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Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded at three points in the Old Testament. First, the book of Judges, the seventh chapter, beginning at the first verse. "Then Jeroboam," that is Gideon, "and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the

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spring of Herod. And the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Marah in the valley. The Lord said to Gideon, 'The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, 'My own hand has delivered me.' Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the

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people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.' And Gideon tested them. Twenty-two thousand returned and ten thousand remained. And the Lord said to Gideon, 'The people are still too many. Take them down to the water and I will test them for you there. And he of whom I say to you, 'This man

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shall go with you,' shall go with you. And any of whom I say to you, 'This man shall not go with you,' shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon, 'Everyone that laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, everyone that kneels down to drink.' And

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the number of those that lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men. But all of the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. And the Lord said to Gideon, 'With the three hundred men that lapped, I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand and let all the others go, every

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man to his own home.' So he took the jars of the people from their hands and their trumpets and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley." The second reading is from the second book of Samuel, the 23rd chapter,

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and we begin this reading at the verse numbered 13. "And three of the thirty chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the cave of Abdullam, when a band of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then at

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Bethlehem. And David said longingly, 'Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate.' Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate and took and brought it to David, but he would not

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drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, 'Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?' Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men." And the final reading is from the book of Proverbs, the 25th chapter, the 16th

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verse. "If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you be sated with it and vomit it." And may God bless to us and to our understanding these readings from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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Sometimes a relatively simple statement or question can raise more dust than it settles. For example, this last Monday evening prior to a meeting with a committee here at the church, I was sitting with one of our members watching the evening news on television and in the course of the broadcast, but

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not at all appropriate to what was being discussed in the broadcast, this friend suddenly turned to me and said, "What do you do for fun?" Now that sounds like a very simple question, but I've been unable to shake it all week long. It's chased me around and finally all the way up these steps and into this pulpit.

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Because, well, this question raises a lot of other very important questions. For example, asking what do you do for fun assumes that you have a shared definition of what fun is, but that's not at all the case. There are some people, for example, who say that fun is the opposite of work, and yet you and I both

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know people whose greatest joy, whose greatest delight, the most fun that they have is doing their work. Other people believe that fun is that what you do without expectation of reward, and yet we all know individuals who sacrifice themselves in the service of others, sometimes at great cost and great pain,

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in a way that's not at all fun, but they do it out of a very real love and genuine desire to serve, and they expect no reward. Then there are still other people who say that fun is simply doing what you enjoy doing the most, not what you do as your work, not what you do and are paid for, and not what you do as an

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act of sacrificial service to another, but simply that which gives you the most pleasure. Now I think that that is the definition of the word fun which was in the mind of my friend when he asked his question, and I think that's what most people think that fun is. Fun is doing what you enjoy the most. And so for the

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moment at least, let's accept that definition of what fun is, but it immediately leads us to a second and even more important question, and that question is, is it legitimate for a Christian to go out and seek to have fun? Not all Christians have agreed about that, either yesterday or today. John

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Wesley had a school in Kingswood in England, and the children who went to the school were never allowed to play games because, he said, if you teach children to play, then when they become adults they will play. And play to him was altogether wrong. Our Puritan ancestors banished Christmas Day, banished

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fiddling, banished the theater, banished even puppet shows. All that kind of stuff was thought to be inappropriate. As recently as the early 1950s, the ministers of this church were expected to wear only black neckties, and there was one pastor at that time, Dr. McCartney, who threatened to walk out on

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a Sunday school class party because someone brought up, "Wouldn't it be a nice idea for us to have a dance?" People are still quite divergent on their attitudes with regard to fun, as I can tell by my mail every time I use a joke in the pulpit. And there are individuals who stalk out of this church because of what

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they consider to be the frivolous or funny things we do to attract the children's attention when we're trying to teach them something in the children's message. So is it all right for Christians to seek after that which is fun? I personally think that it is. I noticed a long time ago that children

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begin to play games before any games are actually taught to them, and I think that is because God has made us in such a way that there is a desire for delight and happiness in us. Now I'm aware of the fact that in the book of Ecclesiastes there are some rather negative things said about pleasure, but the whole

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testimony of Scripture is contrary to that. It says that God delights in giving us the desires of our heart, it says that he wants us to have an abundant life, it talks about the hills and the valleys breaking into clapping, it talks about parties and weddings and banquets and the like. I had a man say to me on one

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occasion, "There is no place in the Bible where it says that Jesus laughed," and that's quite true, but it says that the common people heard him gladly and men were ready to go off with him on a three-week camping trip and women delighted in his company and children climbed up into his lap and his stories

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are full of hyperbole, which was the kind of humor most commonly used by the Jews in the first century. Jesus was no ayatollah Khomeini and I don't think God expects us to be in that mold or model. He has made us to enjoy life, that's the reason he has filled the world with such enjoyable things from mountains to

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monkeys, and that's the reason he sent his son in part to say to us, "I want my joy to be in you." So I'm ready to defend at this point two theses. First, that fun is doing what we most enjoy, and second, that it's God's will that we should do this. But immediately, another whole bank of questions comes into view. For example,

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what about if the thing you enjoy is something that's forbidden in Scripture? A sadist, for example, enjoys inflicting pain on others. Is it right then for him to do what he or she enjoys? Is that appropriate? Are there any guidelines as to what kinds of enjoyment are proper and what kinds are improper in the

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Scriptures? And how about the question of how much is enough? Is it possible to want too much fun out of life? And that brings up another question, how does our having fun relate to our responsibilities and obligations to other people? Does the Scripture speak at all to these subjects, or does it leave

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us at sea without a compass? Is there a doctrine of amusement in the Bible? Is there a philosophy of fun? I think there is, and I'd like to illustrate it this morning by pointing to three Old Testament teachers, Gideon, David, and Solomon. Gideon teaches us, first of all, that our pleasure, our fun, must never

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interfere with the development of our character or the doing of our duty. I read the story just a moment ago. Gideon is leading a military band in an attack against the Midianites. As they approach the enemy camp, they come to a cool, refreshing stream. He thinks it would be a good idea if his troops were

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to refresh themselves. God says, "Watch how they refresh themselves." Now you see, they were very close to the enemy camp. There was always the possibility of ambush. They did not know who might be hiding in the bushes along the edge of that stream. Now some of the men went down, laid their weapons on the ground, spread

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themselves out, and just immersed their heads, swallowing as much as they could swallow. But others of the men kept their weapons at the ready, kept alert, watching all that was going on about them, and reached down, scooping up some water and lapping it from their hands. God said, "Send the ones who rendered themselves

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defenseless in the pursuit of their pleasure back. Keep only those who in their refreshment, in their pleasure, remained alert." See, there's nothing wrong with the stream, just as there's nothing wrong with fun, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying it, refreshing oneself from the stream. What is wrong is when in

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doing that, one lets down one's guard. I was recently looking at a survey of the posters used to recruit people for the United States Army. It's a very interesting thing to study those posters. The series began with that one, which a lot of you will remember from the days of the Second World War. Uncle Sam

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looking right at you, pointing a finger, saying, "I want you." That was the first in the series. The second one came along, and the inscription on it read, "Today's Army wants to join you." And then there were a list of various benefits that you got when you signed up. The third poster in the series read, "You start at

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$288 per month, and you may not have to spend it." And it talked about health plans, and it talked about the PX, the base exchange, and all the other financial benefits that come to those who are in the services. The next poster in the line said, "If we say Hawaii, you can start waxing your surfboard." And the

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idea was that wherever you want to go in the service of your country, that's where they will send you, and you have 30 days leave each year, and you'll be able to enjoy yourself to the full. The next one said, "Try out some of our uniforms." And the uniforms pictured there were swimming trunks, and skiing togs, and

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golf equipment, and tennis equipment. The idea being that on the base there was plenty of opportunity for sport, and wherever you went there would be places that you could entertain and enjoy yourself. And the last one in the series was not like the first one, "I want you," but it was only three words. The

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three words were, "I'll pay you." Now what's been the result of this change in philosophy of advertising for recruits in the Army? Well, we have fewer recruits than ever. Those that do recruit are usually of a lower academic level of training than they used to be. There's more crime in the military than there

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has ever been. The level of efficiency has seriously deteriorated, and the level of morale is anything but good. As a matter of fact, in the United States Army, these problems have rendered the Army, well, they put it in rather sad shape. What's happened, you see? Well, the old-call duty, honor, country has been

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given the Madison Avenue touch, and Madison Avenue is always emphasizing getting pleasure, getting that which makes you feel better, getting that which delights you and serves you. The new technique, you see, puts benefits before responsibilities. It puts privileges before obligations. It prejudices duty

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and responsibility. And whenever that kind of thing happens, there is a deterioration on the part of those who are involved. Just so fun that cripples fidelity is in the end folly. Whenever we do that, which weakens our character or lessens our sense of duty, that in the end is not fun. That is error. Now our

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second teacher is David, and David teaches us that pleasure or fun must not lead us to risk the character or the sense of duty of other people. The story, again, is a military story. David, with some of his troops, is in camp near Bethlehem, which was, of course, his hometown. And in the stress of the

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conflict and sitting about the campfire that night thinking about the old days, David says, "My, it would be nice to drink some water from the well there in Bethlehem, to have some of that hometown water that I grew up with." And without his being aware of it, three of his bravest soldiers got up, fought their way

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through the enemy lines, got water from that well, and brought it back and presented it to him in a cup. And when David saw it, he was horrified, for he suddenly realized that his whim had led these men to risk their very lives. This whole matter was a matter of fun or pleasure, you see. David wasn't dying of

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thirst. If he'd have been dying of thirst, any water would have managed to have assuaged that thirst. No, this was just, "Boy, it would be nice to have some of the hometown water again." But that desire put some other people, by their own nature, into a place of great peril. So rather than drinking the water, David pours it

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out upon the ground as an offering to God. And the ages have honored what David did, because what he says in doing it is this, "We must never enjoy pleasures which put other people at peril." The Apostle Paul picks up exactly this same theme in Romans and also in 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Look at just one example

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from Romans chapter 14. Paul understood that all foods were perfectly all right for people to eat. There were no foods that were ritually unclean and others clean. He was quite willing to eat anything that was set before him. But he realized that there were some new young Christians who still had threads of

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their Jewish past woven into their lives. And these people could not bring themselves to eat things which they had known before to be impure, things like ham and pork the like. And whenever they would see a Christian eat these things, they would be terribly upset. So Paul's problem was, "Should I go ahead and eat

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what I know is all right, or should I put aside my own desires because I know that my own desires are causing great distress to these other people?" And this is what he writes, this is what he decides, "Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died." Paul will not eat the foods they call

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impure, lest that lead them into difficulty. I think most of us have a tendency to forget how much influence we have on other people's lives. In the last eight days, I've received two letters, both from young men. These young men do not know each other. One of them is a minister here in Western Pennsylvania, a

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Presbyterian. The other is a missionary in Australia, near Adelaide, a Presbyterian. These two men, without being in touch with one another, both wrote to me. The first one wrote to remind me of how 14 years ago I called on his mother when she was hospitalized, and how much that visit meant to him. The other young

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man, the one from Australia, wrote to tell me that 20 years ago there was a time when he was in deep depression of soul, and I had ministered to him and been used by God to bring him out of that depression. What fascinated me was that both of these young men used the same word or words. They both said, one with

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regard to the hospital visit and the other with regard to this depression situation, they both said, "What you did was life-changing for me." And I'll be very frank and tell you right now, I have only the vaguest memory of that hospital visit, and I do not remember that experience with that other

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young man at all. I have no recollection of it whatever. But the fact of the matter is that we do influence people whether we're conscious of it or not, and many times in life-changing ways. And that not only has to do with our ministry or our work, the things that we say or the things that we do, but it also

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applies to the kind of pleasures we seek, to the kind of fun we have. So the teaching of Scripture is that we must not enter into fun that risks or imperils the character or the sense of responsibility of others. Now our third and our last teacher is Solomon, and Solomon says that whatever our pleasure

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is, we must not indulge ourselves in it to excess. In the book of Proverbs, which bears his name, we read, "If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you be sated with it and vomit it." Now he's adding something to what Gideon and David have said. You see, he starts out with "If you have found honey," not

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everything that looks like honey is honey. If it really is honey, some people you see will do things that hurt themselves in the pursuit of their fun, and Gideon warns against it. That may look like honey, that may look like fun, but it isn't. And some people will enter into the pursuit of pleasures that wound

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other people. That may look like honey, but it isn't honey. That may look like fun, but it's actually folly. But if you found something that meets those two tests, David's doctrine and Gideon's doctrine, there's another thing to remember, and this is Solomon's addition. Even when that pleasure is valid, you

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must not enter it to excess. A fellow walking past a tennis court one day and he saw an older gentleman with white hair, a wizened fellow, arms and legs like matchsticks, playing tennis and a terrific game, fast and furious and hitting the ball so hard he almost knocked the cover off it, and he won the

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game with an ace for a serve. And when this old fellow walked over to the side, the man who'd observed him said, "My, you play a remarkable game of tennis for your age. How do you take care of yourself?" Well, he said, "I believe in living a full and vigorous life. I get up at five o'clock every morning and the

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first thing I do is run for three miles. Then I take an ice-cold shower. Then I eat a big breakfast. By eight o'clock I'm at my office. I stay there till 11. At 11 I go to my club and I play racquetball or tennis. And then after I've done that, I run two laps. I then come to the table and have a big lunch and smoke a cigar

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afterwards. I'm back at my desk at two. I work until five. At five o'clock I swim ten laps. I then find some young lady to have a date for some drinks and dinner for the evening. Following that, we go to the theater or a concert, something of that kind, then a brief visit to a nightclub, and I'm usually home and in

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bed by two o'clock in the morning." And the man said, "You do that every day?" He said, "Oh no, I only do that on weekdays. On the weekends I really get rolling." And he said, "That's absolutely amazing. How old are you?" And this wizened, white-haired, matchstick-armed-and-legged fellow replied, "I'm 23."

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See, even good things can be overdone. Those of you who are trained in the disciplines of economics will remember Jeremy Bentham. Jeremy Bentham noticed how the second cup of coffee never tasted as good as the first one, and the second piece of dessert never tasted as good as the first one. So he formulated

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what is called the law of diminishing marginal utility, namely that it's possible to get so much of something that it becomes worthless, that one becomes jaded. Excess leads to the place where there is no pleasure to be found in it whatever. This is the kind of thing you saw in Howard Hughes. This is the

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kind of thing that you read about in the papers when some prominent personality, some movie star the like, they buy all kinds of cars and all kinds of clothes and jewelry and all kinds of homes and they surround themselves with these things, but eventually these things do not satisfy anymore, and then they go to

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dope, and after dope perhaps do other things, and some of them even end up tragically committing suicide, which is of course the final and ultimate form of vomit. It's possible, you see, to get too much of something, even when it's a good thing. There's only one thing, there's only one direction that you can go and

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never be in excess, and that's to go to experience more of God. And that's true because God is limitless and therefore you'll never get to the end of him, and it's also true because when God enters your heart, he causes your heart to expand so there's more and more room for him, and the longer that he's there, the

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more room there is so that that hunger and thirsting after righteousness continues to grow. My friends, the real problem with most people when it comes to fun and pleasure is this. Too many want too little pleasure and too little fun. They settle themselves and are satisfied with things like the pleasure

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they get from drink or sex or power or money or prestige or influence. C.S. Lewis said about these people, "They're like ignorant children that are satisfied with mud pies when they might be enjoying two weeks at the seashore." The greatest source of delight is the experience of God. This is what led the

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prophet Isaiah to write, "Wherefore do you spend money for that which does not bring you bread? Why do you labor for that which finally will not satisfy you? Hearken diligently," he says, "and see that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." See that which is good, that is, that which is of God. So if you

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want to have fun and you want to have pleasure, if you want to have a delighted soul, go after it! But make sure that this honey you're after is really honey, that it's not going to take you away from being your best, and it's not going to do it to other people also. And remember that the only thing in all of life that

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one can desire and never be excessive is the desire for the things of God. Out of the first centuries of the church, there comes the story of Saint Petronius who fell asleep and dreamed a dream, and in that dream he was pursuing... [silence]

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...and he chased her up hills and down hills, never could catch her, and eventually sat down on a wall in despair. And as he sat there, one approached him whose hands and feet were wounded, whose side was wounded, and about whose brow was the circle of scars. And this one who came said to Petronius, "My ways are ways of

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pleasantness, and all my paths are peace." And Petronius, in his dream, reached up and took the master's hand and walked with him. And as he walked with Jesus, the pleasure he'd been chasing before came and took his other hand and accompanied him every step of the way. And when he wakened and began to live his life like

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that, he discovered that what he had dreamed was absolutely true. When we seek the ultimate pleasure, the ultimate joy, the quintessence of fun in God, then all of our other pleasures fall precisely where they ought to fall in the living of our lives. And the result is a smile lighting your face which will let all

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who see you know that your heart is home. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank thee that thou hast made us to enjoy joy. We pray that thou will guide us in every area of our lives, but most especially we think this

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morning of our pursuit of pleasure. Grant that we might find our greatest pleasure in thee, that we might never enter into pleasures that wound us or that wound others, and that the only place in which we might be excessive is in our love for thee. It's in Jesus' name that we pray our prayer. Amen.