God as our parents supersized...

At the church where I serve, we just concluded a sermon series entitled Distorted. During this series, we spent our time together addressing six distorted views of God that flow from a distorted perception and assumption about God and that can result in us shaping and molding God into our image. During this series, we strived to replace those distorted perceptions and assumptions about God with six accurate views of God that were given by us by Jesus Himself. And as we went through the series, our hope and our prayer was that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands to enable us to rid ourselves of any distorted views that we have of God and replace them with an accurate view of God so that we would be able to experience a growing and maturing relationship with God.

During the series, we have discovered that we have a distorted view of God when we view God as a cop around the corner instead of a late night neighbor.  We have discovered that we have a distorted view of God when we view God as a sweet old man instead of the lord of a boardroom.  We have discovered that we have a distorted view of God when we view God as the cosmic slot machine instead of the green-thumbed gardener.  We have discovered that we have a distorted view of God when we view God as the talent show judge instead of the equal opportunity employer.  We have discovered that we have a distorted view of God when we view God as the all you can eat buffet instead of the single minded shepherd.

This week, as we come to the conclusion of this series, I would like for us to spend our time together addressing another distorted view of God that flows from a distorted perception and assumption about God and that can result in us shaping and molding God into our image. And the distorted view of God that I would like us to address is the view of God as our parents supersized.

The view of God as our parents supersized is the most understandable, and in many ways the most impactful, of all of the distorted views of God that we have discussed during this series. You see, the role a parent plays in shaping a child’s view of God is real and unavoidable. Our parents are the first and foremost figures in our lives that shape and mold virtually every aspect of our lives.

I mean, just take a minute and ponder the influence that a parent has on their children. A parent’s ability or inability to give us the affection that we need will influence how we picture God. A parent’s ability or inability to give us the acceptance that we need will influence how we picture God. A parent’s ability or inability to give us the love that we need will influence how we picture God. A parent’s ability or inability to give us the stability that we need will influence how we picture God. A parent’s ability or inability to exercise their strength and authority appropriately will influence how we picture God.

And for many of us, this distorted view of God as your parents supersized is the reason that you want nothing to do with God. Maybe for you, every time you hear God referred to as “Father” you gag in your mouth because of the negative experience that you had with your earthly father. Maybe you grew up in an environment where you never experienced the affection, the acceptance, the stability, or the love that you should have from your parents. Maybe you grew up in a home where your parents either abdicated their authority or abused their authority. Maybe you want nothing to do with God because you grew up in a home that was marked by hurt, pain, conflict, and divorce. Maybe your picture of God is the equivalent of a “big gulp” version of your earthly parents.

However, when we see God as our parents supersized, we end up with a distorted view of God that will keep us from knowing and experiencing the true father/mother heart of God. And the reason why this is the case is due to the fact that God is not a reflection of our earthly fathers. Instead God is the perfection of our earthly fathers.

We see this reality revealed in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. And it is in this section of this account of Jesus life that we discover a timeless and true view of God that can help us rid ourselves of the distorted view of God as our parents supersized and replace it with an accurate view of God that will enable us to experience a growing relationship with God.

Tomorrow, we will begin to look at this section of the gospel of Luke together…