Pastor Rick's Daily Hope - Being a Disciple in the Digital Age - Part 1

Hello everybody, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Home. This is the Bible teaching ministry

of Rick Warren. Hey, we're so glad you're here with us today. We are continuing in a

series called Talking about Stuff that Matters. Now in this series, Rick looks into the scriptures

and he's unpacking what it means to live in community, have real conversation about

what matters most and face discouragement with courage and faith. It's honest, hopeful,

so stay tuned. You won't want to miss a second. All right, let's jump in. This is part

one of a message called being a disciple in the digital age.

If you have a smartphone, you hold in your hand more power than NASA had when they put

a man on the moon. There's more power in one little cell phone than we had in existence

when America put a man on the moon. You have more technology in your hand. Let me show

you what the first hard drive looked like. Look up here on the screen. That was it. That

was five megabytes of storage. Not very portable, it's about the size of two men, several

thousand pounds. Now, that's five megabytes in your phone right now. You have a minimum,

even if you got a cheeky phone. You have a minimum of a thousand times that in your phone.

And you can buy 10,000 times that and put it on your phone. You have no idea how much

power you have in your pocket. That's why in 2007, time magazine named the iPhone, that's

the year it came out this, the invention of the year. Now, since that's happened, it's

been renamed because the cell phone, the smartphone, is by far the most behavior changing invention

in the history of mankind. Nothing else comes close. Not the wheel, not fire, not the steam

engine, not the automobile. Nothing comes close to the power of this little invention. Why?

Because like with a car, you can do maybe 10 different things with a car. But with this,

you can do thousands of things with this. Thousands, literally thousands of things with this.

You can have it direct you to the right place with GPS. It's a travel device. You can

listen to music, obviously entertainment. You can check your heart. You can do all kinds

of studies on your body. You literally can do thousands of things. When they decided to

put a computer in a phone, it changed everything. Hundreds of thousands of people in the world,

hundreds of millions of people in the world, own a computer. But billions own one of these.

And that's their computer. And it's the access to everything. Now, when this came out, and

it's only been a very short time, less than a decade, that it really changed everything,

daily life and daily habits, radically were altered. You don't live the same way you did

before this came out. You know, before the smartphone, people actually listened to a phone.

Now, we look at a phone. By the way, I'm taking a picture of you right now. I'll put that on

Facebook. Y'all be rock stars. Everybody looks at the phone, instead of simply listening to it.

That's a major change in your behavior. In fact, we look constantly at our phones. Let me

show you some images. We look at our phones while we're waiting. You ever seen a picture like

ever seen that happen? It's everywhere. Everybody's got their head down today. They're all looking down

while they're waiting. We look at our phone when we're going to work. Look at this. Okay, now,

let me, I put that picture up there because an interesting story behind it. I got this out of a

Boston newspaper. These guys are going to work on a train, elevated train, or I don't know what

it was, subway. And a guy walked in, pulled out a gun, and nobody noticed. He put it back in his

pocket. A few minutes later, he pulls it out again. Nobody pays attention. He puts it back in his

pocket. A few minutes later, he pulls it out a third time. Nobody's paying attention. He put

it back in his pocket, gave up, and walked out. Because they were so distracted by one of these.

We now look at these while we're eating. Here's a typical family meal. Family of four. They're all

looking at four screens. Right there. That's family fellowship in the 21st century. Everybody's

looking at their phone. We constantly look at our phones while we're walking. Have you ever seen

this? You know, it's kind of interesting now because of this one invite. We are more familiar with

the heads of people, the top of their head, than we are their face. Because people are walking around

like this all the time, so you recognize the top of their head rather than their face. Of course,

we use these in the bathroom. You don't get a picture of that. But you know what I'm talking about.

All right. We even look at this screen while we're watching other screens. Here's a family

watching TV. And they've all got, you know, because you can't be bored during the commercial,

so we're all looking at our screens while we're actually on the sofa watching TV. And then,

of course, even take them into the bedroom and we watch in bed. Now, this couple should be doing

something else. But they are, they're looking at their screens. Now, the latest statistic,

this is the most recent statistic, is that people check their phone every 12 minutes on average,

every 12 minutes. That means you look at this little screen 80 times a day if you're an

average person, 80 times a day. And that, all that change has just happened in about a decade.

We have to talk about the implications and the power, both the upside and the downside of this

in your life. Now, because everybody looks at their phone on an average, 80 times a day,

even famous ad personalities want to get involved. Here's the corona man. I don't always look at my

phone, but when I do, it's because everybody else does. And that's the most mysterious man in the

world, if you know who I'm talking about. Now, the other good news is that if you're painfully shy,

you're one of the people who's always worried about everybody might be looking at you. And your

word is everybody looking at me right now, relax. Nobody's looking at you. Nobody's looking. Do you

remember a year ago, there was a song that came out, says, you should dance like nobody's watching.

Do you remember that song? Dance like nobody's watching. Well, here's the truth. Dance like no one's

watching because everyone is on their phone. So no one is watching you. So you can act like a total

goofball. Nobody's going to pay attention. A guy can pull a gun out and you won't even notice.

What is amazing, as I said, is that all this changed, happened in literally just a few years,

in just a decade. I had to share this with you. This was on the internet. My kids asked,

what it was like growing up in the 80s. So I took away their phone and turned off the internet.

That's it. That's the 80s, folks. All right, that's the 80s.

This church was started January 1980. That's the 80s. No phone, no internet.

That's how different it is. Now, if you're going to spend that much time

looking at this the rest of your life, we need to deal with it as a spiritual issue too.

So what is this weekend to look at being a disciple in the digital age?

How can I use this for good and how can I minimize the negative parts of it, okay?

And I really want to do a couple things. First, I want us to understand some of the downsides.

I don't have time to go into all the downsides. Some of the downsides in this technological power

that you hold and you actually carry it with you all the time. So you actually carry with you a

new source for old temptations. The temptations have been around forever and ever and ever.

New source for old temptations, but you carry it with you in your purse or your pocket.

And then I want to look at five ways to use your smart forum for the glory of God.

So I want us to begin by looking at the spiritual hazards of digital tools. We all know what the

upside is. This is an amazing tool. It gives you access to the entire world to the body of knowledge

that's out there. And it's just hard to explain how powerful this tool is. But there are spiritual

downsides. And so let's look at the spiritual hazards of digital tools. I'm talking about iPhones,

iPods, smartphones, laptops, any device that connects you online to the internet, all right?

By the way, what is a hazard? Well, if you're a golfer, you know what a hazard is, but a hazard is

potential dangerous trap. If you're walking through a minefield where they buried mines in the ground,

yeah, that's a hazardous field. And if you step on a mine, it'll blow you up. By the way,

I like to keep you guys up to date. So as a, as your pastor, if you're a golfer,

the word hazard is no longer acceptable after 150 years at the golf course. You probably don't know

this, but I do. I'm going to tell you. In January 1, 2019, 2019, all of the powers that be in golf,

the PGA, LPGA, and all of the other golf associations that govern golf took the word hazard

out of the official manual after 150 years. So they're no longer called hazards. Now, in golf,

there are two kinds of hazards. There's water hazards and there's sand trap hazards. But now,

sand trap hazards are simply called bunkers. Everybody knows what that is, a bunker. And,

but water hazards are now going to be called penalty areas. I'm not making this up. I just

didn't want you to be embarrassed the next time you played golf. Don't use that word because it's

now out of date according to the official rule book of golf. Some of you that's only needed to

hear go home. Okay. Now, I said that you carry a new source of old temptation in your pocket or

in your purse all day long. Let me just give you six hazards. You need to be aware of. Okay,

write these down. We'll go through them pretty quickly. Number one is it can waste my time. I can

waste time on my cell phone. Everybody agree with that? Yeah, of course. Time is your most precious

commodity. You only have a limited amount of time. If you are an average human being,

you will live 27,375 days. 27,375 days. That's the average number of days a human being lives on

earth. If you're over 27 years of age, you've already passed 10,000 days or behind you. And the

problem is you're not getting those back. Time is your most precious resource because you can't get

it back. You can't get any more of it. You can always get more money. You can always get more

energy. There are a lot of things you can get more of. You can create, but you can't create more

time. You have a certain number of days in your life and that's it. And when you spend it, it's

gone. So life management is really time management. If you learn to manage your time, then you'll

learn to manage your life. Now, here's what the Bible says. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 to 60.

Be careful how you live. Don't live foolishly. Instead live as wise people making every minute

count because these are evil times. Now, notice it says, be careful how you live. You might

circle that word careful. We don't use the word careful like they did in Bible times. Today,

careful has an implication of you're worried about something. Be careful. Watch out. Don't

fall off. Be careful as you walk down that area. This is not what it's saying here. The opposite of

careful is careless. Careless. He's saying, don't be careless with your life. Be careful. And that

means be intentional around here. We call it being purpose driven with your time that you're

intentional. You're deliberate. You know where you're going. You're not wasting your time.

You're not careless with your time. You're careful with your time. Now, the latest stat on these

smartphones is that in America, you spend, since you look at it 80 times a day, 3.4 hours a day

looking at your screen at your phone. 3.4 hours a day. That adds up to 24 total hours a week.

You're looking at this thing. And what that means is if you are an average person and you live

to an average age, you will eventually spend 11 solid years of your life looking at this.

11 solid years looking at this screen. Now, that means we need to talk. Because I'm interested

in you not wasting 11 hours or 11 years of your life. And by the way, that doesn't include

watching TV. That's another screen. And that doesn't include video games that you play that

aren't online. That's just being online through your phone. The Bible says this. I'll appear on

the screen. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 23. Now, you may say, I'm allowed to do anything,

but not everything is helpful or beneficial. A thing may be permissible, but not everything is

constructive and encourages growth. This is a Bible principle we need to apply here. What is it

saying? It's saying some things aren't necessarily wrong to just unnecessary. They're not necessarily

wrong. They're just not necessary. It's not a sin for you to spend five hours watching cute,

kitty commercials on YouTube, but it might not be the best use of your time. It's not a sin.

It's not evil what can mean bad nasty. It's just like some things aren't necessarily wrong. They're

just not necessary. You need to say, is this worth me giving my life for? I just gave my life

scrolling through a bunch of clickbait. How many of you, I wonder, have when you were dead tired,

instead of going to bed, you're sitting here scrolling through with your thumb, you're barely

awake and you're going to click, click, click, click. That was funny. No, that wasn't. Yeah,

that was funny. No, that wasn't. If evolution were true in 100 years, everybody's going to have

giant thumbs, because they're exercise. Giant thumbs, big butts, little feet, because we don't walk

anywhere anymore. They're just scrolling on. We'll look very, very different. How many times have

you needed to go to bed and you wasted it on looking at stuff on the internet? When really what you

needed was sleep. Then you paid for it the next day because you spent a lot of time looking at

stuff that didn't matter. The Bible says this on the screen, Proverbs 12 verse 11, only a fool idols

away his time. We know I don't have to teach you on this one. We all know it's easy to waste time

on the internet. Let me give you a couple of others. Number two, a second hazard is I can be seduced

by the world's values. I can be seduced by what the world values, the world's value system

because the internet and particularly social media amplify stuff that is not important and make

it seem like it's really, really, really important and it's not. The world and all the advertisers

are constantly telling you how to think, what to buy, how to feel, what's cool, what's not cool,

what's hip, what's not hip. The world is constantly shouting at you through the internet and you're

carrying it with you all day in your pocket. Now that's not a temptation, previous generations of

followers of Christ I had to deal with because they weren't carrying it with you, but you've got

you're carrying advertising with you everywhere you go. The world's value system of passion,

possession and position or sex, salary and status. That's what the world's after. If you listen

to it long enough, you start thinking, well, that must be right and that must be okay. You carry

that voice with you. Whatever gets you gets your attention. If you look at something long enough,

you know what's going to happen? You're going to start copying it. You're going to dress like that.

You're going to act like that. You're going to think like that. You're going to feel like that.

Whatever you look at all the time, you're eventually going to copy. That's why the Bible says this in

Romans 12 verse 2. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you

into a new person by changing the way you think. Okay, He says, don't copy the world's

values. What are the world's value system? Look up here on the screen. First John 2, 15 to 17 says

this. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the

father is not in him. Hang on here just a minute. Let me stop. The guy who wrote this, John,

in first John 2, 16, he says, if anybody loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. He's

the same guy who wrote John 3, 16 in another book, which says God so loved the world. Okay, which

is it? I mean, come on. In John 3, 16, John says God so loved the world. And in first John 2, 16,

he says, don't love the world. Well, what am I supposed to do? Looks like a contradiction.

The answer is in the definition of the word world. In John 3, 16, which says God so loved the world,

he's talking about the people of the world. We are to love the people of the world because they

were created in the image of God. They have dignity. We are to love every person. In first John 2, 15 to

17, he's saying, don't love the value system of the world. So the Bible says we are to love the

people in the world, but we are to hate the world's value system because it's anti-God. Love the

people hate the value system. The problem is we do the exact opposite. We hate the people

and we love the value system. We are as materialistic as everybody else. We're as interested in sex

and pleasure and living for fun and living, you know, making that the highest goal of life. We're

as interested in status and salary and sex and popularity and possessions and power as everybody

else is. We get it backwards. Now look at that verse again. Don't love the world or anything

in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For what the world

values and the world has three big values. The lust for constant pleasure, that's called hedonism,

the greed for more things, that's called materialism, and the prideful positioning to appear

important. That's called secularism or humanism. It says, I am God. I'll be my own God. I don't

need God. I'm more important. He says of these three things, none of these things come from your

father. The world and what it values is going to pass away, but whoever does the will of God

lives forever. So you have to choose. I'm going to go with God's value system or I'm going to go

with the world's value system of the temptation to have more, the temptation to feel more,

the temptation to be more, all of these kind of things that happen. He says, if you're hearing people

shout at you all the time, that you got to be popular and you got to be beautiful and you got to be

successful and you got to be rich for you to have any value, that's a lie. It's a lie. It's the world's

value system that only the wealthiest matter, only the most beautiful matter, only those who

are having the most fun matter, that means you don't matter because you're not in any of those

categories, but that's what the world is constantly teaching. You got to be thin and beautiful and

sexy and rich. Otherwise, your life sucks. That's the world's value system. They are wrong, but

you're hearing it all the time and you're carrying it with you in your pocket and you're reading

it on social media and things like that. If I see it enough, I start thinking, well, it must be

okay. What this does is this desensitizes me to sin. It desensitizes me to say, well, if everybody's

doing it, it must be okay. It must be all right. James 4 verse 4 in the Bible says this, don't you

know that to be a friend of the world is to be hostile to God? If your aim is to be

popular with the world, you make yourself God's enemy. I didn't say that. God does. He said,

you've got to choose. Do you want to be a people pleaser? Or do you want to be a God pleaser?

I highly recommend that you decide from this day forward, you're not going to be a people pleaser

anymore. You're going to be a God pleaser because if you're a God pleaser, it will always be the

right thing to do and actually there will be some good people who like that.

Wow, such a great message today and every day. Thanks, Pastor Rick. Hey, do you know someone who's

graduating this year? Maybe it's your son, a daughter, grandchild, perhaps a neighbor or even a

family friend. As you celebrate this important milestone and as they begin the next phase of their

journey, they need to know that God created them, loves them and has a plan for their life.

So that's why Rick Warren created a special resource just for graduates called the Purpose

Driven Life, selected thoughts and scriptures for the graduate. It's filled with inspirational

scripture, biblical wisdom from Rick and beautiful imagery. This unique hardcover gift book

provides a priceless reminder of the bountiful life that God has planned for your graduate

and it's going to inspire them to seek his unique plan and purpose for their life. So please,

don't miss this opportunity to minister to the graduate in your life today. Be sure to request

your copy of the Purpose Driven Life for graduates when you give a gift to daily hope. Just go to

pastorrick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorrick.com or you can text the

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