow my heart got aligned with that. When I was younger, I never thought it would be, but this is just, I guess, one of the miracles of God that he takes knuckleheads and he can cause them to fall in love with he's with things that he's in love with. You know,Zach Neese (04:40):It's funny before we hit record, you mentioned the knucklehead part and the fact that in the Bible, who is a great dad? Like talk about that concept for a second and just what you realized.Zach Neese (04:50):So this was so refreshing to me because, because someone was talking about fathering in the Bible and I just realized, I defy you to find one perfect dad in the Bible, aside for the father, God, I mean, people will mention Joseph, Jesus' dad. We don't even see Joseph. And in Jesus's later years, he probably passed away. But Joseph lost his son in another city for three days, right? I mean, neither him Nor his wife knew what they did with the son of God, give me a break.Zach Neese (05:21):He couldn't, he couldn't even provide a stable hotel room for his wife when she was pregnant. There's another one. He'd be like, come on, come on, dad. Joseph.Zach Neese (05:30):They're like, they they're, they're a bunch of screw ups, who, who God loves anyway. And somehow that's comforting to me knowing that God knows I'm going to mess it up. And he still trusts me with some of his most precious people. And I feel like it's an act of faith when God gives you a kid. Because God is having faith that he can entrust you with this person that he cares about and that person's going to turn out. You know, and to me that takes a lot of faith. It shows a lot of trust and I think it, it just shows that we've got a God who's willing if we're willing to let him to walk beside us through this whole thing, no one, there's no way we're going to get it right all the time. Cause nobody ever did.Jeff zaugg (06:10):Rightful grateful for that. When it comes to fatherhood and we're grabbing a good cup of coffee together, we'll say next time, next conversation. We're sitting on the porch grabbing that great cup of coffee with some other young dads. If we're just like, Hey, coach us - Zach coach us with some principles around fatherhood that you're like, you need to focus here. Not that there's any perfect pathway, but what are some of the just kind of like, they make your heart skip a little bit because you're like, it's a deep passion. This will help you as a young dad. Talk to us about some of those principles.Zach Neese (06:40):So, I think we have to give ourselves a lot of grace and a lot of mercy, but I don't think it's ever too late to really begin ministering in your own house. And I think that we've, I'm sure you guys talk about this a lot, but we've kind of relegated, fatherhood and we've relegated the training up of our kids to our culture. And look around, man. Our culture is bananas. They don't have any idea. And look, our politicians can't manage their own households. How are they going to manage our kids' households? Our teachers can't manage their own households. How are they going to manage our kids' households? We can't look to anybody else except for Jesus Christ himself. And that means I've got to figure out how to train my kids in. Biblical morality. I've got to figure out how to be the guardian of the doors of my house, to the gateways of my house.Zach Neese (07:31):I've got to figure out how to teach my kids because eventually they're not going to be under my umbrella anymore. I've got to teach them how to discern between good and evil and how to make choices that lead to blessings and not curses and life and not death. And so that means I have to be constantly engaged in conversations with them, our relationship with God can't be, I mean, right now, right now in the middle of COVID, probably a lot of the guys who were, who are listening to this, can't be at church every weekend. So that means you're the pastor, bro.Jeff zaugg (08:03):Let's go, let's go.Zach Neese (08:05):And how do you do that, man? Open up the word of God and just read it and start talking. Guys, what are you saying about this? You know what we did? That was great. We started reading through the book of revelation. Wow. Yes. One of the scariest books to people in the Bible, but then the very beginning of it, God pronounces a blessing on anyone who reads it and anyone who hears it and anyone who takes it to heart. So every time we started talking, I said, "guys, the Bible does say, we have to understand it. It just says, we'll be blessed if we read it. If we hear it, we take it to heart. So let's do it." And we had some of the most incredible conversations and I wasn't reading it as an expert to the kids. We're just reading it and talking and praying and God, what, what are you doing in the midst of all this stuff? And so engaging your kids like you are the priest of their household. That's huge.Jeff zaugg (08:56):You Mentioned, You know, you're a priest, you're the pastor to your kids, but you mentioned, I want to go back to it - guardian. And that you are a guardian of your family, that I am a guardian of my three little girls and the doors. You mentioned like being aware of doors. Can you go into that? I'd love to hear more. I know this is a deep passion of yours. What do you mean by that?Zach Neese (09:16):So just for a little background, you remember the story of lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. And those are the kinds of things that give daddies who love their daughters chills, right? So we love their sons chills, but I think one of the ways that Lot, a righteous man, the Bible says he was a righteous man. He was troubled in his righteous heart. I think one of the ways that he messed up, that he failed is that he didn't do a good job of guarding the gateways of his kids' hearts from the culture that they'd moved into, right. The culture influenced them. They didn't influence the culture. Right? So here I am reading scriptures like Psalm 127, children are an inheritance from the Lord, arrows in the hands of a warrior. They will contend with their fathers and the city gates. What does that look like? That means that the city gate is that place of authority. And it's the place of entrance and exit and our lives. My front door is not the only entrance and exit anymore. Right. I mean, look what we're talking on right now. That's right. There's I don't think there's anyone alive who's a Christian who has not, by this time awakened to the fact that these are portals, right? I've got this bizarre little thing in my pocket. That's even shaped like a door. Yeah, right. So we have more, we have more access points in our lives today than at any other time in history. And we have less training and how to guard those access points than in any other time in history. It used to be books and then MTV, you know, and there was television now, your kids spend more time on portals than they do talking to human beings face-to-face. So I have to begin to go, all right, this is serious. These are all access points. They're access points to ideas, right? They're access points to moral concepts, and they're access points... I don't know where your church comes from, but they're spiritual access points.Jeff zaugg (11:23):Yeah, absolutely.Zach Neese (11:25):If somebody can watch us talking right now and be convicted by the Holy Spirit, the Holy spirit is not the only spirit of play. Right? And these doors open and close. They spin both ways I can stand at my front door and somebody can come to the door and I can let one of my friends into the house, but if I'm not careful or discerning, I can also let somebody bad into the house that door doesn't determine good and evil. The person who's guarding, opening and closing that door is the person who decides whether good or evil enters or exits in my home. And that's me. Right. There's no way that I would let a crowd of rioters push through my door and get my kids. I'm a Texan man.Jeff zaugg (12:09):Fight them out. Yes, that's right. Yeah.Zach Neese (12:11):I have made sure that I am strong enough and armed enough and defended enough that nobody's getting in my doors and taking my daughters. It ain't going to happen. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah, would've worked out differentlyJeff zaugg (12:25):If you were there. Yeah.Zach Neese (12:27):And what I'm saying is, and most dads feel that way. There's no way. I'm not going to trade my sons and daughters to a culture that just wants to spiritually rape them. Right? But so why do we compromise with that culture? So why is it that we compromise with content? So why is it that we give our kids things like this [a phone], and then we don't train them and we don't oversee them and discerning that this thing for the first time in history is a door in my pocket. It's a faucet in my pocket. You know, it, I can decide what comes through that, whether good or evil. And there's a lot of good on here, but let's not kid ourselves, man. There's probably. I mean, honestly, there's more evil coming through this door than there is good.Jeff zaugg (13:15):From another kind of backdrop. I'd love for you to talk about going back to, I believe it was, you said 1500 BC, so the Greek God Dionysus.Zach Neese (13:24):Oh my Gosh.Jeff zaugg (13:27):I do some homework for these conversations. So painting the backdrop of this ties into, I believe kind of the entertainment industry and how it can open doors. But can you talk a little bit more depth about that backdrop?Zach Neese (13:39):Yeah. So, about that time around 1500 BC, is when Moses was on the mountain, receiving the 10 commandments from God, bringing down God's moral code to his people, which would become the greatest, it's the greatest world, religion in history and more world religions have spawned off of that than any other thing. So, this is God opening the door to, "this is my heart, right? This is how you get to know me. This is how you come close to me." At the same time, in the forests of Greece, there was an another God who was laying the foundations for his worship and his religion. Right. I believe there's one true God, but I believe there are all kinds of fallen spirits that man, they're trucking through this world, just trying to find anyone who is willing to give them a home, give them an audience or give them influence. Right? So one of those little buggers was a guy named, the Greeks called him Dionysus, the Romans called him Bacchus, he's the god of wine. A lot of people, have, heard of him in that context, but this guy's worship was, the birthing place for the theater industry. So that's where we get the word "tragedy" comes from his worship. Even the word "choir" comes from his worship, even the way that we design our theaters comes from the worship of Dionysus. And the theater industry is the great, great, great granddaddy of our entire industry entertainment industry. So what you and I have to come to terms with is just the way Baptists and Methodists and Episcopalians and Assemblies of God, any denomination you come from has a great, great great-grandfather. And that's Moses, that's God speaking through Moses, right? Well, every aspect of our entertainment industry, you want to know where our professional athletics are crazy. And these guys are so spoiled and proud, not all of them, but for the most part, they're not good role models, because the great, great great-grandfather of our entertainment industry, even the Colosseum events, gladiatorial events is the worship of this guy Dionysus. It was meant to entertain demons. It wasn't meant to entertain human beings, and it wasn't meant to entertain the most high God. So as I'm guarding the doors of my kids' hearts, and I'm teaching them to guard the doors of their hearts, I'm asking questions like this, what spirit is this entertaining? Teach them to ask that, what spirit is this elevating? What spirit is this welcoming? Because if this is a door, I get to decide who I host, who I invite, who I welcome and who I host and everything is entertaining to some spirit is entertaining to the Holy spirit, or is entertaining the spirit of, you know, whatever - lust or rebellion or you know, whatever, intoxication, licentiousness, fear. I don't want to welcome fear into my kids' hearts, and I don't want them entertaining that spirit, right?Jeff zaugg (16:53):The idea of entertaining and hosting being basically synonymous, right? Like if you entertain something you are hosting. And then when I think hosting who comes into my home, we just talked about defending your home from, but there's also like, who am I bringing into my dinner table? Who's coming into my home to be an influence on the little hearts of my girls. Go a little further into the concept of hosting and the impact of choosing as a dad to host what could be, what could be a demon or from the spirit of not God, but from the enemy.Zach Neese (17:26):So this is one of the things that we pray into as a family. And I teach my kids to pray into, because we want the Holy Spirit to feel comfortable in our house. You know, we want him to feel at home here. I want Jesus to feel at home here. I don't want him, you know, when he came into his temple, right after the triumphal entry, he's trying to flip it over tables. And the reason was he needed to rearrange the furniture of his Father's house, because it was not welcoming. It was not a place of prayer where communication between heaven and earth could happen openly and freely. So he rearranged and we give him permission all the time to rearrange the furniture, so to speak, in our hearts and in our house, so that he is the only spirit that feels welcome here. That's very important to me. We want you to be the only spirit of power in our house. And basically what we're doing by some of our entertainment choices is we're laying out furniture, or we're laying out a table for something else to come and dine with us. So there are things that I can watch, things that I can listen to, that makes a spirit of rebellion go, "you know, I feel right at home with you guys." There are ways we even talk to each other. There are ways that we have conflict, my wife and I can have conflict, that makes the spirit of division go, "You know, I feel right at home with you guys. Thank you for, thank you for hosting me. I think I'm just going to kick up my feet and make a little plate." That's what a foothold is. That's where you lay a couch down, right. For your enemy and you say, make yourself comfortable and watch this. And they go, that's great. That's actually pretty entertaining. That's exactly the kind of thing I like to watch. A spirit of rebellion and division is entertained by division. A spirit of lust - if you want a spirit of lust than your house, you know, dad's sneaking off into his office, dad's sneaking off into his, into his car by himself or into his closet... Since this COVID issue, our porn issues have exploded. And let's be honest. This is one of the most difficult things that Christian men are dealing with right now. That doesn't mean you're an evil man. It doesn't mean you're a sick man, but if you're careful, you're going to be just like Lot. I'm going to be just like Lot. And instead of guarding the doors of my house from the enemy that wants to spiritually rape my kids. I'm going, can we compromise about this? How about I give a little and you give a little, how about, how about, just don't do this wicked thing, let me just give you my daughters. And you know, let's think about it. Guys, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that guy, but let me tell you a story. I was watching something in my closet one time and it was.... I love action movies, man. I love movies. I love westerns, you know. I was watching something in my closet one time and I was probably kidding myself because we have a tendency to do that. You know, I didn't know it was going to be as dark as it was, but there were things that were happening in the movie that were dark and were more violent that I was comfortable with. And, and honestly there was like, there was like, it was, it was, it was fearful. It was scary. Right. And I wouldn't let my kids watch something like that. But me alone in my closet watching Netflix, you know, they're not around. It's not like it's going to bother them at all. So my kid comes down and he's had a nightmare. And my kid came downstairs and I asked him what his nightmare was, you know, turned off what I was doing and went to pray with him. And he was telling me, scene for scene what I was watching. He was dreaming what I was watching and what that tells me is, you know, they're asleep and they're little antenna are up. Right? And I wasn't just being entertained by a movie. I was being entertained by the spirit behind the movie and that spirit, wasn't just in my closet. That was roving through my house. I'd given it entrance to my house. I think this is for you and me. This is one of the major issues of our day. Nobody else in this world is going to guard your house, but you nobody's going to guard my house, but me. And frankly, I'm not very good at it all the time. So I need, Jesus' help. I need cooperation with the Holy spirit.Jeff zaugg (21:33):And I'd love to hear, the warfare side. When you realized you had opened a portal, when you realize, cause I've heard this story before, that you speak on this - The activating, the warfare, worship as warfare as a defense. Can you talk about that? That side of counteracting?Zach Neese (21:50):You know what? You don't have to be a professional at this. Right? Anything I welcome in, I can unwelcome. If I have a guest come into my house and I think that person's going to treat my wife nice, but that person comes in and starts being rude to my wife, I'm going to unwelcome that sucker faster than he can blink. Right? He's, he's going to be removed from my house. And so as long as you and I understand this concept, that thing I welcomed, I can unwelcome. That thing I gave permission. I can revoke permission from. So the first time I did this, I was a really young dad. And I invited a spirit of fear into my house by watching a movie that it affected my baby boy. And he just freaked out because he'd never experienced fear before. And I didn't, I couldn't figure out what was going on when God finally convicted me. And I'm like, what's wrong with this kid? He goes, well, you invited a demon into your house. So, I mean, I took a fire poker from the fireplace and was walking around the house, did marching around the house, you know, praising God. And I'd probably look like an idiot to my neighbors, but, I was praising the Lord and I was repenting and saying, you know, I repent for having invited the spirit of fear into my house. And I renounce the permission that I've given the spirit of fear. Basically what you're doing is undoing. You are the authority in your household under Jesus Christ. If you give something else authority, you don't have to have a formula. You just take it back, right. If you can figure it out, I invited lust than in my house. All right. Spirit of lust, I know that it's my fault you're in here. I gave you permission to be in here. I revoke it in the name of Jesus Christ. You don't have permission to be here anymore. I revoke all permission that I've given you to affect or to speak to my kids in the name of Jesus, and then invite the Holy spirit to come into your house. And then what you got to do is close your doors, man. So those things that I was looking at, or I was watching, and you have to, you have to take the authority to close those doors. I have to do it from my family, close those doors. But what that looks like is just, man, you getting rowdy.Jeff zaugg (23:55):Game on. I've noticed - I mean, just recently, my wife's like you've kind of chosen a new playlist, especially the after dinner portion of our evening. All of a sudden there's just instrumental worship kind of soaking Holy spirit filled. I can tell. I mean, this is, we're just soaking in God's presence and it's just playing in the background and it's changed. Just that decision of what I'm playing on our bluetooth speaker. So there are little things you can do that put us at a place of, 'God, you're welcome here.' And it's not, there's no formula, like you're saying, but I'd love to hear how are you, how are you and your wife, Jen guiding your kids around this conversation. Yes. It's one thing for you guys to take ownership of shutting doors, of choosing to worship instead of welcoming and opening portals of darkness. Like, but there's another side of like inviting and training and guiding your kids to do the same. Can you talk about that side?Zach Neese (24:46):Yeah. So when they were really little, we didn't even let them, we didn't let them watch Disney. I mean, I'm not the person that won't let them watch anything, but my issue was Disney was the constant undertone of rebellion, you know? And so when they got old enough to talk about it, what we started doing is introducing things to them that I knew weren't going to harm them, but that would open conversations. Right. And then we'd talk about those characters and we'd talk about what was going on. Because I don't want them... I want them to be innocent concerning evil, but I don't want them to lack the ability to identify truth versus lies, evil versus good, blessing versus curses, life versus death. Right? So I have to give them opportunities to learn those things and to talk about it.Zach Neese (25:34):So oftentimes we'll turn something off and we'll go, all right, what was going on right there, guys, talk to me about it. What'd you think about that? What'd you feel about that? And we have conversations and I've given them permission if they're uncomfortable with anything. So here's the problem - I'm old. And my heart has gone through years of callousing and being jaded, right? So you're like 38 years old. So you've got 38 years of callouses that some of these kids don't have. Right? So some of my kids are more innocent of course, and sweeter than I am. So if they're uncomfortable with something it's off, we talk about it and we turn it off. There was something in particular that one of my kids wanted to watch, but some of the other kids were uncomfortable with it. And, and so we had a conversation about it and we did an experiment and we said, all right, we're gonna, I'm gonna let you watch part of this. But if anybody has a nightmare - nobody's had any bad dreams for weeks. Anybody has a nightmare tonight, we're going to pray. And we're going to say, God, this is our fleece. Anybody has a nightmare tonight, we're not doing that anymore. And so we did, somebody had a nightmare and it was gone. Right? So, what we do is we include them in the conversation. I don't want to be the person who says, because I said so. Now my kids understand. 'Yes, sir.' They understand. 'Yes, ma'am.' And they've been trained to say those things, but they've also been given permission to ask the "why" questions, because I want them to understand the "why" questions. Right? So, if they have any questions about why we watch something and someone else, doesn't. Why we don't and someone else does, why we listened to this and someone else doesn't, we talk about it. You know, we talk about the environment that we want in our home versus what, what about the environment in their home? That's not judgemental, but is that what you want?Jeff zaugg (27:15):Now, talking tools is always like, of course there's tools that are helpful for some dads, not helpful for other dads. But when you think again, you got these group of young dads on your, on your front porch, drinking a good cup of coffee, the tools that you might pass along, to help take a step in this area. I know you're writing. Is your book out yet? Or is it, do we have to wait a little bit for your book?Zach Neese (27:36):Question? So during COVID I had the opportunity to write a book on the topic. Yeah. I've already been rejected by three different publishers.Jeff zaugg (27:43):We got to pray for, we got to pray that down. Let's go. Okay. So you're in that process. Okay. Good to know.Zach Neese (27:49):It's a scary topic. A lot of people don't want to, don't want to... So you're talking about us entertaining demons in our houses. So they're like, I don't want to talk about that. Well, okay. So your 12 step book, isn't helping people, right? This is the issue at large here. You need to figure this out. First of all, your greatest tool and your greatest ally is the Holy spirit man. Right? The, you cannot go wrong getting on your knees for your kids every day, for your wife every day. And what I've found is that, you remember the story of King David and his son Absalom killed his son Amnon, right? And the Bible says that it was his expressed desire to do that. Absalom had been talking about doing that for years. And David didn't know about it. He didn't know his own child's heart. And so I've, I'm not always good at it. And I need to do it in cooperation with my wife, because she has great intuitions better than I do a lot of times, but I've made it one of my goals to know my kids' hearts, right. And one of the ways you do that is by bringing them to the Lord every day, you know, and you'll see, God will give you like this, this feeling like, Oh man, I need to check on this kid or, wow, I need to check on this kid and I'm never wrong. The Holy spirit has never led me astray. It's always right at the time when they need to have one of those pivotal conversations, you know? So your number one ally, your number one ally is always going to be God. And your number two ally is what he gave you in the word. So if you're wondering if something's right or wrong, moral or immoral, if you have a conflict with the word of God, one of you is wrong. Let me just, give you a guess which one.Zach Neese (29:37):Same with me. I'm reading the word of God. And I'm like, Oh, I don't like that. Well, one of us is wiser than the other one and I have to submit myself and go, well, probably your wiser than I am, God. So the word of God is my number two ally. And of course it, if you guys need Covenant Eyes, Covenant Eyes is a great tool. You know, there's all kinds of parent web blockers and things like that. But honestly, between you and me, I don't want to teach my kids to rely entirely on a web blocker. Cause you can get around all that stuff. That's true. You can always figure out a way around it. I want them to learn, to think critically and to be spiritually engaged with God so that they make good decisions.Jeff zaugg (30:27):Before I have you pray for all of us, is there anything else as you prayed about this conversation and areas that maybe the Holy spirit nudged you and said, man share this, or this is something it's just deep on your heart. You want to... Any other topics that we didn't discuss that you wanted, like pass along to us before you pray for us?Zach Neese (30:43):You know, I think we, we mentioned Psalm 127. I just want to remind you guys, these have been so helpful to me. Psalm 127 and 128, just in terms of my inheritance and my legacy. You know, money is not what I'm passing on to my kids. You know? A great career is not what I'm passing on to my kids. My hope is that my name will be associated with the gospel and the presence of God, right? And that my children's names will be associated with the gospel and the presence of God. To me, heaven is not going to be paradise until unless all my kids are there. So to me, the most important, the most important pursuit in my life is the pursuit of God. The second most important pursuit is my pursuit of my wife. And after that, my pursuit of the heart of my kids, because I do not want to get to heaven and miss a single one of them. They are more important to me than, what are you searching for? Right? There was a time when I wanted my name to be known by people. Who cares? I want my kids. Yeah. I don't want them not to be in heaven. In fact, this is the heart of God. He's so adamant about it, that he's willing to send his own son to a cross and even to hell to empty it out so that he could have his sons and daughters. This is his heart. Heaven is not paradise to him without his sons and daughters. So why would it be paradise to me without my sons and daughters. So if we can get our head around that, we're not just living for this life, we're living for a much longer eternity. And I want my family there.Jeff zaugg (32:20):And I would love to invite you to pray a prayer of awareness on one side that we would be dads, who, our eyes would be opened, blinders have been on. You've blown my mind in a bunch of ways here. Like, there's some blinders that have just been bashed for me personally and I know for a lot of dads listening. So I pray that our eyes would be open to unseen warfare and the access points. So if you could pray that prayer over us, and then secondly, just the side of legacy and what really matters that you just shared as far as your heartS that the Holy Spirit would do a work on all of us listening, all of us dads, listening to remind us of what really matters. So if you could pray over us, that would be so amazing. Yeah.Zach Neese (33:03):Yeah. You bet Jeff. Father, thank you for every man who's listening to us right now. Every man who's watching every man who will - Lord, I believe that you're drawing your sons. And Holy Spirit, I know that some of the things that I said, were probably just my opinions, but Lord, anything, that's your opinion. God, that's what we care about. And that's what I ask would stick to our hearts, to mine, to Jeff's, to the men who are listening right now. God, we want to love what you love and to hate what you hate. We want to have prophetic eyes. Open the eyes of our hearts so that we wouldn't just see in the flesh, we wouldn't just see the physical world around us, but we would see the spiritual world around us and be conscious of the battle that rages in the hearts of humanity and especially our families. God, I want to be able to be a defender for my wife and my kids. I don't want to, I don't want to be someone who, when the wolves are at the door, opens the door. I don't want to be that person when sin is crouching at the door, opens the door so that it can have access to my heart, to my marriage, to my sons, to my daughters. I don't want to be that person. But I know I have been, I know I have been in the past and I know that you've helped me and you've helped our family. And Lord, I pray for that continuous grace for the men who are listening to get back up and face you again, to lean towards you and not away from you. To go back to the door and to guard it again. To walk our houses and to kick out any spirit that is contrary to the spirit of the living God. Because we want to host you alone, entertain you alone, enthrone you alone in our hearts, and in our homes. And I pray you'd help us to be good at it in the name of Jesus Christ. And I pray Lord that you would open our eyes so that we would see the inheritance that you have for us Father, that our hearts would cling to, would embrace those things that your heart clings to and embraces and values. And I pray Lord that you would give us a heavenly and a spiritual inheritance because we would value what your heart values, beginning where your heart begins with a relationship with you and our wives and our kids. And then this world around us father. And I pray Lord that you would give us, in the name of Jesus and inheritance of salvation for the men who are listening, for Jeff, for me, I pray for, that my children would know you and love you and follow you. That their children would know you and love you and follow you. That their children would know you and love you and follow you. And so your name would be made great, and your love would be passed throughout the earth through us. And that I would have my whole family with me in paradise. And you would too, in the name of Jesus. Amen.