Rick Warren - Being A Disciple In The Digital Age—Part One

Hello, everybody, Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. 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, 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 cheapy phone. You have

a minimum of a thousand times that in your phone,

and you can buy ten thousand times that and put

it on your phone. You have no idea how much

power you have in your pocket. That's why in two

thousand and seven, 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

ten 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 on 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.

There you go. I'll put that on Facebook. You'll 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 phone. So let me show you

some images. We look at our phones while we're waiting.

You ever seen a picture like ever seeing 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,

there's interesting. I put that picture up there because there's

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 twenty first 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 commercials, 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 twelve minutes, on average, every twelve minutes. That means

you look at this little screen eighty times a day,

if you're an average person, eighty 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 eighty 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 you're worried.

Is everybody looking at me? Right now?

Relax, nobody's looking at you.

Nobody's looking.

Do you remember years 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 real literally just

a few years, in just a decade.

I have to share this with you. This is on

the internet.

My kids asked what it was like growing up in

the eighties, so I took away their phone and turned

off the internet.

That's it.

That's the eighties, folks, all right, that's the eighties. This

church was started January nineteen eighty that's the eighties, 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 I want us 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, but 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. 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 it's

hard to explain, explain how powerful this tool is. But

there are spiritual downsites, and so let's look at the

spiritual hazards of digital tools. I'm talking about iPhones, iPods, smartphones, laptops,

any 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 is a potential dangerous trap. If

you're walking through a minefield where they buried mines in

the ground, 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 your pastor if you're a golfer, the word hazard

is no longer acceptable after one hundred and fifty years at.

The golf course. You probably don't know this, but I do.

I'm going to tell you.

In January one, nineteen twenty nineteen, all of the powers

that be in golf, the PGA, LPGA, and all of

the other golf associations that governing golf took the word

hazard out of the official manual after one hundred and

fifty 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.

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 all you needed here, 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 twenty seven thousand,

three hundred and seventy five days. Twenty seven three hundred

and seventy five days. That's the average number of days

a human being lives on earth. If you're over twenty

seven years of age, you've already passed ten thousand days

are 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, Ephesions,

Chapter five, Verse fifteen and sixty. 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 the

diad in Bible times. Today, care 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.

It has a This is not what it's saying here.

The opposite of careful is careless. Careless, he said. 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, eighty times a day,

three point four hours a day looking at your screen,

at your phone three point four hours a day. That

adds up to twenty four total hours a week you're

looking at this thing. And what that means is, if

you are an average person, you live to an average age,

you will eventually spend eleven solid years of your life

looking at this eleven solid years looking at this screen. Now,

that means we need to talk because I'm interested in

you not wasting eleven hours or eleven 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 up here on the screen. First Corinthians,

Chapter ten, verse twenty three. 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 necessary wrong, they're 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 uh,

you know, 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 gonna click click click click. Yeah, yeah,

that was funny. No, that wasn't. Yeah, that was funny, No,

that wasn't.

You know, if evolution were true, in one hundred years,

everybody's gonna have giant thumbs, okay, because they're exercise so

giant thumbs, big butts, little feet, we don't walk anywhere anymore, okay,

and they're just scrolling on will look very very different.

Okay.

But 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, And

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 twelve, verse eleven.

Only a fool idols away his time. So we know

I don't have to teach you on this one. We

all know it's easy to waste time on the internet. Okay,

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 in it 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 it. But you've got your caring advertising with you

everywhere you go.

And the world's.

Value system of passion, possession and position or sex, salary

and status. That's what the world's after. And if you

listen to it long enough, you start thinking, well, that

must be right and that must be okay, and you

carry that voice with you. Whatever gets you gets your attention,

And if you look at something long enough, you know

what's going to happen. You're gonna start copying it, and

you're gonna dress like that, You're gonna act like that,

you're gonna think like that, You're gonna feel like that

whatever you look at all the time, you're eventually gonna copy.

That's why the Bible says this in Romans twelve, verse two.

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 value says, what are the world's value system?

Look up here on the screen.

One John two fifteen to seventeen 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 minut.

Let me stop the guy who wrote this John In

on one John two sixteen, he says, if anybody loves

the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

He's the same guy who wrote John three sixteen and

another book which says God so loved the world. Okay,

which is it?

I mean? Come on?

In John three sixteen, John says God so loved the world,

And in first John two sixteen 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 three p.

Sixteen, where it 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 one John two fifteen to seventeen,

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, interested in sex

and pleasure and living for fun and living 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 that lives forever. So you gotta choose. I'm

gonna go with God's value system or am I gonna

go with the world's value system of you know, 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've 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 on social media and things like that. If

I see it enough, I start thinking, well, it must

be okay. And what what what this does is this

desensitizes me to sin. It desensitizes me to say, well,

if everybody's doing it must be okay, it must be

all right James four, verse four, And the Bible says this.

Don't you know that to be a friend of the

world is to be hostile to God. If you if

your aim is to be popular with the world, you

make yourself God's enemy. I didn't say that God does.

He says, 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

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