My favorite verse on fun or entertainment or laughter or a merry heart is Proverbs 17 22. It says a merry heart does good like a medicine or like medicine but a broken spirit dries the bone. A merry heart does good like medicine but a broken spirit dries the bone.
So let’s pray. Father I pray you’d be with me tonight as I do this little devotional right here in my bed and I’m not sick so I don’t need much medicine and yet I like this verse and I will be preaching on several verses of theology of fun or a biblical view of fun. So Father help me help me to communicate your truth in a way that pleases you and honors you and edifies whoever hears this message.
Father we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. And so this verse Proverbs 17 22 is probably the most popular verse in regard to fun, having a good time, entertainment and it says a merry heart does good like a medicine and most people seem to take this as a kind of license for Christians to have fun all the time to enjoy themselves as much as they can with every kind of entertainment that is just not obviously sinful but it’s basically the party hearty verse for a lot of people and yet today I think even more at least for Christians than COVID is a problem I think entertainment fun seeking a good time is more of a epidemic and more of a trouble for our country for Christians then than any kind of COVID would be it’s got to the point where it is a kind of disease and the reason I say this is because this verse is first misused or misunderstood it says a merry heart does good like medicine well how much medicine do you need usually if you’re sick if you need any medicine at all it comes in a tiny little pill size not a sandwich size pill not through a three sandwich pill but a small dosage and we are told in Scripture that we are to work six days rest the seventh day we’re not told that we are to entertain ourselves six days a week or seven days many people think they need entertainment seven days a week that’s why a lot of churches provide that entertainment some people go and hear a pastor because he is really funny the whole service is entertaining with the music and maybe dancing and maybe even some kind of skit and all of this is because we are a society that is hooked on entertainment well what does Scripture say other than Proverbs 17 22 well if you go to Ecclesiastes which I’m turning to now I didn’t mark any of these these passages other than I came to 1722 but the very next book in the Bible Ecclesiastes which I believe is also written by Solomon also has a lot to say about laughter and starting with chapter 2 and actually before that there’s some of this in chapter 1 but I’ll start with chapter 2 right now because chapter 2 verse 1 says I said in my heart come now I will test you with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure but surely this was also vanity I said of laughter madness and of mirth what does it accomplish and here here’s a very different verse than a merry heart does good like a medicine laughter is even called madness mirth pleasure what does it accomplish he says I searched my heart to gratify my flesh with wine guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold of folly there this is Solomon talking he had all this available to him he could have any kind of entertainment he wanted and he says to lay hold on folly till I see what was good for the sons of men under heaven I made works great my works great I built houses and planted myself vineyards and I made myself gardens and orchards and I planted all kinds of fruit trees and I made myself water pools to water the growing trees in my grove and then here here’s the entertainment part again verse 7 of chapter 2 I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house and yes I had greater possessions herds and flocks of all the Jerusalem before me I also gathered gold and silver and special treasures of Kings and of the province and I acquired male and female singers and the male and female singers the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds so I became great and excelled more than all that were before me in Jerusalem my wisdom remained with me and he says whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them I did what withhold my heart from pleasure and so he did it all he had singers male and female entertainers to to entertain him he went after all of this stuff and he says later in verse 13 that I saw wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness and if you go through Solomon’s writings and Proverbs wisdom is a big thing you gotta gain wisdom and yet folly is excelled by it there’s a time for every purpose under heaven he says in chapter three jumping ahead in chapter seven of Ecclesiastes he says this better chapter seven verse two to go to the house of mourning which is a funeral home then to the house of feasting which is a party for that is the end of all men you know we all we all die and the living take it to heart I’m gonna die I’m gonna stand before God I’m gonna be judged when you go to a funeral when you see a loved one die you start thinking seriously you start thinking what am I doing with my life and yet when you’re at a party you’re not thinking of anything really maybe trying to think of some trivia in regard to some game but that’s about the most of it and the point that Solomon is making here is one thing is better for you than the other he says sorrow is better than laughter for by a sad countenance the heart is made better our hearts are improved by the hardships we go through by the sorrowful things we go through laughter does not do that for us he says the heart of the wise is in the heart of house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of earth does that mean we always have to go to a funeral all the time or that we should seek them out whether we know the person or not no but our hearts are there our hearts don’t really leave there we think about what Jesus was saying when he says what shall it profit a man if he gains the world world and loses his own soul the person is often as a funeral thinks about things like that the person who’s always going to parties doesn’t care if they have a soul or not and they’re ready to drown it maybe in some wine going a little further in Ecclesiastes and I know I’m skipping over a lot the chapter 11 verse 9 rejoice so young man in your youth and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment therefore remove sorrow from your heart and put away evil from your flesh for childhood and youth are vanity here rejoice oh young man in your youth and I don’t think he’s saying that sarcastically I think he’s saying that we can’t rejoice in our youth Christianity is not about God being some cosmic kill joy we’re not required to take the swing out of the parakeet cage on the Sabbath just in case that parakeet might have a little fun or pleasure with that swing let’s take the swing out no that’s not what the Christianity is all about here God knowing that we can have joy and have simple pleasures in life he says rejoice oh young man in your youth let your heart cheerly in the days of your youth walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes but know all know for all these things God will bring you into judgment think about what how you enjoy yourself and keep obedient to God he says in chapter 12 first verse remember your creator in the days of your youth oh how I wish I started as a young believer in my 20s memorizing verses memorizing verses memorizing verses diligent diligent diligent oh I’m so glad I did that but there was a time in life where I stopped doing that and a verses I memorized they kind of went out of my head and then I started to re-memorize them kind of just recently and knowing that I have so much more difficulty memorizing them now in an older age than I did when I was younger not only that but I tried to memorize them in a different version and still the verses I know the best are the ones I remembered when I was youngest and as I get older I’m still younger today than I will be tomorrow and so I better memorize now better get serious about God now I’m not one for the game I’d sit church I remember a long long time ago I was a young Christian just become a Christian and they started to go to church and there was a bunch of us young singles together and the pastor’s daughter she says what do you want to do now they were like five or six of us together what do you want to do and I said let’s have a Bible study and I was excited about thought I thought everybody would be happy about that and the pastor’s daughter he says oh I want to do something fun well I still would rather have a Bible study how many years later it’s the one thing I desire it’s the one thing I would want I long for people to study the Bible with somebody would prefer that to games because I know as it says in Scripture that more to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than honey on the honeycomb a long time ago I heard preacher a street preacher I actually met the man he wrote a little book he says 44 times the Bible says God is the most high that’s what he’d preach yet he’d have to have a one-liner for the people who were just walking by and if he saw somebody who looked like they were on drugs you know in the middle of the city you’d see people like that sometimes and he got to recognize and he’d say the Bible says 44 times God is the most I would taste and see the Lord is good blessed is the man who trusts in him that word blessed is used a lot in Scripture the very beginning of the Psalms blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water this is the pleasurable life when he says blessed the word blessed is the same you know English word would be happy but it’s not just talking about ordinary happiness it’s talking about true and eternal happiness and that blessed person is one who meditates in God’s Word day and night he doesn’t follow the counsel of the ungodly and so in regard to fun he can’t do those things that the flesh would count fun that an ungodly person a simple person would count fun there’s no joy in those things but there’s a delight he says in the law of the Lord we see all through the Psalms blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven happiness is described as being forgiven blessedness is used throughout the Scripture Jesus uses it in his Sermon on the Mount blessed are they that mourn this seems crazy but that fits along with what I said earlier from Ecclesiastes better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting because the heart is made better when you mourn over your sins blessed are they that mourn you will be comforted blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are they when they you take what all they persecute you blessed are you when they you’re persecuted for righteousness sake that’s not a blessing we’d expect not being persecuted and yet the Apostles when they healed the man at the book of Acts that were brought before the council and they were even punished they they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ we should have a desire such joy we are an entertainment oriented society we are the girls just want to fun society we even expect too often to be entertained that church and yet the blessedness the true happiness comes from knowing God comes from knowing and studying God’s Word and that’s what we should do father I pray that anybody hears this simple devotion and I might listen to it before I put it on he’s I’m not sure probably not a very good delivery and there’s definitely nothing written not my usual detailed sermon outline and yet father you know who will hear this and some I hope are convicted maybe they’re more often putting too many more hours into watching TV than they are reading the scripture because of that they are listening to the council the ungodly and standing in the way of sinners and sitting maybe even at the seat of the scornful because they are are there all their hours are about fun maybe a few minutes a day about the Bible and prayer and yet father we have something so beautiful and glorious you know I saw a verse not a verse but a quote from a famous preacher and I don’t even remember who it was but they were comparing happiness and holiness and yet father you and your word mentioned happiness even before holiness in the Genesis one when you bless you bless those and say be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it blessings are a very important part of your scripture and it’s not a blessedness versus holiness but it’s blessedness through holiness that we need father I pray that I’d have that I pray happy and blessing to those around me and to those who hear this sermon this little devotional may they be blessed and not just happy not with fun but with faith not with entertainment but with eternal things like your word we pray these things I pray these things in Jesus name amen
