Breaking My Addiction to Entertainment

00:00:00.000 | [Music]

00:00:05.000 | "I love Jesus, but my heart is drawn to spend too much time with entertainment.

00:00:11.000 | How do I break the hold entertainment has on my heart?"

00:00:14.000 | That was a question sent in to Pastor John in Desiring God a few years back,

00:00:18.000 | and it was a question Pastor John addressed at the time. Here's what he said.

00:00:22.000 | That's a very good question.

00:00:25.000 | And I think it's especially relevant because we live, I think, more now than ever

00:00:33.000 | in a day when entertaining kinds of things are immediately accessible.

00:00:41.000 | I was thinking the other day of the difference between our temptations and,

00:00:47.000 | say, 300 years ago, 250 years ago, the day of Jonathan Edwards.

00:00:52.000 | Edwards would write about the folly of young people getting together to do

00:00:57.000 | frivolous conversation or other worse things, bundling it was called,

00:01:03.000 | getting in bed with each other and keep your clothes on, that sort of thing,

00:01:07.000 | just spice up life a little bit. Life gets boring in New England 250 years ago.

00:01:12.000 | Today, we carry in our pockets radio, television, Internet, and games,

00:01:19.000 | and anything that would be titillating, just fun.

00:01:24.000 | And fun is a word in the church today that's just rampant. It's an adjective.

00:01:29.000 | It's a noun. It's a verb. Because we do ministry in order to fit this mentality.

00:01:37.000 | So I'm deeply concerned about that. I want to stand for seriousness about God

00:01:42.000 | instead of making him palatable by making him fun,

00:01:46.000 | turning him into another piece of entertainment.

00:01:49.000 | So this question is, how do you break free from that kind of addiction?

00:01:52.000 | Well, recognizing it is a huge step in the right direction.

00:01:55.000 | Second, I would say, seek the Lord earnestly about it.

00:02:00.000 | Pray like crazy that God would open your eyes to see wondrous things out of his law.

00:02:07.000 | Third, I would say, immerse yourself in the Bible, even when you don't feel like it,

00:02:13.000 | pleading with God to open your eyes to see what's really there.

00:02:17.000 | Then I'd say, get in a group where you talk about serious things.

00:02:22.000 | And then I would say, begin to share your faith.

00:02:24.000 | One of the reasons we are not as moved by our own faith as we are

00:02:29.000 | is because we almost never talk about it to any unbeliever.

00:02:34.000 | It starts to feel like a kind of hothouse thing,

00:02:37.000 | and then starts to have a feeling of unreality about it,

00:02:39.000 | and then the powers of entertainment have more sway in our life.

00:02:45.000 | And so those would be some of the things.

00:02:47.000 | But ultimately, it's a gift of grace to feel the glory of God.

00:02:53.000 | One last suggestion. Think about your death. Think about your death a lot.

00:02:58.000 | Ask what you'd like to be doing in the season of life, or hours, or days,

00:03:03.000 | leading up to meeting Christ.

00:03:07.000 | I do that a lot these days.

00:03:09.000 | I think about the impact of death and what I would like to be found doing,

00:03:14.000 | and how I would prepare to meet Him and give an account to Him.

00:03:19.000 | What a sobering thought to end with.

00:03:21.000 | And for more on the role of the spiritual affections in the Christian life,

00:03:25.000 | there's an episode where Pastor John explains the four levels of our spiritual affections,

00:03:29.000 | and that's episode number 264. It's worth checking out.

00:03:33.000 | And we will be back on Monday with a new episode based on a listener question,

00:03:37.000 | a question emailed in from you, the listeners.

00:03:39.000 | So please keep sending in those excellent questions.

00:03:42.000 | Send them to askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:03:45.000 | And please visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons,

00:03:50.000 | and other resources, all free of charge from John Piper,

00:03:53.000 | and all intended to help explain why God is most glorified in us

00:03:57.000 | when we are most satisfied in Him.

00:04:00.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend.

00:04:02.000 | [end]

00:04:04.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Breaking My Addiction to Entertainment

Chapters