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What comes to mind when you think about your father? Is it joy, pain, or indifference? Whatever it is, it can reveal deeper wounds that still affect you today. In this journey of healing, Zach Garza invites you to explore topics like generational sin, emotional scars, and the transformative power of forgiveness through the lens of his own story of growing up without a father in the home. By confronting the past, you'll discover how to break free, embrace your true identity, and experience the unconditional love of God.
Chapter 15, experience required. Experience trumps knowledge. You can debate doctrine all day long, but you cannot move a man who has had an encounter. Growing up in the church, I acknowledged but lacked experience. The truth is I knew a lot of men who would preach about being kind and helping the poor, but yelled at me when I misbehaved and didn't help my mom and me when we were struggling.
Speaker 1:This didn't make sense to me. Why would I wanna follow Jesus if I didn't respect his followers? To me, church was all about rules and looking good. It was all discipline and correction. It wasn't fun, and I left feeling ashamed every Sunday.
Speaker 1:Why would anyone wanna be a part of that? I knew a lot about God the father, but I didn't personally know God the father. It was similar to being able to tell all the facts about your favorite athlete or movie star, but you've never actually met them. I could tell you most of the things of the Bible said about God, but I never experienced his kindness and mercy for myself. I knew in my mind that God was good, but that wasn't what I experienced.
Speaker 1:In my late twenties, I started on a journey to find out if I wanted to follow Jesus Christ and call him the Lord of my life. I was on the fence, but then I met Larry. I was introduced to Larry through a disciple ship program. Everyone in the program seemed to hold Larry in high regard. Turns out, he had been in the ministry for over thirty five years, and he had a real gift of encouragement.
Speaker 1:After a time of prayer during this program, Larry approached me and asked if he could encourage me with a prophetic word. I agreed, and he said, I just wanna encourage you. When you were praying, I felt that God was unsticking your button. You've been trying to get your button unstuck for a long time, and the reason it is stuck is because of your upbringing. This is your year of reset and retooling.
Speaker 1:I wanna encourage you as a father that God's will for your life is so broad that you can fall down and not miss it. Like David, you are a good man, and you delight in the way of God. Some of the things you deal with go back a few generations in your family line. God is working on that. There will be a day in your life when people will say that you were an incredible father.
Speaker 1:What you didn't receive from the father, you will become 100 fold. You will be known as a shepherd, father, and an innovator in your old age. Somewhere in your early teen years, something traumatic happened, and it put a weight on you, but the Lord is removing that weight. You are in jail, but God has set you free. I knew that God sent this man to give me hope and to let me know that he was real and was for me, not against me.
Speaker 1:When Larry shared the Lord's words with me, I could feel the presence of God during that experience. I walked into the room one way and left a totally different person. Experiencing the love of God will do that to you. Equipped with a new perspective, I started attending churches that were unlike any other I had experienced. It seemed like everyone had tattoos and was dressed in a super expressive way.
Speaker 1:Everyone I met was either an entrepreneur, an artist, or a hairdresser. They valued the arts, creativity, and freedom. While I loved these new churches and was growing in my faith, I soon realized these have their shortcomings as well. Sometimes they valued feelings over scripture, which left me feeling uneasy. It took me a long time to realize that churches run by humans will never be perfect.
Speaker 1:One day, I was complaining about the denomination I was brought up in to a friend and boasting about my new wonderful church. My friend was patient as he listened to me bad mouth the former church. Finally, after I was done ranting, he said, Zach, there is no such thing as a perfect church. Do you know why? Because church is full of imperfect people.
Speaker 1:I want you to read John four twenty three and twenty four. I also want you to know that every church does some things well and could use help in other areas. I bet you wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the church that you grew up in. They probably made more of an impact on you than you think. The church is the bride of Jesus.
Speaker 1:He loves it all in its imperfections, just like he does with you. I went home and opened John four twenty three and twenty four the next morning. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth. For the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Speaker 1:That's when it hit me. True worshipers will worship in spirit and truth. It's not an either or type thing, but a both and. God created all people to be an expression of him. The type a accountant who is highly logical is just as much a part of God as the free spirit creative who lives for experiences.
Speaker 1:I can learn from both. Everybody can be my teacher if I give them the chance. I shouldn't talk badly about his people or church because they were all made to represent the Lord. Instead, I should champion both. True worshipers will worship in spirit.
Speaker 1:This means I can fully worship the Lord with my hands held up high. I will experience the power of the Holy Spirit and will embrace the gifts of God. I can be open to the things I don't understand and give grace when things don't go as I'd like. I will grow in my creativity and thank God who wired me as an entrepreneur. True worshipers also worship in truth.
Speaker 1:This means I can become a student of the word. I will grow in the daily disciplines and study the Bible to gain more knowledge. That day, I realized that God has wired all of us to enjoy him personally. I do believe that we are all naturally bent towards a particular way of worshiping him, and it is our responsibility to discover what that is. Once I arrived at this revelation, I made it my mission to take the truth that I knew about God and put it into experience.
Speaker 1:I knew God was a good father. I understood that he was a God of compassion and mercy. But in the past, I didn't know what it felt like to receive his compassion and mercy. As a human being, you tend to believe experiences over truth. I can tell you all day long that God is a good father.
Speaker 1:There's even a song about it. I can show you the verses on his love and tell you about all the godly people who say great things about their daddy in heaven. However, if you've experienced hurt, pain, and a broken family, you might not believe me or care what the Bible says. I had a lot of experience with people telling me that God the father was a God of comfort, but I didn't know what actual comfort felt like. I knew in my head that God was love, but my heart yearned to be unconditionally loved by someone.
Speaker 1:It was time for me to have some hard conversations with God. I wanted to experience the love of God the father. I wanted the things I knew about God to actually happen in my life. I desired to not just talk about God and what he was like. I wanted to meet him face to face.
Speaker 1:I had to know what an intimate personal relationship with my father was like. It reminds me of the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Zacchaeus was looking for God when the person of Jesus Christ approached him. Jesus didn't ask for his to do list or his list of achievements. He pursued him because he loved him and all his junk.
Speaker 1:Zacchaeus did nothing to earn the presence of Jesus. Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. That day, Zacchaeus experienced God in a new way. His encounter with Jesus changed his heart, which changed his actions.
Speaker 1:It was an inside shift that caused an outside shift all because he experienced the person of Jesus. I wanted that. I wanted Jesus to come to me just like he did Zacchaeus. I wanted an encounter to change my heart. My relationship with God changed in profound ways as I began to experience him as a good father.
Speaker 1:I began to see him as the father in the story of the prodigal son in Luke. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Speaker 1:But the father said to his servants, quick. Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.
Speaker 1:For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Luke ten twenty through 22. Allow me to dial in on five distinct phrases from the text that took the scripture from being educational to being experiential for me.
Speaker 1:First, the parable goes, but while he was a long way off, it's clear that God is on the lookout for you. He wants to be with you so badly that he is constantly looking to see when you will come around. For me, when I realized this, I knew it was something I had never felt from a father before. His father saw him. I am visible to God.
Speaker 1:He sees me in the middle of everything he has going on. He takes time out for me. He knows what I'm going through. He sees my issues and the things in my mind. He sees me and cares for me because I am important to him.
Speaker 1:He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him, showed me that my father is willing to do anything to show me how much he loves me. He'll run through town if that's what it takes to be with me. He'll throw his arms around me and give me a big hug no matter what condition I find myself in. He'll kiss a grown man and doesn't care who is watching. He is willing to do whatever it takes to show his heart for me, his son.
Speaker 1:Take the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger. Express to me that I was worth things of great value because I am of great value. Only the best for my son is the feeling that I get when I think of how my father in heaven wants to lavish me with extravagant gifts. Let's have a feast and celebrate communicates to me that I am worth celebrating.
Speaker 1:Not only does my father want to be with me, but he wants to throw a party to celebrate who I am. He is proud of me. He wants to show me off. He has invited all of his friends over to say, look at my son. Isn't he something?
Speaker 1:Come and sit with me as I learn all that is going on with him over a delicious dinner. My relationship with God the father changed when my understanding of how God saw me changed. I've always known that God loves me, but now I have experienced his love and experienced Trump's knowledge every time. Instead of just doing my typical, yeah, yeah, he values me. He cares for me.
Speaker 1:I get that. I actually took the time to imagine and receive God valuing me and caring for me. And this is what I pray you will do as well. Tell me, how can you reconcile the unfortunate events in your life with God being a good father? Do you relate to the story of the prodigal son either as the younger or older brother?
Speaker 1:Are there insights in the story that apply to your own? How does the father in the story paint a picture of God the father, and how does that differ from your experience?