There is a blues song, (Stormy Monday by the Allman Brothers) that kind of sums up the week for many. Its lyrics in part are as follows:
“Stormy Monday”
They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday’s just as bad.
They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday’s just as bad.
Lord, and Wednesday’s worse
And Thursday’s all so sad.
The eagle flies on Friday,
Saturday I go out to play.
The eagle flies on Friday,
Saturday I go out to play.
Sunday I go to church,
Gonna kneel down and pray.
Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy on me.
Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy on me . . .
Hmmm . . . That is a great song and likely true for most people. It describes the week and how the average Joe approaches it. Practically no one shows up on time to work on Mondays because they celebrated too much over the weekend. Tuesdays aren’t much better with Wednesday being worse. Thursday is sad. (Good grief that is almost the full week!) But Friday we get paid and that means Saturday we can go out to play. Sundays are for going to church and getting down on our knees (likely to pray for forgiveness for what all we did on Saturday).
I have seen this pattern replicate itself on more than one occasion with the possible exception of people going to church and getting down on their knees to pray; they seem to want to continue to play and not pray. If you doubt this perhaps you should build a house where you must rely on workers and the only one that shows up on stormy Monday morning is you. The average Joe just seems to live this life with no regard for God. Some might come to church on Sunday, but they are just pew fillers with hangovers for the most part.
I hate to come off as sounding cynical, but I know that it is the norm for millions of people, and I would counter that it is just being practical and realistic to discuss this problem. Don’t get me wrong I do believe in having a good time, but my idea about having a good time is different than others who aren’t happy unless their mind is muddled up. So many folks just seem to like to play too much.
So the question is, how does one reach these people for the Lord? I had a female employee who told me that everyone needed “something”. She didn’t think she could have a good time without being drunk or stoned out of her mind. I tried trying to talk her down off the ledge, but it did not work. I took her with us to a convention along with several other employees and discovered that the very first night she got drunk and was standing on a table in a mini skirt dancing and then a food fight broke out with people throwing food at each other. She came walking into the convention center two hours late and was wearing blue sunglasses. You can imagine what I told her – It wasn’t pretty.
Well, the eagle flies today since it’s Friday. That means many of you will get paid today. I’m praying that someone will read this and refrain from keeping the pattern laid out by this song. You can have fun being a Christian and follower of Christ. In fact, it is more joyful than anyone can imagine.” Revilers must learn to see their sin the way God does. Do you party? No, I am not talking about the innocent and enjoyable get-togethers of friends and family with food, games and conversations. This work of the flesh refers to partying in a wild, uncontrolled, and immoral manner. The Greek word translated “revelries” in Galatians 5:21 is komos and is defined as “excessive and boisterous intemperance and lustful indulgence.” In other words, this is what we could call hard partying.
Romans 13:13
“Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.”
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!