Entertain Me

Corinthians 10: 31, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

“If any occupation or association is found to hinder our communion with God or our enjoyment of spiritual things, then it must be abandoned. Beware of ‘leprosy’ in the garment. (Lev. 13:47) Anything in my habits or ways which mars happy fellowship with the brethren or robs me of power in service, is to be unsparingly judged and made an end of— ‘burned.’ (Lev.13:52) Whatever I cannot do for God’s glory must be avoided.”—Arthur W. Pink

For most of its history, the church stood steadfast in its denouements of entertainment. That is true no longer. For the last several decades, not only has the church weakened its stance on entertainment in general but has invited it to come on in and join us.

There is nothing wrong with wholesome entertainment in its time and in its place. When it comes out of hiding and takes over someones life, there is a major problem. When a professing Christian indulges in the same sensual and erotic entertainment that the world does, or, claims to be entertained by the blaspheming of God’s holy name, there is a problem and it’s a major one. If, however, a Christian does her work and then, having earned a rest, allows herself to be entertained in a God-fearing, God-respecting way, there’s no harm. Better still, however, is to entertain oneself through wholesome reading, walking or engaging in a hobby.

This is about the church as a whole, though. At some point, perhaps the church bought into the philosphy of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and it’s been downhill ever since. The new attitude shouts that if a worship service isn’t “fun” or doesn’t “speak to my needs” that God has somehow let us down. Excuse me? When did going to church become about us instead of about Him? Your needs? Your needs? Funny, I would have thought that your greatest need was to find forgiveness of sins and be reconciled to the Almighty God Who has the power to send souls to hell…I guess I was wrong.

It seems that our greatest need is to have fun and feel like the preacher (ah, worship leader?) is speaking to us…”but, not in a condemning way…soothing, please, I’ve had a rough week…just tell me how to solve my marriage problems or my financial problems, or, better still, make me laugh for 14.5 minutes and throw in a couple of heart-warming stories–tie it all together with some (better yet, one!) Scripture reference in order to make it spiritual and ta-da! I’m happy!”

Church isn’t about us. Jesus died in order to purchase it with HIS blood! The church is HIS! It’s about Him. We are to go there to worship Almighty God–not to be entertained. There is nothing at all wrong with a well-placed joke if it complements the teaching and not just to pass the time or cover up for lack of preparation. A well told story that is meant to make a point that fits in with the sermon is fine, too. After all, Jesus Himself was a master storyteller. The problem arises when we focus on us. Anything that takes the focus off of God and puts it on us is sin.

Ephesians 5: 15-17, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

God commands us to use our time well, to be wise in our lives and to understand His will. When our focus is on me and what entertains me rather than on Him and what is pleasing to Him, that is impossible. Our me-centered, dumbed-down, entertainment driven, celebrity mad society promotes fun above anything else. “Entertain me” rings throughout our land. Movies, fan magazines, video games, DVDs, i-pods, on-line computer games, CDs, cable television, and on and on and on. We’re so desperate to be entertained that we even think that some poorly conceived, poorly delivered reality television show that exploits and destroys people’s lives is fun! It’s bad enough (in fact, it’s abysmal) when we as a nation constantly seek to be entertained: no nation can long last once in that mode. Life is serious and we don’t take it as such anymore. When the entertainment madness invades and takes over our churches and the lives of God’s people, it’s heartbreaking on the deepest level. It means that we’ve lost our spiritual focus. Destruction can’t be far behind.

We were made for God. We are to live for God. He has taught us that we are to do everything that we do for Him and His glory. Read 1 Corinthians 10: 31 again, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Do all to the glory of God–that’s pretty encompassing. All doesn’t seem to leave out any area of our lives. Now explain to me: how is it that we are entertaining ourselves to death–not only on our “own time” (as if God had no say so over how we are to spend our days) but also on His time (the time set aside to gather with the like-minded brethren and worship the Lord God Almighty)–and doing it for His glory? I say we are not. We are doing it for our pleasure and leaving Him out of the equation entirely.

Whether during our off-time, down-time, work time, worship time or any other “time,” our lives are to be about Almighty God. We were created for Him. Anything that makes us forget that is sin.