WHOSE YOUR DADDY?

This past Sunday we started our series called Identity Theft and we kicked it off talking about where we draw our identity from.

Your self concept – the way you see yourself – is determined by what you base your identity on, and you have lots of choices.
· Looks
· Intelligence
· Wher you live
· What you do
· What you wear
· Who you hang with
Thomas Harvey completed the autopsy on Albert Einstein then stole his brain and kept it in a Tupperware container for the next 43 yrs. Then he began to shape his whole identity around it.

Identity problems are simply the by product of basing your identity on the wrong thing.

In the book of Corinthians Paul writes:

1 Cor. 4:15 (Msg)
There are a lot of people around who can't wait to tell you what you've done wrong, but there aren't many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God's Message to you that I became your father.

· 90% of homeless and run away teens come from fatherless homes.
· And 85% of all youth in prisons grew up in a fatherless home
· 75% of people in drug abuse centres come from fatherless homes.
· 1/3 of live births are to unmarried women.
· 90% of prisoners say they never had a loving relationship with their fathers.

Maybe Paul's generation suffered from a similar disease as our generation has called, The absent father syndrome, which means: The ongoing social, spiritual and emotional deficit that people will be filled by other means.

When we say the word father it can either be a bad word or a great word. Your dad may have always physically been there but never emotionally there, or maybe you have never known him or maybe your parents just couldnt seem to get it togther so they went their own way.
Have you ever wondered why sporting stars, movie stars will look into a T.V camera and say the words, “Hi mum?”
Is it because they have had no father figure of worth in their life. They have over achieved in their lives hoping that one day dad is going to say, “Well done son”.

When God looks at you He see’s you from the eyes of a Father. He is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end. So when he looks at us he is at the end seeing what we are to become.
And He is calling us into that picture.

Matthew 3:17 (Msg)
And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."

Whoever names you determines your destiny

This wasn’t for John to get the revelation, it wasn’t for the crowd to hear who Jesus was but it was for Christ Himself to know the affirmation of His father.
As a child there are 3 things that must be heard from your father:
· I love you
· I’m proud of you - affirmed
· You’re good at ???

Maybe you have never heard your earthly father tell you this or maybe you have, but until you know that this is what God thinks about you, that this is how He see's you then we can be tempted to base our identity on something else. God thinks that you are amazing! He loves you, He is proud of you and He thinks you are great when you are doing what He designed you to do.