1 Social Media: Living in a World of Selfies

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Social Media: Living in a World of Selfies, Retweets, and #hashtags by Senior Pastor: Bill Couch Copyright © 2014, Bill Couch. All rights reserved worldwide. This material may be printed or copied for personal use only.

LOGO VIDEO Our new logo captures symbolically our new Mission Statement: Connecting Generations with Jesus to Impact our World. Look at the Logo on the front of your bulletin cover. The white space forms a cross—Jesus is central to our mission and message. The yellow squares represent persons—specifically a child sitting in his/her parent’s lap—connecting generations with Jesus. The arch through the word “LakeRidge” symbolizes the horizon of the world. We are connecting generations with Jesus to impact our world! It is all right there. The colors demonstrate that our church is connected to the past, the present and the future. Purple represents our past; gray our present; and yellow our bright future. We introduced our new Logo as part of our social media series and encouraged you to share our new logo and mission with your friends and family on whatever social media you use—texting, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter. Today in our foyer areas we have a photo booth where we can take pictures of ourselves and our families inside a frame of our new logo. This can be a fun picture that we hope you will share with others and invite them to come to church. In this series we are looking at the good, the bad and the ugly of social media. Social media is a good thing when it enables us to stay connected with multiple friends and know what is going on in their lives. Social media is a good thing when it is used to receive and give inspiration and encouragement. Social media is a great way to joyfully share our faith with others. We can share what God is doing in our lives, in our church, in our ministry or group. A brief word might open up a conversation. Last week, Blossom explored some of the positive things social media can do for families and also some of the safe guards that are needed to protect our children and grandchildren. While we connect on social media, it is also important to protect those who are vulnerable from some of the dangers. This morning, as we conclude this series, we are going to look at some of the ways technology can rob us of the things that matter most. While the Bible was written long before social media, it offers us some guidance on what we invite into our hearts and our minds. 7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:7-8 VIDEO: “FILLED” 1

What fills you up? How long does it last? While there are numerous good things about technology and social media, they can become a distraction, a diversion and a superficial substitute for real life. They can offer us a temporary fix to numb the need we have for authentic, deep relationships with God and others. After hours on the Internet, when we finally turn it off, we still feel empty and unfulfilled. While the Internet and social media can be great tools, they can also drain the very life out of us and even destroy us. When we use this powerful tool, we need to be careful to guard our hearts and our minds. One of the Proverbs of King Solomon says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) Social media and the Internet can entrap our hearts in many ways. Social Media can entrap our hearts with superficial, artificial relationships. We can spend so much time connecting with so many people that we have no time for a few good friends. No one really knows us well—only what we present of ourselves. We can create a persona that we hide behind. Some guys post pictures of someone else on their profiles to come across as better looking than they really are. One young man spent twelve hours photo editing a “selfie” to make himself look really good. We can entrap our hearts in so many superficial, unreal relationships that we lose touch with reality and real people. We need to guard our hearts. Social Media can entrap us in inappropriate relationships. We have all heard the stories of persons who have connected with old flames on Facebook

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and rekindled their relationship on-line leading to affairs and divorce. Other persons enter into conversations with people they have never met and spend more time with these online relationships than with the people they live with. Others have been conned by people who establish a relationship with them and then swindle them out of thousands of dollars. Others have become the victims of sexual predators. We need to guard our hearts. The Internet has entrapped many persons with pornography. Nudity and explicit images pop up even when you are not looking for them. I appreciated the awareness that Anne Bradley mentioned in her testimony that what goes into our minds stays there. We need to guard our minds from the destruction that these images bring. Those involved in pornography often use the excuse that it does not hurt anyone—because it is just in their mind. But every minute spent in that fantasy world diminishes one’s ability for authentic relationships. It can easily become an addiction—a place to go to numb the pain or deal with the stresses of life. Like all addictions it can take over one’s life. It can destroy marriages because spouses feel just as betrayed by a relationship with a cyber image as they do a real person. The self-gratification that often accompanies pornography diminishes the soul and entraps the spirit. Pornography is a totally selfish habit that becomes a substitute for real relationships. It can become a stronghold for evil in our hearts that impairs our ability to connect with God. All sin separates us from God and results in spiritual death. We need to guard our hearts and our minds.

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Our hearts can get entrapped by the negative side of social media and we are not aware of it until it begins to cause problems for us at work, at home or at school. So how do we guard our hearts in social media? First of all we have to have to admit that we have a problem. That is the first step to spiritual freedom. The Bible calls it repentance! It means confessing that we have a problem and that we need forgiveness and the power of God to change. How do you know if we have a problem? Let me suggest a few things that might indicate if we have a problem with social media: 

When we are in conversation with someone, we are constantly checking our phones for messages or phone calls. It means that someone or something else is more important to us than the person who is right in front of us. We have a problem. Last Sunday I had the opportunity to visit our newest young couple’s class, “The Beloved.” I was so impressed because I never saw anyone look at their phone other than to look up a Bible verse!

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If you text while driving, you are obsessed and dangerous. You have problem. You are tethered to your phone!

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If you are spending over two hours a day in non-work related time on the Internet you may have a problem. You may be hooked on video games, social media, shopping or just surfing. One lady said she went on line to research a recipe for dinner. Instant messages started popping up, she

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responded to them, did a little shopping and four hours later realized she still had not fed her family. 

If you get agitated and grumpy when you do not have good cellular coverage or access to Wi-Fi, you may have a problem.

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Of course, if you are accessing inappropriate web sites or relationships, you have a problem.

Freedom comes first through admitting we have problem. Then we need to ask Jesus to cleanse our hearts and sets us free. The price he paid upon the cross is enough to forgive all our sins and give us a new beginning. Once we are cleansed it is important to put in place those things that will guard our hearts. First of all, we need to make room for God in our cluttered minds. The young man in the video this morning mentioned how his life was so full of technology and media there was no room for God. 

We guard our hearts when we put limits on our time on the Internet. I was so encouraged by the families in our testimony who all talked about limiting the time their families spent with technology. We need to build into every day some time when we unplug and disconnect from the Internet so that we can connect with God and those we love.

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We guard our hearts when we use filters or accountability partners to block or monitor our access to inappropriate sites.

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We guard our hearts when we turn off our phones during meal times and focus fully on the persons we are with.

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We guard our hearts when we turn off the phone and spend five minutes talking with God. We need times of silence in order to hear God. Wean yourself away gradually until you can spend at least thirty minutes with God!

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We guard our hearts when we carve out an hour a week, perhaps a lunch hour, turn off our phone and find a quiet place to read our Bible, write in a journal and connect with God through prayer.

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We guard our minds when we focus on those things on the Internet which are: noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. When we filter the sites we are looking at or the conversations we are engaging in with those criteria, we can avoid a lot of heartache.

The most effective way to guard our hearts and minds is to disconnect from the distractions and diversions of the Internet and connect with God. As we stay close to Jesus and fill our souls with his presence and goodness then we experience deep fulfillment that the social media cannot give us. We become connected to what is absolutely real—our Creator--and experience his love which alone can fill us. Only God can fill the emptiness in our hearts. We will experience an abiding peace that will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We don’t have to do it alone! How will you disconnect from the Internet and connect with God and those you love this week?

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