Knowing the Heart of the Father

63% of youth suicide comes from fatherless homes

90% of children who run away are in fatherless homes

85% of all children with behavioral disorders come from homes without fathers

71% of high school drop outs are from fatherless homes

75% of all adolescent chemical abuse patients in drug treatment centers are from fatherless homes

85% of all youth in prison are from fatherless homes

If a father does not go to church…even if his wife does…only 1 child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. 2%

If the father attends church…even if his wife does not, 66% of children will attend when they are out of the home.

If both father and mother attend…75% of children will attend church when they are out of the home.

While the father is not more important than the mother, their role is so important.

God is bigger than statistics. You guys are proof of that!

John 14:1–11 NKJV

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

1 John 3:1-3 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

John 17- Jesus mentions the Father 6 times. He says that He came to manifest the Father to them. Manifest means to bring forth. To demonstrate and make visible. To be plainly recognized and thoroughly understood.

How did Jesus manifest the Father to us? By living like a son of God.

He was never afraid.

He was never despairing

He never hated himself.

He was never insecure.

He never failed to know what to do.

Why? Because the Father was with Him and He trusted Him!

Roles of the Father-

To make you feel safe and secure.

Physically (provides for your needs)

Emotionally (Helps you through your pain)

Spiritually (To know you are safe in Him and He is greater than your enemy)

Who are the people in your life that you feel most secure with in these areas?

The Father imparts Identity

Gives purpose

Frees you to be you

Who has helped you to know yourself the most?

Who do you feel the most free to be the real you with?

The Father leads and disciplines

Teaches

Trains

Corrects Hebrews 12:3-11

Hebrews 12:3–11 NKJV

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Who is are the people you would least like to disappoint?

The Father is to represent Jesus and our Heavenly Father

With the help of Holy Spirit the father is to manifest Jesus and our Abba