This past Friday Chris Savage presented on a concept that is touched upon in “Things Fathers Do” by Paul Manwaring. The idea is that: “to be a father, you must first become a son.”

What does this mean?

Chris started off by leading worship song called “Lead Me To the Father.” He posited that singing the song might be slightly uncomfortable because singing a song about connecting with the Father might be hard when our own experience of being a son to a father might have been less than ideal.

Chris then talked about his journey of sonship. He shared that his father was less than ideal in almost every way. After he came to Christ at 17, God continued to put men in his life to heal his heart and relationship with his father through them. This also led to a confrontation/conversation with his father that also created healing.

Chris then shared two Scriptures that talk about how we become a Son. The first is the Great Commandment and the second is the New Command

Points from this passage:

• All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
  • What does it mean that Jesus has ALL AUTHORITY? He paused there.
• Therefore go and make Disciples
  • In this authority-> Go and Make Disciples. But How?
• Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
  • To Baptize means immerse. Water baptism is important but it is more important to be immersed, “baptised,” in the reality, “the name,” of the Trinity!

To do something “in the name of” means to do it on His behalf, with His resources, and in His authority.

But to baptize someone in this reality we must live in it ourselves. How does this happen?

Jesus points out the the great command. Chris asked the question: “how good are you at loving God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind? It seems impossible, because in whatever way we fall short we are not fulfilling this command.

This is why he wanted to bring up something that not as many people talk about, “The New Command.”

The point that was made is this: in order to love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength you have to first know that you are loved by God.

You must become a son or a daughter.

Only by Him loving you are you able to love Him and others. The only way to baptize others in the reality of the Trinity is to experience it yourself. You have to be baptized in the reality and receive the love of the father in order to love others and baptize others in the reality of the Trinity.

To become a father you must first become a son.

Michael asked, “So what do we do in order to put this into practice?”

Chris talked about how he meditates on The Lords Prayer and Psalm 23 before he gets out of bed (or sometimes after). He slowly prays his way through it in order to facilitate the dependence on God that is in inherent in walking in the reality of the Trinity.

Next week, join us as we talk about putting all of these things into practice as fathers. We are to make disciples by “teaching them to obey everything he has commanded us.” We are going to talk about being disciples ourselves, and how we are going to practically put the talks by Paul, Nathan, and Chris into intentional, incremental practices.