God has given us work to do, so we should take pleasure in that work because it is a gift from God.  The abilities and resources that allow us to work come from God just as much as the produce of our work.  Therefore, we should approach the pleasure our work produces with humility and thanksgiving.  We should be even more thankful for God’s blessings through our work when we realize that the ability to enjoy them is itself a gift of God (Ecclesiastes 5:19).

Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
-King Solomon, Proverbs 21:17, ESV
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
-Jesus Christ, Luke 12:32-34, ESV
It is no mystery that people love pleasure and will go to great lengths to obtain it.  This has always been true, but it is especially evident in our context.  For the past few generations, America has sought pleasure unrestrained.  The insatiable appetite for sexual pleasure has led to a breakdown of the family that has resulted in the slaughter of enough innocent children in the womb to make Hitler blush; the desecration of the institution God created to most vividly reflect Him (marriage) through no-fault divorce, cohabitation, and homosexual “marriage”; and among other things the men’s mental health crisis discussed last time.  But that is not the only pleasure we seek, as we are equally zealous to pursue the pleasure that comes from greatness and fame, luxury and comfort, and a sense of superiority.  This is the goal of the vast majority of what we see on social media.   It is the unending quest for pleasure that not only drives men’s sexual exploits but also leads them to build wonders of the world.  Sadly, the church has been so polluted by the world that this quest for pleasure is often seen in pew and pulpit alike.  As we saw recently, seeking pleasure in greatness and in sexual gratification led to the downfall of Mark Driscoll and Ravi Zacharias respectively.  This means it is vital for Christians to determine the proper place for pleasure and then confine it within those boundaries.  Once we see where the road of unrestrained pleasure leads, we should be properly motivated to restrain and channel it for our ultimate good.
An Inspired Experiment
Where does the road of unrestrained pleasure lead?  It would be tempting to think that our societal obsession with pleasure is novel, but “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9b).  The man that penned those words traveled down the road of unrestrained pleasure to see where it led.  That man was Solomon.  His wisdom guided him to embark on that journey for the purpose of teaching others about it:
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”…I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.
-Ecclesiastes 2:1a, 3, ESV
He goes on to describe the various ways he tried to find pleasure, starting with building projects: “I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.  I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees” (Ecclesiastes 2:5).  The most well-known of these building projects was Solomon’s Temple, but Scripture also describes two of his houses.  His palace in Jerusalem was larger than the Temple and took almost twice as long to build (1 Kings 7:1-8).  Its ivory throne was so grand that its existence was doubted by scholars until evidence of it was found recently.  This palace and its contents were so grand that when the Queen of Sheba saw them during her famous visit, they literally took her breath away (1 Kings 10:4-5, 2 Chronicles 9:3-4).  Both the Temple and this palace could be considered wonders of the world.  Scripture also describes Solomon building a palace in Gezer when he married Pharoah’s daughter (2 Chronicles 8:11).  He goes on to describe creating vineyards and parks as a commercial venture and for his enjoyment.  The reference to planting various fruit trees is reminiscent of Eden, suggesting that perhaps through these gardens and parks he was seeking to imitate the pleasure found in the world before sin.  He then talks of grand infrastructure projects: “I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees” (Ecclesiastes 2:6).  He acquired great wealth through business ventures and gained power unparalleled in Israel’s history, expanding Israel’s territory and receiving great honor from all the surrounding nations (Ecclesiastes 2:7-8a).  He also sought pleasure through entertainment and—of course—through nearly limitless sex (Ecclesiastes 2:8b).  You name it, he tried it: “And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil“ (Ecclesiastes 2:10).
But what did he really gain from all that pleasure?  Nothing: “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).   This led to despair: “I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”.” (Ecclesiastes 2:2).  How could such unlimited pleasure lead him to despair?  First, he knew that pleasure couldn’t last.  When he died, his pleasure would necessarily end: “For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:16-17).  Second, he knew that the lasting legacy of all of his great works was very much contingent on how well those after him maintained them:
I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
-Ecclesiastes 2:18-21, ESV
Solomon’s successor was a fool.  Rehoboam foolishly and arrogantly tried to ride the coattails of his father’s success in order to secure his own pleasure and legacy without working for it as Solomon had (1 Kings 12, 2 Chronicles 10).  The result was a rebellion that divided Israel into two kingdoms.  Eventually, all of the wealth Solomon had gathered would be plundered and all of his great works destroyed.  But he also noticed something worse than this: “Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business” (Ecclesiastes 4:7-8).
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Since the early 2000s, Yoga, Eastern Contemplative Prayer, and Mindfulness practices have made their way through evangelical churches, aided by well-regarded and popular pastors, elders, and individual Christians who were believed to be trustworthy.

The 1960s and ’70s was a time of great transition for Western culture—and in our opinion, not in a good way. Sadly in our view, America led the way down that slippery slope. Social mores and long-held religious tenets were challenged and often discarded by young people, which raised the eyebrows of former generations and truly frightened many parents. The news coverage gave the appearance that all the nation’s youth were engaged in “tearing down the system.” We were there, though. Not all the nation’s young people bought into this rebellion, but of course, the radicals—and there were many—got all the press. Overall, it was a very rebellious era, and many explosive changes to society were wrought at that time.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the young were introduced to drugs and radical ideas that had been largely unknown and unsampled in earlier generations. “Flower power” was a phrase attributed to Alan Ginsberg in 1965 and popularized among the “hippie movement,” who were protesting the Vietnam War and calling for “peace and love.” Behind the “love” part of the slogan was a push for unrestrained sexual freedom, which was nothing less than casting off deeply rooted moral standards and religious beliefs. “Let it all hang out”—and it did. It hung out and fell off—many of the young left God and His word in the dust. Of course, there has always been immorality and rebellion in every generation. Still, it was brought into the open and put on a pedestal, fashionable new ideals and immorality not so openly and freely accepted since perhaps pagan Roman times of old. It is essential to realize that “the young” did not develop these ideas independently. Young adults in college are idealistic and impressionable, open to new ideas, and looking for a cause. They long to “fix” the world and believe they are just the ones to do it.
Many kids “caught” this radicalism at their universities, and it was taught to them by their professors who had themselves been brainwashed by others. It just caught hold and came to fruition when our largest generation of young people happened on the scene, looking for pleasure and a cause—and a new worldview to adopt. Timothy Leary, the pied piper of LSD—scientist, psychologist, and Harvard University professor– led the way for the impressionable group of experimenters to, as he put it, “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.” Becoming “one with the universe”—and deadening one’s conscience—was much more accessible through the use of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and Psilocybin mushroom, which Leary and his friend, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) were experimenting with on Harvard’s dime in their Harvard Psilocybin Project experiments. It took a while for American culture at large to shift, but once a large part of mainstream media and popular culture identified with the new zeitgeist, the significant cultural shift was off and running. Bye-bye, Miss American Pie…
If you lived through the great change in society, as we have, you watched major alterations surge in over a relatively short time, both in secular and religious views.
Alongside the political and immorality awakening, religious experimentation was a growth industry. Eastern mysticism had first made its way to the United States in 1893 when Swami Vivekananda arrived and spoke at the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Still, Hinduism mostly played a very minor role in American life until the 1960s. This is partly attributable to America’s banning of immigration from India in 1924.1
Also, in the 1960s, the “British Invasion” brought the Beatles to the United States. They were enormously talented and popular musicians who also challenged Western culture as they too went on a spiritual search. They crossed paths with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and together they spread Yoga and Eastern meditation, wildly popularizing Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. After all, who would know better than celebrities what is true and helpful?
As Yoga and Eastern meditation were becoming more mainstream, George Lucas produced a blockbuster film in 1977 that captured the attention of millions, titled Star Wars! The film was a sort of “space western” permeated with Eastern mysticism. Yoga was taught by Yoda the Yogi, drawing upon his “ancient wisdom.” The culture, including many in the church, actually began accepting the Eastern worldviews of “the Force.” Yogi Yoda explained it to Luke Skywalker in “The Empire Strikes Back”:
“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.”
Essentially Yoda was teaching “Oneism.” Oneism teaches that everything in the universe is one. There is no distinction between creator and creation2:
If One Thing / Tao is all that exists, then there can be no logical concepts, (as logic requires two things), nor indeed any understanding of how this One thing could cause the Many changing things which we experience in the world. The error has been in not correctly realising the properties of the One.3
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As we commit ourselves to being distinct from the world around us and even the ebbs and flows of modern worship practices, we come together with like-minded brothers and sisters to form a vibrant community, one in which the glory of God is the central focus! When that is the case, we will understand that gathered worship is no ordinary thing, but it’s an extraordinary foretaste of the grandeurs waiting for us in Glory!

Recently I have been considering this idea of a “distinctive.” Seemingly, in all facets of life, we have distinctives. For example, you have aspects of your family that distinguish you from other families. Likewise, everyone has gifts that distinguish them, and some particular practices and doctrines make denominations dissimilar. When considering this last example, not only does the practice of and the driving principles behind Reformed Worship differentiate between denominations, but sadly, it is not a distinctive that all our congregations in the Presbyterian Church in America share. However, to make the case that our church must hold this distinction across our denomination, let’s first consider how gathered worship makes Christianity distinct from the world.
Distinct from the Sin-Filled World
The Reformed world has an eschatology that declares that the church will continue to look more and more different than the world. This eschatological view suggests that the Bride of Christ will progressively be more distinct in this sin-ruined creation that She currently inhabits. Now, I believe that the church will continue to grow as it becomes more and more distinct, but even if you do not, the overwhelming consensus is that the distinctives of God’s people will be increasingly more evident.
These eschatological thoughts consume me when I think about the distinctives of the early Christians in the Roman Empire. The countercultural, revolutionary actions of the Early Church are often overlooked by many Bible readers and preachers today. In the Acts narrative, the stories like Peter’s Pentecost sermon, where thousands are convicted of their sins and seek the salvation of the Lord, are beloved. Yet, there’s very little attention to the declaration of faithfulness unto God that the early Christians made by their ordinary actions. Believers need to consider these “ordinary” actions. For example, gathering for Lord’s Day worship was, and still is, countercultural.
Consider this, as Christians who believe in the authority of the Word of God and seek to obey its commands, we gather for the public worship of God. We are making a public declaration that we strive to live by God’s standards. If we regularly gather with the saints on the Lord’s Day, we are publicly demonstrating our obedience to the commands of God – to worship Him and find our rest in Him. It is a public display that our lives and days are not our own, but they belong to our Lord.
Does not that distinguish us from this postmodern, individualistic world surrounding us? It did for the early Christians in the Roman empire, and it does so today.
Distinct from the Evangelical World
Often, when considering the broad worship practices of the evangelical world and the lasting beauty of reformed worship, I begin humming John Newton’s well-known hymn, Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, as it sings:
 Savior, if of Zion’s city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in thy name:
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s children know. [i]
Many evangelicals desire a worship style full of “pomp and show.” Usually, evangelicals defend this desire with the practice of contextualization; teaching that our worship must look like the world around us so that we may better reach the lost and make the skeptic feel more comfortable attending our services. Yet, if we consider the worldling’s pleasure, as John Newton writes, it is ever fading and constantly fleeting. Therefore, what might gain the attention of one seeker will not gain the attention of the next. Likewise, what might attract this generation will not attract the former or subsequent generations.

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