Trivial Pursuits- part 5
TRIVIAL PURSUIT
How In The World Will We Live – Part 5
1 Timothy 6:17
Feb. 9th ‘03
"God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." 1 Timothy 6:17b
"In the last days... there will be people who prefer good times to worshipping God." 2 Timothy 3:4 (GN)
1. THE DANGERS OF PURSUING PLEASURE:
* It wastes my life
"... by the pleasures of living, the life is choked out of them, and they produce nothing." Luke 8:14 (Ph)
* It causes conflict with others
"Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure..." James 4:1 (GN)
* It tempts me to do wrong
"... there is pleasure in sin for a short time." Heb. 11:25
* It leads to boredom
"I decided to enjoy myself... Anything I wanted, I got. I did not deny myself any pleasure. Then I thought about all I had done... and I realized it didn't mean a thing. It was like chasing the wind -- of no use at all." Eccl. 2:1, 10-11 (GN)
* It will destroy my character
"The (one) who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives." 1 Tim. 5:6
Pleasure comes in four stages.
Phase one is fascination.
Phase two is preoccupation.
Phase three is addiction.
Phase four is destruction.
"Their future is eternal loss, for their god is their appetite." Ph. 3:19 (LB)
2. HOW SHOULD I LIVE IN A PLEASURE-OBSESSED CULTURE?
* Remember the real purpose of life
"From now on, live the rest of your lives controlled by God's will not by human desires. You have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, and drinking parties... And now... when you don't join them... they insult you. But they will give an account of themselves to God..." 1 Peter 4:2-4 (GN)
* Enjoy balanced living
"For the earth, and every good thing in it, belongs to the Lord, and is yours to enjoy." 1 Cor. 10:26 (LB)
"... but I am not going to let anything dominate me." 1 Cor. 6:12 (JB)
* Avoid destructive pleasures
"For the grace of God... teaches us to say `No' to worldly passions and live self-controlled lives..." Titus 2:11-12
"For we ourselves were once... slaves to passion and pleasures of all kinds... But when the kindness and love of God appeared, he saved us ... and gave us a new life." Titus 3:3-5 (GN)
TRIVIAL PURSUIT
How In The World Will We Live – Part 5
1 Timothy 6:17
Feb. 9th ‘03
We're in a series I'm calling "How In The World Will We Live". I'd like for us to look today at how do you survive in a pleasure-crazed or pleasure seeking culture. The fact is, God made us with the capacity to enjoy pleasure. It was His idea. He gave you five senses -- hear, taste, touch, smell, and feel. Life was meant to be enjoyed not just endured. And God made you to enjoy the world as part of the benefits of it.
But the problem is, today in our culture, pleasure seeking has become an obsession. It's not just a good thing, like God says, but it's the goal of life. It's the ultimate value. For many people having fun -- pleasure -- is their god.
God says in 1 Timothy 6:17 "He richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." He also says in 2 Timothy 3:4 "In the last days there will be people who prefer good times to worshipping God." Do you know anybody like that? Especially in B.C. which is such a renowned area for leisure and entertainment activities. That's no surprise to any of us. So we live in this culture where pleasure is god.
The fact is, these kinds of things indicate that we live in a very experience oriented society. The ultimate question is "How does it make me feel?"
I went the other day to get some gas at a Shell station. I put in my credit card and get this receipt. It said, "Shell Oil Company. Experience the difference!" How much can you experience in a gas station? What's the difference than pumping at Petro Can or Tempo? "Experience the difference!" Even the oil companies are into this experience thing. It's the big item of life.
I an article this week called The Unreality Industry. It said pleasure is now big business in North America. It's what drives the economy. We're in a 24-hour entertainment society now. Everything has to entertain us, even the news on the television has to be entertaining. You go into a bank and stand in line and they've got things on the walls to read so you're entertained while you're waiting in line. Men, have you ever gone into walk into a restaurant washroom and seen the sports page on a bulletin board right in front of your face as you’re using the urinal? Even church has to be entertaining for many people today.
Our whole society is built on this, "Let's have fun". In today's environment it's easy to be caught up in it to the point that you begin to think like everybody else does, that my whole purpose in life is to just enjoy myself. That's just not true. Life is much more significant that you being put here on earth to simply enjoy yourself. In fact, there are many, many dangers associated with making pleasure your ultimate goal in life. God says pleasure's good but it should never be your goal.
I've written down five dangers:
1. It wastes my life. You weren't put here on earth to simply lay out by a pool and watch tv. God has a greater purpose for your life. He wants you to be productive, not just to take up space and have fun. "By the pleasures of living, life is choked out of them and they produce nothing." Circle "produce". North America used to be the most productive continent in the world. We're not anymore. We're the most entertained continent in the world. You can have a lot of fun and never accomplish anything. It doesn't matter if you're the social butterfly on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous or you're a skid row bum. The bottom line is, both of them are living for pleasure and neither of them is making any contribution to life. It's a waste of your life to build it just on pleasure.
2. It causes conflict with others. "Where do all the fights and quarrels come from. They come from your desires for pleasure." Have you ever watched two kids argue over a piece of candy? Have you ever argued with your wife/husband over what you're going to do on your day off? When pleasures take priority over people, you're going to have friction. The Bible says that the pursuit of pleasure causes conflict in relationships.
3. It tempts me to do wrong. Hebrews 10:25 "There is pleasure in sin for a short time." Have you ever heard the phrase "ugly as sin"? Sin is not ugly. It's attractive. It's seductive. If sin were no fun, if sin were a bummer, nobody would do it. The Bible is very honest. It says there is pleasure in sin. But it's for a short time. You can have your kicks and then you have your kick backs. If pleasure is the most important thing in your life, you'll do anything to experience it even if it's wrong. Even if God says, "Don't!"
In 1716 the French atheist and philosopher Voltaire wrote this, "Pleasure is the object, the duty and the goal of all rational creatures." That's called hedonism. If pleasure is the object, the duty and the goal of all rational creatures, it doesn't really matter if anybody else gets hurt, gets used as long as it pleases you it's fine. Two hundred fifty years later a guy said, "I'm going to build a magazine on that." His name is Hugh Hefner, the Playboy philosophy. Do whatever you want, it doesn't matter what happens to anybody else, there are no rules as long as you please yourself.
4. It leads to boredom. If you want to know the end result of living a life solely for pleasure just read Solomon's biography. It's called Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 2:1, 10-11 "I decided to enjoy myself. Anything I wanted, I got. I did not deny myself any pleasure. Then I thought all about all I had done and I realized it didn't mean a thing. It was like chasing the wind -- of no use at all." He's saying that self indulgence leads to despair. If you don't believe, go check the suicide statistics in Beverly Hills.
Life was meant to be more than simply one party after another, one pleasure after another, howbeit ever good. When you make pleasure your ultimate goal -- my whole goal is just to have fun and enjoy life -- two laws go into effect.
One is the law of diminishing return that says the more you repeat something the more you have to do it to get the same amount of buz or thrill. That's true with anything.
When I was a kid in Winnipeg I used to like to go to the Pan Am pool. They used to have 5 different diving boards there. One was three feet off the ground, and then the 3 m, 5 m, and then there was a cage to block off the stairway to the 7 m, and the 10 m. I started diving from the lowest diving board first which was 3 feet, that's fun. But then it's no fun anymore. You've got to do it from the 3 m. Then you've got to do it from to 5 m. Then you've got to climb around cage to get up to the 7 m and then ultimately, when the lifeguard wasn’t looking I would jump off the 10 m. You have to keep upping it.
That's true in any area of life. Whether it's decorating your home or driving a sports car or learning to ski or taking drugs. Each time the hit has to be a little bit heavier because of the law of diminishing return. I buy this new computer for my house but it's not good enough two months from now because the pleasure wears off and I have to buy a bigger faster computer, or, a nicer stereo with more amps, with more speakers. And the car I used to have that pulled me around was fine. But now I've got to have a newer one because of the law of diminishing returns. God never meant for you to find your ultimate purpose in life in pleasure.
There is another law that goes into affect when you make pleasure the number one goal in your life. That's the law of balance. Too much of a good thing ruins it. Anything. Whether it's eating steak or whatever. Too much of a good thing ruins it. We need balance. Part of what makes pleasure pleasurable is that it's balanced with work, with other things. The most miserable bored people in life are people who live simply a life of luxury with nothing else to do except to titillate their self with pleasures. There's more to life than that. We need balance.
One of my favorite things is eating goodies. That's pleasure. I really like those apple fritters from Sunny Crust Bakery that are as big as my head. You know that bakery also contributes a lot of bread to our “Daily Bread program.” I love Apple fritters but if start grabbing them every time they come in and I ate them three meals a day plus snacks I would eventually begin to abhor Apple fritters. I know somewhere in the Bible it says, "Man shall not live by Apple fritters alone." We need balance. We need perspective. We need variety.
So the inevitable result of the pursuit of pleasure is boredom and despair.
5. It will destroy my character. 1 Timothy 5:6. "The one who lives for pleasure is dead even while he lives." The person who is making pleasure their goal is not living, they're just existing. They are existing from fix to fix, from fun time to fun time, from pleasure to pleasure. Phillips translation says, "This person is killing their own soul."
The self indulgent life is a suicidal life. If you don't believe it, if you don't think it wrecks your character, go read some biographies of any of the people who lived their life like that. John Baluchi, Andy Warhole, Truman Capote, Chris Farley.
For the younger crowd you might not recognize those names. But I’m sure you remember a couple of bands that were named after pleasure experiences; do remember a band called “Nirvana?” The lead singer was Kurt Cobain? Tragically, when he realized that experiencing Nirvana left him short of fulfillment, he shot himself dead. “InXS” was another band that you don’t hear about any more because after the lead singer Michael Hutchinson lived in excess for so long with hopeless results he hung himself. One right after another. The destructive influence of being able to have whatever you want, and do whatever you want to do.
Rome fell apart as an empire, not from external forces but from the decadence of people who had just begun to live to self- indulge themselves.
How does that happen? It happens in four phases. This is not only a thing you need to watch in your own life but it is a way to judge culture.
Pleasure comes in four stages.
First is the fascination stage. I've never met anybody who said, "I intended to be a drug addict." It just starts with fascination: "I wonder what it would feel like to do this... I wonder what it would feel like to eat this... to snort this... to shoot this... to smoke this... to have this kind of experience." Fascination.
Phase two is preoccupation. Pleasure has the tendency to preoccupy you. If you go out and buy some skis and go skiing this week end and have a great time, the next week you say, "One hour wasn't enough. Let's go the whole day." And the week after that -- "Let's don't go to church this week end. Let's just go ski." And it begins to preoccupy you.
Phase three is addiction where it begins to control you.
Phase four is inevitably destruction. Philippians 3:19 "Their future is eternal loss for their god is their appetite."
Most of our culture is in phase three. I read a handful of articles:
U.S. News & World Report "America's addiction to addictions"
Newsweek "Afflicted and Addicted: Support groups are the answer for fifteen million Americans", "Addicted to Pleasure", "Hour by Hour crack", "Addictive personalities"
These are headlines. What are they saying? That our culture is in Phase Three. How do I, as a Christian, wander through this environment without buying into the system that says my whole purpose in life is just to enjoy myself. How do I keep from getting sucked up in a pleasure obsessed culture? Three things:
1. REMEMBER THE REAL PURPOSE OF LIFE
Continually remind yourself over and over so you don't forget it, that the purpose of life is more than being entertained. The purpose of life is more than having fun. The purpose of life is more than experiencing thrills. The purpose of life is more than feeling good. It's a much bigger purpose than that.
We were not made simply to get up, have fun and go to bed. We were made for a purpose. If you're still alive today, regardless how old you are, it means that God is not through with you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and it involves more than simply traveling around and seeing the world. If you're alive, He has a purpose for your life. It is destructive on us if we think that all we're here to do is just to get to the next fun time.
I overheard standing in line, a lady in the grocery store said, "I just live for the week-end". Have you ever heard that? I know exactly what she was saying. But the point that I thought of was, "What a superficial purpose to live for!" Life becomes defined by how soon do I get the next night on the town, how soon can I get out to the golf course again, how soon can I go on another shopping spree, how soon can I get that next hit from a crack pipe, how soon can I go to the next cocktail party, how soon can I see the latest movie that's come out. Life becomes defined simply by pleasure. Pretty shallow purpose.
1 Peter 4:2-4 (Good News) "From now on, live the rest of your lives controlled by God's will not by human desires." You have two options in life. You can either say I'm going to be controlled by God's will or I'm going to be controlled by "If it feels good do it." I'm going to go by my own desires. "You've spent enough time in the past doing what pagans do. Your lives are spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and now when you don't join them they insult you. But they will give an account of themselves to God." Now that you're a believer and you've got a new purpose in life, you don't need to live the way you used to live. As Janis Joplin called them, they're cheap thrills. They don't last.
People say, "What this means is you're restricted. It means that God wants to control you and gives you a puncher rules." No, it doesn’t mean that. I smoke all of the crack I want to smoke. I take all the drugs I want to take. I get drunk as often as want to get drunk. I mess around with as many women as I want. The fact is, Jesus Christ changed what I want to do. I don't want to do those things. They're plastic, fake, and they are not the purpose of life. I reject them. I have learned that it things inevitably lead to a lifestyle of despair. I live a better lifestyle now.
I read this recently and it blew my mind! There was an article in Psychology Today. A young woman went to a psychiatrist and said, "I am exhausted by my lifestyle." It was an endless series of parties, drugs, sex, alcohol. The psychiatrist asked, "Why don't you just stop?" Astounded, she sat up abruptly and exclaimed, "You mean I don't have to do what I don't want to do?" No you don't. Remember the real purpose of life. God says the goal is to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him and out of all that comes real pleasure, real meaning, real purpose in life.
When I was trying to think how you can describe our society, nothing fit better than this title -- Trivial Pursuit. Trivia is toxic.
2. ENJOY BALANCED LIVING
Life is a balancing act. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes there's a time for everything: A time to cry, a time to laugh. There's a time for play, there's a time for work. There's a time for seriousness and there's a time for silliness -- and both of them are God's will. Neither seriousness nor silliness is more spiritual than the other. They come in the ebb and flow of life. There's variety and we need balance.
You were not designed to work all the time. In fact, God put recreation in the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment says every seventh day you take a day off. That's how important rest and relaxation and recreation is. Some of you don't need this sermon. Some of you need more pleasure in your life. You're so stressed out because you're workaholics, you need pleasure.
But the prevailing question in most of our culture is, “How soon can I get to the next pleasurable experience?”
If you want a model for balanced living, look at Jesus. He was a breath of fresh air. He knew how to have fun. He went to parties. In fact one of my favorite verses is Matthew 11:19 (Phillips translation) says "Jesus came enjoying life." If He can, you can too.
The point I want to make is this: If you don't plan for healthy pleasures in your life, the world will seduce you with unhealthy ones. That's the most important thing I'll say today. If you don't plan for healthy vehicles of pleasure, recreation, rest, relaxation in your life, you will be tempted and seduced by unhealthy ones and they are everywhere.
Paul understood this balance. 1 Corinthians 10:26 "For the earth and every good thing in it belongs to the Lord and is yours to enjoy." Circle "yours to enjoy". God made an enjoyable world. We are to enjoy it. In balance. Believers, more than anybody else ought to have more fun than anybody else.
We ought to have fun. Nobody has more fun that I do. But you have to have balance. 1 Cor. 6:12 "I am not going to let anything dominate me." Circle "dominate". You can enjoy much of what our culture has to offer without compromising your biblical standards, if you don't let it control you, if you don't let it dominate you, if you don't buy into the system and all of its worldly values. You can joy those things without being dominated by them.
Remember the real purpose of life and enjoy balanced living.
3. AVOID DESTRUCTIVE PLEASURES
That's the third thing we need to do in our culture today. There are some activities that God says very clearly in Scripture, stay away from. Ephesians 5 he says, don't get drunk. It's as clear as can be. Don't get intoxicated. Why? Because you're letting something control you when you're drunk. It's the opposite of self control.
2 Peter 2:19 says don't get addicted to anything. That could be television, food, body building, jogging, anything. It says don't get addicted to anything. You should only have one master in your life and that's God.
1 Corinthians 6:18 says don't get involved in sexual immorality. That will save you a lot of heartache and a few diseases on the side. All the laws, all the prohibitions of the Bible, are for your own benefit. They're not just because God impetuously said, "Let's make life miserable." These are for your own benefit so you will enjoy life.
Titus 2:11-12 "For the grace of God teaches us to say `No' to worldly passions and live self-controlled lives." God says, Just say No. A lot of people think somebody else thought that up. A few thousand years ago, God was saying, Just say No.
There’s no need to be embarrassed by saying “no.” In fact, psychologists have a word for the function of being unable to say No. The inability to say No, is called "addiction". I realize in a crowd this size this morning that there are probably a number of people that are addicted to any number of different things. It's a fact of life. We're in that Phase Three in our culture.
Is there any hope? Yes. Titus. 3:3-5 "For we ourselves were once slaves to passion and pleasures of all kinds, But when the kindness and love of God appeared, he saved us and gave us a new life." The good news is a new life is available. You don't have to stay trapped. It is not an admission of failure to admit an addiction. It is an admission of courage. It says, I want to take control of my life and I want it to be under God's control.
Why are people so obsessed with pleasure seeking. Our whole society is committed to entertainment, to do what feels good. Many of you right now are thinking, "What am I going to do that's pleasing as soon as this is over?" Why is our society so pleasure conscious?
For many people it's an escape. They're trying to forget their pain, their hurt, their frustration. Many people fill their lives with hobbies because they don't want to face the hurt in their marriage or the fact that their kids are not turning out the way they had hoped. So they escape into romance novels or daytime tv or a sport or many other things. It begins to consume their lives because they're running. I think one of the questions we all need to ask ourselves is what am I running from? Why do I have this intense desire to go from one pleasurable experience to the next? The more stressful our society becomes (count on it) the more desperately people are going to be searching for diversions. They're coming up a hundred a day. Many diversions.
What am I running from? Am I feeling guilty? Am I angry? Am I insecure? Why do I have to get to that next pleasurable experience? If I'm hopping around from relationship to relationship, what is it I'm really looking for? Is it just sex or is it something deeper than that?
There is an emptiness in every person's life. There is a god- shaped vacuum that only God can fill. When we don't fill it with God we try to fill it with other things. You will live your life for something. If you don't live it for God, you'll live it for pleasure or something else. There's a god shaped vacuum there and when we try to stuff all these different activities in to fill that emptiness it's like trying to fill a square hole with a round peg or vice versa. You have the thrill for a while, but after a while the emptiness returns. The feeling is, "I've got to get to the next pleasurable experience" whatever that may be.
What you're really yearning for is God. He made you. He loves you and He has a plan and purpose for your life and you're not here by accident and you do matter to Him. He does want to work in your life. The fact that you're alive means He is not through with you. The world offers many cheap substitutes but accept no substitute.
The great news is when you come to know Jesus Christ, He not only gives you the capacity to enjoy a relationship to God that you never had before, but He gives you the capacity to enjoy yourself like you've never done before, He gives you the capacity to enjoy His world and others like you've never done before. Because you're in tune with the one who made you. That's what many are looking for.
Prayer:
Jesus summarized it this way. He said in John 10:10 "I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly." God wants you to live life to the fullest. Pleasure is not wrong, it's just a poor god, a lousy master. But when you let your life be mastered by Christ, then He brings all these other pleasures and joys into focus. They take on new meaning and life develops a new meaning. It's not so cheap and shallow and the emptiness is replaced with a sense of satisfaction that can never be taken away. What you're really looking for this morning is God.
Would you come face to face with Him now in your own heart. Just shut out me and everybody else and have a heart to heart session with God this morning. Say, "Jesus Christ, I believe that You made me for a purpose greater than just to enjoy myself, to look from one thrill to the next. I believe that You love me and want me to know You and so today I want to open up my life to You and I want to know You and I want to know Your plan and I want You to fill my heart with abundant life and take away the emptiness and the boredom and the despair." Some of you who are struggling with an area of life that you know has got control -- in your thought life, in some of the things you wouldn't want anybody to know about, you're so embarrassed by it. God knows and He cares and He loves you and He wants to help you. He will give you the power to begin a new life. Would you say Yes to Him today. Say, "Yes, Jesus Christ, I want to change. I want to break the power of this habit in my life. I want to say Yes to You."
Father, thank You for Your word. Help us to be different people in the pleasure-crazed culture. In Jesus' name. Amen.