Hope Has A Name Week 3

HOPE HAS A NAME – 3

Everlasting Father

Eileen Wright.

Lois Price.

Helen Back.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

“I was 25 years old before I could say the word ‘father’ while praying, because of the kind of relationship—or lack thereof—that I had with my dad. It didn’t roll off my tongue the way it did for many of my Christian friends... How could I come to God without fear when I had been scared to go home whenever Dad was there? How could I understand God’s love and faithfulness when Dad left town because he loved something, or someone, more than me? How can God be a mighty fortress of protection when Dad hit instead of hugged?” – Johnathan Edwards

Romans 8:15 (ESV) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

• True SUCCESS is tied to knowing deep within the FATHER heart of God.

71% of all high school drop outs are from fatherless homes.

75% of teens in substance abuse centers are from fatherless homes.

98% of discipline issues were caused by the emotional damaged young boys whose common characteristic was fatherlessness

Almost every social ill faced by America’s children is related to fatherlessness.

• Even if the enemy can’t keep us from faith in God, he can greatly LESSEN our joy and MINIMIZE our purpose by skewing our view of one word: father.

Psalm 68:5 “Father to the fatherless”

1. The NEVER SATISIFED dad.

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing

Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Psalm 139:6-11 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!... You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol you are there!

1. The TIME-BOMB dad.

Psalm 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

1. The EMOTIONALLY DISTANT dad.

• The Father is so emotionally connected to you that, according to Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son, He literally could not be HAPPY while you were away. (Luke 15)

1 John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us!”

1. The ABSENT dad.

Ezekiel 49:35 The Lord Is THERE.

Hebrews 13:5 I will NEVER leave you or forsake you.