Key Thought: A father’s influence can positively impact the next 100 years and beyond.
Start talking. Find a conversation starter for your group.
What did you do for Father’s Day Weekend?
What’s your favorite memory you have with your dad or a dad-like figure?
What is your dream car/boat?
What’s your favorite thing about your dad or dad figure?
Start thinking. Ask a thoughtful question.
Why do you think guarding our family relationships is so important to our lives?
What does having a 5, 10, 20, or 100 year vision do for the way we approach life?
What can you consistently invest in now that will pay big dividends in your kid’s lives?
Why is God serious about the family covenant?
Start sharing. Choose questions that create openness.
How have the lives of your parents impacted you to this day?
What do you need to do to strengthen or repair a father-child relationship in your life? How can the group help you accomplish this?
As a group, list all the reasons why a father’s involvement is important to children
Pastor Bil talked about the spiritual compound interest in the family; how are you making that investment? What is your 100-year vision for your life and legacy?
Start praying. Be bold, and pray with power.
Dear Jesus, thank you for the gift of fatherhood. We admire and appreciate the sacrifices so many fathers make to positively influence their children and the generations to come. We cry out to you, we beg you, to let this message sink into the minds and souls of Father’s whose hearts have turned away from their children that You would turn them back. Today. Right now! We come together to ask this in Your all-powerful name. Amen.
Start doing. Commit to a step and live it out this week.
As a group, find a way to serve broken families. One example is to become a mentor or volunteer with Tide Changers (https://majestyoutdoors.org/tidechangers/) or sign up to serve in Kids Unlimited or CU Students if you aren’t already. Be the church – show God’s love. Our church and community has a rising number of single moms and fatherless children who could really use your help!
Share Pastor Bil’s message with everyone you know who is either a disconnected dad, single mom or fatherless child, then commit to help them rebuild their family.
Disconnected fathers: commit to reconnecting, turning your heart back to God and your kids – ask the group to come alongside you and your family to help restore the relationship(s). With God, all things are possible, even repairing utterlybroken relationships.
Write out your 100-year family vision and the specific goals that will help you get there.
Scriptures
Results of fatherlessness:
85 percent of all children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes.
90 percent of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.
71 percent of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
75 percent of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes.
63 percent of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.
70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes.
85 percent of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in fatherless homes.
80 percent of rapists come from fatherless homes.
“These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life. Listen closely, Israel, and be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the and flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.” Deuteronomy 6:1-3 NLT
The righteous who walks in his integrity—blessed are his children after him! Proverbs 20:7 ESV
One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. Psalm 145:4 NIV
For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they…shall be one flesh. Matthew 19:5 KJV
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… Ephesians 5:25 ESV
And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Malachi 2:13-14 ESV
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 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.” Malachi 4:5-6 ESV
[John the Baptist] He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children… Luke 1:17 NLT
A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. Psalm 68:5 NAS
