As you see, our topic this morning is holiness in the online age. The online age, that's something that is new in my lifetime. That's one of the big changes that has occurred in our culture. I was first introduced to the internet in the 1990s. It was just a new thing on the scene, on the horizon for all of us then. I was in my late teens, early 20s in the 90s. So as a child, I grew up in a culture that didn't have email, didn't have websites, didn't have social media, didn't have online video games, and didn't have cell phones that were able to instantly tap into any of these things. So our generation, speaking to those who are my age and older, we are a pioneering generation. We're not pioneering lands like our forefathers here in America, but we're pioneering the digital landscape. And it's not only full of great potential, but it also has great dangers. And so I wanted to talk about some of that this morning and apply some of what we've learned from scripture in years past to holiness in the online age. In order to successfully pioneer a new world, You need virtue. You need the virtues of wisdom, courage, and strength. And I'm not sure that most Americans have proved up to the challenges of our time. The dangers of the digital world seem to be destroying many lives. But we, as God's family, we have resources that the world doesn't have. We have God's Word to guide us. We have God's Holy Spirit to teach us, to strengthen us. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna look into God's Word today. to learn how to properly navigate and integrate the World Wide Web and all of the software that is connected by it into lives that are productive and authentic, grounded in the real world with real relationships. So we won't lose our way and we will live the way that God created us to live amidst the technology and the tools that we have been given, discovering how to keep God and our family and our neighbors at the center of our lives in the healthiest ways possible. That's the goal I've set out for us to consider this morning. Let's start off with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for how it is a light that is shining in a dark place, how it enables us to have fellowship with you. For if we don't hear your words, God, how could we ever know your heart and your mind? But we thank you that you've not only communicated to us through the book, but that you are present with us and that your Holy Spirit has been sent from heaven into our hearts to guide us into all of the truth, to give us ears to hear, to give us eyes to see, to be able to walk with you, to be able to talk with you, to be able to behold you, to be taught of the God who has created us. And so we ask you to teach us today. We ask you to lead us into the truth. We ask you to encourage us and strengthen us. We ask you to show us the way and give us the joy of walking in your ways. For our good and for your glory, Father. Amen. Elon Musk is the world's richest person. And from what I can tell by observing his online activity, some of his favorite things to do are to post on X and to play Diablo 4, which is an online video game. That means that if you had all the money in the world and you had a personality that was similar to Elon Musk's, you'd still be doing the same things that you're doing now. That's how engaging online world can be. It can be more fun than going out and climbing a mountain or driving a race car. And people who have all the time and the money, they'll still spend their time online. And that just shows you how easy it is for us to get plugged in and to be drawn into the online world. It is so engaging. And that means that it is going to require an incredible amount of self-control to be able to keep it in its proper place in our lives. As we look at our outline this morning, that's what we're going to be starting with. We're going to be talking about self-control. And that's one of the keys to holiness in the online age. After we talk about self-control, we'll look at three guiding rules that my family has implemented, and I'm going to throw them out there for your consideration and recommend that you also implement these rules in your personal life and in your family life when it comes to the screens that are in our lives. Speaking of screens, there was a movie a number of years ago called The Incredibles 2, and the villain in that movie has a monologue in which he actually has some good points, some good critiques about how our screens, used to be the television screen, now it's the telephone and computer screen, have become so controlling in our lives. The monologue went like this. You don't talk, you watch talk shows. You don't play games, you watch game shows. Travel, relationship, risk, every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to you to watch at a distance so that you can remain ever-sheltered, ever-passive, ever-ravenous consumers who can't bring themselves to rise from their couches, break a sweat, and participate in life. That is a critique of how screens can produce people who are inactive. Who instead of engaging in life the way that God has created and designed us to engage in life, we become observers of life from a distance. This is replacing experience with simulation. And we want to be on our guard that we don't allow the online world to become so interesting and so captivating and so compelling that it removes us from the life that we have in person. with the people that God has placed around us and that we don't replace the genuine experiences that God has destined us to have with a virtual experience. Virtual reality is a fascinating thing. It's amazing what people can do in the worlds that you can now create and you put on the headset and you're in another world and I feel like I've been to certain places in the world because I've been there in virtual reality and it's pretty amazing. But virtual reality is not reality. And we need to always keep a proper sense of what is God's world and what is just a picture, what is just an image, what is just a creation, what is just a simulation of real things. Now, as we navigate this, we have to keep in mind that social media and YouTube will also, with the forums and with the interactions and all of that, produce a simulation of relationship, a simulation of friendship. that we must be aware that our real-life interactions with people are not replaced with online interactions. It is a tremendous power to have in your hand, to be able to have a device that can talk with anyone, anywhere, at any time. That power comes with responsibility. And so how do we use the power? How do we use the tools that God has given to us? The generation that's coming up now, my children and those who are in young adulthood, they're the first generation that has grown up with social media. The first generation that has grown up with online video games. The first generation that has grown up with the World Wide Web where you can go and learn anything about anything at any time for free. That is tremendous power. That is a tremendous tool that has been given, and yet it comes with dangers. Tools have to be used wisely. Tools have to be used well. As we think about all the changes that have taken place in the modern world, we look back at the past and see how certain groups have resisted the technology that came and changed society and changed life. And as changes get further and further, we move further and further away from what seems like reality and mental health and being grounded in the real world, some of the past decisions like those made by the Amish start to seem more and more appealing. I'm glad that there are the Amish around and that there's still somebody who's living that way. And if we need to go back to it, we can go and ask them, how do we do this? But as we go into the online age, it's also tempting to say, well, maybe we just need to not use the internet, not use cell phones, just completely go away from that. But I don't think that is the answer. The Bible does not speak against technology. The Bible approves of the use of man-made tools. And the screens that we use, the internet that connects them, they are tools that can be used for good or for evil. In 1 Timothy 4, 4, and 5, we are told, Everything created by God is good. Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. And I think that not only does this apply to the physical things that have been around from the beginning, but also the tools that mankind makes out of the world that God has placed us in are also good. There's nothing wrong with using a hammer, even though it's a man-made device. There's nothing wrong with using a chainsaw, even though it's a mechanical device. And there's nothing wrong with using a cell phone. There's nothing wrong with using a television. Nothing wrong with using a computer. But it has to be made holy by the Word of God and prayer. Have you ever done that? Have you ever taken the things that God has given to you, your house and all the tools that are in it, your automobile, your technical devices that are in your hands, and said, I'm going to sanctify this. I'm going to set this apart for God's use. Because, as we heard earlier, we are to present ourselves, our whole lives, as an offering that is acceptable to God in Romans chapter 12. And so everything that we have, also we offer up to God and say, God, this is yours. I will do with it what you want me to do with it. I am your servant and every tool is a servant of mine and so I'm going to use every tool in your service, oh God. You mentally set apart all the things in your house. And this morning, what we're talking about is your technology. Set aside the technology in your house for God's purposes, for God's use, through prayer and through the Word of God. That's why we're opening up God's Word to speak to this today. It says in Romans chapter 12 verse 2, There is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God that he reveals to you, his family, his children. about how to use everything that he has given to you. How to use your time, how to use your money, how to use your work, how to use your energy, how to use your imagination, how to use the internet, how to use your cell phone, how to use social media. There's a good and acceptable and perfect will of God for that. But in order to find God's will, you cannot be conformed to the world. You cannot just go along with the flow. You cannot be squeezed and pressured by the world. I tell my children, YouTube is not your friend. YouTube wants to control you. They have their own desires. They have their own wishes. And they're not presenting stuff for you for your good. They're presenting stuff to you for their good. And so you have to be master of YouTube and not allow YouTube to master you. This is not being conformed to the world. The algorithms will conform you. Google has a will for your life that is not God's will for your life. And therefore, you must be the master of your technology and not allow the software to master you. Discern what is God's will by not being conformed to the world, but instead, your mind must be transformed. It is only through the renewal of your mind by the word of God, by fellowship with people who love God, by time alone with God in prayer, your mind will be transformed, and then you will be able not only to discern the will of God, but you will be able to walk in that good and acceptable and perfect will. So, asceticism is not the answer. Just doing away with technology is not the approach that we need to take to this. But instead, we need to practice self-control. Let's start getting into self-control here. So Acts chapter 24 verse 25, you see that the apostle Paul, he spoke about self-control in the context of the coming judgment. When he was with the governor, he was awaiting his trial, Felix would have an interest in Paul because he's an interesting person. And so Paul would reason about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment. And those topics are alarming to those who are outside of God's grace. Felix became alarmed when he thought about the coming judgment, about his lack of self-control, about not measuring up to God's righteous standard. And so Felix told Paul, go away for the present. When I get an opportunity, I will summon you. And this is most people's response to the subject of self-control. Now, it was back in 2014, 10 years ago, I did a three-part mini-series, a seminar, on self-control. As I was preparing that seminar, I was talking with a brother about it, and when I told him what the topic was for the seminar, he said, uh-oh. That's how we all kind of feel when somebody starts talking with us about self-control. It's like, uh-oh, I don't have enough self-control. That's going to be convicting. And in fact, when one study done by the University of Pennsylvania was done on Americans, they surveyed two million people and asked them to rank their strengths, their virtues, in 24 different areas. Self-control was at the bottom of the list. Everybody senses their lack of self-control. This is something that comes around this time of year. It's New Year's, and so many people are thinking about New Year's resolutions, and then people start to think, well, I can't make a New Year's resolution because I don't have resolve. I don't have self-control. I've tried to change habits. I've tried to change patterns, and I failed. and so therefore best just to not think about it like Felix and give up on that idea and not make New Year's resolutions. Well, the key to changing is not a New Year's resolution. However, resolution is a part of biblical change. The Bible teaches us that we are to resolve to obey God's will, that we are to tell God that we are resolved to obey His will, that we are not just supposed to give up and throw up our hands and say, well, I'm glad there's grace because I'm a lousy sinner and I can't change. No. The Bible teaches us that we are to present ourselves to God, that our mind is to be renewed, that we are to be holy as he himself who has called us is holy, and that we have the power and we have everything we need to change. However, resolve is not enough to change in and of itself. Now, even for unbelievers, resolution is helpful. Study shows that those who make resolutions are 10 times more likely to change their behavior than those who don't. So that's a pretty big difference there. But if you resolve to change but don't make any plans on how you're going to change, you're probably going to still fail. Not only do you need to know what God wants you to do, not only do you need to resolve to do what God wants you to do, but then you must have a plan for doing what God wants you to do. If you don't know, you won't make a plan. You won't make a resolution or you make the wrong resolutions. If you make a resolution but you don't plan, you'll fail and get discouraged and you think you can't change. But if you know God's will and you resolve to do God's will and by God's wisdom you formulate a plan and carry out that plan, you will change. You will change. Change is not impossible. Now, delusional development is when you think that just by wanting to improve in some area that you're going to. If somebody is a manager and they want to improve their listening skills, just wanting to do that is not going to do anything. You have to make a plan. You have to come up with a process by which you are going to become a better listener. And then you have to follow that plan and stick to that plan. This is how we change. And this is how God works within us. Let's take a look at the definition for self-control from the dictionary. It's not bad. I can use this. Restraint exercised over one's own impulses, emotions, or desires. The Bible doesn't talk about impulses. The Bible talks about lusts and passions, and it talks about the way that people are not always steady on course, that they don't have endurance and faithfulness. They have unfaithfulness. And so you don't want to be an impulsive person. You want to be a self-controlled person. You don't want to be a person who's controlled by your emotions, but you want to be a person who controls your emotions. You don't want to be a person who's controlled by your desires, but you want to have restraint over your own desires. And while this definition is good, I find that I like MacArthur's definition better. Very similar, though. But he brings in some ideas that are helpful here. Self-control, as John MacArthur defined it, is the ability to regulate. I like that word, regulate. The word regulate has to do with rules, has to do with laws, keeping something regular, regular according to God's law, to regulate one's conduct by principle and sound judgment. So self-control, it comes from being a person who has principles and who has sound judgment, rather than by impulse, desire, or social custom, like being conformed to the world. So your flesh has a lot of impulses and desires, the world is social custom, but the godly man has self-control and he's able to regulate conduct. You have control of yourself. Instead of trying to control other people, manipulate other people, control yourself. And you do that through godly principles and through biblical sound judgment, okay? So we need to know what God's will is. Do you know what God's will is for you in the online world? We have to resolve to do God's will, and then we have to have a plan on how we're going to put that into practice. Now, concerning the lack of self-control, Proverbs 25, 28 is very convicting. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Do you know why they built walls around cities in the ancient world? and so that people couldn't come and take all your stuff and kill you. That's why they built walls around cities, because there were lots of people who would do that. Nations on the other side of the border, they'd look and say, hey, you guys had a nice harvest this year. We could use some of that food. I think we'll come and take it. And well, no, we got a wall around our city. And so self-control for your soul is your soul's protection so that other people can't take what you have, so that other people can't control you, so that other people can't enslave you. Google wants to control you and enslave you. YouTube is not your friend. You must have self-control. Facebook is not your friend. Even though Elon Musk has a lot of similar principles to what we like in politics, Twitter is not your friend or X is not your friend. No, you have to have walls. And if you don't have self-control, then anybody can come into your life and do whatever they want, because you are not in control of yourself. The advertisers are in control of you. The algorithm is in control of you. The spirit of this age is in control of you, unless you have self-control. Now, the world is largely without self-control, and they are easily manipulatable. 1 Corinthians 6.12 lays down this wonderful principle for us. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. There's no temptation that will dominate me. There is no good created thing that is going to dominate me. There is no person who is going to dominate me. There is no political party who is going to dominate me. God is going to dominate me. The Lord is going to dominate me. I'm going to walk by him. And that means I can do anything as long as it's God's will. All things are lawful for me if it is according to Scripture, if it is according to God's Holy Spirit. That's the wonderful thing about having a relationship with God. Now, I told you to go to 1 Timothy, so let's turn there in our Bible, 1 Timothy 2, verse 15. If you want to study self-control in the scriptures, the pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, are filled with references to self-control. The first one here is in 1 Timothy 2, verse 15. This is in a passage about God's will for women. about how they're supposed to act in church, and then in their own personal lives in verse 15, it says that women will be saved. That is, the ongoing work of God in their life is in the realm of motherhood. She will be saved through childbearing. She's not supposed to seek to be a pastor and a teacher in the church, but she seeks to have her sanctification worked out through the raising of her children. That's the way that God has designed women. if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. He has self-control there in that list of virtues. Faith, love, holiness with self-control. God desires for women to have that self-control in their lives. Look also at chapter three, verse two then, switching over to the men who are the overseers, who are the pastors in the church. 1 Timothy 3, verse 2 There's the word again. Respectable, hospitable, able to teach, and so on. So the quality of a godly man, the type of person that you should vote for to be an elder in our church, is that he needs to be sober-minded, he takes things seriously, he knows about the spiritual dangers, he knows what life is really all about, and therefore, he has a self-control. That word self-control, it comes from a word that talks about having power. It's the same root word from which we get words like democrat or autocrat. That crap that is there is the control. And instead of control over a nation, like a democracy, it's a control over oneself, enkratea, that it's a control that is functioning in you. And the opposite of this is the word for lacking self-control, which is akrasia. So someone who has no self-control is without control, without power over themselves. And this Greek word has actually become a technical word in psychology for the person who consistently acts against their own desires and against their better judgment. Akrasia is a mental illness. And so that's the word self-control here, enkrateia, the opposite of akrasia. Come to chapter five, verse six. Now switching to another group of people in the church, he's talking about those who are widows in the church, starting in verse three. And then he gives character qualities of a godly widow, and the contrast with that in verse six is that she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Self-indulgent. That's a synonym for lacking self-control. You can be self-indulgent in many ways. You can be self-indulgent in your diet. You can be self-indulgent when it comes to comfort and not being willing to work. You can be self-indulgent when it comes to alcohol. You can be self-indulgent with other drugs. They can be self-indulgent in emotional ways, social ways. And so the person who is self-indulgent is someone who does not know God's will and is not pursuing God's will, but is doing what she feels like. I don't feel like working right now. It's easy just to watch this video. I don't feel like working right now. I'll just read what people have posted. And so we have to be careful that we don't allow the online world to make us self-indulgent. We don't want to be dead even while we are physically alive. And that's what the internet will do. If you are self-indulgent, it will leave you empty. It will leave you lifeless. And you'll wonder where your life went. at the end of your time there. Well, this trend continues into 2 Timothy. Look at 2 Timothy 1, verse 7. Here, speaking to all Christians, the Apostle Paul writes, God has given you a spirit of self-control. You need to believe that. Don't tell yourself, I can't exercise self-control. That is denying the word of God. The word of God says that he has given you his spirit and that the spirit produces self-control. You can control yourself. And if you say otherwise, then you're calling God a liar. God has given you everything you need for life and godliness. So make use of what he's given to you. Stop believing lies. So often we fail to make progress in our Christian life because we believe a lie. If you believe the lie that you have now self-control and that you cannot gain self-control, then you will fail and you will not be sanctified because of your belief, your false belief. But if you believe the truth, then you will be transformed by that truth. God has given us a spirit of self-control. Now you need to be filled with that spirit. You can't just become self-controlled apart from filling with God's spirit. But as you are filled with the spirit, you will experience that fruit of the spirit of self-control. As I said before, there's lots of areas where we need self-control. Our food, our sleep, sex, drugs that we take, our work, our money, our time management, social interactions, paying attention. And you know what? Almost every one of those has to do with the internet. The internet has a lot to do with what we desire for food. And the internet can interrupt our sleep patterns. The internet can get us into drugs. The internet can sell us sex. The internet can make us lazy so that we don't work. And it can drain our time so that we're not good time managers. And the internet can suck up our money. And it can replace real life social interactions with shallow social interactions that don't provide meaning. And it can cause us to not pay attention to things that we're supposed to be paying attention to and rob us of our attention. So almost every area of life that we have to exercise self-control in is touched by the internet. Very interesting. We already looked at 1 Corinthians about how all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable, that we will not be mastered by anything. The Bible talks about this slavery. The world uses the term addiction. When the world uses terminology like addiction, it tries to get you to think that it's just a physical process, and that you're not really responsible for your addictions, and that it's a physical thing, and it's not a spiritual thing, it's not a moral issue. But no, mastery is a moral thing. To be enslaved to anything other than the will of God, to be controlled by some habit, some lust, some desire other than by obedience to Christ is the essence of sin and immorality. And so the Bible talks about how God has set us free from sin so that we can be enslaved to God. That all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. And I will not be dominated by anything. Another verse that's very helpful here is 1 Corinthians 10, 13. as we think about our interactions in the online space, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is in control of history. He has allowed us to live in this time and place with the temptations that we face. And the temptations that you are facing, well, maybe they didn't face the exact same temptations in the exact same way back when Paul wrote this, but I tell you what, God is still faithful. and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Believe that promise, friends, that God is faithful to you and that he is not and he never will allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. He will always provide the way of escape. It's up to you to see that way and to take that way, but God has provided it and it is there. Do not doubt that. We do want to move on here, but one other verse before we do. 1 Timothy 4, 7, and 8, I love the pastoral epistles. Train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Those of you who are involved in physical training, our young athletes here, you do your weightlifting routine, and you go out and you run, and then you go and you practice. That is of some value. It's good. But why not put that same effort, that same focus, that same planning into training for godliness? Because godliness is a value in every way. And it is an eternal value, not just for the present, but for the life to come. And so, all of us, how are you doing in your spiritual training? How are you doing on your pursuit of holiness? Do you have a plan? Are you following that plan? Have you talked about that plan? Young man wants to start working out. If he doesn't have a partner to work out with, it's very easy for him to get out of practice, to miss a date, and to start into a habit of missing that date, and you need people around you who are doing it. That's why we have sports teams. That's why we have coaches. That's why when it comes to physical training, you don't just go out on your own and try to do it. Some people might be able to do that, but you know it's always better with a friend. And so who is your friend? Who are you talking to? Who's talking with you? Who's helping you? Who are you sharing your plans with and making plans together with for spiritual training, for spiritual discipline, for the pursuit of holiness, to put God's will into practice in your life? And you can tell your friend when you failed and come up with a plan with your friend on how to overcome and how to stick to the plan. That's how victory is done. Scripture lays it out for us. Train yourself. It's like physical training. Self-control, like all true religion, is a matter of working from the inside out, controlling your thoughts in order to control your actions. Sin comes from the heart. The heart has to be changed from within by God's word, by prayer, by meditation, by relationship with God. Think about that, relationship with God. One researcher who was looking into self-control in children found that close, trusting relationships between adults and children are strongly linked to the development of emotional control and positive social behaviors. Translation, good parenting produces self-control in kids. Good parenting is a close relationship, a trusting relationship between the father and the child, between the mother and the child. That produces ability within the children to control their emotions. ability to be able to regulate themselves and live according to a good, healthy pattern. Well, here's news for you. We're all children. Some of us are 75-year-old children, some of us are 45-year-old children, and the father is the one that you need a close, personal relationship with in order to learn how to regulate yourself. You've gotta have a close, personal relationship with the father. Listening to sermons is not gonna do it. Listening to sermons has a purpose, it has a goal for you to develop your relationship with the Father. And if you don't have a strong relationship with the Father, you will find that you lack self-control. And the key to gaining more self-control isn't by signing up for some program, watching some YouTube channel. No, it's develop a close personal relationship with God. That is going to give you self-control. That's going to give you power to regulate yourself. All right, well let's move on to the rules for the screen time that we've instituted in our house. Holiness in the online age, we've talked about self-control, now three guiding principles, and the first one is be present. What do we mean by be present? That means be with the people around you. Don't allow technology to come between you and the people that God has put in your life. You know, you think about the old TV shows and the dad was there on the couch watching the television or reading the newspaper. He wasn't present with the people that were around him. He was watching what was being beamed in through the cable and what was being printed and delivered to his door in the newspaper. Well, those forms of media have now been surpassed by something that is much more powerful, something that is much more interesting, something that is much more controllable. I couldn't control when I was a child what was going to be put in the newspaper that was going to be delivered to my door, but I still read a lot of it, particularly the funnies when I was a child. But now I can go anywhere and find anything I want on any subject at any time. That's pretty tempting to go and do that instead of being present with my wife, instead of being present with my children. And I failed many times to be present with my family because the online world was just very interesting. Be present with your family and with your friends, the people who God has put, your neighbors. People are extremely lonely. Social media, ironically, has made us much less social. This is what one researcher wrote in USA Today. A Harvard survey in 2020 found that 61% of adults from 18 to 25 reported feeling serious loneliness. 61% of young adults feeling serious loneliness. Social media has accelerated loneliness. As research shows, feeling lonely is more common among heavy users of social media sites. And they insightfully wrote, likes and followers may make a person feel good at the moment, but they don't foster genuine connectedness with other people. There's a depth to the human personality that social media is not able to satisfy. But God is able to satisfy that through the people that he has placed in your life. So never allow technology to come between you and the people in your life. Otherwise, the tool has become the master. And now you're the tool. Be present with the people in your life. Don't let your tech take you away from them. Instead of the newspaper, maybe it's the earbuds. Instead of the TV screen, maybe it's the telephone screen. Ask the people in your life. Ask your husband, ask your wife. Am I present enough with you? Or is my technology in the way? And be willing to listen. Don't ask if you're not gonna listen. I remember the first time I was waiting tables and I saw two people come in and they didn't talk to each other the whole time. They were just both on their phones. I thought, wow, that's weird. It's not weird anymore. That's normal now. That's the world we live in, but that's not the world you have to live in. Wives, when you go on a date with your husband, you might wanna leave your phone behind. Husbands, time to turn off the computer. Go sit with your family, talk with them, sing with them, pray with them. Make a list of how much time you spend online, and then compare that to how much time you spend with people face to face, having real conversations. It might scare you, and it probably should. Take your phone, take your computer, your television, your gaming system, whatever it is, before the Lord and ask him, what, Lord, do you want me to do with this? What do you want me to do with this? And then do whatever he asks you to do. Isn't that what it means to be a Christian? Lord, whatever you ask, I'm gonna obey you. I'll give up anything. The local church is also about relationships. Listening to the best Bible teaching in the world anytime you want is an awesome thing to have. I didn't have that when I was growing up. You had to order the tape from the tape ministry and they'd send it in the mail and you'd listen to it and send it back. I can listen to any preacher who's ever recorded a great message on any subject, anytime. But that's not church. Church is friendship. Church is relationship. Church is knowing people and people knowing you. So be careful that you don't take the best Christian music in the world and the best teaching in the world and make that the replacement for what God created in the family of God. Church is a family. You don't know John MacArthur. John MacArthur doesn't know you. But you can know Jerry Schmidt. You can know Jerry McNeese. You can know me. These are the people God has put in your life. Don't let technology take you away from the people. Everybody's lonely. Internet has a lot to do with that. You're not the only one who's lonely. We all feel lonely. Second, be productive. The ability to learn anything you want about anything at any time is pretty tempting. Learning is fun. Learning is interesting. Learning is engaging. But you don't need to know everything about everything. Only consume what is going to help you to produce. You are not a consumer. You are a producer. Don't think of yourself as a consumer. The world thinks of you as a consumer. They want to squeeze you into being a consumer. You are not a consumer. You are a producer. You are God's field. You are God's vineyard. You are God's plants, and you are meant to produce God's fruit, the fruit of love, the fruit of joy, the fruit of peace, the fruit of faithfulness and gentleness, and the fruit of self-control. You are to produce love and good deeds. How many times have I been watching an interesting video about something that's not helping me to love my neighbor? Not helping me to know my neighbor. We're all in our houses watching. Where's our neighborhood? Where's our field? Where's our mission field? Where's our fruit? You can have an online ministry. Yeah, sure. If you're sharing the gospel and reaching out to people, that's a great tool. But there are people around that God has put next to you, and don't let technology get in the way of being productive. Just as we have to be wise and self-controlled in our diet, there's a lot of good food that is fun to eat, but you don't eat it all. You don't need to eat it all. Only eat what's going to help you to be productive as a person. That's the purpose of food, so you have energy to be able to do what God has given you to do. And then we're all sitting in front of our screens and eating and eating and eating, taking in, taking in, taking in, and producing nothing. We're all spiritually obese. All input, no output. Be a producer. Only consume what helps you to produce. Take that to God and God's, show me, what do you want me to take in and what do I not need to take in? If you're taking in intake that is making you anxious, making you angry, Stop it. You don't have to watch that. You don't have to listen to that. You don't have to read that. If it's not helping you to produce, stop it. The best thing to consume is God's word. Now, here's the list of the fruit of the spirit. We're supposed to be producers. There's what we're supposed to produce. But we have this rule. We're only gonna consume what helps you to produce. So parents, ask your kids. How are you doing on YouTube? How are you doing on social media? Are you consuming what helps you to produce, or are you over-consuming? Husbands, ask your wives. Wives, ask your husbands. Friends, ask your friends. How are you doing? The best thing to consume is God's word. Colossians 3, 16. Notice this. The word of Christ dwelling in you richly is with one another. One another. Yeah, it's great to listen to John MacArthur. But you need to read scripture with your spouse. I need to read scripture with my spouse. She can listen to wonderful sermons. But why don't we just read the Bible together? With our children, with our friends in church. Sing songs about it and be thankful. This is the rich community that God has given us to enjoy God's word with. Be careful that technology does not take you away from the way God meant you to live, designed for you to live. Turn to Philippians chapter four. As we look at what we're putting into our minds, as we look at what we're eating with our souls, Philippians gives us a wonderful guide here in Philippians chapter four about what to set our minds on. You choose what you set your mind on by clicking or touching. And so, brothers, here's our instruction from God this morning. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Set your mind on things that are on this list. Not everything on the internet is lovely. There's a lot of ugliness that is out there. Don't focus on it. Don't input it. Stay away from it. A lot of things that are not commendable. But God has created lovely things. God has created commendable things. And it's great to be able to go online and learn about some of those things in other parts of the world, but sometimes you've gotta just enjoy the things around you. The geese that are flying overhead. The lake that is filled with ice. the trees that are frozen over, the grass that crinkles under your feet, the air and the breeze that's blowing, things that are lovely, things that are commendable, things that are worthy of praise. Watch out for the impurity that is on the internet, how the world twists things that are good into an ugly abomination. and how it'll twist your heart if you go after that impurity and will make you something that is ugly within. Hold on to what is true. Don't listen to the lies that people want to tell you on the internet that those people are the problem and that you are a good person and you're virtuous and if other people would just change, everything would be all right. There's men who want to turn men against women. There's women who want to turn men against women and vice versa. Don't listen to those people. They are not telling you what is true, what is honorable, what is just, what is commendable and excellent and worthy of praise. Be careful who you listen to. Be careful what input comes in. Only consume what helps you to produce what God wants you to produce. And judge all of your input by this standard. All right, finally, the third one. Be open. Be open. There is an anonymity and a pseudonymity on the internet that has its own place. There's a time for being anonymous and there's a time for having a pseudonym. But there's a danger that goes along with anonymity. There's a danger that goes along with using a screen name instead of your real name. And it allows you to hide bad behavior. So my office has glass doors. I put a mirror up behind my computer desk so that anyone walking by any time can see what I'm doing on my computer. My children don't take their phones and their iPads into their rooms by themselves and close the door. Be open. Be honest. Have someone that you can talk with about these things. The Bible says in James chapter five, verse 16, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Who are you confessing your sins to? Who is praying for you? If you're not obeying this command, then don't be surprised if you are enslaved by sin because you're sinning by not obeying this command. And the scripture says in Proverbs 28, 13, whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. You are ashamed of what you have done online. I am too. Confess it. Do not conceal it. Forsake it. Make a plan. you will find mercy. God's family is merciful. God is merciful. Don't be afraid. The last verse I want to consider with you this morning is 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, which says, So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And so make up your mind, whatever I do online, I will do to the glory of God. Whatever I do in the virtual world, I will do to the glory of God. Whatever I do with my phone, I will do to the glory of God. Whatever I do with my computer, I will do to the glory of God. Whatever I think about, I will think about to the glory of God. And whatever I say, whatever I type, whatever I post, I will post to the glory of God.