Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hello everybody, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, we're so glad you're here with us today. We are continuing in a series called Talking About Stuff That Matters. Now in this series, Rick looks into the scriptures and he's unpacking what it means to live in community, have real conversation about what matters most, and face discouragement with courage and faith.

It's honest, hopeful, so stay tuned. You won't want to miss a second. All right, let's jump in. This is part one of a message called Being a Disciple in the Digital Age.

Pastor Rick Warren: If you have a smartphone, you hold in your hand more power than NASA had when they put a man on the moon. There's more power in one little cell phone than we had in existence when America put a man on the moon. You have more technology in your hand.

Let me show you what the first hard drive looked like. Look up here on the screen. That was it. And that was five megabytes of storage. Not very portable, about the size of two men, several thousand pounds. Now, that's five megabytes. In your phone right now, you have a minimum, even if you got a cheapie phone, you have a minimum of a thousand times that in your phone. And you can buy 10,000 times that and put it on your phone. You have no idea how much power you have in your pocket.

That's why in 2007, Time magazine named the iPhone, that's the year it came out, the invention of the year. Now, since that's happened, it's been renamed because the cell phone, the smartphone, is by far the most behavior-changing invention in the history of mankind. Nothing else comes close. Not the wheel, not fire, not the steam engine, not the automobile. Nothing comes close to the power of this little invention.

Why? Because with a car, you can do maybe 10 different things with a car. But with this, you can do thousands of things with this. Thousands, literally thousands, of things with this. You can have it direct you to the right place with GPS. It's a travel device. You can listen to music. Obviously, entertainment. You can check your heart. You can do all kinds of studies on your body. You literally can do thousands of things. When they decided to put a computer in a phone, it changed everything.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the world, hundreds of millions of people in the world, own a computer, but billions own one of these. And that's their computer, and it's the access to everything. Now, when this came out, and it's only been a very short time, less than a decade that it really changed everything, daily life and daily habits radically were altered. You don't live the same way you did before this came out.

Before the smartphone, people actually listened to a phone. Now, we look at a phone. By the way, I'm taking a picture of you right now. There you go. I'll put that on Facebook. You'll all be rock stars. Everybody looks at the phone instead of simply listening to it. That's a major change in your behavior. In fact, we look constantly at our phones.

Let me show you some images. We look at our phones while we're waiting. You ever see a picture like that? Ever see that happen? It's everywhere. Everybody's got their head down today. They're all looking down while they're waiting. We look at our phone when we're going to work. There's an interesting story behind that picture. I got this out of a Boston newspaper. These guys are going to work on a train, an elevated train, or a subway. A guy walked in, pulled out a gun, and nobody noticed.

He put it back in his pocket. A few minutes later, he pulls it out again. Nobody pays attention. He puts it back in his pocket. A few minutes later, he pulls it out a third time. Nobody's paying attention. He put it back in his pocket, gave up, and walked out because they were so distracted by one of these. We now look at these while we're eating. Here's a typical family meal. Family of four, they're all looking at four screens. That's family fellowship in the 21st century. Everybody's looking at their phone.

We constantly look at our phones while we're walking. Have you ever seen this? It's interesting because of this one device, we are more familiar with the tops of people's heads than we are their faces. People are walking around like this all the time, so you recognize the top of their head rather than their face. Of course, we use these in the bathroom. You don't get a picture of that, but you know what I'm talking about.

We even look at this screen while we're watching other screens. Here's a family watching TV. And they've all got screens because we can't be bored during the commercials, so we're all looking at our screens while we're actually on the sofa watching TV. And then, of course, we even take them into the bedroom and we watch in bed. Now, this couple should be doing something else, but they are looking at their screens.

The latest statistic is that people check their phone every 12 minutes on average. Every 12 minutes. That means you look at this little screen 80 times a day if you're an average person. 80 times a day. And all that change just happened in about a decade. We have to talk about the implications and the power, both the upside and the downside of this in your life.

Because everybody looks at their phone an average of 80 times a day, even famous ad personalities want to get involved. Here's the Corona man. "I don't always look at my phone, but when I do, it's because everybody else does." And that's the most mysterious man in the world, if you know who I'm talking about. The other good news is that if you're painfully shy, you're one of the people who's always worried about everybody looking at you. Relax, nobody's looking at you.

Nobody's looking at you. Do you remember years ago there was a song that came out that says, "You should dance like nobody's watching"? Do you remember that song? Dance like nobody's watching. Well, here's the truth. Dance like no one's watching because everyone is on their phone, so no one is watching you. You can act like a total goofball, nobody's going to pay attention. A guy can pull a gun out and you won't even notice.

What is amazing is that all this change happened in literally just a few years, in just a decade. I have to share this with you. This was on the internet: "My kids asked what it was like growing up in the '80s. So I took away their phone and turned off the internet." That's it. That's the '80s, folks. That's the '80s. This church was started January 1980. That's the '80s. No phone, no internet. That's how different it is.

If you're going to spend that much time looking at this the rest of your life, we need to deal with it as a spiritual issue, too. So I want us this weekend to look at being a disciple in the digital age. How can I use this for good and how can I minimize the negative parts of it? I really want to do a couple of things. First, I want us to understand some of the downsides. I don't have time to go into all the downsides, but some of the downsides in this technological power that you hold and you actually carry it with you all the time.

You actually carry with you a new source for old temptations. The temptations have been around forever and ever. New source for old temptations, but you carry it with you in your purse or your pocket. And then I want to look at five ways to use your smartphone for the glory of God.

I want us to begin by looking at the spiritual hazards of digital tools. We all know what the upside is. This is an amazing tool. It gives you access to the entire world, to the body of knowledge that's out there. It's just hard to explain how powerful this tool is, but there are spiritual downsides. So let's look at the spiritual hazards of digital tools. I'm talking about iPhones, iPods, smartphones, laptops, any device that connects you online to the internet.

By the way, what is a hazard? Well, if you're a golfer, you know what a hazard is, but a hazard is a potential dangerous trap. If you're walking through a minefield where they've buried mines in the ground, that's a hazardous field, and if you step on a mine, it'll blow you up.

By the way, I like to keep you guys up to date. So as your pastor, if you're a golfer, the word "hazard" is no longer acceptable after 150 years at the golf course. You probably don't know this, but I do, and I'm going to tell you. In January 1, 2019, all of the powers that be in golf, the PGA, LPGA, and all of the other golf associations that govern golf, took the word "hazard" out of the official manual after 150 years.

So they're no longer called hazards. Now, in golf, there are two kinds of hazards. There's water hazards and there's sand trap hazards. But now, sand trap hazards are simply called bunkers. Everybody knows what that is, a bunker. But water hazards are now going to be called penalty areas. I'm not making this up. I just didn't want you to be embarrassed the next time you played golf. Don't use that word because it's now out of date according to the official rulebook of golf.

I said that you carry a new source of old temptation in your pocket or in your purse all day long. Let me just give you six hazards you need to be aware of. We'll go through them pretty quickly. Number one is it can waste my time. I can waste time on my cell phone. Everybody agree with that? Of course. Time is your most precious commodity. You only have a limited amount of time. If you are an average human being, you will live 27,375 days. 27,375 days.

That's the average number of days a human being lives on Earth. If you're over 27 years of age, you've already passed 10,000 days. They are behind you. And the problem is, you're not getting those back. Time is your most precious resource because you can't get it back. You can't get any more of it. You can always get more money. You can always get more energy. There are a lot of things you can get more of. You can create. But you can't create more time. You have a certain number of days in your life and that's it. And when you've spent it, it's gone.

So life management is really time management. If you learn to manage your time, then you'll learn to manage your life. Now, here's what the Bible says. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15 and 16: "Be careful how you live. Don't live foolishly. Instead, live as wise people, making every minute count because these are evil times." Now, notice it says, "Be careful how you live." You might circle that word "careful." We don't use the word "careful" like they did in Bible times.

Today "careful" has an implication of you're worried about something. "Be careful! Watch out! Don't fall off!" This is not what it's saying here. The opposite of "careful" is "careless." Careless. He's saying don't be careless with your life, be careful, and I mean be intentional. Around here we call it being purpose-driven with your time. You're intentional, you're deliberate. You know where you're going. You're not wasting your time. You're not careless with your time. You're careful with your time.

The latest stat on these smartphones is that in America, you spend, since you look at it 80 times a day, 3.4 hours a day looking at your screen, at your phone. 3.4 hours a day. That adds up to 24 total hours a week you're looking at this thing. And what that means is if you are an average person and you live to an average age, you will eventually spend 11 solid years of your life looking at this. 11 solid years looking at this screen.

Now, that means we need to talk because I'm interested in you not wasting 11 years of your life. And by the way, that doesn't include watching TV, that's another screen. And that doesn't include video games that you play that aren't online. That's just being online through your phone. The Bible says this: 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23: "Now, you may say, I'm allowed to do anything, but not everything is helpful or beneficial. A thing may be permissible, but not everything is constructive and encourages growth."

This is a Bible principle we need to apply here. What is it saying? It's saying some things aren't necessarily wrong, they're just not necessary. They're not necessarily wrong, they're just not necessary. It's not a sin for you to spend five hours watching cute kitty commercials on YouTube, but it might not be the best use of your time. It's not a sin. It's not evil, wicked, mean, bad, nasty. It's just like some things aren't necessarily wrong, they're just not necessary.

And you need to say, is this worth me giving my life for? I just gave my life scrolling through a bunch of clickbait. How many of you, I wonder, have when you were dead tired, instead of going to bed, you're sitting here scrolling through with your thumb, you're barely awake and you go, click, click, click, click. And "Yeah, that was funny. No, it wasn't. Yeah, that was funny. No, it wasn't." If evolution were true, in 100 years everybody's going to have giant thumbs because they're exercised so much.

Giant thumbs, big butts, little feet because we don't walk anywhere anymore, and they're just scrolling on. We'll look very, very different. But how many times have you needed to go to bed and you wasted it on looking at stuff on the internet when really what you needed was sleep? And then you paid for it the next day because you spent a lot of time looking at stuff that didn't matter. The Bible says this on the screen, Proverbs 12:11: "Only a fool idles away his time." So we know, I don't have to teach you on this one, we all know it's easy to waste time on the internet.

Let me give you a couple of others. Number two, a second hazard is I can be seduced by the world's values. I can be seduced by what the world values, the world's value system. Because the internet, and particularly social media, amplify stuff that is not important and make it seem like it's really, really, really important. And it's not. The world and all the advertisers in it are constantly telling you how to think, what to buy, how to feel, what's cool, what's not cool, what's hip, what's not hip.

The world is constantly shouting at you through the internet and you're carrying it with you all day in your pocket. Now, that's not a temptation previous generations of followers of Christ had to deal with because they weren't carrying it with them, but you've got advertising with you everywhere you go. And the world's value system of passion, possession, and position, or sex, salary, and status, that's what the world's after. And if you listen to it long enough, you start thinking, well, that must be right and that must be okay.

And you carry that voice with you. Whatever gets you gets your attention. And if you look at something long enough, you know what's going to happen? You're going to start copying it. You're going to dress like that, you're going to act like that, you're going to think like that, you're going to feel like that. Whatever you look at all the time, you're eventually going to copy. That's why the Bible says this in Romans 12:2: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."

He says don't copy the world's value system. What are the world's value systems? Look up here on the screen. 1 John 2:15 to 17 says this: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Now, hang on here just a minute. Let me stop. The guy who wrote this, John, in 1 John 2:16 he says, "If anybody loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." He's the same guy who wrote John 3:16 in another book, which says, "God so loved the world." Okay, which is it?

I mean, come on. In John 3:16, John says, "God so loved the world," and in 1 John 2:16 he says, "Don't love the world." Well, what am I supposed to do? Looks like a contradiction. The answer is in the definition of the word "world." In John 3:16, where it says, "God so loved the world," he's talking about the people of the world. We are to love the people of the world because they were created in the image of God, they have a dignity, we are to love every person.

In 1 John 2:15 to 17, he's saying don't love the value system of the world. So the Bible says we are to love the people in the world, but we are to hate the world's value system because it's anti-God. Love the people, hate the value system. The problem is, we do the exact opposite. We hate the people and we love the value system. We are as materialistic as everybody else, we're as interested in sex and pleasure and making that the highest goal of life, we're as interested in status and salary and sex and popularity and possessions and power as everybody else is.

We get it backwards. Now, look at that verse again. "Don't love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For what the world values," and the world has three big values, "the lust for constant pleasure," that's called hedonism, "the greed for more things," that's called materialism, "and the prideful positioning to appear important," that's called secularism or humanism. It says, "I am God, I'll be my own god, I don't need God, I'm more important."

He says of these three things, "None of these things come from your Father. The world and what it values is going to pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever." So you've got to choose. Am I going to go with God's value system or am I going to go with the world's value system? The temptation to have more, the temptation to feel more, the temptation to be more, all of these kind of things that happen. He says if you're hearing people shout at you all the time that you've got to be popular, and you've got to be beautiful, and you've got to be successful, and you've got to be rich for you to have any value, that's a lie.

It's a lie. It's the world's value system that only the wealthiest matter, only the most beautiful matter, only those who are having the most fun matter. That means you don't matter because you're not in any of those categories. But that's what the world is constantly teaching. You've got to be thin and beautiful and sexy and rich, otherwise, your life sucks. That's the world's value system. They are wrong, but you're hearing it all the time and you're carrying it with you in your pocket and you're reading it on social media and things like that.

If I see it enough, I start thinking, well, it must be okay. And what this does is this desensitizes me to sin. It desensitizes me to sin. All of a sudden, I think, well, if everybody's doing it, it must be okay. Must be all right. James 4:4 in the Bible says this: "Don't you know that to be a friend of the world is to be hostile to God? If your aim is to be popular with the world, you make yourself God's enemy." I didn't say that, God does. He says you've got to choose. Do you want to be a people-pleaser or do you want to be a God-pleaser?

I highly recommend that you decide from this day forward you're not going to be a people-pleaser anymore. You're going to be a God-pleaser, because if you're a God-pleaser, it will always be the right thing to do and actually, there will be some good people who like that.

Guest (Male): Wow, such a great message today and every day. Thanks, Pastor Rick. Hey, do you know someone who's graduating this year? Maybe it's your son, a daughter, grandchild, perhaps a neighbor or even a family friend. As you celebrate this important milestone and as they begin the next phase of their journey, they need to know that God created them, loves them, and has a plan for their life. So that's why Rick Warren created a special resource just for graduates called The Purpose Driven Life Selected Thoughts and Scriptures for the Graduate.

It's filled with inspirational scripture, biblical wisdom from Rick, and beautiful imagery. This unique hardcover gift book provides a priceless reminder of the bountiful life that God has planned for your graduate, and it's going to inspire them to seek His unique plan and purpose for their life. So please, don't miss this opportunity to minister to the graduate in your life today. Be sure to request your copy of The Purpose Driven Life for Graduates when you give a gift to Daily Hope.

Just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorrick.com, or you can text the word "Hope" to 70309. Again, that's the word "Hope" to 70309. And we thank you so much for your support. It helps us share the hope of Christ with people all around the world. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.