Unplug and Slow Down
Today is the last week in our teaching series we’ve been doing called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, because next week we’re getting back in our series on a book of the bible called Revelation, which is about finding peace in a world of chaos. So this is the last week in our Ruthless Elimination of Hurry series where we’ve been learning how to live an unhurried life like Jesus, and today we’ll learn about the importance of unplugging and slowing down from an apprentice of Jesus named Paul. We’ll learn the importance of unplugging and slowing down, especially when it comes to our time with technology. When I talk about technology I’m talking primarily about the time we waste on things like our smartphones, gaming, and tv. If we can periodically unplug from those things, we’ll slow down our lives since we’ll be saving time, instead of wasting time on those things.
In fact I always found it interesting that Bill Gates, the creator of Microsoft, limited his daughter’s tech time. He didn’t allow her to have a cell phone until she was 14...We also know Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, was known for being a low-tech parent. When Apple launched the first iPad in 2010 he was asked, “So your kids must love the iPad?” Jobs said, “They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology they use.” It’s both intriguing and alarming that while these two tech legends were having a massive impact on the world’s technology, they were limiting their own family’s use of it. It’s because they knew the negative effects it’d have on them and their children. So they didn’t eliminate it, but they did limit it, which is what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about unplugging and slowing down, so we don’t waste our most precious resource, which is time...So let’s turn to Ephesians 5 and get into it. You can find Ephesians in the last quarter of the bible, and we’ll be in Ephesians 5:7-16. Title of the message is Unplug and Slow down. The big idea is don’t waste your time, instead unplug, slow down, and make the best use of your time...Don’t waste your time, instead unplug, slow down, and make the best use of your time.
Here’s your context. Like I said before Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul who’s known as one of the greatest apprentices to Jesus in history. He wrote this letter to Christians living in Ephesus around 60 A.D, and in vs 1-2 he teaches them to live as imitators of Jesus. Then in vs 7-17 he gives some examples of what it looks like to live as imitators of Jesus, and it’s in these verses we’ll learn 3 practical principles for how to live as imitators of Jesus. It’s 3 practical principles we can use to examine every aspect of our lives, and today we’re using them to examine our use of technology. Jesus didn’t waste his time, he made the best use of his time, and these principles can help us to unplug, slow down, and make the best use of our time. Let’s check it out.
Ephesians 5:7-16 states, “Therefore don’t 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 contrasting those who walk in darkness with those who walk in the light of Christ. He says those who are believers, those who are Christians shouldn’t walk in darkness, instead we should walk as children of light. When he says we shouldn’t become partners with them, he’s saying we shouldn’t partner with any sinful darkness, anything that isn’t in alignment with Christ. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so we could keep walking in sinful darkness, he died so we could be forgiven of our sinful darkness, have our lives transformed, and start walking as children of light. So we shouldn’t partner with sinful darkness, we should partner with the light of Christ, which is our 1st principle.
Principle #1 = Is it partnering with darkness or light? - We need to examine our lives asking if we’re partnering with darkness or light? It’s a principle we should use especially when it comes to our technology, because technology gives us easy access to all kinds of darkness. At the click of a button we can access things on the internet and tv our eyes shouldn’t be watching, or drive ourselves into deeper financial struggles purchasing things on Amazon we shouldn’t be wasting our money on. Then with every click of a button we become partners with those things 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 they can use smartphones to capture attention, and to adjust behavior patterns…It may seem like I’m stumbling over a litany of random scattered things online. But what’s offered to my eyes today, is increasingly aligned with the trail of bread-crumbs I left behind in my digital diet from yesterday (for good or ill).” He’s saying companies are using the bread crumb trails from things we’ve clicked on in the past, to flash similar images on the screen so our appetites remain hungry for those things in the future. They’re using our past bread crumbs to keep our hearts aligning or partnering with them, for good or ill. Every time we click, search, watch reals, shorts, movies on Netflix, we have to ask if we’re partnering with darkness or light, because the algorithms are designed to keep us walking in the same direction as those things. It’s the old saying garbage in, garbage out. If we download garbage into our lives, then garbage is what’ll start flowing out of our lives. Paul’s saying we need to make sure we’re taking the garbage out of our lives, instead of putting garbage into our lives. We need to examine our lives asking if we’re partnering with darkness or light, especially with technology?
Again vs. 7 states, “Therefore don’t 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’s pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them...” Paul says we should try to discern, what’s darkness vs light, what’s unfruitful vs fruitful, what’s displeasing vs pleasing to the Lord. In other words we should try to discern if the things we’re doing is something Jesus would approve of? Is it something that would be pleasing to Jesus? The bible is our primary resource for helping us with that discernment. Psalm 119 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” God’s word is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path, our primary resource for helping us discern what’s pleasing to the Lord. In fact one of our codes, one of our core values at City Awakening is we’ll read the bible and the let the bible read us. What we mean by that is when we read the bible, we want the bible to read us, examine us, guide us in all areas of our lives like we’re doing today. We’re using biblical principles to try to discern what’s fruitful and pleasing to the Lord, especially when it comes to our technology...and this leads to our 2nd principle.
Principle #2 = Is it unfruitful or fruitful? - We need to examine our lives asking if what we’re doing is unfruitful or fruitful? Is it displeasing or pleasing to the Lord? We can again apply this principle to our technology asking if all our digital screen time is unfruitful or fruitful for our lives? Having some digital screen time can be fruitful, but too much screen time has many negative effects. In fact there’s a great book I’m reading that provides credible statistical data on some of the negative effects screen time is having on our children and society. It’s called The Anxious Generation, and it’s about how our children’s brains are being rewired by their screen time, causing an epidemic of mental health issues like depression, anxiety, insecurity, even shortened attention spans. Before the digital revolution the average person’s attention span was 12 seconds, but it’s now decreased to 8 seconds, which is less than the attention span of a goldfish...A goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds, but ours is now only 8 seconds. My point is we need to examine our digital lives, asking if it’s unfruitful or fruitful? Is it displeasing or pleasing to the Lord?
Vs. 15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time...” Paul says we need to make the best use of the time, and that phrase in the original Greek is a commercial phrase. It basically means to get your money’s worth. We’re to make the best use of our time, we’re to get our money’s worth out of time, which leads to our 3rd principle.
Principle #3 = Is it wasteful or useful? - We need to examine our lives asking if we’re being wasteful with our time, or making the best use of our time? The average American spends over 5 hrs on their phone per day. According to another study the average American watches over 5 hrs of tv per day, and binge watches an entire series on Netflix in 5 days. It isn’t necessarily partnering with darkness, but it also isn’t a very fruitful or useful way to spend your time. The time we spend swiping, scrolling, watching tv, can easily go from wasting seconds, to wasting minutes, to wasting hours of our lives away. So even though it isn’t something that’s necessarily partnering with darkness, it’s something that can cause you to waste your time. It can pull you away from focusing on things that matter most like spending time with your family, your friends, growing in your relationship with Christ as an imitator of Christ. So we need to examine our lives asking the darkness vs light principle, the unfruitful vs fruitful principle, the wasteful vs useful principle. It’s 3 principles we can use to examine every aspect of our lives, including our technology. Since we just used these principles to examine our technology, let me give you a few practical things we can do with our phones since that’s one of our greatest distractions in our digital world. It’s 3 practical things we can do to start unplugging and slowing down, so we can make the best use of our time.
#1 Use the Do Not Disturb button = Use the Do Not Disturb button on your phone or turn your volume down so you can have moments where you unplug. Ultimately this is about you controlling your phone, instead of your phone controlling you. If we’re not careful our phones can be like an addiction where every few minutes we need a hit. According to one study the average person checks their phone at least every 4 minutes. Another study said the average iPhone user touches their phone 2,600 times per day, and the average millennial touches their phone over 5,000 times per day. Using the Do Not Disturb button can help us reduce the amount of times we’re responding to all the alerts, beeps, pings that are constantly causing us to grab our phones. I do this in the mornings when I pray and write my sermon, but I also want to start doing it at night to be more present with my family, and on my sabbath days of rest so I can rest even from my phone.
#2 Parent your phone for the day, instead of using it to avoid the day = What I mean by parenting your phone is setting times for when you’ll use your phone in the morning and when you’ll put it to bed at night, so you don’t use it to avoid the day. 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 if it’s boring and routine...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.” These avoidances can happen in the morning as we scroll through our phones, but also at night when we stay up late scrolling, gaming, or binge watching something to avoid having to face the hardships of another day. So this doesn’t just apply to our phones, it applies to whatever technology we use to avoid the day. To help with this issue some people put their phones, tvs, computers in a different room than their bedroom, and use an old school alarm clock for their morning and bedtime routines. The point is to parent your phone and other technology for the day, instead of using it to avoid the day.
#3 Turn your Smartphone into a Dumbphone = Turn your smartphone into a dumbphone by deleting every app that’s a distraction or doesn’t help make your daily lives easier. Then consolidate all the apps you keep into a few categories on your phone so your phone isn’t so cluttered. You can also turn off all your notifications for things like texts and emails so you check them periodically instead of numerous times throughout the day. It’s about minimizing as many distractions as you can, because our smartphones have put us on call 24/7 with texts, emails, the internet, and aps constantly tugging at us. It’s 24/7 distractions that pull us away from some of our greater responsibilities like John Piper said, which produces more hurry and worry having to catch up on whatever time we wasted. Smartphones can be a tremendous asset, but also a tremendous hindrance if we don’t use them with limitations. I know some people who’ve ditched their smartphone to go with an actual dumbphone that only allows them to text and call, and they said it’s liberating. In fact I had a buddy of mine accidentally 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. It makes me wonder how much more peaceful our lives would be, if we’d take a break from our phones, or at least minimize some of the distractions by turning our smartphones into dumbphones?
Look my point in all this isn’t to avoid technology like the Amish, it’s to try to discern how to be imitators of Christ like Paul said. It’s to try to discern how to be light, fruitful, and useful with our time, in a world of technology that keeps distracting us and wasting our time. There’s no simple fix to this, but we can find peace in our world of hurry and digital distractions when we unplug to sit at the feet of Jesus. The truth is most of us don’t have a lack of time issue, we have a wasteful use of time issue. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, we seek first the kingdom of our digital distractions. But we can make better use of our time by seeking first the kingdom of God, by unplugging to sit with Jesus in prayer and scripture. Unplugging to sit with Jesus is so important because it helps to reset the algorithms in our hearts, away from any darkness, fruitless, wasteful distractions we’ve been partnering with. Unplugging to sit with Jesus helps to reset the algorithms in our hearts, so we can find our rest and peace in him. In the words of John Piper, “True freedom from the bondage of technology doesn’t come from throwing away the smartphone. It comes from filling the void in our hearts with the glories of Jesus, that you are trying to fill with the pleasures of the device.” Simply put, our digital devices can’t ever fill the joy void in our hearts like Jesus can. So the best use of our time, is when we unplug to spend time with Jesus...
The big idea of the message is don’t waste your time, instead unplug, slow down, and make the best use of your time...You can either decide to keep running the same distracted hurried pace of life you’re living, or you can unplug, slow down, and make the best use of your time...You can either decide to keep running the same distracted hurried pace of life you’re living, or accept the invitation Jesus gives in Matthew 11 saying, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I’ll give you rest for your souls...” The 3 principles Paul taught us can help examine our lives, but we need Jesus to help bring rest and restoration to our lives. We need to resist letting our distractions deter us from sitting with him, so we can find daily peace and rest in him.
Jesus died for our sins on the cross so we can enjoy an eternal relationship with him. It’s an eternal relationship where we can unplug from all the distractions and hardships of life anytime we want, to sit with him and have the joy void in our hearts filled by him. The truth is you have the power to waste your life away with the phone in the palm of your hands, but Jesus has the power to fill your life with joy again through his nail pierced hands. He has the power to give you a good, fruitful, useful, joyful life through faith in him. So instead of wasting your life with the phone in the palm of your hands, sit with Jesus and rest your life in the palm of his hands. Unplug, slow down, and make the best use of your time, by making time to sit with Jesus.
Communion
Communion is a great reminder that we can find rest for our souls. It’s a reminder that Jesus died on the cross for our sins so we can enjoy eternal salvation and rest in heaven with him, but also daily salvation and rest as we unplug, slow down, and walk in relationship with him. If you don’t believe Jesus died for your sins, please refrain from taking communion so you don’t go through the motions of this. Instead use this time to reflect on the message, and consider asking Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of your life today so you can find rest in him too. For those of you who put your faith in Jesus we have three stations set up, and in a few minutes I’ll invite you to come forward to whatever station is closest to you. If you have a gluten allergy, the table in the back is serving gluten free bread. When you come forward we’ll give you a piece of bread as a symbol of the body of Christ broken for your sins. You’ll take the bread and dip it in the cup of juice as a symbol of the blood of Christ shed for your sins. After that you can eat, drink, and head back to your seat to pray before we close in worship. If you’re helping us serve Communion, you can start heading to your stations now, as we prepare to remember the good news of Jesus...
On the night Jesus was betrayed he took some bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it saying “This is my body which is to be broken for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you eat it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” When supper ended he took the cup, blessed it, and gave thanks for it saying “This is a symbol of my blood which is to be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done.” Respond to this good news by coming to receive and remember. Receive his grace for your life, and remember to rest your weary, burdened, hurried soul in him. Come as you feel led.