Have you ever noticed how entertainers—from Nelly and Avril Lavigne to current pop stars—can totally influence what you wear and how you act? In this week’s message in our series, What does God say about Entertainment?, we explore how the activities that divert us and hold our attention end up impacting our lives—often without us even realizing it.

We look at the importance of the "entryway of entertainment"—guarding your eye and ear gates—because whatever you put in is eventually going to come out. If our lifestyle is becoming less like Jesus, it's a sign that our gates have been open too long and too much of the world is coming in. We address the danger that occurs when sin starts looking normal and holiness looks extreme.

Crucially, we draw a distinction: you can't always control the exposure to culture, but you can always control what you entertain.

We also dive deep into what happens when we use entertainment as an escape of entertainment. When we're stressed, we often disperse ourselves (the original meaning of the word used for entertainment by early Christian writers) instead of bringing our whole person—heart, soul, mind, and strength—to Jesus for rest. This dispersion means we're only putting a "pause" on our stress, not solving the problem. Over time, the effect of entertainment is that we start entertaining the old person we claimed died at the cross. Be careful not to allow a habit to form where immorality becomes your stress reliever. Instead, let's fix our thoughts on things that are true, honorable, right, and pure (Philippians 4:8).