A Vision of the Father

Good Morning

Good Morning and Welcome to Freedom Chapel. My name is Pastor Terry, my wife Michelle and I serve as the lead pastors here at Freedom Chapel. We exist to bring hope to our community we do that by being a Place to Belong, Church for the Whole Family. Our Goal as a community of believers is to create an environment where everyone who attends here has the opportunity to Know God......., Find Freedom....., Discover Purpose....., and Make a Difference.......

If you are new with us this morning would you please take the time fill out that little flap on the side of your bulletin. If you put it in the black boxes by the back door we will make a donation in your name to a local charity and send you cookies. Church can we show our guests some love this morning.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

SIGN UP!

TAKE A YARD SIGN!

Today is Father’s Day! A day we can all sit back and realize that no matter what your father was like you wouldn’t be here with out him.

This is a Holiday that is a great day of celebration for some and this is a very difficult day for others. I don’t discount that.

I want to start out this morning by telling my testimony. Many of you are new here and have this false idea that I am this shining example of Fatherhood and Christianity because I had a great upbringing. I mean why wouldn’t you think that. I have a Smoking Hot Wife, and Three Kids that are always do the right thing, never disobey, and always do thing with the best attitude.

OK.........Maybe that is not what you see.

Here is the truth. I am the old child of 12 but it didn’t start out that way.

My mother was 15 when she found out she was pregnant with me.

Got married to a guy who wasn’t my bio.

He was physically abusive.

Divorced him and remarried a year later.

Four years later at the end of my Kindergarden year her second husband left us.

Some how in the age before internet and social media my mom got in contact with a guy she knew in Jr High he moved us to Kansas and within a year she was married to Bill and I had my first sibling on the way.

Up until this point for 7 years I had been an only child. Men had walked in and out of my life. I really had no clue what a father looked like except through that through that time I had lived off and on with my 4 pack a day, beer drinking, workaholic grandfather.

I really had no idea what a father was supposed to look like.

One year into the marriage Bill adopted me and gave me a last name that actually meant something. A name that was actually attached to something. They would go on to have two children together and life felt pretty good.

I learned how to work on houses, Dad and I completely rebuilt the a 1969 Ford F100 from the parts of at least 6 different trucks of varying colors. I would watch him sell off that truck and then buy it back after a guy painted it red. Five years into the marriage things fell apart.

My mom divorced my Dad and moved us to McPherson remarried. My Step brother and Sister entered the scene.

I began to really understand the fact that I was the excess baggage. When my steps came to town I had to sleep on the floor and being so much older I became the baby sitter.

The highlight of my days back then was every other weekend when I would go see my Dad. We would stay up late at night listening to 70s and 80s Rock. At this point in my life I never understood the financial stress he was under trying to pay child support.

At some point he remarried Tierra and Diadra entered the scene. My mom and her new husband had two babies. In the midst of all this my mom decides to tell me that her first Husband was not my real father and somewhere out there was My Biological father.

I began to spiral not long after that rejection, rebellion, and a whole host of other feelings began to take over my life. I made some terrible mistakes and the courts took me away from my family and sent me to Texas to live with my Grandparents.

With my Grandparents I would meet Lane Anderson who would lead me to Jesus. The Mikey Littau who would introduce me to the Holy Spirit.

My life would be completely transformed. I say Transformed because I never dealt with the pain, the rejection, the lack of belonging, and the shame. I just learned how to ignore my baggage by zipping it up and tossing it over in the corner.

The problem with baggage is that the zipper is always broken. It may be in the corner but something is always hanging out.

While living with my grandparents I learned to hide behind this new person I created. I became whatever it took to be accepted by those around me.

In College I ended up in a situation where my Grandmother commited credit card fraud against me and we hid it from my grandfather because she promised to fix it. A year later I had to tell him because my credit was ruined and I could no longer afford to go to college. He told me not to come home.

Here I am 19 years old and my image of a Father is completely shattered. So what did I do I packed in my bag of feelings, fumbled with the zipper, and tossed it to the side. I had learned that my feelings don’t matter anyways.

I turned to ministry. I began to work for Jesus. I used my talents. If I am honest up until a year and a half ago Church I only dealt with my baggage when it spilled out. I thought I had it under control. I could tell people how to navigate it. I repaired my relationship with my Dad. I could tolerate my mom. I was somewhat social with my siblings and I learned to hide behind the this new mask I had made UNCLE TURKEY. By loving on my nieces and nephews, by being the super cool uncle I didn’t have to deal with the fact that I was the Bastard Child, I didn’t belong, I was unwanted, I was the one who was sent away.

I was hiding behind my ministry Jesus, I was just hiding.

Then my Grandma passed away.

Over the last month and a half I have been unpacking my baggage. I have been redefining my Vision of A Father. Jesus has been really working in and through my past.

This is the Vision of a Father God whats you to have.

1. He has Always been Present.

Psalm 139:13–16 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

2. He will never reject you.

Deuteronomy 31:8 ESV

8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

3. He has come to Rescue You and He has not Condemned You.

John 3:16–17 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

4. He watches for You and Runs to Meet You.

Luke 15:17–24 ESV

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

He wants to Take your Baggage.

1 Peter 5:6–7 NKJV

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

This week I had the opportunity to attend a service at High School. The Speaker made a beautiful point about baggage from our parents and how so many of us go through life after accepting Jesus.

Matthew 9:17 ESV

17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Many of us have come to Jesus. We have asked for forgiveness but we have never surrendered the Baggage because we have the Wrong Vision of a Father.

Close.

Accept Jesus

Hand over your Baggage

Walk in new life.