Digital Simplicity

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 Our church runs off this very basic idea. That formation is happening, whether you like it or not.

Every single day, we are becoming someone. Some days, you’re becoming somebody amazing. A lot of the days, we’re becoming somebody not so amazing. And the whole idea of why we’re having these form series is without intentional formation, We’re going to be deformed into people that are quite, uh, you know, damaging to not only ourselves, but to those around us.

And so you’ll hear a lot at our church, formed by Jesus together for others, because that takes a lot of intentionality. Because without any effort, we’re not going to be formed by Jesus. We’re going to be formed by the world, the flesh, and the devil. And it’s not going to be together. But on our own accord, we’re going to be doing it in isolation, or we’re going to hang out with people based off of mutual hate, not mutual love.

And we are not bent towards serving our community, serving the world. Instead, we often look after me, myself, and I. In other words, godliness and contentment is not something you drift towards. It’s something you have to choose every day by the grace of God and community. We are moving that direction. But again, the scary part is formation happens without us even noticing it.

Take a look with me at this quote from one of our recommended reads about formbyjesus. com slash simplicity. We hope you get familiar with that website for these next four weeks. Henry Nowen, in his book, The Way of the Heart, he says,   📍 There is seldom a period in which we do not know what to do, and we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder If any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying, or doing,   📍 we simply go along with the many musts and oughts that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were the authentic translations of the gospel, our Lord.

 And so every three months, today’s a wonderful day to be here, we pick up another practice from the way of Jesus. In February, we started with Sabbath. In May, we started with Scripture, and today we’re going to look at simplicity. Because we want to form our lives around Jesus. We want Him to change how we think, what we say, and how we do things, because His way is better.

Hopefully you’re in Mark chapter 4. Let us begin with the words of Jesus Himself. Mark chapter four, verse one, again, he began to teach by the sea in a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore. I’ll say this every time I read something like this.

This is how I want to teach. I’m going to be the one chilling on a boat. You all standing on a beach, just trying to listen. Alas, I am not Jesus. You’re like, amen. All right. So verse two, he taught them many things in parables. And in his teaching, he said to them, listen. Consider the sower who went out to sow.

For those who in our scripture series that word consider is often like meditate, haggah, sit down, wait, think about this parable. Verse four, as he sowed some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep.

But when the sun came up it was scorched and since it had no root it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. Still, other seed fell on good ground, and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.

Then he said, Let anyone who has ears to hear, listen. And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. He answered him, The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside, everything comes in parables, so that they may indeed look, yet not perceive.

They may indeed listen, and yet not understand. Otherwise, they might turn back and be forgiven. And here’s the key passage right here for our moment today. Verse 13. Then Jesus said to them, Don’t you understand this parable? Parable is a story, it’s an illustration. How then will you understand all the parables?

If you don’t get this one, you’re not going to get any of the other ones he’s saying. Verse 14. He explains it for us. The sower sows the word, the Logos, the truth, the scriptures. Ultimately, we see Jesus Christ is the ultimate depiction of the word. Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.

Others are like seeds sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. But they have no root. They are short lived when distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away. I wonder if you guys have stories of your own life, or maybe those you know, even just these first two examples of what happens when someone seems to get the word, but then falls off.

But verse 18, others are like seeds sown among thorns. These are the ones who hear the word, if you have an underline, underline this part. But the worries of this age. The deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. And those like seeds sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it.

And produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown. A few key ideas just from these twenty verses. Number one, the Word of God is what does the work. This is why we’re gathering around the scriptures today. I can give you illustrations all day, but ultimately it’s the Bible that changes our lives.

Amen? It’s what will produce fruit. Another thing, it’s all about producing fruit. What is fruit? A fulfilled life is a fruitful life. And fruit is both character, but also competency. Right? So you are a person of integrity, you’re a person of love, joy, and peace. And as a result, your life matters. What you do is significant.

It’s what we all desire within our heart of hearts to live a fruitful life. But then number three, notice in this passage, God isn’t overly intrusive. God doesn’t force us to become soil that receives the word. Instead, there is a reality where you and I can deny the word. We can deny the seed. And it’s all about your heart condition.

And so in this passage, Jesus shows four different hearts. It’s the hard heart. Too stubborn and even jaded to entertain the truths of God. They’ve heard of it, but they move away. Some of you might be like that today. Good luck listening to the rest of my sermon. Number two is the shallow heart. Right?

There is a reality where someone can hear the word, get all excited, want to get baptized, And they never even come the next week, not even around this world. Maybe they got the persecution of a friend or a family saying, Ooh, you follow Jesus now. And they’re like, No, nevermind. I don’t do that anymore. But the third one is a crowded heart.

It’s talking about being choked out by its surroundings, namely the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things. But then you have the fourth heart and that’s our prayer for us today that we would have a soft heart able to take the word of God. Let it do its work, humble us, convict us, and as a result, it begins to work through us, producing much fruit.

For our time together, I want us to zero in on the crowded heart. Over the next four weeks, and over really the next three months, we’re going to look at do we have crowded hearts? Let’s look at verse 18 again, but in the NLT translation. It says, the seed that fell among thorns represents those others who hear God’s word.

But all too quickly, the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. Now, this passage is terrifying and humbling, because who among us isn’t worried about this life? Right, who among us doesn’t want more money? And who among us isn’t constantly desiring even more things than what we have?

And I would argue a crowded heart is our generation’s biggest threat because nothing crowds our time and attention quite like the digital world. And that is by design. Let me explain a few things about our digital age. Experts actually call this digital world the attention economy. Anybody heard that before?

Right? It’s the attention economy. So social media, TV, all those things on digital world, they’re literally designed to do whatever it takes for you to keep watching. Right? It’s like when you see a car accident, you just can’t help. Like you just keep, you can’t look away. ? This is social media. This is.

This is the digital age. It’s fear mongering, it’s hate stirring, it’s all these things in order to get more clicks, to get more reactions, to get more of your attention. There was a day, actually, when marketing industry saw the, uh, saw the readers in a newspaper as the customer, right? Like, you, we were here to serve you, and, but, even as early as 1830, there was a publisher in America called Benjamin Day.

They realized that you actually make more money, not when the reader is the customer. But when the reader is the product. So what they began to do is the newspaper used to just be information about your area. Now it’s an ad about some other business in your area. Pretty, you know, it’s good. We use ads.

Wonderful. Whatever. But they began to realize the more ads they put in, they would get paid more if they put things in the newspaper that made people pick it up more. So then they would use stories that may not always be true, but they get more payment from the ads. As many people are saying, that’s why social media is free.

Because you are the product. That is how they make their money. Tristan Harris, he’s a former design ethicist at Google. There literally used to be called a design ethic, like ethics at Google. Anyways, I think it’s funny. He calls social media a slot machine. Have you guys heard this before? What’s that, uh, it’s that digital, what is that, uh, Netflix series, Social Dilemma.

They interviewed Tristan Harris on Social Dilemma, it’s a really helpful documentary. He says, quote, You pull a lever, so when you’re going on social media, like you refresh, you pull a lever and immediately receive either an enticing reward, like a prize or a match made in heaven, or nothing. And that’s the game of it.

You keep seeing is, is it going to be this time? And what is so dangerous about the slot machine is it’s always just a few dollars at a time. When you look at one moment of, do I, is this slot machine bad? A lot of us think, well, it’s just a couple dollars. The problem is the casino industry last year alone in America made 60 billion dollars.

Why? It’s just a few dollars at a time. But when you begin to look at how many times you do it, Then the math starts to not work for you. The same goes in the digital age. Just even as I was preparing this week, I felt the devil just tempt me so much. Just with videos, you know, I was just like, Oh, I need to focus on the Lord.

Digital distractions. Ooh! Yeah. I don’t know what happened to that actor. Where is he now? You know? Oh, no, no, no, no. Right. It’s just this constant pull and tug for me. I just love to learn. I’m like, What if I pull it again and I learn something new and I could find a way to include it in my sermon, right?

There is a temptation. We’re constantly needing more, more, more. And the reality is, is this digital distraction. It’s not just social media. It comes in the form of games, audio books, podcasts, TV, news. Talk radio, all the things. Neil Postman, I mentioned him a couple weeks ago. He has that really great book, Amusing Ourselves to Death.

He wrote it in 1985. And he says, the biggest shift in our culture that really has destroyed us is we used to be the age of exposition. Apparently, like, Abraham Lincoln, when he was trying to become president, he would debate for seven hours with his, with his opponents. We would not be paying attention to a seven hour debate and he would go town to town and people would listen, write down notes.

There was an attention to actual substance. He goes, we’ve moved from the age of exposition, meaning fully explain yourself with the invention of the telegraph. He doesn’t even say the TV, the telegraph. We are now in the age of the show business. What gets their attention? What excites the most? What gives the most fear?

That is what makes the most money. Throw away the exposition and come on, show business. And with that he says there’s a huge gap now between the information we receive and the action we can do about it. So with the invention of national news and the moment that it happens, guess what you can do about a terrible thing happening in North Carolina?

Absolutely nothing! Except get real mad! Text your grandkids, get away from the blah blah blah, right? And move on, right? And this is what happens. We think we’re doing something just by getting angry, and the reality is we are doing absolutely nothing. The digital addiction trains us to get all mad, but doesn’t actually train us to do.

And I would argue this is why our Formed by Scripture series was so difficult. I need to hear the Word and do it? Because our whole lives we hear these things, and there’s nothing we can do except maybe vote twice. every four years, right? And so, let’s read this verse again. Verse 19, all too quickly the message or the word is crowded out.

So what we want to do as a faith family is examine our digital intake. It’s of utmost importance because the quickest way to corruption is to be careless with consumption. Even this morning I was reading Proverbs 14 in my own quiet time, and it was like verse 14 through 17. It’s all about that. I was like, do I include this or not?

Like, it’s amazing. They’re like, man, the wise person is cautious about every step. The fool is gullible and just goes anywhere. Right? Our corruption, at the root, is from our consumption. And the creators of the digital world are counting on you and I to be careless about what we consume. Not only has the digital world been called a slot machine, which I think is a really good imagery, but as a Baptist, it just goes right over my head.

Right? I don’t know. I’ve never done it before. Right? My dad would kill me. You know what I’m saying? Besides a slot machine, though, a lot of people are likening it to our generation’s cigarette. Because a few generations ago, everybody did it. Why? Nobody knew that it was that bad for you. Right? And just a few generations later, we’re like, Whoa, that’s like the worst thing for your body that will kill your lungs.

Not to cast shame on anybody who still does that today. I’m just saying a lot of us had no idea until it was too late. That same idea is happening in the digital world. You and I still have no, this is such a new experiment. Do you realize social media was invented in like 2007 like this is crazy. All this stuff is still new.

I, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’m going to quote Bill Maher in a sermon. I don’t know who I am anymore. Again, don’t tell my father. But, Bill Maher, he has this, uh, he’s talking about the digital age, and he has this line that I thought was really helpful. It’s actually in a book, that’s how I heard it.

He said, Philip Morris, anybody know who Philip Morris is? Apparently it’s a drug industry. I didn’t know. That just shows how sheltered I was. Okay, Philip Morris just wanted your lungs. The App Store wants your soul.

Cue the famous line from our rabbi Jesus. What is it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul? The point that I’m trying to make is we’ve been careless about our consumption for way too long. And as a result, our time has been damaged. Our attention is almost gone and our souls are fragmented and fading away.

All by what we consume. This digital addiction thing is at the root of so many dissatisfactions and discontentments in this generation. It’s why we love the idea of Sabbath. I was so encouraged in February. It was like, let’s Sabbath, you know, it’s so fun. You know why it was hard to keep doing it? Because we don’t have enough time for it.

Because the digital world takes up our time throughout the week and then on Saturday we’re like, Oh no, there’s still so much I haven’t done. Let me pack it all in on this day before we start the new week, right? Scripture reading. I mean, I’ve actually, even in my own life, I, I can’t read it from the iPad anymore because I’m just, I’m so distracted, I have to read it from the word because not only is it just the notifications are there and you can just swipe away, but there’s something about when you were watching videos a few seconds at a time or headlines, literally attentions like a muscle and the less you use it, the less it will be usable, right?

And so as we read the word, the biggest, the biggest pushback is the Bible’s boring. Okay. You just don’t know how to read. You know what I’m saying? Like, it’s an attention thing. I say that in grace. I said the Bible’s boring for a lot of my life until I realized how rich it is. But it’s because, at the root, a lot of this is the digital addictions that we have.

And so we have so many of the practices we want to do. Up at formedbyjesus. com, you can see over the next, I think at this point, the next 10 years, Caleb, I don’t know, we’re taking our time, is all these different practices we want to implement into the life of our church. But we realize we can’t go any further until we address This issue, especially of the digital addiction. In my own pursuit of following Jesus, this has been the roadblock of me becoming more like him. It’s almost why I wanted Caleb to preach this one because I’m like, I’m bad at this man. Like I love to learn, I love to read and then I use that and I am in spirals all the time. So to quote the great theologian. Of our church, Caleb Martinez. I was texting him this week about and I sent him my sermon notes.

I said, am I missing anything? And this was his text back to me. Friends, the rest of us text and emojis what this is page 1 of 10 on the screen. Just hold on ready He says

to have our attention. Were you like driving? Like I just know you were like, yeah Let’s just let’s just throw this in a text message and move.

He didn’t know I was gonna quote him today This is so fun. He says

  📍 to have our attention violently pulled in every direction social media news Netflix Decenters us and makes us anxious people easily swayed into fear and apathy We become incapable of practicing the way of Jesus.  Then he turned right onto the next road and finished the rest of his text.

He says,

  📍 Digital distractions pull our devotion away from God and back onto ourselves. They numb our minds with dopamine and make us chase our next hit. We become slaves to entertainment, news, social media,  and I love this next line.   📍 Digitalism trains us for instant satisfaction and immediate results, which is antithetical to how spiritual formation works.

 This next text, just my thoughts, do what you want. Literally, I have, I have receipts, check my phone. So, is there a practice from the way of Jesus that could set us free from our digital addictions, our distractions, our discontentment and dissatisfaction? Is it possible for you and I to get our time back, our attention back, and even our very souls back?

I would answer wholeheartedly yes, and that practice is called the practice of simplicity. For centuries, monks and other people of the like didn’t use the phrase simplicity, didn’t really exist. Instead they used the word frugality, which the root word in Latin is frux, where you and I get the word fruit.

So really, frugality is based off of Mark 4. How can I be someone who produces fruit? I don’t want to be the hard heart. I don’t want to be the shallow heart. And for us, I don’t want to be the crowded heart. What will it take to produce fruit? You need the practice of frugality. Frugality. The problem is, I don’t want people walking around, you know, Passion Creek Church, that’s a frugal church.

It’s just, it doesn’t have the same vibe as what we’re trying to communicate. You know, frugal is stingy, a killjoy, overholding things. That’s not who we are at all, and I hope you hear our heart in this series. Instead, more recently, Christians and theologians are now calling this simplicity. Richard Foster, again on the recommended reading up on our website, in freedom of simplicity defines simplicity as the following way.

  📍 Simplicity is the inward reality of single hearted focus upon God and his kingdom, which results in outward lifestyle of modesty, openness, and unpretentiousness, and which disciplines our hunger for status, glamour, and luxury.  Not as good at that text message earlier before, right? You know, but that’s a pretty good line by Richard Foster.

Here’s our working definition on the screen.   📍 The practice of simplicity is removing the number of digital distractions, material desires, and relational dishonesties that keep us from living a joyful life in the kingdom with Jesus.  So for the next four weeks we’re going to be teaching on the subject of simplicity.

But here’s the real, real hope over the next three months, you and I are going to stumble through this thing together and we’re going to take this idea of simplicity and get it into our bones where it is just a part of life. Simplicity is a part of our being. Why? Because we want to be living a joyful life in the kingdom with Jesus.

We need to remember this. The whole point is joy with Jesus. And the roadmap is through simplicity. So first, let’s address the solution. I’ve already talked about the problem of our digital era and our digital age. What is the solution? Do you and I have a solution from the Bible that helps set us free from digital addiction and into life and life in abundance?

The problem is, and I looked everywhere, even all the different translations, there’s not a chapter or verse where Jesus tells us how to use our iPhones. Or even if anybody still does it, because I know Spencer does, droid. Oh, you know, the one guy who ruins our blue text. I love you, Spencer. Where is he? He left.

No, I’m just kidding. Right? This is what we’re called to do, because look, you’ll see all throughout the lifestyle of Jesus. His moving and walking you will see him remove distractions for the purpose of strength and communion with God and others And that is the heartbeat behind what we’re trying to do.

Look with me. You’re in mark. So let’s just stay there for now Let’s flip left a little bit mark chapter one I’m going to show you a few places if we had enough time I would show you a bazillion places where Jesus seems to go to the solitude To get away from the distraction and spend time In prayer, uh, Mark chapter one, starting in verse 32, it says, when evening came, Jesus actually had done a bunch of ministry just now.

When evening came after the sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon possessed. The whole town was assembled at the door and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons and he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. . But then verse 35, very, very early in the morning while it was still dark, he got up, went out and made his way to a deserted place, and there he was praying.

Okay, wonderful ministry opportunity. A lot of distraction now, because everybody’s at the door, he gets up early. All the parents know this, right? You gotta get up before the kids if you want any alone time. And he gets away into the solitude and communes. with God. Let’s continue in the book of Mark. Jump over to chapter six.

Just show you a few more passages that shows our rabbi. We believe we’re supposed to imitate our whole life around Jesus. He’s not just a beautiful savior, which he certainly is. He’s also a brilliant teacher. We’re supposed to model our life after. Uh, chapter six, verse 30, the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported him all they had done and taught.

So they had like a great ministry experience. It’s pretty incredible. And Jesus said to them, But come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while. For many people were coming and going and they did not even have time to eat. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, right?

What does American say? Hey, we got momentum, you know, we’ll, we’ll sleep when we die, you know, keep going out there. Let’s multiply, make sure you give the offering, right? Like this is the moment to really capitalize. And it says, you know what? Let’s go away for a while. Let’s make sure we don’t make it all about this.

Let’s go away and spend time alone with the Father. Now let’s go to the book of Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, by the way, are just the biographies of the life, death, and life of Jesus Christ. Chapter 5, verse 15. Luke has this everywhere, by the way, but let’s just work, look at a couple verses. But the news about him, this is verse 15, sorry, but the news about him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

But what does verse 16 say? And yet, he often withdrew to deserted places. and prayed. Are you down for one more? Let’s go to Matthew. Matthew chapter 3. I know I probably should have ordered this better, but flipping around is a good thing. Matthew chapter 3, starting in verse 16. Let me get there myself.

Verse 16. This is an amazing moment. Jesus gets baptized. Look, when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove. We had this moment last week, right when service ended. A dove came into our, uh, into this worship center.

I was like, the Holy Spirit! But then he died, so never mind. But, uh, and so, way to go, Jimmy. He probably did it. So, uh, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well. Please something in our heart of hearts.

We all want to hear from our father But now look at verse 1 of chapter 4 then So it’s not like 10 months goes by he gets baptized gets completely affirmed by his father Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit Into the wilderness or what other the the Greek is a eramos in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Used to think this was such a strange verse because I thought, okay, great moment, now Jesus has to go to the desert.

You’ll see in verse 2, he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, he’s hungry, and then he’s tempted. And so I always thought this is Jesus was at his weakest moment and at his weakest point. He now has to fight the devil. And that is a very American noise centric perspective that I have. The reality is he went to the desert, not to deplete his energy, but to strengthen it.

Dallas Willard points out, yes, his flesh. was weak, right? Like, it was hard. He was hungry. He was still fully God, but still fully man. But in that moment, he was alive, right? He had full strength to duel with the devil. It was the spirit himself. Look at verse 1 again. Led up by the spirit into the wilderness so that he would be tempted by the devil.

So in other words, Jesus went away so that he would be at full strength to duel with the devil. And verse 3 through 11. I’m going to skip it for now because of time, but at the end of his time in the desert, the devil tempts him three different ways. Henry Nouwen describes these temptations as, one, the temptation to be relevant, two, the temptation to be spectacular, and three, the temptation to be powerful.

And are not these the temptations that keep us coming back to the digital age? To be relevant, spectacular, and powerful. To prove our abilities and worth, to win people’s applause, and to be God rather than to love and serve God. And so hear me out. We can complain about the rat race, what Richard Foster calls modern mania, all day about the digital age, but Jesus has shown us a way out.

He modeled it himself. Write this down. The only way out of the chokehold is going to the desert. In the Bible, the desert is both literal and metaphorical. Of all people, we understand the desert a little too much in July and August, right? It’s metaphorical though. What it is, it’s this idea where we get away from the hustle and bustle and spend time with God in solitude.

You actually see all throughout the Bible. It’s not that they go to the desert to prove their worth and then they’re loved. They are loved, affirmed, called, chosen. Then delivered and then go into the desert. We have to remember we’ve been approved first before we go to the desert. But what does the desert do?

It simplifies our life. What we think, what we say, what we do. We get alone with God, right? We get rid of all the oughts and the musts. The, what the world tells us to do. And we just say, okay, God, how am I supposed to live my life according to your word? And we get alone. And let’s be honest. What I’m calling you to is we can’t really like do like an actual.

40 days away from our work and our kids, like it’s not possible for a lot of us. But what we can do is go to the digital desert where we spend time away from the mania of the attention economy. And I have to admit, this is really, really hard for me. This week I’ve been posting little one minute vlogs on my Instagram and YouTube shorts.

Watch it. I was going to say don’t watch it, but I’m proud of him. So watch it. Now, what’s hilarious, though, is the first day I posted, and it was really fun, and this whole story about the river, and when you watch the first minute, you think we had the best day ever, which we did. You watch the second video the next day.

I lost my keys, uh, in the middle of the river, and it was a disaster. We got, we left at 7 in the morning, got home at 6. 30 that night, and our marriage is still intact and doing great, right? It really is! We did wonderful that day. Okay, now, what’s funny though, I posted the story, and the whole video was about, um, me and my wife, we’re going outdoors and creation, it’s all about digital simplicity, get away from your phones, get away from all of it, you know, and then watch me, I’m doing it, and so the first comment I got was, Cool, looks like you filmed all that with your

iPhone. Touche, my brother, touche. How do I respond to this guy? I’m like, yeah, I’m away, I’m away from all media. Huh, huh, you know, hey babe walk again. I need to get that shot, you know, and I’m like well social media You know not like away from the phone phone because I didn’t have service anyways But I still wanted to use the phone to capture it right there’s hypocrisy in all of this So I feel that I know you’re like of all people this guy posts every day and I’m working on that right and there has been Seasons where I didn’t post anything, but I you know, whatever.

So the point is There is a lot of grace here. Yeah, there has to be grace to you because I gotta give a lot of grace to me This is hard But it’s worth it It’s worth figuring out. Maybe it’s a full on cold turkey But something so we can have time to hear from God in the in the video intro if you go to formedbyjesus.com we have Conversations with people from our church and the most recent ones about simplicity and it’s actually my cousin He mentions I just don’t know how to have a phone And follow the way of Jesus.

I, I don’t know how to be aware of what God is doing in my life because I’m just so hooked to another book, another podcast, another piece of information. I miss opportunities every day, and so he wound up getting a dumb phone. And I told him that was dumb. No, literally dumb, right? But he’s saying it has set him free.

I’m not arguing we become Luddites, right? I’m not saying, like for me, I wouldn’t even know how to get to this school without GPS. I am the most directionally challenged person you know. I don’t know how people lived in the 80s. I’m just saying, right? I need that. That’s why I can’t get a dome phone, because their maps aren’t good.

I need to get home every day, right? For the sake of my kids. There’s a lot of reasons why the digital world is great. Some of you are here today because you found about us online. Praise the Lord for that, right? So, we don’t want to go overboard, but… Like any other substance, we must recognize there is a need for limits and restrictions.

Not just for the sake of limits and restrictions, but man, God has called us to live a fruitful life. We experience his presence, live with purpose and direction, and goodness gracious, I have found the biggest tool the devil has been using in our era is to pull us away in the digital age. And so in your groups this week, you’re gonna be answering the following question.

  📍 What are ways we can remove the number of digital distractions that are keeping us from living a joyful life in the kingdom with Jesus?  And our desire is you spend more than just one minute on trying to answer that question. I know for me, I had quick spot off questions, but as I’m thinking about it more, it gets more and more convicting.

Now, please hear our heart and all of these practice series. Our actual point for most of this is not that you do more, but that you do less. We don’t want to be like the Pharaohs who heat burdens upon you and you have more of these stones you’re holding and you’re sinking in the ground because you’re just so exhausted.

Why? Because Jesus says my yoke is easy, my burden is light, come with me, rest with me, and you will find refreshment, you will find rest for your soul. So I, as I follow Jesus, I can’t be saying it’s going to be heavier, it’s going to be lighter, but we have to rethink our musts and oughts and the way we do and say and think.

We have to reorganize our life and realize a lot of what we’re doing is because the attention economy told us to do it. A lot of what we’re doing is because secularism has no other answer besides distraction and numbing the pain of life without God. And we must step away from that quickly next on your screen.

It’s again, it’s going to be a formedbyjesus.Com week one of this message. You’ll see a chart. We charted this out. This is actually from James Clear. If you’ve ever read his book, Atomic Habits, he said to start habits. You need to first establish what would be really easy and really hard. So you have very easy, easy, moderate, hard, very hard.

  📍 So very easy. Just turn off all the digital notifications on your phone. Easy. Nothing digital during dinner. Just be present with your family or even if you’re alone, be present with God. Moderate. Delete social media from your phone. Uh, I love this practice. Nothing digital before 10 a. m. and nothing digital after 5 p.

 m. When I say digital, by the way, it’s not just social media. It’s TV, it’s podcasts, audiobooks, all those sorts of things. What’s really hard is maybe having a TV or digital entertainment fast, maybe for like this next week, you’re not on it at all. What we did the other night is remove the TV from the living room.

I thought I was so smart and cool, best idea ever, and she’s like, we did that already. We did that for like a year. I’m like, I don’t even remember. I thought my whole life I’ve had a TV. She’s like, we done, we done, we been there. Okay, but we’re doing it again. Alright, and then what’s very hard, this is actually a secular person argues in his book, uh, Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism.

He says everybody should do a 30 day digital detox, and after those 30 days, then re examine, what can I slowly put back in my life? Have you ever heard of that whole food diet, right? Where you like, it’s just the worst diet in the world, but then you learn, like, what’s not good for your stomach? It’s kind of the same way for the digital world.

30 days. Good luck. Now. I love what Benedictine John Chapman’s advice is for prayer, and we’re going to apply this to simplicity. He says, pray as you can, not as you can’t. The same goes for this practice. Do as you can. It’s going to be different for everybody. I’m pretty sure I’m the most digitally addicted in this room.

Okay, so I have to do the most. But do what you can. We want to be a church of grace, and understanding, and patience. I am not going to be checking in on you. But we want this to be an invitation. To quote a Peloton instructor, we make invitations, you make decisions. It’s up to you. But as we close, there is a real possibility the sound of a digital desert sounds appealing.

But you know you’re never going to do it yourself. Why? Maybe, just maybe, you won’t go to the desert because you fear you’ll be deserted.

What’s really hard, what I have noticed, the last few years, a lot has stacked up in my life and I’ve had a lot of wounds that I try to deal with on my own and didn’t work out. So I’ve had to have some, you know, spiritual directors and counselors kind of introduced into my life. But what I realize is I could never be silent.

I, I upped how many books I listened to, how many podcasts I was about, how many videos I would watch, and I did it in the name of learning, but it’s because I was terrified to really know how bad my wounds are. I was terrified to tell God, I don’t know if you love me. I was terrified to bring up my past.

And let God heal me there, and so I distracted myself digitally, and I was terrified of a thought of being alone. Let me just, I want to remind you of Matthew 3. Jesus is affirmed by the love of the Father, and then he goes to the desert. And so for some of us, step one is to know that Christ died for you.

Christ has saved you, and we all have hurts and hang ups, and Christ knows the pain of all of those. He knows the pain of rejection. He knows the pain of being misunderstood. He knows all of that, and he’s inviting you just to bring it out in the open. But the digital age tells you, you don’t need to face it.

Just numb it. But that pain never leaves until you confront it. Allow God to confront it in a digital desert. May we not allow noise to be a false tranquilizer to the soul. We need healing. And that healing only comes from the love of the Father. If you have believed in Jesus, you have asked for his forgiveness.

Friends, Matthew 3, when God says to Jesus, This is my son, with whom I am well pleased, I will confidently say, He says the same about you. This is my son, this is my daughter, with whom I am well pleased. And even if that meant you did the worst thing you’ve ever done in your life yesterday, but because of the blood of Jesus.

You are forgiven. You are redeemed. There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning. We are a people of grace and that’s why we’re simplifying our life, not removal to get approval. We already got that, but it’s making space to experience more of his grace that he’s already given us. So I invite you now, this whole point is to be silent with God.

And I invite you, whatever fear, whatever hurts, whatever, even in this moment, because of distraction, we don’t know what to do with silence. We just kind of close our eyes. I’m going to just give a few moments where you and God talk.