Giving gifts can be tricky. You give something because you want the other person to enjoy the gift; you want to make them happy. Ideally, a gift will not only bring joy to the recipient, but will also prompt appreciation for the giver each time it is brought out. In writing this lesson I am using a Bible given to me by group of close friends and I can’t use it without thinking of them. But some gifts come with a risk that the recipient will become infatuated with the gift and wind up ignoring the giver. Give a teenager a new phone and they will likely thank you profusely, but then ignore you as they spend their time staring at the screen.
Scripture teaches that God is a giver: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17, ESV). Truly, His best gifts are those that originate above, i.e. are spiritual in nature, but He also provides us many physical blessing to enjoy; He richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1Timothy 6.17, ESV). However, if we aren’t careful we can corrupt His gifts into idols; we focus on the pleasure we derive from His gifts rather than on God who gave the gifts. Let’s expose how our idols of pleasure are utterly worthless.
When There Is Competition, God Withholds His Blessings.
Let’s return to the account we considered in our last lesson when Jehovah showed His overwhelming superiority to Baal (and any other god). Israel’s king Ahab had led the nation to follow Baal (1Kings 16.31-33), a god worshipped throughout the Ancient Near East because he could supposedly bless his devotees with rain. How did God respond? He withheld the rain (1Kings 17.1)! Israel had brought a god into competition with Jehovah, so He withheld His blessings.
Let’s see how this principle is still true today, using entertainment as an example. God isn’t opposed to entertainment, after all He “provides us with everything to enjoy” (1Timothy 6.17). But if we allow entertainment to become our god, we will not experience God’s blessings. In Ecclesiastes 2.1-8 we read how Solomon pursued all manner of pleasure. The result? “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11, ESV)
Now, let’s take stock of how we, like Solomon, have pursued pleasure:
- How many channels do you have on your TV? How many streaming services do you subscribe to?
- How often do your kids ask if they can buy or download a new game?
- How much time did you spend watching sports this week?
- How quickly after making a purchase do you start thinking of your next purchase?
For many of us, the pursuit of pleasure is a major focus in our lives. And like Solomon, we find that the pursuit of pleasure is “vanity and a striving after wind”. We know it’s vanity because we are bored and unsatisfied! Certainly that’s a common refrain heard from our kids, even though they have every form of entertainment at their fingertips, but it’s also what we experience far too frequently. We binge watch shows, feast on sports, buy whatever our hearts desire and yet we feel hollow and empty. We seek fulfillment in pleasure, but we find vanity.
When we experience vanity in our lives, it’s because we were seeking fulfillment in the wrong place. Let’s return to the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Significantly, he used the phrase “under the sun” 29 times in the book. What did Solomon find “under the sun”? He found nothing new (Ecclesiastes 1.9); he found vanity (Ecclesiastes 1.14; 2.11). It was only when Solomon looked beyond this world that he found meaning: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14, ESV)
Our Father wants us to enjoy the gifts He provides. But when we allow those gifts to compete for our affection, we shouldn’t be surprised when we find our lives filled with emptiness and disappointment. We are inundated with entertainment, but we’re bored with life. We worship money, but we’re weighed down with economic problems. Food is abundant, but we’re afflicted with obesity and health problems. Promiscuity is acceptable and promoted, but we’re unfulfilled. Could it be that our Father is withholding His blessings?
When We Worship Pleasure, The Result Is Pain.
Pleasure shouldn’t be followed by pain, but when we misuse God’s gifts and make them our idol, pain is the inevitable result. Perhaps this is most easily seen in what our society has done with the sexual relationship. That the sexual relationship is a gift God to a husband and wife in marriage is made clear in both the Old and New Testaments (see Proverbs 5.18-19; Hebrews 13.4). However, our society has removed this blessing from marriage and made it an end and goal of itself. The result? Pain!
In his book “Gods at War” the author Kyle Idleman makes the following comparison between the Lord’s will for the sexual relationship and how man has brought pain on himself by only pursuing pleasure: “When we worship sex as a god, we find that it leads to the exact opposite of its divine design as a gift. As a gift it brings connection; as a god it causes loneliness. As a gift it brings pleasure; as a god it leads to emptiness. As a gift it brings satisfaction; but as a god it demands slavery. As a gift it brings intimacy; as a god, separation. As a gift it brings unity; as a god it often causes divorce. It’s a beautiful gift and a tyrant of a god.” All you need to do is look at the world around you to see the truth in Mr. Idleman’s words. God gave us the gift of sexual intimacy, and He told us how to use it. He wants to save us from pain. Even more than that, He wants us to find real satisfaction… in Him!
Satisfaction Should Be Found In The Lord.
Pleasure has increasingly been seen as a right in our society. Consider how we talk about work; we don’t ask others if they feel adequate to the task or if they feel they’re doing a good job. We ask how they like their job. I don’t think our forefathers were frequently asked how they liked their jobs when they headed out to the fields or down into the mines. Jobs were a means to provide, not a source of pleasure. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not a sin to enjoy your work. It can be a blessing from God (Eccl 5.18). But we’ve turned pleasure into a right… we made pleasure the measure of satisfaction. And that’s the problem, because satisfaction should be found in Jehovah.
Consider for a moment how we think about food. Food is also a gift from God and meant to be enjoyed (Eccl. 9.7), but we often turn to food for comfort; we look to food to satisfy in times of need. We get tired and stressed, but rather than meditate on God’s word and promises we eat a bag of Oreos. We experience sadness, but rather than take it to God in prayer we turn to Bluebell. But food won’t offer satisfaction; it will do the opposite! A century ago, the average American consumed ~5lbs of sugar each year. Today, the average American consumes twice that per month. And while all that sugar may provide a temporary boost, it’s stressing the body in a variety of ways. What was meant to comfort brings discomfort.
Comfort and satisfaction should be found in Jehovah. The Psalmist turned to the Lord in times of trouble (Psalm 119.49-50) and whom we should “taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34.8). Jesus implores us to come to Him because He “came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10.10). All of the matters we’ve considered in this lesson (entertainment, sexual intimacy, food) are gifts from God. But the giver of the gifts is greater than the gifts themselves. We should enjoy what He provides, but we mustn’t worship them. Worshipping the gifts will rob us of the true blessings and satisfaction that only He can provide.
Built By Him 
Leave a comment