Mike Livermore - Class 5

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   All right, good afternoon, everyone. For our Sunday school session, what I'd like for us to do is we are going to eventually, in the second half, or really like the second two-thirds, address the subject we've been really sort of circling around all weekend. But before that, we're going to read and briefly summarize four passages from the New Testament, which are probably and very much are sort of unrelated.

2. 0:42

   There's no overriding theme connecting these passages, but they all will apply to the challenge that we'll be discussing shortly. So please come with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3 to start.

3. 0:55

   2 Timothy chapter 3 and verses 1 through 5. These verses read, But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal, brutal despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away.

4. 1:38

   So a warning for believers in the last days that perilous times would come when people in our society would be given over to all these kinds of behaviors. It would overtake society and dominate society, and this is how people will live, loving themselves and loving all these wicked ways. And the message of verse 5 for believers is, From such people, turn away.

5. 2:03

   Our next passage is just one page over, 2 Timothy chapter 4, in verses 3 through 5. These verses read, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

6. 2:27

   But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So again, there is a warning to believers that the time will come when sound doctrine would not endure. And for whatever various reasons, referred to here as itching ears and their own desires, people will look for ideas and guidance and things they want to hear, and this might come to replace the biblical word of truth.

7. 2:54

   And whereas believers once would turn to the word as their only source of guidance in life and the place they would go for comfort and hope, and for the lamp to guide their feet and a light to their path, we will be turned perhaps to other things, to fables, and we'll find teachers in other places because they say what makes us feel good, and they say what things we want to hear.

8. 3:15

   And the warning for us is, verse 5, to be watchful, to look out for this sort of behavior, observe it, see that it's there, stay away from it, warn others of it, and fulfill our ministry by avoiding this false doctrine. Or you might even just say, like, not quite sound doctrine. Sound doctrine may not endure.

9. 3:37

   Our third passage is in Jude chapter 1, or I guess there's only one chapter in Jude, so just the book of Jude, and verses 20 through 23.

10. 3:48

    So an entirely different lesson here, but a very important one. Jude chapter 1, verses 20 through 23, you read, And so here, in a message that begins with hope of God's kingdom and staying in the mercy of God, there nonetheless is an awareness that others have not done so. There are those that are struggling, those that have strayed, those that are, as verse 23 says, they're in the fire and need to be saved.

11. 4:37

    And we have to make a distinction and determine who can be saved, who can be pulled out of the fire to bring them back into the love of God. And this is all in the context of the book of Jude, where there is a massive warning against ungodliness. Just reference verse 15 of Jude.

12. 4:54

    Notice this word appears four times. To execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly. Among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So the challenge for believers, and when this letter was written, was the culture of ungodliness that was surrounding them and had to be dealt with.

13. 5:18

    And sadly, some fell into that fire, so to speak. And the warning of this book is to try your best to pull those out as you can to bring them back into the hope of God's love and in his kingdom. And our final passage is 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

14. 5:45

    I'll be reading from verse 8 to the end of the chapter once we're all there. So 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 8 through 18. But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.

15. 6:10

    For if anyone sees you have knowledge in eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things which were offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died. But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

16. 6:34

    Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. And so it's a very classic and important lesson in ecclesial life that if we know that there are members amongst us and our brothers and sisters who we care for, who struggle in certain areas or different applications in any aspect of life, we have to try to be aware of that and adjust our behavior to not sort of condone that behavior to make it justifiable for these weak brothers and sisters to sort of fall to the same temptation.

17. 7:08

    And we should go out of our way to try to help them by not participating in activities which we're okay with, that maybe that we can handle or we know aren't a problem, but might be a problem to someone else. And of course, our motivation for this is in verse 11 that we consider our brothers and sisters to be someone for whom Christ died.

18. 7:30

    And that motivates our behavior. Christ gave his life for my brother and sister. The least I can do is modify something about my behavior or my approach if it's going to help prevent somebody else from stumbling. And it's a very, very important lesson in ecclesial life. So we've done a very brief summary of four crucial lessons the New Testament gives us warning and advice on.

19. 7:55

    And these are all unrelated and sort of in and of themselves. But nonetheless, if we're going to warp now to our modern world, to the year 2019, there is an application for all of these that address the same challenge. They all address the same challenge. And as I mentioned before, we've been kind of talking about it lightly in our previous classes.

20. 8:16

    But now we're going to face it straight on because there is, as we're all aware, something called social media out there. And while at times it can be fun and it's good and there's, I shouldn't say it's good, it can be good. There are good applications for it and it's a part of our lives and people like it.

21. 8:30

    I'm not going to condemn the medium outright just for by nature what it is. But nonetheless, if we are misusing it and it becomes a problem, there are warnings for us just like this from scripture. And so our first one, as we read in 2 Timothy chapter 3, to briefly summarize that again, in the last days there will be people that love themselves, boasters and proud, and from such we should turn away.

22. 8:55

    And I think we all know where this is going, to the culture of selfies, where it's just absolutely, I think actually think that the selfie fads a little bit fading this current year. It was maybe biggest about two years ago. But it nonetheless is really sort of sweeping over a lot of the content and the pictures we take and the things we post is this desire to boast and to show off how good looking we are or the people that we are around are.

23. 9:23

    And one thing you might observe that has really struck me recently, in a lot of these pictures, you'll see these are just kind of all stock photos, but a lot of these people, instead of smiling, they're puckering, right? And this is a real trend that is very real out there. It's not just like the models in these pictures doing it.

24. 9:41

    A lot of our young people I've seen, instead of smiling in a photo, they do this. And I think it's just proof that there is this trend in our society where it's more important to show off how hot you are over how happy you are. And so vanity has a real grasp on our culture in a way that did not exist before.

25. 10:05

    Social media, I think, has really sort of heightened it and brought it to the forefront of our culture. And people now pucker in pictures instead of smile as proof of this trend. And it isn't just a spiritual threat, obviously, that vanity has this avenue into our lives. It really is affecting even everyone in the entire world.

26. 10:27

    The secular world is becoming aware of this. And so there's been a lot of research on this. I've just picked out one research study that I found here that was applicable, entitled from Penn State University, Let Me Take a Selfie Exploring the Psychological Effects of Posting and Viewing Selfies and Groupies on Social Media.

27. 10:45

    And by the way, I should mention, I do have copies of all of these studies if you want to read the full-length versions. But just to briefly summarize the conclusion, which was not a shock to any of us, is that viewing selfies has a negative effect on self-esteem. And if we spend a considerable amount of our time each day looking at the pictures of how beautiful other people are, it makes us question our own looks, our own appearance, and what a challenge this can be for all of us, really, but especially our young people.

28. 11:20

    And so 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 5, really applies now, doesn't it? That in this culture in our world, where it's all about being a lover of self, and boasting and being proud of how hot you may be, the message of scriptures was, from such people turn away. And so we should be very careful.

29. 11:41

    If we're going to be using social media, if we're going to be on this platform, this medium, let's try not to follow and subscribe to the models and the hot people and the influencers, which are so prevalent on those platforms, because they are a negative spiritual influence on all of us who subscribe to them.

30. 11:59

    And even, you would also argue, negative in many other ways, such as your self-esteem and mental health, which we'll get to. All right. Our second passage was 2 Timothy 4, in verses 3 through 5, where there was a warning that, in the time to come, sound doctrine might not endure. And because of our own desires and wants and itching ears, we might heap up teachers and find life advice and guidance for our lives from other sources.

31. 12:30

    And that's absolutely happening on social media. I'm about to show you three, this is being the first one, of just three completely random screen captures, which, just so you're aware, I didn't go out and find these. I didn't go into a Google image search and look for potentially weak doctrine. Is there any sort of sound doctrine, not enduring images out there?

32. 12:50

    I logged on to Facebook. And friends of mine on Facebook were posting these images. So when I log in, this is presented to me. It's like I'm being taught this message simply by participating and having Facebook friends who are posting this kind of content, all of which were posted by Christadelphians. This was not my buddies at work.

33. 13:13

    This was not old friends or people from college. These are brothers and sisters in Christ posting this material, which it's such a challenge because you might partially agree with maybe like the overall message of a statement like this. You contribute nothing to your salvation, but the sin that made it necessary. And of course, we don't earn our salvation.

34. 13:34

    We don't get into the kingdom because of our good works. But is this verse really true? I mean, isn't faith a part of the component? Doesn't God look for believers, not just random people he picks off the street to say you've done nothing? Boom, salvation. It's not enduring sound doctrine, is it? Here's the second one.

35. 13:53

    My apologies if it's hard to read here. But this little post said, we've been infected with this idea that love is an emotion only felt between two people. But love is universal and energy, a contagious force, a gift. To offer money to a homeless man is to love. To save a worm from the sun is to love.

36. 14:11

    To smile at a stranger is love. To be grateful, to be hopeful, to be brave, to be forgiving, to be proud is to love. And certainly, love's a complex word and we've all done studies on it. And love certainly is how we act. It isn't just an emotion. But is it really true that to be proud is to love?

37. 14:29

    Isn't the pride of life one of the three forms of temptation and sin? Is this really true? I think this is a very, very dangerous statement to post. But brothers and sisters in Christ are posting messages like this. I log onto Facebook and I see this. Sound doctrine is not enduring. And just one more.

38. 14:47

    This one is so subtle. It's not how much scripture you know. It's how much scripture you live. From Toby Mac hashtag speak life. And we get the second part that, you know, it's all about living the truth. Living scripture. The Bible should become a part of our lives. And we show up by how we live each day.

39. 15:08

    But perhaps the first part of this phrase is tricky. And it says, it's not how much scripture you know. Again, like it's, life in Christ is not about Bible trivia games. But it seems to emphasize for us that we don't need to learn our scriptures. That we don't need to know the Bible in order to be approved or whatever.

40. 15:27

    It's a very, very subtle erosion of sound doctrine taking place. And this Toby Mac hashtag speak life, I see a lot of these on my Facebook feed. And we as brothers and sisters in Christ, if we're going to be posting things like this on social media, we should heed the words of 2 Timothy chapter 4.

41. 15:48

    And ask ourselves if what we're posting is enduring sound doctrine. And if we're going to be on Facebook and Instagram or other channels like this, maybe we should be careful and think twice. And put some extra attention and consider, should I be in this platform? Or if we are, examine it. Fulfill our ministry, as 2 Timothy chapter 4 says.

42. 16:10

    And address this problem. Because it's really just a very, very, very subtle challenge that's going to be around us all the time if we're using these sorts of mediums. And now our third one. Jude chapter 1. Which, as we briefly recall, was about this culture of ungodliness leading to problems, people falling away, having struggles and challenges, and the need for compassion to make a distinction and save with fear, pulling out of the fire those who are struggling.

43. 16:43

    And we're about to view some things which are very real, 100% real. Chris Zadelphian posted things on social media, which I'm posting in no way to look for cheap laughs, or to condemn them, or to look down upon them. But we're about to view a few things of some people who were struggling, but used the venue of social media to share this.

44. 17:05

    And all of it's been censored. No names will be involved. But I bring these examples up purely to show what is really happening out there, and the struggles young people are going through. And we see it on social media. So it begins sort of very, very sort of subtly. Someone did post this cartoon.

45. 17:25

    Hey, are you okay? Not really. Want to talk about it? Not really. And so someone posted this, perhaps to express that they're experiencing maybe a bit of sadness, depression, or a bit of mental illness, and they're struggling. And you take it maybe one step further. Somebody else posted this. I'm staying in bed, Snoopy.

46. 17:47

    It's too people-y out there. Which is kind of a fun cartoon, but nonetheless this person was expressing that they have maybe a social anxiety and they're struggling with it. And it's been posted on social media for whatever reason, probably to share their concern. And the same person posted both of these. You probably can't read the whole thing very well, but again, it's an expression of how someone is really struggling with anxiety, depression, mental illness, whatever their particular flavor of that struggle may be.

47. 18:17

    And they're posting very vivid pictures like this of something they're going through. And this is happening online. And then this last example is going to be what really impacted me. And it was quite staggering to see a series of posts here from the same person who had this whole chain of thoughts on Facebook over a period of a few weeks.

48. 18:36

    began with, everyone forgets about you once you're all used up. Anyone want to watch the game with me? No? Okay then. I may wake up most days and force a smile, but deep down I'm sad. And for no good reason, maybe I'm just lonely. If you think you're unattractive, copy and paste this.

49. 18:55

    And whoever likes this disagrees, lol, no one will like this. Really, really difficult things to read. Hate being stuck in my own head. Nothing to be upset about, but I just don't feel happy. I have, I miss having a best friend. In fact, I miss having any close friends. I feel like I don't exist anymore.

50. 19:19

    And so this was a Christadelphian young brother posting this. And it was heartbreaking and tragic. And it makes us consider how do we apply Jude 1 to this situation where we're seeing young people, making it very evident online that they're struggling with depression and mental illness and sadness, and they're overwhelmed by it.

51. 19:39

    What do we do? What should be the guideline for us to address this problem if we're going to follow Jude 1 to care for these people? Well, I'm going to suggest that the application of Jude 1 is that we should try to pull people out of the fire. That if somebody is online and they're having this struggle, perhaps the solution is not to jump in the fire with them, but to reach them on a different medium, to reach out in person, over phone or face to face, and not necessarily jump in the fire with them to pull them out.

52. 20:11

    If somebody was an alcoholic, you wouldn't go to the bar with them to drink to help them. But if young people are online struggling with mental illness and depression, it's being fueled in that medium, should we be trying to help them and saving them from the fire by jumping in social media as well to reach them?

53. 20:29

    Now, in all fairness, actually, I want us to get to outset. I have a very clear, bold-faced type here to make this statement that if anyone is out there struggling with depression and mental health and overcome with anxiety and really is going through some difficult things with mental illness, you should reach out for help and care.

54. 20:49

    It is an illness, just like any physical illness, and requires treatment and perhaps professional help. So please, please seek out the help that you need. But nonetheless, in recent years, as we'll find, there has become a correlation, which we'll see in the few slides here, of one potential way that we can help with this regard.

55. 21:10

    So we're not going to read the article here, but there is a headline of a study from CBS News, or CBS News posted about the study, that depression, anxieties, and suicide increase in teens and young adults, study finds. And so on the bottom down here, I'll read the bottom quote here. In the middle of the article, studies were suggesting, I'll read this, it says, recently there have been a number of studies showing that those who spend more time on digital media are more likely to be depressed and unhappy.

56. 21:40

    And again, I have a disclaimer, which is very important, that by no means am I about to suggest that the cure-all for mental illness is just to get off social media, as if it's the only factor. There are absolutely a lot of other contributing factors, but what we're about to see is that there is a clear link in the rise of mental illness in recent years, correlating to the rise of social media.

57. 22:06

    And so here's the headline, mental health problems rise significantly among young Americans. And in the article, there's some really, I'm just going to, oh, I'm sorry, I have my slides in the wrong order here, my transitions. In the article, it says, this report published, found data that in the past 10 to 12 years, maybe I'll use my clicker here, in the past 10 to 12 years, there has been, I think I have this, yes, a 52% increase of depression and mental illness in 12 to 17-year-olds and a 63% increase amongst 18 to 25-year-olds with an overall percentage of 13% in that age group and an overall increase of 70% in young adults.

58. 22:53

    And this survey studied 600,000 adolescents and adults. So it's a very representative survey. I think it's undeniable, and we perhaps all have had anecdotal experience of people and friends in our lives who are beginning to face this more and more, that mental illness and the struggles of depression and things like it are absolutely becoming a huge part of life for young people.

59. 23:16

    And it's almost like an epidemic of mental illness in Americans under age 20, under age 25. And this vast rise correlates to the rise of social media. And this chart here, it's old data, and I'm sorry you can't see it very well. I'll use the red clicker again. But in a study published two years ago, they were tracking, so on the Y column here, depressive symptoms in young adults.

60. 23:43

    And this study, they get data from 500,000 teens every year. And they found for most of, you know, our recent era from the 90s on, it hovers around 2% with males being a little bit lower than females for most of that time in terms of having depressive symptoms. But it spiked for females in the year 2013.

61. 24:06

    And those of you who are maybe a little bit tech savvy to social media, you're aware of what, you know, massive, all-consuming social media platform emerged in 2013, and that was Instagram. And the rise of the selfie began in the year 2013. And so, I mean, maybe it is a reach to say social media is causing this, but I think it's a very clear, almost undeniable correlation that just as Instagram launched, teenage females are having this real, real rise in epidemic in depressive symptoms.

62. 24:40

    I think there really is something there for us. And this is the abstract of that same study. Again, I apologize it's breaking some PowerPoint rules here. But yeah, it was 500,000 teens study, and it's a bit of old data, but from 2010 to 2015, they found a rise in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates, especially among females and adolescents who spent more time on new media, including social media and electronic devices, such as smartphones, were more likely to report mental health issues.

63. 25:14

    And adolescents who spent more time, this is important, on non-screen activities, in-person social interaction, sports exercise, homework, print media, and, did I read this right, attending religious services. So a secular study done by professors at liberal colleges in Florida State University and San Diego State. They conclude, they found in the data that attending religious services, amongst other non-screen things, were good for the mental health of the teenagers involved in this study, whereas on-screen time, as we saw, led to a rise in things like depression and suicide-related outcomes.

64. 25:56

    So the conclusion of all of this is that I think we could safely say that social media, by and large, well, maybe the exception is it can be good, it can be fun, not everyone's going to struggle with this, but for some people it's a real problem and it contributes to mental illness and it makes it worse and maybe it isn't the only reason why somebody is struggling with depression or bipolar disorder, whatever it is, but it seems to exacerbate the problem in their life and it can be difficult.

65. 26:23

    And if someone, a young person that we know of, is struggling with this, isn't the message from Jude 1, oh, I missed an article, sorry, we'll get back to that one, isn't the message of Jude 1 that we should pull them out of the fire? Perhaps we should suggest if someone is struggling that they get off social media and perhaps we shouldn't join them or condone their behavior if it is a contributing factor.

66. 26:50

    And I'm just going to go back to the page I missed here. So just one more article just to show it. It isn't just one random study I found. This was an article, The Association Between Valence of Social Media Experiences and Depressive Symptoms, a bunch of different professors and PhDs working on it.

67. 27:07

    The conclusion was negative experiences on social media hurt more than positive experiences improve a young person's self-esteem or well-being. So it causes more harm than the good it might give. And so even if you can use it responsibly and use it well and use it for good, nonetheless, a lot of us are going to struggle with the overriding negative experiences online.

68. 27:34

    And I also do want to just mention this. While I am suggesting that we perhaps would pull people struggling out of the fire and not join them in the struggle online, there still are, I think, good, valuable resources on social media if you're just drowning in this world, there is, just as one example, a Christadelphian support network from the UK which is addressing mental health problems and they are trying to sort of meet people where the problem is on Facebook and there's merit in that for sure.

69. 28:07

    But perhaps, I'm suggesting for some, the best solution is to actually come out of it, is to get out of the fire. And that's going to lead us now to our last passage which was 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and meat offered to idols. And again, the context of this in the ecclesia was that some people were completely fine.

70. 28:28

    They knew, you know, an idol is nothing. If I eat this piece of meat, it's no big deal. I'm not better for it. I'm not worse for it. It's all good. And so some had liberty but for others it was a real crutch and it was in their heads and even though they were maybe being a little bit spiritually immature and they should have known an idol was nothing, it nonetheless was a stumbling block and there needed to be a sensitivity to that.

71. 28:50

    And the message being, well look, it isn't just about are you okay? Are you okay in your liberty? The question is asked, well are you going to be okay in your liberty if it means a weak brother is going to perish? Someone for whom Christ died, even if you're okay, think about others.

72. 29:07

    And so here's some social media guidelines even for all of us who maybe think we're okay, that social media isn't a big deal for me, I like it, I can manage it, I'm good. Now again, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to drop any fire and brimstone saying y'all should quit, it's evil, it's abhorrent, get off of it.

73. 29:25

    There are good uses for it but each of us as an individual I think has to decide are we using it for good, are we using it for bad, is there a way that we can remove the bad and focus on the good? Well, if we're going to stay on these platforms and it's a decision we each have to make, here are some guidelines.

74. 29:41

    Oh, I thought these would be transition but it's all right here for you. Okay, if you're going to post something on Facebook, ask yourself the question, how will this impact others? You know, it's okay for me to eat this meat offered to idols but how will that impact a weak brother who might perish because of it?

75. 30:02

    If I'm going to post pictures of how beautiful I am online, is that going to impact a young person who sees it and will therefore have self-esteem issues? If I'm going to post about how wonderful my life is and how blessed I am to have all of these great things and all these wonderful possessions and look how good I'm doing, is that going to negatively impact someone who is struggling, somebody who has financial issues or health issues and wishes, they had our life and they wouldn't think those thoughts, they wouldn't be coveting if they weren't seeing it on social media and so we ask ourselves the question, well what I'm posting caused growth or caused stumbling to the people who are my friends on Facebook or follow me on Instagram?

76. 30:49

    If you're going to share something, so you didn't create this content but you liked it a lot and so you want other people to see it, ask yourself the question, is this sound doctrine? Is Toby Mac hashtag speak life, is he really preaching the word of the God, the Bible or is it something that just makes us all feel good, it makes us feel happy, it sounds nice, therefore it's worth sharing or is it sound doctrine?

77. 31:16

    Going back to yesterday's class, is what I'm sharing online, is it speaking the truth in love for the growth of the body to benefit with grace those who see what I'm sharing or does it serve some other purpose and again, is it sound doctrine? I have another page on this. If we're going to like something or heart or whatever the actual like click might be, is what I'm liking and clicking and hearting, is it approved?

78. 31:46

    Like is that good behavior? Am I rewarding immoral behavior I see online by liking it and following it? And am I enabling someone who is addicted to a certain lifestyle or is hooked and it's affecting their mental health and by me liking and commenting and supporting all of these things that they're going through and posting online, am I enabling that behavior?

79. 32:08

    Am I rewarding and incentivizing future social media use which could be harmful to someone who seems to be really stuck and is in a bad place? So going back to that young brother who was posting all of those heartbreaking, sad posts, if I just heart those and like those, am I sort of asking him to keep posting more?

80. 32:29

    Tell me more about or share with us more about how much you hate your own life. Is it not better to reach out through a different medium to help that brother and pull him out of the fire? And if we're going to comment and have discussion take place online, so this might actually kind of connect to the exhortation now, choosing between the fear of the Lord versus the fear of the people well, in what we're discussing, is it going to be encouraging and will a soft answer turn away wrath?

81. 32:58

    And am I upholding the truth in what I'm posting or am I just giving in to what people want me to say? And is there perhaps a better medium to reach out? Say for example, we do see somebody post something which is doctrinally incorrect or is a discouraging comment or whatever it might be online.

82. 33:15

    Is the best medium just to fight with them on Facebook and to address it directly or should we reach out through a more appropriate face-to-face, voice-to-voice or even just an email off of like the chaos of social network to address the problem? Again, there may not be a perfect answer for every situation but I think these are questions that we all should be asking ourselves if we're going to be participating in these mediums.

83. 33:41

    And because we have a little bit of time left, I left this as like an optional, like one more thing to think about. So we will talk about it now but we've noticed, I've noticed recently a trend on social media of talking about like the topics of today and I think it's great to talk about, you know, fulfilled prophecy and the things we see as signs of the times but there's a lot of political discussion amongst brothers and sisters in Christ and as a brief review, I think we all, we all are aware of verses like Philippians chapter 3 which why don't we turn there actually just so we can refresh ourselves.

84. 34:19

    Philippians chapter 3 Philippians chapter 3, the key verse being verse 20, And this wonderful passage here about our hope but the point of that first sentence of verse 20 is that as believers in Christ who are looking for and eagerly awaiting the time to come when Christ will rule on earth, well until that time comes we are waiting as citizens of that future time, as citizens of heaven and therefore as believers as an expression of our faith, we choose not to involve ourselves in the government and politics at the time and place that we happen to live until Christ returns.

85. 35:26

    And one more passage to confirm this is in Hebrews chapter 11 and this is going to be, this is a very brief sort of overall summary of this belief. It's certainly worth exploring more. This is not going to be conclusive or exhaustive, I should say, by any means. But Hebrews chapter 11 verses 13 through 16, the example left to us by other faithful is, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

86. 35:57

    For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have an opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

87. 36:17

    And so believers throughout Bible times up into our day, we long for a time to come, for a city and a land to come, and we have that promise ahead of us. And as an expression of our hope in that coming promised kingdom, we consider ourselves now as just strangers and pilgrims on the earth, living our lives in preparation for that time to come, and therefore, we don't choose to entangle ourselves with the cares of politics and of the government around us.

88. 36:44

    We are just in the place we are in the world, and we should honor the king and respect the rulers that God's put in place around us. So as believers, we don't participate in politics. But nonetheless, there's been a lot, I should really say, there's been a lot of posts almost on a weekly basis from believers on these mediums with political opinions and takes about taxes and gun control and foreign affairs and you name it, it's out there.

89. 37:16

    Even very people who are close to me in my life, actual family members who are in the truth or are in an ecclesia, they're posting about it and expressing conservative and liberal viewpoints, and there's now political discourse taking place on social media amongst believers in Christ who should not be getting involved in politics.

90. 37:36

    And at the very least, if you say, you know what, Mike, I just want to talk about these things, but I don't vote. You know, I'm just going to follow the letter of the law and I'm just going to not vote as Christadelphians should not, but I can't help myself from talking about it.

91. 37:51

    Well, something very interesting happened in our recent political cycle that I think we're all aware of, the Mueller report and collusion and Donald Trump, and the conclusion has been met recently that the Russians who meddled in the 2016 election, they got more impact from regular social media posts than advertisements in election misinformation campaign.

92. 38:15

    Having social media posts put up by bots and agents and so forth that were out there to influence American voters had more of an effect in terms of the voting results than ads on the radio or ads on TV or ads online. When we post something online, it's very influential and impacts the people that observe it.

93. 38:35

    So even if we want to just say at a minimum, I'm not voting, but I want to talk about it, what we talk about does impact voting. Maybe your friends at work, people you grew up with, other people that follow you online, they see your opinion and it sways their votes. We are going against our own beliefs if we talk about politics on social media.

94. 39:00

    It's probably not going to be a popular thing to some who love to talk about it, but I think it needed to be said. So as we have about five minutes left, we will do one final discussion, a meditation question session before turning it back over to Brian. So our three questions this time are, how do we educate our young people about the pitfalls of social media and at what age should they begin to be eligible to join?

95. 39:27

    How are we as adults using social media? Are we setting a good example? And maybe I should also add, should we be condoning such things that we see take place on social media? And are we enjoying our luxuries, being focused on our homes? This is really a summary of the whole study. And are we perhaps blind or choosing to be ignorant of the problems technology is causing?

96. 39:55

    As a brief summary, technology, to go back to our first class, it can be good. It's a wonderful thing, which in many ways has enhanced our lives, and we would not want to go back. But we should be aware, though, of the consequences and dangers and hazards that are out there and modify, tweak, find the balance and how we use it to avoid such dangers that are truly out there.

97. 40:19

    So with that, I'll leave it to you all to discuss for a few minutes before we close. Thank you.