The Fathers Heart for the Children Malachi 4 1. Love your children - PDF document

Preacher: Joseph Gan The Father’s Heart for the Children Malachi 4 1. Love your children a. Fatherhood is critical b. Love your wives 2. Train your children a. Teach your children b. Filling the moral warehouse 3. Show your children a. Defend the weak b. Love the fatherless

Reflection 1. What is one thing I will choose to do to lead my household to serve the Lord? 2. How can I support a father or fathers around me in this call? 3. Who will I ask to walk alongside me in this journey? Additional resources: http://bit.ly/amcfathers

Thank pastors for opportunity to preach. Not a local preacher or TTC lecturer. Father of 4 boys and husband of a TTC student (Li Ping, much more familiar in the pulpit) Part of Aldersgate for 40 years , currently Family Life chair . Attend 10.30am service / sit in front. 1

2

“For behold, é day is coming, burning like an oven, when all é arrogant & all evildoers will b stubble. é day tt is coming shall set ém ablaze, says é Lord of hosts, so tt it will leave ém neither root nor branch. But for u who fear my name, é sun of righteousness shall rise w/ healing in its wings. U shall go out leaping like calves from é stall. 3

Verse 3. 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. 4

Verse 5. “Behold, I will send you Elijah é prophet before é great & awesome day of é Lord comes. And he will turn é hearts of fathers to their children & the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come & strike é land w/ a decree of utter destruction.” This is the Word of the Lord – Thanks be to God! 5

Around 450 BC, Last of Minor Prophets Concludes Old Testament, Malachi means “Messenger” 722 BC Assyrians (e.g., Amos, Hosea) 605-586 BC Babylonians (e.g., Daniel) 520 BC After exile, Cyrus King of Persia (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) 400Y “intertestamental period” 6

Malachi can be broken into 3 parts (1) God’s Love for Israel (2) Israel’s Unfaithfulness – In many ways, Israel then reminds me of our world today (3) The Day of the Lord is Coming – God’s final victory Mirrors much of OT message, but looks forward to the coming of Jesus the Messiah 7

Today, I would like to focus on three things we can learn from Malachi. Firstly, what does it mean to love our children? 8

Mal 4:5-6 – 5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 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.” 9

Elijah refers to Jesus, so this prophecy has now been fulfilled Malachi prophesies that God will turn the hearts of fathers to their children. What does this mean? 10

Jesus came and showed us what God’s love looks like; that enables us to then love our children God is not an indulgent Father; His love is both pure, wanting the best for us by calling us out of sin, and self-sacrificial We can draw from that model in our role as earthly fathers, despite our flaws 11

There are real consequences to fatherlessness. While we fathers have a tendency to leave parenting to our wives, our impact on our children is immense. Children with absent fathers are… (2x more likely to…) 12

This cartoon was posted by MOE last week. Are we guilty of seeing good parenting as ensuring educational success, Or do we focus on guiding our children to follow God? What do we spent our time and energy stressing about? 13

(Read) (After) Although it may seem counter-intuitive, one of the things we learn in parenting courses is that the best way we can love our children is to focus on loving our wives. That’s because children need a secure home, both practically and emotionally. 14

Most important way we can ❤ our children is 2 ❤ our wives. Mal 2:14 - “You cry out, “Why doesn’t é Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell u why! Because é Lord witnessed é vows u & ur wife made when u were young. But u have been unfaithful 2 her, though she remained ur faithful partner, é wife of ur marriage vows.” 15

(Read) 16

17

Malachi calls on us to “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.” Mt Horeb (same as Mt Sinai) is where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments at the start of Deuteronomy. 18

Later in Deut, God makes clear tt parents are 2 impress God’s commandments on their children. Deut 6:6-7 – “These commandments tt I give u today are to be on ur hearts. Impress them on ur children. Talk about ém when u sit at home & when u walk along é road, when u lie down & when u get up.” 19

Story: Early years, struggled w/ parenting Largely, I was confused by so many different parenting books I was the “authoritarian parent”, while I knew I didn’t want to be a “permissive parent” Learnt: Explain the moral reason why, so children can fill their “moral warehouse” 20

Finally, we as fathers need to show our children what it means to follow God 21

Show social holiness. Mal 3:5 - “I will b a swift witness against é sorcerers, against é adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress é hired worker in his wages, é widow and é fatherless, against those who thrust aside é sojourner, and do not fear me, says é LORD of hosts.” 22

Ps Lorna does a good job reminding us of our duty to defend the weak. But we are a priesthood of believers, and each of us a pastor to our own families. While not all of us will be involved in all areas of ministry, think about how you can show your children what it means to defend the weak in at least one area. 23

We are also called to love the fatherless . Need spiritual fathers. My own story: start- up the past 7 years. Initially thought it would be a 3-year sprint; Turned out to be an ultra-marathon. Needed way to serve despite busy-ness. Many of you are also serving as spiritual fathers in other ways. è Let me play a short video showing various ways in which fathers can impact the children around them. 24

25

There are many ways you can serve and involve your children. As couples, as families, as cell groups, pray and discuss how you could serve together in areas of ministry. My own cell group visited Cambodia last year, largely to expose our young children to the mission field. Don’t have to be a biological father – I learnt from many father figures around me growing up in AMC. 26

(Read) If you are a wife, pray about how you can support your husband. Think about how you can support the fathers around you. 27

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 28

So, Love your children , not from your own strength, but because God first showed you his love; and do it by loving your wives first and foremost. Train your children , so that they will grow up to know and obey God; and Show your children , so that they understand what it means practically to follow God. 29

1. What is one thing I will choose to do to lead my household to serve the Lord? 2. How can I support a father or fathers around me in this call? 3. Who will I ask to walk alongside me in this journey? 30

AMC Fathers’ Pledge - We, fathers of Aldersgate Methodist Church pledge to build strong and happy families by taking our responsibility as head of the household seriously. We choose to love the Lord first and foremost so that our hearts will turn to Him. 31

We affirm the commitment to our marriage to love our wife, to take care of her, to have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. 32

We will take the responsibility to nurture our children in the ways of the Lord so that they will not depart from Him. We will guide and mentor them to be the Joshuas, Daniels, and Esthers of the next generation, so that they can bring love, peace, and righteousness to the world at large. 33

We will honour God, uphold the family as the foundation, and make our lives count for His glory and honour. 34