Lovers of Pleasure

262, - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Ti 3:1-4, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,” (2 Tim 3:1-4) Again, we have been in the “last days” ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and we will be in the “last days,” until He returns. These traits will pop up in the church on occasion and will sap the strength out of the church.....the church loses it's power, and you can see why! It loses it's distinction as it blends in with the ways of the world. There will be times when Christians will love pleasure more than God! A lover of pleasure definitely has sexual overtones, but it is not limited to eroticism. It is anything that pleases the senses, anything that seeks to gratify us more than God! This is not the only place this warning appears in the New Testament! Jude 1:4 says, “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 1:17-19 says, “ But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” We live in sensuous times, but let not the church be driven by sensuality! Let our satisfaction and gratification be in Christ alone! He alone can gratify the ever thirsting soul! Sensual pleasures are temporary and you will always need more and more to satisfy, but that isn't the case with Jesus! When He met the Samaritan woman at the well, who was looking for gratification in all the wrong places He said, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (JN 4:13,14) In these “last days,” seek to be gratified and filled by the Shepherd and you shall not want!