Once again this week I found myself yelling at my TV, “Enough with this story already!” Have you noticed how the news media in recent years have found themselves obsessed with certain stories? Day after day, week after week, they pour over every detail, explore every facet and just when you think nothing more can be said, they start in again. Why do they do it? The answer is simple, people will watch it. As much as we cry foul, ratings go thru the roof over such stories because people become fascinated and demand more. So the news delivers what they want, even though it has no real news value anymore. It happens in religion as well. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4, we read, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” People often grow weary of truth and reality and instead want to turn to myth and self serving doctrine. And there will always be those that are willing to oblige their desires. We must be careful that what we seek in our religion is not just what we want, but what we need.
In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
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