Tampa Bay Rays apologize for Avril Lavigne

TMZ reported: According to local reports, Avril’s mic didn’t work at the start of her show … and she responded to the cavalcade of boos by yelling obscenities at crowd.

Rays rep Rick Vaughn tells TMZ, “The Rays demand profanity-free performances from all of our concert performers and we are extremely disappointed by the language used in last night’s show. It is not consistent with the family-friendly atmosphere that Tropicana Field is known for.”

Calls to Lavigne’s rep were not returned.

My former pastor Adrian Rogers used to call cursing the fool’s sin because you get nothing out of it. 

In George Whitefield’s sermon, “The Heinous Sin of Profane Cursing and Swearing,” he notes:

As there is no temptation to it, so there is no pleasure or profit to be reaped from the commission of it. Ask the drunkard why he rises up early to follow strong drink, and he will tell you, because it affords his sensual appetite some kind of pleasure and gratification, though it be no higher than that of a brute. Inquire of the covetous worldling, why he defrauds and over-reaches his neighbor, and he has an answer ready; to enrich himself, and lay up goods for many years. But it must certainly puzzle the profane swearer himself, to inform you what pleasure he reaps from swearing: for alas! it is a fruitless tasteless thing that he sells his soul for. But indeed he does not sell it at all: in this case he prodigally gives it away (without repentance) to the devil; and parts with a blessed eternity, and runs into everlasting torment, merely for nothing.

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Avril Lavigne’s song “I’m with you” was a song that I really got a lot of when it first came out. It seemed to me to be a song that was searching for a greater meaning in life.

Take a look at this clip:

Here are the lyrics:

I’m standing on a bridge
I’m waiting in the dark
I thought that you’d be here by now
There’s nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I’m listening but there’s no sound

Isn’t anyone tryin to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home
It’s a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I… I’m with you
I’m with you

I’m looking for a place
I’m searching for a face
Is anybody here I know
‘Cause nothing’s going right
And everything’s a mess
And no one likes to be alone

Isn’t anyone trying to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home
It’s a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I… I’m with you
I’m with you

Oh why is everything so confusing
Maybe I’m just out of my mind
Yea yea yea

It’s a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I… I’m with you
I’m with you,
Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I… I’m with you
I’m with you,
Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I… I’m with you
I’m with you
I’m with you…

_____________________________

Look at these phrases from the song:

Isn’t anyone tryin to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home…
Trying to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new…
I’m looking for a place
I’m searching for a face
Is anybody here I know
‘Cause nothing’s going right
And everything’s a mess
And no one likes to be alone

Oh why is everything so confusing
Trying to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new

Isn’t anyone trying to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home
____________________

Avril has been searching  and trying to find out how to figure out life, but she will not find meaning “under the sun.” She must look above the sun and bring God back into the picture.

Three thousand years ago, Solomon took a look at life “under the sun” in his book of Ecclesiastes. Christian scholar Ravi Zacharias has noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term ‘under the sun.’ What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system, and you are left with only this world of time plus chance plus matter.”

Let me show you the inescapable conclusion you will come to if you choose to live without God in the picture. Solomon came to this same conclusion when he looked at life “under the sun.”

1. Nothing in life gives true satisfaction without God including knowledge (1:16-18), ladies and liquor (2:1-3, 8, 10, 11), and great building projects (2:4-6, 18-20).

By the way, the final chapter of Ecclesiastes finishes with Solomon emphasizing that serving God is the only proper response of man. Solomon looks above the sun and brings God back into the picture.  I am hoping that Avril Lavigne will also come to that same conclusion that Solomon came to concerning the meaning of life and man’s proper place in the universe in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:
13 Now all has been heard;
       here is the conclusion of the matter:
       Fear God and keep his commandments,
       for this is the whole duty of man.

 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
       including every hidden thing,
       whether it is good or evil

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I further recommend that Avril Lavigne and others in the Tampa Bay area check out Idlewild Baptist where Ken Whitten is pastor.

Contact Idlewild

Main office phone: 813-264-1515

Email:ibc@idlewild.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Office hours: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday 

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 44, Lutz, FL 33548