Play: Meeting God in our Joy and Delight, Sunday February 15, 2026

All right, well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to our 9/30 AM service here at Citizens of your first time here, just to introduce myself. My name is Jason, I have the privilege of serving here as the lead pastor of our church. This backdrop actually works perfectly with the series that we're in, specifically with the topic of today's teaching. If you've been with us the past few weeks, we've been in a short series called "Faith Reimagined "Enjoying God in the Places We Eat, Work and Play." And as Sil just mentioned, our aim in doing the series is really to help our church move from this really restrictive, compartmentalized understanding of faith that I think a lot of us grew up with to a more holistic vision of discipleship where we don't just look for God in a small handful of what we might call explicitly religious activities. Again, things like prayer, reading the Bible, going to church on Sunday, but we learn to see God in every corner of our lives where every space we inhabit throughout the week becomes a new invitation, a new opportunity to commune with Him. You know, I think some of us view our relationship with God kind of like we view our relationship with our dentist. And it's kind of like, you know, we have our regular checkups, we schedule additional appointments here and there when we have problems. And we appreciate our dentist very much, but we don't feel particularly connected to them. You know, we would never say we have an intimate relationship with our dentist, that would be weird, okay? And we would say that, and that's why when you see your dentist outside of the dentist office at like Trader Joe's or at the movies, it's really awkward. Sometimes you don't even recognize who they are because you've become so accustomed to seeing them in a very specific context and environment. Well, why would we think it's any different with our relationship with God? If God is just someone we visit once in a while or someone we only expect to meet in certain settings, then of course He's gonna feel distant. And so the whole point of this series is to help us rediscover a God who isn't just interested in our church attendance or our daily devotionals, but a God who wants to be included in every aspect of our lives, especially the parts that feel really ordinary. So in week one, we looked at eat, meeting God at the table. Then last week we looked at work, meeting God in our vocation. And today we're gonna close out this series talking about play, meeting God in our joy and our delight. Now, I don't know how many of you have ever heard a sermon about play. This is actually my first time preaching a sermon about play and that alone probably says something about the kind of spiritual formation many of us have received. Like I can think of hundreds of sermons I've heard on prayer repentance, perseverance, obedience, suffering. I have never heard a sermon about play. And I realize that what that's done is that that has unintentionally shaped my view of God. Like if you were to ask me to describe God in a word, fun is the last adjective that would come to mind. And I know I'm not alone here. In fact, I think most of us don't even think God is supposed to be fun. God is sovereign, God is righteous and holy and just. I don't know if you've ever heard someone pray, Lord, thank you for being so playful. I mean, nobody would say that, right? It'd be very weird. It would feel really disrespectful. And say, we know God weeps with us. You hear pastor say that all the time, that Jesus identifies with you in your pain because he was a man of sorrows, he was afflicted, he was well acquainted with grief. And that's true. But how many of us know that God also laughs with us? Like when was the last time you were just out having fun enjoying your life and you thought to yourself, man, God is here enjoying this moment with me. My guess is that many of us have never had this thought and it forces us to ask, what if we've misunderstood something fundamental about who God is? Because hear me when I say this, how you view God is the single most important factor in how you live. If your view of God is distorted, everything you do will be distorted, how you read the Bible, how you parent your kids, how you pursue justice, how you do church. If our image of God is devoid of playfulness, enjoy and delight, then our understanding of faith will inevitably also be devoid of playfulness, enjoy and delight. And over time, what that does is that it turns having fun into something we do apart from God or a way to escape God rather than a means to commune with God. You know, I grew up in a church that was really into sports and every year we would play turkey bowl. For those of you who don't know, turkey bowl is like the Super Bowl in the Asian American church. It's this huge event that happens every year where a lot of different churches get together, live out their NFL dreams that will never happen in real life. They take it very seriously, you know, they train and they die and they do all this stuff. And, you know, I remember there was this at our church, it was this big controversy because there were all these people who were missing Sunday service, but still going to turkey bowl practice. Okay, these are the kinds of controversies we had in the second generation Korean American church, right? And so the leaders of the church got together and they're really upset because they were like, these people they don't even care about God, they only care about sports. And so they made this rule where you weren't allowed to practice with the team if you didn't come to Sunday service that day. Now I understand the intent, but here's what that did. It made people feel like God was something they had to endure in order to have fun. God became the price of admission to play football. So the message was, go meet God and then you can go out and play. Then you have permission to play. And church is missed out on a huge opportunity because you add all these people who were genuinely interested in sports. You didn't have to drag them out. They wanted to be there, but rather than reframe that space so that people could see and experience God on the football field, we unintentionally cultivated this idea that God could only be present in the sanctuary of a church building. And I think this was such a disservice to who God is at His core. And today I'd like to make the case that not only is play the highest expression of our relationship with God, but there I say the whole point of life. Okay, so if you have a Bible, turn with me to John chapter two. We're gonna look at verses one to 11, John chapter two versus one to 11. It's also gonna be on the screen behind me as well. This is the reading of God's Word. On the third day a wedding took place at Cana and Galilee. Jesus' mother was there and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." "Women, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My hour is not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, "Filled the jars with water, so they filled them to the brim." Then He told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so in the master of the banquet, tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then He called the bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best till now." What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which He revealed His glory and His disciples believed in Him. Amen. Let me say a prayer for us as we jump into God's Word. Holy Spirit made the words of my mouth, the meditations of all of our hearts, be pleasing to you, our rock and our deemer. Would you open our eyes, our ears and our hearts to receive what you would have for us today? We entrust this time and our lives into your loving hands. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, this passage we're looking at today is Jesus' first public miracle. It's his first opportunity to show people who he is and what he's about. Now, we all know how important first impressions are. Bad first impressions can follow a person around for the rest of their life. Sometimes you only get one chance. So it's worth asking, what does Jesus do with His one chance? Well, I think it's pretty fascinating that in the passage right after this one, Jesus goes to Jerusalem and you get that famous story of Jesus clearing out the temple court. It's where He's flipping over tables, He's making a whip out of court, He's confronting corruption and injustice head on. And you gotta think, Jesus could have started there. He could have burst onto the scene with prophetic fire. People would have said, man, this guy is different. This guy's intense. You don't wanna mess with Jesus, he's so serious. Or you go on to read John 4 and John 5, where you get Jesus, his second and third miracles, both of which were healings. His second miracle was the healing of a royal official son who's on the brink of death. His third healing is of a man who's been paralyzed for 38 years. Either of those would have made for a great debut. Imagine beginning your public ministry by healing a terminally ill child or lifting up your body. man off a mat after nearly four decades of suffering, people would say, "Man, this Jesus, He's a healer. He's come to fix everything that's broken." But isn't it interesting that this isn't how Jesus chooses to introduce Himself? The first place Jesus goes is a party. It's a wedding celebration and it's a huge celebration in those times. Weddings were a multi-day affair, so this is big. And the first miracle Jesus performs is not casting out a demon. It's not walking on water or giving a blind person's sight. His first miracle is to keep a party going. I want you to think about that. When Jesus and mother finds Jesus at this wedding and says, "They have no more wine," this is basically the equivalent of someone pulling the plug on the DJ right before the beat drop. It's like the vibe is ruined. You can't recover from that. Now Jesus has a couple options here. One, He could have said, "Well, I think that's our cuter app things up here. Sorry, weddings over. If one can go home, got a busy day tomorrow, going to head out." Two, He could have turned the situation actually into a teaching moment about drinking and moderation, right? Because verse 10 makes it very clear that people have already had too much to drink. So, I mean, if you're Jesus, you could take the moral high ground here and say, "I mean, you drink all the wine. I think that's enough wine for everyone. Shame on you, right?" Okay. And let me just be clear just because I don't want to get emails tomorrow. Okay. I'm not suggesting here that Jesus is endorsing drunkenness. Scripture consistently warns against excess and the loss of self-control. But see, we have to understand why those warnings even exist in Scripture. Contrary to what we may think, they're not there to suppress our joy. They're there to protect it. The biblical concern has never been, don't drink alcohol. It's always been, don't let alcohol drink you. It's not about avoiding pleasure. It's about experiencing pleasure in a way that keeps us free. And if this passage tells us anything, it's that Jesus isn't interested in restraint for restraints saying, "Sake, his concern is not to eliminate joy. His concern is to preserve joy." And again, this is Jesus's first impression. If there were ever a time for Jesus to really put his foot down and establish the rules, that moment would be now. And yet Jesus makes it a point not to scold the party, not to shut the party down. You know what he does? He makes more wine. And not just a splash, not just enough to avoid embarrassment. He says enough to fill six stone jars somewhere in the ballpark of 120 to 180 gallons. And it's not like two-buck chuk. It's good wine. Right? Like the master of the banquet says, "It's the best wine of the night," which means whatever else this miracle is teaching us, it's at least teaching us this. Jesus loves a good time. The first sign of the kingdom is not restriction, it's restoration and abundance of joy. And the fact that Jesus' first miracle isn't to solve someone's survival crisis, but simply to preserve delight tells us that more than anything, God cares that we enjoy our lives. And He actually wants to enjoy our lives with Him. But see, so many of us don't really believe that. And again, I think it's because of the distorted ways we've come to view God. And I want to go through three versions of God. You and I have subconsciously adopted that prevent us from experiencing the fullness of life with Him. Okay? Number one, I think many of us have adopted a utilitarian God, a God who exists to be useful, who only shows up to fix things to solve a crisis, to correct behavior, to teach a hard lesson. But do you ever think about how there are things God created in this world with no purpose other than to make you and I happy? Like there's nothing utilitarian about the beauty of an LA sunset. When the sky turns orange and red and purple. But God made the sun set that way. Not because it serves any kind of function. He made it set that way for His and our delight. The sound of your baby's laugh. That feeling you get when you hit the sweet spot of your golf club, unmatched. That thing your stomach does on a roller coaster. Suracha, right? We don't need it for survival, but they make life so much more enjoyable. See, if we view God as purely utilitarian and we believe we're created in His image, then we will seek to live lives that are useful and practical, but not necessarily enjoyable. Everything will be about maximizing efficiency and productivity. Anything that's just for fun will be seen as a waste of time. But I want you to think about this. When Jesus is at this wedding, there are still blind people who can't see. There are still lepers who haven't been cleansed. There are still widows and poverty. There are so many needs Jesus could be tending to, but instead, He chooses to spend multiple days at a wedding feast, talking, laughing and celebrating. It's like, Jesus, what are you doing? You know, you only have three years of public ministry. You have people to heal. You have sermons to preach. You have injustice to confront. If I were handling Jesus's Google calendar, I would be scheduling Him for back-to-back miracles, right? No waste of time, no detours, no lingering at receptions, but Jesus isn't hurried. He's fully present at this party, and it's not because Jesus is ignoring what's going on in the world. If there's anyone who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, it's Jesus. It's His world. It's the world He created. And yet the fact that He's enjoying Himself at this wedding implies that maybe delight isn't a distraction from the mission, but part of the mission. You know, growing up with immigrant parents, one of the scripts I internalized was this idea that I'm not allowed to enjoy my life. And I didn't really realize that this was a script in me until the first family trip I took as a pastor. And two things happened on that trip. The first thing that happened was I got into a fight with my wife because I asked her not to post anything about the trip on Instagram. Okay? And she was like, why? I was like, why? I was like, babe, there are souls perishing here. You know, there are people struggling with so much. There's so much going on in the world. Nobody wants to see their pastor on Instagram enjoying his life. You know, it doesn't make sense. And she was like, you got a lot to unpack and she proceeded to post, which is what started the fight. Okay? The second thing that happened on that trip was that I don't know why. I just felt really obligated to do work there. Like, I felt like it was a noble thing to do for me to send emails, get some early sermon prep. Like, I needed to justify the fun I was having. I couldn't just play. I had to be useful. And I imagine some of you are like this as well. Like, play feels like privilege. It feels irresponsible or wasteful. But if the Son of God could sit at a wedding feast while there was still work to do, surely you're allowed to enjoy your life even while there still work to do. Because we image a non-utilitarian God. That's the first. Number two, some of us have adopted what I like to call serious God. Okay? Like, if we were to imagine what God's face looks like, it might not be an outright frown or scowl. But for most of us, my guess is that it certainly would not be a smile. When we think about God looking at us, we don't picture laughter or delight. We picture evaluation. Right? And when we see God this way, we struggle to relax. We start to confuse intensity and sobriety with maturity. You ever wonder why whenever Christians are portrayed in the media, they're always caricatured as these really uptight, serious people. It's always like Angela from the office. Right? It's like, that is the Christian in the media. They don't know how to take a joke, always judging everyone. They're always the fun police. But I realize that's what we often think God looks like. Hands folded, always shaking his head and disapproval, always giving us the death stare. And for many of us, that image didn't come from theology. It came from experience. It came from growing up with dads who were providers, who worked hard, who were responsible, yet who were overbearing, stoic all the time. You can joke around with them without being hit. When they walked into the room, you could feel the temperature just kind of change. When you heard the garage door open, it was immediate panic. It was like cleanup, cleanup, cleanup. And for a lot of us, the only time we heard our dad speak to us was when we were getting in trouble. And you know, I mean. And you may not believe me, but I know this because I pastor a church full of people whose relationships with their fathers were like this. It does something to a child that has lasting effects throughout your life. You know, last week I mentioned that I used to own an SAT academy and I used to work with students on their college essays and a lot of times colleges would give prompts. And one year one of the prompts was choose a photograph and write about its significance. And one of my students brought in a picture of his PlayStation controller. And the title of his essay stopped me and the title of the essay was the "Dad I Never New." And he wrote about how like so many second generation Korean Americans, he had a father who was, you know, was generally a good man, a hard working man, but a very serious man. Always tired, always preoccupied, rarely laughing. But he tells the story about how one evening he's in his room playing his PlayStation alone. He hears his dad walks in, so immediately he's scrambling to clean things up because, I mean, he just, he doesn't want to hear the lecture from his dad. But to his surprise, his dad comes in the room, loosens his tie, sits down on the bed and says, "Is there another controller?" And he wrote about how in that one moment he saw a side of his father, he never knew existed. He saw him laugh. He saw him relax. He saw him trash talk. And he said that the PlayStation controller became a symbol not of gaming but of relationship, of connection. Of a father who for once wasn't evaluating his son, but was just enjoying him. And I wonder how many of us can resonate with this story. We know God as provider. We know God as authority. We know Him as disciplinarian. But Jesus, according to Colossians, is the image of the invisible God. And if that's true, then I believe this story is our PlayStation controller. It's Jesus revealing to all of us the father we never knew. Verse 11 says, "What Jesus did here in Canaan of Galilee was the first of the signs through which He revealed His glory. Jesus is revealing the character of a God who smiles and laughs and delights in us." So we got utilitarian God. We got serious God. And finally, I think many of us have adopted a transactional God. A God who only blesses us when we obey or perform. And when this is our version of God, everything we do is a way to earn God's favor and approval. Every prayer is a negotiation. Every act of obedience or service is leveraged to get God to do something for us. And so we start to see God's love as conditional. But notice in our text today, there are no conditions placed on Jesus' miracle. The only thing that is said to Jesus is Jesus. There's no more wine. There's no more negotiation. Jesus, we need your help. And that's all it takes for Him to act. There's no bargaining. There's no, I promise I'll do this for you if you can do this for me. No, the first sign of the kingdom is not a deal. It's a gift. No prerequisites, no repayment, just grace. As if to say, "In my kingdom, love is not earned. It's given." Now what does all this have to do with play? Well play, dismantles all of these distorted views of God. And here's how we're defining play. I'll put a definition up on the screen in his book, A Theology of Play, Kevin Gushikin devines play like this, "The God given ability and permission to fully enjoy moments in life as God intended with freedom and pleasure." So this can look like playing pickleball. This can look like going on a hike, gardening, writing music, or poetry. This can look like doing jigsaw puzzles, playing games with friends. It's engaging in something simply for the joy of it, not to earn or prove or achieve. It's activity without anxiety. And there's nothing that captures the fullness of our relationship with God more than when we truly play. Because play at its core restores and reclaims a right image of who God is. See, play dismantles utilitarian God. Because play in its essence is non-utilitarian. You might burn some calories while you play. You might develop a skill while you play. You might get good at something. But at the end of the day, the primary motivation for why you play is not because it's useful but because it brings you delight. When you allow yourself to engage in something simply because it brings you joy, you're declaring, "I am not a machine. My worth is not my output. You're rejecting the lie that everything must be efficient to be valuable." Play also dismantles serious God. Because what happens when we play? We loosen our grip. We laugh. We learn to make mistakes and not take ourselves so seriously. I love playing games with our staff because most of you, like you see, are the versions of our staff on Sunday. They're so serious and profound, leading praise and they're presiding. When we play, I see a completely different version of our staff. They're like kids. We're yelling at each other. We're laughing. We're making fun of each other. I think there's a reason Jesus is constantly affirming and welcoming children. Why he says, "You have to become like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven." What makes children so amazing is that they don't take themselves so seriously. But something happens when we grow up. Adults, we take ourselves way too seriously. We're so self-conscious. We're so image-driven and over time we lose our ability to just have fun. Everything becomes so serious. That was the problem with the Pharisees. You know what people called the Pharisees in the first century? They called them the serious ones. Because oh, the Pharisees, they're so serious about their faith. They're so serious about God. And yet time and time again, Jesus says, "They're the furthest from my heart." If you're listening to this sermon and you're like, "I don't know. All of this just feels so fru fru and frivolous." You know, like, "Why are we even talking about play etchers? Let's get to the real issues of faith. Let's get to the substance. Let's get to the meat." Ask yourself who you're becoming more like. The Pharisees, the serious ones, or Jesus. Finally play dismantles transactional God. Because play in its truest form can't be leveraged. It's not conditional. Play assumes that you already belong. They require safety and trust. For my kids to play with me, there are no prerequisites. We just play. They already assume they belong. They already assume they're loved. And when you think about a play as one of the few things in life that can't be motivated by judgment or fear, which is why when fear or judgment or comparison creeps into play, it immediately kills the experience for everyone. Because play was never meant to be that. We've all been there. It happens at turkey bowl. When things get a little chippy, when the trash talk gets a little too serious and intense, when people start making it more about winning than about enjoying each other, that's when you get people who say, "I don't want to play anymore." So how do we maintain a healthy relationship with play? Because as with all good gifts given to us by God, it's our human tendency to do one of two things. We either idolize it, make a God out of it, or we reject it all together. I think for some of us in this room, I think we've idolized play. We've used play as a substitute God. We've used it as a way to escape. It's the place we run to so that we don't have to deal with responsibility or pain or obedience. And when play becomes ultimate, it starts to control us. It starts to become something it was never meant to be. And the irony is, those who idolize play end up becoming the most non-playful people. Like you don't want to be around them. This is when play becomes addictive, when it becomes compulsive, it becomes something you need rather than something you receive as a gift of grace. Now I imagine that for others of us in the room, we find ourselves on the other end of the spectrum where we reject play entirely. We pride ourselves on being responsible, mature, productive. Play is for the youngins. Before they have to think about life and before they have to think about their marriage and raise kids, we're serious about the things that really matter. And we kind of judge people who play all the time. But if God is indeed playful, then you have to reckon with the fact that to reject play is actually to become less like God, not more like Him. And over time, you will find yourself becoming less human without play. You will feel your soul becoming brittle and your faith will become a heavy yoke rat rather than a joyful delight. The invitation of Jesus is not to idolize play or eliminate play, but to redeem play, to receive it as a gift, to enjoy it in freedom, to let it point us back to the giver. Now I was so thankful to prepare this sermon on play because it exposed a lot of things in my heart. And I know that especially in these times we're living in, whether so much suffering and injustice and grief all around us, where we often feel so much pressure to constantly be outraged, to constantly be having to work to fix something that's going on. Sometimes the practice of play, even thinking about play can feel really insensitive, even sinful. And I remember in my own doing me of one, my mother-in-law was turning through cancer. My wife would often say to me, "Man, I feel so guilty every time I laugh." Or every time I do something fun because what kind of daughter laughs while her mom is dying. And if I could just say one thing to you, one thing that I have realized over the years is that joy is not a denial of suffering, it's actually a defiance of suffering. Play in a broken world is not apathy, it's protest. It's a declaration that evil doesn't get the final word in this story and it's a rehearsal for the future God has promised. See, the fact that Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding isn't an accident. The final image of the Bible is a wedding feast and so Jesus is telling them, "Hey, I know it's hard right now. I know the world is a scary place right now. I know there's so much brokenness all around you right now, but can I show you this is what it turns you's going to be like? It's going to be like this. Overflowing with joy and delight. Play is the final destination and this means, every laugh you have in the backyard, every hike, every game night, every dance floor, as ordinary as these things may feel. They're actually small glimpses of where we're all headed. See, up the many things that sin does to us, one of the worst things it does is that it steals our joy. But when we play, we're refusing to let sin do that. We're reminding ourselves, Jesus didn't just die so that we would be forgiven. He died so that we could laugh again. He died so we could experience delight. Jesus in John 15 says, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full." When my kids do something wrong and I have to talk to them about it, I don't want the end result of that conversation to be, okay, you're forgiven. You can go now. No, I want the end result of that conversation to be, okay, you're forgiven. Let's play now. Very different. Jesus' life, death and resurrection didn't just secure forgiveness, it restored relationship. So if I could give you all one big application for this week, it's the easiest application ever. Maybe for some of you, hardest. Go play. Go do something just because you enjoy it. Go meet God in your delight. It's so funny this past week, I was working on this sermon. My kids were like, "I've been working so long. Please take us to the park." I was like, "No, I've got to finish this sermon on play." Right? And as soon as I said it, I knew God was saying, "Jason, go play with your kids." This theology can't be taught. It has to be lived. And that really has been the point of this entire series. We don't learn what God is like by listening to more sermons. We learn what God is like by encountering him in the everyday ordinary rhythms of our lives. And all the places we eat, work and play. Let's pray. Gracious God, we confess that so often, we've imagined you as distant, stoic, demanding, we imagine you to be a God to perform for rather than a loving father who delights in his children. And as a result, I know that so many of us in this room have lived such hurried, anxious and burdened lives, believing that our worth is measured by our productivity and our performance. But Jesus, we thank you for revealing the heart of the Father, not only in suffering and sacrifice, but also in celebration, abundance and joy. We thank you for the laughter of friends, for good food, for meaning, for work, for moments of delight that remind us you're near. God, would you restore our vision of who you truly are? Where guilt or shame has kept us from laughter, remind us that joy is not a denial of suffering, but a defiance of it, a witness to the coming kingdom. So this morning we receive your love as a gift. May our places of play become testimonies of your grace and your goodness. Amen.