This series invites you to understand the character of God in a life-changing way: as a perfect Father who wants you to live under the waterfall of His blessing. You see, God is not the bigger version of your earthly dad, He’s the perfect version of your earthly dad. And He’s inviting you to walk in freedom as His loved son or daughter.
You are a uniquely designed, wonderfully created, dearly loved, son or daughter of a perfect Father.
(1) THE universal craving: Sunday, september 29th
Deep within every human being God has placed a universal craving to know a father’s love. Living in what many are calling the ‘fatherless generation’, people are searching for a deeper experience of this love. We’re all desperate for our father’s approval. Without it we can feel given up on, abandoned, deserted, or disowned. We can feel ignored, isolated, jilted or judged. This void, this lack of a father’s presence and approval, can feel like a shadow that always lingers around us, a missing piece that we don’t know how to find. And when that approval isn’t present, we feel forsaken.
No matter what has happened on this side of eternity between you and your dad; You are not forsaken by God.
The Universal Craving Message Notes
(2) reflection versus perfection: Sunday, october 6th
Jesus referred to God as a Father 189 times in the four gospels. But discovering that God wants to be known by you as a perfect Father is only half the journey. Each of us has a picture of what a father is like that’s primarily based on our relationship with our earthly dads. But our earthly dads have all fallen short, some more than others. And if God is a father like yours why would you want anything to do with Him? Well, here’s the good news – the life-altering news that we all need to hear. God is not the reflection of your earthly dad, He is the perfection of your earthly dad.
Through faith in Jesus as your Christ, you can find God as your father, the Father you’ve been longing for all along.
Reflection Versus Perfection Message Notes
(3) your new family tree: Sunday, october 13th
The New Testament says that the most important thing about our view of God is that we see him as our Abba, the Aramaic word for Daddy or Papa. God is not a nebulous force that’s impossible to know or understand. He’s not a stained-glass cathedral, merely your buddy, a bully, or a cosmic butler in the sky. He isn’t keeping score on you or the face you look at in the mirror. God is a Father. And through Jesus Christ and what he accomplished on the cross, He can be your Abba who provides you with both a new identity and a new family tree.
Jesus was forsaken by his Father so that you would never have tobe forsaken or live a day without your Heavenly Father’s blessing.
Your New Family Tree Message Notes
(4) finding freedom: Sunday, october 20th
Before you are born again into a new family, you had a great debt before God. The magnitude of your debt was great, but the mercy of your God was greater. Jesus didn’t simply forgive your debt of sin. He actually paid the debt for you. Through the cross of Jesus, your debt was paid in full and once received you are both set free from this debt and invited to live as sons and daughters of a Perfect Father.
Once you experience God’s forgiveness, you’re in a prime position to extend His forgiveness to others – even your dad.
(5) Just Like Dad!: Sunday, October 27th
The miracle of being born into a new family tree provides you with a spiritual birth certificate that announces you were born again, that you are now and forever a son or a daughter of God. A new life has begun, but just as in the natural, birth sets in motion a process of maturity. This process should result in us growing up to look just like dad.
“Not forsaken is a promise. God will never leave you behind. But it’s also a doorway. Step into the possibility of growing up to look just like your perfect Heavenly Father.” – Louie Giglio
