Welcome to the Further Gospel Podcast where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn. And whether you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform or watching on our YouTube channel, I'm so thankful that you've joined me for this episode. We're talking about rest and play, resting and recreating. And I want to say this up front. In a Christian liberty series, it's important to cover these things, but you need to know rest is not sin, play is not a sin. God is not anti-enjoyment, anti-joy, anti-delight. He's not anti-fun. The question is not can a Christian rest or recreate? The question is how and why we do these things. And there's one more truth that will help us frame this up. Keep this in mind. Different than all of the other liberties we've talked through, rest is the only one that's a command, the command to rest. God did it on the seventh day. He put a Sabbath in the Ten Commandments. And so the baseline here is that we must, we are called, we should embrace rest. And we were made to enjoy creation. So how do we do that and not end up in the extremes of laziness or slothfulness or a gluttony of play that leads to idleness spiritually or a lack of kingdom focus? And just like gambling and drinking, scripture doesn't necessarily give this rigid rule book on every single aspect of this. You've got to use wisdom and apply the truth in Scripture. So, first, what the Bible says about rest and play. From the beginning, in Genesis 2, verses 1 and 2, the Bible says, thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts. By the seventh day, God completed his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day. Why did God rest? He didn't rest because he was tired. He rested to set a pattern. And later, God commands rest with the Sabbath. The Sabbath was never meant to be a burden, it's a gift. Jesus himself rested in the Gospels. He emphasized that Sabbath was made for man, man not made for the Sabbath. Jesus withdrew, he slept, he ate meals. By the way, on the topic of fun, he attended weddings. His first miracle in Cana was turning water into wine. So you have a life in Christ that is focused on the Father's mission, certainly obedient to the Father's will. And in that Jesus rested, he withdrew, he enjoyed weddings, he socialized. Jesus modeled for us faithfulness in all these things. Beyond Christ's example, you've got Paul's teaching in 1 Timothy 6.17 that God richly provides us with all things to enjoy. And so there's a goodness to enjoying God's good gifts. Some of the benefits of rest and recreation include, number one, spiritual reset and renewal. You will connect with your creator when you rest spiritually. That's good for you. Maybe for you, it's longer quiet times and hikes and reflecting on life and assessing your spiritual priorities, maybe it's activities, whatever it is. You've got to get out in order to work on. You picture the visual of a mechanic unable to see the dents in the car or the paint job if his head's always stuck in the engine. You need both, but in the end, sometimes you need to pull back to see the big picture. So it is with our lives spiritually. You need to pull back and rest. You need to have a little recreation in your life, and you pull back from the daily grind, and it helps you spiritually. Number two, mental reset and renewal as well, not just spiritually, but mentally. And those two are connected. Your mind needs periodic shifts from the day-to-day grind. You fill your mind with God's word. You fill your mind with deep conversations and thoughts about more than just the day-to-day get it, got it, make it, do it. No, you got to have lighthearted laughter and even unique challenges outside of your day-to-day. We do this a lot on our vacations. There's usually a puzzle somewhere on a countertop or nearby. Doesn't matter where we are. We love puzzles, my wife, the kids especially, challenging themselves, a 500-piece, a thousand-piece plus for a simple vacation block where we enjoy it at night. You're not staring at the TV. You're doing things that engage the mind, and it's a great reset from the day-to-day normal grind. Number three, physical reset and renewal. That's another benefit. Your body needs rest from sedentary lifestyle or working. And you might think, gossip, what do you mean? Rest from being sedentary. How does that make sense? Well, you rest from being sedentary, like sitting in a chair in a cubicle or in an office all day. You rest from that by being active. You move around. And then some of you, your body needs rest from activity. So you slow down and you actually spend a little more time just not running around like crazy. Number four, increased perspective and eternal priorities or on eternal priorities. You're gonna see the value of eternal things so much more when you get out of the day-to-day and you see your life for what it is. I had a friend who used to say change in pace. So slow down or speed up, whatever that is for you. Plus change of place. So go somewhere else. Go be somewhere else. Go do something else, a missions trip, a vacation, a walk, all that will equal a change in perspective. Number five, family and community bonding. Another great blessing. Your family and your friendships are bonded and blessed when you just spend time together without the usual agenda. The daily taxi driving service of sports and school and extracurriculars, all suspended. Sports generally paused. And the pressure cooker of weekly engagements is released. Just being with your people to enjoy them for who they are, all that's a gift. And you got to take full advantage of that during these sweet days. They won't last. And so enjoyment, recreation, and rest are not worldly inventions. They are clearly gifts from God. We see it in scripture. And maybe for you, this episode on Christian liberty has already served its purpose. I'm really just reinforcing that you should be using your liberties in the first place and you need to be resting. You need to slow down. You need to recreate. You need to get back to perspective. And also, like many people, every good gift can also be distorted. And so we all need to look under the hood in some other ways. Now, what does the Bible not say? Just like in every other episode, we've talked about this. What does the Bible not say about rest and recreation? Well, it doesn't say that every free moment must be maximized for productivity. Like you maybe are a person who feels guilty when you're resting. You're on vacation, you're like, I feel like I'm supposed to be doing something. The Bible does not say that every free moment should be used for all of this or else. The Bible does not say that play is a waste of time. The Bible does not say that your vacations and recreation are nothing but worldly pursuits. The Bible also does not say that rest is ultimate, or that leisure is neutral, or that play has no spiritual effect. We're always being formed by what we love, what we pursue, and what we give our time to. So you need to balance this out here. When we play too much, or we've lost the purpose of rest and recreation, that's where we need to slow down and reassess. Recreation becomes unhealthy when first it becomes escape instead of rest. You know, you're running from work and running from responsibility. Also, when it becomes identity instead of enjoyment. You know, you're the good time guy to everybody, but you neglect your wife and family. It's not healthy. Or when it becomes obsessive instead of a healthy pattern, you're just mostly playing, you're no longer producing. And some people don't rest because they're actually lazy. You might think that's a contradiction, but it's not. They're lazy with the most important things, and their busyness is a form of avoidance. So they're actually lazy spiritually, lazy in their family priorities, lazy in their marriage, lazy with their wife if they're a husband, lazy with their husband if they're a wife, lazy with the children and their parenting. But oh, they go so hard in all these other ways, but they're actually a lazy person because the busyness is avoidance. They're not doing the right things the right way. People who pride themselves on going hard are sometimes just going hard to avoid reality and they're running away from something. A man who's killing the game in business, but bankrupt at home, is actually lazier than he thinks. A man who claims to enjoy rest and recreation and feels healthy could be slowly dying spiritually or killing his home and marriage because he's playing more than he's ministering to his God-given priorities. We are called to do both, my brothers and my sisters. And so let's talk Christian liberty and wisdom. Let's apply what we've learned so far in this series. And remember that Paul says all things may be lawful, but not all things are profitable. And that includes our leisure and our rest. Just because something refreshes you in the moment doesn't mean it restores you in the long run. Some recreation will leave you clearer and calmer and more grateful. Other recreation will leave you dull and distracted and spiritually numb and mentally short on what you needed to fill up. And so figure out what those are for you. You know, you can think about it and take inventory of what's in your calendar and go, yeah, that that definitely did not fill me up. That drained me. So let's do eight questions again, just like we did with alcohol, just like we did with gambling. But I've reformatted these to assess rest and recreation. Let's see how these go when we try them on. Number one, am I able to thank God for this time? You can't thank God for time that you've wasted. You can't thank God for time that you spent doing something sinful or useless. Can you thank God for it? That time well spent. Number two, does it actually rest me or just distract me? Like playing video games might be fun, but it also may be just a distraction. I'll leave that there. Some of these things aren't sin. Some of them are. Does it actually rest you or distract you? Number three, does this pull my heart toward gratitude or escape? Am I more thankful after doing this? Do I feel like I've connected with God and I have perspective? Or did I just run away and I dread coming back because now I've got to deal with reality? Number four, does this overly compete with the responsibilities God has already given me? Look, you're gonna have to do a lot of things in life. Being a father will quote unquote compete with being a provider. Being a husband will quote unquote compete with being a father. Well, that's why I use the word overly. Does this overly compete with my responsibilities God's given me? Are you doing things that are really taking away in a sense? They're not adding value, they're not bolstering, they're not like a supplement or an injection of adrenaline or energy to what you're doing. No, they really just overly compete. They just pull you away from it and break things down. Well, you may want to reconsider what you're doing. Number five, does this make me more present with people or more withdrawn from them? It's an important question because being alone can be healthy. Withdraw, Jesus did it. But as part of your diagnostic question asking, you've got to say, does this make me more present with people or more withdrawn? Even withdrawing from people for a time can make you a more present person when you're with them. Some people need recharge by getting alone. Some people need to recharge by getting in community. You've got to know yourself. Number six, is this shaping my loves in a healthy direction? I think you've got to consider how you vacation, how you play, how you rest, what you do, and who you do it with, and then ask, is this shaping my loves in a healthy direction? Do I leave an interaction with somebody more covetous, less content, more aggressive, more materialistic, more competitive, more cutthroat? Do I leave an interaction with someone feeling dirty? Like they gossip, they slander, they uh jawjack, they waste time, they're crude with their speech, they're overly sarcastic with their jokes. You just leave going, like, what even was that? I feel kind of slimy, or I feel empty, or I feel incredibly drained. What was that? You need to be asking, did that interaction, does that friendship, did that recreation, did that vacation shape your love in a healthy direction? It's one of the reasons I encourage people do not vacation in Vegas if you got to go there for work, if you got to go there for a sport event, if you got to go there for a race or something like that. I get it. It's not a sin to go, you know, to a race or go watch a Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey game or go eventually watch some baseball there because they're doing that. And, you know, no, but you don't like vacation in Vegas. Man, I just love going to Vegas on vacation. I guarantee you walk down the street and you're gonna feel gross if you're a Christian because it's not shaping your loves in a healthy direction. You may want to go to some great restaurant, experience culinary delights and wonderful things. It's not a sin in that. Perhaps you like boxing or some other form of sport. But a Christian needs to be careful that they're not viewing a place like that with an environment and a drive, by the way, and a goal, a soul goal of making it a sinful wild experience. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, uh, Sin City, all these things, is that how you recreate, how you play, and how you rest? How you do that is gonna reveal a lot about your spiritual maturity or spiritual level. Like if that's where you love to be having all your fun. Why? Well, the question is, is this shaping my loves in a healthy direction? Number seven, do I feel controlled by this or free to walk away from it? Are you bound to this? Like I gotta do this and oh, and or man, I gotta do this because there's I got this agenda and I gotta pull the you gotta be careful. If you're controlled by it, it's not rest. You're still bound and you're not resting. Number eight, can I do this to the glory of God without qualification? Do I have to say, well, you know, I uh what I'm really, you know, if you got a mansplain, you've answered the question. Now, these are all questions that will help shepherd your own soul. I want to tell you a story. I, you know, in the midst of all this, I'm with you in this. At times, in any given year, I take a number of ministry or work-related trips, take vacations, I got a fun trip or two with some buddies in there. And in the midst of all these, I'll date my wife, spend quality time with my kids, and of course, I shepherd our church and I lead for the gospel. And people will ask me, inevitably, how do you prioritize your time? How do you and Christine assess opportunities? How do you balance everything? Recreation, rest, ministry, all of it. And I tell them what I'm gonna tell you. We ask a series of diagnostic questions. Does this opportunity pour out or pour in? Both, ideally. When I come home rightfully drained in some ways, because it's ministry in life, it's what we do, we pour out. Have I also been filled in other ways? Who am I gonna be with? Is the environment gonna leave me spurred on and encouraged, even if it was a challenging opportunity or a missions trip or somewhere where you had to do a lot? Well, you can come home fired up like no other in some of the most challenging situations. It's good questions to ask. Are there opportunities to seek wisdom and learn from wise men? I can't tell you how many times my wife and I have sat down to debrief after some trip or ministry item, and people don't even realize that I came home, in my opinion, more blessed, more transformed, more encouraged, more healed, more sharpened than I ever did for someone else, even if I'm the one who ministered the whole time. There's times where I call them two-way opportunities or two-way ministry engagements where you're pouring out, but it's pouring in to you. I can't tell you how many times a round of golf or sitting in an arena changed my life, changed my perspective or blessed me in some way I never imagined. I go home, I pour that out, and my wife just says, that was a great opportunity. I'm so glad you went and did that. It's not always about just playing golf, although I enjoy playing golf. It's not always going to watch sports, although I enjoy watching sports. It's not always just about a vacation or taking a trip or going to a conference because it, wow, it feels cool to go speak at a conference. I mean, yes and no, in the end, the most important things are the things that God has prioritized in our life to do. The most important thing is marriage, your children, your ministry, shepherding, faithfulness, and obedience to God. So you got to get over the shimmer of all these things and begin to ask the real heart and hard questions. On the flip side, there's plenty of people who would love to dictate your time and drain it for their own agenda. And then you go home reflecting on what a waste of time that was. No matter how fun the activity, you know, some may say, you know, well, we just serve people, I guess, by spending time with them. Like, yes and no. Serving people should have purpose. In life and ministry, you need to remember it's not just about random service, it's about stewardship. A business friend who used to always tell me this, and it applies to ministry, and he was in the ministry as well. He'd say, it's not just doing things right, Costi, it's doing the right things. Everybody can do things right and should. Whether the Lord is or whether someone's watching or not, the Lord always is. But are you doing the right things? How are you managing your time? What are your MITs, your most important tasks? We need to do things with purpose and on purpose. And all of this ties into resting and recreating because you can do those things under the glory of God wisely and come back so full and so fired up and so ready to go that you're twice as productive because you've been where God wants you to be and with who God wants you to be with. You can also go on a vacation and come back so draggy and so drained that people wonder in the world, or what in the world you were even doing? What's the point of a vacation if you come back like this? You can serve someone's agenda and not have been a faithful steward. And so I want to encourage you, do the things God has called you to do, be unapologetic about winning at home. Don't be afraid to order your life in a way that pours you out like a drink offering, yes and amen, and also pours back in so you can be filled with the wisdom of God and encourage others with what you've been encouraged by. I've learned to see an opportunist from a mile away. This is some of the important lessons of discernment that you and I have to grow in. And you'll learn that the hard way. I certainly have. Now, that should never deter us from serving others or enjoying the company of others, but it serves as a teacher for what you and I say yes and no to. You and I will ultimately answer the Lord for how we steward our time. So when it comes to resting and recreating, steward it well. Going hard for the gospel requires a lot from you and I as believers. Rest is a gift, use it. Play, recreation, it can be good and it can restore us. Yes and amen. When these gifts help us become who Christ is shaping us to be, we're using them the right way. I hope this episode has helped you, given you a lot to think about, perhaps affirming more rest for you, more time with your wife, more vacations with the kids, more of those special moments, more daddy-daughter dates or father-son outings. I hope perhaps you're even reconsidering some of the people that you recreate with or play with, realizing that there's some folks who you need to be ministering to and influencing, but you don't want them influencing you. Perhaps this week you'll say no to certain things because they're not two-way opportunities. You're just pouring out in a way that drains you. You're actually getting sucked into someone else's river. And now you're going with the flow of the direction they're going, and it does nothing for you. In fact, it works against your spiritual thriving. Say no. Don't do it. Your time is a gift and it's a treasure. Use it well. And that includes the way you rest, and it includes the way you play. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching, and thanks for supporting for the gospel. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more free content and videos. We put them out every week to encourage you. It is my joy to teach you God's word and to bring these truths in a simple and understandable way. And so I'm grateful if you would tap into those on YouTube, but also follow on Instagram or other social media platforms to get daily encouragement. Also, if you're one of our gospel patrons, thank you so much. Thank you for stewarding your resources in a way that honors the Lord. We take your trust seriously. And it's my privilege to get to use what you're giving with our team and give back tangible resources faithfully there for free all the time for the masses and multiple languages. And so thank you so much. 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