Everyday Disciple in the Digital World

Message Transcription

With that in mind, we're going to dive in this morning. We're talking every day, disciple. And of course, Carl gives me every day disciple in the digital world. Thanks, Karl. I really appreciate that. But last week, Karl also mentioned a character that you might have just, like, forgotten about. It stuck with me for the entire week. Super Christian. So Tim is going to flash up a picture of what Super Christian looked like the eighties comic. Trust me, I was rocking Berit to sleep last Sunday and I got to thinking I had my AirPods in and I was like, I'm going to watch it. Don't watch it. Church It's terrible. It's really rough. Carlson Karl told you? He told you. So we go in. This guy's, like, rude to his parents. He doesn't really care about the way that he treats other people. And then all of a sudden, he's super Christian. I don't even know what you call the outfit that this guy is wearing, but church, I needed you to know that I watch it so that you wouldn't have to. But also, in case you were wondering if you left last week and you were really concerned about what Super Christian looked like. Don't worry, I did the homework for you, and we don't ever have to do it again. We'll just. We'll just be ourselves. We're not going to be the eighties cartoon rendition of what this looks like.

So I want you church to to think about your everyday life as we're talking about what it looks like to be an everyday disciple. I want you to think about your morning. I do this a lot. I do this with my students. I'm going to ask you to do the same. You guys probably hate it when I preach because you're always like, Brian makes us close our eyes and thinks about stuff. I just kind of want to get to that point in the sermon where I don't have to. But if you would just close your eyes and I want you to think, what is the first thing that you do every single morning? Do you check your bank account to see what subscriptions have come out that night? Because same feels like a new one every single day. Do you check Facebook? Because there's lots of notifications that are popping up on your phone. If you're like me, you might even have a ring system. The other night at like 11:00, someone dropped an Amazon package off at our house, and I was freaking out a little bit because I knew I didn't have an Amazon package. And so I like check in the morning. I was like, Oh, this looks really creepy. Well, I find out it's just my neighbor, but he's got like a headlamp on. He kind of looks like a burglar, but I'm checking in the morning and I'm trying to alleviate the fear of the world around me.

But truthfully, church when I look at my phone most times there's ESPN announcements, there's announcements from the athletic, lots of sports things, and I immediately go and look at those things. So what do you look at first thing in the morning? You don't have to say it out loud. But what do you do? What does that say about you? The first thing that you look at in the morning? For me, I'll tell you what I do. I look at the clock because most of the time it's before my alarm wakes up and Baird is awake and I look over at Sarah and we go, Who's going first? All right. So for like, this morning, it was 30 minutes. I go, who's going first? She goes, It's your morning. I said, okay, how long? 30 minutes. I come back in after 30 minutes. She goes, I need five more minutes. So I give her five more minutes and then I, you know, we do the switch out thing and at that time we're trying to be intentional with our son. We're trying to love on him to spend time with him. And in the mornings, as most of you know, babies can be pretty excitable. They're excited to see their parent for the very first time. What if that same joy and enthusiasm is what invaded us in the morning? So Tim's going to flash a slide up here.

I did just a little bit of research, not not as much as I did last time, but out of all the people in the world, you're one of them. And there's about 7 billion people on this planet. 2.9 billion people have a registered Facebook account. Instagram kind of integrated with them probably a year, 18 months ago to where a lot of those are connected. So if you're on Facebook or Instagram, there will be an option for you to share your post to both of those things. They ask me every single time that I share something on my story, share something in a in a photo and say, Do you want to share to this other site? I'd be like, Heck, yeah, I want to share to the other side. I want everyone to see how cute my son is, or I want everyone to see how awesome our student ministry is. Those are normally the two things. And then Twitter, which is my personal favorite, has 396.5 million people on there. I just want you to raise your hand if you have one of those. All right. Keep your hands raised if you have two of those. Keep your hand raised if you have three of those. Man. Look at all you sinners in the room. You all have all of those things. Hey, but guess what? You're in really good company.

You're exactly like me. And, man, I really wish that we could. I could. I could stop right here at this moment, because, like was said before, man worship got to me today. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful God that we get to serve. And I wish that we could just stop right there to let that be the truth of this. But we've got to be challenged today as well. Church. When I first started in ministry, there was a book that came out by the Barna Group. Karl mentioned them last week. They do phenomenal, phenomenal research. So much so that I spent more money this week on an access that would give me to all of their reports that they've done over like the last ten years. The book that came out was called Faith for Exiles, and I speak to you today as what they would call a digital native. So everybody kind of be like, All right, what is Brian saying? He's a digital native. I'm going to spell it out for you. Some of us are digital natives and some of us are digital exiles. I'm a digital native because I grew up with a smartphone for most of my life. So on the screen up here, Tim's flashes up. This is the average amount of screen time that Gen Z. Now this is just Gen Z.

I had a parent come and talk to me about their Gen Z student and their technology earlier today. Trust me, this is true and what I've learned about these things, these are also learned behaviors. This isn't just something that they magically start to look at their phone and be like, This is something that I'm addicted to. This is something that is assigning my value. A lot of times they look at the world around us and they even look in their own homes, and that's part of the problem. Now, mind you, this is just on a smartphone. I do a lot of work on my laptop throughout the day, so I'm going to add maybe another 4 hours of time on my laptop. So, you know, I'm not a young adult. I just barely missed that mark. I had a birthday recently, actually. I missed it by quite a bit, but our average screen time, according to the Barna Group, is 12.6 hours a day. More than half of your day is spent staring at a screen of some sort. So I want you to think about when you're looking at your screen and you think about the first thing you see in the morning. What value is that giving to your life? What way is that shaping your identity? For me, when I go check the message boards about college football, I find myself being sad because you all know what team I root for.

I start my day with sadness and despair. Tears sometimes. And those aren't even caused by my family. That's just caused by what I look at first thing and starts to say something about me. I'm reminded of a couple of group chats that I'm in with camp and stuff. Kids are wild these days. They will say any number of things to get attention. When you look at your social media, when you look at your screens, I see a lot of people seeking attention. I see a lot of people speaking, seeking affirmation and seeking identity. Nod your head if you can agree with some of those statements. Nod your head if you've gone to a digital screen instead of another human being to find validation. Later on, there's going to be another snippet that's up here that I hope somber. Just a little bit today to reflect, to put things down. And to have a little bit more of a candid conversation I mentioned to our students today. We were talking in Hebrews 11. We went to that Hall of Fame of faith today of these are the people that you can go to in Scripture, this historical book with verified truth into it and say, This is it. This is how I know that God is real. This is the way that He's overcome in the lives of others. I'm going to guess that whenever you get into an argument of some sort, maybe that's a faith based argument and you're on the Internet, because let's be honest, that's the best place to have a debate about God is on Facebook.

And trust me, I've seen some of you guys and I've seen some of my other fellow Christians, and they do the exact same thing, not necessarily the best battle ground for us to go to war, because our words and our actions mean so much more. Because whenever you say, Well, why do you do this, this or this? And I say, Well, the Bible tells me so. It looks like I just jumped out of a time machine. Right? This is not the authority to which people render to today. We in this room live by that word. Nod your head. If you live by that word, I'm going to make sure that everybody's paying attention today like we all believe the truth of scripture, right? Lean to the person next to you and say, I believe in the Bible. Great. There's resilient people in this room who still believe that church, the world around us does not necessarily subscribe to that exact same notion. And so they look to your words and they look to your actions. If they look to your social media, what would they find? And I'm not saying you need to post a Bible verse every single day so that people know that.

I don't think that that's the most beneficial vessel for us to. Create other Christians to help others walk along this path. If you do that, that's awesome. And I hope that blesses and encourages someone's life during the day. But our actions and our words speak so much more. And so those actions, in those words that we look to are the words of Jesus. So let's jump back in to March 12 versus 28 through 31. One of the teachers of the law came to came and heard them debating notice that Jesus had given them a good answer, not a great answer, okay? Not one that was beneficial or suitable. So what he does is he I like to use like the thumb of oppression. He's got his thumb right here and he's going to press down on Jesus and say, I have more knowledge than you. I have more authority than you because of my standing in the temple. So I need a great answer. And he says, Of all the commandments, which one is the most important? And Jesus simply responds, The most important one answered, Jesus is this. And you've all heard this hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one love, the Lord Your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all of your strength. We're going to pause just right there. A couple of weeks ago, we were talking with our students about what it looks like to love God and love people.

And we use these exact same verses. And we spent two weeks about that. Lots of practicality behind that. Talk to some of our students about it. They would love to share the ways that they're going to love God and love people well in the society today that desperately needs it. When you love God with all your soul, I equate it to like the engine of your car. There's 18,000 other pieces of your car that have to run really well. And you need to ask Mitch Morgan about those things, because I came up with a bunch I was like brake lines and transmission lines and it needs fluid and oil, but I don't know all of that stuff. If you ask me to fix it on your car, I'm sorry. You're going to die on your way down the road. I just don't trust me to do that. But go trust your friend Mitch Morgan. He knows what it's like to work on the car. When you love God with your soul, all those other things really start to trickle down. You can learn what it looks like to have a mind that is shaped and loved by Jesus. So you love the Lord, your God, with all your strength. And then he follows by saying. In verse 31.

The second is this Love your neighbor as yourself. There's no greater commandment than this. Raise your hand if you know your neighbor. The person who lives next to you. Sadly, I met my neighbor two weeks ago. They told us yesterday they're moving. They were the best neighbors we ever had. We never talked to them. You know, we just kind of hung out and vibed. And then they're like having a garage and I'm like, Hey, why are you having a garage sale? Oh, we bought a house in Bell Farms, so we're out of here. Oh, that's pretty sad. And then our neighbor's next door to us, the ones that most recently moved in were really loud and grilling. So, first off, they I'm angry. They didn't invite me out for the grilling, but they wanted to yell. So a little bit of that. But there's no greater commandment than this that you simply would love your neighbor. And I'm not just talking about the person who lives right next door to you. I wish it were that easy. Because then we could just not like everybody else. Person doesn't like the same sports team. We do great. They don't like Italian food or pizza. Great. I don't have to have you in my life at all. But we have to love our neighbor as we love ourselves in church. I want to just challenge you again this morning. Are the things that you're a slave to.

And I'm talking about that screen, not saying that all the time. That's necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you're using it for productivity, sometimes you're using it to communicate with other people. You might argue that you're using it to communicate with other people. I'm going to argue that you might send a text message, but you might stay on your phone just a tad bit longer than you actually thought that you would like. That happened to me yesterday. Barrett was taking a nap, and there were a couple of things that I needed to get done. I thought, I'll just I'll read this one. I'll read this one article and I read the one article and I was like, Oh, that made me think about another one. And so then I read the other article and I was like, Don't worry, I'll wash the bottle after I've read the second article. I put the needs of myself above the needs of the other people in my home and didn't accomplish a task that I necessarily needed to get done. The truth of it is, is that these things begin to inform our identity and we've become a slave to what's convenient and what's comfortable, instead of challenging ourselves to the deeper truth. That we need people. I need everybody in this room to be a part of my life. There's a reason you're a member here at Broadway.

There's a reason that you're plugged in in the areas that you are. I can't do what Gary Moyers does. Remember, I already told you all that you don't want me up here seeing it. And our books are going to be fried if I have to look at our books and also if I have to preach every week. Carl, I don't know how much longer I'm going to last here. I just don't know how these people receive the the digital native. But the truth of it is, guys, is that we all have these gifts and they're all different. But when it's as simple as love your neighbor as yourself. Is your life reflective of that? Because oftentimes we put those roadblocks in. Just one more article. Just one more Facebook. And then before we know it, 12.6 hours of our day is gone. And I'm assuming most of us get 8 hours of sleep. Nod your head. If you don't get 8 hours of sleep, I get like six maybe. That means, like, 6 hours of my day are meant to pour into somebody else. That feels like a really short amount of time. And some of you parents who your kiddos are growing up right now or you're a grandparent and you're watching your young ones sprout up, you might even be sending your kid off to college this week. Your kid might be starting their first week of high school, their first week of middle school.

In your eye, where has the time gone? Have I done enough talk to about a little bit of that on Senior Sunday. So in this identity crisis that our screens have caused us to to run to and assign value and identity to. When you're struggling to formulate what it looks like, what Scripture says, I want you to turn to second Corinthians five, verse 16. It's going to be up on the screen, but go ahead and turn there in your Bible, because I guarantee you that there's going to be a moment where you need to jump to this. And Tim, let's actually go back one slide. This was the one that I had mentioned just a little bit ago from this Barna group. I don't know why that slide made us go. Oh, silly up here. Look at this, agree strongly and agree somewhat. And I want you to just look at these things. I use social media to stay informed. I feel incomplete without my phone. I feel better about myself. If people I interact with my social media profile a lot, I compare myself to other people, I fixate on the details of my posts. I worry about how people might respond to my point of view. I wish that I spent less time on social media. I feel bad about how much time I spend on social media.

I feel insecure when people don't like or comment enough on my posts. I am a digital native like I told you, I grew up with this. I'm going to agree with every single one of those statements I remember in high school and even in college, making sure the caption on a photo was right, making sure all of these different things matched up to get the maximum amount of likes. I will be honest with you, church. I once got less than 50 likes on an Instagram post, so I deleted it because I wanted people to see that I had posts worthy of lots of likes. The world told me that I was x number of likes, x number of comments, x number of people interacting with me based on the thing that I posted. And I think the same is true for you on some level. You might have not grown up in this world, but our world today is being shaped by these things. And so when we're trying to assign value to someone, Tim's going to put up second Corinthians five now, verse 16. So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Therefore, we don't care about your social media status. We don't care if you're married, divorced, have multiple kids with different husbands and wives. We don't care what job you work. That doesn't matter anymore. We do not regard you from the worldly point of view, though we once regarded Christ in this same way because we crucified him.

We put him on the cross and he died because we put him in the worldly point of view. We do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone and the new is here. All of this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the Ministry of Reconciliation. That was God reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And He committed to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are Christ ambassadors. Though God was making His appeal through us, we implore each of you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. All of this comes from God. Guys, I can't dig you out of the technological slump that you're in. I wish that I could. I'd love to just be able to drag all of us out. But I can't. This has to be done through knowing your God given identity. I have a mentor in my life. Every time I get up here, I talk about mentors. Isn't the most important thing that you can have in your life as someone to speak truth and love to you? The guy that I'm going to talk to you a little bit about and I know he doesn't ever tune into the live stream, so.

Hi. I'm going to talk about you for a little bit. His name is Brent Beasley. I mentioned to our students the other day, you know, those round glasses that make people look really smart and stuff? Well, Brent's got those and he's got the comb over your hair that makes them look really smart. He's a president of a bank. The first time I met him, you wouldn't have known that he was a president of a bank. You knew he loved God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, and knew that he loved his neighbor as himself because he was volunteering to be the junior high youth minister while we didn't have one. And I found if that's not sacrificial love, I have no idea what it is to deal with middle schoolers who are confused about the world that's around them. And so some of the work that Brent and I get to do, we ask students, What do you think your God given purposes, why did God put you on this earth? It's a question that I posed to our students earlier this morning. What are you passionate about? And where are you going to find your power? When I look at Second Corinthians, I see no greater power than you are a new creation. I want you to lean to the person next to you. We're going to get really interactive today. This is like the third or fourth time of Exodus.

You are a new creation. Look to your person, to your left and the person to your right and say that to him. Okay. Now, here's the thing. You're going to do it again, but this time you're going to say it with enthusiasm, because this is the most important thing that we can hear. You are a new creation. Look to the person, to your left and right, and do it with enthusiasm. Great. You might have done that jokingly and laughingly, because whatever. But the truth of it is, guys, as you have now left here with the ministry and the message that we are supposed to do, we are ambassadors. We are supposed to tell all of the world about the new creation that they are in Christ. We don't regard you by that status. We don't regard you by the profile. We simply look at you as Christ looked at you and church. You were essential to the cause. You are his ambassadors. He is making his appeal through us. So today there's a fight on our hands. It's a world that doesn't know God. Will you fight so that the world knows. That they're a new creation, that the old is gone, the new has come. God has reconciled himself to us through his son Jesus. And he's given us this task today. Will you be as ambassador tomorrow morning when you wake up and it's the start of a monday? Monday's stink.

Will you pick up the cross so that someone knows of the new creation that they are? And then on Tuesday and then on Wednesday, every single day, will you be the ambassador that Christ has called you to be? This is what our world needs is God given identity and God given truth. So. Church There's lots of opportunities today for you to get plugged in with different ministries here at Broadway and especially even at the ministry fair. We need people to cook for our college students. We need people to come be involved in youth ministry. And I don't care if you're 95 years old, you have wisdom to impart on our young students. And I don't care if you are fresh out of college, we would love to have you. Because you're going to be bold in proclaiming the new creation that our students are. You're going to tell them the truth that they wish that they had known in high school, in middle school, and in their college years. We are in desperate need of people to speak this truth that we hear in second Corinthians five. So Church, will you join us in that mission? There's a reason for Sue. God is the first thing in our mission statement. It's the most important thing that we can do when we pursue God. We know who we are and we can live our lives on mission.

So let's bow our heads in a word of prayer as we wrap this up and we welcome our worship team back up. Father. We're thankful for your son. We're thankful for the reconciliation we have through him. Father in this in this world where we were so oftentimes nomads, we're wandering from place to place. We're wandering from home to home, trying to find belonging. Father. Would you make our belonging here in this place? Would you make our belonging one that we can clearly see our value? Father. I know everyone in this room has a gift. Everyone in this room is unique. Would you put it on our hearts to be a church that is pursuing you? So when our church pursues you, it looks like our businesses and our city and our neighborhoods will be changed by your son, Jesus, and the mission that He has for us. So, Father, would you allow us to leave this place emboldened and empowered by your spirit to put boundaries on the things in our life that aren't life giving to us? We help us allow us to put boundaries on our screens. Boundaries in life of maybe toxic people who aren't necessarily informing us of the truth of your word. The father would thank you most of all for your son. Jesus. The author and perfector of our faith. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.