American Idols: Entertainment
Scripture Reading: Acts 17:16-34
Highlights are the clicks for the PowerPoint slides
INTRODUCTION
We are continuing the series of lessons on American Idols, examining the kind of things in our lives that we often give too much of our hearts to. We introduced this series by asking two questions:
- What is idolatry?giving worship, service, and devotion to any created thing in place of God. Paul spoke of this in Romans 1 as exchanging God and His truth for that which is a lie; that which is not God.
- What does God feel about idolatry? When God’s people commit this sin, He doesn’t take it lightly. He is provoked to a holy jealousy, as a husband who has been cheated on by His wife. We commit spiritual adultery against God when we commit this terrible sin.
Hopefully as we started in our last lesson looking at the example of our wealth and our possessions, we began to examine within ourselves some of the areas of our lives that we give too much of our hearts and devotion to. My prayer is that this happens in today’s sermon as well. We must examine our lives with so we can flee this sin as we are commanded to in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 10:14).
For today’s lesson, we will examine the “American Idol” of ENTERTAINMENT. Entertainment has become an important part of our lives. Compared to people in past generations, we have so much more time to spend on doing good for the Kingdom because of the advances in technology, but what do we do with all of the extra time we have? Well, usually not the most productive things. Much of the time we have ends up getting spent entertaining ourselves and doing mindless things that do not help us (or others) spiritually.
There are five or six different examples of forms of entertainment that I would like for us to think about today.
SPORTS
I would like to introduce the first form of entertainment with a video that has been challenging to me.
SHOW VIDEO: IDOL WORSHIP_ SKIT GUYS
The kind of things that people do to show their devotion to their sports teams… This video sure does show the kind of devotion many put into being a fan of their favorite sports teams. With many, it is worse than what the video showed. What kind of fan are you of your favorite sports teams? I do not like the word fan that much.It is a shorter version of another word: a fanatic; one who is completely devoted; usually in irrational ways, to a certain person or cause.How devoted are to your favorite sports teams? I remember the time before I became a Christian. So much of my life was spent watching football and other sports. I would get so into the games, so frustrated and angry when things did not go the way I wanted them to. Whole days and even whole weekends would be spent in front of TVs at bars and at home making sure I caught every moment. Of course, when I became a Christian, the places where I watched the games changed. But that is about where it ended. I didn’t get as angry when my teams were not doing well, but it still did affect me. And at the congregation I was a member of at the time that there felt to me that there was more talk about sports teams and politics (I will deal with this in a later sermon) in personal discussions than there was about the temptations and sins that we were struggling with. There was more talk about sports than there was about people who brethren were working with in teaching the gospel and trying to encourage. When we talk about sports more than we do about the Lord, may we be showing where our greatest devotions lie?
TV AND MOVIES
I have been to some houses in which the TV seems to NEVER be turned off. This was something that was part of my life growing up. It would not surprise me one bit if I spent in excess of 20hrs per week watching TV and movies at times in my life, especially when we include the many hours I would spend watching football on Saturdays and Sundays. Twenty hours in a week: that is almost a whole days worth of time!But this is not too far away from the average amount of time the normal American. Many American’s lives revolve around this form of entertainment, there are those TV shows that we cannot live without or those movies which we cannot help but watch 30 times. Some studies have shown staggering statistics![i]
- 2-11: 24 hours
- 12-17: 20 hours
- 18-24: 22 hours
- 25-34: 27 hours
- 35-49: 33 hours
- 50-64: 43 hours
- 65-plus: 50 hours
There are many Americans today who worship at the altar of Hollywood. May this not be said of the people of God. I would be afraid to do conduct a survey of the people of God to see how much time on a weekly basis is spent in front of the TV.
The desire to be constantly entertained by the television has led to many tragic spiritual consequences. People expect assemblies of churches to be entertaining and something similar to what they could watch on television or see in a movie. There is no lack of religious organizations who are more than happy to oblige these impulses and to provide a very entertaining assembly, even if it becomes devoid of Biblical content and purpose.
INTERNET AND VIDEO GAMES
How easy it is to get caught up with everything that we can do on the internet. Let’s think about social media. I like to refer to social media, for instance, as Satan’s “weapons of mass distraction”. So much time can be wasted scrolling down through your news feeds on Facebook, checking your tweets on Twitter, watching videos on your favorite channels on YouTube, etc…etc… that we forget that the main reason we got on the computer, IPad, or phone was to open up our Bible and read it. But unfortunately, by the time we get to our Bible reading, we have very little time because it is time to go to bed! We need more self control in using our time more productively on the computer.
The average U.S. gamer from 13 years of age and older (including some adults) is spending up to 6-7 hours per day playing video games.[ii]I spent many hours of the day in my early life playing video games. And I wonder why I had issues connecting with people and communicating growing up. Also, I have heard of instances where marriages have dissolved over video game addictions; yes marriages! Marriages have dissolved because of (mostly) husbands who are too addicted to their video game system.
MUSIC
Music has a way to stir the emotions, doesn’t it? It can bring comfort, sadness, joy, and many other emotions. This is all well and good, but music can become an idol also. We can use music to be something we escape to in order to satisfy us and to fulfill our emotional needs in place of the Lord. Music can be what we turn to after a bad day to ease our minds. It can be what we turn to when we are feeling down to find encouragement and joy. Music becomes our shelter we run to instead of the Lord and His word. What is going on when Christians know the lyrics to modern secular songs far better than they do the words to psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (cf. Ephesians 5:19)?
Among the many pleasures that Solomon had to try to find satisfaction and meaning in life in Ecclesiastes 2 was music. In verse 8 He says, “I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds” (some versions translate the 2nd half of the verse differently, but the “male and female singers” is consistent) (Ecclesiastes 2:8).With all of the entertainment, pleasure, and riches He had, he said that it all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit to be derived from all of these things under the sun (2:11).
BOOKS
I have heard many Christians who could probably tell you more about the Harry Potter series of books than the book of Acts. They can tell you more about the background and plot of these books than Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.
There are many people who can read books faster than I can ever think of doing. Many people who love reading. Even if the books are spiritual books, such as devotional books and books focused on apologetics, we can spend too much time in those books, making the contents in those books what we trust in, books that often take Bible passages out of context and twist scripture. We need to make sure we are spending time in God’s word getting grounded in it!Do we spend more time in worldly books than we do the word of God?
11 The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12)
This verse comes right before Solomon’s instruction to fear God and to keep His commandments. It is the writings in God’s book that are most important and apply to every man. Be careful of the amount of time we are devoting to books outside of God’s word.
APPLICATION AND CLARIFICATION
I do want to make this clear so that I am not misunderstood here. I am not attempting to say that you are guilty of idolatry if you watch a TV show (even a few TV shows during the week), read a book, or listen to music. But all of these things, even when clean and fun, should be enjoyed in moderation. There is little doubt that many of the tragedies in modern “Christianity” today are at least partially caused by excess (or gluttony) in entertainment. When the assemblies of the saints seem boring and dull, is that because they really are boring and dull, or is it because we are conditioned by the world to want something more entertaining and where we need be less active like when we watch TV and movies?
GUARDING OURSELVES
REDEEMING THE TIME.What it comes down to is this in regards to entertainment. What we give the most of our time ends up taking most of our heart also! It can get to the point where we are giving so much of our time over to entertainment that we are replacing the time we need to be spending growing in our relationship with God on the back burner. When it comes to Bible study and prayer, Christians often say, “I just do not have enough time to do these things! I believe if we took an inventory of how we are using our time and how much we spend our time being entertained with such mindless things that we would have good reason to be ashamed. It can get to the point where we become the soil of the thorns which Jesus describes in Luke 8 and Matthew 13. In Luke 8:7, Jesus says of this soil, “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it." Jesus describes this soil as “the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity” (8:14). Matthew’s account says that the word is choked out of their lives and they prove to be unfruitful.If we are not careful with how we are using our time with regards to how we are entertaining ourselves, this can become us! Unfruitful and unable to come to maturity.
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time (redeeming the time - NKJV), because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
May it be the case that as Americans, we may also allow the things that we are entertained by to displace the truth of God in our lives? If you get nothing out of this lesson but one point, it needs to be this! If we are not redeeming the time as we should, spending the kind of time we should with the Lord and finding ways to serve in the Kingdom, then we can end up giving our lives over to entertainment to fill the void where God should be. It ends up becoming something that consumes our time, our money, our devotion, our thoughts and our hearts.
DANGEROUS ENTERTAINMENT. And there are forms of entertainment that we as Christians need to be staying away from because of the danger they cause. We need to remember that the world uses its forms of media and entertainment to indoctrinate. We are being naïve if we think this is not the case. There are many TV shows, movies, books, and forms of music which lead us into being tempted because of lasciviousness, covetousness, or other works of the flesh (cf. Galatians 5:19-21). Many of these forms of entertainment glorify sinful activity, such as fornication, homosexuality, and immodesty, and many even mock and make fun of the things that are taught in the word of God. What we are entertained with, if not careful, cannot only desensitize us regarding sin, but it can also lead one to exchange the truth of God for a lie. It can begin to change our thinking about the world and the sin within it.
What are we filling our minds with on a daily basis? Things that are good, pure, and holy (Philippians 4:9), or ungodly entertainment that can get our minds thinking about unholy and idolatrous things?
One early church leader, Tertullian, said this, “The father who carefully protects and guards his virgin daughter’s ears from every polluting word takes her to the theater himself, exposing her to all its vile language and attitudes… How can it be right to look at the things that are wrong to do? How can those things which defile a man when they go out of his mouth not defile him when going in through his eyes and ears?”[iii]
This is the consistent voice of the writers in the early church. Christians closest to the time of the Apostles stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, such as the Roman theatres and the stadiums, recognizing them for what they were –devices for wasting time, places of refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, and one of Satan’s schemes to divert attention from moral accountability. I wonder just how much we would fit in with the early church in this area…We need to see the danger in these forms of entertainment. They can take our hearts away from God and His truth.
CONCLUSION
We spend hours upon hours of our time during the week watching television or movies, listening to music, playing video games, using the Internet, or out engaged in other forms of entertainment.Entertainment has become a very large part of our lives and of our country’s economy. The options seem almost endless! It is no wonder that we are always busy: there is always another show to watch, another website to visit, some other music to hear!
How much does your life revolve around entertainment? I would encourage you to consider how much time you are spending being entertained versus praying, reading & studying the Bible, assembling with Christians, and finding opportunities to visit others and assist those in need (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, 2 Timothy 2:15, Hebrews 10:24-25, Galatians 6:10, James 1:27). The result will likely surprise you– and hopefully will lead to a change in priorities!
[i] Statistics from
[ii] From
[iii] Tertullian, The Shows chap. 21, 17. quoted from Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up by David Bercot, Kindle eBook. Loc 545.