Biblical Take on Leisure

Jeff Purswell did a message on leisure which may be helpful for so of you. It is for me.

3 ASPECTS OF LEISURE

1) Divine Intention of Leisure

- Leisure is a gift from God.
- Do you feel guilty when you take time to participate in leisure activities?
- Relaxing is not being lazy or slothful. God wants us to enjoy leisure.
- Leisure is for rest and relaxation from toils in life. Jesus took time away to rest in His ministry.
- We are creatures, God is the Creator. We need rest, God doesn't. Sleep is not leisure.
- Exodus 20:8 - Ten Commandments - Keep the Sabbath day holy. You shall not do any work. God made everything in 6 days and rested on the 7th.
- God commanded them to take regular and consistant breaks from work once a week.
- Work needs to be balanced with leisure.
- Is your soul regularly restored or is it regularly frenzied?
- It takes faith to rest. For some it takes more faith to rest than to work. It takes faith that God is at work even when we are not.
- Resting says that ultimately I trust in God more than my own work. It shows dependence on God.

2) Enjoyment and Celebration

- Do you believe God's will for you include enjoyment? Does that question cause you to struggle?
- God commands us to be happy (joyful). This is not limited just to spiritual things.
- God created all things for our enjoyment. In the Garden of Eden things were created that were pleasing to people.
- 1 Timothy 6 says, "not to trust in riches, but in God who gives everything for us to enjoy"
- God's creation is for our good and for our enjoyment.

3) Deepens our Awareness of and Gratitude Toward God

- It's easy to be narrow minded and selfish in our leisure
- One of the ways we reaffirm our relationship with God is that we will stop working.
- This deepens our gratitude toward God.
- Leisure severed from God leisure becomes trivial and unsatisifying.
- If we see leisure as an opportunity to enjoy God our leisure is enhanced.
- Leisure enhances who we are and deepens friendships.
- Leisure is not immune to our sinful tendancies and our distortions.

Temptations of Leisure

1) Idolizing leisure - pursuing leisure as good and work as evil. Do you view it as I work in order to play. Ecclesiastes views life from worldly view only. Didn't look from God's perspective. Enjoyment from God is fleeting and only deepens craving for leisure.
- Leisure becomes idolotry when it takes up time, affections, and resources that belong to God and His purposes. Idols look good but they don't provide

2) Neglecting Leisure - work hard to get more "workoholic"
- These people are often rewarded at job.
- Hard work is to be admired but not done to get more, or because of pride that comes with success or a bigger home.
- Job Security = the lie we are believing "everything depends solely on me"
- Be aware of the dangers that success depends on me, NOT upon God.
- When you neglect God to get these things done, you are in sin.
- Husband should make sure wives are taking time off especially stay-at-home moms who are working 24/7. Moms need time to rest too.
- Vacations can be an opportunity to serve and care for members of your family. Find out what refreshes wife and kids, so the family is refreshed, no just the husband. Find out what is refreshing and build you together as a family.

3) Wasting Leisure - leisure itself is not wasted time. Idle time is NOT leisure time. We're created to rotate work and leisure.
- Laziness is a sin.
- Wasted through worthless pursuits.
- TV can be wasted time as well. We should ask is this leisure or is this wasted time.
- You should feel refreshed after time of leisure, so that you're ready for work again.