Malachi 4:5-6, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
1. Becoming a Father - is a disruption of life.
What does it disrupt? What doesn’t it DISRUPT! Sleep? Schedules? For the rest of your life you are not going to live for yourself. You are living to serve, raise, love and to sacrifice for this child.
Becoming a parent is wonderful, the joy to life. It is also the beginning of a Lifetime of Disruptions.
2. Becoming a Father is a, Turning of the Heart
“he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Everything is a matter of the Heart. Love, anger, hate, forgiveness, peace, joy, it is a all mater of HEART.
God needs to change our heart before he changes our circumstances.
That is one reason the Church has the ANSWER for the WORLD. God alone changes hearts.
When the Father’s (parents) heart is turned toward his newborn child it rips at the core of our personal selfishness.
In the same way at some point in a Believer's heart there has to be that SHIFT from self to the Father. Like when you hold your baby for the first time - an explosion of LOVE.
When you realize the Christin life is not about ME. Not about feeling good or just fellowship. The Christian life is about birthing. Spriitual Parenting. Serving God by serving others.
Jesus said, "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant" (Matthew 23:11).
Jesus Disrupted everything and everyone around him from his birth, baptism, preaching, the cross and resurrection. Even now!
The calling of the church is to bring disruption to this world through the Preaching of the Gospel. The moment the preaching of the gospel does not disrupt us. Does not penetrate our HEARTS toward change. It is not the preaching of the gospel anymore.
When we can attend church week after week and never feel disrupted.
Never feel convicted.
Never feel the need to repent.
Then the Gospel has lost it’s SALT
If the GOSPEL just makes me feel good then it is has lost it's power.
3. Disruption always turns out Good in the Economy of God
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
In this prophet declaration, the coming of Elijah is a disruptive event that turns the hearts of people and prevents a curse.
"We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).
Turing of Hearts cost the cross of Jesus the Christ. The total laying down of his life for us.
The giving all. (John 3:16)
That's the kind of love God is wanting you and I to experience.
The Church is important in this world. The Holy Spirit is working in and through the church PRESERVING the PRESENCE of GOD in the WORLD.
The world is in a time of DISRUPTION. It is during times or opportunities of DISRUPTION that greatest things happen in God's economy.
God always doing something new.
New vision in our life and church
We abort it because we don’t want any disruption in our life.
Let God "turn your heart" toward him. He will heal your heart in a moment's time. Just as a father's heart is turned toward his newborn child.
Ezekiel 36:26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Blessings,
Larry
Here's a link to Paul Neville's blog on, "Father's Day, A Big Disruption."