What You LIKE vs. What is IMPORTANT

2 Tim. 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

Acts 17:20-21 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

Someone said, “You can observe a lot by watching.” Well, after watching Christians during my thirty-four years in the ministry, I’ve observed a few things. One thing I’ve observed is Christians are more interested in what they like, than what is important. They like to attend church services that are entertaining and easy to sit through. They like services that make no demands on them personally. They like comfortable services without any challenge to leave their “comfort zone.” They like services that tickle their emotions with warm fuzzy feelings, instead of enduring the drudgery of sound doctrine.

Isaiah must have had this crowd in mind when he wrote, “That this is a rebellious people… children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things” (Isa. 30:9-10). Too many Christians want a “smoothie” religion rather than a serious religion. The prophet Amos wrote, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1).

What is important to you? Being entertained or being exhorted to do something that will glorify God eternally? Are you merely doing what you like, or what is truly important? Wouldn’t it be great if what you like and what is important were both the same thing?

A portion of an article by Pastor Al Hughes