Mike Todd’s Introduction

• Welcome to Week 8 of a Series Called, F.U.
• Today was Mikes Birthday and he felt mandated to deliver the word on forgiveness. Mike felt like the enemy didn’t want this particular word to get out in fear that it might free someone today. He was determined to get the whole word out today. He wants to focus on an area of forgiveness that is plaguing many, and it’s the forgiveness of fathers. Mike knows that many are guarded, gated and offended by this topic, so he feels the need to address the topic.
• He knows that the father figures of many have disappointed their kids and left them the result of decisions made by them. “Now we are a product of somebody else’s decisions. We walk around with insecurities and confidence based on somebody else. Now we try to raise children when we were not properly parented.” As we prepare for the holiday season, feels like many have to mentally prepare to face their parents/fathers, because the issues were never addressed.
• Mike is going to approach the topic very delicately, but directly. He is going to address everyone is this equation.
• Believes there is a lack of understanding in how to be a father and the enemy capitalizes that.
• Believes that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will have, “faith to forgive.” This includes your father. Mike states that not all fathers are bad. He is not grouping all fathers.
• The image of the father has been messed up by society. Because of society, many fathers don’t understand the impact, influence and the injury they can cause to humanity without even being aware of it.

1. Father Forgiveness Is Necessary For True Freedom

For us to fully be free, we have to forgive our fathers. To experience true freedom, you have to forgive your father.

You will only be able to be used up to a limit until you let them go. God can’t use you everywhere he wants you because you haven’t addressed and released that what has been holding you back.

For example, He won’t send you mentees with daddy issues because you have them too.

Some of your fathers may be in a grave, but they still affect you. In fact, we can be triggered by others that remind us of our fathers.

Too many people walk through life trying to prove to God they are enough because they didn’t get a chance to show it to their father.

You have to let your father God heal you to truly experience Him and all that He has for you. You have to let your earthly father go.

In society, we mix up the terms, “Male”, “Man”, and “Father”.

2. Being Male = God’s Choice

He knows many don’t know how to, so he presents them with an understanding. Knowing the difference between male, man and father.

1. Being a male is Gods choice.

Genesis 1:27 New King James Version (NKJV)

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Realize it is God’s choice. Being a male is simply physical. The key to knowing this is to realize that every male isn’t a man. Being a man is your choice. The greatest thing God gave us is choice.

3. Being a Man = Your Choice

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 English Standard Version (ESV)

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.

This is why females must be careful in choosing a man to stand firm in faith before you because leading him in everything nulls him from fully being a man.

We’re taught to be strong by society, but the true characteristics of a man being strong involves being faithful, forgiving, be meek, loving, power under control.

1 Corinthians 16:14 English Standard Version (ESV)

14 Let all that you do be done in love.

Society paints a totally different picture, i.e., don’t care, sleep with whoever you want, etc. You’re only a man when you do everything in love. What is love?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 New International Version (NIV)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

This is what a man is supposed to be. Totally opposite of what society has planted in our minds.

There are few men in the world and majority males. Male was God’s choice, man is your choice.

4. Being a Man is Simply Mental

Being a man is mental. Being a male is physical. You have to make the choice to be a man.

There are 68 year old boys. If you never choose to be a man, then your default is being a boy.

1 Corinthians 13:11 New Living Translation (NLT)

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

The difference between being a boy and a man. It’s all about a decision.

Many of us were raised by grown boys. If they never made the decision to be a man, a man of God, then by default they are a boy.

Most men were raised by men who didn’t want to take responsibility. They may have produced children but never let go of the mentality/heart posture of a boy.

5. Boy is the Default

Recapping that a ‘male’ was Gods choice, ‘man’ has to be your choice, and if not, a ‘boy’ is the default – but going deeper, there is a greater level you can walk in, and that level is ‘father’, which is your image duplicated.

6. Father is Your Image 

When a male never becomes a man, but remains a boy, but decides to have children, this only duplicates their image…

1. This is why we have so many issues in society. There are duplications of an immature image being made.
2. Going back to the originator, Genesis 1:26, fathers are supposed to make images. The scripture reads, “Let us make man in our Image.” Because I’m Father God, I want them to be just like me, giving them the ability to transfer the character, the likeness, The ideas, the thoughts, the love, the joy, the integrity….I want a copy of Me in them. This is an image according to God’s likeness.
3. We don’t understand what it is to be an image of our earthly father.

(Using an example of MJ, Mike paints an illustration that MJ has his image.) But more importantly, the image of his integrity is more copied on MJ’s life than the physical, which means that his character image affects him more. Everything about Mike is supposed to be copied, not just the physical, which is the least. Elements like Mike’s character image, how Mike treats MJ’s mother and sisters, love image, stewardship image, integrity image and spiritual image (which affects him eternally) will affect him more.

7. Greatest Attack on Humanity is Fathers Unaware

Through 3 weeks of intense counseling with Natalie (wife) he has come to the conclusion that one of the biggest weapons of the enemy that the father uses is “Fathers unaware.”

It is the card he can throw at any moment to disrupt your life. This can go back to Cain and Abel. One of them died because they couldn’t get adequate affirmation from their father, so they tried to one up each other.

Fathers are unaware of the impact of everyone they come in contact with.

This leads Mike to calling this sermon, “F U – Fathers Unaware.”

Message Title: Fathers Unaware

If males knew the lasting impact they had on generation after generation, they wouldn’t willingly do what they do.

If they were mature and didn’t reproduce the things they never healed from by the pains caused by their father.

Mike is siding with these men. He understands. He understands that men are dealing with the cosmic failure of decisions that were dumped on their lap, and all this time they were just a father, unaware. You were never shown, no playbook, no relationship with God, so now we’re living in a society that is broken, not because people are broken but, because fathers were out of place and unaware.

By the presence and spirit of God, Mike only wants fathers and future fathers to become aware. The changes to the future generations will be great (even for decades). But sadly, too many fathers are unaware.

• Fathers unaware of how affirmation builds security in your kids
• Fathers unaware of how your presence is more valuable than your presents
• Fathers unaware of how their act of faith (people seeing you pray, lift you your hands in church, pray out loud, lifting your hands in your car) is God building foundation in another generation and affecting future generations forever.
• Fathers unaware that their broken promises create broken people.
• Fathers unaware that him and the mother not getting along would create a child with an identity crisis for three decades.
• If fathers were aware, they would’ve made a different decision, they may have put the bottle down, not ‘shot up’, they may have left that other woman’s bed if they were aware that same deviant behavior would have passed down for four generations of sons.
• You’re unaware that the perceived perfections you give to your family is creating perverted perceptions of what reality is. “Men don’t cry…toughen up”. Kids try to be like dad when Dad wasn’t even being himself. Perceived perfection creates perverted thoughts of how you handle life. Perverted simply means twisted.

Blocks of a Successful Life

            Mike uses an illustration of building blocks he uncovered from one of his counseling sessions in which the counselor emphasizes the importance of a Father in your life.

These blocks represent the blocks of a successful life. The first four blocks which are the foundation of the success are stating that the child needs to be:

Seen

Soothed

Safe

Secure

Most psychologists believe that within the family dynamics, the mother sees and soothes the child, while the father keeps the child safe and secure. This dynamic is jacked up because there was no man, so therefore the mother had to be the man.

“You’re a man, you don’t do that. I know you’re 8, but I need you to work and help.” “There is no time to cry. We have to survive” is the mentality.

Most of us are missing being seen and soothed. And if your father wasn’t there (or if he was there with his own issues), there was a safety issue.

Most people believe safety and security are the same thing but, safe means “I’m going to be alright”, security means that I can fall apart.

Security means you can have a weak moment and know you’re going to be picked up.  Security gives you the license to have a weak moment and be wrong, but you will be picked up. There are people out there who can’t admit when they were wrong because they never had security, which never enabled them to believe they had the ability be wrong or make a mistake.

With this foundation, you’re able to:

1. Assert yourself. (beginning of second tier)
   • Many kids are taught, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to never be assertive. Never say what you really want. Don’t say too much. In this case, they are not seen or soothed. This leads to a lack of assertiveness. This can show up later in life with situations like not asserting yourself when you really don’t want to have sex before marriage, but you don’t due to a lack of security.
2. Competence comes after practicing assertiveness which all stands on the first tier of building blocks.
3. Purpose can then be explored and found.

It’s on this second tier, you get the third tier, which is: a “Me, Who Am I” and “You”, the one you’re supposed to be yoked with, which he explains in another way as ‘seeing eye to eye’.

Having both people with the same foundational blocks allows for Unity.

Finally, upon those two is the 4^th and final tier which is labeled “US”. Who we are boils down many times to our fathers being unaware.

Because you never felt safe (foundational block of safety is removed and tower tumbles). – You were able to still make it but never felt secure (Secure block falls). – You’re only left with the life building blocks of ‘Soothe, Seen, and Assertive.’ – Mike believes this is where many of the “independent woman” mindsets are formed – because they never had safety and security, the need to assert becomes greater.

Issues arise later when meeting a man because you have already developed and strengthened the building blocks of assertiveness, being seen and soothing yourself, while lacking the others, so it is difficult to coexist with a man all because fathers were unaware.

“You” (the Man), “Competence”, “Us”, “Security” – all of these other blocks fell because the man was unaware.

8. What’s Not Transformed is Transferred

When the picture of the family is not transformed, we try to build it out of place.

We try to arrange the blocks in our own way, leading us to dead ends. Because the man was unaware, all of the blocks crumble and you’re left with trying to build your own warped vision of purpose. Because you were not ‘safe’ in the early years (first tier block), you build your life using other blocks all in an effort to feel safe. (Illustration with “safe block” at the top instead of the bottom like original format pictured).

When a father is unaware, it leaves a child to build their life out of place.

And now you’re 58, and you’re finally safe from you didn’t get when you were young. When you build your life on an unsure foundation, you’re liable to crumble again.

You can swap around the blocks all day, but the point Mike wants you to take from this is that is all because there was a father, unaware.

Mike wants someone’s faith to be lifted by the power of God to break the cycle. He reminds us that what is transformed is transferred. You are an image of your father. Fathers make images.

9. Forgiveness is a Father Issue

All forgiveness is a father issue; it is either vertical or horizontal.

If you have a bad relationship with your earthly Father, it affects the way you view your heavenly Father. (Image connecting “you” vertically to a Heavenly Father and horizontally to the earthly Father.) 

When we never experience the provisions and security etc. from an earthly father, we find it hard to accept it from the Heavenly father. If there is no grace and mercy between your Earthly father, you will find it hard to receive grace and mercy from your heavenly Father. This is why we have back up plans (or a backup plan for a backup plan) when we were supposed to trust in God for something.

You may not have the ability to speak to your father. They may have passed away, but it’s Mike’s hope that this message still releases you from being held back from all the things that still affect you.

God can speak to you through your situation. Even if you don’t know your father, it’s Mike’s prayer that you’re able to release these setbacks off you and allow God to free you.

God wants you to be free, not act free. Therefore, these things must be addressed. Eventually, in most cases, the roles soon switch and children soon become the parent, and ultimately become what they hated because they never dealt with the issues and allowed to healing.

You became that part of your parental raising, that you hated because you never let anyone know or allowed God to heal it, that thing that still hurts. It then transfers to your kids who grow up to resent and distance themselves from you. They only show up for Thanksgiving and holidays. The presents tend to become more and your presence become less, trying to overcompensate for what we didn’t get..

Do you have the time to speak life and the word of God over your children? Do you have the energy to do that? Usually we don’t because we’re overcompensating for what we don’t have. Then it passes on to their children

The lyrics of “The Blessing” state, “and your favor, be upon you for a thousand generations”, could you imagine if it stated, “and your failures is upon them for a thousand generations…and your fear is upon them…..and your faking is upon them….

Deuteronomy 5:9-10 New King James Version (NKJV)

9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

……It is not just the good that passes on.

Better than money is to leave behind good character, integrity, consistency. These are the things that last for generations.

10. Everybody Needs an Act to Follow

God did not create you to not need for an active, present, walk in the cool of the day, father.

On the inside of everyone, is a need for an active Father to follow. That’s what God was for Adam and Eve in the garden.

We try to act like we only need a father for a segment, i.e., you’re grown so you don’t need one. However, we can still have adolescent level mindsets in dealing with certain things.

An active earthly father is supposed to leave a blueprint for you to know how to connect to your Heavenly Father when you became of age… It should be the first image of connection, community, provision, care, etc. on the Earth, so when you accepted what Jesus did on the cross, you already have an example of what coming to my Father looks like through my earthly father, so I can connect easily with my Heavenly Father.

Kids are supposed to be able to run to their Father.

What happens when you had no Father to go to or if your father ignored you? It plays out in your spiritual relationship with your Heavenly Father.

When you lose your job, get hurt, feel taken advantage of, you don’t say, “Daddy” – or worse, it was your daddy that did it.

There were some people so unaware that held the title of Father, who may have not done right by you, and left deep marks on your heart.

Sometimes, it’s not just that Fathers weren’t there, but they caused the pain. It’s unfair. This was not how it was supposed to go according to Gods original plan. Sometimes, you have to forgive unfair.

God still has something for those that got presented with a different reality.

Psalm 68:5 New Living Translation (NLT)

5 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—

    this is God, whose dwelling is holy.

It told Mike that God is a father to the fatherless. You can’t be born without a male and a female but God knew that every man wouldn’t take up that role of a Man. So in His Word, he stated that he would step in and be a Father to the fatherless.

 11. You Can Call Someone Father and Still be Fatherless

You may have someone you call Father and you’re still missing things that they aren’t providing.

Mike does an exercise asking everyone to close their eyes and to imagine a pink polka dotted elephant.

He then drew the comparison or a difference between what was in his mind and what was in everyone else’ mind. It’s only until he showed an example what was in his mind, you were then able to see exactly what it looks like. Before showing the example, everyone was left to their own interpretation of what the pink elephant looked like.

This is how some people draw their own illustrations of how a father should be. They never received the proper blueprint, so they drew it from worldly examples or the only sources they had like TV shows, other family members that tried to fill in partially, coach, cousins, etc. all in an effort to assimilate an image you were never shown.

The picture of a father may not be what God intended for you.

Mike wants to defend the idea of God as a father because he feels that God was misrepresented to many. The picture of father has been broken. He uses an example of Natalie not having a good example of an earthly father relationship and how that made it difficult to trust in God for certain things. The image of the Heavenly father is directly tied to our view of our earthly Father.

God is so much bigger.

12. God is Being Misrepresented Because Of Association Assassination

But we must remember that God defines himself as Father first.

He is the first example and he is described as Father many times throughout the Bible.

Psalm 68:5 New Living Translation (NLT)

5 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—

    this is God, whose dwelling is holy.

Psalm 103:13 New Living Translation (NLT)

13 The Lord is like a father to his children,

    tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

James 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV)

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Just from these three scriptures, we see that God is a provider, protector, pure, tender, compassionate, generous, honest, and consistent.

The unfiltered truth is to fully experience your heavenly father is that you will have to forgive your earthly father.

13. To Fully Experience Your Heavenly Father, You Have To Forgive Your Earthy Father

Mikes assignment was just to tell us that we have to forgive our fathers. He doesn’t say how we should do it, but that doing it unlocks you to fully experiencing your Heavenly Father.

Mike just wants to highlight how important being a Father aware is. You’re creating generational legacy whether you know it or not.

The fullness you were intended to experience is going to come when you release that male who never fully became a father to you from the debt they caused you.

If you are going to fully experience your Heavenly Father, you have to forgive your earthy Father.

Mike references his earthly Father, Tommy Todd. He speaks on how good a Father Tommy was to him, while noting that Tommy didn’t necessarily the straightest upbringing because his earthly biological father was not the father that grew him up. He spoke to his earthly father for the first time at 18 years of age over a pay phone. Tommy knew that this reality of not having his biological father show up could have negatively impacted him if he let it, but he decided to forgive his biological father and release him from that, so he could have walked into fatherhood unhindered by holding on to that debt created by his biological Father. Mike notes that God made provisions for Tommy (whom carries his biological fathers name) to still have a father figure through the man that was married to his mother. This man accepted Tommy and his twin sister although they were not biologically his. All of this set a trajectory for Tommy to become the father He became to 5 boys whom 3 have children now.

Think about what it would do to you if your entire life you were raised thinking that you’re an image of somebody who you’re not an image of. Tommy said, “Michael, I forgave my dad, because I knew that if I didn’t change the trajectory of my life by forgiving him, it would affect me with my children.” Tommy went on to have 5 sons because he let go of the offense of what he was not provided/who didn’t show up. God brought another man/situation that brought security for him so that he could become the man of God that he is today, not perfect, bur progressing.

Some ask Mike how is he able to trust in God in certain situations to which Mike accredits to having a good father – having a mother and father that saw him and made him feel secure. While others may not have had that situation, Mike notes that God still made provisions for these circumstances by making Himself available to be called on, but sometimes we are blinded or held back by our own circumstances. Nonetheless, God is a Father aware.

Instead of being pissed on Father’s Day, praise God.

All we have to do is put that unaware father to side and allow God to come in and do the work and fill the void. Every problem doesn’t get fixed and all the issues don’t disappear right away, but there is a promise from our Father God, Abba.

Abba is what He was called in the original language. It’s like the first time a baby says, “Dada”. That’s the purest version. He is Abba. God wants to be our Abba. When we are hurting, he is Abba, when we’re broken and in need, He is Abba.

Allow God to be the Father to the fatherless.

Mike wants us to know forgiveness is available for that unaware father. Even though they messed up, we have the ability to let him go.

As we mature through our Christian walk, this message will hit us and we will realize that while it was not our fault, it is now our responsibility.

14. It May Not Be Your Fault, but It Is Now Your Responsibility

We may not think it’s fair, but the reality is, life isn’t fair.

It might not be your fault that he’s a deadbeat dad or got locked up. How it affects you is your responsibility. You need to forgive your unaware Father

Message to the Unaware Fathers:

If you are an unaware Father, and you know you have not done the things you know you needed to do, it is imperative to start today. Don’t allow the guilt and shame to hold you back.  Mature into manhood and realize they are speaking from hurt. It’s never too late to start trying. Your kids need you. Your children need you.

As long as you are alive, it is not too late to make an effort to make amends with your children. This is a part of maturing into manhood and you must realize that they may speak from a place of hurt, but what they won’t say is, they need their earthly father. They need you. It doesn’t matter if they are 14, 24 or 44, they won’t feel secure because they lack the voice of their earthly father.

Mike didn’t want to be this heavy on his birthday, but it was important to get this message out so you can transform and become who God has called you to be and stop the generational cycles. It doesn’t how you feel. It matters what you were called to. If you were born a male, you can make the choice to be man and take the responsibility to be a father.

Mike is standing flatfooted and challenging you all to stand up with Gods help and grace. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those that stand in Christ Jesus.” You can receive grace and forgiveness vertically so we can forgive horizontally.

Abba. Abba is who we need right now. We need ‘Daddy God.’ He is the father who really loves us. He is the one that sees us and secures us. Makes us safe and gives us purpose and identity.

Emotions may be everywhere. Some may feel lonely. Some of you may be the father that was unaware and now feel convicted. Some of you were victims of fathers unaware and it may stir up old feelings. All of this is ok. You are in a safe place to allow God to be Abba. Our Father God is consistent, He is a provider and wants to bring us into His family, the One who is tender and compassionate, honorable and generous.

Galatians 4:4-7 New International Version (NIV)

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Emphasis on WE. We can go from going from being outside of the family to being adopted and having a Father in Abba and being called into the family. Because we are His sons, He sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, The spirit who calls out for a Father. ABBA!

Some fathers were there with presents, but not with their presence. Abba Father is here. Some may feel like a slave, slaves to opinions, to work, and to having to work for approval, but God is here to say you are no longer a slave having to work for approval. You are a son, you are God’s child.

You are now a child of God which now makes you an heir. We must act like heirs. You are royalty. Your self-esteem is based on what God says. You have been blood bought! God paid the ultimate sacrifice to give you His name.

When you need help, you can call Abba.  When you don’t know yourself, you can Call Abba.  When you’re broken, call Abba. When you need help raising your kids despite you not having an example, call Abba. He’ll be there. He’s consistent, safe, He sees you, He’s secure, soothing, will give you purpose, will tell you who you are, and remind you that you’re made in His image.

If He can get some fathers to be aware it would be easier because we can get a practical version of what God has tried to do with us in a heavenly fashion. “As it is in heaven, let it be on Earth.” As the Father has been to us in heaven, may fathers be the same to their kids on earth.

Mike doesn’t have a solution in a service, but the Holy Spirit moves. It’s Mike prayer that children forgive their earthly fathers.

There are also some that need to forgive God. God is able to take it however you want to send it. He can handle how you feel. Just come to Him. He has what you need. It doesn’t matter how you do it. He’s big and secure enough to take His kids throwing a tantrum. He is here to lift us up and wrap His loving arms around us.

Mike has a song, “Abba.”…that he wants everyone to use to ask the Holy Spirit what is it that we need to be spoken to us. He hopes that through the song playing, the question is answered.

Song: Abba by Eddie James https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv75wcXQcNw

If there’s an area of your fatherhood that you’ve been unaware, or if you’ve been affected by an unaware father, stand and lift your hands to surrender. Give up trying to be the provider or in control. We cannot fix what you cannot validate. We can’t fix what you act like is not there.

Prayer: Father, we pray for every father who is literally standing right now and the enemy is trying to convince them of guilt and condemnation. I bind that spirit in the name of Jesus. I declare and believe Father God, that right now your grace is rushing over them like a flood. Your mercy is new every morning. I thank you that you would give them the audacity to choose differently. Your word tells us to choose life. Today, you’re giving the choice not choose to be a male, but a man, and put away the childish things and be a father. We can’t do it alone God, but your word says that you will give us both the desire and the power to do what pleases you. I thank you that these men of God who have been unaware God, now have a revelation and they are aware of what they have been called to do in humanity, which is to set a foundation for people to be the preshow for people to meet you. Regardless of the situations with baby mothers or geography, there will be burden for men to get back into place in the home, to be the men of God you called them to be, and to be the fathers that will change this nation, and change the world. I thank you that they will walk in joy and will sleep better than they’ve ever slept before tonight. There will be an evident difference in their countenance Father God, and for every future father, God, I thank you that there is a burden on the inside of them right now. I declare and believe that there will be a burden that they will stand up and take their responsibility as an image bearer to be serious and they will get to know you and deal with their issues and all of the pain so that they can be an image that reflects you and point their children to you God. I thank you for the ability for you to sustain them as you heal them in the name of Jesus.

Father, now I pray for every person that has been affected by unaware fathers. Father there are deep wounds. People are insecure, mad, hurting, can’t see you, have vowed never to love, have cursed you – God you’re big enough to take all of our tantrums. I thank you that your grace will pour over all of us right now. I pray for the one who has been fighting this the whole time because they really feel as if they let this emotion out, somehow they won’t be able to get it back together. God I thank you that you will send your Holy Spirit to be the comforter right now. The one that comes alongside of them to help. This is the breakthrough you’ve been praying for. Everything is going to change. Freedom comes from forgiveness. Give them the audacity to let their unaware fathers go – not become best friends or necessarily go back in an abusive situation or try to mend everything, but release them, because they didn’t know. God, they were unaware of how many decades it would affect. I thank you that you would step in like you always do and be Abba – a Father to the fatherless, in Jesus name.    

Altar Call: In that same attitude. If you’re here and you’ve never accepted Abba Father as your personal Lord and savior, He’s about to be working. Send this to every person you know. Send this for them, for their spouses, and for future generations. God is doing surgery on people’s hearts right now. We’re going to learn to truly forgive.  If you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior, He’s the only way that we can actively get to Abba. The Bible says that there is no other way that you can come to Abba except through Jesus. All you need to do is believe in Jesus horizontally to have connection with God vertically. Today, if you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, this is your opportunity right now. This is what took Mike from being a liar, addicted to porn, a manipulator, and with a lot of bad in his heart, who is not perfect now, but progressing – but took someone like Mike and changed him and transformed his life. God is offering that to you right now. He wants to be Abba Father. Right now, according to Romans 10:9, all you have to do is believe and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He died for you and all of you sin, mistakes, and missteps He throws them as far as the East is from the West. Religion tells you that you need to change and do this and that, but God says, if you let me in, I will help you change your habits if you let me into your heart. Today, He wants that for you. On the count of three, if you want to be added into that prayer, all you need to do is lift your hand. 1. You’re making the greatest decision of your life, 2. I’m so proud of you, but more importantly, God is more proud of you, and 3. Just shoot your hand up. All you have to do is believe and pray this prayer.

Transformation church is a family so we pray together.

Let’s Pray Together: Father, thank you, for being good. Thank you for sending Jesus. Today, I put my trust in Him. I believe He lived, He died, and He rose again, just for me. So take over, change me, transform me, I’m yours, in Jesus name. Amen.

• Text ‘Saved’ to 828282 for resources and content to help you

Don’t fight what God tries to reveal this whole week. You just had heart surgery. Don’t try to get up and go run a marathon. Allow God to do this work. You may have to go find that song on Spotify (below).

Let it wash over you and let God take layer and layer. Allow God to minister to you. You’ll come back in 7 days more free. You’ll come back with an assurance that you have your identity wrapped up in a father that will never leave you or forsake you. Some of you are going to mend your relationship with your father. What you’ve been holding onto has been petty. God will give you the audacity to forgive and let them go. If your father is still alive, do it now. Tomorrow is not promised. There are so many things that are happening right now in our world – so many people are losing their fathers. Mike doesn’t want you talking to a gravestone if you don’t have to. Look at them, send them a voice note, write a note – send it, make a video – do something. Forgiveness is not an acceptance of what they did being okay. It’s not okay what they did, you’re just releasing them. Declare that you will not carry both them around and the effects of what they did. His burden is easy and His yolk is light, cast all your burdens on Him.

Go out this week and live a transformed life.

Side note from Abby: Sorry it took me so long to get these notes up!! Thank you for your patience! Also, a special thank you to my husband Wilshire Dames for writing the notes for this sermon. Also, to Rura, the believer who sent me an email reminding me to make the final edits ASAP and publish. Finally, thank YOU for reading!!

You can still get “Relationship Goals” the book and study guide today for additional support:

Latest Arrivals in Merch

SUMMARY NOTES

1. Father Forgiveness Is Necessary For True Freedom
2. Being Male = God’s Choice
3. Being a Man = Your Choice
4. Being a Man is Simply Mental
5. Boy is the Default
6. Father is Your Image
7. Greatest Attack on Humanity is Fathers Unaware
8. What’s Not Transformed is Transferred
9. Forgiveness is a Father Issue
10. Everybody Needs an Act to Follow
11. You Can Call Someone Father and Still be Fatherless
12. God is Being Misrepresented Because Of Association Assassination
13. To Fully Experience Your Heavenly Father, You Have To Forgive Your Earthy Father
14. It May Not Be Your Fault, but It Is Now Your Responsibility

Link to full Video (share this message💕): https://youtu.be/Lfa8wM1wBlw

Join TC for service every Sunday at 11am (CST) and weekly for NoonDay Prayer at 12pm (CST).

Transformation Church would love to hear how God is touching your life through this ministry!  Tell us your story by emailing mystory@transformchurch.us!

If you would like to support TC financially you can give through the TC app, or online through the website by clicking here https://transformchurch.us/give/.  You can also Text ‘TCGIVE’ to 77977.

If you need prayer, email prayer@transformchurch.us!

For more information about Transformation Church, visit https://transformchurch.us/.

To join a Belong Group, visit https://transformchurch.us/BELONG/

The D.I.G. stands for Deeper In God and it is a conversation where we dive deeper in God. Join us this Wednesday at 7pm (cst)! — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYv-siSKd3Gn9IsliO95gIw