How Much Entertainment Is Too Much?
00:00:00.000 | Well, 2019 remains busy for you, Pastor John, and two weeks from now, you and Noel will
00:00:09.220 | be in South America, Lord willing, in Brazil and Argentina.
00:00:14.320 | You'll speak at some key events in the St. Paul of Brazil in Sao Paulo, and then down
00:00:19.560 | to Buenos Aires, and then back up in Brazil to Campina Grande.
00:00:24.720 | And I know a lot of APJ listeners have emailed us, eagerly awaiting your arrival in each
00:00:29.640 | of these three cities, and I know you're excited to go on this trip as well.
00:00:34.260 | You've spoken in Brazil before, correct?
00:00:36.800 | I've been to Brazil a couple times.
00:00:40.600 | I've never been to Argentina.
00:00:43.980 | My excitement about going to Brazil is because I know people there, and I love what I know.
00:00:51.760 | I love the spirit, I love the hunger, and I'm eager to build on our time together with
00:00:59.640 | the precious truths that we share.
00:01:02.600 | I don't know the new friends that I anticipate making in Argentina.
00:01:07.760 | This has me and my wife excited.
00:01:10.540 | She loves to put another notch in the gun of her travels.
00:01:15.160 | She's way more of a traveler than I am, and she's never been to Argentina, and I've never
00:01:19.800 | been, and so we're eager to discover, not just build, but discover the temperament,
00:01:29.080 | the tone, the hunger, the zeal, faithfulness of our friends in Argentina.
00:01:36.480 | So that feels like kind of a new venture for us, and I'm so eager to see.
00:01:41.440 | I'm praying right now in my season of preparation, "What, Lord, do you want me to bring to Brazil
00:01:48.280 | and to Argentina?"
00:01:49.920 | And if folks hear this while I'm still working on it, they can pray, "Oh, God, give Pastor
00:01:56.920 | John something that—where he doesn't know us very well, something that we need and he
00:02:04.120 | will receive from the Lord."
00:02:06.000 | So I'm excited.
00:02:07.480 | I'm excited to build.
00:02:08.520 | I'm excited to discover.
00:02:10.160 | Amen.
00:02:11.160 | I cannot wait to see what the Lord does on this trip.
00:02:14.720 | That Campina Grande event alone, get this, it's a massive Bible conference that has replaced
00:02:20.200 | Carnival, which was a huge Mardi Gras-like cultural event in the city.
00:02:25.800 | That is now a city festival devoted to Reformed preaching and teaching, 50 teachers, seven
00:02:32.880 | nights, 100,000 people, food and books in huge tents.
00:02:37.160 | I cannot wait to get an update on that event, Pastor John.
00:02:41.000 | It's worth giving a special thanks to our friend Rick Denham, who plays such a huge
00:02:44.200 | role in our international work, and Fiel, not to mention Soldados de Jesucristo, based
00:02:50.760 | in Argentina, who has prepared for your trip by releasing the Solid Joys devotional into
00:02:55.760 | Spanish with audio.
00:02:58.840 | Amazing amount of work.
00:02:59.840 | There are already a lot of precious friends to us in South America.
00:03:05.000 | And so I'm looking forward to hearing what happens on that trip, Pastor John.
00:03:08.920 | And speaking of Brazil, here's today's question.
00:03:11.240 | "Hello, Pastor John, my name is Julio17 and I live in Brazil.
00:03:15.360 | I look forward to seeing you very soon.
00:03:17.600 | I was listening to the episode where you addressed the question of when does Bible neglect become
00:03:22.480 | sinful, and the question appeared to me in my own mind.
00:03:25.960 | My question is this.
00:03:27.360 | In the world we live in today, is it a sin to claim time for other things other than
00:03:31.400 | reading the Bible or praying?
00:03:33.360 | Things such as watching a movie or playing a game are very enjoyable to me, but I wonder
00:03:37.320 | if God is disappointed in me for using some of my free time to do these things instead
00:03:42.560 | of claiming time for Him.
00:03:44.360 | I read the Bible and pray every day and go to church almost every week, but it sometimes
00:03:48.980 | feels wrong to do anything that isn't directly connected to the Lord.
00:03:53.360 | Pastor John, how do you think about these things?"
00:03:56.600 | Jesus told a parable that went like this.
00:04:00.240 | It may sound a little disconnected at first, but give me time.
00:04:04.360 | The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, "What shall I do,
00:04:10.360 | for I have nowhere to store my crops?"
00:04:12.800 | And he said, "I'll do this.
00:04:14.760 | I'll tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I'll store all my grain and my goods,
00:04:20.760 | and I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
00:04:26.920 | Relax, eat, drink, be merry.'"
00:04:31.280 | God said to him, "Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have
00:04:39.920 | prepared, whose are they going to be?
00:04:43.320 | So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
00:04:48.040 | That's Luke 12, 16 to 21.
00:04:50.560 | Now I start here with this parable because I want to commend Julio for his struggle.
00:04:59.680 | The man in this parable had no struggle at all.
00:05:03.240 | He earned it.
00:05:04.240 | He earned it.
00:05:05.240 | He owned it.
00:05:06.240 | He stored it.
00:05:07.240 | He had security.
00:05:08.840 | He would play, play, play.
00:05:11.920 | And Jesus said, "Fool."
00:05:14.800 | He was about to lose his soul.
00:05:17.040 | Most people in the prosperous West, whether Brazil or America, are falling into the ditch
00:05:24.600 | on that side of the road that's not too self-denying, not too ascetic.
00:05:33.120 | But Julio is struggling in the other direction.
00:05:36.840 | He needs help in the other direction.
00:05:39.760 | What kind of eating, what kind of drinking, what kind of being merry could be godly?
00:05:46.160 | And so his first question is this, "Is it a sin to claim time for other things other
00:05:52.200 | than reading the Bible or praying?"
00:05:54.520 | And the answer, of course, it's not a sin.
00:05:57.080 | And the reason you know it's not necessarily a sin, I mean, of course, you can make things
00:06:02.280 | an idol, is because Paul told us to work for a living, Ephesians 4, 28, which for most
00:06:09.120 | people around the world has always involved eight to 12 hours a day doing things with
00:06:15.200 | their hands or feet or backs or brains that are not simply Bible reading and prayer.
00:06:21.560 | And that's commanded of us.
00:06:24.320 | And Jesus said to His disciples, "After a hard season of work, come apart and rest a
00:06:29.960 | while," Mark 6, 31.
00:06:31.760 | Now, we don't know what they did, but it was a break from more intense ministry of the
00:06:40.680 | Word.
00:06:41.680 | Break, take a break from that.
00:06:43.920 | And Paul told believers how they should act when they accept a dinner invitation from
00:06:49.440 | unbelievers, 1 Corinthians 10, 27.
00:06:52.900 | So he assumed they had simple, friendly relations with others and joined in ordinary times of
00:07:01.140 | relaxed togetherness.
00:07:02.620 | So those are some of the reasons I say, no, no, it's not a sin to take time away from
00:07:08.620 | Bible reading and praying and do what appear to be more ordinary things that the world
00:07:16.380 | does, working, resting, going to dinner, and so on.
00:07:20.980 | It's not a sin.
00:07:22.900 | But then Julio says, "But I wonder if God is disappointed in me for using some of my
00:07:30.980 | free time to do entertaining things instead of claiming time for Him.
00:07:37.680 | It sometimes feels wrong to do anything that isn't directly connected to the Lord."
00:07:44.340 | So here's my main encouragement to Julio and the rest of us, seek to bring every act
00:07:53.540 | into connection with the Lord.
00:07:55.900 | And the more difficult that is, the more likely it is that the act should be replaced with
00:08:04.180 | something more fruitful.
00:08:06.220 | In other words, put everything through this grid.
00:08:10.140 | I'll give you three Bible verses, 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whether you eat or drink, whatever
00:08:15.940 | you do, do all to the glory of God."
00:08:18.740 | So that's what I mean by bringing every act into connection with the Lord.
00:08:23.580 | Or Colossians 3:17, "Whatever you do, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the
00:08:31.300 | name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
00:08:36.840 | So bring everything into connection to the name of the Lord Jesus.
00:08:42.380 | Or 1 Corinthians 16:14, "Let all that you do be done in love."
00:08:49.700 | So three tests, three ways to connect everything to Jesus, all for His glory, all in the name
00:08:58.340 | of Jesus, all in the cause of loving others.
00:09:03.120 | And stir into this sifting of behaviors 1 Timothy 6:17, "As for the rich in this present
00:09:12.700 | age," now I would say that if you can play a video game, you're rich.
00:09:18.100 | You got something to play it on.
00:09:19.980 | You're not starving.
00:09:21.980 | Charge them, charge John Piper and Julio, charge them not to be haughty, not to set
00:09:28.500 | their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything
00:09:35.980 | to enjoy.
00:09:39.620 | And 1 Timothy 4, 5 says how?
00:09:42.700 | And it's talking about sex and food, very ordinary things that everybody participates
00:09:48.540 | in either legitimately or illegitimately.
00:09:51.340 | "For everything created by God is good.
00:09:55.180 | Everything is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by
00:10:01.780 | the Word of God in prayer," 1 Timothy 4, 4, and 5.
00:10:04.980 | In other words, Paul assumes that there is a way, a necessary way, for Christians to
00:10:13.500 | transpose the enjoyments of good things in this world, God-given good gifts, transpose
00:10:23.280 | the enjoyments of them into worshipful acts that are holy and Christ-honoring and people-loving.
00:10:34.060 | Those very acts of food and sex make music.
00:10:38.340 | You transpose that music into Christ-honoring music by the Word of God in prayer, by bringing
00:10:45.300 | them into connection with the glory of God and the name of Jesus and love for people.
00:10:49.580 | In other words, he does not assume that the handling of the good gifts of this world,
00:10:57.780 | which could be idols, will necessarily be idols but will become, in fact, avenues of
00:11:04.940 | knowing God better and enjoying Him more and being a greater blessing to other people.
00:11:11.700 | Joe Rigney has written an important book about this called Things of Earth, the whole book
00:11:16.740 | devoted to trying to help us come to terms with how you bring good things into connection
00:11:25.300 | with the Lord without despising them or turning them into idols.
00:11:30.620 | So here's my bottom-line counsel to all of us.
00:11:34.500 | Seek to bring every act into connection with the Lord, every entertainment, as a gift from
00:11:43.060 | God and a revelation of Himself and a path of worshipful enjoyment and good for other
00:11:49.340 | people, seek to bring every act into connection with the Lord.
00:11:54.260 | And the more difficult that is, that is, this act doesn't really fit with the Lord so well,
00:12:01.780 | the more difficult it is, the more likely it is that the act should be replaced with
00:12:06.900 | something more fruitful.
00:12:09.260 | That's really good, Pastor John.
00:12:10.500 | Thank you.
00:12:11.500 | So what would Pastor John say to someone who is so addicted to entertainment that they
00:12:14.940 | cannot break free of it?
00:12:17.420 | That question is an important follow-up, and it's next time when we return on Monday.
00:12:22.620 | Until then, please be praying for Pastor John as he prepares for this upcoming international
00:12:26.620 | trip.
00:12:27.620 | I am Tony Reinke, your host.
00:12:29.020 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor, John
00:12:33.580 | Piper.
00:12:34.580 | We'll see you next time.
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