{"id":33929,"date":"2025-08-29T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/leisure-makes-terrible-goal\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:05:00","slug":"leisure-makes-terrible-goal","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/leisure-makes-terrible-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"Leisure Makes a Terrible Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&ldquo;&hellip;I believe that for just about everybody the most fulfilling thing we can do, in the long term, is to focus on our work. By &ldquo;work,&rdquo; I&rsquo;m not just referring to a nine-to-five job. It could be parenting. Or serving on a board. Or volunteering. Many possible things. Anything that contributes good to others is work, regardless if we&rsquo;re getting paid for it.<\/p>\n\n<p>\nAnd what distracts us most from that kind of work? One of the biggest things is work&rsquo;s opposite: leisure. Or better put modern society&rsquo;s infatuation with leisure.<\/p>\n\n<p>\n&hellip;I&rsquo;m not against rest, relaxation and fun. I just don&rsquo;t want you to miss out on the things that matter to you because you&rsquo;ve unthinkingly bought into our cultural notions of leisure. What I&rsquo;m against is making leisure your objective. Because if leisure is your objective, it will inevitably displace your higher priorities. That&rsquo;s a very common problem in our society.<\/p>\n\n<p>\nLet me put it this way: Leisure make a great booster to long-term productivity in our pursuit of meaningful goals. But leisure makes a terrible goal in itself.<\/p>\n\n<p>\nLeisure doesn&rsquo;t provide meaning. It provides renewal for other things that do provide meaning.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Preaching Angles<\/strong>: Leisure: Mk 6:31, Ex 20:10, Ecc 3:13, Ps 118:24; Work: Col 3:23, Pr 16:3, Gen 2:15, Pr 18:9; Purpose: Jn 6;27, Col 3:17, M 6:33\nSource: Joshua Becker, Things That Matter, Waterbrook, 2022, Page 146-147<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3808,4027,4029,4066,4361,4441,4442,4553,4708,4748,4802,4803,5253,5293,5294],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33929","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-distractions","tax_ctp_tags-fulfillment","tax_ctp_tags-fun","tax_ctp_tags-goals","tax_ctp_tags-leisure","tax_ctp_tags-meaning","tax_ctp_tags-meaning-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-objectives","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-purpose","tax_ctp_tags-renewal","tax_ctp_tags-renewing-the-mind","tax_ctp_tags-volunteers","tax_ctp_tags-work","tax_ctp_tags-work-career"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Leisure Makes a Terrible Goal - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/leisure-makes-terrible-goal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leisure Makes a Terrible Goal - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&ldquo;&hellip;I believe that for just about everybody the most fulfilling thing we can do, in the long term, is to focus on our work. 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