Rev. David Holwick U I Believe in God, But...
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 25, 2017
Ephesians 4:17-20
I JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN
I. Wild Ones.
A. Wildest party you have attended.
1) I have lived a rather staid life, but I have seen movies
about typical high school and college life.
a) Drunkenness, lewdness, debauchery, getting stoned...
b) The really good ones end in violence, destruction and
police paddy wagons.
c) Perhaps you have been to a few of those.
2) Think of the things you have done you are most ashamed of.
a) Didn't you do it because you wanted pleasure?
b) Apparently a lot of people want it.
1> It is estimated that Americans spend $276 billion
every year on alcohol, drugs and tobacco. [1]
2> Treatment, anti-drug law enforcement and lost
productivity come to a cool $1 trillion annually.
3> At least $14.5 billion is spent on prostitution. [2]
A> New Jersey is 9th highest in percentage of
the population arrested for prostitution. [3]
B. It can be a hindrance to becoming a Christian.
1) Pleasure can be so powerful, people don't want to give it up.
2) Is God a killjoy?
a) Looking at some Christians, you may wonder.
b) But there are plenty of Christians who truly enjoy
life.
c) Perhaps the world's idea of a full and exciting life
has some holes in it.
C. Which path do you choose?
II. Pleasure isn't a bad thing.
A. God created us with the ability to experience pleasure.
1) Many Scriptures speak of human delight and pleasure.
a) King David writes in Psalm 16:11,
"You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
b) Jesus himself said that he came that we may have life,
and have it to the full. John 10:10
1> Real Christians should be joyful, not killjoys.
2) God gave us our five senses to use.
a) His created universe is beautiful so we can enjoy it.
b) Food takes good, hugs feel good.
c) Even sex is a beautiful thing - within God's boundaries.
B. God himself takes pleasure in things. [4]
1) He especially takes pleasure in US.
a) Zephaniah 3:17 says God delights in us and sings over us.
2) Much of worship involves celebration.
a) Jewish worship had beautiful garments, singing,
dancing, and lots of food.
b) (Come to our outside potluck and hymn sing tonight!)
III. There is pleasure that destroys.
A. Every good thing can be corrupted.
1) Paul taught that Christians can enjoy any food if we eat
it with thanksgiving.
a) But if you eat cyanide, it will be your last meal.
b) Any good thing, used the wrong way, can kill you.
2) Alcohol, drugs and sex all have their place, but all of
them can ruin your life as well.
a) Some of you know personally what I am talking about.
b) The earliest Christians were not prudes but some of
them were unwise.
1> They even went to prostitutes.
2> Paul shows that a higher principle should be
considered:
In 1 Corinthians 6:15-16 he says,
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of
Christ himself?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite
them with a prostitute? Never!
Do you not know that he who unites himself with a
prostitute is one with her in body?
For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.'"
3) We do not believe in pleasure for the sake of pleasure.
a) Hedonism does this, but Christianity does not.
b) If something is pleasurable but ultimately harmful to
you or others, you must get it under control.
c) If you fail at this, it will become your god.
B. There is the world's way and God's way. Eph 4:17-19
1) Ephesians 4 shows what happens when pleasure takes over.
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that
you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the
futility of their thinking.
18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated
from the life of God because of the ignorance that
is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves
over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of
impurity, and they are full of greed.
a) The wrong way of living (the Gentile or worldly way)
begins with a wrong way of thinking.
1> He describes it as dark and separated from God.
2> Their thinking has hardened their hearts.
A> They no longer feel guilty or torn up by it.
B> Their sensitivity is gone.
b) With no barriers holding it back, their sensual pleasure
becomes their focus in life.
1> It escalates.
2> It is totally self-centered (greedy).
C. Christians are supposed to be different.
1) We are to be sober, not intoxicated.
a) we get high on God, not drugs. Eph 5:18
2) We want to sharpen our senses, not dull them.
3) We do not want to become slaves of anything but God.
IV. Is pleasure too powerful for us?
A. Some believe it is the main motivation for human behavior.
1) Freud thought so.
Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychotherapy, was convinced
that we are motivated and driven through life by desires
and hungers.
He felt that our dominant desire was for pleasure,
especially sexual pleasure.
This view reflects the idea that humans are essentially
animals and share the same motivations.
2) There is an alternative theory.
a) It was forged in the concentration camps of World War II.
Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who spent years in a Nazi
death camp, disagreed with Freud.
He did not deny our human desire for pleasure.
But when this was totally taken away from him in his
experience in Auschwitz, he became convinced that the
basic human hunger for the deepest drive within us
is our deep longing for meaning and purpose.
We want our lives to matter.
#25222
b) God wants your life to matter, too.
1> He wants you to have pleasure and joy, but only
within his parameters.
B. Even Christians often don't follow the biblical guidelines.
1) We can become enslaved to sin like anyone else.
a) Hundreds prove it every day.
2) You yourself may be enslaved right now.
a) As our country becomes more prosperous, anyone can
afford pleasures that used to be out of reach.
b) Any of you can afford to become an addict.
c) The internet has enslaved millions to lust, and it
is practically free.
C. Some believe temptation is beyond our power to resist.
1) They say if you look at human experience, trying to control
pleasure only leads to hypocrisy and uptightness.
a) The villain of Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" was
a philandering preacher.
b) We have had laws against adultery and drunkenness
and drug use and prostitutes for thousands of years.
1> Have any of them stopped?
2> Or have they continued to increase?
3> (Of course, the same can be said for murder and rape...)
c) Oscar Wilde once said, "The only way to get rid of
temptation is to yield to it."
1> But as Paul said in Ephesians 4, that just gives
you a hunger for more.
2) God makes moral fences for a reason.
English author G.K. Chesterton wrote: "Any time you pull
down a fence, always ask why it was put there in the
first place."
That is good advice.
#17685
a) For those who question the strict morality of the Bible,
turn it around on them.
b) One preacher was confronted by a young woman who had
no shame in sleeping around.
He simply asked her,
"How has that been working for you?
Does sex outside of marriage make your life better or
just more complicated?"
She was quiet for a moment, and then admitted it was
only more complicated.
V. There is a pleasure that only comes from God.
A. Only you can decide which source of pleasure is more valuable.
1) In Hebrews 11, the Bible hero Moses made his choice.
2) Even though Moses grew up in the luxury of Pharaoh's
household, he intervened to protect a Jew and became
a fugitive.
Why make this costly choice?
Verses 25-26 says,
"He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God
rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of
greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because
he was looking ahead to his reward."
3) That is a remarkable statement for someone in the Old
Testament period - for the sake of Christ!
a) Moses is basing his actions on the promises of God.
b) Sin is pleasurable - no doubt about it - but it is
fleeting.
c) Only what is done for God gives a pleasure that will
last.
B. Are you willing to honor Christ in your life?
1) Perhaps the ways of the world have enticed you.
2) No one else knows yet - but God knows.
3) Will you find your pleasure in him alone?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. “Drug & alcohol addiction costs Americans $276 billion a year,” by
Constance Brinkley-Badgett, America Online, September 30, 2016;
<link>.
2. “Amount Spent on Sex Trade in the United States,” <link>.
3. “US and State Prostitution Arrests, 2001-2010,” May 4, 2015; <link>.
4. Much of the material in this section is derived from the articles
"Is God opposed to pleasure?" <link> and "Is God a cosmic killjoy?"
<link>.
#17685 “Enslaved Through Pleasure,” by Ravi Zacharias, A Slice of
Infinity: Ravi Zacharias International Ministries,
July 23, 2002; <link>.
#25222 “For What Are We Hungry?” by Dr. James L. Mayfield, from
Rev. Brett Blair's Illustrations by Email, August 3, 2003;
<link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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