Distracted
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Hey everybody my name’s Louis I’m the lead teaching pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to be with you this morning. Special thanks to all of you who served last week at our Easter service. We had a great service and our highest attended Easter service yet. So much love to all of you who helped with that. Today we’re starting a new series, a 4 week series called Unfollow, and it’s all about learning to balance life and technology. It’s not about eliminating technology, it’s about balancing life and technology, because technology’s a great thing if it’s balanced well. I mean it’s allowed us to do advanced imaging to detect and treat things like brain tumors. It’s allowed us to do the dishes, the laundry, and heat up Totino pizza rolls at the push of a button. It’s even allowed us to save time not having to wait on a rotary wheel to spin back on a rotary phone. Some of you don’t even know what a rotary phone is, but technology allows you to google it and find out...Technology’s a great thing if balanced well, and we’re so thankful for people like Bethany who runs our social media, and for all the people who set up and run the technology for our worship gatherings. So we’re not going Amish on you, we’re simply talking about balancing some of the negative effects technology can have on us if we don’t balance it.
In fact it’s always intrigued me that Microsoft creator Bill Gates limited his daughters tech time, and didn’t allow her to have a cell phone until she was 14. Even Apple creator Steve Jobs was known for being a low-tech parent. When Apple first launched the Ipad in 2010 a reporter asked him, “So your kids must love the iPad?” Jobs said, “They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use.” It should be both intriguing and alarming to us, that these two tech legends who’ve had massive impacts on our tech world, limited their family’s use of technology, because they were concerned about the negative effects it was having on them. They didn’t eliminate it, but they did limit it. They limited it, they strived to balance it, and today we’re gonna talk specifically about balancing the distractions of technology. We’re gonna talk about balancing the constant rings, pings, beeps, alerts we get on our phones, because if we don’t balance it, it’ll cause us to waste our most precious resource...our time. So let’s turn to Ephesians 5:7-17 and get into it. It’s Ephesians 5:7-17, located in the last quarter part of your bible. The title of today’s message is Distracted, and here’s the big idea. Don’t waste your time, be wise with the use of your tech time...Don’t waste your time, be wise with the use of your tech time.
Context:
Here’s your context. Ephesians was written by a guy named Paul who’s known as one of the greatest Christian leaders in history. He wrote this letter to Christians in Ephesus around 60 A.D, and in vs. 1-2 he focuses on them living as imitators of God, he wants them to walk and love like Jesus did. Now in vs. 7-17 he gives them some instructions on what it looks like to walk as an imitator of Jesus, and it’s in these verses that we’ll learn 3 principles for walking as imitators of Jesus. It’s 3 principles we can apply to the use of technology, so let’s check it out.
The Word:
Ephesians 5:7-17 states this, “Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light...” Notice Paul’s making a contrast here. It’s a contrast between non-imitators of God and imitators of God. Now when he says an imitator of God shouldn’t become partners with them, he’s not saying Christians can’t interact with non-Christians, because Paul’s entire ministry involved interacting with non-Christians. Instead he’s saying Christians shouldn’t do any of the sinful dark things that non-Christians do, that non-imitators do, because when Jesus died for our sins on the cross he turned us into children of light. Jesus didn’t die so we could keep walking in sinful darkness, he died so we could be forgiven of the sinful darkness we were walking in, and to reflect his light in the dark places of our city and world. Paul’s saying imitators of God are to walk as children of light, walk as Jesus walked, and this is the 1st of the 3 imitator principles in the text.
Imitator Principle #1 = Is it evil? - We need to ask if the things we’re doing, the decisions we’re making in life are evil? Paul says to not partner with them, so we need to examine all areas of our life to see if we’re partnering with evil and darkness instead of the light of Jesus. We need to apply this principle even to our use of technology, because technology allows us easy access to just about any evil pleasure we desire. At the click of a button we can access things we know our eyes shouldn’t watch, and things that can be shipped to our door that we know we shouldn’t waste money on. Then with every click of a button we become partners with what we saw or bought through algorithms and captology. In a book called 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, author Tony Reinke states, “Captologists study ways of using smartphones to capture attention and adjust behavior patterns…It may seem like I’m simply stumbling over a litany of random scattered things online. But what’s offered up to my eyes today, is increasingly aligned to the bread-crumb trail I left behind in my digital diet yesterday (for good or ill).” Simply put, companies are using bread crumb trails of things you’ve clicked on in the past, to flash similar images on the screen so your appetite remains hungry for those things. They’re using your past bread crumbs to reinforce your obsessions and heart cravings, thus making you partners with them, good or bad...Paul says as imitators we need to examine our lives and not partner with things that are evil. This is true even when it comes to our technology. We need to ask is it evil?
Again vs. 7, “Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” Notice Paul says in vs. 10 that imitators should “try to discern” what’s fruitful and pleasing to the Lord, meaning we should consider what God would approve of in life and do those things. The bible can guide us in that discernment, and one of our codes at City Awakening is we’ll read the bible and the let the bible read us. We believe the bible has authority over our lives, so when we read the bible we want the bible to read us, examine us, guide us in all areas of life. If the bible doesn’t address a certain issue, we’ll use what we know about God’s character, the gospel, and biblical principles to try to discern what’s fruitful and pleasing to the Lord, like we’re doing in this series with technology. Now in vs. 11 Paul says we’re to expose darkness, and that doesn’t mean we’re to hate, judge, or Scarlett Letter people for sinning. It means we’re to love them like Jesus loved us, while sharing the gospel with them so the gospel can expose the darkness in their hearts. This means our 2nd principle entails both fruitfulness in our lives, and in the lives of others. Paul’s teaching us:
Imitator Principle #2 = Is it fruitful? - We need to ask if the things we’re doing, the decisions we’re making in life are fruitful and pleasing to the Lord? Are they producing fruit in our lives and in the lives of others?..Again we need to apply this principle to our technology, because technology allows us to hide our sin, to do certain things in secret, instead of exposing it to the light of the gospel. But God knows and wants to expose those things so we can deal with them and be set free from them. We need to ask is it fruitful when it comes to things we do in secret, but also to things we do in public. For example some people use social media in unfruitful ways to troll people, attack people who have different political beliefs, post provocative pictures, and it’s not fruitful for them, for others, or for gospel expansion. But some people use social media in fruitful ways to help encourage others and invite others to church. Now the real question we need to ask is would Jesus be on social media?..If he was walking in our 2019 era, would he have a Facebook or Twitter page?..I think he would, because God’s used technology to spread His name and message since the beginning of history. It started with words on stone, then animal skin, papyrus, trees, the printing press, and now the internet. It’s all led to God’s name and message spreading throughout the world. Social media’s just one more piece of technology we can use to help do that today, so yeah I do believe Jesus would have a Twitter page. It’d just be more profound than ours, and he wouldn’t be addicted to it or use it for darkness. It’d be fruitful, and we need to ask if ours is fruitful? Is our tech and non-tech life fruitful in secret and public?
Vs. 15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Paul says we need to be wise, especially when it comes to the use of our time. The phrase making the best use of the time in Greek is a commercial phrase that basically means to get your money’s worth. Imitators of God are to do that, they’re to make the best use of their time, get their money’s worth out of time, especially when it comes to spreading the light of the gospel in our dark world. Paul’s saying we only have so much time in our lives to spread the gospel, to share Jesus with our friends, family, and people in our city, so we should prioritize our time to do that, and this becomes the 3rd imitator principle Paul’s teaching us. He’s teaching us:
Imitator Principle #3 = Is it wasteful? - We need to ask if the things we’re doing, the decisions we’re making in life are a wasteful use of time? This is a stewardship of time issue. Stewardship isn’t just about our talent and treasures, it’s also about our time. We need to steward the time God’s given us well, and perhaps this principle applies most in our technological age. We waste countless hours binge watching shows and scrolling posts. In fact the average person spends 50 minutes a day on Facebook, which isn’t evil. But if you’re constantly checking your feed all day, it’s probably not the best use of your time. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, not ignore our neighbors. It’s hard to do that with our faces buried in a phone. In all areas of life we need to ask if we’re wasting our time, or making the best use of our time?...We need to ask all 3 principles: Is it evil, fruitful, or wasteful?..Okay so let me give you 5 things I’ve started doing in my life to help balance the distractions. Your situation might not allow you to do these things, so view them not as rules to follow, but as examples to guide you. But there’s 5 things I’m doing to help balance my greatest distraction, which is my phone, and here’s the 1st:
#1 Use the Do Not Disturb button = I’m starting to use the Do Not Disturb button on my phone so I can have moments where I unplug. Some of you might not have that button, but you have a volume or power button you can use. Ultimately this is about me controlling my phone, instead of my phone controlling me. If I’m not careful my phone can be like an addiction where every few minutes I need to take a hit, I need to check it. In fact a recent study said the average person checks their phone about every 4 minutes, and you know it’s true, because some of us can’t even go to the bathroom without checking our phones...We check our phones about every 4 minutes, which isn’t evil, but it’s also not fruitful or useful of our time. So I’m using the Do Not Disturb button in the mornings to sermon write, in the evenings to be present with my family, and I’ll shut it down for several hours on my days off. I’m doing this to limit the distractions and be fully present with people, instead of emotionally absent jumping every time my phone pings.
#2 Use the Do Not Disturb While Driving button = A lot of cell phone companies added an extra feature to the Do Not Disturb button to limit your phone from giving and receiving messages while driving. I’ve decided to use that feature because I’m sometimes tempted to text and drive, and it comes with a risk. Recent studies show that talking on a phone while driving makes you 4 times more likely to get in an accident, but texting and driving makes you 23 times more likely. The average time it takes to send a short text is about 4.6 seconds. So if you send a text while driving 55 mph, you’ll have driven the entire length of a football field without seeing the road. It’s not a risk I want to take anymore, so I’m using the Do Not Disturb while driving button.
#3 Use the phone alarm to wake up and go to bed, not to avoid the day = Pastor and scholar John Piper once said we use our phones to avoid three things. Piper states, “We have a Boredom Avoidance, which is where we put off the day ahead, especially when it looks boring and routine, and holds nothing of fascination to capture our interest. We have a Responsibility Avoidance, which is where we put off the burdens of the roles God has given us as fathers, mothers, bosses, employees, and students. We also have a Hardship Avoidance, which is where we put off dealing with relational conflicts, or the pain, disease, and disabilities in our bodies.” I personally wrestle with these avoidances the most in the mornings. Instead of getting after the day, I avoid the day by scrolling the news, my ESPN app, or hitting the snooze button until my wife kicks me out of bed. But these avoidances can also happen at night where instead of going to bed to rest for the day ahead. We scroll, game, or binge watch things to escape the pains and reality of the day. So my phone alarms are set to wake up and go to bed, not to avoid the day.
#4 = Enjoy the moment more, pixelate the moment less = This is about missing some of the joyful moments in life because we’re too busy trying to capture it on our stories, videos, and photos. We can’t fully enjoy the moment, because we’re trying to pixelate the moment. Our pixelated life will always be a cheapened version of the real thing. For example I can show you a video of Hawaii’s beauty, but it won’t ever captivate you like it would if you were actually there. Our videos and photos won’t ever be able to capture the beauty of the moment, like setting our phones down and being fully present can. This is affecting us so much, that one psychologist said we’re starting to have a harder time remembering memorable moments. He said it’s because we’re experiencing a camera induced amnesia, which is where we try to capture memorable moments on camera. But as we do we’re ignoring all the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, and meaning that’ll help us to be captivated and retain those moments. If that’s the case, then maybe it’s better for us to occasionally set our phones down to fully enjoy the moment, instead of trying to always pixelate the moment. I’m still gonna pixelate certain moments so I can enjoy looking back on the memories, but I do want to enjoy the moment more, and pixelate the moment less.
#5 = I’m going Smartphone, but a Dumbphone is a close 2nd = At this point in my life I’m going smartphone, but switching to a dumbphone is a close 2nd. In fact sometimes I wonder how much more peaceful my life would be if I didn’t have any phone. I had a buddy of mine drop his phone in a lake one time, and he didn’t buy another one for 3 months. He said it was the most peaceful 3 months of his life. We could do it, we could all switch to dumbphones or no phones if we wanted. I mean none of this even existed until a few decades ago. But I’m not ready to make that jump yet, I’m not ready to start busting out an Atlas again...Besides, even if we got rid of our smartphones, we’d still have other things filling our hearts to distract us from being good, fruitful, useful imitators of God. In the words of John Piper, “True freedom from the bondage of technology comes not mainly from throwing away the smartphone, but from filling the void with the glories of Jesus, that you are trying to fill with the pleasures of the device.” Simply put, our devices and technology can’t ever fill the joy void in our hearts like Jesus can. The best moments and use of our time, are the moments and time we get to spend with Jesus.
The Big Idea:
Let’s have the worship team come up and get to the big idea. Here’s the big idea. Don’t waste your time, be wise with the use of your tech time...Don’t waste your time, be wise with the use of your tech time...Just like Gates and Jobs set boundaries on the use of their tech time, we need to set boundaries on the use of our tech time. Just like Paul examined his life as an imitator, we should examine our lives as imitators using the 3 imitator principles. Just like Jesus didn’t allow distractions to deter him from the cross, we shouldn’t allow distractions to deter us from resting in the grace he poured out on the cross. It’s through Jesus’ death on the cross that we’re able to have grace, the forgiveness of sins, and an eternal relationship with him that allows us to unplug from all the distractions anytime we want, and spend some restful time with him...
Look you have the power to waste your life away in the palm of your hands...You have the power to waste your life away in the palm of your hands...But Jesus has the power to give you a good, fruitful, useful, restful life through the nail pierced palm of his hands. So don’t waste your life, instead rest your life in the palm of his hands, and use your life to point others to rest in the palm of his hands...If you’re feeling burdened by the distractions in your life and you want somebody to pray for you, or if you want to know how to have a relationship with Jesus. Some of our leaders will be standing in the back left corner of the room to pray for you. You can go back there anytime during the worship. City Awakening let’s lay down our distractions, and stand up to worship Jesus. Let’s make the best use of our time, by worshiping Jesus.