Lost in the Scroll | Student Pastor Zach Hammond

Turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter number 23. Thankful for the word of the Lord that we heard this morning. Don't you give pastor a big hand. I'm thankful for the word of God. You look back over your life. You really can take inventory of the moments in your life where God has done things. And as pastor began to preach this morning as he navigated so perfectly throughout the scripture to come to his conclusion, I thought back to the moments in my life where God did some very impactful things were moments where I just got to a point where I had to cry out to him. I didn't have any other solution. I didn't have any other resources. is I didn't have anything else to turn to. And so if you're here tonight and you need God, he's just waiting on you to reach out to him. >> He's just waiting on you to seek him. He's just waiting on you to just put everything else aside and just say, "God, I'm tired of trying to play this game. I'm trying tired of playing the game of hot potato with my life and just throw it to this and throw it to that. I'm just here just to give it all to you tonight. We've sung about it. It's been threaded through everything that's happened through this morning and through this evening. But I I want to I want to preach to you about something that's very very important to me. I felt like the Lord has given me this. And in fact, if you if you would, I'm going to do this a little bit different. I know I've already had you turn to Matthew 23. You got your Bibles out, but I I I feel so strongly about this. I'm going to try my best. My voice is giving me some issues, but I'm going to try my best to preach this to you. And and this is probably I'm in prayer about possibly writing something about this because I have way too much content. Okay, all of you are thinking, "Good God, here we go. We're going to be here all night." I promise you, I'm going to obey all of the elders of my life and try to know all I preach and not preach all I know tonight. All right? So, I will try to make sure that I I am aware of but but but I I am very passionate about and I feel like God has stirred me up and I' I've kind of put pause on this for some time. But I want to preach this to you tonight because I feel like this is where we're at. It's where we at not as just a younger generation or uh for parents, but for every person in this room tonight. And so, if you would, would you would you just and I know you may have your Bibles in your hand if you want to just close it and lift it up. Would you just pray a prayer that says, "God, would you speak to me tonight? God, would you let your word fall on good ground tonight, Lord? I'm here. God, I you've turned me inside out, Lord. You've God worked on me and you've Lord spoke to me, God. And you, this message is not me speaking to them. It is God speaking to us as a church, as a movement, as a body tonight, God. Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand, God. Help us to see, God. God, help us to look at our lives, Lord, and take inventory of where we're at tonight. Search me and know my heart. Search me and know my ways, God. Lord, purge me tonight, Lord. If there be anything in me, oh God, show us. Show us. Show us, oh God, tonight in Jesus name we pray. And everybody said, "Amen." >> May you may be seated tonight. Matthew 23. I'm going to read a pretty large portion of scripture and I'll allow you to be seated as you listen through. And if you would follow along, I think this is quite an interesting passage as we see Jesus begins to speak and he says this in verse 13 of chapter 23, the first book in the New Testament gospel of Matthew as he writes records the words of Jesus, "Woe unto you." Now, we could get into, you know, exactly what that means, but it pretty much means what it means. All right, hold up. Step back here. Let's let's let's really just stop for a second and look at this. He says, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Exclamation point. And again, so tonight, this is the the word of God. I'm not I'm not um calling anybody a hypocrite, but you know that's just the word of God, right? He says Pharisees, scribes, hypocrites. He says, "For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to in to go in." So he says, "You you're a hypocrite." He says, "You're trying to keep people from the house of God, or you're trying to keep people from God." and you don't even go in yourself. >> Pretty strong words. And he he he he gets to verse 14 and we have the second. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Exclamation point. For you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. That's two. Let's keep going. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Exclamation point. For you compass sea and land to make one proelite. And when you he is made, you make him twofold more than the child of hell than yourself. Woe unto you, you blind guides which say, "Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing. But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. He goes through and he expounds and he goes down and we get to verse 25. And here we go again. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, exclamation point. For you make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Exclamation point. For you are like unto whited supplers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets, and you garnish the supplers of the righteous, and say, if you had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been the partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Now, I'm going to preach to you just for a few moments tonight. And I promise you, I'm going to get to the point. My title is Lost in the Scroll. Lost in the scroll. This is a very interesting passage of scripture, and you can find it throughout all of the New Testament, all of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as Jesus begins to talk. This is an extended rebuke that Jesus gives. Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. exclamation point. I keep emphasizing that because it's in the original text. We didn't just throw that. King James didn't just throw that in there. He he was he was obviously saying this with some little bit of fire within him. All right. Jesus wouldn't it wouldn't probably been welcomed in mo most churches nowadays. But this is an extended rebuke Jesus pronounced eight different times in chapter 23. The woes on the scribes and the Pharisees. Now in the original text, verse 14 doesn't say woe. So these are famously known as the seven woes. the seven woes. And the theologians will, you know, break it down for you. Many of your Christian commentaries would say that Jesus is reaching back into the words of Habach 7, the sevenfold curse that was putting on and the seven woes of Isaiah 7. and and and and and as we read this chapter highlights how the these people who were religious, who were the the people who were really the the the only hope of the the the normal folk, you know, the people who didn't have access to the scripture, the only way they had access was through the scribes and Pharisees. They didn't have a Bible. They didn't have the scrolls. They didn't have the the the the the scripture to read. They had to the only translation they had is what they heard from them. So they didn't know whether they were right or wrong. They just knew whatever those guys said, they're reading the law. We need to obey it. It's the only translation they had. They didn't get to, you know, go and and grock and see if what this the Pharisee was saying correct or not, you know. And so this is quite an interesting thing because Jesus comes and he he kind of starts messing with these scribes and Pharisees and it's very much on purpose. It's very uh it's not really like under the table like get them together and talk to you guys and say, "Hey, you you you you're kind of missing some things." That type of he was calling them out in large crowds of people. And and as we read this, this chapter highlights the outward hypocrisy masking inner corruption, preventing them from seeing Jesus as the fulfillment of the law that they proclaimed to uphold. They claimed to have all the knowledge and all the understanding and all the information. And these Pharisees and scribes particularly were always looking at Jesus because he claimed to be this person. >> He claimed to be the Christ >> who was greater than Abraham too, right? we already sung about. That's why he was crucified is because he couldn't be this person the scrolls were talking about. He couldn't be the Christ because they that that would be all too odd that the people who were reading about the Christ couldn't recognize that he was the Christ. >> It couldn't be him because they were staring right at him and didn't acknowledge that it was him. Right? So, we see here that the Pharisees and the scribes particularly always looking at him. They're always showing up to hear him speak. They're always in the crowd. They're always I can see them kind of huddle up in the back. You know, they're in the back just kind of nitpicking what he's saying. Just trying to see if he really knows what he's talking about, trying to catch him in his words, trying to catch they're looking at him, but they're looking at him for the wrong reason. >> Sadly, that's a lot like the internet today. >> A lot of people are looking at folks But they're looking at people for the wrong reason. >> God help us. But I know some people that come to church, >> just looking for something >> to find a little bit of comfort. And that I'm not bad as they are. Huh? He says, "So he, you know, the Pharisees are just showing up. I mean, it it gets it gets it gets out of hand. I don't have time, like I said, to go through it, but you know, they're over here. Uh oh, he didn't wash his hands before he ate. >> I mean, it's literally like kindergarten. Did you guys see that? He just ate without cleansing his hands. I mean, it really does get a little nitpicky here. He says, you know, you're not supposed to be going to coffee with the tax collectors. Now, you that's not what the scroll says. And you get real confused because there are some pretty obvious things that, you know, I could see would be hard to translate. But the eating with the the the sinners and things is something I'll show you here in just a little bit. Don't really make sense. But they're calling him out. He said, "You're harvesting grain on the Sabbath. You're not supposed to be out there harvesting the grain. You can't be doing that on the Sabbath day." They're they're they're look look at it. Jesus is addressing to to these these these scribes, these religious, these very intelligent theologians. And he he he and and and and it's so interesting to me that if you really get down to it, you really look at every time that Jesus gets up and speaks, he spends as much time talking to the people that are lost in the scroll as he does to the people that are lost in the world. >> Half of his parables, go check it out. Again, I don't have time. Maybe I'll put it in book form so you can really check me on everything. But listen, every time he talks about something, he's going to address the religious in the room and the lost people in the room. Why? Because he's dealing with those people that are here for the wrong reason. >> They know the scroll. They know where to be. They know all the things of the tabernacle. They know. He's addressing it over and over and over and over and over again. He couldn't just tell a parable about debtors. He had to tell a parable about two debtors. >> Why? Because he's talking to those Pharisees and Sadducees who are here to catch him. You know, we we can't forget. No matter how long we've been in this thing, we still need forgiveness. >> No matter how long you've been serving God, how long you've been in the church, we still need an altar. Huh? >> He gets up. He tells the story of the Good Samaritan. Pastor Ericson preached about it last Sunday morning. The story was more for the scribes and the Pharisees who were wrong than it was the people in the room that needed anything. >> He took a whole story to call them out. He calls them out. The great banquet parable in Luke 14. He addresses them in the parable of lost things. The lost sheep is about them getting mad because he's eating with sinners. He said, "I'll leave all y'all to go get one sinner. I'll leave a banquet with all you, you know, just prestigious folks who's got it all together to go get one. >> I'll go eat at a at at a nasty old house with a tax collector >> and leave y'all's fancy banquet. Why? Because he's always addressing those that are just lost >> in the scroll. He spends just as much time addressing them as he does the people who are actually lost. The people that are in need, the sinners in the room, the Pharisees and scribes had all this information, but they're missing everything. They spent all their Sabbath days that were supposed to be set aside for him trying to catch him. It's supposed to be set set aside for the God of the Sabbath, but they've got God in flesh. And they're walking around literally trying to on a day they're supposed to be honoring God, trying to catch a man thought that they can't recognize is the Savior, is the Messiah. If we aren't careful, the church can become that place. They're watching Jesus in Matthew 12 and Mark 3 and Luke 6. You can read it. It gets real interesting when you look at it from this vantage point. He heals the man with a withered hand. Look at this. And behold, there was a man which had a hand withered. And they asked him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?" Looking, they are looking that that they might accuse him. And he said unto them, "What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? And if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, he will not lay hold on it and lift it up out. In other words, you're just going to let a sheep fall into a pit on the Sabbath and you're just going to let it lay there. You're not going to do anything about it. Something that is in need, something that is desperate. A man has shown up with a withered hand. He says, "How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. Then saith he to man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth, and he restored whole like as the other. And then the Pharisees went out and held counsel against him that they might destroy him. The domino effect begins of the crucifixion. But Jesus don't seem to care. He knew it. He withdrew himself dense and a great multitude follow him and he healed all of them. every one of them, the whole herd fell in the pit. He heal, he healed them all. You know, they all had problems. And he charged them that they should keep a secret. They're mad enough that I just deliberately just did this right in front of them. They're stirred up enough. He says, "Just just just just just just keep this between us, you know, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Elijah the prophet, saying, "Behold my servant whom I'm chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall there be a man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall not break and smoking flax shall he not quench till he send forth judgment into victory. And in the same name in his name shall the Gentiles trust. In other words, Jesus, he says, I'll show mercy. His ministry will extend beyond the beyond Israel, the children of God. Everything that is in the Old Testament, people of God tonight, church, everything in the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus. Everything in the Old Testament is pointing to Emmanuel, God with us. He was the fulfillment of every sacrifice. He was fulfillment of the Lord's goat. He was the fulfillment of the scapegoat. He was the fulfillment of the priesthood. He was the fulfillment of the prophecies. He was the atonement. He was the anointing. He was Elohim, God with us. Every name given to him was all wrapped up in the name of Jesus. Amen. Matthew 5:17 says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am come not come to destroy, but to fulfill." He's right there in front of them fulfilling everything, every prophecy that has ever been told. There it is. But the people who claim to know the law, the only people who truly knew the law missed it. and the man, the law, the word became flesh and dwelt among them. But they were so lost in the details of the law. >> They were so lost in the mundane. They were so lost in the scroll. They were so lost in the text. Let us never be so co so so consumed with what we are with what we are doing that we forget why we are doing it. >> Everything in this Bible from Genesis to the ending part of the gospels >> is pointing to Jesus Christ being crucified, buried and rising again. There is then a set of hinges on this Bible when it falls open to rightly dividing the word of God. It falls open to the book of Acts. It doesn't fall open between Malachi and Matthew. It falls open at the book of Acts. Everything in Acts he was pointing to. He says this is that that was spoken of by the prophet Joel. Everything that was that is now this. And then even better than that, we go into the book of Romans written to the church at Rome. the first and second Corinthians written to the church of Corinthians. Ephesians, Philippia, all written to churches, people. Churches, people who have experienced. >> We ain't talking to the Pharisees and the scribes no more. We talking to people who have experienced the death, the burial, the resurrection. They might not know all the scribes or all the scrolls or all the law, but they've had an experience with God. They felt something that nobody's ever felt before. And all of a sudden there's letters to the church. Letters to the church. And so it hinges there and he says this is that that was spoken of by and then we have that everything from from Romans all the way till we get into the book of Revelations. All all those epistles everything there is just really that is this. >> It just points back to it. >> Hey we're just pointing back to Pentecost. This is what you need. This is what I I had an experience back here. He says, "You have you not been baptized since you believed? Have you not experienced the Holy Ghost since you believed? I know you were baptized by John's baptism. That was back then. We've experienced that and you need it." >> So, there's a hinge in the Bible and all of a sudden these scribes and Pharisees, I would love to know some of the texts and you see a little bit of it with Paul. You see a little bit of it with Peter. You see a little bit of it when they begin to write in the epistles. But man, these scribes and Pharisees, they really must have had a time after Pentecost. Man, maybe that was him. I mean, he did get up. I mean, if I'm Jesus, that's the first place I'm showing up. Y'all doing good? I'm walking up in the temple. How we doing? >> Did you read down? Huh? Read on down in Deuteronomy. Huh? Turn over there to Exodus. >> Get that Torah out. Dust it off. I don't think you've been really reading it. >> Cuz I said, "Love your neighbor in the Old Testament, just like I said it in the New Testament." But you don't seem to be doing that. Right? >> There's some things for some reason these Pharisees and scribes, it didn't matter how much they knew it. They had the wrong motive. >> And so, even the things that were written then, they weren't obeying it. That's why he was saying, "I'm okay if you don't recognize that I'm the Christ. I'm Elohim. I am Emmanuel, God. I'm in the flesh. I'm the word." If you don't, that's fine. You don't recognize that. I understand it. You might have a little bit of a hard time to just just putting that into words and describing all that you're reading, but you could at least be obeying the stuff that you're reading. >> They were too busy trying to catch him in something to be obeying what they already were lost in all that they knew. >> Let us never be so consumed with what we are doing that we forget why. Read, learn, study, but never forget why. Don't dare be a student of this word just to try to catch somebody else. >> Oh, and just be that one that points out. No, no, no. >> Uhuh. >> No, sir. >> This word was not written to us. It was written for us. >> Work. Discipline yourself. But never forget why you're doing what you're doing. Sacrifice. Give, work, but never forget why >> they miss the word made flesh, claiming to be experts of the word. >> 1st Samuel 10 reminded of a story. So powerful to me. They're looking they're looking for Saul. Says that inquire of the Lord further. This is verse 22. And I won't read the whole story just for time sake. That man should yet come neither. And the Lord answered, "Behold, he's hid himself among the stuff." That that that describes so many people, but it definitely describes the Pharisees and the scribes. They just hid themselves among the scroll. Hid themselves among their their knowledge, their information. We oftent times are trying to navigate everything here around the school and with our students. And I I can relate a little bit to growing up and being involved in church and being a part of a part of music and a part of anything that we needed done around the church, involved in in in production stuff. And that just shows how old I am. There wasn't really much production stuff. It was like a a projector and you know, but nobody knew how to do it. So it just show we had to figure it out, you know. So get in there and you'd be doing all kind of stuff before you know it. Sunday morning came, Sunday night came, played the drums. Like people like, "How do you know how to play all kind of things like we didn't have nobody else to do it? You just had to figure it out, right?" So you play the drums one service and just drummers there the next service, but there wasn't a bass player. You just figure out how to play the bass. There was no YouTube. You just had to figure it out, right? But but I I caught myself so many times on a Monday where I realized that I just went through a whole Sabbath. I don't really know that I ever even stopped to honor God. I never stopped and really paused and said, and I'm all about, please hear me tonight. I'm all about your purpose. >> I'm all about your giftings. But at any point that we forget about his presence, >> you don't have a purpose without his presence. >> I'm all about you serving in any capacity that you're gifted to serve. But God forbid we get lost among the stuff. >> I'm all about all the stuff that we do around here, from production to music. But God forbid, church becomes so complicated that we can go from year to year and season to season and month to month and get so lost in serving that we've not been in his presence. >> I've been there and I've seen students do it. I've seen adults do it. Just find something else to serve in so I don't have to come to this altar and confront the issues of my life. I'll do anything. I'll volunteer for anything. I'll sign up for everything cuz I don't want to dare confront the things that God's dealing with me about. And I can just I can I can deal with it with my wife or I can deal with it with my husband. I can make my kids think everything's all right if I'll just serve. >> All right. >> Even if it's in the church, don't get lost in the stuff. >> Oh God, help us to have those moments in the spirit. They have those moments in the church service where all of a sudden there's no lyrics on the screen. There's nothing happening. Why? Cuz the lyric person's back there worshiping. >> Why? Because his presence. Oh, what happened to the drums? Oh, he took off running. What happened to the Daniel? I'm all about young people serving, but nothing's more important than his presence. Don't hide among the stuff, young folks. Don't hide up in We try to keep you on a rotation, but as this church grows, we're you just don't don't be trying to hide from the presence of God. Don't be trying to serve just so you don't have to come and acknowledge >> an altar, >> heal >> with that inward man. >> Oh, outwardly it looks good. Oh, they're serving, pastor. They're serving in every ministry. They're involved. They're here. They're faithful. Oh, God, help us. >> That inwardly it's filthy. >> The cup looks all right. But he said, "You better clean that cup. Better clean that platter." I'm thankful for the godly anointed folks that serve and do and have done for years. But oh, so many times I've seen people who get involved with things and before you know it, they're no longer here. I need Jesus just as much today >> or more than I ever have. >> We have to come into every service meaning that, feeling that. I'm here to see Jesus save somebody. I'm not saving nobody. I'm here to see Jesus touch somebody's life. I'm not touching nobody. He can do it with or without me. I don't have to be on that position for God to do something in this service. If God is stirring you and moving you and working on you, the most important thing in this place is that we get in his presence. >> Don't forget why. Don't get lost in religion. >> God help us. God help us. Woe unto you. Woe unto you. I'm just asking us tonight just to take inventory. I'm not asking you to look around. I'm not asking you to think about anybody else. I'm just asking you tonight to look at our hearts, to look at our motive, to look at where our lives are now compared to where they were perhaps 10 years ago. What was I doing 15 years ago? What was I doing 20 years ago? Was I more spiritually sound when I was doing less? Have I regressed? Have I grown? Have I as has the voice of God become faint in my life? >> Has moves of God become less and less frequent in my life? Am I more awkward in his presence? >> Am I more bored at church? Am I looking more for the time to pass than I am to linger in his presence? >> God speaks to Elijah and the Bible says in a still small voice. God help us not to have so much stuff in our life that we can't hear a still small voice. If I could shift play on my title tonight, the last little bit of my sermon. We are a generation that must be aware that we can very easily become lost in the scroll digitally just as the Pharisees and scribes become lost in the scroll physically. Just as they become lost in what was written that they become the gatekeeper of the word of God to the people. same being in our lives as parents, as leaders, as those that are responsible to the next generation, that we be those who guard, as Solomon says, >> the content that is filtering, that is being put before the eyes of the next generation. >> That's being put before our eyes as parents, that's callousing our hearts. I'm convinced we're in a generation who very easily, if not already has, become lost in the scroll. >> I'm convinced it would be torture for your kids, as I know it is my kids, to sit in silence. I hear it. And I'll be honest with you, I know I know you you might think, "Hey, it's just just kids. Just kids." I remember saying that when I was kids, but we can't be in the car for three minutes. My kids's like, "I'm bored, Dad. Bored? Just close the door. I just remember growing up. I mean, my dad, he it was and and it's so it's one of those things where, you know, people tell me I'm a lot like him. And the older I get, I realize there's some things that I do. There's like my grandfather and some things like my mother and some things like my dad. My dad used to turn the radio on just enough that you could kind of make out what was coming through, but he never wanted it real loud. He He's like one of those he would rather just sit in silence. They don't want to turn it up real loud. And like as I get older, I feel like I'm that person like just don't turn nothing on. I just want it to be still. >> I ride down the road and unless I'm on a phone call, I don't turn anything on. It's like there's just noise coming from everywhere. a generation that knows nothing about being bored, nothing about being silent. There there's no stillness. I just wonder how many times God's tried to speak to this generation. There's just too much stuff. There's too much too many things going on. He'd have to alert your phone to speak to some of you. >> He'd have to be a notification >> on a social media platform >> to speak to some of you. It would have to come in the form of some some some type of app or some type of type of algorithm to get any because we couldn't we couldn't dare put it down just enough. Just just hear me if you could for just a few moments tonight. And I know all the young people are squirming. All right. It's okay. Gonna be all right. Americans check their phones on average 144 times a day. Most grab their device within 10 minutes of waking up to scroll on social media. The average American, as of as of studies last week, spend four hours and 37 minutes a day on their phone. That's average, in case you're wondering. That's over two months of your year. two months of your year on average we spend scrolling on a device. And that's just if you're average. They measured the distance your thumb travels. So if you're average, you scroll about 88 miles. 88 miles. Some of you are thinking, man, I didn't know I was an athlete like that. You know, I'm running marathons. Killing it. I'm getting a new shirt says marathon strollers. You know, 70% of people spend on average 30 minutes of bedtime scrolling, disrupting melatonin levels, causing lack of sleep, and a domino effect. Women in the past years have trended at a higher rate than men scrolling over 6 hours and 36 minutes a day, which means you're really traveling with those thumb miles. You're really putting in the miles of carpal tunnel before you know it. 80% of phone use is dedicated to social media apps in the United States. The highest factors in America for suicidal thoughts, isolation, and anxiety stem from cell phone use. I know we hate averages, but we create them. If you have a phone, you're a part of the analytics. You're the user. They're measuring you. They're trying to sell you. And so I ask you tonight to simply just take inventory. Are you lost in the stuff? Are you lost in the scroll? Can you hear the voice of God? The scripture comes to mind, redeem the time, for the days are evil. Don't get lost in the scroll. What are you doing with the platform that you're on? If you're on it, why are you on it? Huh? I I don't There's There's Some people are on it, but they don't post anything. Why are you on it? Just checking everybody out, keeping up with everybody, making sure they're washing their hands on the Sabbath type thing. >> Huh? You're on it just so that you can provide an excuse maybe to your own actions. I'm just asking you to take inventory tonight. I'm not saying it's you. >> Huh? Everybody's thinking about somebody else. I mean, that's the way it happens. You know, preach messages like this is never us. Don't get lost. Proverbs said, "Guard your heart. What's coming in? What are you taking in? What are you consuming? What's influencing your mind? What's creating your conscience? What's telling you what's right? What's telling you what's wrong? doom scrolling and brain rot or the terms that are being used today. Although we work to produce as much Christian content as we can possibly produce around here, you're more than likely scrolling through pollution. Parenting today, if you could hear me, requires us to be aware of what our students are doing on social media. It's not something that you can just say if you're not gonna be aware and you're not gonna train yourself, you're not gonna be aware of how to navigate those things, don't give them one. >> Parents, if you care, you'll be aware of it. Learn how to block it. Learn how to search it. Learn how to keep them accountable. >> Learn the age requirements. There is an age requirement for a regular Instagram account, and that is 13. So for all of you that are under 13 that have tried to follow me, that's why I don't answer it because you are illegal. And that is extremely scary. >> Comical. Yes, I get it. >> But scary. Yes. >> The chances of that young lady or that young man underage somebody lied to get the app >> helping. Does that child have any hope >> beyond the mercy and the grace of God? >> We we are positioning them for failure. just consume whatever you want to consume. If you're from the ages of 13 to 17, you're required to have a teen account. Thankfully, that has changed. But still, even within a teen account, what the world calls appropriate for a teen, and what the Bible calls appropriate for a teen is two totally different things. So, we can't just give them a teen account and just think everything's okay. We are showing that we do not care. parents. God help us. God help us. It doesn't matter what age we are. There should be accountability on social media. >> Boy, girl, it doesn't matter. We shouldn't be allowed to just scroll through whatever they want. >> Just want you to take inventory tonight. >> Who are you accountable to on social media? All right. >> Do you have a fruitful feed? >> Is your feed fruitful? Does it feed you? Huh? What's it What's it doing to your life as you scroll through that? I have to be careful. I go through my followers check. Who am I following? And just because I'm following them doesn't mean that I'm going to repost them. And every time they post something, just because you know it's like it's like the whole thing, you know, she's singing about Jesus take the wheel in the one song and everybody's okay with that, but the next one she's sleeping with somebody and smoking something. So you could you could share that one reel and then that young person goes and follows that person who's got cuss words in every other reel. >> And you've just exposed everybody that's following you >> to them. >> So just because you agree with one thing, don't endorse the whole thing >> because that's what you're doing. When you like, when you comment, when you share, you are endorsing that person. >> You are endorsing what they're saying, the page, what they are pushing, what their agenda is. >> Please think, is this a fruitful feed? Not only in what I'm looking at, but who's following me? >> Young people, what's the purpose? Parent, what's the purpose? If you have it again, what are you contributing and what are you contributing to? What are you putting on the platform? Huh? Are you just there to subtweet everything you get mad about? Are you just there to have a platform to give a a subliminal blow to somebody who does you wrong? >> Huh? >> Don't get lost in the scroll. You got to love your digital neighbor, too. >> You can't be this keyboard coward who's just devouring everybody and tearing everybody up and throwing everybody under the bus that you don't agree with without calling their name and just be able to say, "Oh, it's just on social media." People will say and do anything. And you think God don't know the intents of your heart. >> God forbid that you think for one second to whom much is given, much is required. You're going to hold account for every post that you make. Fake friends or not. There's people that are seeing what you're writing. They're seeing what you're posting. And you're going to give account for every word and for every post. >> If it's social media, if it's communication, if you're an influencer, you better be influencing people to follow Christ. When you like it, when you share it, when you follow it, you endorse it. We push the algorithm to everyone that follows you. Please be aware. Please be aware. Some things you just got to and I know I I try to be conscious. I realize that people leave the church and the first thing they do is get on social media and do all kind of things. Okay. And can I just cautiously address this? They are looking for an argument, >> but they're also looking to see who will endorse it. >> There's people in this church that have left the church, that left the truth. >> Has nothing to do with me. It's not personal. It ain't got nothing to do with you. It's got something to do with God. They got lost in the stuff. >> Before you know it, pastor said it went from blending to bowing. We didn't intentionally get here, but all of a sudden, we just ended up here. >> God help us. I know you could say, "We're trying to win them. We're trying to love them. We're trying to reach them." Be careful. There's people watching what you comment. There's people watching to see, do you endorse what they're doing? There's a generation that's younger than you that's watching to see are they they still are they okay with what they're doing >> and it becomes conflicting. It becomes confusing. >> Navigate it with wisdom. >> It's not should I? It's not can I. Let's go back to a few weeks ago. Is it wise? >> Is it wise? Your comment's not going to save that person. >> Your little heart, your fake emoji is not going to save that person. >> That's right. >> That's right. >> But it could greatly confuse another young person, another person who's on the fence, another person who's trying to decide whether they're going to live for God or not. This word is precious. You must discern the truth in a sea of trends. >> You got to scroll smart. You got to scroll with a soul. Don't let everything you hear or see become gospel. >> I would say a larger portion of what you see online is not real nowadays. Just be honest with you. I know all of you want to believe it, but it's not real. Those Ring doorbell cameras where the, you know, the cat comes riding up on a lion. That did not happen in Blunt County. Okay. Look at this. Look at this. There's a lion over there on Morganson Road. What? Got this eagle coming down fighting with porcupines. Brother Nolan's over there. You see this? I'm like, that's not real, bro. Ain't real, man. That's ahi, bro. I think I think my mother-in-law is trying to buy a robot for Christmas. I'm like, that ain't real. You know, I used to said it might be real. I don't know. Who knows? You've got to discern. If you're gullible, they'll get you nowadays. >> I've just learned to try to fact check everything, right? But just because it's trending don't make it truth. >> This word is precious. >> It's precious. >> It's worth digging through. Hear me tonight. It's worth digging through. It's worth the dignity to dig through it. Don't take somebody's word for it. Just posted a 30 secondond clip and just believe it is. No, no, no, no. This word's worth digging through. I'm not going to get the word that I need for my life daily off of some clip that somebody posted. It's worth digging through. >> Listen, let me let me give you an analogy. I'm trying to hurry. I know it's 7:40. I know. I know you got we got to hurry. But listen, getting your word online is like digging for it with a jackhammer. >> It's like trying to unearth something that's precious with a jackhammer. >> By the time you get to it, you don't even know what it is. >> You're more confused than you were when you started. >> It looked like something, but then this one said that one. This one said that one. scrolled through and this one said this and and all of a sudden you're just you're just in a mess. It's worth getting out a shovel. It's worth getting out a brush. It's worth getting down on your knees and having to get down with your hands and uncover it and figuring out it's worth making a phone call to pastor. It's worth sitting down and having a Bible study. It's worth picking up and going through some of the apostolic commentaries that we have to say, "Hey, what does this really mean?" It's worth it. >> It's what you're going to be judged by. But why do we have so many people that profess God, that profess godliness, that profess to be Christians, but don't know this word? >> Why? >> They're lost in the scroll. >> How do we have a trinity? They're lost in the scroll. How do we have once- saved always saved? They're lost in the scroll. They didn't rightly divide the word. They didn't put the dot. They didn't cross the tea. They didn't see it the way God wrote it. They saw it the way they wanted to see it. >> It's no different than the Pharisee. They saw him the way they wanted to see him. Everybody else said, "Would you heal my hand?" People crying out to him. People saying, "I just want to take from the crumbs that fall from the There's people that were desperate." But the scribes and the Pharisees >> trying to catch him in his words. >> You got to understand that we're trying to It's almost like there's two towns. We have the town that we live in, which would be the church age, the modern 20. God has put us here for such a time as this. >> And then you have the time that is written, the Bible that is a town. And between it runs a river. In some places that river is really wide and really deep. It takes some real studying. In some places, it's wide and deep. For instance, covenant. We're under a new covenant. You got to be careful. Language, culture, you got to be careful. We're trying to build a bridge to navigate across this thing. The Pharisees, they they they got consumed. They got they literally drowned in the transition. But at some places, it's real narrow and you can literally hop across. I've already mentioned it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Thou shalt have no other gods before you. It's very simple. But then he says, "Thou shalt not cook a goat and its mother's milk." And everybody's like, "Say what?" Does it make sense? Huh? He says, "You you can't you can't cook a kid goat goat and his mother's milk." Well, the way you have to navigate the things and not become lost in the scroll as the Pharisees did. Don't Don't you be looking around and trying to find people who are cooking goats because that's not what we're talking about anymore. It's literally talking about that that you got two principles that apply. You can't cook one generation with the acts of another generation. >> You can't take one. It's a principle matter. That's how you cross. You build a bridge from one town to the other town, from one dispensation to the next dispensation by taking the principles. The principles are true. >> I didn't come to abolish. I come to fulfill. >> He says you you you don't cook something. He says, in other words, what your daddy and mama did, if they didn't do right, it ain't going to cook you. It's also not about mixing life and death. Don't you don't you take something that's supposed to speak life and speak death. It's about gossip. It's principles. >> Those principles will help you cross the bridge of the deep waters between this church, the people of God, the Israelites, and where we are today. It's principles. There's not one thing in the Old Testament. Be careful scrolling through. I hear it over and over and over and over again. Well, this is not for us. That's in the Old Testament. This is not for us. Be careful what you fall prey to. >> Every principle in that Old Testament is in this New Testament. Every principle that God put in there, he fulfilled. Every prophecy, he fulfilled. Everything that he wrote was for a purpose and for a reason for us to be able to apply it to our lives today. Search the scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life, and they are which you testify of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life. Having all the information, it's the age of information. You search the scriptures, you got all this knowledge, but don't forget what you're searching for in the scroll. I ask you tonight stand to your feet. What are you looking for? If you're traveling 88 miles, what are you looking for? What are you trying to find? Wh what what what what are you what are you trying to find? Is it the next high of dopamine, of some thing that you've never seen before that's trending? Huh? What is it you're looking for? I just I'm asking you please and I could just take inventory. What What am I looking for? Huh? What are we trying to find? If you're scrolling through, what are you what are you looking for? is no different than the Pharisees. What are we trying to find? >> We're trying to find fault in him. >> Are we trying to find hope? >> He's a savior. >> He's a redeemer. >> He's a friend. He's a healer. He's a deliverer. I'm asking you to take some inventory tonight. Jesus is at many of our tables, but we'd never know it. Jesus is, as brother Nolan mentioned tonight in prayer, he would have passed them by on that boat as they were rowing. I don't ever want to miss him. I don't ever want to miss him because I've forgotten how to pause, forgotten how to stop, forgot how to cry out as pastor preached this morning, forgot how to look for him. We've opened up this house of prayer from sun up to sun down. Maybe God could have just a little bit of one of those hours of those four to six that we spent scrolling. Maybe he could just have 30 minutes where we come by the church. I've just come to remind you, I know it's a it's a play on words, and I'm not asking you get rid of the scroll in the text or get rid of the scroll of your phone, but you've got to learn to live with it without surrendering to it. We're in this world where we're not of this world. One of the most impactful books I've ever read in my life I read as a 17-year-old. The author has become say this a kind way an absolute fool. He can't live the words on his pages. He's fallen away. But he wrote a book and in the book he tells stories and it's all about eliminating the unnecessary. Said the greatest artists there are are the ones who can eliminate all the unnecessary things. One of the modern day artists would said said that Michelangelo or one of those famous artists would say that the Nike swoosh would be probably the most intricate piece of art that was ever created because it's so simple yet but so hard to reproduce. You try to draw it, you got to have just the exact eliminating everything that's unnecessary. Man by the name of Johnny Cash, you probably heard of him. Hate to end with a carnal thing here. Some of you are thinking he's carnal. I'm sorry. Used to play with a band, teenager, good singer, good guitar player. Had a drummer and a bass player, electric guitar player with him. A producer saw him in middle California, met with him after behind the stage and said, "Hey, I've got a venue I need you to play called the Viper Room. He said, "But you got to get rid of all those other things." He said, "I just want you and that guitar." He said, "Great drummer, great bass player, great guitarist, but he said, "Nothing against them. You can do your thing with them, but I just want you to come play this one venue with just you and your guitar." And they said when they eliminated all the other things that all of a sudden his voice cut through and from that room became what we know as Johnny Cash. It's the elimination of all the unnecessary. And I can't help but see it threaded through the scripture that if we're not careful, we can get lost even in things that are not necessarily wrong. They're not necessarily bad. They're not necessarily the things that No, but but they just sometimes, if we're just honest, they're completely unnecessary. And I feel led. I I asked Brother Nolan to help me with altar tonight cuz I didn't really know what my voice was going to do. And I'm going to have him come here in a moment. But for a moment, I know this will be different. I'm going to ask us to find a place to pray, but I'm going to ask us to pray a prayer of inventory and repentance. And I think it needs to be very much us listening to God. I felt so stirred in my office tonight before service as I was praying. God saying there's and they begin to sing tonight. I had no clue they were singing the old song in the stillness. in the stillness. I just want us just to pause for a moment and wonder if we could separate ourselves from every person and just close our eyes and find a place around this altar. Maybe you make your pew an altar tonight. But I'm asking every person to close your eyes and just do what David said. Search me, oh God. Know my heart, oh God. Purge me, oh God. Now, if there be any wicked thing in me, if there be any unnecessary thing, I'm asking before we sing, before we do anything, could every person in this room, could you find a place to pray for just a few moments? Rabbi, >> the devil's going to try to distract you. He's going to try to make you think that this is boring. He's going to try to drift your mind because you're used to things moving quick and things being entertaining. But I wish you'd just stop and be still and know that he's God for a moment. You're God. You're the God of my life. You're the Lord of my life. God, show me if there's anything that's distracting me from being a good parent. Show me, God, if there's anything that's keeping me from being a good husband. God, show me if there's anything that I'm wasting, God. That you have given me time and talent and treasure. God, I'm asking you to not have please don't be looking around. You close your eyes and pray. Jesus. Jesus. Come on. I can feel it in the room already. Some of your minds are starting to drift. My Lord, my God, help us. God, help us. God, help us. God, help us. Come on, EJ. He deserves a few moments of your undivided attention right now. He deserves your mind to focus on him, to give him gratitude, to give him your heart, to give him your mind, to give him your time. Oh God. >> God amplify your voice. >> God amplify your voice. CJ, I want to hear you, Lord. I want to hear you, Lord. I want to hear you, Lord. Oh Jesus. Jesus Christ. God in my heart. God will become satisfied. God help me. Man, that flesh man backord. name of our bless. Glor There is a anointing. There is a stillness in the Imosphere. Come and lay down the burdens you have carried for in the sanctuary. Oh, this