(upbeat music) Well, the base meaning of the word entertainment is to hold. It's a term for maintaining interest. To entertain is to capture and to hold one's attention. And we naturally find the passive watching of television more appealing than labor. Entertainment holds us. But the on-demand access we have for a lifetime of captivating entertainment literally at our fingertips also raises really important questions about what it is that most holds my attention.

And does God have any chance at competing for my attention with the allure of Hollywood? Thus, this question from a listener named Craig. Dear Pastor John, hello. I know that I have begged for Christ to receive my heart and life. My repentance is sincere. I've stopped my willful sinning and I'm doing everything I can to live a holy life.

My question is about my desire and satisfaction in spiritual discipline and worship. I prefer entertainment to time with God. That's the honest truth. Time with God feels like labor. Entertainment is the passive place I go to get away from work for a while. But I'm also terrified for my soul because my past tells me I'm just not trying hard enough and I will regret this in the future.

Is my preference for entertainment over communion with God simply a personal discipline issue? - Well, nothing is simple. (laughs) - Yeah, right. - Nothing is simple. This is a really important question. And I'm glad to say something about it. Though in the end, Craig, you and I both know that we must experience a miracle to delight in God more than we delight in the entertainments of the world.

Nothing you do or I do, finally, decisively, can make it happen. It's a gift of God. But God has given us means, so let's see if I can say something that might be helpful. One of the things that I want to say is that I know there are people who would counsel Craig by simply saying, "Lighten up, good grief.

"You sound like a legalist. "Just go ahead and relax and enjoy the entertainments "that feel like they're a threat to your holiness. "You are perfect in Jesus, you know, "because of your justification." So it doesn't matter what movies you watch or how much time you spend with TV or video games or Facebook or Twitter, it doesn't matter.

Just lighten up and enjoy your freedom in Jesus. Now, the problem with that counsel is that it totally contradicts the relationship between justification and sanctification which Jesus and Paul and the writer of Hebrews and the other New Testament writers describe. For them, the glorious truth that we are accepted by God, justified by God, loved by God, by grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone, through faith alone, that reality has unleashed a power for holiness which we in fact experience through major spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I don't think the New Testament ever says, "Lighten up." It says, "Fight to the end." And of course, part of the fight is to be cheerful under the light burden and easy yoke of Jesus. Jesus said to cut off your hand or gouge out your eye rather than give way to the entertainments of lust.

Jesus said, "Whoever doesn't love me more than they love their mother or father isn't worthy of me." Paul said, "If you don't put to death the deeds of the body, you won't live." John says, "If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you." Hebrews says, "Pursue the holiness without which you won't see the Lord." Those modern day antinomians who use their own unbiblical brains to describe the indiscriminate lifestyle of justification are leading many people astray.

So I congratulate you, Craig, for caring so deeply about this matter of personal holiness. And I hope you never solve the problem of your distress by embracing teachings that contradict the Bible. It will be a very short-lived solution. So what should we do when a focus on God and Christ and the Spirit and His saving work in the world feels boring?

Or unsatisfying? While the excitements of TV and movies and video games and sports feel so attractive and so exciting, far more interesting than God, what should we do? And you are right to do the first thing, namely we should tremble. And the reason we should tremble is because that preference for the world is the condition of the whole world.

The natural man cannot receive or enjoy or be satisfied or find supremely interesting the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to him. That's the mark of the natural man. Therefore, if we feel that way, we should tremble because we're acting like mere men, not like children of God.

Something is keeping you, Craig. Something is keeping you, and a few million others like you, from seeing God and His ways for who He really is. Because Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that if we see Him for who He really is, if we behold His glory, we will be changed from one degree of glory to the next.

So something is hindering you from seeing, tasting the totally beautiful, totally interesting, totally satisfying God in Christ and all that He is for us. And I don't know what it is, Craig, in your case, but that's where the battle is fought. The battle is fought in seeing. We need to see.

So here are three suggestions, and maybe the Lord will use one of them. One, ask the Lord to direct you to someone who's a non-believer, a non-believer, or a baby believer, or a falling away believer, so that you can, with all your heart, share with them what it is about God that should draw them back.

Now, that's gonna sound counterintuitive to you. You're gonna feel like you're in a position to do that. But I have seen it over and over again in my own life and the testimony of others that when I am thrown into a situation where my own love for God is tested by my love for people in my desire for them to know God and join me in eternal life, barriers come down between me and God.

Barriers are torn down to my experience of the truth and beauty of God. So, counterintuitive as it sounds, I suggest you go find somebody who's not a believer and tell them how worthy Jesus is of their belief and see what happens. Number two, think through what kinds of downtime you need and what forms of downtime would be pure and not a contradiction of your holiness.

My guess is that without giving it a lot of thought, you are defaulting to worldly entertainments which leave you with a sense of compromise because the worldview with which they're so saturated and other aspects of immorality in them are defiling your conscience. God intends for us to have downtime.

The spring can't be always wound tight. So, think through the kinds of downtime that would be pure and wouldn't be so blatantly in competition with your delight in God. Make them an expression of delight in God. And here's the last suggestion. It's right off my front burner. Find somebody who's dead, some great author, or somebody who's living, who either speaks or writes about God as one who has really tasted and seen that God is glorious and beautiful and satisfying and who writes about it in such a way that when you read it, you taste it.

Now, right now, I'm reading John Owen on the duty of being spiritually minded. And that's what Owen is doing for me. I use my Sundays especially for Owen. We don't have a lot of time otherwise, but I've got a long period Sunday afternoon when nothing is scheduled usually, and I sit on my couch and I let Owen do work on me.

And he is helping me with the very problem you expressed. When I read him, I awaken to the authentic reality of what the Bible means by spiritual mindedness. And I realized what a dunce I am. I mean, Owen just unpacks biblical phrases in a way that makes me feel like I've never read them.

And joy starts to rise as I taste. Yes, yes, there it is. I taste it. I know what he's talking about. That's glorious. I feel it afresh. So I pray, Craig, that you will not give up the fight, but come to the end of your life and say with Paul, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Beautiful. It's a fight worth fighting in our media age. Thank you, Pastor John. And Craig, thank you for the question. And thanks for listening and making the podcast part of your day and your commute. Three times a week we publish and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive and even reach us by email with a question of your own, especially if you have a question about entertainment.

And I think there's a lot more to talk about here, even if these questions and these conversations are the most uncomfortable ones, they are very good to address. Send us your questions, see our archive, and check out what's going on with the podcast. You can do all of that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

Well, the absolute sovereignty of God over all things seems to make some believers more energetic, ambitious, and determined to reach the nations with the gospel. But that same sovereignty also seems to make other believers more apathetic, withdrawn, and passive with the gospel. So why is there this difference? That's the question on Wednesday.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)