Chapter 3: Entertainment 1...

Psalm 111: 2

“The Works of the LORD are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.”

“So.  Crew.”  Moose says into the coms.  He sits at the helm with a can of space water, that’s water.  In a can.  In space.  Space water.  He adjusts his hat and wrinkles his nose.

“As you know, we typically talk about three different things here.  Art, Entertainment, and Truth.  We started the day off with some art.  Now I wanted to take a moment to talk about entertainment.

I have mentioned the idea of entertainment several times now and thought the time might be right to expand on this for the crew.  It is a topical study.  We are going to be looking to apply Biblical Truth to entertainment.  Now.  Before we get too far in, let’s be clear.  This is not going to be a study where we look at other people’s entertainment and then judge whether or not it is Christian or not.  There are plenty of people who do that and do that well.  You might take a look at Sean McDowell’s work in this vein if you have a question on a particular piece of entertainment.  What we will be doing is taking a step back and starting with a question.

What is entertainment?

The dictionary definition is as follows:

Entertainment: (noun)

- Amusement or diversion provided especially by performers, something diverting or engaging: such as a public performance or usually a light comic or adventure novel.

- The act of entertaining

Now.  Let’s take a minute to think on this.  An amusement or diversion from what?  Typical answers I get are from work, life, hurt, these are all reasons that people use entertainment.  I chose the word ‘use’ purposefully.  So what happens what our entertainment diverts us from God?

Let’s start our study in Matthew 22.

Matthew 22: 37-40

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Now.  No, I am not trying to scold or convict you about watching TV shows or Netflix.  What I am trying to do is ask each of us to consider what it is that we choose to entertain ourselves with.   Do each one of us individually, do things that pull us away from God and His Presence?  Have we begun to do our entertainment with Jesus yet?

Proverbs 3: 3-6

“Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.  Trust in the LordRD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Proverbs teaches us that we are to acknowledge God in all our ways.  The good ways.  The bad ways.  The ways that point us to Him, we acknowledge Him there, and we acknowledge Him in the ways we struggle as well, the ways that keep us from focusing on Jesus and the work of discipleship, assuming discipleship is our goal.

I think this is a good place to start our study on entertainment.”

Moose clicks the coms closed and wrinkles his nose.  He then pulls his hat brim low and turns the mix back on.