Entertainment

I wrote this about a year ago now, and it is part of the women's devo book, When The Church Forgets To Blush, that I am in the process of finishing up. But I wanted to share because I think this is an important study for Christians, especially those in a frenzy over Magic Mike and 50 Shades of Grey.

entertainment

“Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above is looking down with love, so be careful little eyes what you see.” What a cute song this is that we teach our children as it goes through the ears (what you hear), the eyes (what you see), the mouth (what you say), the hands (what you do), and the feet (where you go). The message of it is to be careful, because God is watching, and it is one we should most definitely teach and instill in our children when they are young. But what about when these little eyes, ears, mouths, hands, and feet grow up? Do we still take the time to be careful with them then?

            Ephesians 5:3 exhorts us, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints”. It’s important to note the phrase “all impurity” in this verse. ALL impurity. Not some, not a tiny bit, not most, but all. God is serious about sin and impurity. He is so serious that in this verse He tells us that it is not even proper to be named among the saints. Yet in the world we find ourselves a part of, impurity runs completely rampant. Teens are told having sex is not only normal, but expected, in almost every American t.v. sitcom. We are bombarded with messages to save the trees and kill the babies. Commercials tell us that being green is more valuable than being clean (in heart). Is something backwards here?

            The entertainment that the world offers is many times not cute, funny, or beneficial. It is sinful and does more desesnitation to our hearts and our minds than we can even comprehend. Have you ever thought a bad word (not meaning to) and wondered “where did that come from?” It is a result of desensitization. What we put in directly affects what comes out (thoughts, words, etc.) I am certainly not anti tv or movies by any means. We don’t  have to live in a glass bubble and I wouldn’t reccomend that, but I would suggest that we also don’t have to live like the world. We don’t have to make excuses and exceptions for sinfulness that God Himself doesn’t. We don’t have to laugh at the dirty jokes. We have the ability to turn the tv off when we should. We can train our hearts not to love and support trash. We can choose purity and we should.

            You might be wondering, “Well, exactly what is entertainment?” In my estimation, entertainment is anything that we find pleasurable or worthy of our focus as a pasttime. Some people today look at worship this way. They want coffee shops and bands and praise teams so they can be entertained. They find this pleasurable, it makes them feel good about themselves, and so they excuse the sin behind it. Many of us would never say this is right, but we must be careful not to do this same thing with our entertainment choices in daily life.

            Consider for a moment this scenario. What if it was announched at worship that on the next Sunday you would have to stand before your entire congregation and share everything you did, watched, sang, etc. for entertainment the entire week before? What if you not only had to list the song titles, but sing the lyrics? Not only tell the movie names, but play the worst clip from each (possibly containing sexual immorality, affairs, or the like?) What if your elders were going to come to your house and go through your DVD collection, look at your Netflix record, or internet browsing history?

            Does the very thought make you sick at your stomach? Does the illustration alone make you want to start rumaging through your collections to make sure they would pass the test? This is only an illustration, but consider the implication. We have a much greater test coming. We have God watching us. God hears every word of that song we sang. He knows what is in the movies we watch. He’s seen our DVD collection. He knows what movies we go to on the weekends. There are no secrets with the Creator of the universe and we will be held accountable.

            If we really, really believed this, how much would it change our lives? How would it change our hearts? Would we be moved to repetence for our sin? Would we clean out the playlist on our Ipod? Get rid of half of our channels on cable?  Throw the DVD’s away and never look back? Would we stop going to R rated movies? Watching affairs, nudity, or fornication in our homes? Would we fix our eyes on Jesus instead of the trash of this world?

            Maybe you don’t have a problem with what you watch on t.v. But are there other ways we dishonor God by our entertainment choices? What about football? If it is Super Bowl Sunday, are we at home watching the game or in the assembly worshipping the Savior? Do we sign our children up for activities such as sporting events or plays and then choose to take them to practice instead of Bible studies on Wednesday nights? How do these actions affect their character? Not only do we hurt God when we make such choices, but when these children get to college and the homework piles in or the social club has an outing, you can rest assured where they will most likely be on that Wednesday night. In most cases, it will not be worship.

            Another point to consider is this: are our actions contradicting our prayers? Do we pray for purity and then watch porn? Just because we call it a movie, that does not change what it is at its core. Do we sing “purer in heart, O God, help me to be” and then get into our cars after the service and fill our hearts with cursing through the songs we listen to? We must be careful because the world we live in makes it so, so easy. And Satan loves it!

            Talking in abstracts in easy and saying “we need to be pure” is simple, but how can we do this in everyday life? How can we put these principles into action? I would like to share a few tools that have helped me in my journey that I hope can also strengthen you in yours.

1) As a general rule, if you wouldn’t do it, don’t watch it. I understand that even in the best movies there might be someone getting beat up, or a murder, or the like. But what I am specifically referring to is things where the storyline is built on affairs, lies, and deception (soap operas, perhaps?) We should avoid this type of entertainment. We also should make it a point to never watch nudity or sex. Period. It is not appropriate in any way for a Christian. If a movie has that in it, then it just isn’t worth going to see.

2) Don’t make excuses for sin. The world has gotten into our minds so much at times that even with wonderful Christian people we might have to find ourselves standing for what is right. We might have to get up and walk out of a room if the channel is not changed. We might have to deny an invitation with a group we love to go see a movie that is not appropriate. We might have to stand alone in the crowd, even among the holy. But God stands with us always when we side with righteousness.

3) Avoid desensitization! We do not sin when we walk through Walmart and someone around us curses. Trust me, I have heard more than I would ever want to just being out in public at times. But that is an effect of living in a fallen world. It does not reflect who we are. What does reflect who we are is what we choose to fill our minds with, the things we make a conscious choice to bring into our homes and set time aside for. Do we invite our Christian friends over to sin with us? We really need to consider this. Watching movies with people is one of my favorite pastimes, but we have to make sure they are quality! We all know what it feels like to be desnsitized. Skipping that Sunday night service might really bother you the first time, but what about the tenth? Hearing those curse words or God’s name in vain might really make you cringe when you first get cable, but what about after you have had it for six months? Sometimes we tend to get used to things, even despicable things. Desensitization is natural, but so is sinning. Natural doesn’t mean right. Let us choose to do what is right and be sensitive to sin.

4) Learn to be that little child again. Remember the song we talked about at the beginning of this chapter? Sometimes, even as adults, especially as adults, we need to learn to cover our ears, close our eyes, guard our mouths, wash our hands, and lead our feet to walk away. We still need to be careful!

          When it comes to entertainment, we need  to learn to look away. What if David had looked away as soon as he saw Bathsheeba? His sin was not in seeing her, but in lingering. Do we linger over sin at times when we could see it and choose to look away? Think of all the sins in the Bible, all the heartache and destruction, that could have been saved, if people had simply chosen to look away. What if Eve had not lingered over the temptation of the apple? What if Cain had not lingered over his anger toward Abel? What if Judas had not lingered over his greed and desire to betray Jesus? How greatly just these three examples could have impacted humanity for the better!

        This still applies to us today. So many times we make the choice to linger, to sin, to lust, to fall, when we could make the choice to bounce our eyes, to look away, to resist sinning, to be pure, and to stand for God. Let us have repentent hearts for any sins we have committed with our choices in entertainment and be renewed in the blood of Jesus again. It is time for us to stop “doing better” and start being better.  

_{practical pointers}

§        1. Utilize the tools available to keep the sinful things out of your home. TV Guardian is available for television shows and Clearplay is available for use with DVDs. Both have the ability to block curse words, delete improper scenes, take out the use of the Lord’s name in vain, etc.

§       2. Do not take the opinions of others, even friends or fellow Christians at times, as the approval that something is appropriate to watch. Check screenit.com or kidsinmind. com for play by play reviews of the content found in a given movie or series. It is well worth the time it takes.

      

      3. Set your standards before you are ever given an opportunity to stumble. Make it a priority to not see movies beyond a certain rating, period.

      4. Never go see a movie in theatres without first waiting for a content review online. Previews and ratings often do not give an accurate picture of what is really in the film.

_{mirror time}

1.    Why is it important to set your entertainment standards based on God’s Word and not on the opinions of what others feel is right (even those within the church)?  

2.    Set a time aside this week to go through your DVD or movie collection. Are there items you own that make you stumble? Ones that encourage you to look at sin as acceptable?  Commit to throw them away; don’t give them to Goodwill so they can cause another to falter. Write the names of the cds or dvds below that you destroyed. Discuss why this process is necessary, even though it is hard.  

3.   Write three or more new “rules” you will commit to live by concerning your entertainment choices. How does this choice being made ahead of time help you not to give in to temptation later? 

4.   Describe how the wrong entertainment choices can harden your heart into believing that sin is okay.