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Made Lonely by Holiness · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm sure some of you have experienced the very thing
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  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about today, watching on a screen
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  Speaker 1: together with your friends and maybe on a phone, and
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  Speaker 1: suddenly you feel this stomach dropping sense of isolation come
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  Speaker 1: over you because you realize that your personal convictions are
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  Speaker 1: miles away from your friends, the people you call brothers
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  Speaker 1: and sisters in Christ, who are laughing at something that
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  Speaker 1: you cannot laugh at. So you sort of draw back,
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  Speaker 1: and now you're the freak, You're the prude weirdo. How
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: do you handle that experience? That's today on ask Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John made Lonely by Holiness? Kate in Anchorage, Alaska writes
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  Speaker 1: in with this very story, Pastor John, I want to
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  Speaker 1: ask this humbly, knowing that I'm not in God's place
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  Speaker 1: of judgment. When I look at my peers, young Christians,
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  Speaker 1: I see such nominal faith from Scripture. Shouldn't we see
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  Speaker 1: believers pursuing personal holiness? And yet I rarely see this.
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  Speaker 1: I feel this in my life as loneliness. When it
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  Speaker 1: comes to entertainment, I'm often the only one offended by
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  Speaker 1: vulgar pop lyrics or crude video clips, while diversions consume
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  Speaker 1: too much of many Christians lives anyway. When I see
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  Speaker 1: what my supposed brothers and sisters find meaningful, I think
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  Speaker 1: there is nothing for me here. How do I handle
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  Speaker 1: the isolation I feel when my conviction seems so different
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  Speaker 1: from other believers, and when I feel increasingly isolated from
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  Speaker 1: friends over this?
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  Speaker 2: I share Kate's dismay at how many professing Christians, young
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  Speaker 2: and old, embrace as their frequent form of entertainment in
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  Speaker 2: movies and television a level of immodesty and immorality, and
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  Speaker 2: filthy language and gender leveling feminist ideology and arrogance and revenge,
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  Speaker 2: and a whole cluster of empty worldliness. It calls to
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  Speaker 2: mind first Peter four three and four. The time that
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  Speaker 2: is past suffices for doing what the gentiles want to do,
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  Speaker 2: living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
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  Speaker 2: With respect to this, they are surprised when you do
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  Speaker 2: not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and
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  Speaker 2: they malign you. Now that they ostracize you. What's wrong
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  Speaker 2: with you? Weirdo square, legalistic, old fashioned, out of state.
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  Speaker 2: The difference is I suppose that these professing Christians that
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  Speaker 2: Kate is talking about would say that they're not living
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  Speaker 2: in those sins. They're just enjoy watching them, or at
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  Speaker 2: least they don't mind watching them in order to be
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  Speaker 2: able to say, well, he's a very good actor, or
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  Speaker 2: that plot was very clever, or the cinematography was cutting edge,
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  Speaker 2: or the action was scintillating, anything to justify soaking their
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  Speaker 2: minds in a visual and verbal and conceptual world of
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  Speaker 2: unbelief and sin. But whether they're doing the sin or
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  Speaker 2: watching the sin, it's obvious, as Kate says, that there
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  Speaker 2: is very little passion for personal holiness. That's the problem.
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  Speaker 2: Little concern with Jesus' statement Blessed are the pure in heart,
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  Speaker 2: for they shall see God, or Peter's statement, you shall
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  Speaker 2: be holy for I am holy? Or Paul's statement, what
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  Speaker 2: fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with belial?
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  Speaker 2: Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? What
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  Speaker 2: agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we
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  Speaker 2: are the temple of the Living God. Let us bring
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  Speaker 2: holiness to completion in the fear of God. And Peter
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  Speaker 2: makes the same observation, which is very relevant for Kate's
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  Speaker 2: concern that if you find yourself out of step with
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  Speaker 2: worldly entertainment. He says, they are surprised when you do
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  Speaker 2: not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and
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  Speaker 2: they malign you, or perhaps in her case, may be
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  Speaker 2: not malign, may be just ostracize or put down with
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  Speaker 2: the accusation of legalism or self righteousness, or maybe just
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  Speaker 2: quietly roll their eyes and drift away. So the first
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  Speaker 2: thing for Kate to do, I think, is to settle
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  Speaker 2: it in her mind, in her heart that she's not
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  Speaker 2: going to be carried along like a jellyfish in the
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  Speaker 2: current of culture, but is going to be like a
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  Speaker 2: dolphin that swims with freedom against the current where necessary
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  Speaker 2: in order to stay on course in the heaven bound
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  Speaker 2: stream of God's word. That's what she needs to do.
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  Speaker 2: Just fix it in my mind. This is the freedom
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to enjoy and pursue. And Kate, don't get
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  Speaker 2: to the point where you say, as I heard one
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  Speaker 2: pastor say about a compromised lifestyle, well, if he can't
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  Speaker 2: beat them, join them, why would a person say that?
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  Speaker 2: Because it's hard to stand alone, that's why. But my
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  Speaker 2: is Kate, that you're not alone, not as much as
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  Speaker 2: you think you are. Probably I don't know that for sure,
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  Speaker 2: but probably not. It seems to me that the Bible
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  Speaker 2: wants us to take heart that when we think we're
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  Speaker 2: just about the only one left, the Bible says, no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: there's seven thousand people who have not bowed the need
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  Speaker 2: to bail Romans eleven four. It's just an encouragement that
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  Speaker 2: very often, when we think we're the only one left,
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  Speaker 2: or there are only a few, they are more. There
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  Speaker 2: are more. Just when you think you're the only one,
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  Speaker 2: there are probably dozens of others who feel the same
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  Speaker 2: way you do. And not only that, but among those
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  Speaker 2: very ones, those friends who are involved in the sinful entertainments,
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  Speaker 2: perhaps there are some whose consciences are troubling them and
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  Speaker 2: they're looking for an alternative. And that might imply that
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  Speaker 2: you should not only pray that God would lead you
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  Speaker 2: to other friends who would love the encouragement of your
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  Speaker 2: friendship and your standards, but perhaps you should also propose
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  Speaker 2: alternative ways of getting together with those very friends who
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  Speaker 2: are watching all those questionable movies. It might be different
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  Speaker 2: kinds of leisure, different kinds of recreation, or it might
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  Speaker 2: be something more significant that you would lead in forming
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  Speaker 2: a band of people who would do some kind of
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  Speaker 2: significant ministry together. Maybe the most important thing for Kate
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  Speaker 2: is to focus on God himself through his word, so
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  Speaker 2: that your own mind is so saturated with the spectacular
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  Speaker 2: riches of Christ, both now and for eternity, that you
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  Speaker 2: actually out rejoice your worldly friends. I'm thinking of Psalm four,
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  Speaker 2: verse seven. You have put more joy in my heart
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  Speaker 2: than they have when their grain and wine abound. What
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  Speaker 2: your friends seem not to realize is that not only
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  Speaker 2: are the pleasures of worldly entertainments shallow and short lived,
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  Speaker 2: but they are also forming, shaping the soul, so that
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  Speaker 2: it is increasingly difficult for the soul to have any
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  Speaker 2: taste for the deeper and lasting pleasures. That's a great tragedy.
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  Speaker 2: I have felt this in my own life. In those
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  Speaker 2: seasons when I have drifted toward a preoccupation with the
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  Speaker 2: pleasures offered by this world, I find myself not only
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  Speaker 2: growing narrower and shall and more trivial and artificial, but
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  Speaker 2: also less able to savor God's word and less able
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  Speaker 2: to feel the wonder of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: This is an extremely dangerous place to be. We should tremble,
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  Speaker 2: and I am so so thankful that in all these
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  Speaker 2: decades God has stepped in and rescued me again and again.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe one last suggestion, be sure to take the long view.
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  Speaker 2: Most people live their lives with so little attention to
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  Speaker 2: the future decades of their life and the future ages
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  Speaker 2: of their life after death, that they live their lives
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  Speaker 2: out of touch with the greatest realities and don't think
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  Speaker 2: about them. Kate, live with a view to eternity. Cultivate
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  Speaker 2: capacities of pleasure that go deep now and last forever.
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  Speaker 2: Pray for your friends, Surround yourself with a few who
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  Speaker 2: care about spiritual things eternal things. Be a part of
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  Speaker 2: a healthy church that puts a premium on personal holiness
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  Speaker 2: as well as global missions and public justice. And be
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  Speaker 2: confident that God is going to work everything together for
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  Speaker 2: your joyful likeness to Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the real reason we reach for entertainment soaked in
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  Speaker 1: sin isn't boredom. It's from a delight deficit. And this
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  Speaker 1: opens the door to so many practical questions on navigating
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  Speaker 1: modern media. So do we avoid a few bad scenes
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  Speaker 1: or do we avoid the whole movie altogether with its
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  Speaker 1: bad sea Should we recharge or self medicate with entertainment.
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  Speaker 1: What do my entertainment habits say about my own soul?
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  Speaker 1: Do I love entertainment more than I love God? How
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  Speaker 1: do I break free from an addiction to entertainment or gaming?
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  Speaker 1: It's a lot, a lot to cover, and a lot
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  Speaker 1: we have covered on the podcast and for all of it.
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  Speaker 1: See the chapter on television, movies and fun in the
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  Speaker 1: Ask Pastor John books starting on page two ninety one
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  Speaker 1: for more thoughts on all of this. Speaking of happiness,
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  Speaker 1: will you be happy in a million years? It could be.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Rank. We'll talk about it next time with
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John. See you Monday,