Ready for Fun

Prayer

Letting Our Hair Down

Perception of Christians

I grew up going to church - every Sunday. I had some knowledge of God, believed he existed. But I never understood the Gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ willingly laid down his life as a sacrifice for our sins, defeating death by rising to life again. It never clicked with me.

It wasn’t until I got involved in Young Life as a high school student that I finally heard it in a way that made sense to me - and that that news necessitated a response, would I entrust my life to Jesus and follow him?

My answer, at that time, was that no, I wouldn’t. Because I had a perception of what it meant to be a Christian that I think is very common.

That to be a Christian meant you were supposed to be a do-gooder. No fun. Can’t do this, can’t do that, can’t do anything fun.

Christians were party poopers, prudes, killjoys. And I had a sense already that I leaned towards the nerdy side of the high school social strata, and becoming a Christian would seal the deal, push me further towards social fringes - and that was a higher price than I wanted to pay.

In hindsight, I realize how utterly foolish that perspective that is. But like all stereotypes, there’s often a kernel of truth (sometimes much more than a kernel) in there - and that’s true here, too. Christians can be and are uptight, rule-focused - more on “no, no, no” than “yes, yes, yes” to life.

It was actually the ministry of Young Life that helped me to discover that joy and fun actually go hand and hand with following Jesus. It’s one of the reasons I’ve continued to stay connected with Young Life - because my personality tends toward being a rule-follower, I slip all too easily into the mold of the disapproving older brother from the story of prodigal Son in Luke 15.

Young Life has a culture of saying “yes” to fun and play and joy. I was slow to make the connection in high school that’s what should life in Christ should lead us more into.

Here’s an important question to consider...are joy and delight a consistent aspect of your life? Do you play well? Laugh easily? Do you delight? If not, why not?

This is not to say that suffering and difficulties aren’t reality for all of us - I don’t want to gloss over that at all. There is a time to mourn, a time to weep. But there is very much a time to dance. A time to laugh.

And I firmly believe that when Jesus comes to us and tells us that he came that we might have life - and have it to the full. Abundant life. This is exactly what he’s talking about. That following Jesus should lead us into greater joy, a fuller heart, greater capacity for awe and wonder and delight. Which I think we all hunger for.

Jesus knows that. He Gets Us. That’s the theme of our sermon series. This morning we want to look at how Jesus knew how to have a good time - as the ad for the nationwide campaign puts it, Jesus let his hair down. Let me give you some examples, because we see this throughout the Scriptures.

One of the places we most often see Jesus in Gospel stories is at a dinner party. In Luke 7, he’s at a dinner party hosted by Simon, a Pharisee; Matthew 9, he’s being chided by religious leaders for being at a dinner party hosted by Matthew, a now former tax collector who’s become Jesus’ follower (he said “yes” to Jesus!) - and there’s a whole bunch of other tax collectors there as well. John 12, dinner party at Bethany, home of Mary and Martha. Jesus is hosted by Zacchaeus in Luke 19.

Think about that - dinner parties are social gatherings, sitting (in those days, reclining), it would have gone on for hours, eating food, drinking wine. Having conversation. People enjoyed Jesus so much that they wanted him at their dinner parties.

This is pretty remarkable, listen to this verse in Matthew 11:19, The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”

That was one of the attacks religious leaders - who were very much rule-keepers (and enforcers!) - made on Jesus. He’s enjoying himself too much with those sinners. That was their charge against him.

One of my favorite moments in gospels is in Luke 10, when the disciples return from having been sent out by Jesus to do ministry in the neighboring towns. And they’re so excited about what God did through them, vs. 17…The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

It’s hard to imagine who amazing that would be - that experience of God’s power in you, freeing people from demon-possession. You can see why they “returned with joy.”

And it’s so fun to see Jesus’ response: At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.”

Jesus shares their joy, it wells us inside of him and bursts out in spontaneous praise of God over what God is doing in the lives of his followers. That is not the image of a stuffy killjoy. That is life and life to the full.

One more example of Jesus letting his hair down - the story of the wedding at Cana in John 2. Jesus and his Mom (Mother’s Day!) and his disciples have been invited to wedding. They’re enjoying it, having a good time. Then Mary catches news that hosts have run out of wine. Huge social embarrassment. What does Jesus do? He miraculously creates more wine. Not just a little bit of wine either. No, six large jars full - 120 gallons! And not just cheap stuff, Jesus didn’t slouch on his winemaking skills, this was award winning wine.

Do you think Jesus knew how to have a good time? To enjoy the fullness of life? No doubt about it.

I want to dive into this a little deeper, because it’s so important to see not just that Jesus knows how to have a good time, that he offers fullness of life - but what that looks like - where we get it so wrong (and that can be in two directions - killjoys, dour - or we move into debauchery and pleasure perverted).

Proper Place of Pleasure

First of all, we have to remember that pleasure is God’s great invention. It was his wonderful idea. He designed things for our good, for our pleasure.

In C.S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, a higher level demon is advising Wormwood, a lower level demon, about how to use pleasure to tempt his “patient.” But he warns him that he has to be careful in doing so, because when he is dealing with pleasure, he’s working in Enemy territory. I love this quote:

Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. Pleasure is God’s ground, his forte!

Screwtape goes on to admit, reluctantly, that in spite of all their years of research and effort, the demons have never been able to create a single pleasure. Because they are not God. And they are not good. This is the essence of Genesis 1 & 2, God created the world…and it was good.

Just consider for a moment about what that says about who God is - and how much he loves us. How much he desires good for us.

It was my foolishness that I rejected following Jesus in high school because I thought it was going to deny me life, I thought it was going to be less fun, less good…less.

I didn’t recognize, make connection that God is one who made everything good. That all pleasures we enjoy in life…unbelievable variety of food, just standing on a perfect spring day, and taking breeze in, smelling the faint fragrance of flowers blooming, hug of a dear friend or family member, the pleasure of sex - that was not by accident.…that is God’s goodness built into universe.

But here’s thing, in all these activities, God created them with a specific purpose, how and why we are to engage in them. And the pleasure of that activity is directly related to that - as Screwtape says, pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form.

A writer, a priest by the name of Father James Schall puts it this way, “Every human activity has its proper pleasure”.

What does he means by that? It’s idea that there is pleasure intrinsic to the act itself. Acts were created by God for a particular purpose. To go against that purpose is always evil, this is where we twist and pervert pleasure, when we engage in activity wrongly.

Let me offer you some examples

Eating and drinking. Great pleasures in life. Food is awesome. And it serves a particular purpose - to sustain and nurture our bodies.

So, when we eat food in proper amounts, proper variety - then we can enjoy the proper pleasure of food.

It’s when we gorge - eat too much - feels great at first (so good!), but then you get that miserable feeling, “ugh, I ate way too much”. And it certainly doesn’t do our bodies any favors in long run. Same thing when we don’t eat balance of food - man, I love those sweets - but if I overindulge, I’m not eating my fruits and vegetables and proteins, I know life will be less pleasurable.

Certainly true with alcohol as well, drinking alcohol has its proper pleasure. One obvious way to point this out is ask question of who do think has enjoyed their drinking more - person who’s had a glass or two…or the person who drank copious amounts of alcohol? Every human activity has its proper pleasure.

Huge news this week in regards to the question of abortion, and the strong possibility that Roe v. Wade may be overturned by the Supreme Court (grant it, Lord). But the whole question of abortion speaks to issue of sex.

I don’t know if there’s an area, an activity, where we have absolutely perverted its pleasure because we’ve gone so far astray from God’s design and purpose, we’ve lost its proper pleasure.

God designed sex to be practice within the confines of marriage relationship for the purpose of procreation, bearing children, and for intimacy, physical expression of two become one. As Sean McDowell states it, Bible is absolutely clear on design of marriage: One man, one woman, one flesh, to bear children. That’s it.

But in our culture today, we’ve separated sex from marriage and child-bearing. We look at sex overwhelmingly simple for the pleasure of the act itself. As an end into itself. We’ve absolutely perverted it - and as a society you can see consequences everywhere - including why we wrestle with the question of abortion itself. Consequences include children born out of wedlock, sexually transmitted diseases, pornography - all these things would be eliminated if we engaged in sex according to its proper pleasure.

And we’d enjoy it a lot more. Studies show consistently that the people most satisfied in their sexual relationships - married couples. Least satisfied? Singles.

Because engaging in activities outside of their proper pleasure never works. You can’t defy God’s design - which is the way you work, world works - He created it - and its utter foolish of us to think somehow our way is going end up being better.

As Screwtape tells Wormwood, their strategy is to always try to work away from natural conditions of any pleasure, to that in which it is less natural, less redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable...An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula.

I had to look up redolent - it means to smell strong of something or share same qualities - less redolent of God, would be a pleasure that exhibits less of the qualities of God.

We could go on and on, talking about proper pleasure of laughter, humor (meant to draw us together, instead we use humor to mock or belittle, it tears apart), play & recreation - interesting question, what is God’s purpose and design in play, recreation?? Creativity, imagination - all wonderful activities that have their proper pleasure.

And when we engage in activities in proper pleasure - we can delight in God’s goodness. This is the way Jesus lived. Why folks wanted him at their dinner parties.

Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 10:31 - So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Paul is telling us here to engage in whatever activity we’re doing rightly, in a way that is more redolent of, more reflective of our God. In other words, to engage in those activities according to their proper pleasure.

But it doesn’t just mean that - it means that we engage in them with a heart of gratitude, celebrating God’s goodness. Remember, God gave us all these gifts, all these things to do - with pleasure built in to them. He wants us to experience his goodness.

Paul writes this verse in context of addressing the debate of whether or not Christians should eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, which was a common practice (meat would be sacrificed, then sold). Paul’s whole attitude was, I know there’s only the one true God, so why should I worry about eating meat that has been sacrificed to a god that doesn’t even exist.

As he says in verse 30, If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I give thanks to God for?

Do you see Paul’s whole attitude here? This is a good gift from God, I’m going to enjoy it as such, delight in it, with a heart of gratitude!

I think this is exactly it. We should be the most joy-filled people, because (hopefully) we’re enjoying God’s pleasures as he designed them to (every activity according to its proper pleasure - eating, drinking, playing, creating, reading) - which is the best way they can be enjoyed. And doing it with hearts filled with gratitude for knowing a God who’s so good and loves us this much. This is what I think it means to eat and drink, to do whatever it is we’re doing - all to the glory of God.

Spiritual Disciplines - two ways you can put this into practice this week

Cultivate gratitude as a habit. Create a Blessings List - Give thanks every day for three specific (and different) things. Recognize God’s delights, his goodness all around you.

Heard some profound wisdom the other day, gratitude is the only counter to resentment. I also think it’s counter to entitlement and grumbling and complaining.

As you create your list, be thankful for your family, but be specific, name them and what is it about that person you give thanks to God for. So, give thanks for your mom - and is it especially about your mom that you give thanks for? Give thanks to God for a favored food. For a particular attribute of God....

Gave thanks to God for joy of our kittens…helicopter pods…helpfulness of Skylar & Ricky…writing a Mother’s Day card for my Mom.

Practice the Sabbath. This one may be surprising, because I think our tendency is to view practice of Sabbath as a hindrance, a burden. Because we fail to trust God’s wisdom and goodness.

Four fundamental aspects of keeping the Sabbath - Stop. Rest. Contemplate. Delight.

Celebrate the Sabbath, stop activity (work, put that phone away!), rest -sleep in, take a nap, contemplate, spend quiet time in the Scriptures and prayer. And do something you delight in. Enjoy God in all his goodness!

And if you don’t know what that is, that’s a problem. To delight is simply to recognize something as God’s good gift - and to enjoy it as such. We were made to delight. You were made to delight.

And if keeping the Sabbath day is a step too far for you, then take time this week to do something you delight in.

Inspiration

This weekend we had the chance to enjoy two great outings - Friday night a gathering with my cousins, last night, surprise Birthday party for Angie Harkins. In a sense, dinner parties - sitting around, eating lots of good food, something to drink, telling stories, catching up, jokes - they were wonderful.

One of the primary images of the Kingdom of God we find in the Bible is a banquet, in particular, a wedding feast

Just take a moment to think about some of the best weddings you’ve been to…the beauty of the wedding service itself, smiles abounding, sacred beauty of the moment, glorious holiness there

And then, the party! Tables full of great food - plate is not big enough to get a little of everything. Little something to drink. Big ‘ol piece of a multi-layered wedding cake. Then, let the dancing begin. Everybody cutting loose. It’s awesome. There’s laughter, joy…God’s goodness in abundance!

It’s not an accident that Jesus uses a wedding feast to describe Kingdom of God - he’s telling us something about God and his Kingdom, what he has planned for us…Kingdom abounds in the goodness of God, pleasures he created for us, he wants our hearts to delight - to delight in him.

Let’s reflect that in our lives. Jesus let his hair down. He knew how to have a good time, to enjoy the delights of the heavenly Father. Let’s do the same, show forth the goodness of God in our lives.