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The Pleasure Trap · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: It's not hard to imagine, So just imagine with me
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  Speaker 1: for a moment. You're twenty five years old, a Christian.
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  Speaker 1: You want to be a good Christian. You want to
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  Speaker 1: cultivate a tender soul. You want to avoid what will
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  Speaker 1: deaden your affections for God. And you take inventory of
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  Speaker 1: your life and everything that has been offered to you
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  Speaker 1: by this world. A lot of it's fun, it's enjoyable.
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  Speaker 1: You can fly to just about any Instagram spot on
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  Speaker 1: the planet. You can have endless hobbies. The digital things
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  Speaker 1: you can watch, or reader or listen to can all
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  Speaker 1: be enjoyed in the time it takes to download it.
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  Speaker 1: Physical things you can buy online can be delivered to
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  Speaker 1: your door by the end of the day. You can
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  Speaker 1: wear new clothes every week, enjoy great coffee every day,
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  Speaker 1: even on a tight budget. There's an abundance available beyond
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  Speaker 1: what our grandparents could even imagine. Then you open your
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  Speaker 1: Bible and read cautionary tales like the two that we
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  Speaker 1: just read today in our bibble reading plan. Second to four,
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  Speaker 1: Demus fell away by falling in love with this world.
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  Speaker 1: In Luke eighteen, the rich young ruler refused to part
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  Speaker 1: with his wealth to follow Christ. Love for this world
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  Speaker 1: will separate your heart from God forever. And it all
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  Speaker 1: raises a very hard question today, I ask Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: the pleasure trap. The question is from an anonymous woman
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  Speaker 1: twenty five years old, reading her way through sewond Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, thank you for this podcast, which is part
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  Speaker 1: of my every week rotation. As I look over the
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  Speaker 1: list of sins for the Last Days, I find it
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  Speaker 1: terrifying Paul groups lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
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  Speaker 1: right next to people who are abusive and heartless. In
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  Speaker 1: two Timoty three Versus three four. A little later he
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  Speaker 1: drops the news that Demus deserted dis gospel mission because
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  Speaker 1: he was in love with this present world. And two
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  Speaker 1: Timothy four ten. My honest problem is that sometimes this
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  Speaker 1: present world feels way more satisfying to me than the
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  Speaker 1: hope of the coming of Jesus. If Christian hedonism says
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  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to pursue maximum satisfaction in God, how do
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  Speaker 1: I know when my love for a hobby or a
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  Speaker 1: relationship has crossed the line into the sin of Demus.
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  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be more spiritually safe to just kill all
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  Speaker 1: my capacity to enjoy any earthly thing.
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  Speaker 2: I think it would not be an exaggeration to say
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  Speaker 2: that every Christian has struggled with what this young woman
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  Speaker 2: expresses when she says, my honest problem is that sometimes
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  Speaker 2: this present world feels way more satisfying to me than
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  Speaker 2: the hope of the coming of Jesus. I just think
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  Speaker 2: that's probably a universal temptation and experience and struggle, and
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  Speaker 2: one of the reasons why that is a universal battle. First,
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  Speaker 2: because this present world has access to our souls through
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  Speaker 2: bodily senses. We can taste this world with our physical tongues.
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  Speaker 2: We can hear this world with our physical ears. We
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  Speaker 2: can see this world with our physical eyes. We can
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  Speaker 2: touch this world with our physical fingers. We can smell
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  Speaker 2: this world with our physical noses. That's not the case
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  Speaker 2: with the risen Christ. Peter says in his first letter,
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  Speaker 2: though you have not seen him, you love him. Though
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  Speaker 2: you do not now see him, you believe in him
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  Speaker 2: and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and glorified. So
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  Speaker 2: Peter believes that, by the spirit of God and the
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  Speaker 2: Word of God, our experience of Jesus can be so
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  Speaker 2: real in this present world that we love him with
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  Speaker 2: inexpressible and glorified joy. That's possible for Christians, for ordinary
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  Speaker 2: people who are full of the Holy Spirit. But what
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  Speaker 2: if we don't. What if the world is so strong
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  Speaker 2: we have more pleasure in the world than in Christ.
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  Speaker 2: So this young woman wonders whether the solution to that
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  Speaker 2: battle is that she should just kill all my capacity
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  Speaker 2: to enjoy any earthly thing. Now, the answer to that
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  Speaker 2: question is no, it's not. That's not the strategy to
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  Speaker 2: take for several reasons. One, it's impossible. God designed the
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  Speaker 2: tongue to taste, the skin, to feel, the nose to smell,
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  Speaker 2: the eyes, to see, the ears to hear. You cannot
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  Speaker 2: stop these senses from sensing things that are pleasant or unpleasant.
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  Speaker 2: You can't. Things are going to register with you virtually
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  Speaker 2: automatically as pleasant or unpleasant through your senses, and you
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  Speaker 2: can't stop it. God made you that way, no matter
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  Speaker 2: how much of an aesthetic you try to be. You know,
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  Speaker 2: go live in a cave somewhere and wear clothes with
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  Speaker 2: scratchy things on the inside. Some pleasures sneak through on
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  Speaker 2: you through one of your senses or your imagination. That's
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  Speaker 2: the first reason you shouldn't try to kill every possible
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  Speaker 2: pleasure because it won't work. It's impossible to dead end street.
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  Speaker 2: God made you to sense these things is as pleasant
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  Speaker 2: or unpleasant. The second reason is more important, namely, you
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't try to do that, because the Bible teaches that
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  Speaker 2: the pleasures of this world are, in their proper measure,
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  Speaker 2: a gift from God to be enjoyed for God's sake.
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  Speaker 2: That's the basic biblical theological spiritual reason. Example One Timothy
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  Speaker 2: six seventeen. As for the rich in this present age,
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  Speaker 2: charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their
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  Speaker 2: hopes on uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly
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  Speaker 2: provides us with everything to enjoy. That's God's design. He's
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  Speaker 2: the one who created the things, and he created the
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  Speaker 2: pleasure that the things elicit. In fact, Paul says it
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  Speaker 2: can be demonic to turn against the pleasures that He
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  Speaker 2: has given us. For example, in One Timothy four to
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  Speaker 2: one to five, he says that it's a teaching of demons.
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  Speaker 2: It's just amazing, a teaching of demons to forbid marriage
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  Speaker 2: and require abstinence from foods that God created to be
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  Speaker 2: received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
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  Speaker 2: As Christians, for everything created by God is good. Nothing
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  Speaker 2: is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
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  Speaker 2: for it is made holy by the word of God
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  Speaker 2: and prayer. So some were teaching in Paul's situation. Some
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  Speaker 2: were teaching that sex in marriage and food were to
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  Speaker 2: be avoided. They were trying to do what our young
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  Speaker 2: friend is asking whether she should do. Wouldn't it be
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  Speaker 2: better just to kill all my capacity to enjoy any
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  Speaker 2: earthly thing? That's basically what they were saying, And Paul's
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  Speaker 2: answer in First Timothy four and six is no. These
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  Speaker 2: pleasures are God's gifts to be received with thanksgiving. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, they are meant to send our hearts God word.
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  Speaker 2: That's the point. Every pleasant thing that you taste during
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  Speaker 2: the day is meant to send your heart godward, not
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  Speaker 2: away from God, toward God. They are not an end
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  Speaker 2: in themselves. They communicate something of God, and we are
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  Speaker 2: to know Him and worship Him through earthly pleasures. If
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  Speaker 2: we can't, we're doing it wrong. They have become an idol.
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  Speaker 2: So here's the way Paul put it in Acts fourteen seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: He said God did not leave himself without a witness,
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  Speaker 2: So what's his witness to himself. He's witnessing to himself,
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  Speaker 2: for he did good by giving you reins from heaven
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  Speaker 2: and fruitful seasons and satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
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  Speaker 2: Paul calls food and gladness a witness of God to God.
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  Speaker 2: This is God's witness to God. Hey, heads up, folks,
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  Speaker 2: you're feeling glad because of something you just ate. That's
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  Speaker 2: my witness to you. It's about me, folks, Wake up.
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  Speaker 2: It's not good to ignore God's witness to God. We
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  Speaker 2: are supposed to receive God's witness and send our hearts
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  Speaker 2: God word because of every earthly pleasure, which brings us.
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  Speaker 2: Then to the question, she asked, how do I know
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  Speaker 2: when my love for a hobby or a relationship has
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  Speaker 2: crossed the line into the sin of Demus, whose love
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  Speaker 2: for the world led him away away from God, away
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  Speaker 2: from the Christian faith, rather than to God. And I
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  Speaker 2: think Paul gives us a way to think about this.
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  Speaker 2: In one Corinthians ten twenty three, he says all things
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  Speaker 2: are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things
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  Speaker 2: are lawful, but not all things build up. So what
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  Speaker 2: he's saying is things can be legitimate and yet unhelpful,
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  Speaker 2: legitimate and yet on edge. They don't build faith, They
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  Speaker 2: don't make you stronger, They make you weaker. So what
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  Speaker 2: that points to is this, you can test your pleasures
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  Speaker 2: by whether they are helpful and edifying. For example, you
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  Speaker 2: mention a hobby and a relationship. Does the hobby and
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  Speaker 2: relationship help you love Christ more? Does it help you
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  Speaker 2: with the intensity and authenticity of your prayers? Does it
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  Speaker 2: help you in the clarity and boldness of your witness
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  Speaker 2: to Christ? Does it intensify or diminish your affections for Jesus?
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  Speaker 2: Does it cause Bible reading to feel more desirable or
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  Speaker 2: more burdensome. Does it undermine your peace with God or
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  Speaker 2: does it nurture that peace? Does it make the fruit
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  Speaker 2: of the spirit more natural and pleasing and prevalent in
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  Speaker 2: your life? Or does it hinder them? Love? Joy, peace, patience, meekness, kindness, faithfulness,
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  Speaker 2: self controlled? Does it push wholesome thoughts out of your
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  Speaker 2: mind and replace them with thoughts that trouble your conscience?
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  Speaker 2: Does it make you more or less desirous of godly
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  Speaker 2: company or less godly company? And the questions, of course,
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  Speaker 2: could go on. If those tests convict you. There are
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  Speaker 2: two things you might try. One is a partial fast
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  Speaker 2: from the activity, like we fast from food for a season.
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  Speaker 2: Fast from the activity. Noel and I build, as it were,
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  Speaker 2: fast into our lives where certain activities we enjoy and
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  Speaker 2: we could just do them morning and night, day after day,
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  Speaker 2: and we just don't. We set in and we sit
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  Speaker 2: in limits to just check our hearts, do it less
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  Speaker 2: often to break what may be an excessive hold on you.
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  Speaker 2: The other thing that you can try is to make
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  Speaker 2: a studied effort to let the innocent pleasures that it
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  Speaker 2: gives you, your hobby gives you, let it turn your heart.
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  Speaker 2: God Word, focus on that so that the pleasures are changed, transform, transposed,
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  Speaker 2: from temptations to idolatry on the one side, to occasions
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  Speaker 2: of worship on the other side.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, idolatry or worship the options with the things of
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  Speaker 1: this world, because turning off our senses isn't the answer.
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  Speaker 1: God designed the tongue to taste, the skin, to feel,
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  Speaker 1: the nose to smele, the eyes, to see, the ears
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  Speaker 1: to hear. You can't stop these senses from sensing things
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  Speaker 1: that are pleasant or unpleasant. You just can't exactly right
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  Speaker 1: and it would be feutile to try. The question is
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  Speaker 1: whether those pleasures send our hearts towards God or away
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  Speaker 1: from him. If what you buy on Amazon today draws
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  Speaker 1: your heart closer to God, great, If it pulls you
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  Speaker 1: away from Him, it's problematic because Pastor John has explained
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere the soul tends to shrink to the size and
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  Speaker 1: quality of its pleasures. He said that in the realm
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  Speaker 1: of sexual sin, but it's true in all of life.
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  Speaker 1: For more on that, see the Aspestal John book on
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  Speaker 1: pages one sixty and three seventeen to three twenty, pages
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  Speaker 1: one sixty and three seventeen to three twenty in the
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  Speaker 1: Asbesto John Book on the soul shrinking to the size
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  Speaker 1: and quality of his pleasures really important point. Great question today,
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  Speaker 1: Another great one up next time. Can my silence with
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel cost souls eternally? If I don't share the gospel?
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  Speaker 1: Will it be the reason some people do not go
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  Speaker 1: to heaven? And John Piper's answer is yes, it is,
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  Speaker 1: and I bet you didn't think it half on us
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  Speaker 1: would say yes to that question. He does, and we'll
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  Speaker 1: find out why. Next time. I'm Tony Ranky. We'll see
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  Speaker 1: you back here on Thursday