REMEMBERING OUR SPIRITUAL FATHERS AND BUILDING UP ON OUR SPIRITUAL HERITAGE
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OUTLINE
1. WE MUST REMEMBER AND FOLLOW THE GOOD EXAMPLE OF OUR SPIRITUAL FATHERS
2. THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS IS FAITHFUL FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
3. THE COVENANT WHICH THE LORD MADE WITH OUR FATHERS IS VALID EVEN FOR US
4. THE LORD WILL DELIVER US AS HE DELIVERED OUR FATHERS
5. THE POWER OF THE BLESSING OF THE FATHERS
6. LOOK UNTO ABRAHAM WHOM THE LORD BLESSED ABUNDANTLY
7. OUR GOD IS A FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS
THE MESSAGE
REMEMBERING OUR SPIRITUAL FATHERS AND BUILDING UP ON OUR SPIRITUAL HERITAGE
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1. WE MUST REMEMBER AND FOLLOW THE GOOD EXAMPLE OF OUR SPIRITUAL FATHERS
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The Lord wants us to remember our leaders who taught us the word of God. We should always consider the end of their lives and remember how they kept their faith till the end . We must follow the good example they have set before us . They fought a good fight and completed their race and kept their faith. We must emulate that example and not lose our faith in God because of the battles that we may face in life.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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HEBREWS 13:7
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
2 TIMOTHY 4:6-8
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2. THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS IS FAITHFUL FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
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The God we serve is a God is who is faithful from generation to generation. He is the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob. He will be with us as we was with our fathers. He will fulfill the promise that He made to our fathers.He will bless us even more than He blessed our fathers and when we obey His commandments He will delight in us just as He delighted in our fathers. The Lord will increase us us a thousand times more than we are now. He chose us because He loved our fathers and if we are faithful to Him He will bless our children and descendants.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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DEUTERONOMY 1:11
May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!
1 KINGS 8:57
May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us.
DEUTERONOMY 30: 5, 9
He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers,
JOHN 4:37-38
Thus the saying ’One sows and another reaps’ is true.
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
ACTS 22:14
"Then he said: ’The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.
DEUTERONOMY 4:37
Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,
3. THE COVENANT WHICH THE LORD MADE WITH OUR FATHERS IS VALID EVEN FOR US
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The Lord is faithful to fulfill the oath and the covenant that He made with our fathers. We are in a covenant relationship with the Lord. The promises that the Lord gave unto our fathers are valid even for us. The Lord Jesus Christ became a curse for us on the cross so that the blessing of our father Abraham may come upon us. Through Christ we are heirs of the promise that God made to Abraham . The Lord has promised us through Abraham to bless us and make us a blessing. He has promised to multiply us and give us victory over our enemies.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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DEUTERONOMY 4:31
For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.
DEUTERONOMY 7: 8-9
But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
ACTS 3:25
And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ’Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’
LUKE 1:68-75
"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
GALATIANS 3:13-14 , 29
" Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."
" If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."
4. THE LORD WILL DELIVER US AS HE DELIVERED OUR FATHERS
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He will deliver us just as He delivered our fathers. We must cry out to the God of our fathers and rely on Him in order to prevail over our enemies. Our fathers have faced great battles and trials of faith during their lifetime. But they relied on the Lord and cried out to Him and the Lord was faithful to deliver them. We must get our inspiration from their example in our time of battle.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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PSALM 22:4-5
In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
PSALM 44:1-8
We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.
It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.
You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob.
Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes.
I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;
but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.
In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. Selah
2 CHRONICLES 13:18
The men of Israel were subdued on that occasion, and the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.
EXODUS 3:6-8
Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
DEUTERONOMY 26: 6-9
But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor.
Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression.
So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders.
He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;
PSALM 90:13-17
Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.
May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.
5. THE POWER OF THE BLESSING OF THE FATHERS
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There is a great power in the blessing of a father. Joseph was a fruitful person inspite of all the attacks that he faced in life because he had the blessing of the fathers in his life. We must eagerly seek to receive the blessing of the fathers in our lives and walk worthy of such a blessing and bestow the honour due to the fathers in order to receive their blessing.The Apostle Paul stated that even though we may have ten thousand instructors , we do not have many fathers. We need spiritual fathers to guide us and provide a spiritual covering over our lives. Timothy had a spiritual father in the Apostle Paul to guide him and mentor him. In order to receive the blessing of the fathers , we must honour them and allow them to speak into our lives.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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GENESIS 49:22-26
"Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.
With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility.
But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb.
Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills.Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
GENESIS 48:15-16
Then he blessed Joseph and said, "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
the Angel who has delivered me from all harm —may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth."
1 CORINTHIANS 4:14-16
I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children.
Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
PSALM 103:13
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
6. LOOK UNTO ABRAHAM WHOM THE LORD BLESSED ABUNDANTLY
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The Lord wants us to look at Abraham and learn from his life. The Lord blessed him and made him a blessing. The Lord wants to bless us in the same way. He will turn our desert into a garden of Eden. He will deliver us from our enemies like He delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians. We must trust in the Lord and not be tormented by the fear of man. The Lord will remove the cup of affliction from us and give it to our tormentors.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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ISAIAH 51:1-23
"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD : Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.
The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
"Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations.
My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.
"Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations."
Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through?
Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over?
The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
"I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass,
that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor?
The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread.
For I am the LORD your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD Almighty is his name.
I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand— I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ’You are my people.’ "
Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.
Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her; of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand.
These double calamities have come upon you— who can comfort you?— ruin and destruction, famine and sword— who can console you?
Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD and the rebuke of your God.
Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine.
This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your God, who defends his people: "See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again.
I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ’Fall prostrate that we may walk over you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked over."
7. OUR GOD IS A FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS
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The God we serve is a God who is a father to the fatherless. He defends the fatherless and the widow. The spirituality that is acceptable to God is to care for the fatherless and the widows. The Lord will protect the fatherless and show compassion on them. He asks the widows to trust in Him. He will not the forget the fatherless . He is their helper. The Lord warns those who afflict the fatherless and widows because it will arouse His anger and bring destruction on them.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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JAMES 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
PSALM 10:14
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
PSALM 68:5
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
JEREMIAH 49:11
Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows too can trust in me."
PROVERBS 23:10-11
Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.
EXODUS 22:22-24
"Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.
If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.
My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
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