Notes: A Big Dad

By Jessica L: Notes from Gary Stroope's message at The Porch (April 12, 2011)

Think about your life.

• How’s it going? How’s it really going?

• Are you looking forward to the next new thing in your life –new job, fresh start, new relationship?

• How’s it going relationally, emotionally, financially, spiritually?

• How did you get where you are?

Our generation is looking for purpose and meaning – even good things we do like buys shoes that send shoes to third world countries don’t fill us with true joy.

Romans 12:1

• Your parents have contributed to your story more than you may like to believe

• How we view our parents can be a part of that entanglement

• Would you rather spend the weekend with your community group/friends or your parents? Honestly?

Exodus 34:6-7

• The sin that you commit affects generations to come

• The same is true with your parents and you

• Maybe you “grew up on an unwatched channel”; so you strive for the attention of others, especially your parents

Proverbs 6:20-23

• Letting your parents affect you instead of allowing God to lead you is not the way to live

• Parents are the pride of children

  • We’re hard wired to be approved and loved by moms & dads

• Sometimes we romanticize our parents to make it easier to face the truth about who we are now

  • Making yourself the idol of their lives
  • Or avoiding your sins

• Depending on the house you grew up in, you can fantasize about how things will be with your family next time you see them

Matthew 3:17

• Intersect on a deep and meaningful level with your parents

• God picks up where your parents left off

  • He is all the love and fulfillment you need
  • You don’t need to strive for their approval any longer

• How do we get there?

1. Acknowledge that the gap between you and your parents is there
   
   > Pray for your parents

2. Trust in God’s justice: 1 Timothy 5:8 – don’t try to dole out consequences to your parents

3. Choose to forgive
   
   > Even if they aren’t seeking your forgiveness
   
   > Reconciliation takes approaching them, being honest, and extending forgiveness
   
   > Don’t wait for them to pursue you, especially if they don’t know Christ

4. Accept your heavenly father’s love, his perfect love
   
   > You are loved because he gave his only son for you
   
   Psalm 68:4

• God is not like your Dad, even the best Dad; God is supernatural, powerful, has real answers

• Forgive your parents and meet your real Father