Fun A Serious Study for Adults

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2 Fun A Serious Study for Adults [ Stop, Collaborate, & Listen ] Question What are your very favorite things to do just for fun? What does the Bible say about fun? Does it have a purpose? Is it even appropriate? Our culture has an opinion. David Naugle writes, Sardonic newspaper columnist and social critic H. L. Mencken once quipped that puritans, referring to seriousminded Christians, are people who have a deep, foreboding fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having a good time. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once observed that Christians have no joy. He also said, should he ever come to believe in God, he would only believe in a God who danced. Sadly, he was never able to locate such a God. 1 So what do you think? What is the place of fun and play in the Christian life? Over the next three weeks we re going to talk about fun. Why? Because the Bible has much to say about it, many of us are missing it in our lives, and our world is wishing we had more of it. We will discover how fun honors God, feeds our souls and serves as a real apologetic to our world of the joy we have in our hearts. This is a serious discussion on the importance of fun. Read Genesis 1 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 1 David Naugle, A Serious Theology of Play. accessed at

3 3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth. And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill

4 the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Why did God create the world? Did He have to create it? Do you think He enjoyed creating the world? Are there any indications from this passage that make you think He might have? Would it be safe to say that God had some level of fun as He created our world? James 1:17 reminds us that, Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

5 God created a world filled with His good gifts. Water for fish to swim in. Ground to stand on and vegetation for animals to eat Gravitational forces to keep our feet planted on the ground and oxygen to keep us breathing. Not to mention things like sunrises, kobe beef, sandy beaches, mountains, camp fires, colorful flowers in the spring, vibrant leaves in the fall, and bass-filled lakes for us to fish. The world created by God is quite literally crammed full of things for Adam, Eve (and us) and all the rest of creation to enjoy! Can having a great time in God s world be a form of worship? When can the fun we have and the things we enjoy become idols in our lives? What is the difference? [Read James 1:17 again] We ve established the need to be careful that we don t make an idol of fun, recognizing that all things that bring us enjoyment come form one ultimate source. Let us now turn our attention to God s action after He finished the work of Creation. Read Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. God rested on the seventh day. The first Sabbath. Then later, in Exodus, God makes Sabbath a strategic command for humanity. It falls, in the Big Ten, directly between those commandments directed towards God and those directed towards humanity. As writer David Naugle mentions: [on the Sabbath] we can alternate our mastery of the world through work with a thankful enjoyment of the world as we experience its beauty in rest, worship, and godly leisure. On the Sabbath we rest. But what does Sabbath rest entail?

6 In his exhaustive work on the Sabbath titled, The Rest of God, Mark Buchanan writes, [On the Sabbath] you get to shuck the have-tos and lay hold of the get-tos. He continues, Students of the Sabbath have long noted that the command implicitly forbids creating. God created for six days, but on the seventh he rested. So too us: we can create like mad all the other six days of the week forge widgets, write sermons, send memos, cook muffins, groom poodles, nail house frames, mix concrete, solve riddles. But the seventh day is when we step back and simply enjoy creation. We stop trying to make anything and instead let the things we ve made bless and serve us. Stop creating is the sum of it. This is clear enough, but I find it puzzling, and more than a little susceptible to all the finicky rulemaking I, at least, am prone to get into. Is chopping wood creating? What if I write a letter to my aunt is this different from all the other writing I do, and if so, how? Can I or can I not bake macaroons with my daughters? But even to ask such things is to lack synecdochic imagination. What is also implicit in the Sabbath command is our need for restoration. God ceased from creating, not because he needed rest or restoration, but because we do and God wanted to set the precedent, to lead by example. We need to be re-created after all our creating. Creating taps us out. It doesn t have this effect on God, of course. But we re not God. Creating, as invigorating as it can be at times, can also be boring, blistering, depleting. Our resources are limited. Our creativity is easily spent. Creating wears us threadbare. Sabbath is not for more creating. It is for re-creating. Again, what category does wood chopping, antique shopping, grass cutting, cookie baking, or letter writing fit with you? Is it something you create, or something that re-creates you? Choose the re-creative thing on Sabbath. Cease from what is necessary. Embrace that which gives life. Those two things, taken together, make up Sabbath s golden rule. 2 Re-create. That s what we do on the Sabbath. We do that which gives life and it honors God deeply. What activities do you do to re-create? -or- What activities do you participate in that personally give you life? 2 Buchanan, Mark ( ). IE THE REST OF GOD: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath (p ). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

7 Why do you suppose God would give us the Sabbath to enjoy? Pray Pray that God would help you take fun seriously. Thank Him for the abundance of good found in His world, even after the Fall. Go even further and ask God to give you a heightened awareness of his goodness and the courage to enjoy life even in difficult times.