It's Friday and we are back with Tripp Lee. And yesterday in episode 596, we talked about self-denial and the goodness of God. We need to make this practical. And Tripp, as you know, on-screen explicit sexuality is simply ingrained into pop culture today. And I'm thinking especially of popular television series like Game of Thrones.

But this is also true of movies. Not even to mention the accessibility of explicit pornography online. So, what would you say to Christians who are willing to watch on-screen nudity in an attempt to be culturally relevant? Well, it's so hard right now because just kind of this explicit sexuality and nudity is everywhere.

You know, just small example, I was just in a store in my neighborhood yesterday and standing in line. And there are just porn magazines just out behind me, not even covered up. You know, you don't even have to try right now to see ridiculously sexually explicit things. It really is everywhere.

There are shows I started to watch and me and my wife started to watch and we loved. And there was one that just the writing was brilliant and, you know, all the little strange things we like about TV shows were in it. But we had to stop because of just the kind of explicit sex.

And it seemed to be glorifying adultery. And there were just reasons that we felt like we had to stop because the stuff that we take in is really not harmless. It really can harm our souls. You know, it can provoke lust in our hearts and desires in our hearts.

And that can lead to even kind of more explicit things. And so for me, when I think about pop culture and kind of explicit sexuality, it's just not a risk worth taking. You know, I just I just don't want to leave space for that in my life. I don't want to make sure I have space to take those kind of risks.

And as far as how it works in with our relevance, relevance is a really good thing. And understanding pop culture is a really good thing. But, you know, neither of those things are more important than your soul itself. And so we're fooling ourselves if we think seeing an episode of a TV show or seeing a movie is more important to reaching people than our own personal purity or devotion to God.

You know, your holiness is more important to your ministry than your pop culture knowledge, because, you know, a holy life is going to say more, a lot more about Christ than anecdotes from a popular TV show or quoting this thing from this episode. Second Timothy 221, Paul says to Timothy, "If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work." That holiness and set apartness to be useful for God is a very real thing.

And so it's good to be relevant. I like to keep up with pop culture. And I can even think of ways, even as I wrote the book Rise, where I pointed to pop culture. I think it strengthened my argument. And so I'm not in any way saying that doesn't matter.

But our souls are far more important and it's just not a risk worth us taking. So I would encourage us not to do that and to find other ways to try to be relevant. Well said, Tripp. Thank you. And if you're still not convinced, John Piper took up this topic.

And to find what he said, Google the title, "12 Questions to Ask Before You Watch Game of Thrones." Well, I have several more questions for Tripp. So we're going to extend our time with him into next week. And on Monday, we will talk about a love affair with an iPhone, a classic track from an earlier album by Tripp and a song he called "I Love." And you'll want to know what Tripp has learned about avoiding iPhone idolatry in the past few years.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. And have a wonderful weekend. (end) (music) (end)