Pleasure: Life On Empty Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The commercial once said, you only go around once in life, grab all the gusto you can.

This of course is a lie. Today, a challenge to a pleasure mad culture that's infecting the church. A challenge to reach for the real pleasures God offers. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, never in history have there been so many diversions beckoning to all of us. How can we shut out all the alluring voices we hear? Well Dave, the answer is simply this, it is very difficult to shut out those voices. But I'm also very interested in the fact that you quoted an ad that appeared many years ago. The younger generation will not remember it, but I do. You only go around once in life and grab for all the gusto you can.

What a lie. This series of messages I think is incredibly important because it tries to help us get rid of those distractions that you've talked about. For a gift of any amount, these messages can be yours so that you can listen to them again and again. Here's what you do, go to rtwoffer.com, rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the series of messages, the seven snares of the enemy, breaking free from the devil's grip. How we need to hear from God about matters that touch us so deeply.

And now we go to the pulpit of Moody Church where once again we'll be opening our Bibles and talking about the pleasures of the world and the pleasures of God. You have to do what is best for you, therefore pursue pleasure, go for it. What's wrong with that statement? Is there anything wrong with that statement? Would I surprise you if I were to say that there's nothing wrong with it? That it is true both psychologically and ethically, properly understood?

That might be a surprise. It is true psychologically because Pascal was not the only person who knows that as human beings we always seek pleasure and seek ways to avoid pain. In this series of messages you remember we've talked about alcoholism and drugs and pornography and what have you. And those are all ways that people are, what are they trying to do? They're trying to seek happiness and avoid pain. Doing it in the wrong way but nonetheless that's their motivation.

But that's true of all of us. We seek pleasure and avoid pain. Secondly, it is true ethically in this sense that there is nothing wrong with the pursuit of pleasure. The real point is what pleasures are you pursuing? The Bible is very clear that there are two different kinds of pleasure. There is what we would call worldly pleasures and we're going to talk about those today. But there are also God pleasures.

Imagine this. In thy presence there is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. What's heaven going to be? Heaven is going to be a pleasure. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Oh, I hope that you were listening to the choir as they sang Yezu, joy of man's desiring, holy wisdom love most bright. And then speaking of those who receive their joy from Christ, theirs is beauty's fairest pleasure. There is wisdom's holy treasure. Thou dost ever lead thine own in the love of joys unknown.

Go for pleasure but make sure that you're seeking the right ones. A man by the name of Henry Sugol wrote that the soul of man hath in it a raging and inextinctible thirst and that thirst seeks to be quenched. You and I are born with that. Pascal called it that God-shaped vacuum but we are born with a raging thirst and the question is where can our thirst be quenched? When the Bible talks about pleasures of the world it always does so in a negative light.

Talks about the pleasures of God very positively obviously but the pleasures of this world negatively and we live in a pleasure crazy world, worldly pleasures. This past week I finally decided to scan Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death and in the book he said that it used to be that there were cities that represented America, Boston, the intellectual liberal establishment. You have for example also Chicago, the city of industry. You have New York as the melting pot. He said the city that best characterizes us today is Las Vegas. Glitz, glamour, money, 24 hour a day parties.

That's the age in which you and I live. People are doing all kinds of things for pleasure. Problem is that they are running on empty because they are the wrong pleasures as we shall see today. I mentioned a moment ago that the Bible speaks negatively of the pleasures of this world.

You remember in 2 Timothy chapter 3 he says in the last days perilous times are going to come. Men will be lovers of their own selves and then he says lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God and that's really the key. It is that these pleasures lure us and crowd God out. You say well Pastor Lutzer this is a series of messages titled Seven Secret Snares and we've talked about some of those snares obviously. What about the snare of pleasure? I mean is that really a serious snare? As I began to reflect on this and prepare this message I began to understand how very, very serious it really is. So serious that it's probably the one thing that we find most difficult to accept.

The one snare that we most easily fall into without even knowing it. And if God today can show us how easily we fall into it and what the marks of that fall really are we will have achieved something because you and I are loathe to accept the message that I'm just going to preach today. Take your Bibles now and turn to 1st John. 1st John, three verses, three powerful verses. This is not the Gospel of John now.

1st John is near the end of the New Testament just a few pages before the book of Revelation and John is speaking here in the 1st John chapter 2 verse 15. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, your translation might say the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes it says and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away but the man or woman who does the will of God lives forever.

What I'd like us to do today is to see why we must avoid the snare of the world which is a snare really of pleasure. First of all, because of what the world is, because of what it is. You'll notice that he speaks of the world that we are supposed to hate. Now let me be very clear that the word world in the Bible is used in various ways. For example, there's the world of people for God loved the world. That's not the world we're supposed to hate. There is the world of nature. We don't have to hate the world of nature though it can mislead us. This is the world as an organized system. It's a world really that is antagonistic toward God and his truth. We sometimes use the word world in that sense in other ways.

For example, you hear a news reporter say I'm going to bring you a report from the world of sports. He's not talking about some other planet that's out there. He's talking about the organized system that we call sports, though some sports do appear to be unorganized, but that's what's meant. Now this world system, what do we know about it? First of all, it is a very subtle satanic system because your Bibles are open to 1 John chapter 2. Notice what John says now in chapter 5 verse 19.

We know that we are children of God and can you even believe this? The whole world is under the control of the evil one. He is the organizing principle. He is the prince of the power of the air. He is the one who keeps the system unified to the extent that it is.

He is the one who has the goals and the desires and the aspirations that he loves to impose upon people who do not know that they are being led by him. So it is a very subtle system. It is a seductive system as we'll see in a moment because it comes to us very innocently. The world presents itself to us as something that we need because it is tied in with some very legitimate needs and aspirations and desires and sometimes we don't know where to separate the one from the other.

We're talking here about powerful seduction. It is also a world though that competes for our love for God. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world. For if any man love the world, notice the love of the Father is not in him. If you love the world you may not be born again. The love of the Father is not in you. That's how antagonistic the world is to God. There are two loves, two loves in verse 15, the love of the world and the love of God. Many years ago there was a book written I think All That I Ever Learned I Learned in Kindergarten, something like that.

It's close enough for my purposes. I could write a book entitled All the Theology I Ever Learned. I learned from my children's questions. You know, you talk about being a father. Fathers have to be marvelous theologians or else simply tell their children to be quiet and ask the pastor.

That's the option that you have. One day our daughter Lori who is always ahead of herself, maybe seven or eight years old said to me as we were praying together or preparing to pray, she said, Dad, should we love everybody? You can know that when a child asks a question in that tone of voice there is a catch coming. I said, yes, of course we should love everybody. A little hesitantly I said that. And then she said, well, you know what that means? That means that we should love Satan too, shouldn't we? Oh, child.

No, Lori. We love people but we do not love Satan. Satan is God's antagonist and we have absolutely no room in our hearts to love him at all and he does not deserve love and he is on a trajectory that is going to lead him to the eternal pit and eternal judgment, which he so richly deserves. So we don't love the devil. And if we don't love the devil, we don't love the world. There is a kind of love that God actually hates. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Do you sense the antagonism here?

Two loves. We shouldn't love the world because of what it is. Secondly, we shouldn't love it because of what the world does, because of what the world does and now we begin to really unpack what John has in mind.

Now we begin to get convicted. What are those snares that we've talked about? We've asked that we not fall into the snares, into the pits that we've been speaking about.

Well, notice this. It says, verse 16, for everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

What are the snares? First of all, the lust of the flesh, which my translation says, the craving of sinful man, the craving of sinful man. Now you and I were born with certain desires. We were born with a desire to eat. We were born with a desire to drink because we become thirsty.

We were born with a desire to sleep and sexuality and all those desires are a part of who we are. But you see, the temptation now is to take these desires, these cravings, and to satisfy them in ungodly ways. And that's why we read here that the cravings of man are sinful. You see, our desire to eat can become gluttony, our desire for water to slake, our thirst can become alcoholism or our weariness can become laziness and our sexuality can become immorality. And that's what the cravings of sinful flesh are.

You say, well, have I ever had those cravings? Listen to this list of sinful cravings. The acts of sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage.

There you go. Selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. There you have a pretty complete list, but Paul was afraid he might even leave some out and says, things like these.

Wow. And you see, because these cravings desire, they promise happiness, you see. We're tempted to find pleasure in all the wrong places, the place that leads us to emptiness.

Now we need to hurry on. The lust of the flesh, notice the lust of the eyes back here in 1 John, chapter 2, verse 16. The lust of the eyes. There is such a thing as eyes having an appetite. We've heard the expression, feast your eyes on this. Feast your eyes on this. We want to have this, this appetite, and it may refer to even the finer things of life.

I mean, it could be art, it could be works of art, it could be nature, it could be going to an opera, it could be all kinds of things. You say, well, is that sinful? Well, in a moment I'm going to answer that question.

Not right now, but you need to hang on. The simple fact is that the lust of the eyes also may refer to covetousness, where we desire that which is not ours, and therefore our desires are never, never fulfilled because we mistake the cure for the real cause of the problem, and the cause is within our hearts. So you can see here that there refers to the lust of the eyes. Thirdly, the boastful pride of life, and this is certainly one of the snares we don't even see. We don't see ourselves as boastful just because we want the things of this world. We don't see ourselves as prideful just because we judge others so quickly when they fall into sin and have that good, smug feeling that we would never do that like the Pharisees did. You see, that's the kind of thing that only God can show us. Now, what's wrong with all these things?

Let me give you a couple of ideas here. First of all, because they make the same promises as God, remember? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of the life, they're all shouting this way to happiness, this way to pleasure.

We are where it's at, where it's at. God is the only one who has a right to make a promise like that. You come on to me and you will be filled, said Jesus. You come and you drink from me the living water. Jesus, you are the one who fulfills our desires. The lust of the flesh, the world comes along and says, we'll do it, we'll do it, we'll do it, we'll do it, and you and I are so tempted to believe and to try.

That's the first thing. It makes the same promises as God. Secondly, it detracts us from God, the world does. Now, here we come to some, quote, innocent pleasures. Somebody says, well, there certainly is nothing wrong with sports, is there? There's nothing wrong with watching doubles or the cubs or the bears and these other animals that we have sometimes running around in various contexts. There's nothing wrong with that.

Now, I want all of you to listen as if you've never heard me speak for the first time because this is so, so critical. I don't believe that the devil minds, whether it is sports, whether it is even something terrible like the addictions that we've talked about, he isn't that concerned as to what it is. He doesn't care what it is. As long as these things absorb our attention and take the place of God. And even the good pleasures in life do that remarkably well. They squeeze out God.

They do. Well, my dear friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. Of course, there's nothing wrong with watching sports. Oftentimes, you find that the ads can be very offensive, but at the same time, we must recognize that God has put within us a desire for competition.

And if we have a special team that we like, we're going to want to watch them win. But the point that I made in the message is very critical. It's possible that these kinds of things detract us from God.

More enthusiasm is exercised regarding sports than God. And what we need to do is to see things in perspective. These messages, I believe, are very critical in today's world, and we're making them available to you. Messages regarding gambling, alcoholism, greed, sexual sin, pleasure, et cetera. Here's how they can be yours so that you can listen to them again and again. For a gift of any amount, what you do is go to RTWOffer.com. RTWOffer.com, by the way, you ask then for the series of messages titled Seven Snares of the Enemy, Breaking Free from the Devil's Grip.

RTWOffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And as you connect with us, thanks in advance for remembering us in prayer. Thank you for your gifts, because together we are making a difference, and we thank God for the many opportunities we are given to connect with thousands upon thousands of people by radio. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Today's question arose from the world of politics and has to do with Mormonism. Betty from Illinois writes, I have questions about Mormonism, especially in light of Mitt Romney's comments during the campaign that I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior. It sounds good, but I wonder how many Christians know that the Jesus that Romney believes in is not the Jesus of the Scriptures, but rather that there is, quote, another testament of Jesus Christ.

Betty, you're absolutely right. I hope everyone realizes that. When Mormons speak of Jesus Christ, they are not talking about the same Jesus. They are talking about a Jesus who is a brother of Lucifer, for example. Furthermore, you need to understand that Mormonism has many occult teachings. It teaches, for example, the deity of man. As God now is, so man once was. And then I think the quote continues, as God now is, so man will be. That's occultism. At the root of false religion always is the deification of man. Bottom line, you have to understand that there are some people who use the same terminology that we do, but they mean something very different. Best advice to listeners, go into a bookstore, find a book about Mormonism, and study and discover what they really believe.

It isn't Christianity. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer. Or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635, North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. These days, Christians are awash in a sea of pleasures, having time for everything but God. Many waste their time in a myriad of ways, and the options only keep increasing. There is a price to be paid for wallowing in the short-term pleasures of this world. Next time on Running to Win, a challenge to all of us to get our priorities straight. Pastor Lutzer will give us the fateful bottom line for those pursuing a life of pleasure and not seeking the pleasures of God. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.