What God’s People Have Allowed Entertainment to Become

Several months ago, I rediscovered Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and their movies. Since that rediscovery, I have watched just about every one of their movies that I have been able find on YouTube. Something that is quite interesting to me about those movies is this: To my knowledge, there is not one word of blasphemy or profanity to be found in even one of Roy's more-than-ninety movies. Out of the large number of his movies that I have seen, I have only counted four kissing scenes, and they were very short and almost hidden. As if this were not interesting enough, there's more.

Roy and Dale did not come to know the Lord until sometime within the year of 1948. Roy started making movies in '38. By the time they came to know the Lord, they had already made the majority of their movies. In fact, I just counted and Roy had made sixty-nine movies before that time. It is obvious that all of the immorality was not left out because of some conviction Roy or Dale had, but because of the convictions of someone else. And no doubt, most people back then would not have even considered for one split second watching a movie like the ones we see today.

So why is this generation so much different? I personally think that it is because at some point in time, God's people sat down, so to speak. When are we going to get back up? When are we going to again start letting our convictions mold society, instead of letting society mold our convictions?

I believe that there are enough born-again believers to make a complete change in the entertainment industry. But how do we do it? There are three things that one must know in order to fix a problem: Who created the problem? How did they create the problem? And what has allowed the problem to exist?

First of all, who did create the problem? Was it Hollywood? No! It was God’s people. That leads us into our second question.

Now that we know that God’s people are the ones who created the problem of ungodly entertainment, we must ask ourselves how they did it. Well, they simply let their guard down. If I have a dog in an invisible fence, there is a device attached to his collar that will let him know when he is about to cross over a certain boundary. But suppose one day I turn off the power to the invisible fence. Sure, the dog will stay in the fence for a while. That is until he realizes that nothing is going to happen when he crosses over the boundary. One day that dog is going to accidentally cross over the boundary line and nothing will happen. Although he may not wander far that day, he is going to get out again. And eventually when that dog feels like that fence will never again be turned on, he is going to roam all over the place. This leads us into our third question.

What has allowed the problem to continue? God’s people have failed to speak up for the truth. We learned in the above paragraph that the problem was caused by God’s people letting their guard down. What has allowed the problem to continue is what happened after that as a result of that. Because God’s people let their guard down, Hollywood eventually made a mistake. And when no one corrected that mistake, Hollywood made more and more and more mistakes until the whole thing spun out of control.

There is but one way to fix it all: God’s people need to wake up! Second Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” There is a healing, folks! There is a healing for this nation. There is a healing for the family. And there is a healing for you. Will you wake up and stand guard?

In order to truly fix the problem, however, one must first want to fix it. And it order to want to fix the problem, one must realize the severity of the problem. What will happen if this problem is not resolved? Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death.” The ways of sin can only bring death and destruction. The ways of Jesus can only bring life eternal.

Satan has designed the entertainment industry of today to defile and destroy the soul. That is his sole purpose. As Adrian Rogers used to say, “what the devil can get you to laugh at, you will never take seriously again.” If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, you cannot take this issue seriously. Jesus is the only one who can give you a new heart and new desires. And if you are a child of God and you have saturated your life with the things of this world, you need to get on your knees and beg God for mercy and ask Him to change you and help you to live a life that is pleasing to Him in every way.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord of your life today, please turn completely from all sin and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. If you do that, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.