Taking Back Family Part 3
Notes
Transcript
What God Desires (Healing and Restoration)
What God Desires (Healing and Restoration)
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
(Read Malachi 4) The heart of the Father must be the heart of the home. If we are going to take back family it must begin in the home and the church before we can take it back in the culture. Before we can begin to restore God’s design for family, we must know the will of the Father. We must know and desire the heart of the Father for our families. Fathers that abandon their families do so for selfish reasons. They never understand or embrace the divine function for fathers in the family. Ladies, mothers, we need you. But even for single mother homes to begin to be healthier, we must call fathers, biological or spiritual, to the heart of fathering that comes only from knowing the heart of Father God. Psalm 68:5 declares, “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
We can try to ignore the facts all we want but the reality of the crisis is undeniable. Fatherlessness is hopelessness. The absence of fathers in the divine design of family leads to the crisis of the Father Factor. Even as they celebrate gay couples having more children and now legally able to put both homosexual guardians as the legal parents on birth certificates, it is a perversion of Father’s Family Design. Regardless of how legal they make it and try to make it culturally acceptable and normal; the results remain. When a family tries to function outside of God’s design, it will produce dysfunction. Trying to make family dysfunction and social dysfunction as normal does not bring healing to the soul. So, what does Father want from our families?
Father desires a family that functions as He designed it. What does that look like? It is under His authority. It reflects His glory. It is filled with His love. When dads stopped being fathers, it led to generations of fatherless children. These generations are trying to be fathers but do not know how because they have no point of fathering reference. This applies not only culturally but spiritually in the church. So many desire to be fathers, but do not know how to father. They use the position and title but think that is the sum of fathering. Or they try to use their own formula of what they think a good father is. Fathering is not a formula but walking in the favor of God. Fathering by formula leads to frustration. Fathering is a heart condition. The Father’s family restoration began with Abraham. God had blessed Adam but he threw the blessing away. God then had to take Abraham through His family restoration process. God had to be the center of the family. It’s not about focusing on the family. It’s about the family focusing on the Father. The father whose focus is on God will have God’s favor on his family.
Father desires a Family where He is the center. (Read Genesis 12:1-2)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
God had to remove Abraham’s extended family from being the center. Note that God blessed Abraham that he might be a blessing. He removed Sarah from being the center. He removed Isaac from being the center. He removed Abraham from being the center. God has to be the center of the family. God becomes the center of the family when He becomes the center of a father’s life. The blessings of the Father flow through the design of family. We find throughout Scripture the pattern of blessings and curses. Anytime Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, and others stepped outside of God’s design, the blessings stopped flowing. But when they repented and returned to the Father’s way, the blessings of God began to flow again. It is a simple principle: Father’s favor flows on families that function in the faith of the Father. How do we take back family? We return to the faith of our Father. (Demonstration with my family) My father honored the Father and I was blessed with life. I honored my father and I was blessed with a wife. I honored Father in my marriage and He blessed me with Tori. We honored Him with our finances and He blessed us with Abby. We honored Him with our gifts and He blessed us with Julia. We honored Him through our trials and He blessed us with Joshua. We honored Him with our whole family and He blessed us with Jason. We honored Him with our service and He blessed us with you. (Read Proverbs 3:1-12; Psalm 1:1-6)
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Father desires a family that is healthy. Psalm 103:17-18 declares, “But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.”
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
It is Father’s desire that your entire family know His love, joy, peace, favor, grace, mercy, His power, presence; that they love what He loves and hates what He hates; know what breaks His heart and what blesses His heart. Know what is righteous and unrighteousness; what is holy and what is not. It is Father’s desire that you know how He desires you to live and that your children live as He desires. It is Father’s desire that your brokenness be made whole; that your hurt be healed; that your family function through the beauty of His presence as a testimony to His glory and goodness.
Father desires a family that is whole. (Read Proverbs 15)
A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.
In the house of the righteous there is much treasure, but trouble befalls the income of the wicked.
Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
Throughout Scripture Father gives instruction in life. To think that your family will never have issues, problems, or conflict is unrealistic. But how you respond to them and the foundation on which your family is built are within your ability to establish on God’s Word and ways. In a home where Christ is the foundation sinful children are lead to the Father’s heart. They learn conviction, not condemnation. They learn patience, not frustration. They learn wisdom and understanding, not rebellion and envy. They learn forgiveness, repentance, restoration, reconciliation, restitution; they learn peace, relationship, giving, selflessness; they learn respect, love, faith, and hope. These are just a few of the attributes that defines the nature, the environment, and atmosphere of a home that seeks to be molded and shaped by the desires of Father.
There is no such thing as the perfect family but there is a perfect Father. Regardless of what your family has been or is today, Father wants to make your family healthy and whole. Father wants to be the heart of your home. Father wants to start with healing you and making you whole from the brokenness of family that you have known. You cannot build your family as Father desires if you do not have His family as a good point of reference. God wants you to truly know the love, grace, and power of His family. How do we take back family? We repent of what we have made it and make Him the center of our family that He may redeem it as He has redeemed us. Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.