Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 05:00 p.m. Or Wednesdays at 07:00 p.m.. If you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online at Madison Church.
[00:00:26] Be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our sermons podcast, madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Earlier today, I posted on Facebook a couple of images, three actually, to be exact. So a few images and asked the question, what do GigaPets, grocery stores and your phone apps have in common? Anybody want to take a guess?
[00:00:57] No?
[00:01:02] What do GigaPets, grocery stores and phone apps have in common?
[00:01:13] What's that? People. All right, what else should I know? What a giga? How old are you?
[00:01:27] Yes.
[00:01:28] Definitively? Yes.
[00:01:31] Tamagotchi, if you prefer. All right.
[00:01:35] Not to be confused with giga parts, which is very confusing for a little while. How do they have a whole store of that?
[00:01:42] Anybody?
[00:01:45] They all have technology. Yeah, one of them has produce. All right.
[00:01:50] Tamagotchi or gigapit. What is that?
[00:01:54] A virtual pet? Thank you. Yes, a virtual pet. Most commonly found on a keychain. In the 19 hundreds, specifically the 1990s, there was a really big fad of GigaPets or tamagotchi. These were these tiny little keychains that were pets. They were little animals, and they were digital, so they weren't obviously real humans or real animals, because anyway, you had to feed them. You had to press certain buttons to get overfeed them a certain time of day or they would die. You had to make sure they got rest, certain amount of time of day, or they would die. You had to do all these other things to keep them alive. I had a couple. They all died very quickly.
[00:02:37] Grocery stores are great. We love them. They're covered in food.
[00:02:43] Our apps on our phone, we mostly love them. We collect them. But does anybody look at your screen and raise your hand if you're the type of person that you can't have any notifications on your screen.
[00:02:56] Okay. Raise your hand if you have a lot of notifications on your screen.
[00:03:00] That's a pretty balanced class. That's pretty good.
[00:03:04] All of these have something in common in that they form and shape us when we were kids, and we had these little digital creatures that gave us an alert when they were getting hungry. Over time, over a course of just a very short period of time, a few days, you actually developed a little bit of a relationship so that when it did die, you're kind of sad. Or if someone stole it from you and purposely killed it, you're kind of sad and a lot angry. We also had anger issues in the 1990s. When it comes to a grocery store, you're being formed and shaped specifically on where to go. When you go into a grocery store, where do you typically go first?
[00:03:40] To the right. To the right? To the cereal aisle. Okay. I respect that.
[00:03:46] They kind of want you to go to the right. What's typically in the right?
[00:03:52] Produce, deli, bakery, olfactory things. Right. The things that you can smell, the things that hopefully will make you more hungry. Where do they put dairy?
[00:04:04] The back.
[00:04:05] What's one of the most common items purchased at a grocery store? Dairy. Why would they put it in the back?
[00:04:12] Because then you get to walk by everything, right? You go through the grocery store to get your milk the same way you should enter the line of a fellowship meal. You walk from the back to the front first. You get a good survey, see what's out there, find out where the poppy seed chicken is, and then strategically place yourself in close proximity.
[00:04:31] When it comes to our phones, have you ever had what they call a phantom notification where you thought you were positive that it buzed, that you had a notification, you pick it up, and there's nothing it did buz? That's right.
[00:04:46] We are connected to all of these things, and all of these things are forming and shaping us. Let's get into our cahoot. Tonight first question that we'll do pretty much every single week is going to be identify our audience. Let's figure out what the mixture of folks that are with us tonight, and if you're online, you can join us as well. You should be able to see the Pin number on the screen once the question pops up. What generation are you? Are you a silent born between 1925 and 1945? Are you a boomer born between 1946 and 64? Gen X, 1965 to 79? Millennial, aka the new Greatest Generation, 1980 to 1994, or Gen Z, 1995 to 2012? If you're Gen Alpha and you're on the zoom or online with us, you need to get off a device, go play with dirt and sticks. All right, so our makeup tonight is a little bit more even than it was last night. That's kind of interesting. 13% of us are boomers, 19% are Gen X. So a pretty even mix between those two. Pretty close millennials still leading the way with 38% and Gen Z coming in at a cool 29%. Last week, we talked specifically or the majority of our time was spent talking about the silent. Through the Gen X and some of the millennial generation, we touched on Gen Z. We didn't go in depth, but in fairness, the rest of the class is all about you people. Okay? So we'll get to it as we go. We looked at some common traits. Typically in the past, people historians have created a timeline of generations, a beginning and end to a generation based off of life events, world wars, pandemics, things of that nature. Author Jean Twinge has used the largest data set that we know of to write a book. She's published her findings, and what she did is she took those general time periods, but she actually had the beginning and end marked by technology.
[00:06:42] And that's what we're talking about this quarter, is how technology forms and shapes us spiritually. Now, as always, when we talk about genealogy excuse me, not genealogies generations.
[00:06:53] You got to pick a line somewhere. There are a lot of micro generations, like Zenials. I've had several people remind me this past week. That's where they identify where you kind of fall in between, where you've got a lot of the traits of the generation that's older, but you've also kind of got tech savvy of the generation younger. So it's not an exact science, and it's kind of like personality traits. It's not an exact identification. There's some generalities and some stats that we looked at based on some of those commonalities. What age were you when you got your driver's license?
[00:07:23] What age were you when you got your driver's license?
[00:07:34] Gave you extra time on this in case it required more math.
[00:07:41] Pretty good. Got over 100 again tonight.
[00:07:47] What age were you when you got your license?
[00:07:50] Was anybody able to get a license when they were like, 14? Was that ever the age? 14? All right, spoiler alert. About to find out. This is exciting.
[00:08:00] I thought I'd been raised over the years. I couldn't remember exactly when. And you were born in 1998. What do it took? Drivers ed win the same. Okay. Yes. Very good. All right, five more seconds. Here we go. We got 120 answers tonight. Let's see what the most common answer is.
[00:08:28] 17 ish 16 or the word 16. Thank you for that as well. We'll include you. 19. 1417 is a little bit more and then 15 as well. Someone got it at zero point 16 years of age. So I'm a little bit confused by that. But also, like, mad respect. That's impressive.
[00:08:49] Generally, the age for getting your license is 16 and has been for quite a while. One of the things we're going to talk about tonight is what the research has shown us about the younger generation, the emerging generation, specifically Gen Z, is they're doing things later in life. And one of those things they're doing later in life is getting a driver's license, which I can't fathom that that was like the greatest badge of freedom, even though you're just driving to the grocery store. So what best describes your work environment? Take a look at these. I work exclusively in an office or a brick and mortar workplace. I work in a hybrid situation. Both in person and at the office.
[00:09:25] I work exclusive excuse me, in person at the office or remote. I work exclusively from home or remote, and I'm a student who attends all classes online, a student who attends classes in person on the physical campus, or a student who attends some classes online and some in person.
[00:09:40] What best describes your situation?
[00:09:47] Or none of the above? I tried to put I'm retired. That whole line said I'm retired booyah. And I thought you would appreciate that. But it only let me do six answers. I'm sorry. So which one would you like to identify with?
[00:10:00] None of the above. There you go. I respect that.
[00:10:05] All right.
[00:10:07] I got some feedback last week that I didn't give enough time, so tonight I'm giving you half an hour to do it, apparently. Yes, sir.
[00:10:19] Blue collar, or is there one? I'm not seeing a brick and mortar workplace. That could be a factory. That could be a grocery store. That could be a blue collar location.
[00:10:31] I'm sorry.
[00:10:34] I'm not quite sure what that means, but it's probably just a generational difference. That's all we're talking about. That, too. So brick and mortar. By that I mean if you have a work location that you go to physically, it could be a job site. It could be an office complex. It could be anything along those lines. So the majority of folks, 42%, work in an office or brick and mortar. And then a close second is the hybrid situation, and then we have a few students as well. I'm very curious what the answers would have been four years ago if we had done the same survey. Most of the data is saying that it is trending in the direction that we've kind of settled. We all went, obviously, virtual for a long, long time. The majority of people now it's kind of pendulum is shifting back in the middle a little bit, but the middle is not where the middle used to be. The middle is a little bit more towards the hybrid end of things. All right, another quick poll, and then we'll get into our content. Which of these shows remind you of your childhood the most?
[00:11:29] The red is that's much smaller than I thought it would be. That is a scene from Saved by the Bell. The next one is a scene from The Andy Griffith Show. The next one is a small animated sponge that wears pants.
[00:11:43] And the one in green is more than meets the eye. You probably had a matching thermos and lunchbox transformers. Yes. Also a very popular VBS theme just four or five years ago.
[00:11:58] Sorry, that one went quick. I didn't change the time on that one. I got you. All right, so interesting, the Gen Zers and the I would say millennials probably say by the Bell and SpongeBob SquarePants. All right, well, that was meant to be a lot more fun than it ended up being. But here we go. Let's jump into our class for tonight. Some of these we're going to come back to if we have time.
[00:12:22] We're talking about analog faith in digital Babylon, living in a world that is moving more and more into a digital space. And of course, last week we talked heavily about the generation gap, or what I would call the perceived generation gap. In a lot of ways, we're not as different as we think we are. Our relationship with technology impacts our relationship with other generations and other people. And that's what we're going to focus on tonight. How has technology specifically been impacting how we communicate with each other? A gentleman by the name of Dr. Jeffrey Arnett, this was, I think, 2000 is when he originally started coming out with some of his research, specifically about those ages from age 18 to 29. And he described them as becoming emerging adults, which was a life stage that had not yet been really coined. He identified four different revolutions since the that occurred during the that laid the groundwork for where we are today. The first is the tech revolution.
[00:13:22] When we look at the tech revolution, what we're looking at is a transition from a manufacturing culture or manufacturing economy into a knowledge based economy. Manufacturing industry is six times the size that it was in 1950. However, uses half of the amount of people. Think about that for just a second. The industry itself has grown exponential, but the workforce has been cut in half.
[00:13:52] Because of that, there is a need for extended education. No longer is a high school diploma a standard for getting into the job workforce. Now it's a college degree. And then specifically in the two largest growing industries, the tech and information industry, graduate degrees are needed. So if you now have to have further education, what else gets delayed?
[00:14:17] Starts with every and ends with thing everything. Right? So if you're staying in school longer, then you're probably also staying at home longer. You're probably not getting your own place until later in life. You're not getting married until later in life. Younger generations are drinking later in life. They're having sex later in life. Those sound like good things, right? Well, they're not doing that out of virtue. They're doing that out of this shifting in this emerging adulthood. So adulthood now, instead of starting around 20 to 22 for older generations, is now starting around 30 to 32 for younger generations. There's a decade shift there. It takes longer to prepare for the knowledge economy than it did for the manufacturing economy. So if more college is needed, there's also more debt that's accrued during that time as well. The sexual revolution. We've talked about this a little bit last week. Birth control pill came out in 1964 and we've just recently this year had a new development in birth control where now there's an over the counter. You'd no longer need a prescription for that. It broke the link between sexuality and reproduction and marriage when the pill came out. We're still experiencing the ripple effect of what all happened as a result of that technology. Most people today begin being sexually active ten years or more before they actually get married, which means there's a longer period where young people are making and breaking relationships.
[00:15:47] Later in this class we're going to do a really in depth and a very mature look at pornography, at sexual sin, at lust, and specifically how marriages and how relationships have been impacted by sexual sin that is in our culture and that is also in the church. It's not new, it's not novel. Read first, corinthians it's right there too. They've struggled with it. But sometimes we don't talk about certain sins publicly or in a way that actually lets people know that you can talk about your struggles. And sexual sin has been one of those topics that has become taboo in a public setting and I think it's led to more detriment than it has helped. But the sexual revolution, specifically from the 60s is still being impacting our world today. The women's movement is also another impactful movement that happened. There were twice as many men in college than there were women in 1960. Today the college population is 58% women to 42% men. That's a huge change. Median marriage age has increased. In the 1960s, the median age was 20 for women and 23 for men. That has shifted later in life to 27 for women and 29 for men. The 20s have changed drastically for today's generation. You think about the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation. When they were in their 20s, they were full grown adults, complete responsibility. They were fighting in world wars. That's how the Greatest got their moniker, the Greatest Generation, because they've been adults longer than anybody. It's sort of the way it's sort of presented.
[00:17:21] Younger generations today are in a very, very different place.
[00:17:25] Also. Last movement is the youth movement. A popular phrase in the 70s was, I hope I die before I get old. Adulthood and age have become diminished in replace of a prolonged youth. 30 is the new 20. The transition from adolescence to young adulthood has changed from adolescence to emerging adulthood and then eventually into young adulthood. Think about it for just a second. Over the last ten years, what have been the biggest movie franchises, the most successful?
[00:17:56] Marvel. Which? Marvel was a what? Before it was movies, it was comic books. All right, what else?
[00:18:06] There we go. Star wars.
[00:18:09] When did these things first come out? And the heart of what? Generation's? Childhood genetics. Genex. But boomers in the 70s, right? This is when they were, I guess, technically not childhood, but when they were in the heart of their consumer of life, where they were starting to make money, they were starting to be able to spend it. These movie companies have played on nostalgia. When's the last time we had a truly original movie franchise? 1973, probably.
[00:18:41] The fact that the entertainment industry has taken what we've given them and just reproduce, reproduce, reproduce, reproduce, reproduce, reproduced it's because it sells. I think that something for us to understand is that we can be children longer in our thinking, longer than God probably intends us to. In many cases, the emerging generations are maturing later in life. They're working later, getting actual occupation jobs later, much later in life. They're not working in their early teens like other generations. They're driving later. They're drinking alcohol later. They're having sex later. They're marrying and having children later. But they're also less emotionally equipped. But they're more equipped technologically.
[00:19:21] They're more connected online, but they're less connected offline. If you look at virtually any stats during the Pandemic era, you see those trends going up. You see maps. Excuse me. You see graphs of loneliness going up, connectedness, going down. So in what ways has technology shaped us? This is the center of our class. Tonight. I want you to think for just a moment. Think about some ways in which technology has shaped your life.
[00:19:53] I'm going to offer up four, but I want to get your thoughts. What are some ways that you think technology has shaped your life directly?
[00:20:04] You always know where you're going with maps. Maps, yes. Google Maps. Apple Maps. Okay. Right. Apple Maps. Better voices. Google Maps. Much more accurate. Get you actually where you want to go. Yes, sir.
[00:20:20] You can search anything whenever you need to. Yes. What else?
[00:20:28] The first part of that again, we're connected to everybody in the whole world. Okay. Connected how?
[00:20:37] You can reach anybody in the world, anywhere you feel like you can have access to anybody, and they can have access to access to you. Somebody else over here said something.
[00:20:47] Dating and relationships. Yes. Now, technology has taken on a different dating experience, right? Yes, sir.
[00:20:55] Instant news from anywhere in the world. We can actually watch wars happen in real time, right. From people that are there in the midst of it. Yes, ma'am.
[00:21:08] The kids are in front of the screen all the time, so access is not necessarily a positive. Yes, ma'am.
[00:21:22] You can stream Bible class. Hey, everybody.
[00:21:25] Yeah. Great answer. Way to get brownie points. Yes, sir.
[00:21:32] Shortened attention span. Great comment. Thank you. For those that are online. Absolutely. Yes, sir. I think you're less connected to the real world, less connected to the real world, and more connected to a digital world than ever. Right. All right.
[00:21:48] What's that? More mobile? Yes, absolutely. From anywhere. Right. We can go to work from anywhere because we're remote. Now, that word just used to mean an object that was always somewhere lost in the cushions of the couch. How has technology impacted our relationship to time?
[00:22:08] Lose track of it. What's that? We lose track of it. Yes.
[00:22:14] Get impatient. Why?
[00:22:18] Because the instant exactly. Yes, sir.
[00:22:26] It takes way longer for you to get back on tap than you really think it does. So we have so much instant, but because it's so distracting, we prolong what we're actually trying to do.
[00:22:37] What happened to time in 1879?
[00:22:43] I was looking for Corey He's, our history teacher.
[00:22:48] Time zones? No, but that's a cool answer. Didn't even think about that.
[00:22:55] I think they were around there. Say Thomas Edison.
[00:23:01] Just say, there we go. Thank you. Eric Altman. The light bulb. Thomas Edison came out with the incandescent light bulb in the late 18 hundreds. What happened to the world at that point?
[00:23:12] You can be up at night because day never goes away.
[00:23:16] Have you thought about that for a second, just having light?
[00:23:20] We had a large group of people that went to Alaska over the summer.
[00:23:26] It doesn't get dark sometimes in Alaska, like, ever. That's really bright. So what does everybody have on their windows?
[00:23:34] Really dark shades. Blinds, blackout shades. Because they have to get dark in order for them to sleep and have a sleep cycle.
[00:23:44] We have teenagers now that don't sleep.
[00:23:47] They don't get deep sleep. We have adults that don't sleep and don't get deep sleep. Lights was a fundamental part of that. We're going to see further in the study that phones are an absolute speed bump to sleep. And yet what did God do on day seven?
[00:24:05] He rested.
[00:24:06] God put rest in the very beginning of everything.
[00:24:13] And rest is something that we think of sometimes as either being lazy or unproductive or something that we do if we get the chance. Yet God did it at the conclusion the crescendo of creation.
[00:24:27] So our relationship to time has been impacted by our sleep. In particular, sleep before 1879.
[00:24:38] What do you think the average amount of sleep was had by someone? How many hours?
[00:24:45] Ten? Do I hear 1111? Do I hear 1010? Going to 1010. We're sticking with 1011. Very close. Good job.
[00:24:52] What is it today? What do you think the average?
[00:24:56] What did you say, Shannon? Seven. Six and a right. If you think six and a half, raise your hand. If you think seven, raise your hand.
[00:25:05] Those of you didn't vote. All right. It is seven. That's right. The average is seven. Think about that. That's a four hour drop.
[00:25:13] Four hour drop.
[00:25:15] One invention can absolutely transform all of society and globally as well.
[00:25:22] I think seven is high, but I also have several small children that live in my home.
[00:25:27] How has our relationship to work been impacted by technology?
[00:25:33] We talked about one just a minute ago. Remote versus in person. What else? Yes, sir.
[00:25:39] Created international business. Yeah, that's right. The world's gotten smaller. Right? There's a global economy that's more connected than ever. Yes, sir.
[00:25:47] Can't do it without it. What do you mean? Technology can't do work without technology? Yep.
[00:25:53] Yes, ma'am.
[00:25:55] You can't leave your work at work. That's a big one, Jimmy. There's a lot more automation.
[00:26:07] Yeah, automation. What is the pursuit of automation?
[00:26:12] Efficiency. Right. We automate in order to be efficient so that we can either streamline our workforce or streamline our process of work.
[00:26:21] Do you think that efficiency drifts over into our spiritual lives?
[00:26:27] What is the Christian's purpose for being efficient?
[00:26:32] For saving time with task? What do you think?
[00:26:38] What's that?
[00:26:39] What do you mean? Habit?
[00:26:44] Trying to be efficient and all this? You have to be efficient at work, right?
[00:26:52] Trying to get everything done.
[00:26:54] Okay, that's good. Get in the habit of just trying to get the list, get through the list as quickly as possible.
[00:27:01] How can that be a negative?
[00:27:06] What's that? You don't have time to listen.
[00:27:10] Sometimes we settle for surface efficiency when God calls us to. Deep relationship technology can be very, very helpful. Our shepherds use Microsoft OneNote to keep track of information for them to be efficient and effective in being high touch. When I got into this role of media outreach I had Ronnie Mistleton. I remember looking me square in the eye. He said, Ma'am, I'm excited for this. I think you're going to do a great job. But I want you to remember one thing and don't ever forget it. I said, yes, sir.
[00:27:41] He said, we want to be high tech only for the purpose of being high touch.
[00:27:48] Sometimes we get in this habit of trying to be efficient and quick with our time for the sake of then filling our time with other stuff.
[00:27:57] Efficiency is great when it leads us to more kingdom work.
[00:28:02] To get through our list at work is great, but if we're only focused on that and we're not looking for opportunities to share the gospel with people in the workplace, why are you there if you're there just to collect the paycheck so that you can go buy stuff and fill your life with stuff and be a consumer of stuff?
[00:28:20] I'm afraid you might be putting your faith and your love and your heart into things that people can break in and steal, things that moths can eat and destroy.
[00:28:32] I think Jesus talked specifically about that mentality. There is a tendency, not a tendency there is an overt message from the world that says you need to be a consumer. Of all the things and technology has made being a consumer super easy. If you have a three year old and they can scroll through your phone pressing buttons randomly, find Amazon, find some random person that's selling 14 large tread tires and the quick and easy button just to pay now without actually going through any gate, things can happen, people and it's not fun. All right, hypothetically speaking, access and the excess of access and the access to excess does not lead to a spiritually driven life, a spiritually fulfilling life.
[00:29:22] It just leads to easy stuff.
[00:29:25] The toys at the dollar tree don't typically last really, really long, do they?
[00:29:31] Because they're a dollar and you can replenish them over and over again. Looking at you, too. Oriental trading, right? You give these things to your kids and then an hour and a half later they break. And so we're going for quantity over quality.
[00:29:44] Disciples. I ran across this phrase once. Disciples are not mass produced, they're handmade amen.
[00:29:56] It takes time.
[00:29:59] We are consumed by time. Sometimes technology takes our time from us. It takes our attention. We talked about a knowledge economy. Another, Tristan Harris. He was a former ethicist at Google. He is one of the guys behind the documentary The Social Dilemma. He uses the phrase that we are part of an attention economy. There's a battle for our attention. Everywhere we look, there's a battle for our attention, which means there's a battle for our hearts. How many of us sit at a stoplight and can't sit through the entire stoplight without glancing at our phones?
[00:30:33] I'm one of them.
[00:30:35] How has technology impacted our relationship to each other? We have more access to each other in some ways, right?
[00:30:44] But the irony of this was during the pandemic, my Connect group could see into the background of our zoom as we were gathering for class online, which is great. We could be connected. The irony was that's the most of them have ever seen of my home, the inside of it.
[00:31:04] When I read through the Book of Acts, I don't see cell phones. I don't see some of the technology stuff that we have today. But I do see people. I see humanity and I see people that are consumed with Christ and I see people that are in each other's lives on a regular basis. I see people that are willing to sell their land, not then to take some of those proceeds and do things with it for their own good, but to then give that amount of money to someone else who is in need. That is what I call deep community.
[00:31:35] Do we have that?
[00:31:38] Do we struggle with that?
[00:31:41] Yeah.
[00:31:43] Did they struggle with it? Of course. If you keep reading the Book of Acts and on into one corinthians, as we're studying on Sundays, you'll definitely see that this is unreadable. On a projector who Americans spend their time with. The yellow oranges line there goes up. That one points to alone.
[00:32:03] The ones on the bottom are time spent with friends in the blue, green or the green color. And then the red color there is with companions. This is the divide I was talking about earlier.
[00:32:12] Young generations. Now Americans 15 and older are spending a lot more time alone than they did in 2013. 2013, there was a great rift. We started to see these two go further and further apart. 2020, it went haywire. Post 2020, we're trying to find balance again, but we've been isolated. We're connected digitally, but. The feeling of isolation has skyrocketed among millennials and gen zers.
[00:32:41] Here's another one.
[00:32:44] We call it the Dark Triad.
[00:32:47] Anxiety, depression, suicide ideation. These stats took a big boom in the mid 2010s, mid 2000s. So kind of up and down, up and down, up and down, and then 2011, 2012, they all go up.
[00:33:01] What happened around that time?
[00:33:04] Smartphones phones have been around. Smartphones went up. And then if you look again around 2017, 2018, it goes up again. That's when TikTok and Snapchat are starting to really hit their peak.
[00:33:19] The more connected we are online, the less connected we are sometimes in real life and actual connection.
[00:33:29] Where do you focus your attention?
[00:33:32] When you're standing in the grocery store aisle, there's someone that wants your attention.
[00:33:39] His name is Reese.
[00:33:41] He's got some peanut butter cups, and he's got some pieces.
[00:33:45] And his friend Baby Ruth, right? Have you ever noticed the way they organize the candy? My mom used to work for Nabisco, and so she would go and do store sets, and she would have to restock those shelves. So anytime you see somebody restocking shelves, say, thank you for doing that. Because when you're hungry, there it is, right there. Candy bars waiting for you. The highest percentage of money made is made right there in the checkout line. It's the highest margin, about a 40% margin for candy. Everything else is lower than that in the grocery store. That's why you always have to walk by candy.
[00:34:16] The purpose of this class is to get us to think deeper and to see more clearly.
[00:34:21] We are fully in control of the life that we live. When you go to the grocery store, you can go directly to the milk and go directly to the checkout and only get your milk if you want to, or cereal aisle, if you prefer, or both. And that makes for a magical night.
[00:34:36] Or we can walk in there and be distracted, not thinking, not focused on what we need, focused on the fact that we're hungry. And then we see easy access to all the things that are there.
[00:34:46] This is exactly how Satan works.
[00:34:51] What does the Bible say about temptation in the Book of James, how does temptation come about and lead to death?
[00:34:59] When a person is first what everybody mumbled at the exact same time. Say it again.
[00:35:07] Yeah. When our desires get our attention and we focus solely on that desire, and then we embrace that desire, we pursue that desire. Desire then gets forth to what?
[00:35:19] Sin. When those unholy desires are entertained, when we fan the flame, unholy desire gives forth to sin. Sin brings about what? Death. Did Jesus say it was easy or hard to be a Christian and to live faithfully?
[00:35:34] He said it was very difficult.
[00:35:38] How did he describe the broad way wide and what there are many who go through it because it's the path of least resistance.
[00:35:49] But the way that leads to eternal life is a narrow gate, and it is very difficult.
[00:35:55] Now more than ever, we have to be alert. We have to be wise. We have to focus our minds on exactly what's going on, not on exactly what's put in front of us. Access to excess does not bring about appreciation.
[00:36:10] Access to excess does not bring about think about it. If you grew up with an abundance of toys, do you appreciate it or do you whine more that wine level goes wine level is probably a weird phrase. The whining of the child typically is directly connected to the abundance of stuff. And what about us? When we don't have access to our stuff? How do we respond?
[00:36:34] Not great.
[00:36:37] Living in an abundance or heaven on earth is sometimes a phrase we use.
[00:36:42] Does not necessarily cultivate resilience. What cultivates resilience in our hearts.
[00:36:52] What's that? Trials. What did James say? We had a whole series on it in the beginning of the year. Count it all joy when you find yourself in various trials in circumstances that are beyond your control. Why? James says because there's spiritual value here.
[00:37:09] God is using this. God is refining you. Did Jesus have an easy life? Absolutely not. And in every way, he had nothing that was easy about his life. There was nothing there that we could describe as an easy path.
[00:37:24] So why would we think that our life should be automated, on cruise control, be easy?
[00:37:30] Well, we think that because it can be. Because technology facilitates that a lot. And I'm not an anti technology guy. I love lights. I love being able to heat food. I love all the things that technology brings.
[00:37:43] But are you wiser about the technology that you put into your life than you were five years ago? Because it's continuing to change you. It's continuing to form you. How many people have a vegetable garden in their home? Click show of hands. 123456. Okay, so roughly ten or so.
[00:38:01] If we went back to 1954 and had a show of hands, I think we'd probably have like an 80 or 90% hands go up. Are we more or less connected to the process of getting food today?
[00:38:15] Less. Right. We generally typically have one point of connection, and that's what? Consumption.
[00:38:22] But when you have to actually work the ground, when you have to pull out weeds, when you have to deal with the devastation of bugs and things, when you have to actually go and kill and slaughter and process, you have an appreciation for the whole process.
[00:38:39] We have sacrificed nutrition for the sake of convenience. In many, many cases.
[00:38:44] We've sacrificed a lot for the sake of convenience. Spiritually.
[00:38:50] If you come to church because it gives you a social outlet and then you leave and you never invest in anybody else. If you come to this place and you never actually engage with the text, you're sacrificing spiritual value. You're sacrificing your spiritual health for the sake of something that makes you feel good for a moment. Because come Tuesday or come Thursday afternoon, that emotional high from just being around people is probably going to wear off.
[00:39:15] But if there's a foundation of joy that is grounded in spiritual things, if we in fact believe the words of James, and we believe that there is value in all of the circumstances we find ourselves in, and in all of those circumstances we turn to God, then we're cultivating resilience, we're cultivating joy. We're cultivating something that transcends all generations.
[00:39:39] I think there are two particular challenges that the emerging generations in this room are going to be facing. The youngest folks in the church right now, accurately identifying truth. I think artificial intelligence is going to muddy the waters like we've never seen already is in a lot of ways deepfakes. If you really enjoy political controversy, buckle up, because it's about to get wild here in the next little bit. Discerning what relationships are worth investing in are very important. I want to be very clear on this point. Technology is not a relationship to invest in. It's a tool to steward.
[00:40:11] Right now we have 1213 and 14 year olds on their phones at 02:00 A.m. In the middle of the night texting with a chat bot, asking it deep, meaningful questions about life that a twelve year old asks. And because it's a conversational format, AI chat, GPT, technology like that, they're forming a relationship with that technology the way that as a six or seven eighthearol maybe I formed a relationship with that GigaPet. It was an inanimate object, but man, if you killed it, there was a bond being formed.
[00:40:45] We cannot teach the next generation to form a relationship with technology.
[00:40:51] We have to emphasize, how are you going to steward what you have been given in this life?
[00:40:56] Do not set your mind or set your mind, excuse me, on things above. That was going to be a really good point. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.
[00:41:06] Why? Because people break in and steal. Because moth can destroy. Because tornadoes pick it up and throw it away just like that. Invest in people. Invest in your relationship with God, and he will show you a better way. Christ did not come to teach us a new, more ethic. He did not come teaching us a better way to be good. He came to teach us a different way to live. And when we are saturated with technology and we make our thinking and our living and our relationships and the use of them, then we are settling for a life that is beneath the life we are called to live.
[00:41:42] We don't know how long we have to live. We cannot redeem the time when we are completely consumed with stuff. We talked about two passages last week. One John, chapter two, and verse 15 do not love the world of the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. What three things does technology, specifically social media, prey on the most?
[00:42:11] The desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. It's not from the Father, but is from the world. We have to learn how to leverage the technological tools and the advancements that we have been given. We need to look at them with appreciation and gratitude and creativity. How do we leverage those for the sake of the kingdom of God? We are not consumers of the stuff that this world has to offer.
[00:42:37] We are called by God. We are the elect of God.
[00:42:42] My question to you tonight is what technology exists in your life that makes your life easier from an effort standpoint?
[00:42:50] Does it go too far?
[00:42:52] What consumes your thoughts, your eyes and your ears?
[00:42:57] That is what is shaping and forming your heart?
[00:43:01] Jesus says what's in your heart is what's going to come out of your mouth, what you put in, what you allow yourself to consume on a regular basis. If it's strictly Fox News, then you are going to repeat Fox News. If it's strictly CNN, you're going to repeat CNN.
[00:43:18] Those are the low hanging fruit political examples. What about everything else? What about the things that nobody else sees? If we went and we looked at your search history, just because that's not prominent and you don't think that people see it, everything will come to light and it's still forming and shaping you inside. We must be wise. We must be very clever in how we allow technology to be in our lives, not how technology rules us. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you for the time to be together tonight. Help us to develop discernment and wisdom based off of Your word, based off of the will that you have for our lives. I pray that our decisions and how we keep technology in its rightful place, to leverage it and to steward it in a way that glorifies you would bring about the growth of your kingdom. If there are things in our life, specifically technologies in our lives tonight that are hindering us from you and being Christ, give us courage. Help us to take courage, be brave, to be strong enough and to find accountability, to rid our lives, to lay aside every weight that hinders us, even if it's technology, to remove all of the distractions and to cling only to.
