Are Christians missing out when they give up worldly pleasures?
No. Christians are not missing out when they forgo worldly pleasures. Their appetite has shifted to spiritual things, which last forever, while worldly pleasures are brief. The world may think believers are missing out, but their true position and blessings are in Christ in the heavenlies.
Les teaches that giving up worldly pleasures is not a loss because the believer’s appetite has changed. He illustrated this by telling a man he would be as miserable in the man’s saloon on Saturday night as the man would be in church on Sunday morning; that is no longer the believer’s appetite. The Lord has given enough insight that spiritual things last forever, not just for seventy years. In contrast, entertainers and wealthy athletes cannot enjoy the fast lane very long; the body cannot take it, and they reach fifty with their health shot, asking what for. Believers may shun those things, not because they are missing them—though the world thinks they are—but because their heavenly position comes to the fore: spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, seated in the heavenlies in Christ. Les then ties this to I Corinthians 12:12 and the members of that one body.