How Do I Love God More Than My Entertainment?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | Well, the base meaning of the word entertainment
00:00:07.000 | is to hold.
00:00:08.280 | It's a term for maintaining interest.
00:00:10.920 | To entertain is to capture and to hold one's attention.
00:00:14.840 | And we naturally find the passive watching of television
00:00:17.400 | more appealing than labor.
00:00:19.280 | Entertainment holds us.
00:00:21.520 | But the on-demand access we have for a lifetime
00:00:24.480 | of captivating entertainment literally at our fingertips
00:00:28.000 | also raises really important questions
00:00:29.680 | about what it is that most holds my attention.
00:00:32.680 | And does God have any chance at competing for my attention
00:00:36.100 | with the allure of Hollywood?
00:00:38.520 | Thus, this question from a listener named Craig.
00:00:41.880 | Dear Pastor John, hello.
00:00:42.920 | I know that I have begged for Christ
00:00:44.920 | to receive my heart and life.
00:00:46.680 | My repentance is sincere.
00:00:48.640 | I've stopped my willful sinning
00:00:50.300 | and I'm doing everything I can to live a holy life.
00:00:53.240 | My question is about my desire and satisfaction
00:00:55.800 | in spiritual discipline and worship.
00:00:58.080 | I prefer entertainment to time with God.
00:01:00.600 | That's the honest truth.
00:01:02.760 | Time with God feels like labor.
00:01:05.080 | Entertainment is the passive place I go
00:01:06.900 | to get away from work for a while.
00:01:08.980 | But I'm also terrified for my soul
00:01:10.640 | because my past tells me I'm just not trying hard enough
00:01:13.520 | and I will regret this in the future.
00:01:15.720 | Is my preference for entertainment over communion with God
00:01:19.080 | simply a personal discipline issue?
00:01:21.980 | - Well, nothing is simple.
00:01:23.200 | (laughs)
00:01:24.040 | - Yeah, right.
00:01:24.880 | - Nothing is simple.
00:01:25.760 | This is a really important question.
00:01:27.700 | And I'm glad to say something about it.
00:01:30.380 | Though in the end, Craig, you and I both know
00:01:34.880 | that we must experience a miracle
00:01:39.720 | to delight in God more than we delight
00:01:43.480 | in the entertainments of the world.
00:01:45.080 | Nothing you do or I do, finally, decisively,
00:01:48.520 | can make it happen.
00:01:49.360 | It's a gift of God.
00:01:51.000 | But God has given us means,
00:01:52.320 | so let's see if I can say something that might be helpful.
00:01:56.120 | One of the things that I want to say
00:01:58.980 | is that I know there are people who would counsel Craig
00:02:03.340 | by simply saying, "Lighten up, good grief.
00:02:06.100 | "You sound like a legalist.
00:02:07.860 | "Just go ahead and relax and enjoy the entertainments
00:02:11.500 | "that feel like they're a threat to your holiness.
00:02:14.800 | "You are perfect in Jesus, you know,
00:02:16.740 | "because of your justification."
00:02:19.300 | So it doesn't matter what movies you watch
00:02:21.460 | or how much time you spend with TV or video games
00:02:24.620 | or Facebook or Twitter, it doesn't matter.
00:02:26.220 | Just lighten up and enjoy your freedom in Jesus.
00:02:29.720 | Now, the problem with that counsel
00:02:32.580 | is that it totally contradicts the relationship
00:02:36.440 | between justification and sanctification
00:02:38.500 | which Jesus and Paul and the writer of Hebrews
00:02:42.440 | and the other New Testament writers describe.
00:02:44.660 | For them, the glorious truth that we are accepted
00:02:50.380 | by God, justified by God, loved by God,
00:02:54.580 | by grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone,
00:02:57.380 | through faith alone,
00:02:59.460 | that reality has unleashed a power for holiness
00:03:04.460 | which we in fact experience
00:03:07.940 | through major spiritual warfare
00:03:12.100 | against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
00:03:15.900 | I don't think the New Testament ever says, "Lighten up."
00:03:20.820 | It says, "Fight to the end."
00:03:24.260 | And of course, part of the fight is to be cheerful
00:03:29.260 | under the light burden and easy yoke of Jesus.
00:03:35.460 | Jesus said to cut off your hand or gouge out your eye
00:03:40.140 | rather than give way to the entertainments of lust.
00:03:43.340 | Jesus said, "Whoever doesn't love me more
00:03:46.580 | than they love their mother or father isn't worthy of me."
00:03:49.440 | Paul said, "If you don't put to death
00:03:51.060 | the deeds of the body, you won't live."
00:03:53.420 | John says, "If you love the world,
00:03:55.860 | the love of the Father is not in you."
00:03:57.500 | Hebrews says, "Pursue the holiness
00:03:59.900 | without which you won't see the Lord."
00:04:02.500 | Those modern day antinomians
00:04:04.860 | who use their own unbiblical brains
00:04:07.360 | to describe the indiscriminate lifestyle of justification
00:04:11.380 | are leading many people astray.
00:04:16.140 | So I congratulate you, Craig,
00:04:20.140 | for caring so deeply about this matter of personal holiness.
00:04:25.140 | And I hope you never solve the problem of your distress
00:04:30.180 | by embracing teachings that contradict the Bible.
00:04:35.300 | It will be a very short-lived solution.
00:04:38.840 | So what should we do when a focus on God and Christ
00:04:44.780 | and the Spirit and His saving work in the world feels boring?
00:04:50.380 | Or unsatisfying?
00:04:51.620 | While the excitements of TV and movies and video games
00:04:55.020 | and sports feel so attractive and so exciting,
00:04:59.700 | far more interesting than God, what should we do?
00:05:03.660 | And you are right to do the first thing,
00:05:06.060 | namely we should tremble.
00:05:07.940 | And the reason we should tremble
00:05:10.140 | is because that preference for the world
00:05:14.300 | is the condition of the whole world.
00:05:17.620 | The natural man cannot receive or enjoy or be satisfied
00:05:22.620 | or find supremely interesting the things of the Spirit.
00:05:28.580 | They are foolishness to him.
00:05:30.340 | That's the mark of the natural man.
00:05:32.900 | Therefore, if we feel that way, we should tremble
00:05:36.340 | because we're acting like mere men,
00:05:38.580 | not like children of God.
00:05:40.460 | Something is keeping you, Craig.
00:05:43.140 | Something is keeping you,
00:05:44.340 | and a few million others like you,
00:05:47.340 | from seeing God and His ways for who He really is.
00:05:52.260 | Because Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18
00:05:54.860 | that if we see Him for who He really is,
00:05:56.860 | if we behold His glory,
00:05:58.660 | we will be changed from one degree of glory to the next.
00:06:02.460 | So something is hindering you from seeing,
00:06:07.460 | tasting the totally beautiful, totally interesting,
00:06:11.340 | totally satisfying God in Christ and all that He is for us.
00:06:16.260 | And I don't know what it is, Craig, in your case,
00:06:18.940 | but that's where the battle is fought.
00:06:21.420 | The battle is fought in seeing.
00:06:23.580 | We need to see.
00:06:25.340 | So here are three suggestions,
00:06:27.900 | and maybe the Lord will use one of them.
00:06:31.540 | One, ask the Lord to direct you
00:06:35.340 | to someone who's a non-believer,
00:06:37.140 | a non-believer, or a baby believer,
00:06:40.620 | or a falling away believer,
00:06:43.500 | so that you can, with all your heart,
00:06:46.900 | share with them what it is about God
00:06:50.340 | that should draw them back.
00:06:52.500 | Now, that's gonna sound counterintuitive to you.
00:06:54.900 | You're gonna feel like you're in a position to do that.
00:06:57.500 | But I have seen it over and over again in my own life
00:07:02.500 | and the testimony of others
00:07:03.980 | that when I am thrown into a situation
00:07:07.180 | where my own love for God is tested
00:07:10.780 | by my love for people in my desire for them to know God
00:07:14.980 | and join me in eternal life,
00:07:16.820 | barriers come down between me and God.
00:07:20.220 | Barriers are torn down to my experience
00:07:24.700 | of the truth and beauty of God.
00:07:28.580 | So, counterintuitive as it sounds,
00:07:31.660 | I suggest you go find somebody who's not a believer
00:07:35.940 | and tell them how worthy Jesus is of their belief
00:07:40.940 | and see what happens.
00:07:43.780 | Number two, think through what kinds of downtime you need
00:07:48.780 | and what forms of downtime would be pure
00:07:52.100 | and not a contradiction of your holiness.
00:07:54.900 | My guess is that without giving it a lot of thought,
00:07:57.540 | you are defaulting to worldly entertainments
00:08:00.900 | which leave you with a sense of compromise
00:08:04.620 | because the worldview with which they're so saturated
00:08:07.740 | and other aspects of immorality in them
00:08:10.220 | are defiling your conscience.
00:08:12.980 | God intends for us to have downtime.
00:08:16.420 | The spring can't be always wound tight.
00:08:19.780 | So, think through the kinds of downtime that would be pure
00:08:24.540 | and wouldn't be so blatantly in competition
00:08:27.340 | with your delight in God.
00:08:29.140 | Make them an expression of delight in God.
00:08:32.260 | And here's the last suggestion.
00:08:35.300 | It's right off my front burner.
00:08:37.060 | Find somebody who's dead, some great author,
00:08:40.460 | or somebody who's living,
00:08:42.420 | who either speaks or writes about God
00:08:47.140 | as one who has really tasted and seen
00:08:52.140 | that God is glorious and beautiful and satisfying
00:08:56.660 | and who writes about it in such a way
00:08:59.740 | that when you read it, you taste it.
00:09:02.820 | Now, right now, I'm reading John Owen
00:09:07.420 | on the duty of being spiritually minded.
00:09:11.220 | And that's what Owen is doing for me.
00:09:16.660 | I use my Sundays especially for Owen.
00:09:20.060 | We don't have a lot of time otherwise,
00:09:21.940 | but I've got a long period Sunday afternoon
00:09:24.220 | when nothing is scheduled usually,
00:09:26.220 | and I sit on my couch and I let Owen do work on me.
00:09:30.660 | And he is helping me with the very problem you expressed.
00:09:35.660 | When I read him, I awaken to the authentic reality
00:09:41.460 | of what the Bible means by spiritual mindedness.
00:09:46.980 | And I realized what a dunce I am.
00:09:49.380 | I mean, Owen just unpacks biblical phrases
00:09:53.940 | in a way that makes me feel like
00:09:55.340 | I've never read them.
00:09:57.220 | And joy starts to rise as I taste.
00:09:59.980 | Yes, yes, there it is.
00:10:00.980 | I taste it.
00:10:01.820 | I know what he's talking about.
00:10:03.540 | That's glorious.
00:10:04.860 | I feel it afresh.
00:10:07.500 | So I pray, Craig, that you will not give up the fight,
00:10:12.500 | but come to the end of your life and say with Paul,
00:10:17.140 | I have fought the good fight.
00:10:18.980 | I have finished my course.
00:10:21.460 | I have kept the faith.
00:10:24.420 | Beautiful.
00:10:25.460 | It's a fight worth fighting in our media age.
00:10:27.820 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:28.700 | And Craig, thank you for the question.
00:10:30.900 | And thanks for listening and making the podcast
00:10:32.460 | part of your day and your commute.
00:10:33.940 | Three times a week we publish
00:10:35.460 | and you can subscribe to our audio feeds
00:10:37.260 | and search our past episodes in our archive
00:10:39.780 | and even reach us by email with a question of your own,
00:10:42.220 | especially if you have a question about entertainment.
00:10:45.060 | And I think there's a lot more to talk about here,
00:10:48.060 | even if these questions and these conversations
00:10:50.280 | are the most uncomfortable ones,
00:10:52.460 | they are very good to address.
00:10:55.300 | Send us your questions, see our archive,
00:10:57.900 | and check out what's going on with the podcast.
00:10:59.740 | You can do all of that through our online home
00:11:01.140 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:11:05.180 | Well, the absolute sovereignty of God over all things
00:11:08.800 | seems to make some believers more energetic,
00:11:11.180 | ambitious, and determined to reach the nations
00:11:13.500 | with the gospel.
00:11:15.060 | But that same sovereignty also seems to make
00:11:17.220 | other believers more apathetic, withdrawn,
00:11:20.100 | and passive with the gospel.
00:11:21.880 | So why is there this difference?
00:11:24.420 | That's the question on Wednesday.
00:11:26.420 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.
00:11:29.020 | (upbeat music)
00:11:31.600 | (upbeat music)
00:11:34.180 | [BLANK_AUDIO]