Is Watching Movies a Sin? How to Make Godly Choices: Psalm 101

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. We

have a great episode of planned for you today.

Man, it's going to be so exciting.

And today the reason why you're excited and so am

I is because today technically marks our second birthday. Birthday. Yes, yeah,

the Bible Guys is two years old.

Oh aren't we cute? Aren't we cute? Yeah, we're so cute.

Yeah, that's right.

Does this mean we're going into our terrible twos?

I was just gonna say the same thing I was

gonna say, that's terrible twos. So Desiree put a segment

together called Birthday Edition. Okay, she says, for a segment today,

let's talk about your favorite birthday celebrations. Choose three of

your top birthday celebrations. I already know my three.

Okay, go ahead, I'll give us one.

I'll give you the first one. First one is my

fiftieth birthday that you were there. It was a surprise

birthday party, and technically it was the only time in

my entire life that anybody has ever surprised me for anything.

What No, no, no, not you never had a surprise.

No, I've never I've had like jump out of the

woods and scare me surprise, you know, like I've had

those surprises. But so I'm a surprised person where I

plan delightful surprises for my family often, and that is

still stands as the only time anybody's surprised me for

like a party, for a party, yeah, okay, or like

a trip or something like that. Yeah, yeah, I think

I think my wife has done probably smaller things in

the past.

Yeah, Like she's listening, so she knows I'm accurate, Liz,

she knows I'm being accurate.

She has done things like, hey, h don't plan anything.

We're going somewhere for the weekend.

Well that's a surprise.

No, no, no, no, no surprise is holy cow. I did

not know that any of this was happening. I thought

we were going over Crystal Bell's house just to have

a normal dinner. I didn't know it was a surprise party.

That's what I'm talking about. That's different than saying don't

go anywhere. We're going somewhere this weekend, that that's not

a surprise. That's just a fun little thing.

That's a surprise. If she doesn't tell you where you're going, Okay,

then how can I just seems like you're not thankful

for the little surprise. You only want big surprises. From

this conversation, he despises the little surprises.

Well, then let you modify my claim and say it's

my only true, big reaction of being surprised.

Ever. Yes, wow, he lived fifty years, Yes to that moment. Yes,

I stumble through life mostly, so everything is a surprise

to me.

There you go first.

As far as birthday celebrations, Yeah, that's what the question is.

My fifth birthday? Uh, I only invited girls to my

birthday party?

Wow?

Yeah? And we went out for ice cream? Wow, Farrels

remember Farrell's ice cream?

Do you remember I was not around then?

Oh? Okay you went around then? Yes, you were. You're

older than me.

I was living in Youngstown, Ohio.

Okay, okay, you guys didn't have a Farrels downe where

you were in Okay?

Now, yeah, we had handles, which is better.

So it was me and a bunch of girls at

my fifth birthday party. Have an ice cream?

That sounds great?

Fun?

Yeah? All right. My second choice is when I surprised

my daughter Tory going to Disney World. At the time,

my wife was going somewhere.

So you never get surprises, but you oh, I.

Know, my wife was going to England to be with

Sarah because you know, Sarah was studying abroad at the time,

and then Stephen was going to Haiti, and so the

only two people left in the house were uh no, yeah,

because Sarah was in England, it was me and Tory.

So I decided to put a huge surprise party for

her and treat her to Disney World and so and

that was over my birthday as well. Wow, so that

was my second choice.

My sixteenth birthday, we invited we had a really big

youth group in a big church and we invited everybody

over to my house. You know, we had big chunk

of property. My parents really put it on and so nice.

I know, we had like one hundred and something teenagers

come over for my birthday party. That was a fun

that's cool.

Yeah, well it says three celebrations. So my third choice

is my my ninth year old birthday because I was

born on April fourth, and my brother Jim, who's just

a year and a week older than me, was born

on March twenty fifth, and so they would combine our birthdays, which,

in retrospect is a terrible idea. Terrible, right. I never

got my own party, never got my own cake. It

was always shared, right, man, Just a terrible idea.

You just sound miserable. You were fifty years old before

you ever had a surprise, and then you had to

share all your birthdays?

Are you ere?

This sounds so sad to me. You're selling your own story.

I'm listening. Listen to the joy between the play horrible.

I'm so sorry for you.

Okay, Comma. My ninth slash tenth birthday party with my

brother jim was very sweet, and looking back, I was saying, like,

I always hated sharing my birthday, but now that I'm older,

I like the fact that Jimmy and I share our birthdays.

Oh so I look back with fondness. And the reason

why I chose my ninth one is because I remember it,

first of all, and second of all, it was the

year before my mom and dad get divorced, so sort

of the last year.

Last year that we did that, we did that whole thing.

Oh sweet, I would say my last one is I

think my last themed birthday party. Yeah, I was like

ten or eleven, that's not true, and it was kind

of a well it was kind of a Star Wars thing.

But on my fiftieth birthday, there it is. My wife

surprised me and we had an Indiana Jones seemed birthday party. Yes, yeah,

so that was super and.

I was there for that. Yeah, and so that's why

it was.

It was almost forty years between themed birthday parties. But

it was great.

That's awesome. Not good for you. So hey, I think

that if my wife would have chosen a theme for

my fiftieth well, actually, now that I don't know what

it would be, I'm not sure.

Well, the way you've been telling all your stories today,

never any surprises had to show it. It'd be like

a sad clown thing.

I think Sellophae, mister sell of fame, to save my name. Anyway, No,

she would probably, honestly, probably.

Make it a movie themed movie.

Yeah, just movies in general, movies like superheroes.

Probably. She probably just thinks of you as a superhero.

Anyways, when we were back, we were on we were

on my porch. I'll show us real quick. We were

back on my back porch, you know, watching the birds.

That's what old people do now, yeah, and uh and

uh and we were talking started.

Talking about and that's what's next. If you're watching birds already, Oh,

that's next.

We're totally watching birds. And we were in the back

porch and I said, uh, I said something about John

Travolta and and I said, you do know that? Uh that?

And I just talked about pulp fiction, and I said,

you know, Quentin Tarantino resurrected John Travolta. I said, there's

a story behind that dance they did with Uma Thurman.

And I said, let me tell the whole context of

the story. And I told the whole story, and I

said it was John Travolta that actually, you know, said no,

let me, let me show you how they would dance,

and I said, became like this huge thing. And then

then the whole world was like, wow, John Travolta is cool,

even though we had aucastam. And I told her this

whole thing, and I'm excited about it right because it

was like so cool. It was like the resurrection of

John Travolta after people had outcast them. The entire time.

She's just staring at me. She's not even listening to

my story, and she goes, you know, Chris, I do

believe that God has you in ministry. This is her

response to my own Thurman John Travoltel story. She goes,

but if you wouldn't have gone in the ministry, I

have to believe that you would have been some sort

of a movie critic or director or something like this,

probably because I just because I just love great stories.

But yet that's what we do.

There you go. We tell the greatest story ever.

That's right on our weekend service. We creatively and artistically and

meaningfully tell the greatest story ever.

So, h Liz, if you ever try to think of

a good theme for a birthday party for Chris, I

think Greatest Showman is what I should be, because I mean,

what more do you want? I like singing and dancing,

and Zach Effron we just all in the same birthday party.

And Hugh Jackman Wolverine I like him too.

Yeah, so that's it's got it all right there for

you singing dancing.

Yeah, it's Greatest Showman was one of the best musicals ever.

There you go, So that'll be Chris's and I mean

Indiana Jones for me, Greatest Showman for you. Yes, seems

about right it sort of us Okay, here we go,

Psalm chapter one oh one. Again, the background on this

is just a touch murky. It seems to be early

in David's life, perhaps towards uh rate about now in

the storyline that we're telling, where it's just before he

becomes king or early as king, somewhere in that area.

He was a leader, he was pursuing God, uh, and

he desired greatness. But in God's context, right, that's that's

what he's praying for and leaning into, and he views

greatness as being godly. And so this seems to be

right about this time, either just before he becomes king

or just after book a Psalm, Book of Psalms, chapter

one oh one.

Hey, by the way, this is also very appropriate that

we're going into this because just last podcast yesterday, we

talked about, you know, statements about his life of wanting

to pursue God, a man being after God's own heart.

And this is a perfect psalm, you know, representing all

the many psalms that he wrote that are pretty similar

to this about him wanting to live a blameless life.

Because he almost had blood on his hands, right, right,

So it's kind of interesting that we're reading it here.

So in Psalm one O one, it says, I will

sing of your love and justice. Lord. I will praise

you with songs. I will be careful to live a

blameless life. When will you come to help me? I

will lead a life of integrity in my own home.

I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar.

I hate all who deal crookedly. I will have nothing

to do with them. I will reject perverse ideas and

stay away from every evil. I will not tolerate people

who slander their neighbors, and I will not endure conceit

and pride. I will search for faithful people to be

my companions. Only those who are above reproach will be

allowed to serve me. I will not allow deceivers to

serve in my house, and liars will not stay in

my presence. My daily time ask will be to ferret

out the wicked and free the city of the Lord

from their grip. Wow that's great, pretty committed.

Yeah, what a great line. He says, I will lead

a life of integrity in my own home. You know,

in wanting to live a blameless life. You know. Uh,

integrity is something that you know. I I remember one

one time I preached the message called the Rise of

Personal Integrity and uh, and it was all about uh, well,

it was technically about Daniel and and and basically what

I what I basically said was in this message, the

heart of it was something about when something is missing,

integrity is the one universal thing that can rise up

to fill in the gap. So for in other words,

like if you if your minus accountability in your life,

and all of a sudden there's nobody around, and so

you think about like, for instance, Daniel chapter three, he's

ripped from his home and all of a sudden he

gets thrown or Daniel won. Then you want where he

gets thrown, you know, captured by the Babylonians and uh,

and all of a sudden there's no accountability. You know,

there's there's no parents, right, there's no parents around, right.

So in the absence of accountability, what what what rises

up to the surface integrity? So what does he say, Hey,

I will not defile myself with the portion of the

King's meat, right, uh, in the in the portion of

the wine and everything else. And then then I was like, Hey,

what else is he missing? Well, he's also missing, you know,

and you know all these different things. And then but integrity,

if you think about it, it's sort of like own

negative blood, what kind of bloody yet?

I don't know what.

Have you had, like twenty two sets of stitches in

your life? Yeah, And so that kind of person being

in the hospital doesn't know their own blood type.

I don't. I don't know my blood.

You just don't want to be public.

No, I don't know my blood.

You don't want to say it outloud.

I don't know my blood.

I have a negative.

I don't know.

Okay, So I'm O positive okkay? But own negative and

oh positive, by the way, can can be uh. I

can donate the blood to several different types of people.

Good, well, I'll just keep you around.

There you go. But oh negative people are the universal

blood and oh negative can donate blood to anybody. So

if you if your own negative, chances are you get

Red Cross. The Red Cross is bugging the fire out

of you right saying please donate your blood as often

as you can, because they don't have to worry about

what do we have in stock? Oh negative rises up

and just you're able to any deficiency. Oh negative.

Wow.

And by the way that we're talking about the uh uh,

the proteins in your blood, we're talking about all the

different things that are needed specifically for every blood type,

it's all contained and oh negative. And that's the way

I feel like integrity is integrity is the one thing.

It's the universal donor that could rise up whatever you lack,

whatever's deficient in your life. Integrity takes care of all

of it, right, because that's what it is. When who

are you when nobody's looking? Right, That's that's David's sort

of David's motto, Right, you know who is he when

nobody's looking? And and you know what it is, it's

a person who praise that he has integrity. I would

be a man of integrity all of my life. And

in my home.

Yeah, in my home is the is the I think

the key there because that's you know, people, it's easy

to put on a good face out in public. It's

easy to be on your best behavior when you know

people are watching. It's who are you when nobody's watching?

Is right the key? And in your own home, and

that's that's where a lot of our failures happen is

at home, not not out in public, and so that's

that's huge. I think it's interesting he's talking about I'll

sing of your love and justice, Lord, I'll praise you

with songs. So in the context of his God, I

want to honor you with my life. I want to

be blameless with my life. I don't want a bunch

of wicked people around me. He starts off with art, right,

because art reflects the heart. The kind of music we

listen to really speaks to what we are on the inside.

You know, if all of your music and all of

your art that you're taking in, all the movies that

you're taking in our violence or sex or whatever, that's

really where your heart is. Your preferred art reflects what's

really in your heart. And so he's saying, God, I

want to be a blameless person. I'm gonna start off

worshiping you. Right, those two things are directly connected. A

lot of times people think, oh, well, you know it's

I'm not really a gangster, but I like gangster music,

or I'm not really you know, an alcoholic chasing skirts,

but I just like alcoholic chasing skirts songs, right, And

those aren't the same, right, it's not. I'm telling you,

as your heart and mind lean, that's the kind of

art that you're going to be attracted to. And so

if you find yourself rejecting art and music that pulls

you towards God, and instead you're pursuing more and more

art and music and things that are pursuing the flesh,

there's something in you right now that is leaning towards

the flesh and not towards the spirit.

Right. Well, it's very clear that you're influenced by whatever

comes in. So whatever you read, whatever you watch, whatever

kind of books you read, whatever kind of movies you watch.

You know, my son, I made the mistake of this

is not in the same vein, but it sort of is.

I made the mistake of letting him watch like shark

movies when he was really too young to watch shark movies.

And I don't know why, but I just thought, like, oh,

shark movies. You know, he's my only son. I got

two daughters, I got one son. Come on, son, let's

sit down and watch a shark movie. And now he

is just definitely, definitely, definitely afraid of the water. And

and you know, it's just you're going to be influenced

by what comes in on, even on even the smallest level.

So yeah, look you're talking about you know, if you

listen to you know, we're so old. We can actually

sit here. We're fifty something, right, so we can say, oh,

those that darn rap music, you know, we can say

things like that. But it is true that if you

sit under that influence and that's all you listen to,

your whole mentality is going to gravitate towards that mentality

because that's what you listen to and revere.

Yeah, I had a friend, an acquaintance who wanted to

talk about their mental health issues just a little bit.

And I wouldn't say we were talking on a clinical

level of talking more about their life was getting really

really heavy, right, And as we began to talk through,

she quoted the lyrics to a couple of songs that

really were speaking to her in the moment, and they

were like I want to kill myself kind of songs, right,

And I'm like, are you understanding? So you are leaning

in a negative place, but the art that you're letting

speak to you is already there. It's already in a

bad place. You need to go the other way. Run

from that, right, you run from that because it art

sucks you in. It pulls you towards the thing that

it's highlighting. And have you ever been in art gallery?

We were down in Detroit, the DA Detroit Institute of Art.

Yeah.

Yeah, and there's a big painting on the wall, this

big painting and the lightest fantastic. I forget who the

artist is. It's one of those light artists from back

in the Renaissance, and it's one of those that I

just I found myself. We were across the room and

I just kept getting closer and closer and closer and

closer to it, which is exactly what that painting was

designed to do. Right the way the light was coming down,

it pulls you into a point on this giant painting.

It's pulling you there, and I wanted to see the detail.

There's more detail, right, So the details in the darkness

was kind of vague. You were aware that they were there,

but you were being pulled into this the what the

artist really wanted you to focus on. And that's what

art does is whatever the focus is, it pulls you

into that thing and you become more and more and

more and more and more of what you're taking in.

And so he starts off that way. This is how

he says, God, I want to live a life of integrity.

And he starts off with songs, and then he says,

I'm going to refuse to even look at anything vileent, vulgar.

I hate people who are dealing crookedly. I'm not going

to have anything to do with them. I'm going to

reject perverse ideas. I'm going to stay away from every evil.

I'm not going to tolerate people who are lying about

their neighbors. I'm not going to endure, conceit or price.

What he's saying is I'm choosing completely and totally to

reject everything that's going to challenge my integrity.

And by the way, people people are pretty tolerating in

this in this culture. Yeah, toleration seems to be something

that you know, we're like, well, culture demands it, and

so therefore we have to tolerate.

But I'm rejecting it completely.

Says I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors,

going to tolerate bad culture, you know, negative things.

I'll have nothing to do with people who deal crookedly.

Oh well, you know that's just how my my industry

does David goes, not my industry, well, he says.

He says the very next line, I will search for people.

Excuse me, I will search for faithful people to be

my companions.

Only those who are above reproach.

Yes. Yeah, And by the way, how important is that

you know to surround your people, surround your surround yourself

with with people who you want to be like that

are good examples. You know. I had a conversation with

a friend last night and he was actually contemplating, you know,

some big choices like these are like you know, you

know there's only a few categories of big choices about jobs,

and you know where do I move? And and you

know where do I go? And all these different types

of things. And as he's contemplating that, I ended up

ultimately not thinking that I was really gonna offer this advice.

I thought, well, I'm gonna sit back and I'm just

gonna listen. I'm gonna nod my head and say, well,

pray about it. Whenever you think I was convinced that's

I was going to say. But I just got to

the point to where I just said, life is too

short to not to surround yourself with people who you love.

Life is too short to be around people who are

who are not good and you could try your very

best to give it your shot, you know, to place

yourself in an environment where people are crooked and people

are perverse and people are not you know, this way

or this way that way. Life's too short, man. Surround

yourself with people that are that are godly, that you love,

that will encourage you, that'll make you happy in the

good ways, not in the just the superficial ways, and

the meaningful ways, in the right ways. It's like that.

That's that's what God wants.

Yep. It's possible to do your business with integrity. It is.

It is possible. Now you might be in a company

that doesn't have any integrity. Hey, change right, I would

say it's possible to do all of your business with

it unless you're in the mafia. Right. If you're in mafia,

well maybe you can't do your business with integrity, but

everything else you can do your business with integrity. Change

And if you can't in the company with change your company.

It's the same thing with your friends. It's possible to

have friends that are like He's saying, I'm going to

search out faithful people to be my companions. It's possible

for you to surround yourself with art that is positive

instead of negative. It's you know, you're driving down the

road and you're listening to the radio. You're choosing who

your companion is in that moment. Right, it's some drunk

that's cheating on his wife, or it's somebody who's pointing

you to Jesus. Right, those are your choices there, somebody

looking for revenge or somebody looking to do good with

their life.

This is what he's.

Saying is in this moment, I'm making some choices so

that i can live a blameless life. I'm making choices

so I can live with integrity. I'm making choices that

very clearly fare it out literally, he says, to ferret

out the wicked and to free the city from the

grip of wicked people. He said, I'm going to choose

in my home and in my life that I'm going

to do the right thing, and to be honest with you,

all of those are a choice. None of those are God,

you got to do some miracle to make this happen.

He said, I'm making daily choices for these things that happen,

the people I hang around, the choices I make, the

things I look at, the things I concentrate on, even

the art that's coming into my life. I'm choosing in

every way to make God be the focus of my life.

And that's what's going to set him up to be

a person of integrity even when he's at home alone.

That's great. Well, so there it is. So we end

the chapter with the lesson of you know, resolve in

your heart. Now right, make a choice. Now, this is

the kind of person I will be. This is the

kind of person I will never be or you know,

nuts no longer be, no longer be maybe perhaps, And

then I'm going to surround myself with the kind of people.

They're going to encourage me, pull me in the right direction,

push me in the right direction, and people are gonna,

you know, influence me in the right ways. So what

a great song? Is great and that's all the time

that we have. So we will see you next time,

hopefully on the bibble guys,