Introduction

Who here is looking forward to Camp? It looks like a lot of you are. I am very much looking forward to camp, and this is a great precursor for it because we are going to have a ton of fun at camp. We’re also going to be learning a lot from God’s Word. We’re going to be learning about the church. I’m really grateful for Josh and the team at Gilbert Bible who have done most of the legwork, along with Alex and the office here. Thank you, Alex, for all the work you’ve done for camp. [Applause]

So what I wanted to do today is talk about fun. Today is a day about fun, right? We’re here, we’re having fun together, and then we’re stopping the fun to open up God’s Word. I just want to think together: is it okay for us to have fun? Is fun just a morally neutral thing—that it’s okay as long as we do something spiritual together, like have a lesson? Or how should we think about fun?

Prayer

Let’s pray and then we’ll get into our lesson.

God, thank You so much for this day. Thank You for fun things like a Super Bowl and ping pong, GaGa ball, foosball, giant Jenga, good food, friends, laughing, and cards—so many things that are just fun to do. Thank You for making us able to have fun. I pray that for the next few minutes You would help me speak accurately and help these students have their view of fun recalibrated, so that they’re able to honor You better through enjoying the good gifts You give. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Thinking Rightly About Fun

Think about it: a lot of things we call “fun” can be full of ways to sin, right? Sometimes you might correlate fun with something questionable, because the world around us lives for these things, idolizes them, and sins when they do them. We’ve been talking in the Sermon on the Mount about how God gave us good things—like marriage—and how we shouldn’t just abstain from them but pursue them in the way God made them to be enjoyed. Really, all fun should be that way: pursue it in the way God made it to be enjoyed.

Think back with me to before the Fall, before Adam and Eve sinned. Was there fun and pleasure then? Did food taste good? Was there probably joy in competition and accomplishment? I think it would have been fun to pick up a rock and skip it across the water, or to play catch. Why is that fun? I don’t know, but God put that in us. These aren’t side effects of the Fall. The fun we’re able to have is actually residual common grace that hasn’t been totally destroyed by the Fall—though it has been corrupted a bit.

Before the Fall, Adam and Eve had pleasure in food, nature, and each other. There was no sin, so they weren’t idolizing these things that were made to be enjoyed—until they did. Ultimately, as they received the good gifts, they knew they were gifts from God and were able to delight in Him. Think about when you get a present from your parents at Christmas or a birthday. You see their faces while you’re opening it; sometimes they’re more excited than you are. They say, “Go have fun with it!” And if you open it and don’t care, you’re not honoring them. But when you open the present, say “Thanks Mom and Dad,” and then spontaneously yell, “Thank you Mom and Dad for this present,” that really honors the parent. It’s a good picture of connecting the gift to the Giver. All the fun things God gives us should be like that.

If you have a Bible, open it to 1 Timothy 6:17. We’re going to look at one phrase to get started. The warning here in 1 Timothy 6:17 is about those who are rich in this world. They have lots of opportunities to do whatever they want. Paul says, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches.” Instead, they are to set their hopes on God, “Who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” God is the One Who gives us these things, and Paul instructs the rich to do good works, be generous, and ready to share. That phrase “God richly provides us with everything to enjoy” echoes James 1, which says every good and perfect gift comes from above, from our Father, with Whom there is no changing. Fun and pleasure aren’t inherently sinful. They’re good, but idolatry—living for fun—came from the Fall.

We can and should enjoy God’s good gifts. He gave us the capacity to enjoy them, and He invented them as a good gift. It actually took Him a lot of work. Consider what God had to do for you and me to enjoy food. The average human tongue has more than 10,000 taste buds, each containing multiple taste receptor cells. There are two cranial nerves dedicated just to taste, and your sense of smell also contributes heavily to taste. God did this so that food wouldn’t just keep us alive; it would taste good and give us pleasure. Think of all the things you ate tonight in the fellowship. Have you ever spontaneously said, “Thank You, God”? Like a kid thanking his parents for a present, we should do that for food. God gave us tongues and a variety of foods and flavors. He didn’t do it just for survival, but because He loves us, so that when we taste something good, we’d give thanks to Him.

You can take taste and misuse it—through gluttony, lack of self-control, or other sins. But that doesn’t make food bad. If you receive it as a gift, it’s a way to thank God. The same goes for our eyes, which are absolutely amazing—100 million photoreceptor cells in the retina. Light is projected onto the retina, and these cells sense brightness and color, sending that data through the optic nerves to the back of our brain. We can make a picture out of it, and we get pleasure from seeing beautiful things. God did that. We could go down every sense we have and see that God gave them to us for enjoyment and to glorify Him. These good things can be corrupted by sin, but that doesn’t make them bad in themselves. We should see them as gifts pointing us to His creative power and generosity.

The Danger of Idolatry

Fun was never meant to be ultimate or fully satisfying. Look at the Super Bowl. One team will win, confetti will drop, and they’ll celebrate. They’ve worked their entire lives for that moment. But by tomorrow or the next day, they’ll be talking about how to do it again. Pleasure that isn’t ultimately centered on God is fleeting. If you can win the Super Bowl as a believer, you could say, “Thank You, God, for that privilege—thank You for making this body and allowing me to glorify You through it.” But if you live for fun, for stuff, or for success, it’s fleeting. People who live for fun get anxious as they grow older, because they realize their opportunities are dwindling. A bucket list doesn’t change the fact that we all die. And if you’ve only lived for fun in this world, that’s the best you’ll ever have. Idolatry—taking a good gift like fun and making it the main thing—leads to emptiness and destruction.

Luke 12:16 speaks of a rich fool who fills his barns and says, “Self, I can finally rest; eat, drink, and be merry.” He worked his whole life to reach a point of pure pleasure, and that night he died. All of us will die, unless Jesus returns first. If you live for fun and success, you still die, and in 10,000 or 100,000 years you won’t care that you had a vacation or an experience today. Compared to eternity, these pleasures won’t satisfy. Don’t live for fun that only lasts this life. Live to please the Lord, and have fun along the way. He gave us these bodies, eyes, ears, tongues, and the capacity to enjoy good things. Christians can and should enjoy fun because our joy is in God.

Some people receive God’s Word and it seems to produce fruit, but it gets choked by “cares and riches and pleasures of life” (Luke 8:14, the Parable of the Soils). It’s possible to let the pleasures of this world distract and choke out the Word. Don’t do that. Instead, remember Psalm 16:11: “In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” We’re wired for an eternal joy. The fun and pleasure we experience now is just a taste of the unending joy that Christians will have in God’s presence. If you’re a Christian, one day you’ll be made sinless, able to enjoy every good gift without the temptation to idolize it, and you’ll do that forever.

Eternity with God’s Good Gifts

We can enjoy silly laughter, friendship, and fun activities like GaGa ball. We can also enjoy sacrificial ministry and service—there’s even joy to be found in trials. God will give you exactly what you need in life, though not everything will be fun. But if you have eyes to see, you can still say “Thank You, God” even in the hardest times—like enjoying a sunrise or a comforting conversation with a friend. Christian, enjoy the good gifts God gives. That will help guard you from idolizing fun and will connect the gift to the Giver.

Use fun for the purpose God intended. For instance, marriage provides pleasure within the boundaries He set. The same is true for every gift. Idolatry puts any gift in God’s place. That will ruin you. So work to see beyond the gift to the Giver. Fun isn’t just fleeting entertainment; it’s a taste of eternal joy in Christ. Tonight, how do you have fun that honors God? Check for sin. Compete and have fun, but don’t cheat. Don’t grumble. Don’t brag in pride. If you find yourself sinning to have fun, repent and pursue it the right way. Watch your heart. Do you grumble when fun is taken away? You might be worshiping fun. Do you chase fun and never pray, serve, or do the hard things? That’s a sign of idolatry. Instead, look for opportunities to serve and please God.

Don’t pursue fun like the world around you, which lives for the moment. The world says, “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” But you know that any fun here is just a foretaste of eternal joy with God. Christians can enjoy this world more than those who live for it, because we see every gift as coming from Him. So serve joyfully, laugh, and play. A sober-minded Christian who never laughs or plays misses out on God’s good creation. God gave us the capacity for delight, so don’t waste it. But also don’t let fun distract you from time in His Word, serving, evangelizing, and doing the duties He has given you. Fun has its proper place and measure. Enjoy it as a gift that points to Him.

Conclusion & Ephesians 2

If you’re not a believer, don’t think you must choose between fun now and misery later. That’s not Christianity. The real choice is between being a slave to sin—chasing pleasures that don’t satisfy—or turning to God, Who offers greater joy now and for eternity. He will take your sin away, free you from sin’s power and penalty, not because of your good works, but because of His grace, forming you into His child Who can enjoy His gifts as a loving Father provides. That joy will continue forever with Him.

Why does God save people? Ephesians 2:7 says it’s “so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” He’s going to spend eternity showing us His kindness. We only get glimpses of that now, whether in good food, fun games, or His comfort in our hardships.

Let’s read Ephesians 2:4-7 (ESV):

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Let’s pray:

God, it’s absolutely amazing that You, Who created the entire universe by the power of Your Word, would care about us—that You would make us and then save us after we rebelled. You give us these good gifts, even to people who reject You. For those of us who have Your Spirit, how much more should we enjoy them as gifts from You. Guard us from idolatry—loving the world and the things in it. Guard us from seeking ultimate satisfaction in these things. Help us enjoy You through Your good gifts.

Let us have a great night that glorifies You. Help us love and serve one another. Thank You for the people who prepared the food. Please prepare our hearts and our bodies for this coming week at camp: guard us from sin, help us think deeply about Your Word, and change hearts for Your glory through the preaching of Your Word. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Back to Fun

All right, back to fun! Let’s everyone go get food, play your games, and I’ll turn the Super Bowl back on.