David Hughes - ¿Te hice reaccionar?

Is there anyone here that spends too much time with their phone? Is there anyone here? This is a safe space. In our church, we can know that this is a non-judgmental area. But if someone spends too much time on the screen, on Sunday morning, we can say that the average time, how can I spend 37 hours a day on my phone? And I use it for many reasons. I read my Bible on my phone. It's something very good. My GPS is also helpful for traffic in southern Florida. And there are so many things like a machine that helps me sleep because of music, but social media. I love them and I'm probably addicted to them. Is there anyone else here that enjoys social media? I love social media. I'm probably addicted to social media. Anybody else enjoy social media? Anybody enjoy social media? Who makes the most noise? Don't judge anybody. It's Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Who enjoys social media? It makes the most noise right now. In fact, what is your favorite platform? Is it Instagram? Is it TikTok? Is it Facebook? What's your favorite? What's your favorite? Is it Netflix? Is it Upstate? There are people here who don't use social media.

I respect that. Perhaps they have very good relationships with people who talk face to face. That's a good thing. I spend a lot of time on my phone and we're going to talk about that. It's not all bad. There are many good things on social media. Social media, there's information here. There's news. There's sports. I like it. If LeBron comes to Miami Heat, I want to know. I try to find out the news on social media. There's all kinds of interesting things. But here's the thing. LeBron, I mean, if you use social media, I don't know. But what is social media? God is moving in our church. In fact, here's what the church is doing in a great way. So there's like three happy people here. But God is doing something in our church. God is making the summer of our church in a powerful way. So if you don't follow like three happy people, God is making it. It was amazing. We had so many kids coming in from high school. We had so many people, you know, I don't have words for what happened in this room. Over 850 people were baptized.

Wow. But the church has an Instagram and a Facebook. And it's a way to highlight what we celebrate. For example, we let them know if there's a disaster somewhere, how we can help. So take your phones. If you're not following the church, follow the church. It's better than following the church instead of following me. There's big things happening like Rally Loud, which is coming up. Young adults. Our three-day event. It's a big way to celebrate. God is moving the young generation in a powerful way. Rally Loud, Young Adults, Rally Loud, our three-day event for 18 and under-12. It's the best event for young adults in the United States in a powerful way in our church. Today is, you know, it's this year's adult event, made in the United States right now. We have thousands of people, 200 young adults. And then there are food trucks. And if you're like me, you haven't seen the 30s in a long time, and you're kind of jealous, then on the final day of this, in two weeks,

on Saturday night, everyone is invited. So the rest of the 30s can come. It's something so special. But all of this is on the church's social media. So follow them, invite them, share them. Don't use something so special. But all of this is on the church's social media. Follow and invite. So this could be a weapon of mass destruction. Having social media on your phone. But there are things that surprise me, like what they call the algorithm. Five years ago, I didn't hear the word algorithm. It's a mathematical term for a problem-solving mechanism. It's a mathematical term for a problem-solving mechanism. It's something so smart. This algorithm can read my mind, anticipate the things I'm interested in, my sports page. And for example, this is going to show me the things I need to review. And it shows me things that I find intriguing.

Like for example, on my Instagram, I'm a pastor, yes. I like to check churches around the United States, like the First Baptist Church, and I like churches around America that are like First Baptist Churches, but they have a little bit of a different line of people. Not all churches are the same, but I like other churches, I like all kinds of different churches, people of different kinds, people who like. My favorite preacher, he likes dinosaurs. I preached a series about dinosaurs, I like paleontology, I like hobbies, I do a lot of fishing on my Instagram, I like exercising, I like being in shape, I like football, and there are influencers in our church that have a lot of followers. For example, there are people from the NFL, and surprising things, and there are some things that I'm interested in, and he shows all of this on my social media. For example, I love history, and I see things from Disney, and I follow this guy that shows giant iguanas,

and the algorithm. And he goes to our church, and he shows me the history, not just the American history, but the ancient history of the Middle East, the Caribbean, parts of the world, all of this European history. For example, I studied a lot of history before I graduated, and in my undergraduate program, I studied the history of the church of the Middle East, and I found it on social media, I had not heard of this, but I found it on social media, on Carlos II of Spain, and he came back, this is the good Carlos II of Spain, and when I went to the comments section, because it's something about history, none of the comments were about history, or about his policies, or about his policies, not a single comment about his nose, not a single comment about his head, all the comments were about evil, and his comments were horrible, they were being critical, they were being mean, I know that they were not a super model, this is the official portrait, so it did not look as good as this,

maybe it's like the photo that we put on our profile, this is his, but oh my God, people are being so cruel, so evil when they take their noses, their eyes, and oh my God, when we think about social media, the word that does not come to mind when we think about social media is the word kind, they do not see anything kind, there is a lot of cheering, understanding, and having compassion, tolerance, but what is there, people who criticize, people who take things out of context, and manipulate, they see polarization, I think the algorithm pushes us to the extremes, like if you have an issue, a topic, a political belief, it pushes you more and more along that path, and you start to think like, we are right, we are right, my tribe is so right, we are so smart, and this other group is so wrong, they are so stupid,

be kind, be kind, if you are here and you are not a Christian, if you are interested, listen, be a good human, there is so much evil, so much hate, so much criticism, but if you are a Christian, I have a verse for you, I have John 17, everyone turns on their phone in the Bible, John 17, and make sure you are awake, and listen to what Jesus said, There is a commandment, and I want you to read it out loud. These words say, be kind. Be kind. You can't be kind, period. I don't care what they did. It doesn't matter how strong you feel, how right you know yourself to be. And for fun, be kind. It's a strong word in Greek. It says, it means empathy. It's somatic empathy, that you feel physically. Maybe it's when you try to understand, you put yourself in their shoes. And then forgive, forgiving each other. I need a little bit of forgiveness. Sometimes I'm so bad, so wrong.

And sometimes I'm so wrong, and I've got to go so badly. So we can't just, can't we just forgive each other? Maybe it's being kind, but be careful. You know, social media, there's so much good that inspires you to watch others. So much that you hate others. There's so much that's good that you think you're right, and I'm wrong, and I'm wrong, and I'm wrong, and my mind is messed up. And then the theme of the day is, did I just trigger you? Did I just trigger you? Did I just trigger you? I added pepper to this sermon, intentionally. Because if it's my opinion, if you can leave it or take it. If it's my opinion, I try to teach the word of God. I'm a human being. And if someone doesn't like my opinion, who cares? Sometimes I don't care. Sometimes I don't care. I don't like my opinion. It's my opinion, and it's fine. If it's my opinion, look at it or take it or leave it, right? So it's my opinion. It's fine. I'm not trying to push you to the extreme. But if it's not my opinion,

if it's the word of God, especially if it's the word of Jesus, I'm mentioning verse by verse something that Jesus said in John 17. And this is called by some theologians, the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this prayer is a great prayer. It's in Matthew chapter five. It's what we memorize when we're kids. But we call it the prayer of the Lord because it's the longest prayer ever recorded in the Bible, 25 verses. So they've given it the name of the prayer of the High Priest. But here's what Jesus said, and what we're praying for. And I want to walk through what Jesus said in your social media that we all have to navigate and make our children navigate. In fact, the song that we were saying, this is so good. For example, it's a popular song by Natalie Merchant, a great theologian for the 90s. It's about what our children see on the screens. She talks about what our children see on the screens or saw in the 90s. In the 90s, it was the VHS. Today, they have these supercomputers bombarding them with messages. Our children, if we don't help them, they're going to be so insecure. They're going to be so scared.

They're going to bring out standards of beauty that are not real. They're going to judge if they matter or not based on the likes or the followers that they have. So here's what Jesus said, verse one, after Jesus said this, he looked up to heaven and he prayed. I'm going to read this here. He prayed this prayer of the Lord. Who was here at the prayer meeting? If Jesus prayed in public here, for example, there were 5,000 people, and he had a life of personal prayer. He would go alone to pray when he was going to make a big decision. Think about it theologically, that the Son of God needed to pray alone to God the Father. If Jesus needed to pray like that, the more we have to look for wisdom and encouragement. But here, who was in this prayer? The 12 apostles. And the good news was that here is this, for example, this is the post from social media on the last supper. We did this, of course, for the service. But recognize this famous painting of Da Vinci. And there is Jesus, and the personification of the 12 apostles that Da Vinci did. It's helpful to know that this was not a selfie. No one had a picture of Jesus.

No one had a picture of Jesus. This is not a selfie camera, this was made hundreds of years after the event, and there are things that are not accurate. For example, Da Vinci, I think he was Italian, and all these people look like Europeans. Jesus did not look like a European. By the way, Jesus looks like the most depressed people in the world there. And my personal opinion is that I do not like this, this is beautiful, but some of the disciples look very soft. For example, John looks like a girl, right? These were men, my brothers, the disciples were carpenters, fishermen, people from outside. These people had muscles, they worked with their hands, they had calluses, and they had hair on their knees, on their chest, on their back. And here they are, they were the ones who were present when Jesus was doing this prayer. They were the ones who were when God the Son spoke to God the Father, and we continue in verse 1. Father, the time has come, glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you. Verse 2, how are you my son, for you have given authority over all people, so that he may give them eternal life. This is the best gift that God gives. God will give you purpose, God will give you peace, God will give you acceptance, but the best gift that God will give you is heaven. If you do not know that you have received the gift of salvation and heaven, when, if you have not done it, I am going to read the whole prayer, I'm going to read the whole prayer for the second time. I'm going to read the whole prayer in 1, I'm going to read the whole prayer in 5 verse John chapter 17 The subject of the prayer says, I pray for them, the twelve, and I'm not praying for the world. So he's not praying for the culture, he's not praying for the culture, he's praying for his disciples. I'm not praying, father change the world, the world is broken, don't change the world, change the disciples. Let me jump again to verse 20. I'm not going to jump again to verse 20, but they are still in the world, and I'm going to read to you, Father, protect them by the power of your name. Jesus pray for us to protect us, because there could be hatred towards us, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. So that they may be one as we are one. So they may be one as we are one. Jesus said to them, take my prayer for them, that they be one, that the twelve be one, that they be so unified that their unity reflects our unity.

Their perfect integration between God the Father and God the Son. I'm praying for the twelve so that they may be one. I'm praying for the twelve, and I'm going to jump to verse 20, my prayer is not for them alone, my prayer is for those who will believe. My prayer is not for them alone, but I pray also for those who will believe. My prayer is not for those who will believe, but for those who will believe. He's praying for us, Jesus prayed for you, he prayed for me. Jesus is praying for Church by the Glades. Those who have prayed for you, Jesus prayed for you. Now he's looking here, and he's praying for us. So that they may be one, Father, as you are in me, and I am in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe. Verse 22, I have given them the glory, see the doxology, the same word, the glory that we reflect the church, the glory of Jesus, so that they may be one as we are one. So that they may be one as we are one, as you are in me, and I am in you, so that they may be brought to complete unity. This is the prayer of Jesus, Father, protect them. but six times they reflect our own. But six times, Jesus says, here's the crazy ones, here's what makes the real Christians. It's not our preaching, it's not our prayer, it's not our worship, it's not our praise, it's our one. It's not what you'd expect, it's our oneness.

The good doctrine is important, I want to extract the truth, I want to be theologically right, but he didn't pray for that. He prayed for us to be theologically right, for Christians in this church, and in the whole city, and in the whole world, to be so unified, that God would see us, and would see our unity, because when this world is so divided, it's full of hate. He says, we have the right, they don't, my tribe has the right, and the other tribes are idiots. But he didn't pray for the culture, he didn't think about the culture, he prayed for the subculture, which is called the church. But in this divided world, for us to be one, to be unified, incredible, I'm thinking about this, the blessing of God is not in knowing his word, nor in doing it, but in doing it, in his application. How in the world can we be one? I have some theories about it.

There's a way in which we can all get along. If I do my will all the time, if you agree, what are you laughing at? If you can do it my way all the time, it would be beautiful, if you all agreed to do it my way all the time. Anybody have a family here? Anybody? If we have a roommate, or if you have a cat, or a dog, that works. That's never going to happen. That's never going to happen. They're going to do exactly what I want. If you're going to have that, you're going to be unhappy. You're going to be unhappy. Welcome to reality, but you're going to be unhappy. Welcome to reality, but what about this? That's not going to work, if you don't convince them, too. How about this? I'm going to get to this section of comments, the algorithm put something here that I don't have a conviction about,

and they say, what? I'm going to come here and debate and share my point of view, and I'm sure I'm right, and they're wrong. When was the last time you convinced someone about anything on Facebook? When was the last time they had a strong opinion and you got there and you insulted them and they said, oh, I'm an idiot. Thank you for showing me how stupid I am. You're so right, and I'm not. It's so right. And I'm so wrong. I'm talking to the Christians. If you're not a Christian, that's the world. And the world is always broken, and we, the Christians, we also have to be on the same page. All kinds of issues, all kinds of issues, I feel very strong about this. I don't want to be on the same page, but I do want to be good about it.

Have you noticed that Jesus didn't pray for us to be equal? Jesus didn't pray for us to be one. He didn't pray for us to be on the same page about everything. He didn't pray, Father, I pray that you make them all Republicans. Lord, please be glorified in the Democratic Party. I just shot someone. I just threw something. I'm not trying to trigger feelings on anyone, but probably this is not going to happen. I like all kinds of churches. There are great pastors with great churches, but it's not critical, but there are parts of the country and there are churches that are almost monolithic, or more monolithic. There are some churches

that are more monolithic, that are more monolithic. My daughter goes to a great church in Nashville where everyone is super young and it's amazing, and they have connectivity with young people. And this church, there are churches that are only of one race. There are great churches. For people of color, for Hispanic people, for white people. But when you stop and you see this room, when you stop, you look like a bag of Skittles. I mean, y'all look like a bag of Skittles. And I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. But when there's a social problem out there, when people have strength, well, you guys are very difficult to shepherd because you're strong, and I understand that. I love that you're strong and that you have opinions. We live in a country where there is freedom of expression and the right to express our voices. But can we be the voice in this world?

Because our church is not monolithic. It's not a church where everyone is of the same race or the same age and have the same type of van at the parking lot. But if we can be so different, then we're still going to be one. We're still going to be one. And the world sees us and says, how is that possible? How do you unify? How do you unify? There is no uniformity. We're never going to get there, but there is unity. The only option is to come to the Lord, to the loving Lord Jesus. We have Jesus in charge, and subordinate everything to him and his great commission, and recognize, I don't agree, maybe you don't like it, but he said it six times. He prayed six times. Father, make them one. And it's difficult at the beginning. Look at the ones on the screen. I'm surprised that they didn't kill each other. It's a monolithic group. They were all patriarchy men. There were no people in the picture. An all-Jewish race, but their personalities, their dispositions. I'm surprised that they didn't fight each other.

For example, Peter was impulsive, and Thomas was different, careful, considerate. They were so different. Nathaniel says that the Bible says that he was innocent, that he was sweet. And the other Simon, not Simon Peter, but Celote, roll up your sleeves, get violent. And they had nicknames. The children of Zebedee were called the children of thunder because they were noisy, ambitious. And some disciples didn't even speak a word in the Bible. They just declined to unity. So, I'm surprised that they didn't kill each other. So, I never want to preach about frustration, about pain, but they don't debate with people. You can't change the way you think. But our church is not the typical church. And we're very passionate about the Great Commission, about bringing people to Jesus. So, we do things that other churches don't do. I'm not saying that we're doing the right thing, and they're not. We're doing what God wants us to do. But the thing is, on social media,

we get a little bit of hate sometimes. There are people who, religious people, and I get hate, but I'm big, and I'm good with that. And it doesn't bother me that much. It bothers me if someone comes to the church and can persuade them of this. Remember, hate violates the context, and they're looking for clicks. They're looking to drag them into the hate field. So, they're looking for everything. They've called me demoniac, that I'm a demoniac pastor. That's pretty bad. But they don't know me. They don't know that I've been here 27 years, and that I've tried to teach the Bible, the word of God, that a lot of people have come to Jesus, in our church, that we're creative, and we do things that other churches don't do. In South Florida, 3% of our, of our neighbors

identify as followers of Christ. So, we don't play discreetly. We're not demoniac. We're not satanic. They know that what's demoniac is not the law of God. That's not the law of God. In fact, you know, what is demonic is that if Jesus values our unity, then the devil uses or hates Jesus' values and tries to teach division. And his main desire is division. And the strategy from the beginning has been to separate, his strategy. In Genesis, he separates Adam from God. Then he separates Adam and Eve from the garden. Then he separates Cain from Abel. He separates Jacob from Esau. He separates Joseph from his two brothers. That's only in Genesis. And now, if he can put nails between the Christians so that we fight, we hate each other. We Christians, who are slightly different, don't we all believe that a man who had died came back to life and his name brought salvation? Don't we all believe that? Jesus prayed for us to be one. So then we can tell him, we can pray for healing, for resources, for my son, my daughter to come to Christ. And we can say, Lord, answer my prayer. But here, Jesus prayed for us. And we have Jesus answering our prayers. But the devil wants fragmentation, hatred, division. But Jesus prayed for unity. So which prayer are you going to answer? You can be the answer. I can be the answer.

I can be the answer, Jesus, for that we would be one, not same. It's hard to be one when we're same. It's hard to be one when we're different. The algorithm is pushing you towards the extremes. It's not trying to balance the extremes. It's not trying to get an appetite for anything, hate, criticism. So we need to be careful. I like social media, but it can be unhealthy. A brief example. I have my little son. And I, for example, he's there all the time. He's so expensive, my younger son. Back during high school, when he was 10 and a half, he was supposed to go to the grocery store and buy another lunch. But a couple of times, when we're watching TV, he says, Dad, can I eat Doritos? He loves Doritos Flamin' Hot, the spicy ones. And can I have a bag? Yes. Maybe there's a bag here. That was really good. I liked that. And if you've tried them, they're really good. I'm not a person who eats junk food. Here, thank you. Here are Doritos. They're so surprising. But he can eat junk food from time to time. But if in the morning, when he's there,

next to his bed, when he gets up, and he has another bag, and at breakfast, another bag, and in the car to take him to school, before he has a license, another bag of Doritos Flamin' Hot. And then in his backpack, in his locker. And then you'd say, David, you're a horrible father. That's so unhealthy, so unbalanced. I would never do that. But his phone is with him all those times. His phone is with him all the time. It's not just the hate. It's not just the insecurity. It's not just the hate. It's someone who doesn't have self-esteem. And it affects your self-esteem. If someone follows you or likes you, it's just a fuckin' alarm clock. The algorithm is not keeping you in line. The great theologian, if you're right, says, if the loss and the hate is the cup of sweet tea, they're going to give you what you want. So here we have the photograph of Charles II. Everyone hates the brother because he doesn't look good, because he doesn't have a good look. But I did some research, and he was a good king, and he was born with problems. His jaw was too big, his tongue, his stomach was too small,

his lungs were too underdeveloped, and he died at 30 with a lot of health problems. He didn't walk until he was 8. What happened was that the Habsburgs ruled the throne for many years, and the problem was that the Habsburgs didn't have a lot of money. They didn't have a lot of money. protected their bloodlines and married each other for generations. They didn't have a lot of money. They didn't have a lot of money. Poor Carlos, his father and mother were uncle and niece. This is the result of these mixes. Your algorithm has this mix. It shows you only one side, it doesn't show you a balance, it doesn't show you the argument of the other, it shows you what you want and is using you, you are becoming annoying, but Jesus wants us to have unity. I'm going to give you the other side, and in this prayer Jesus prays for us to be one, but this word appears in your Bible 2,000 times, in Joshua it says a warrior, and in the book of Acts, in this mega church, it says that we are a heart, a mind, Jesus the good shepherd would leave the 99 to go look for one, in Deuteronomy 6 it says, Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one, in Ephesians it says, there is one more, there is one baptism, in 1 Timothy 2 it says,

there is a mediator between a God and man, it is Jesus Christ, in Ephesians 2 it says that he is our peace, that he is our peace, that he will give a Jew his tongue, and it says that it is better one day in the house of God than 10,000 in any other place, and it says, I will ask one thing of God, I will stay in the house of God forever, Daniel was a man who went against the culture, and he confronted lions, he was a young man who took his, David took his wave, and he defeated a giant, Sadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they said, they were with the son of God, and John 3, 16 says, that God loved the world so much, that he gave his only son, and although we are different, many members, but we are one body, because we are the church, and we are in a place where we love each other, we are kind to each other, we respect each other, and we let the world see this, God that we are kind, and that we begin in the parking lot, in the name of Jesus, and I love you very much,

I see you next week, I see you next week, I see you next week,