"Father Deficiency Disorder”

SERMON OVERVIEW

A. ORIGINAL STATUS OF THE FAMILY

B. THE FALL OF THE ORIGINAL FAMILY

C. CURRENT CONTEXT OF FAMILIES

D. RESTORATION OF THE FAMILY IN ENDTIMES

D.1 RESTORE GOD’S DEFINITION OF FAMILY

D.2 RESTORE ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

D.3 RESTORE WATCHMAN DUTY OF THE FATHER

D.4 RESTORE PRIESTLY DUTY OF THE FATHER

D.5 RESTORE FATHERHOOD

D.6 REPAIR THE FAMILY ALTER

A. ORIGINAL STATUS: IN THE BEGINNING

God created a beautiful home full of potential for His family, the mankind and installed the very first family in the Garden of Eden. Looking at everything God created, God Himself declared it all “GOOD.” Originally it was God who defined and set the standard for Good & Evil.

B. THE FALL: FROM DEFINITION TO REDEFINITION

But God didn’t create Adam & Eve puppets on a string, they had A CHOICE, either they could trust in God’s definition of Good & Evil and align God’s standard OR else they could eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil and define the Good & Evil for themselves. They make the choice to rule the world according to their definition of Good & Evil and everything starts going downhill from there onwards. The first casualty was the broken relationship with the Father in Heaven and the second casualty was the broken relationships within the family.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in the way of death. Proverbs 16:24-26

C. CURRENT CONTEXT: FAMILY PULSE CHECK

Let’s do a small check up on the vital signs of the families of our day to understand what’s happening. Undoubtedly FAMILY is the basic and most important cell upon which the whole nations and civilizations are built. There is no wonder Satan is committed to crawl into our nests and destroy it from within. Let’s examine few statistics sourced from the internet to get an idea about the moral demographics of the families of our day.

Divorce rate in Sri Lanka – 400 a day

Sri Lanka is ranked No.18 out of 254 countries in the world in terms of broken homes

20% of all children in Sri Lanka grow-up without a father

40% of parents surveyed admitted physically abusing

31% boys,25% girls surveyed had experienced emotional abuse

14% of adolescent girls and boys surveyed had experienced some form of sexual abuse,

50% of offenders being from the child’s immediate family

Sri Lanka is again the No.1 country for suicides in the world in 2017, 80% of all suicides are Men

These issues are often loosely labelled as “Social Issues.” But as people of God, as the appointed WATCHMEN over this nation we know these are not just social issues or deterioration of moral values, but these are very serious spiritual symptoms that need our attention. What is the cause of such deterioration in the family? Let’s try to understand the root of the problem.

THE PRICE OF FATHERLESSNESS

All evidence point to one direction. Whether it be broken families, frustration, depression, suicide, sexual, emotional, physical abuse, risky behaviors, substance abuse, unethical sexual behavior, teenage pregnancy or hopelessness, they all correlates to a single source, that is the FATHERLESSNESS. Fatherlessness is not just having no living father, it comes in a variety of templates even when the father is still living such as NEGLIGENT FATHER, UNKNOWN FATHER, ABSENTEE FATHER and the list goes on. Please refer to the below research findings sourced from the internet.

63% of suicides come from fatherless homes.

80% of rapists, motivated by displaced anger, come from fatherless homes.

70% juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes.

40% of all children do not live with their biological father.

85% of children with behavioral problems comes from fatherless homes.

90% of homeless children come from families without fathers.

71% of children who do not finish school come from fatherless homes.

From the very beginning of time it is the disconnection from our HEAVENLY FATHER that leads to the disconnection of EARTHLY FATHERS to their children and it has resulted in a curse in the whole world.

D. THE RESTORATION CAMPAIGN

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will turn THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THEIR CHILDREN and THE HEARTS OF THE CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6

Human beings are more concerned about fixing the social, political, judicial, financial and global problems, before fixing what’s right under our noses. God intends to solve the family problem first, reconciliation of mankind to God and then the reconciliation of fathers and children.

1. RESTORE GOD’S DEFINITION

REDEFINITION REBELLION: A powerful weapon the enemy use in our day is luring people into “REDEFINING GOD’S STANDARDS” for family. Satan redefines the family into different TEMPLATES distorting God’s original plan. For example two men raising kids, two women raising kids etc. Modern families also have paradoxical priorities, GRADES OVER MORALS, POLISH OVER PRINCIPLES, LOOKS OVER CHARACTER AND MATERIAL POSSESSIONS OVER RELATIONSHIPS.