Welcome to the VoodChurch Podcast. Today, Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. kicks off a new collection of talks, daddy issues, dealing with your past to embrace your future.

In this message, a hunger for approval, he unpacks how our perception of God directly impacts our view of ourselves.

For more resources on this collection, visit VoodChurch.com slash daddy issues. Now let's lean into the message together.

Today, we're starting this brand new collection, and I want to read just a little verse. I think it's a foundational verse that we will look at really over the next five weeks more and more.

But let's look at it today. Second Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18. This is what the Apostle Paul writes. He says, and I will be a father to you. And you will be my sons and daughters.

Says the Lord Almighty. Come on. If you receive that somebody said amen today on our first installment of our brand new collection, I want to preach from the thought a hunger for approval.

A hunger for approval. And we're starting this collection entitled daddy issues. And really what we're going to be talking about for the next few weeks is we're going to be talking about dealing with the past so that we can embrace the future.

What I've learned is that many times there's things in the background. There's things from our childhood. There's things from our past that if we don't confront it, we'll never change it.

So it's not that God doesn't love you. It's not that God isn't for you. It's not that you don't even know that it's just there's some things holding you back. And how many I believe if we don't learn from the past, we are bound to repeat it.

And so we're going to do some heavy lifting over the next few weeks. And for some of us, this is going to be like you're excited about this work. I've been waiting for this. Others you're a little bit hesitant. You're like, maybe I will show back up in September.

I just want to invite you on a journey that no one's going to pressure you. No one's trying to shame you. But we are trying to invite you onto the path of freedom.

We titled this collection daddy issues. And maybe you've heard this phrase. This is sort of like a slang word. That has lots of different meanings. A lot of times you hear this thing and it's like, if you see a girl who's looking for love in all the wrong places, people will just sum her up and put her in a box and just say, she has daddy issues.

That might be true. But how many I'll know that the girl who has daddy issues probably has a daddy who has daddy issues.

What you learn in life is that all of us have some things that happen to us along the way that if we don't confront it, it will leave us bound even though there is freedom in front of us.

It's a trip being apparent. I have been away with my family. We've got to do some preaching and teaching. We have missed you more than you could ever imagine. Thank you for allowing us to get a break. It was wonderful. I'm back, rested, recovered, get ready for two hour sermons because I got so much to share.

It's a trip being with your kids for like five weeks straight because no doubt the greatest blessing in life is being apparent. We're all the parents. Any parents up here waving, waving, waving. Okay. Let's pray for these people. It's a great blessing being apparent. But it's a trip, man.

Watching your kids like, it's humbling. Because they teach you stuff. You might miss it, but if you humble yourself, your kids are great teachers.

They will teach you about you. But anyone ever knows that they will teach you a whole lot about God.

Watching my kids for five weeks, it's amazing as I rediscover and reclaim so many memories that maybe I've forgotten about or that I overlooked.

I'm learning about myself and I continue to learn about God as I watch the faith of my little tiny children. My two boys, if you've forgotten them, their names are Wyatt and Wilde, four and two years of age. Let's just keep praying for these kids.

There's no way they're saved yet. There's no way. Just a lot of sin the last five weeks. But we're going to keep praying for their souls.

But they are in this phase of life that all parents know about where they, anything they're doing, they go, Dad, Dad, watch me. Watch me, Dad, watch me, Dad.

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