The successful Bud Light boycott has already had something of a chilling effect on other corporations. For some companies, pushing LGBT ideology won’t be so readily seen as an automatic win. The fact that consumers could cost a major corporation billions of dollars to send them a message also revealed, once again, that the silent majority is not on board with all of this stuff. 

The verdict is in: the social conservative backlash to Bud Light’s decision to use transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador constitutes one of the most successful boycotts in recent political history. From the New York Post:  
Many Anheuser-Busch distributors say they are resigned to their painful Bud Light losses — and that they have given up on luring back disaffected customers following the Dylan Mulvaney fiasco, The Post has learned. After four months of hiring freezes and layoffs — with some beer truck drivers getting heckled and harassed even as Bud Light sales have dropped by more than 25% — Anheuser-Busch wholesalers have accepted that they have lost a chunk of their customers for good — and need to focus on a new crop of drinkers.
“Consumers have made a choice,” said an executive at a Texas-based beer distributor who did not want to be identified. “They have left [Bud Light] and that’s how it’s going to be. I don’t envision a big percentage of them coming back.”
In fact, industry insiders expect Bud Light sales to continue to decline, even after a few attempts at recovering a blue-collar image with more traditional advertising campaigns. Bud Light has become a symbol of woke over-reach, of corporate contempt for consumers, and of the relentless pushing of the LGBT agenda in nearly every aspect of society. Many people are fed up with it, and for once that frustration coalesced around a single brand.
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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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We receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing the moment we cry out to him in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus.  We receive them afresh when we participate in the corporate confession of sins during the worship service; and we have them confirmed and sealed to us by means of the sacraments.  The proper use, therefore, of the means of grace—prayer, worship and sacrament—is how we get rid of our sin and also how we find the strength to get back up on our feet and keep running.

One of the most anticipated races of the 1984 summer Olympics was the women’s 3000m, featuring the American Mary Decker and the South African Zola Budd. Decker—who had won a 3000m at the World Championships the preceding year—was favored to win the gold medal, and Budd knew she could not beat the champion if it came to finish line sprint. She began to pick up her pace, and by the middle of the race she was able to move ahead of Decker. Yet as Budd cut to the inside lane, the two collided. Decker fell and injured her hip. She was unable to finish the race.
In a similar fashion, sin will trip us up as we run to glory. This means we need to do our utmost to avoid it. Even more, it means that when we fall into it, we must get back up quickly and keep running.
Hebrews 12:1 says that we are to lay aside “sin which clings so closely.”  The idea seems to be that sin clings so closely that it entangles you, impeding your progress, tripping you up, and perhaps even keeping you from moving forward altogether. We see this in numerous biblical examples.  The love of money pushed Judas down; the love of this world threw Demas to the side; covetousness tripped up Achan; adultery and murder entangled David.
The problem with sin is manifold.  Discreetly and deceptively, it will harden our hearts, weaken our faith, and damage our relationship with God.  The more we sin, the more we become acclimated to it, and before long we begin to call evil good.  Throughout the whole process, our relationship with God will be rattled. God will become displeased with us, and we will find it increasingly hard to walk closely with him.
A Christian is sleeping with his girlfriend, and knows that God hates this. How will this influence the way that he relates to God? Assuming that his conscience is not already seared, he will find it difficult to talk to God in prayer, and even attend church.  He may pray and worship, but it will not be sincere, and it will quickly become lifeless.  Religious acts of worship will become perfunctory because he knows in his heart that he is actively offending his heavenly Father.  Like David when he was in the grip of his sins, the sinning Christian will lose the joy of his salvation, and his spiritual vitality will be turned into the drought of summer.
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