Sermon: Flip the Script
ICE BREAKER: Who is your all-time favorite TV dad?
REVIEW:
Happy Father's Day!
This week, we looked at how we can flip the script as fathers, (and parents more broadly) to be the best parents we can be! There is also GREAT application for non-parents if you are looking for it (I'll try to point that out).
We started by looking at how TV dads have changed throughout the decades. From competent and strong, to lovable idiots, to just plain caricatures or absent fathers today.
This helped us acknowledge that we all are living according to scripts as well. Some of these are written by past hurts or experiences, others are written by culture and influences surrounding us, and all of that is shaped by our inner-narratives and what we believe about ourselves!
What do you think are the major influences that have shaped your scripts so far?
How has this worked for good, and in what ways has it held you back?
Fathers, in particular, often fall into a pre-determined cultural script that can put their wives and children on the back burner in order to pursue other goals. This is further complicated when you are co-parenting because of divorce!
Pastor Noel gave us three steps to FLIP THE SCRIPT and reach our potential as parents!
1. Sacrifice For Your Children
If you don’t Sacrifice FOR your children you will end up making your Children the thing THAT you sacrifice. They need your time, your energy, your words of affirmation. They need to hear their father say that they have worth and value and that he loves them!
2. Serve Your Child's Mom
Whether they are your wife, ex-wife, or the mother of your step-kids! Part of how you truly serve their mother, is by doing your part in their upbringing. If you have the filter of service engaged in your life you will more clearly see the areas of appropriate sacrifice for your kids. Relationships are full of hurt. Give the gift of forgiveness. Make the right apologies. Clear the path to service through Submission to one another.
3. Seek Your Heavenly Father
If everyday you are seeking to be more like God - you will AUTOMATICALLY begin serving and sacrificing in all the right ways.
APPLY:
This is the model to become the parent God has called you to be! This is also a template for success in life more generally! We must learn to make the RIGHT sacrifices, to SERVE the people around us (even if they are super annoying), and to start with SEEKING GOD first in our life!
HERE IS THIS WEEK'S APPLICATION QUESTION:
If you are a parent, which of the 3 steps do you need the most work on AND what is ONE THING you will do this week to see improvement in that area?
If you are not a parent, what is an area in your life that you could use the template SACRIFICE, SERVE, SEEK to better live out your God-given purpose?
PRAY:
Spend some time praying for the parents on your Life Team and the parents you are connected to. Ask God to show you how to make proper sacrifices in your life. Seek the Holy Spirit's prompting to see how to really serve others around you.
