The Family is a Microphone

Notes: The Family is a Microphone

February 6, 2014

Harvest OC

Pastor Levi Lusko

Pastor Greg is out of town celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary.

Tonight’s Text: Psalm 128

Tonight’s message in a Tweet: "The four walls of your home form a speaker that broadcast the content of your heart for the whole world to hear!”

Every movie night, every meal, every soccer game shows the contents of your heart to the world.

Psalm 128 (ESV)

Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

128 Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
    who walks in his ways!
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
    who fears the Lord.

5 The Lord bless you from Zion!
    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life!
6 May you see your children's children!
    Peace be upon Israel!

It is said that the way the family and home goes so will the nation. The family is a powerful thing and your home can and should be a place of ministry and a blessing to you. But it could be the opposite, it can become a toxic environment. 

The key difference maker is the “fear of the Lord”

Happy will you be if you fear the Lord. Fearing the Lord does not to mean just to be scared of God. God described himself as a consuming fire, so there is reason to fear and be afraid of God.

However, He isn’t just massive and full of inequity but He is also loving. 

Is the fear of the Lord, because we know we should be afraid of him but we don’t have to be.

Your home that fears the Lord will be a better place. 

1. Marriage is meant to send a message.
1. It is meant to magnify the truth of the cross. 
1. Marriage is an illustration of the holy life of the church.
1. The person that will not come to church, will see how Jesus effects your marriage and that can teach someone the Gospel. 
2. Reading your interaction with your wife could bring people to the Lord.
1. We all have made many mistakes and this is always very convicting to most couples.
2. Finding a spouse that loves the Lord is very important. 
1. Nothing is more important than you finding someone who loves the Lord like crazy as you do.
2. Marrying for charm, or money or chemistry. All of those things can fade. 

2 Corinthians 4(ESV)

The Light of the Gospel

4 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Treasure in Jars of Clay

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

3. There is no platform as powerful as parenthood. 
1. The responsibility to your children is so important. You can not turn off when you are in front of your kids. 
2. Kids are always soaking up what ever the parents are doing.
1. Good or bad, the kids absorb it.
3. They hear everything we are doing, see where we spend our time and our money, what we watch, who we talk to, in times of trials what we do, if we teach them the Bible or not. They are always learning from what we do. 

Psalm 127

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,    the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
    are the children of one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
    who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
    when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

It is a tremendous honor to be a parent. It does not matter how successful your business is or how big your bank account is, it is how you did being a parent.

4. Being single isn’t a limiter; it’s a unique enabler.
1. Being single isn’t a set back, it is a setup. 
1. You can do more according to the Bible, as a single person than as a married person.
2. You have to take care of your wife and kids once you are married.
3. When you are single you have the flexibility to give it all to Jesus.
2. Don’t settle.
5. God is not afraid of your failures, so you don’t have to be either.
1. That is what is so amazing about grace.
1.  We have all be hypocrites, we have all let our families down, we have all experienced failure.

The most important thing to speak into our microphones is to say “I’m sorry”.

In our failures God can use us. He is a healer, a redeemer, the physician. He not only can create, but he can re-create. He can heal and bring something new and great out of your failures. 

Heaven is not a place where good people go. It is a place where forgiven people. You will never be right with your mate until you are right with your maker.