Six Questions to Ask Before You Binge on Netflix
00:00:00.000 | Well, we have talked about the hit HBO television show Game of Thrones, specifically about nudity
00:00:10.180 | in television and film in previous episodes on this podcast.
00:00:14.200 | But today we talk about drama and comedy and PG shows that seem more harmless and that
00:00:19.800 | seem less obviously corrupting.
00:00:21.600 | It's a question that comes to us from a listener named Blake.
00:00:24.640 | "Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:25.840 | My question is when does humor and media become sinful?
00:00:29.640 | I'm a little confused about it even from some things that I've read by you.
00:00:33.660 | Is watching secular comedies like Friends and Seinfeld sinful?
00:00:38.760 | I'm rather confused over what is acceptable humor for Christian viewers.
00:00:43.360 | If it is wrong to watch these shows, please let me know why."
00:00:46.480 | Pastor John, what would you say to Blake?
00:00:48.560 | The first thing to say here, maybe, is that I've never seen either of those programs,
00:00:57.360 | Friends or Seinfeld.
00:00:58.360 | I've heard of them, never seen one, which means that my comments, I hope, have the advantage
00:01:07.200 | of not being a response to any particular TV show, but rather can be seen as an effort
00:01:13.480 | to bring biblical reality into view when deciding what we will be entertained by.
00:01:24.920 | That's my question.
00:01:27.760 | Another thing I should probably say here, get it off my chest, is that my whole approach
00:01:36.640 | toward what Christians view or listen to or are entertained by is not governed mainly
00:01:45.600 | by the question, "What's wrong with it?"
00:01:48.640 | That seems to me to be a very different approach than the way the New Testament, the way Paul
00:01:57.680 | especially, approaches questions of right and wrong that are uncertain.
00:02:06.320 | I always get the impression that the question, "What's wrong with it?" is rising from
00:02:12.480 | a heart that is basically governed by a desire to minimize wrong rather than maximize holiness
00:02:22.280 | or faith or spiritual power or worship or zeal for the lost or missions or justice.
00:02:30.840 | So basically what I'm going to do in answer to this question is try to simply reorient
00:02:38.240 | our minds about what we should think and feel when it comes to entertainment.
00:02:45.200 | I could, I suppose, go to particular verses, and they're there for a reason, and point
00:02:51.960 | out things that are wrong that you might find in TV programs and therefore avoid, like obscene
00:02:59.240 | talk, Colossians 3:8, or filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking, Ephesians 5:4.
00:03:08.360 | But the problem with that approach right now on this podcast is that it's going to leave
00:03:15.760 | thousands of Christians right where they are in the immaturity and worldliness of their
00:03:21.760 | passions, which is the main issue.
00:03:25.520 | I think most Christians are so in the grip of the spirit of the age and in the grip of
00:03:33.000 | popular culture and popular entertainments that the kind of radical reorientation I'm
00:03:40.840 | talking about is almost unthinkable for them.
00:03:46.240 | So for me to pitch into that mindset a few little warnings from Bible verses that disprove
00:03:53.040 | of certain things seems to me almost useless.
00:03:58.680 | So here's my effort at reorienting our thinking, and it would be a great work of God.
00:04:06.560 | Not me, it would be a work of a miracle if it happened to a few listeners, and I certainly
00:04:12.560 | need it to happen more deeply in my own life as I try to navigate these cultural waters.
00:04:20.320 | What I want to ask is what are you longing for most earnestly and with the greatest passion
00:04:29.260 | in your life?
00:04:30.260 | What are you longing for?
00:04:32.600 | Let's just say in your relation to Christ, in your personal walk and relation to Christ.
00:04:40.200 | What are you longing for?
00:04:42.040 | Are you longing for greater intimacy?
00:04:44.840 | Are you longing for greater depth?
00:04:47.720 | Are you longing for greater power?
00:04:51.600 | Are you longing for greater clarity as you see His glory in the Scriptures?
00:04:57.520 | Are you longing to hear His voice with greater confidence as you read His Word?
00:05:04.080 | Are you longing to discern His will more confidently?
00:05:08.820 | Are you longing to walk more closely with Him in a real living relationship as a real
00:05:16.840 | person?
00:05:18.340 | Are you longing for His smile of favor rather than His frowns of discipline?
00:05:25.040 | Do you even think in these terms?
00:05:27.800 | Do you go to bed with these longings?
00:05:30.100 | Do you wake up with these longings governing your life?
00:05:34.460 | Do you devote time, perhaps on the Lord's Day, to seek His face in intensifying these
00:05:41.160 | longings?
00:05:42.160 | If not, that's the issue.
00:05:46.200 | That's the issue.
00:05:47.920 | This is 10,000 times more important than what particular shows you click on.
00:05:54.760 | This will govern that.
00:05:57.180 | But if this is missing, if the growing intensification of these longings in your relationship with
00:06:03.800 | Jesus is missing, no answers will make any difference about your entertainment habits.
00:06:12.480 | Or let's just pose the question a little differently.
00:06:14.560 | What are you longing for in your relationship with other people?
00:06:19.500 | Do you long to represent Jesus with greater compelling forcefulness?
00:06:25.220 | Do you long for a greater love to people and a greater zeal for their salvation?
00:06:31.240 | Do you long to have greater boldness and encouragement from God in your own representation of Christ?
00:06:40.940 | Do you long to be a means of other people's holiness and purity and power?
00:06:47.420 | Do you long to bring the Word of God from your encounter with the risen Christ into
00:06:53.180 | the lives of other people with effectiveness?
00:06:56.200 | Do you long for readiness to speak hope-filled words into the face of those who are dying
00:07:04.180 | or suffering or entering or coming out of divorces?
00:07:10.460 | Do you have the aroma of Christ about you, and do you long for it in your conversation
00:07:17.580 | with others so that they say, "There's an aroma about you that's different"?
00:07:23.100 | Do you long to be able to inspire others by your own example in lives more consistent
00:07:29.900 | and deep and satisfying prayer?
00:07:33.300 | If not, what's the point of talking about shows?
00:07:37.500 | Right or wrong?
00:07:39.440 | We don't even have in place the mindset that can make those kinds of judgments possible.
00:07:45.620 | Now, once those kinds of longings are pursued and you have a new passion and you've been
00:07:54.740 | moved from being nominal, minimalist, get-by, cultural Christian to an authentic, passionate,
00:08:04.860 | earnest, God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated lover of Jesus, then you will begin to ask
00:08:12.860 | questions like, "Does this show build up my faith?
00:08:18.020 | Does it weaken my faith?
00:08:19.880 | Does this show make Christ more clear and precious to me, or does it make things more
00:08:26.540 | cloudy and make biblical realities more unreal?
00:08:32.780 | Does the show make the Bible and immersion in Scripture and meditation more desirable
00:08:38.740 | to my heart or more awkward to find time for?
00:08:43.500 | Does this show leave me with a disinclination to pray and seek God's face and long for
00:08:49.860 | His power?
00:08:51.260 | Does this show dampen my zeal for missions and my desire to see salvation come to the
00:09:00.060 | lives of the people around me, not to mention the people in Hollywood?
00:09:04.660 | Does it leave me with any desire for a great revival in my city to see people brokenhearted
00:09:11.440 | for their sin, represented in a lot of these shows?
00:09:16.180 | Does this show sweeten my experience of corporate worship with God's people and make it more
00:09:23.700 | authentic?
00:09:25.100 | Does this show heighten my sense of desire to be a risk-taker for the cause of justice
00:09:31.400 | and the advancement of God's righteous rule?
00:09:35.080 | Does it make me want to get on a boat or a plane and go to some hard place and die for
00:09:40.420 | Jesus?
00:09:42.220 | Does this show make me a better, more natural conversationalist about spiritual realities
00:09:48.880 | like heaven and hell and the Holy Spirit and the gospel and faith?
00:09:55.280 | So that's my response to the question of whether a person should watch any particular show
00:10:00.500 | or movie or video.
00:10:02.640 | My calling in the world is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, for
00:10:11.980 | the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
00:10:16.800 | Spread a passion for the supremacy of God.
00:10:20.000 | That's what I'm after.
00:10:22.080 | I'm after the kind of passion for His supremacy in everything that functions as a radical
00:10:30.400 | litmus test on what I find amusing and entertaining in media.
00:10:36.760 | Man, that is convicting.
00:10:39.280 | We need to live out of our calling.
00:10:41.120 | This is such a helpful reminder.
00:10:43.040 | Pastor John, thank you for it.
00:10:45.520 | And at the start of the episode, I said we've addressed onscreen nudity in the past in three
00:10:48.720 | different separate episodes in this series.
00:10:52.680 | Those are episodes number 368, 597, and 955.
00:10:57.080 | Those three episodes addressed Game of Thrones and other topics related to that series.
00:11:02.200 | Again, those are episodes 368, 597, and 955.
00:11:06.800 | We've nearly published 1,100 episodes in the history of this podcast series, and you can
00:11:10.880 | search our entire episode archive at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:17.400 | And I would encourage all of you to take some time to get familiar with the topics that
00:11:20.680 | we've addressed in the past.
00:11:22.240 | A lot of questions that come in are questions we've directly addressed in the past.
00:11:26.280 | I would say about 60 to 70% now of the questions that come in, we've already addressed either
00:11:31.240 | directly or very closely.
00:11:33.800 | So be sure to get familiar with the archive.
00:11:36.480 | You'll also, if you go to that page, you'll see a tab that says Popular, and you can click
00:11:41.200 | on it and that will generate a fresh tabulation of the most played episodes of all time, updated
00:11:45.480 | every day.
00:11:47.040 | And at the top of the list, you'll find the episodes that have reaped over 200,000 plays
00:11:51.560 | each.
00:11:52.560 | There's 13 of them.
00:11:54.200 | You'll want to look at those.
00:11:55.200 | Click on the tab that says Popular.
00:11:56.720 | Again, it's DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:58.520 | Well, we're going to return on Wednesday.
00:12:02.960 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.
00:12:05.600 | Thanks for listening.
00:12:06.920 | [ End ]
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