"When God is Your Father" | Pastor Carolyn Haas

our hope is for you to know god find freedom discover purpose and make a difference after the service begin that process by connecting with a leader and joining one of our many small groups or teams but for now sit back and enjoy this message make some noise wherever you are at you made it to church today my name is pastor carolyn haas and i'm so excited to share god's word with you and would you just give a welcome to our downtown campus our west side campus our online campus and we've got churches today joining us from all over the world other countries other cities that are tuning in with us today to hear god's word so i don't know about you but i hope you are excited because i'm telling you whether you are young or old today whether you are a mother whether you are a father whether you're single or married a student or a whether you're this is your first time in church and you're trying to figure out what did i just walk into and who is this god and or if you've grown up your whole life in church i am telling you god sees you today he knows you and he has something fresh and new that he wants to reveal a part of himself to you today so this is what i want you to do i want you to turn to your neighbor on the right and i want you to say get ready now turn your neighbor on the left and say i'm ready okay so when i was in junior high my parents did a bible study on the names of god and what we did is we went through systematically through the bible and would see different times that god would reveal one of his names one of his characters one of his attributes and it would be like the first time this name was revealed and then you would study the context and you'd study the story and did god reveal this name to a person was it to a group of people like what was the reason behind it what was god trying to communicate let me give you an example in genesis 16 13 we see the story of hagar and she's a servant she's a woman she's been mistreated she's been emotionally abused she's pregnant and she's overwhelmed she's she's just she thinks she and in that state she actually is like i'm going to die and she just she's so overwhelmed and in that space as she's running away from life feeling stressed out and overwhelmed god reveals himself and it's the first time in scripture we see this name and it is elroy and it is i am the god who sees now what's so profound as you study that passage of scripture is god doesn't just say hey i see you like when he sees it means he has a word of encouragement and so he had a word of strength for hagar he had a word of hope not just for her present but for her future and for her future child and so i don't know what you're walking in here today with but i know that we have a god who sees you and he's got a word of encouragement for you today and so i love looking at the different names of god in scripture because we can see you know like once like there's adonai which means we see lord he's our master or there's jehovah jireh and and we sing songs about that but that is the lord who provides so with each name in scripture we see another attribute of god there's jehovah rapha which is the god who heals and so what i love about names is we each have different names you know some of us are our mother daughter father son brother employer boss employee and with each name that we have it's like a hat that we wear it literally carries a different persona a different maybe filter a different perspective right and so it is with the names of god each time a new name is revealed in scripture god wants to give us a fresh revelation this is another attribute i'm the god who heals i'm the god who sees i'm the god of peace jehovah shalom that is his name he is peace jehovah jireh he's our provider here's where things get interesting when you study matthew mark luke and john the gospels and you study the life of jesus of all the names that jesus used to refer to god he actually used father the most awesome the most common in fact over 40 times in the gospels and this is not an accident this is not just some cliche in fact but it's interesting to note that he didn't talk about god by yahweh or adonai like he literally referred to god as his father now you have to understand this is very unique to those of us who've grown up in church maybe you've heard the lord's prayer our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name it's easy to just father god father god yep cliche father son holy spirit yada yada yada like it's just we think it's this cliched name of god and yet jesus is the first person to come along and introduce us to this name in fact what's crazy is no first century jew ever referred to god as father in fact it was actually said in the in the prophetic that that that the messiah would reveal god as father so jesus comes on the scene and starts making that name known to to the followers of that he was discipling and so it was this unique distinct revelation so read with me in matthew 11 27 jesus says this he said all things have been committed to me by my father no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chose to reveal him okay it's kind of an abstract scripture but what what jesus is saying is i have this unique relationship if you want to know the father you have to know me i know him he knows me and guess what i get to introduce him to all y'all okay so like that's my job i get to share with you this unique relationship that i have with the heavenly father in john 17 1-6 jesus is praying and he's actually talking to his heavenly father and he's like he's talking about his mission on earth and he says father i have manifested your name to the men that you gave me whose name the father many theologians believe that that one of jesus unique purposes was to reveal the fatherhood of god yes he came to bring us salvation he came to die for our sins to give us access to eternity with god but he also came to reveal the heavenly father and this is the term of intimacy this is not a business transaction this is not some distant philosophical the the relationship of father son father daughter is meant to be intimate and i think that this is so important that jesus even went as far as to say hey this is so important it could actually impact your salvation matthew 7 21 says not everyone who says to me lord lord meaning adonai adonai like yup i got that name of god nobody who just says that will enter the kingdom kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my father do you know even demons know the names of god demons actually know scripture that does not mean they're spending their eternity with god in heaven there's something that you can do the deeds of a christian but do you have intimacy with god as your heavenly father you know in the united states we celebrate the holiday of father's day and there's actually a lot of research on the impact of an earthly father i'll just be honest with you as a pastor i see a lot of people they view god based on their experience with their earthly father so for example i've seen a lot of people if their dad was absent for their life they actually struggle seeing god as present as with them i've seen people where their dad was really wealthy financially but emotionally unavailable and so i've seen people struggle then with okay sure god provides but he's too busy for me and i don't know how to connect with god emotionally i've seen people where they've had a dad who is legalistic and therefore they view god as legalistic and for me this is super personal this is super profound many of you know guys know that my dad tragically died when i was 16. the impact on our family was huge and i was fatherless and i remember just grieving and i i didn't even know how to process my grief and my loss and i know this sounds really emo but i would go up to the cemetery in wisconsin or my dad is buried and i would literally just sit and journal and i would just i would just ask all of the emotional questions of like why did i have to lose my father who's going to walk me down the aisle when i get married who am i going to call when i need help who's going to encourage me the way only a dad can encourage who's going to defend me when i need defense and i remember i just had such a hole in my heart i felt so confused i felt so angry but i went on a journey and through the journey of me losing my dad and to the journey of me becoming fatherless i began a beautiful journey of experiencing a side to god that i didn't know even existed or was even possible and that's god as my heavenly father and the reason why i bring this up today is that i would actually stand before you today and propose this and i'm going to argue that one of the most critical foundations to you and i being secure rooted and confident how many of you want that you want to be secure and rooted and confident it's not your college degree it's not your income it's not your job title it's not your promotion it's not your possessions it's not your social media followers it's being a child of god and it's actually knowing god is your heavenly father because listen every human we have needs of affirmation we have needs of love we have needs for encouragement for significance for validation but i'm telling you i'm just going to tell you the secret's out the best place to get it is from your heavenly father so check out what first john 3 1 says i love this verse it says see what great love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of god now i love that it says see because that means it's something tangible invisible that we can actually experience and observe this is not metaphorical this is not philosophical this is not just a suggestion there is something visible to us when we experience the father has lavished on us and then that he lavishes i love those three words so we can see we have a heavenly father and he lavishes i just think it's important to know that like we don't have a father who is like late delayed you know like just barely enough just a little deposit behind crappy you know what i mean like like listen he lavishes his love lavishes his love now listen one of the foundations of christianity is first john 4 19 and it says this we love because he first loved us we can't even love god until we first experience his love in fact i just i know there's some of you here today you've had a hard time loving god you don't even know how to interact with god and that's okay because guess what i've got good news for you you get to have a present today and that gift and that present is you have yet to experience the love of god because when we sit and we experience his love then we can love god and we can love others some of you you're trying to love other people right now and your tank is empty and you just haven't experienced the love of god so the good news for you is you just get to experience it christianity is not a you gotta love god dang it and you gotta love other people i know it's frustrating and impossible but you just gotta do it and it's the obligation of christianity no that's religion that's not christianity christianity we can't even do that we don't have the ability until we first receive so we receive and then we respond are you hearing me today but according to first john 3 1 we visibly tangibly see and experience the love of god only when we know him as our heavenly father and we are his children are you hearing that this is so foundational to each of us in our in our faith and our experience with god and i know some of you know this you're like carolyn i know this i know this jesus loves me yes i know so the bible tells me so but you know what i'm telling you it's head knowledge it hasn't actually impacted your responses in life to hardship and trial and trauma it hasn't actually brought healing to you that's how i know when it's head knowledge versus actually you've engaged with the truths of god some of you you've never fully grasped the love of your heavenly father you're a lot like me sitting at my dad's gravestone you feel alone you feel like if i don't it won't and some of you are here today you're feeling extra tired ragged overwhelmed but i'm telling you god wants to adopt you into a new relationship and he wants to reveal this side of his heart that's why jesus came is to reveal the father and i'm telling you if you can grasp what we're going to talk about today it will literally revolutionize every part of your life you know in october 2019 we had a first wednesday service here and uh there was a girl that came her name is carrie and she came to the it was her first time at church at substance and she was actually invited by a guy named shane and shane met carrie and carrie has an eight-year-old her daughter was eight years old and olivia and olivia had stage four cancer and so when shane met carrie he's like you gotta come to church you gotta come to my church we will pray for you we will pray for your daughter olivia and so kerry came to first wednesday and uh and so then after the service shane came up to me introduced me and just said would you pray well i had actually seen because i could you know saw kind of after the church service that night i had seen several staff and several pastors had already prayed for kerry so i was feeling a little flustered like i don't want to overwhelm this poor girl with another prayer like i don't want to exhaust her you know and i could tell that shane could like read that off of my facial expressions and he's like i know pastor kellen i know we've had other people pray for her but but what does it hurt like can we just one more prayer and i was so convicted i'm like you're right you're right luke 18 1 always pray never give up so let's do this let's do another prayer and so as i was praying for kerry i asked god i said god would you give a scientifically verifiable miracle for olivia like we asked for healing but would it be scientifically verifiable so like i'm praying that prayer for little olivia because the next day thursday olivia's going in for a scan at 7 am and we're going to find out the results of where this tumor so we know the next day she's going in so i'm like god would you give us a scientifically verifiable miracle as i'm praying i sense god in my heart i send some say carolyn she doesn't know me yes it's great that you're praying for healing yes ask me for healing but she needs to know me she needs to know me as her heavenly father like almost like that's more important than healing is this relationship like this is a daughter and she doesn't know me you've got to tell her about me and so i ended the prayer and i just started sharing my story and i just started sharing what god has done in my life and the healing that he's brought and i was like carrie god is not disappointed in you he isn't mad at you it's okay if you don't have all the answers but god wants to reveal himself to you well the next day 7 a.m carrie and olivia went into the hospital and olivia had her scan and the results would come in at 2 o'clock well 2 15 one of our pastors gets a text from carrie and literally it said this the cancer is gone completely gone yes and then they sent us a picture of little olivia right after getting the news there she is in the car isn't that just so beautiful and here it is 18 months later olivia is still cancer free and carrie is at our west side campus this morning so can we give it up for the goodness of god come on church every week every week at substance we are seeing miracles like this people healed of anxiety of depression of migraines of atd seven years of hip pain cysts being healed relationships restored jobs miraculously provided like listen this is the lavish love of god it is something that is visible it is evident to those around us listen to what jesus said in matthew 6 8 jesus said your heavenly father knows exactly what you need before you ask him that's what a good father does he anticipates the needs of his children in advance so i love matthew 6 31 is one of my favorites and it says so do not worry saying what shall we eat what shall we drink what shall we wear for the pagans run after all these things but your heavenly father knows that you need them you know what i love about that passage is it's you're not weak to have a need but notice the response pagans run after their needs strife is toilsome children of god who have a heavenly father he already knows what they need he's provided it he has access you don't merely have a god you have a heavenly father who is generous and might i suggest to you that worry is the chief sign of a pagan of a fatherless child jesus goes on in matthew 7 9 to say which of you if his son asks for bread you're gonna give him a stone or if he asks for a fish we'll give him a snake no we don't do that he's like if you oh you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him listen he's not just merely concerned about your needs he's generous and yet every week i'm just going to be honest i meet people who still don't know that side of god they still don't trust him worry is their default all right all right carol i know that god will provide but but really that means it's going to be late it's going to be delayed it's actually not going to be good it's going to be crappy it's going to be weird sure i know i'm trusting god for a spouse but but but it's not happening and so that means he's going to be ugly and he's going to body odor and like okay we can laugh but that's actually what we think we we know oh of course god's going to provide a job but it's going to be horrific god doesn't provide good jobs he doesn't actually care about my wiring and know what i need in my season of life you know whatever i'm going to okay i'm going to trust god no matthew 7 11 says if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him so i'll never forget when peter and i moved here is 2004 we bought a house in fridley and we lived on a corner lot and uh when we were planting the church we had two driveways which was super handy because we had the church truck and had the church trailer so for the first 11 and a half years of substance we were portable which meant we would load in equipment every sunday to different high schools and different you know places theaters around the city and then we would load it up load it out and that's how we would do church and so but but for years the truck and the trailer would stay in our driveway and so you know just the weight of that and all the equipment that the damage on our driveway got to be a lot and i'll never forget when the city of fridley was was um fixing the curbs you know we all had to pay our portion of okay your curb this is what you're going to have to pay and so it made sense okay let's fix the driveway it's been getting worn out with the truck and trailer but can i just be honest we didn't have a lot of money and it's not like if i even did have money who wants to spend it on a driveway like instagram pick this is my new driveway how exciting no oh my gosh so this is what i did i got an estimate for the cost and you might laugh at this but i didn't even tell peter i just thought i'm gonna bypass peter and i'm not even gonna tell him about this need i'm gonna go straight to my heavenly father and i'm just gonna go heavenly father you see this need this is not where we i want to be spending money right now would you provide well crazy enough a few days later we get a letter in the mail and one of our young people at substance wrote us a letter and sent us a personal check and it was so cute the way they like covered up their name so we couldn't see who it was and uh but it's a check so i i could see who it was but it was really cute they like attempted to like i don't want you to know this is supposed to be anonymous but you know anyway it was very cute um but in the note they were like the lord i just sensed this in my heart to give you this amount of money it was the exact amount of the driveway estimate like what like i just were being so shook like god you actually care about my driveway i mean i know i asked you but like you actually care like come on we think god just cares about cancer war famine injustice you know like the big things right and yes he does but he also cares about the things that we care about and he knows exactly what we need and i'm telling you the father's love it is generous it's far greater than you can imagine so peter and i've been married 25 years and in that i can just tell you story after story after story of god's provision for our family in 25 years of marriage we've had three cars given to us we've had a free trip to disney for our entire family we've had uh three free cruises and one of them was a mediterranean cruise come on that was awesome a free trip to israel in five star hotels over my birthday how fun is that uh we the down payment for our house was given to us by two different people free furniture free snow blower free lawnmower free kitchen remodel come on somebody free babysitting free house cleaning i could go on and on and on at the miraculous provision of god for our family and i'm here to tell you this is not because i'm a pastor god does not love me more because i'm a pastor this is because i'm his daughter and he is my heavenly father and you can have it too you can have this relationship with him that's what i felt like i was supposed to deposit to you guys today to impart like i felt like even driving in this morning god was like carolyn you are who you are because of this intimate relationship you have with me and everyone else needs it jesus came to reveal it to everybody so i'm here to share this with you so listen i want you to write this down when god is your father you don't need to run after your own needs when god is your father you don't need to run after your own needs i'm telling you you will behave differently you will react differently you will respond differently you will pray differently when you believe that god is your father in matthew 26 we see jesus in his final hours he's at the garden of gethsemane and he's been praying to his heavenly father he's in a season of he knows his death is coming soldiers arrive to arrest jesus judas his friend is betraying him with a kiss i mean how awkward like this is just adrenaline and emotion all over the place and then peter jumps into the scene with a sword which there's no other bible story he's talking about peter and the sword so it's not like we know him as this phenomenal swordsman so also he has this rogue sword that he pulls out and uh he attempts murder i mean you know we it's a weird bible story because the ear gets chopped off but you don't aim for the ear he was aiming for his head and then was so bad that he got the ear i mean so just botched felony here you know what i mean like this is just so awkward you know and if i was jesus i'd be like what is happening like i'm being arrested i'm being betrayed peter just attempted a felony like this is so weird and what does jesus do he grabs the bloody weird gross ears zaps it does a healing miracle in the middle of his betrayal in the middle of his trauma he could be all offended and all defensive and all upset and he heals okay so that's profound but listen to what he says in matthew 26 52 jesus doesn't correct judas for betraying him and he doesn't correct the soldiers for arresting him he corrects peter and he says peter put your sword back in its place jesus said to him for all who draw the sword will die by the sword listen how we respond in times of betrayal and injustice it matters jesus continues to peter do you not think i can call on my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels we're talking like 72 000 angels like in the old testament one angel put 186 000 men to death one angel and jesus is like i can call on my father 72 000 angels like that's the kind of power we have he's like peter do not realize the power that we have but what i want to share with you today is do you realize that that power comes from the father heart of god that's one of his attributes as a father to us so the second thing i want you to write down is this if you and i have a heavenly father we don't have to fight our own battles if you and i have our a heavenly father we don't have to fight our own battles jesus is like i'm actually letting this happen i'm good i'm okay i'm secure i've got a heavenly father who's got me listen there are some of you here today where you are just tired because you think it's your job to provide for your needs but you're wrong you have a heavenly father who knows what you need who'll do this for you or you think it's your job to protect yourself or your family you think it's your job to defend your reputation or you think it's your job to find a spouse or maybe you're here today and you think you're littered out because you're single or you're lit it out because you're divorced or you're littered out because you're too young you're too old you're uneducated whatever label that society has placed on you you've accepted that as your identity instead of being a child of god there are some of you here today that you've gotten yourself into a mess you've made some choices and now you're facing some of those consequences and because of that you don't even think you can ask god for help because you're like well i disobeyed it's my fault like i'm just reaping consequences and so you actually have a distance in your relationship with god because you're beating yourself up it's like a penance that you feel like you you have to and sure they're sowing and reaping and i get that but but listen to what psalm 86 5 says it says god is abounding in love to all who call on him we're supposed to approach his throne of grace with mercy and bold like he's got mercy but we're supposed to approach it boldly not with shame even when we've made wrong choices i love the new living translation says psalm 86 5. oh lord you are so good so ready to forgive so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help god is abounding in love he lavishes his love on us so again when god is your father you don't have to run after your own needs when god is your father you don't have to fight your own battles so let me ask this big question then why do we freak out because let's just be honest we do every day 10 times a day right might i suggest we don't know god as our father you know i've talked a lot about my dad dying when i was 16. it was actually april 18th 1992 two weeks before my 17th birthday and my mom and i we found my dad's body after he had committed suicide and i just remember being so shocked because he was a strong christian i didn't know he struggled with mental illness and depression the impact on our family was huge i have an older brother and i have a little brother my older brother was off in college but my little brother ended up in the psychiatric ward of our local hospital after he got discharged he just ended up in a lot of drugs and ended up in the foster care system until he was 18 and then after that he was in and out of jail and uh i just all of a sudden it was just me and my mom my mom had to go back to college to finish her degree so i it just it was true we were shook to the core and i just remember feeling so angry and so abandoned by my dad and then i felt confused and guilty because the week before he died i got in a big argument with them so of course that's messing with my head and then you know then there's the shame that comes with suicide that's just weird and i don't know if you've ever felt shame but shame is heavy and it's weird and it's intense and it's it's something that is put on you and so it's like you you can't get it off on your own it actually has to be lifted it actually has to be removed and uh and so and i just remember being embarrassed by my family's dysfunction like i thought we had the perfect family and we played bible games every night we played cards and we went on mission trips as a family we went to church and we were in small groups and all of a sudden clearly i have a really dysfunctional family and so i was just really embarrassed and i remember nine months later as i was going through just the emotions of grieving i remember i found this scripture psalm 68 5 and says a father to the fatherless a defender of widows is god in his holy dwelling a father to the fatherless a defender of widows this is who god is this is his very nature in his holy dwelling this is who he is and so i'm i'm feisty i remember i took my bible and i threw it up in god's face and i was like okay prove it to me like i'm fatherless you say that your father to the father is well i want to see it i just want to encourage you that's a great challenge to ask god to reveal himself to you not long after that i went to college here in the twin cities the university of minnesota and the first thing i did was find a call a christian group so it's a tuesday night i went to a christian group on campus and it was like a bible study and i'd never met the pastor before and but after at the end of the bible study he was just going around and praying for students and so he just asked me he's like can i pray for you and i'm like of course you can pray for me and so as he's praying for me like one minute into his prayer he just said i know this sounds strange but i feel like god is wanting me to tell you he will be your father and he wants you to know that he is a father to the fatherless and that he's going to take care of you like no one else and i remember of course i'm crying but i'm like how could a total stranger know that and i'm telling you god has shown himself so strong he has sent so many amazing spiritual fathers into my life to adopt me in he has healed my heart in such a beautiful way he took away the whole but listen he filled it with himself so often we have a hole in our life from whatever our mother our father our anything and we try to fill it with a job with promotion we try to prove our identity and who we are and we look for love and we look at lust and we look at all these things to fill the whole but healing is only going to come when we allow our heavenly father to fill that hole with himself it's intimacy with our heavenly father he lifted and removed my shame i didn't know it was possible to be this whole and to be this healed like i just assumed i'd be limping through life a victim and i'd be labeled and scarred and shamed because of this but god reached down and he saw me and he healed me and he's forever spoiled me like i i know i'm his favorite um but listen jesus came to reveal the father but it's important for you to hear he didn't come to reveal the father only to the fatherless or only to the people with broken hearts and broken relationships it's important that this revelation is so critical it's for all of us and some of you you've never interacted with this aspect of god a because you still have an earthly father and you're waiting for him to meet all your needs and you're disappointed in him and so you're just waiting so you're like well my dad still i had the luxury of my dad dying and i know that sounds really weird to say that but because i had no choice i got to experience god but some of you you have a choice today are you going to put your earthly father as an idol in your life and just wait for him to meet your needs or your earthly mother or are you gonna whatever even even a phenomenal dad a phenomenal mom we're not meant to to meet all of your needs god wants to be our heavenly father you know for those of you who know me you know i love to shop like i love it like i'm energized and strengthened by shopping like it just oh it's a spiritual gift i'm a bargain shopper like i get the best deals on the planet and so and so of course when i had kids it was like this is so fun i get to shop for my kids and and so i have to show you the story i've shared it before but when they were little i'll never forget elijah was four and uh she came up to me all stressed out and like completely dramatic asking if she would get a winter coat that year i mean how awkward for a four-year-old right so she was like mom will you be getting me a winter coat this year and of course i'm like so offended you know what i mean like who do you think i am like oh my gosh like of course i know winter is coming and of course i know you need a winter coat and of course i know your size and style and i want it to be super cute not ugly and gross and weird it's who i am as a parent i want to bless you i want to care for you yeah that's what many of us look like to god we're weepy kids who doubt his generous nature we're weepy kids who feel like we have to carry the burden of our needs we're weepy kids who actually feel like god doesn't see our needs or maybe know what season we're in what she didn't know was that in fact i already bought the coat it was actually because i'm not organized it was in a bin in the closet the bin's labeled future bin and it was waiting for her i'd gotten it the year prior on clearance because i'm a bargain shopper and so it was this really expensive coat that i got for really cheap and so i was really proud of this coat i had planned for it i had gotten it in advance and it was waiting for her but it was waiting for the right season if i would have given it to her when i bought it it would have been too big and then she would have been weeping like it doesn't fit if i would have given it to her in july she would have been weeping because it was too hot because it's a winter coat it's meant for the cold did you know that god has a future box for you and it's labeled and it's filled with things he knows you need and in the right season it's ready for you first corinthians 2 9 says it this way no eye has seen no ear has heard no mind has imagined what god has prepared for those who love him i don't think we believe that i think it's like you know no he forgot and he didn't prepare he he you know it's we don't believe that do we here's how you know you believe this when god is your father you don't need to rehearse the failures of your earthly father or your earthly mother when god is your father you don't need to rehearse the failures of your earthly mom and dad because when god's your father he's got a list of spiritual moms spiritual dads to come alongside you to help you grow in fact i take it a step further and say when god is truly our father you never have to say gee i wish my earthly mom or dad would do this that and the other thing like instead you're asking how can i be a better son how can i be a better daughter you're not thinking about your needs you're thinking about the needs of others again first john 3 1 says see what great love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of god and that is what we are you see it's impossible to read that it's impossible to believe that and suddenly get a victim narrative why didn't my mom or my dad do this the other thing because here's the truth all humans will disappoint you every mom every dad every leader will fall short of the glory of god romans 3 23 and guess what you will too can i just take the pressure off there's no perfect mom or dad we can't give none of us have all the gifts and all the things that we can impart to all of our children that's why we need a heavenly father it's like being frustrated is like being frustrated that the grass is green and the sky is blue like listen that's not the point like the point is we're human all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god but god's given us a heavenly father so that to take us from our victim narrative that will transform us into the victorious we can be victors so let me just end with one last story just literally a couple months ago uh my husband peter his wallet got stolen and it got stolen out of his car and was actually at a church event which is uh um but it wasn't even the money that was still lost that was like okay but the wallet was really special it was given to us it was a gift by a friend and so it was really sentimental so there's the sentimental like oh man and then there's the practical let's just be honest during the pandemic it took us forever but we finally got his updated enhanced minnesota driver's license and that was in there and you're like no you know so we had the global entry card and his new driver's license i don't know about you but i'd rather pay a thousand dollars than go to the dmv are you with me you know what i mean like it's just insane and so you know i'm thinking practically like you know and then what's crazy is he's preaching and while he's preaching literally i'm getting my phone is blowing up with fraudulent charge fraudulent charge this person was shopping at walmart on a sunday morning you know with our credit cards and so we finally put it all together got everything canceled and i'll never forget what i told peter you finished preaching and i'm like well your wallet got stolen and uh and i love peter's response totally caught me off guard he's like wow i actually feel terrible for the person who stole my wallet and he said can you imagine what god's gonna do to defend me and he's like the person that poor person is gonna regret the day they stole a wallet from a child of god listen to that filter listen to that perspective and then hear what happened this is so crazy so literally a week and a half later i get the mail and there's a random card with no return address i open it up and the good samaritan had found peter's driver's license like 20 miles away in st paul on a sidewalk and the karza's address is there they're like hey just thought you might want this and so sent us his driver's license back so we're like yeah this is awesome then i get a call from a random guy who's like hey i found your um your husband's id there's no address i had to google and figure who you were and i got your number uh which is kind of a scary thought but anyway um and so anyway then he's so i'm like yes you have my husband's you know global entry card here it is so then he sends it to us in the mail and then he sends us cash he's like i saw that you were a pastor and i and obviously your wallet got stolen so i just wanted to bless you with money like what and then on top of that someone else who didn't even know peter's wallet was stolen another friend gave peter a really cool wallet like all in the same two and a half weeks listen when god is your father you don't need to worry about things you don't have to run after your own needs you don't have to fight your own battle so would you close your eyes what is the biggest concern the biggest anxiety that you have right now listen god sees you today and he wants to reveal himself to you as a heavenly father he wants to remove your shame he wants to bring healing he wants to provide he wants to fight your battles i just had a sense that there's some of you here today that you've experienced a tragedy and you've been mad at god and can i just encourage you run to the lord rather than one from him run to him he can turn all things together for good all things all tragedy he can turn it into something beautiful into something whole he can restore your soul only he can he can actually bring back to life the things that have died in your life that's the god that we serve so jesus i just thank you that you came to reveal the heavenly father to us i thank you for just the promises in scripture father thank you for being my father thank you for adopting me to be your daughter and i just thank you for what you've done the healing you've done in my life so that i could stand before people today and declare your goodness your faithfulness in your father heart i ask that each of us here in this room and watching online would you give us a fresh revelation a personalized individual revelation of your father heart to us today in jesus name amen amen and i love you guys at this time we're going to have our campus patrons come they're going to tell us what we're going to do next

Channel: Substance Church

Views: 872

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: ADxxrIxtMZ4

Length: 40min 11sec (2411 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 20 2021