Returning Our Fathers Heart

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Returning Our Fathers Heart

• A Fathers Day Message
• 21st June 2009

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Returning Our Hearts

• Mal 44 Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,
  Which I commanded in Horeb for all Israel, With
  the statutes and judgments.
• Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, Before
  the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
  Lord,
• And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the
  children, And the hearts of their children to
  their fathers,
• Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse

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Returning Our Hearts

• Lk 116 And he will turn many of the children of
  Israel to the Lord their God,
• He will also go before Him in the spirit and
  power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the
  fathers to the children, and the disobedient to
  the wisdom of the just,
• To make a people prepared for the Lord

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Returning Our Hearts

• Returning Our Hearts to God the Father
• Returning Our Hearts to Our Children
• Returning Our Hearts to Our Role

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Returning Our Hearts to God the Father

• We must first return our hearts to God our Father
• turn to their Lord their God
• Returning our hearts mean
• Returning to the first and great commandment You
  shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
  with all your soul, and with all your mind Matt
  2237
• Returning God as the treasure of our life
• For where your treasure is, there your heart
  will be also Matt 621

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Returning Our Hearts mean

• Returning to a life directed and dominated by the
  Word of God
• Remember the Law of Moses, with the statutes
  and judgments.
• Deuteronomy 3246 And he said unto them, Set your
  hearts unto all the words which I testify among
  you this day, which ye shall command your
  children to observe to do, all the words of this
  law. 47 For it is not a vain thing for you
  because it is your life and through this thing
  ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither
  ye go over Jordan to possess it.

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• When we return our hearts to God the Father, the
  Father will
• Return to us the spirit and power of Elijah!
• What is the spirit and power of Elijah?
• James 516-17
• The effective prayer of a righteous man (father)
  avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like
  ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not
  rain and it did not rain on the land for three
  years and six months, And he prayed again, and
  the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its
  fruit

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Returning Our Hearts to Our Children

• What does turning our hearts to our children
  mean?
• What does the opposite turning our hearts away
  means?
• Fathers, you can have your heart turned away from
  your children simply by ignoring them.

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• You can have your heart turned away from your
  children by being abusive (mentally and
  physically) and provocative. It may be that
  without even hearing yourself your communication
  with them is a series of disapproval and
  put-downs
• You can have your heart turned away from your
  children through an embittered spirit of
  disappointment

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Lets look at the positive ..

• Deuteronomy 3246 And he said unto them, Set your
  hearts unto all the words which I testify among
  you this day, which ye shall command your
  children to observe to do, all the words of this
  law. 47 For it is not a vain thing for you
  because it is your life and through this thing
  ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither
  ye go over Jordan to possess it.

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• We need to be teachers and upholders of the Word
  of God
• We need to see that teaching our children
  Christ's commands is important because it is our
  children's life and will prolong our children's
  days.
• The spiritual wellbeing of our children is
  critically important and it is our
  responsibility, not the pastors, KFC, youth
  ministry or church.

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• Be a Blessing NOT a Curse
• The task of blessing the children is to be
  fulfilled by the father
• You have the spirit and power of Elijah to break
  generation curse by invoking blessings on your
  children
• The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and
  gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love
  and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands,
  and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet
  he does not leave the guilty unpunished he
  punishes the children and their children for the
  sin of the fathers to the third and fourth
  generation (Exodus 346-7).
• Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen
  to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse
  into a blessing for you, because the Lord your
  God loves you

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Returning to Our Role

• Our key role as a father is the John the Baptist
  role
• Prepare the way for the Lord
• To make ready a generation of children prepared
  for the Lord so that in their lifetime when they
  become fathers, they too will make ready a
  generation of children prepared for the Lord

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• If you obey the voice of the Lord, and return
  your hearts to our Father God and return your
  hearts to your children,
• The Lord God will bestow on you the spirit and
  power of Elijah AND
• The Lord your God will make you abound in all the
  work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in
  the increase of your livestock and in the produce
  of your land for good,
• And the Lord will rejoice over you for good And
  the hearts of your children will return to you