Enough!

The Super Bowl is now a memory.
I am not a huge sports fan.
I am usually quite indifferent…unless a hometown team is playing.

There is always so much publicity before the big game.
Interviews, back stories, possible outcome scenarios.
There is always so much hype surrounding the Super Bowl commercials.
The outlandishly expensive cost of 3o seconds of advertising.
One source reported that 3o seconds of advertising this year cost $3.5 million dollars!

I was doing other things when the Super Bowl was televised, but I could hear the game and the commercials in the background.
Some commercials I wish I hadn’t heard…and many I am glad I didn’t see!
A few brought me into the room; however, and touched my heart!

The day after the big game there are always the pundits, the reviews, the public opinion.
Many objected to the offensiveness of the commercials and the inappropriateness of the half-time show.

What God instituted…man deconstructs.
What God defines in His Word…man redefines in arrogance.
What God holds up in purity as a gift for a husband and wife…man cheapens, and stomps on, and uses for his own pleasure and gain.

Our culture is sexually satiated.
We find it hard to imagine the incredible sweetness of wholesomeness.

Family friendly means nothing anymore on network television.
Young children have the potential to be exposed to things they are far too young to see.
Families are choosing not to have TV, or they are limiting their viewing to their own DVD collections or specific family movies.

Whenever I think about the effect of the culture on our children, I am reminded of this children’s song:

Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.
Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little eyes what you see.

Oh, be careful little ears what you hear.
Oh, be careful little ears what you hear.
For the Father Up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little ears what you hear.

Oh, be careful little hands what you do.
Oh, be careful little hands what you do.
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little hands what you do.

Oh, be careful little feet where you go.
Oh, be careful little feet where you go.
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
So be careful little feet where you go.

Oh, be careful little heart whom you trust.
Oh, be careful little heart whom you trust.
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little heart whom you trust.

We, as parents, must help our children in the pursuit of righteousness.
It is not how much they can be exposed to…but how much they can be protected from.

It’s as if someone has opened the floodgates of decadence and depravity and a tsunami of immorality has flooded our nation.

As the Israelites wandered through the desert wilderness, they grumbled to Moses about not having all the meat and food they wanted.
They grumbled and reminded Moses that they had everything they wanted in Egypt.

Had they forgotten that they were slaves in Egypt?
The Lord was gracious and provided food: manna each morning and quail each evening.
They still were not satisfied.
They still grumbled.

The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten, or twenty days, but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it – because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”
(Numbers 11:18-20)

Food is a gift from the Lord.
However, we can hoard and obsess and become gluttonous over such a gift.

Sex is a gift from the Lord.
However, we can abuse and cheapen and distort such a gift.

We are not much different from the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings.
Rejecting God for our own pleasure and fulfillment.
The gift God instituted…within His loving limits and boundaries…begins to disgust us when we disobediently remove those boundaries.

We think we know better!
We have a no holds barred attitude.
Our satiation point is reached.

Once a satiation point is reached, people usually search for alternatives.
We, His people…His church…must point others to Him.
Point others to Him…NOT as an alternative…but as the only answer.

Hold out a better way.
Say “No” to ungodliness.
Gather together…as God’s people…have the courage to say “Enough!”

The children’s song applies to all of us.
We are His children, after all…made in His image.
Satan does all he can to distort the beautiful image of God in us.

We can shut the floodgates of indecency and immorality with prayer and action!
Rise up, oh people of God!
It is time to say, “Enough!”