The Perfect Father - Louie Giglio

aw Tozer said something profound that has been an anchor if you will of our gatherings here but I want to bring it to us again tonight as a way of opening the door into this message aw Tozer said what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us so to put it on a personal level what just came into your mind or what comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you the reason for this is because we are moving towards our image of God we were created by God and for God and we can't live without that pull in our hearts so when you think about what comes into someone's mind when they think about God it would be a thousand different things for a lot of people when you say God they think impersonal cosmic force light this energy this divine something maybe doesn't have a name doesn't have a face but this divine being or this this energy source of light that somewhere out there in the world for other people it's more of a caricature it's like grandpa if you will he's a sweet old guy he's been around for a long time he's not moving quite as good as he used to he's got the text font on his phone so large that most people could read it from across the room can't operate Spotify but he's probably got a piece of candy somewhere and he's just that sweet ol guy we love him but he's not that relevant and you you're not gonna look to him to really be speaking into the major issues of your life for somebody else he's like the divine scorekeeper he's tracking every make and every miss and don't you know there's gonna be a reckoning at the end of the day for a lot of us he's just angry people think about God they're thinking about this angry person somewhere up in the sky waiting for them to step out of line so they can just smash them into smithereens and just obliterate their life some people it's maybe like more of a heavenly Butler and I know we would never say that but if you track the actions of their life they don't really think about God until they have a need and when they have a need it's like hey Siri or hey Alexa and all of a sudden now God appears God speaks into the situation God solves a problem god helps him with the dilemma and then they say Thank You Siri Thank You Alexa and they go back to their lives we could go on for the rest of this gathering about different ideas that come into our minds when we think about God but we've got to get it right aw Tozer goes on in this quote and he says we tend by secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God just an illustration of one of those we talked about if you think God is all about the make sin the Missis then your life is probably somehow been reduced to I'm trying to be a better person or trying not to be as bad as I used to be because I know God watches all the good stuff and adds up all the bad stuff and that's kind of what life with God looks like but if you have a flawed view of God you're gonna end up with a flawed life because you were created by God and created for God in the draw the pull inside of all of us is pulling us towards our Creator and if your view of the creator is all flawed then your whole life is going to end up being flawed so it's so essential that we get it right and I love the fact that God didn't just leave us down here to our own imaginations to figure it out he is not silent in this conversation he's been revealing himself showing us who he is and he never did that more clearly than when Jesus Christ actually stepped onto planet Earth and the scripture says about Jesus he's the exact representation of his glory he is God personified in human flesh so if you want to see what God is like you see what God is like by looking at the person of Christ and so Christ appears and then Christ begins to teach and as he's teaching us he teaches us a lot of things about God he teaches us that he's a creator that omnipotent that he sovereign that he's a judge that he's Lord but Jesus teaches us one thing about God above everything else 189 times in the four Gospels alone Jesus teaches us this one thing about God and the one thing that he teaches us more than anything else is that God is a father think about the core text in the Gospels and when you pray pray like this okay so here comes the Lord's Prayer here comes the model prayer here comes like the the roadmap for prayer and how does the prayer begin I think every one of us in the room can get this all together it begins with these two words our Father not our Lord not our judge not our King not our Oh sovereign omnipotent Warner our Father when you talk to God talk to God as father now not just any father who art in heaven hallowed be your name but father Jesus says if you've seen me as they finished it you've seen the father because I and the father are one he said let your light so shine before men that they would see your good works and glorify your father not your boss not your ruler not your king even or your Lord but that they would glorify your father who is in heaven you can track this through the whole of the four Gospels and then in the relationship of God think about it our God is a triune God Father hello Son and Holy Spirit so even in the nature of the Trinity we see the picture of father so Jesus comes to be baptized thirty years old starting his public ministry comes to the Jordan baptized by John the heavens open the Holy Spirit descends like a dove and then a voice from heaven speaks and says what this is my worker he's going to do all the things I've told him to do this is my servant he's gonna go and fulfill all the things that I have planned for him to accomplish now he said this is my boy this is my son and you know what about my son it's important for you to know right now in him I am well pleased we talked last week about the blessing of a father that it is hardwired into us from the moment that we are 4 years old for our dads to see us to applaud us to approve us even if it's us doing our little back dive off the edge of the pool daddy did you see it and was it good and it starts there and it never leaves dad are you gonna make it to my piano recital dad are you gonna come to the soccer finals dad will you be there when I'm doing my dance routine dad can you come dad did you see it we want we need we crave for our earthly father's blessing for their love for their approval for their belief in us and if you don't have it we talked about there is a gap if you do have it praise God because it was a foundation stone that from the earliest days of your life you could step on that stone and begin to grow into the man or the woman that God wanted you to be but without the blessing there's a gap and yes that can be filled by a coach or a teacher or a friend or a family member but there's a gap there in life it's it's the gap of not feeling the blessing the participation the love of our dads in our lives and God understands this because when he proclaimed over his son that day this is my son then he says about him in him what I am well-pleased in other words before the whole world he gives his son the blessing Jesus had never walked on water that we know of whom he probably did just for the fun of it but not recorded any Gospels that before this moment he ain't done any of the recorded works of Jesus he hadn't fed the 5000 he hadn't turned water into wine he hadn't healed the sick he hadn't raised the dead he hadn't gone to the cross he hadn't been and Gethsemane he had suffered for our sins he hadn't gone down into the depths of the earth he hadn't done any of the things that we praise him for yet his father said I want you to know I am well pleased with my son and I'm launching him into the mission with the blessing not in hopes of getting the blessing I'm sending him out blessed not say hey we'll see how it goes and then I'll decide whether I want to bless you or not and just in that picture we see Jesus not only teaching father but we see Jesus living and breathing father so that his very last phrase on the crosses into your hands father I commit my spirit so Jesus is showing us how do you have a relationship with justice how you have a relationship with omnipotence how do you have a relationship with eternity how do you have a relationship with sovereignty or with lordship how do you have a relationship with all of these attributes of God you have a relationship with them when they are embodied in a person a father but here's the problem if God is primarily showing you that he wants you to know him as father then the enemy is gonna do everything he can to destroy fatherhood you are called the fatherless generation and it's not by accident it is by the divine plan of hell because the enemy knows if he can crack up our concept of father by breaking up our relationships with our earthly dads then he can create a stumbling block that some people may never overcome in their relationship with Almighty God and we see the fallout of this everywhere in our world think about our earthly dads there may be 60 different kinds of dads but I think you can shrink it down to about six kinds of dads that all of us are gonna relate to in some way tonight number one dad the absent father I mean currently I have an absent father had him for 36 years of my life but haven't had him for almost that long in my life so absent father he's not present in the equation and some of your father's are absent because of death but some of them are absent because of divorce or dysfunction or disinterest they're just not in the picture the second father that a lot of us know is the abusive father father who not only did didn't bless us he actually hurt us either emotionally or verbally or physically or emotionally this father injured our life abused our lives the third father that some of us are dealing with is a performance-based dad I don't know if you had this dad or not but he wanted to bless you and he told you that he would bless you but you had to earn the blessing and if you jump through the hoops and you did really well you got to hug if you perform to his standards you got to I love you but if you didn't you got something else and you knew the whole time with your dad was always a performance event and he was either gonna love you more or not love you more based on how you did the forth father is the passive father and this passive father he's in the mix with us but he's sort of a non-factor if you will he's in the room but he's not really in the story he's not taking initiative he's not taking the leadership role he's not stepping up and being the man that God created him to be maybe he never had a father and he never got the blessing maybe somebody else in the family has put him in his place and he just decided he'd be safer to stay there but he's not speaking up and he's not speaking in he's there but not giving you what you need the fifth father is the antagonistic father and this I don't know this is a complicated one and you see it more and more as the culture is turning over now what we're getting is the double fruit of a fatherless generation a lot of of the young generation that has been through a hardship of not having fathers are now fathers and the conflict and the tension is clear the antagonistic father he basically is not for you it's almost like he's against you so he's always chipping always cutting always undermining always telling you that you're not gonna measure up and sometimes telling you you're never gonna be as good as he is it's like he's in competition for you to see who's gonna do the best in life and instead of breathing on you all the hope that you need he's actually standing in your way and if you're gonna be somebody who's a world changer for God you it's all it's like you've got to get past your dad first before you can ever make a mark in the world the sixth dad is the empowering dad and a lot of us had that dad wasn't perfect nobody's dad's perfect but he loved you and you knew it he told you when you earned it and when you didn't when you're at your best he told you he loved you and when you're at your worst he told you he loved you and he showed you and he proved it and he showed up and he was dependable in your life I I kind of envisioned this dad coming down the hall with three kids and he sticks his head in the first kid's bedroom as everybody's going to bed at night when they're small and he says hey baby girl I just want you to know just loud enough so everybody in the hall can hear it that you're my favorite of all the kids in this family I love you more than all your brothers and sisters you are my favorite one sleep tight baby girl your dad loves you and everyone in the hall smiling because the next child down the hall is just waiting for his turn dad comes down sticks his head in the door hey son what's up champ you know I love you more than your sisters don't - you know you're really my favorite one in this family and then the next thing you know he's down to the other the older girls room and he says hey sweetheart I just want you to know you're our firstborn you've always been my favorite I love you the most and I love you way more than your brother and way more than your sister down the hall and not only are the kids feeling lifted by this individually the family is still feeling lifted by this because the kids are loving hearing that not only are they loved by Dad but they're all loved by Dad and they know as the result of that that they can be what God has created for them to be somehow this dad finds a way to cheat show the ropes and launch his kids with potential into the world because they know that they can soar because should they fail their dad is going to be right there beside them to say hey it's okay let's figure it out and let's do it again now this dad wasn't a pushover that was passive dad over here who didn't like conflict no perimeters no boundaries no discipline from this guy because he did one deal with it and he thought he was loving you by telling you and stay out as late as you want or I'm not gonna step in and say what needs to be said or I'm not going to show you tough love cuz I don't want you to not like me and not accept me and not approve of me because I need that but empowering dad here I'm gonna let you get by with that stuff he's telling you I love you I love you I love you oh but hello timeout no we are not doing that and he told you one day say it with me you're going to thank me for this and you said in your dreams until you got a little older and then you said hey Dad thank you so much for that we have a little three-year-old terror at our house now and I totally am doing that same thing you did with me in hopes that she's gonna be delivered into the young woman that God has designed for her to be can I just say all of us wanted that I mean it kid will fight you over ground rules but it's not because they don't believe in ground rules even kids are smart enough to figure out that if you put me at risk you are making me wonder if you really love me why do you keep putting me at risk letting me go too far letting me be in situations that are not good for me and we all loved having that dad who said you know I don't know how it worked at your house but at our house it was mom she was fierce but I mean if it got to the point she said go to your room and wait till your dad gets home there's another ball game at our house it was another era people probably get imprisoned for that in this day but that was another time in another place and another view and I thank God for it I thank God for it fatherhood is cracked up and even going through the absent the abusive the performance-based the passive the antagonistic dad the people in this room would be like this is exactly my problem I can't tell you how many young people have said to me hey Louie appreciate the message if God is like my dad I'm not interested I don't want any part of that and here's the beauty in the power and the anchor of this series God is not simply the reflection of your earthly dad God is the perfection of your earthly dad he is everything you dreamed your dad would be and way more than that he is not just a bigger version of your dad he's the perfect version of your dad he is everything you longed for and more than that the psalmist says it this way in Psalm 68 verse 4 sing to God sing praise to his name extol him who rides on the clouds his name is the Lord and rejoice before him so we see a majestic God a powerful God an omnipotent God this guards riding on the clouds this is some little tiny God but this big majestic God now chooses to be knowable to us in a very powerful and personal way when it shifts in the verse 5 he is this God who rides on the clouds is a father to the fatherless a defender of widows this is God in His holy dwelling he sets the lonely in families and he leaves forth the prisoners was singing so God is in a fatherless context he's in a real broken world situation saying nobody is gonna have to live fatherless and no one is gonna have to navigate life without someone speaking over them I send you out with the blessing to do great things in this world he says I am choosing though I ride on the clouds to bring myself into a relationship with humanity and with you then I want to be a father to the fatherless so if you are coming into this place tonight and you're like hey I can relate to a broken relationship to wounds and disappointment and abandon to being walked out on to being mistreated I can relate to all that I feel stuck in all that and God says there is a special place in my heart for you I am moving toward you I am coming your way because I know how important it is to you to have a father wrap his arms around you and I want to be a father to the fatherless and not just a bigger version of what you've known a mind-blowing version of what you've known Jesus said it this way in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 7 he said seek ask he says in verse 7 and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be open and this is where we're going to end the night tonight just to preview because you may be going I don't even know if I can take a big step Louis I don't even know if I want to but I don't even know if I can step into this and I love that Jesus it's just giving us such a a small step with such great promise just ask seek just knock just knock just knock and see if I won't open a door that has kept you imprisoned all of your life just knock and see if I won't open a door that allows you to experience me in a brand new way you don't have to come with this grand plan just ask just be willing to ask just see just be willing to side got it if you're if you're really that great of a father didn't show me God if you really can open the door that I need you to open the door and that's all I got amen and then Jesus unpacked this which of you if his son asks for bread will give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake if you then though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father there's the word again in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him and I know we're dealing a reality we keep coming around that because I just don't want anyone to leave this place especially when we're in a zone that is so sensitive and painful as this zone some of you are like no I got a stone I said dad I need something to eat and I got a rock I said dad I need a fish and my dad was like haha well I got something for you have a rattlesnake and for a lot of us that's real but I think all of us even in our imagination and for most of us in our experience can can affirm that when we needed something to eat our moms and our dads did everything in their power to get us what we needed and Jesus said if your earthly dad who's like a sinful person could do that how much more will your heavenly Father give you what you need and I believe the step of steps in this gathering is to be willing to take the risk into the gap and say god I'm gonna ask because I need to find a place with a father I need to find a place with a dad I need to find a blessing that I've never known I need a breakthrough and I need to get healed and freed from my past so I'm gonna ask believing that you're the how much more God and I believe what God is wanting to do right now is not only redefine our view of him not some cosmic force not some old grandpa in the sky not some religious church living dude who's in the stained-glass windows every single day but the see God as he truly is as father but I also believe that God wants to redefine who you are through the lens of your heavenly Father CS Lewis came a little bit in conflict with the aw Tozer quote and so here we go with a little theological debate if you will tozer says what comes to our minds when we think about God's the most important thing about us CS Lewis says in response to that I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God by God himself it is not how God thinks of us is not only more important but infinitely more important indeed how we think of him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how he thinks of us like oh now I got a pick between ADA Beto's er and CS Lewis and I chose the right answer yes and amen to both how I think about God most important thing about me cuz I'm moving towards my mental image of God but as I'm moving toward my mental image of God God helps me through revelation in the person of Christ to see that he is a perfect Heavenly Father and when I see that he is a perfect Heavenly Father then I understand how my perfect Heavenly Father sees me and how he sees me trumps hell I see me how he sees me trumps how others see me how he sees me becomes the guiding principle of my life so how does God see you number one this is what he wants you to know tonight I'm just gonna take a risk with it he wants you to know that you are loved thank you for an amen most people are like is that seriously like you prepared for that like you studied for that you went to seminary to grad school and you're gonna come out with number one God wants you to see that you are loved Wow Louie you're just blowing our minds tonight whoo such huge revelation people you wouldn't believe the five o'clock Louie was out of his mind he told us that we were loved man if we could somehow get outside of ourselves just for a moment and all of a sudden the light would come and shine on every person in this room that doesn't feel loved you'd be stunned how many people in your row have that light shining on him oh they heard the words for God so loved the world they heard it they can repeat it they just don't believe it they're not operationally living in it and I'm talking about business owners sitting in this room right now light shining straight down on them I don't feel loved I don't even know if I feel worthy of feeling loved because you know the broken relationships with our dad that was all about our dads but we're still walking away convinced it was all about us do you ever have that conversation where your dad said I just need to tell you that this is gonna be a tough season a little bit of transition and dad's not gonna be living with the family anymore in fact I'm gonna be moving out and moving on but I need you to know this please and they're just looking right straight in your eyes I just need you to know one thing this is dad's got to work some stuff out God's got to take care of something dad's got to take care of some things dad's got to get some things fixed right now for mom and dad it's just not the right place the right time but one thing I need you to know one thing you have to know baby this is not about you this is about dad and and he said it as clear as communication can happen this is not about you but somehow in your mind that 9 or 13 or whenever that happened your mind took the words while he said him and in your mind as they came out of his mouth they went into your heart this is all about me this is all about me this is all about me and that light would just come down on so many people tonight and God wants to shine a different light and for some of you for the first time ever he just wants you to see a different light shining on you and for you to know deep down inside I don't know a lot but I know this I am loved and I am gonna operate out of that truth first John 3 verse 1 says see key words see how great a love the father has lavished on us so not some little 10 silly kind of note in the mail no this lavish love and what is the lavish love it is his son cashed on a cross for us it's him saying to us I will leave you behind I'm not moving on without you I will never forsake you on the contrary I will break through walls for you I will climb up hills for you I will run through the darkness for you I will pay any price to get you see how great a love the father has lavished on us that we should become the children of God and then I love this little add-on and that's what we are to see that it's the keyword see how great in love the father has lavished on us and until you see it you can't rejoice in it until you see it you can't move in it until you see it you can't champion it and you can't breathe it and you can't grow into it so pray today God help us see you as a father and see us as loved by you the second thing that God wants us to see is to see that we are no longer slaves that we are no longer slaves to the past but we are in fact freed by God Romans 8 a passage that we all know really well but so so life-changing verse 14 it says this because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God and when he says son of God he's st. children of God so ladies don't feel left out for you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear so he's assuming before the Holy Spirit you were afraid there was fear in your life there was a stronghold there of the past repeating itself again and again again in the future and that was trapping you in the past and he's saying the Holy Spirit now is coming to live in your life and and you're gonna see now because of him that you are no longer a slave to fear he says that there's something new gonna happen this this fear did not make you a slave to fear but you received the spirit of sonship of of childhood if you will and by him this spirit is a him we cry Abba Father so how do you know you're saved the Holy Spirit cries out of your spirit I have a father not just oh I'm going to heaven that is not the payoff of salvation the payoff of salvation is I have a father happens that he runs eternity so that's gonna be good happens that he runs heaven and his defeated death my dad so that's good news but the payoff of coming from death to life I have a father and he is so powerful and present that I don't have to be afraid is this the gospel you received is this the gospel that you're living is this the salvation that you tell about is this the transformation that's happened in your life or for you was it I don't want to go to hell I do want to go to heaven so I better believe in Jesus so I'll have eternal life or was it I need to be born again and when you were born again the Holy Spirit came into your life and then all of a sudden in your heart you knew more than anything you know I have a father and my spirit is crying Abba intimate word father I know that I have a father in heaven it's not ever happened to you because if it hasn't happened to you you haven't gotten salvation in full yet God does not want you to get a ticket to heaven and live broken down by earthly disappointments every day until you get there God does not want you to get a place in eternity and live afraid every moment until you get there I'm no longer a slave to fear because I have a new spirit in me and it's crying out Abba Father and the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's chill a third thing I'm loved I'm not a slave to fear I am a child of God Oh yellow I've sung that song it's a great song I'm no longer slave to fear but I am a child of God you split the sea so I could walk right through it and then we go home we're alone everything's distant and that dark cloud stirs up and bruising us again and we start feeling more left out we start feeling more like we weren't good enough we start feeling more like it was real that my dad walked out on me it is real that I think it could happen again and I don't really know if I do measure up and I don't really know if I am ever gonna be enough and I don't know if I have what it takes to be everything God wants me to be I know the song I just didn't have that transformational moment that said I am a child of Almighty God I can grow up to be like my father and I can rise above the past listen we're not talking about sweeping anything under the rug it just means that you don't have to live as a slave to the word divorce okay it was real but it doesn't define you it doesn't define you you don't have to live as a slave to abuse it was real but it does not define you you don't have to live as a slave to the pain the pain is real but the pain does not define you you don't have to live as a slave to the sins of your father you don't have to live as a slave to doubt as to whether you have what it takes because you are a child born of God and you can be everything he says you can be and you can do everything he says you can do you can even in his power walk from the past into the future it's not gonna be easy you know when I was 10 years old my dad went to work in Holland for six months his company sent him there's happiest six months of his life I think he loved us but he was made for Holland I think no texts no emails just two handwritten letters back in 1968 my dad finally gets home after six months he's totally turned into European dude he's got a beard going he looks amazing walks through the door we all hugged him he hugs us my sister myself my mom we're all thrilled he's home and then he starts pulling all the gifts out of his bag that he brought us from Europe and I'm like I don't even know where Europe is I'm so excited he gives my sisters some gifts he gets brought my mom some things and then he pulls out finally looks at me says I got something for you ace and like oh I'm ready and he pulls out this little box and he opens it and is in it is a Swiss Army knife now everybody now knows what a Swiss Army knife is but 1968's was cutting edge and it wasn't that little dinky one that you've had it was the large version had like 14 15 20 things on it he takes it on the box he says look at this ace pulls out a corkscrew I'm like whatever he's every ten-year-old needs perfect this thing pulled out this other deal and it's a pair of scissors man I'm just all over the house I mean everything I'm like yeah it had a toothpick and a pair of tweezers a bottle opener a nail file I mean this thing was ridiculous had two different knife blades on it different sizes when my mom saw those party was over man my dad had been home 20 minutes he's like why did you bring him a knife and so we had to have an intervention for a moment and an impromptu lesson on how to use a knife so my dad said hey ace you got it you got to know one thing about this knife okay one thing you got to know about this life you always cut away from your body and then he starts showing me away from your body always away from your body and I'm like I got it let me do it away from my body away from my body away from my body put the knife thing all the little things back together put it in the box I was kind of like that I kept the box I think I still have the box and I just set that thing in my bedroom and I was like wow I'm gonna be a carver this is amazing about two weeks later my parents had a couple over to play bridge and they're in the living room / dining room of our apartment around our little card table just having a great time I'd been banished to my room for the evening and so I decided this is my night so I had a piece of wood in my room because my dad had built a stereo cabinet for our family Mike the baddest stereo cabinet in the history of stereo cabinets big as a sofa and in it were these four by four planks that were the foundation on the bottom treated four by four and as he cut them there ended up being a few pieces about this long and I had commandeered one of these to my bedroom and tonight was my night but for some reason I thought I don't want to do this in my bedroom this is a this is going to be a work of art and I went into my parents bathroom because I only had two bathrooms in the apartment one was for the guests and I didn't want to hog that one so I went through my parents bedroom and over into their bathroom locked the door sat down on the toilet fully clothed toilet seat down just important that you don't go there and I'm holding the piece of wood and my knife and I'm working on my piece of art and I would just recommend to you that if you're gonna like learn to carve don't start on a pressure-treated piece of lumber okay not good I can't even like get the blade into the wood I'm just like yeah my 10 year old arm you know like can't get it in can't get it in finally I think I'm just gonna put all my energy into it so I turn it this way and I'm just putting everything I've got in that until then I slipped yeah and went right through that entire webbing on my left hand all the way up to there and I went ha put the knife on the sink counter grab some toilet paper off the thing and put it over my hand and did what everyone of us has done at some point in our lives I hoped that the next time I looked at something it would have been a dream or something would have happened right so I like I wasn't old enough to say a Hail Mary prayer but I think I probably was thinking 1 as a 10 year old would I was like ok Oh still there okay great big giant slice I mean the scar because I'm older has moved over to here but it was there and I'm like whoo this is bad or how long the card game is gonna go but I don't think I can wait so I go into the to the living room and I go up behind my mom I not a great move on my part Sain of God I love you Martha Jean prayers are still holding me up even right this moment but she was not your first responder anybody had that mom she told me so many times if you're bleeding stay on the porch so I go up behind my mom as the cards are being dealt and I say mom I cut my hand my mom said why did you do that I'm just processing right now thank you for letting me do this by the way and I feel better I said I was cutting with my knife no she looked at me like I knew it and then she said don't bleed on the carpet put the thing back on it she said go back in the bathroom and we'll look at it later okay awesome [Music] eventually my mom my dad come in the bathroom door opens my dad comes in I say dad I cut my hand my dad passes out into the bedroom true my mom says let's run some water over it hey it's the first step in any first-aid procedure cold water fix anything we run water over it all the Bloods kind of going out now we can truly see that yes that is a large gash but once I'm gonna give you the whole story but I'm just gon tell you this ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent of families this is emergency room visit I lived in the statistical anomaly anybody live in that house so we put back to you a story so we had a mom but the biggest band-aid we had were like in the gash and then wrapped gauze all around it and said let's just see what it looks like in the morning I'm like are you gonna call it Elijah because that's what it's gonna take for this to change in the morning I mean bactine ain't like put my skin back together overnight we've looked at in the morning sure enough she so let's give it a day or two Deborah anybody else somebody live through this right I'm not mom I love you my mom was amazing in every other way but for two weeks I'm at fifth grade not moving my hand because when I'd forget and move my hand I would feel the thing do the thing and then I'm like oh man I just set me back another four days so I'm trying very hard not to move my hand and every time we would take the thing off to check and see how it was doing it was not better it was worse and green and puffy and awful and stunk but we've washed it under the sink put more bactine on it wrap it back up I [Music] promise you to this day I'm not making any this up it is a miracle Steve ever seen God do a miracle I said yes see that right there that is a miracle that I have that some on this hand is a miracle in probably two weeks saying my mom said I think it's time to like really clean this thing and huh spare you all that story we did a super intense cleaning and somehow by the grace of God it eventually healed [Music] but what I know from that is it's not a good idea just to wrap the wounds of our lives and to hope that they'll go away so we're not going to sweep any of the pain or the disappointment under the rug [Music] God wants to heal but before God can heal I have to deal I have to unwrap some of you people have put success you've numbed it you've tried to stuff it it's like the 20 year old who said to me a few weeks ago I don't know if this book is for me it's not forsaken thing so my dad passed away last year and my relationship with my dad was extremely painful and I have a lot of wounds in my life because of it but now he's gone and I just figured that doors closed so I wondered is this book for me is it worth opening that door and dealing with it again and if I had a chance to see that young man face-to-face right now I would say let me ask you a question do you have a choice you're telling me that there's no pain and for some of you there isn't pain and the reason is because you you're numb to pain you haven't felt anything in a long time because you swore you'd never feel that again and others of you are saying perfect father I want to believe it Louie but I don't even know what that looks like man but I asked you had haven't you imagined what it would be like if your dad showed up did you ever imagine what it would be like if your dad sobered up do you ever imagined what it would been like if your dad sat down on the end of your bed and said tell me about how it's going has you ever imagined what it would be like if your dad was there on your birthday he was there when your child was born he was there in the important moments of your life and you knew he believed in you and the answer is yes every one of us imagine that every one of us imagine what it would have been like if our dad had been there and God is saying build on that imagination because I'm on the other end of that journey and I am what you imagined every single one of those times but you got to be willing to come to the foot of the cross the place where you know you can trust me the place where Christ was gashed for you and you've got to unwrap that pain and you got to bring it to the cross of Jesus and you've got to see that he's got pain that he's got gashes that he was wounded for you that he was forsaken for you that he was forgotten for you that he died and bled for you and the power of his pain is what brings the healing into our pain it's the power of his wounds that we focus on that allows us to step with him towards the healing of our wounds and I'm telling you you're never not gonna have a scar but you are gonna have a story and the story is gonna be I still have my thumb I have the use of my hand in fact every time I preach I use it every time I proclaim I use it and your story is gonna be the same I have a story and the story is yes I was wounded yes I was abandoned yes I was walked out on yes I went through hell and back but I made it by the grace of God I am still staining and not only that I am a loved son I am a loved daughter of a perfect heavenly father and I've got a scar where I used to have a wound [Applause] by the power of Jesus he let me see that I am loved he let me know that I am no longer a slave and he confirmed in me I am a child of God

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 48,408

Rating: 4.8737373 out of 5

Keywords: louie giglio sermons, sermons louie giglio, louie giglio Not Forsaken 1, Not Forsaken louie giglio, louie giglio the perfect father, the perfect father, not forsaken, passioncitychurch louie giglio, passioncitychurch, Romans 8:15

Id: mEmPzFgtnCY

Length: 52min 30sec (3150 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2019