Family Fun | Part 1

From the Love Word Finding Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. I'm Byron Tyler here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Word Finding.

Kerry, today, family fun, part one with Adrian Rogers. Well, that almost rhymes. That's good. I like that. You know, I think we have to make ourselves, right? Take a time to rest.

We have to hit the pause button. And, you know, we have to learn and learn is a key word here, Byron, to have a fun time with our family. Well, one of the things that I remember most about Adrian Rogers is that he had a lot of fun.

Adrian Rogers is his laughter and bringing humor into moments at the right time. Absolutely. That was so special.

I know you had many encounters like that with him, but it reminded me that we've got to lighten up a little bit. We do. And we've got to make the family or make the home or the home base. We have to make it fun and we have to make it entertaining. And I think God will use it. I think he will bless it.

Adrian Rogers said it best this way. I believe that fun is a legacy of God. Did you know that man is the only creature that God made that knows how to laugh, knows how to blush and knows how to weep? Animals don't do any of those things.

I think laughter is a part of the fact that we are in the image of God. And I tell parents, look, I can give you kind of a simple formula for home. Be firm, be fair and be fun. You know, I was thinking about a parent who was trying to get their young toddler potty trained. That can be a real frustrating time, you know. And some parents can get, I think, too intense in the moment. Yes.

And maybe learn to lighten up a little bit and find a way that you can transition, you know, stressful times with a laugh, with some humor. That's exactly right. And I think also being very sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit on how to handle certain situations. You know, the Word of God says this, John 10. Well, that's profound truth.

Simply stated. So whether you're nine or 90, you receive it. But more than that, you use it in your life. Well, Kerry, while we're in this series about the family, we have an incredible resource available this month.

Yes, absolutely. It takes a family is the collection. Four booklets. It takes a family. God's plan for the man, maximum mom and honoring father and mother. They are the best tools in the toolbox.

Get them. And that resource, among others, to help your family grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ is available at L W F dot o r g l w f dot org. Well, with today's message, family fun. Part one.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Welcome to the nearest place to that heaven that we're talking about. In this particular Psalm, God gives us a description of the ideal family. I did not say the normal family or the average family. It ought to be normal, according to God's standard.

But God does give us the ideal family. Look at it, if you will. Psalm 128. Blessed is everyone that fear the Lord, that walketh in his way, and says, for thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Now here's the phrase.

Watch it. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house. Thy children, like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem.

All the days of thy life, yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel. I say that is the ideal family. May I give you a definition of the family?

So many times we don't even know what we're talking about. When we talk about family, the word family has been misused and abused, caricatured, and sometimes refused. But what is a family? A family is an institution ordained of God.

It did not come out of the swamps of evolution and immorality, but it is ordained of God, and therefore it is rooted in human nature. God created the family to satisfy the deepest longings of our heart, and to give us a means to give and to receive love, to build the human race, to provide a safe and secure environment in which to nurture, to teach, and to love our children. A family is a God-ordained unit related by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is defined as a lifetime covenant relationship between a man and a woman.

Now, sometimes that relationship is severed, and sometimes there is a single parent with children. That also is a family. That is the ideal family that we've found right here, however, in Psalm 128. And how does God describe it? Well, first of all, there's a godly husband in verses 1 and 2.

Man is the head of the home God has ordained that. Then in verse 3, there is a faithful wife. She's like a vine beside the house, fruitful and faithful. And then in verse 3, there are happy and productive children. They are like green olive plants round about the table.

Now, in the Middle East, the olive was very valuable and very productive, but it needed to be nurtured and cared for. And that is God's picture of the ideal family. And God says this is a blessing. Look in verse 24. Behold that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. But we're going to have to admit that the ideal is turned to an ordeal.

And a lot of folks are looking for a new deal. Why? This thing of a happy family is often made fun of today and ridiculed today as if it ever existed, it can never ever come back.

It is but an elusive dream. Now, I want to talk to you about a particular part of a family. I want to talk to you about some family fun. We've talked about family faith and family finances. I want to talk to you about some old-fashioned family fun.

I want us today to get serious about fun. I want us to learn about laughter, and I want us to see that laughter is a gift from God. Now, you're in Psalm 128. Just look in Psalm 126 and verse 2. The last people got ripe.

Notice what it says. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.

I would like for your home to be such a happy place that your neighbors who don't know the Lord, your pagan neighbors if you have some, will look at you and see the laughter and the joy that is in your home and say of you the Lord's done great things for them. And one of the marks that God has done something great for us is that our mouths are filled with laughter. Now, laughter is a gift from God. Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh. Now, if you're one of those who think that laughter and faith are contradictory, you need to get your Bible out and study your Bible. God hath made me to laugh.

We need to learn something about family fun. We need to learn how to celebrate humor. I have a friend named Ken Davis who is a comedian, a godly comedian. He doesn't believe in coarse jokes and making fun of individuals so as to humiliate them. But he makes me laugh.

And here's what Ken Davis said. Allow laughter to flood your home and its echoes will last a lifetime. Someone wisely defined humor as a gentle way to acknowledge human frailty. Humor is a way of saying, I am not okay and you are not okay. But that's okay. I love that.

I'm not okay, you're not okay, but that's okay. God loves us anyway. People who are secure in their awareness of God's love and who have experienced his love and forgiveness are free to laugh.

That's good. People who are secure in God's love and awareness of God's love and who have experienced his love and forgiveness are free to laugh. People who have experienced that love and his forgiveness, they're the ones who are free to laugh. Humor should never be used to avoid facing issues or as a weapon to hurt members of your family, but it should be allowed to flourish as a part of family life.

That's what I'm trying to say. Now, when I'm talking about family fun, I'm not talking about silly, mindless frivolity. I am not talking about irresponsibility.

I'm not talking about failing to do what you ought to do because you are careless. As a matter of fact, I found out that fun and efficiency go together. As a matter of fact, if you learn how to have fun, you will probably be more efficient. And in my studies for this particular message, I found what I'd already suspected, that people who have an unusual capacity for laughter also have an unusual capacity for seriousness.

The two go together. I'll tell you something else that I learned. Laughter, with a well-rounded sense of humor, psychologists tell us, is one of the hallmarks of high intelligence. It is people who have a well-rounded sense of humor that have one of the surest signs of being an intelligent person. Now, when I'm talking to you about family fun, I'm talking to you about not merely laughter and games.

I include joy, happiness, games, humor, sports, leisure, vacations, meals, parties, celebration, entertainment, and much, much more. Now, don't get the idea that our Savior that we love, and we said, because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Don't get the idea that Jesus was some pale, religious, sanctimonious recluse. If you study the life of the Lord Jesus, one of the things that they crucified him for was they said he was a wine bibber and a glutton. Now, you're talking about the life of Jesus. Well, he wasn't, but Jesus went to parties. He worked his first miracle at a wedding feast, and there Jesus was the life of the party, and Jesus was a friendly person. He called himself a friend of sinners.

And I'll tell you one thing about Jesus. The little children loved him. The little children loved him. The little children wanted to come and sit in the lap of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that ought to tell you something about the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a man of great gladness. As a matter of fact, the Bible says concerning the Lord Jesus, thou hast anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows. Jesus knew joy, and Jesus knew happiness. Now, Satan would love to distort things.

Of course, there's a time to weep, and there's a time to laugh. But Satan wants to get us out of balance. Satan wants to turn us into grim people. Satan wants to take the joy out of our lives. Satan wants to take the joy out of our lives and to distort things.

I want to tell you something, friend. Leisure is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Do you know what the word leisure means? The word leisure comes from a Latin word, which means to give permission or to be permitted. So leisure time is a time that you give yourself permission to have without feeling guilty for enjoying it.

Because you need it, and God wants you to have it. You have to give yourself permission for leisure. There's a lot of fun in you, but you have to give it permission to get out.

And there are a lot of people who have not learned to give themselves that permission. You must learn to have leisure, and if you have children, those green olive plants around your table... Don't fail to have that fun with your kids while they are kids. You need to throw away your excuses, and all of us have excuses. I don't have time. Then you take time. Well, I'm working for their inheritance. Friend, it'd be far better for you to live rich than to die rich. You say, well, I'll make it up with the grandkids.

Well, they may not even be bringing the grandkids around because of the way that you live with them. I'm saying that you need to put away your excuses. You say, well, I have deadlines.

You will always have deadlines, but you won't always have a four-year-old. And we need to think about it. The word leisure simply means to give permission, and it is a biblical thing. Put this verse down in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 4. The Bible says there's a time to weep, and there is a time to laugh. That's what God says. There's a time to weep.

There's a time to laugh. Jesus, in the New Testament, said in Luke chapter 6, verse 21, blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. That's what Jesus said. Don't get the idea that you can't be happy and be a Christian. Don't get the idea that God is some sort of cosmic killjoy, that every time he sees somebody having a good time, he moves in to break up the party. That's not God. That is not the God of the Bible, and that is not the God of a happy home. And if you don't learn to put some joy in your home and some laughter in your home and some fun in your home, it's going to be a long, hard ride through ulcer-gulch. The Bible says there's a time to weep.

And, yes, there's some things we need to be serious about, deadly serious. The things that break the heart of Jesus ought to break our hearts. But the thing that gave Jesus joy ought to give us joy, and we ought to enjoy the things of God. Dr. Vance Havner was a friend who's now in heaven, as many of us have learned so much for, and quotes so often. Dr. Havner said, I have no sympathy with those who say the devil never takes a vacation.

I am not following the devil, but the Lord, who said, come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile. And then Dr. Havner said, if you don't come apart, you will come apart. You will go to pieces. You see, what are we talking about? There is a time to work. There's a time to rest. There's a time to weep.

There's a time to laugh. And we need some homemade happiness. We need some family fun. I want to mention three things, three things that family fun will do. Are you ready for them? Number one, family fun refreshes.

Family fun refreshes. Look in verse 2 of this psalm. The labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Now, we have to work. And sometimes work is difficult, and we come in and we eat, however, the labor of our hands, and God refreshes us.

Now, work is necessary, but it can't be all work and no play. You're in Psalm 128. Look over in Psalm 127, verse 2.

Look at it. These psalms are linked together. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Now, what is he talking about the man who rises up early and stays up late? He's talking about the man who is more interested in his finances than he is his fun. He's more interested in his labor than he is in his laughter. And God says that is vanity.

That is vanity. There's a time to work. There's also a time to rest. And don't be so busy. What he's saying is don't be so busy making a living that you forget to live.

So many people are doing that. As I've already said, it is better to live rich than it is to die rich. A young preacher came to a town that was a mill town. A small church was there, and the young preacher went to see the owner of the mill to invite the owner of the mill in this mill town who literally owned the town, really, to come to the church. And this is what the man said to the minister.

He said, Young man, you've not seen me in church, and you will not see me until my funeral. I own this town and this mill. It is my pot of gold. When I came here as a young immigrant, I heard that in America, there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have found the gold, but young man, I have lost the rainbow.

And I wonder how many I'm talking to right now. You're working for that pot of gold and forgetting the rainbow. It is vain to rise up early to stay up late to eat the bread of sorrows, for he giveth his beloved sleep. That literally means that he giveth his beloved sleep.

He giveth his beloved inner sleep. As somebody said, if you're burning the candle at both ends, you're not as bright as you think you are. You're not as bright as you think you are. Life is passing you by. Your children are failing to have the joy and the happiness that God wants you to have with that family fun.

Now, this showed up on the worldwide web here. We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but more narrow viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy it less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees, but less common sense. More knowledge, but less judgment.

More experts, but more problems. More medicine, but less wellness. We spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and lie too often. We have learned how to make a living, but not a life.

We have added years to life, but not life to years. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication. We come long on quantity, but short on quality. More leisure and less fun.

More kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are days of two incomes, but more divorce, of fancier houses, but broken homes. It's a time when there's much in the show window and nothing in the stock room.

Think about it. Friend, what does family fun do? Family fun refreshes.

Why don't you say, Pastor Rogers, by God's grace? We're going to put some fun in our family. We need some refreshment in our home.

We've been too grim. We've been too much grinding out this thing called life, but Jesus came to give us abundant life. Here's the second thing that family fun will do. Not only will family fun refresh, but family fun repairs. It repairs. Look again in this Psalm, verse 2. For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hand, happy shalt thou be, that is, it refreshes, and it shall be well with thee.

It will put things back together. It will be well with thee. Did you know that laughter is a medicine? Joy is a medicine? Happiness is a medicine?

Proverbs 17, verse 22, put it in your margin. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. If you have a grim and a solemn spirit, it's going to break your health.

It'll break the health of an individual, and it will break the health of a family. Put this verse in your margin. Proverbs, chapter 12, and verse 25. Heaven is in the heart of man, maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad.

You need to learn how to give some good words in your house. Heaven just bows down the heart. I was reading these verses from Proverbs this past week. Read in Proverbs 15, verses 13 through 15. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. I love that. When you have a merry heart, you have a continual feast.

It doesn't matter whether it's hamburger helper or filet. You have a feast if you have a merry heart. When you have a merry heart, you have a continual feast. What a great reminder as we conclude part one of today's message.

We'll hear part two coming up tomorrow. In the meantime, maybe you have a prayer request that you'd like to share. If you can, go to our website homepage, lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to find our prayer wall. You'll find the option there to submit a prayer request or to pray for others. This resource is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually. We can't wait to hear from you. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall.

Well, thanks for studying in God's word with us today. Spend some time with your family. And remember, the fun we have with our children will remain in their hearts for a lifetime. We hope you'll join us for part two of Family Fun tomorrow, right here on Love Worth Finding.