Intersection | The Dopamine Dilemma | Chad Herold

So good to see everybody. We can go ahead and stand up, we're gonna get our service started. I wanna give a great big welcome to all of our first time visitors. Let's clap our heads like this and see how we get our service started. Let's sing a song. Here we go. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Hey. Praise in the valley, praise on the mountain. Oh, and I praise when I'm sure, and I praise when I'm doubted. Oh, and I praise when I'm numbered, and praise will surround me. Oh, cause praise is the water that my enemies drown in. Hey, I hear y'all. So on this I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord of my soul. Sing it y'all. Praise the Lord of my soul. Oh, and I praise when I'm feeling, and praise when I don't. Yeah. Praise I know, just what you're looking for.

Yeah, because praise is the water, it's more than a sound. Yeah. Praise is the shower that brings everything down. Yeah. Y'all sing now. Oh, and on this I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord of my soul. Sing now y'all. Praise the Lord of my soul. Yeah. I won't be quiet, my pride is my life. How could I keep this inside? Praise the Lord of my soul. Come on, put your hands on it. Hey, come on. Oh, praise because you're soft, praise because you reign, praise because you rose and defeated the grave. I praise because you're faithful, praise because you're true, praise because there's nobody greater than you. I will praise, and I'll praise. Praise, praise because you rose and defeated the grave. I'll praise because you're faithful, praise because you're true,

praise because there's nobody greater than you. I'll praise the Lord of my soul. Come on y'all. Praise the Lord of my soul. Praise the Lord of my soul. Praise the Lord of my soul. Everybody, praise the Lord of my soul. I won't be quiet. I won't be quiet, my pride is my life. How could I keep this inside? Sing it, sing it. I won't be quiet, my pride is my life. How could I keep it inside? I won't be quiet, how could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord of my soul. Hey, come on. Come on, let me hear you praise Him. Yeah, oh yeah. Let everything, let everything, that hath breath, that hath breath, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let everything, that hath breath, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Amen. Amen y'all. Y'all, it's Baptism Sunday, y'all. We gonna praise the Lord for all of our new believers.

Here we go. ♪ Baptize me in the river, wash all my sin away ♪ ♪ Baptize me in the river, wash all my sin away ♪ ♪ Baptize me in the river, let there be no delay ♪ ♪ Gather round all my family, preach a melody ♪ ♪ Baptize me in the river, praise the Lord I am free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I am free, yeah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, all is fine, all is easy, yeah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, to the king of kings, yeah ♪ ♪ Come on and baptize me in the river, praise the Lord I am free ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Hey, baptize me in the river, Lord knows I'm coming home ♪ ♪ Baptize me in the river, Lord, I've been gone too long ♪ ♪ Gather round all you sinners, chains and creatures too ♪ ♪ Oh, baptize me in the river, Lord, I'm coming home to you ♪ ♪ I'm coming home to you, sing it, y'all, oh ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I am free, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, all is fine, all is easy, oh ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, to the king of kings, yeah ♪ ♪ Hey, baptize me in the river, Lord, I am free ♪ Awesome. You guys sound amazing, y'all can have a seat. Welcome everyone. My name is Tonya and I'm one of the pastors here at Riverpoint and Weston Church. You picked such a great day to be here because we're celebrating baptism today. We're gonna baptize over a hundred people today. How about that? Yeah, I hope you're gonna stick around after the service

and encourage and cheer on everybody who's getting baptized and we do baptism because Jesus was baptized. He asked us as his followers to be baptized as well. It's really this amazing picture when you go under the water and come back up again of his death and burial and resurrection. It's a picture of what he does in our lives when we put our faith in him, how our sins are buried and forgiven and we can rise and walk in a new life. And I know many of you were maybe baptized or christened as a baby or a child, but there's an opportunity today for you to get baptized as an adult. So if you feel that tug at any time during the service, we can totally make that happen for you. You can go on out to the desk in the lobby or the lakeside building. We have plenty of warm water, we have towels, we have clothes, we have Bibles and a certificate for you. So be in prayer about that as we continue. And now I wanna introduce you to Ruben. He's outside in the baptismal pool and he volunteered to share his story today. Hey Ruben, how you doing? Oh, good. Awesome. Well, let me tell you a little bit about Ruben's story. Ruben shares that before Christ, his life was filled with strong ups and even deeper downs. He always had something to prove

which led him to be arrogant and prideful. And when things got really bad, he would push people away to hide his pain. Ruben was baptized as a child but didn't fully understand the fullness of what that meant and chose not to follow Christ. He ignored his presence in times of loss and pain and hardship and it caused him to fall deeper into his sorrow. But he wants to be baptized today to say that he's choosing to be renewed in Christ. He desires a deeper relationship with him and wants to rely on his guidance as he moves forward in his life. So Ruben, is it true that you've put your faith in Christ as your Lord and savior? Yes. Then based on your profession of faith, we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, married with Christ unto death. Rise to walk and do this supply. You all stand and sing. Come on. ♪ Praise the Lord, I am free, oh ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I am free, yeah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I was blind, now I can see, yeah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the King, oh King, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Baptize me in the river, praise the Lord, I am free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. ♪

Amen, what a beautiful Sunday. Listen, we have one more song to sing together this morning, and this song just testifies that all of science, all of faith, shouts that God is our creator. And this morning we have that awesome privilege to respond in worship, to respond to the greatness of God. So let's continue to sing. Let's continue to sing. ♪ God of creation, there at the start ♪ ♪ Before the beginning of time ♪ ♪ With no point of reference, you spoke to the dark ♪ ♪ And flushed out the wonder of life ♪ ♪ And as you speak, a hundred billion galaxies are born ♪ ♪ In the vapor of your breath, the planet is formed ♪ ♪ If the stars were made to worship, so will I ♪ ♪ To worship, so will I ♪ ♪ I can see your heart in everything you've made ♪ ♪ Every burning star, a signal fire of grace ♪ ♪ If creation sings, your praise is so alive ♪ ♪ God of your promise, you don't speak in vain ♪ ♪ No syllable empty or full ♪ ♪ For once you have spoken, all nature in sight ♪ ♪ For once you have spoken, all nature in sight ♪ ♪ All nature in sight, follow the sound of your voice ♪ ♪ And as you speak, a hundred billion creatures catch your breath ♪ ♪ Evolving in pursuit of what you say ♪ ♪ If it all reveals your nature, so will I ♪ ♪ I can see your heart in everything you've saved ♪ ♪ Every painted sky, a canvas of your grace ♪ ♪ If creation still obeys, you so will I ♪

♪ So will I ♪ ♪ If the stars are made to worship, so will I ♪ Come on, let's sing this. ♪ If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I ♪ ♪ If the oceans roar your greatness, so will I ♪ ♪ If the oceans roar your greatness, so will I ♪ ♪ For if everything exists to lift you high, so will I ♪ ♪ If the wind blows where you're standing, so will I ♪ ♪ If the rocks cry out in silence, so will I ♪ ♪ If the sun of our own brains is still far shy, then we'll sing it a hundred billion times ♪ ♪ God of salvation, you chased down my heart through all of my failure and pride ♪ On a hill you created the light of the world, abandoned in darkness ♪ And as you speak, a hundred billion failures disappear ♪ Where you lost your light so I could find it here ♪ If you left a break behind you, so would I ♪ Yes, I can see your heart in everything you've done ♪ Every part designed in a work of art, oh yeah ♪ If you'd let me chose to end it, so would I ♪ I can see your heart in a billion different ways ♪ Every precious one, a child you died to save ♪ If you gave your life to love, then so could I ♪ I can't get a hundred billion times ♪ But what measure could amount to your days ♪ You're the one that never leaves the one behind Well, good morning. How's everybody doing? Awesome. Man, it's good to see you. Hey, let's start by saying hi to all of our friends. We have folks tuning in online. It's so good to have you. Folks at our Mos City campus as well as our West End campus. Let's just welcome all of them today.

So glad we get to do church together. And then as always, let's welcome our men at the Ramsey Unit. Gentlemen, it is so great to have you. So let's just thank all of them for being with us. What a gift. It is really cool we get to all link in together. And I do believe God's got something really, really special for us today. Let me start, as I like to do, with a question. Let me ask you this. Have you ever just been doing something, and then the next thing you know, you lost track of time, and you just go, what happened? Where did it all go? Have you ever been there? Something like that? Okay, so while I was preparing this sermon, I had one of those moments. I was kind of locked. I was in the zone, if you will. And I got a text message from my wife and a good husband. Of course, I wanted to open that text message. She had no regard for my study time, but that's okay. So I open it up, and she goes, oh, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter what she said. And then all of a sudden, it was like, hey, by the way, don't forget to look at the reel that I sent you. So then I go to Instagram just to look at one reel, right, just one, because she sent me a reel about the World Cup, which is obviously something we're super into right now. So I see the reel, and the reel was pretty good. It wasn't that great, but it was good, right? Thanks, babe. And then all of a sudden, another one pops up, and that one was actually a little bit more interesting. So I was like, okay, not one, maybe just two, right, just two. Next thing you know, a couple more reels come, and I'm still there.

Then all of a sudden, something happened that could have changed my life. I saw the reel for electrolyte lollipops. Now, I get some of you are like, what in the world? But for me, as a guy that works out a lot, plays a lot of pickleball, I'm constantly sweating. I'm like, this could be the solution to all of my cramping problems. So I click the button because my eyes got to see more. I'm investigating. I see the reviews. They're probably all fake, but they were all good. And so I thought, man, this could be good. So I purchased some electrolyte lollipops. When I'm done, I go back to the original text message, respond to my wife, I put my phone down. it to be a 40-second text message reply turned into a 45-minute rabbit trail. Am I the only one? What happened? All right, it's not just that we are distracted, and we are distracted, let's not make a mistake about that, but this is a picture of the battle that is going on for our minds every day. Every day, there is a battle for our attention, for our focus, and if you don't know this, we are at war for our minds. So we started a series, a message series last week called Intersection, and the idea is we're looking at the intersection of faith and science. And today, what I want to do is I want to bring forward a word to you that you may be familiar with, you may not. It's a word called dopamine.

And what I want to do with it, I have to tell you right up front, I want to look at why God gave it to us, I want to look at how Satan has hijacked it, and then I want to look at how we can fight back, Lord willing, if we have time. This is the goal. Now, last week, Chad B. did an amazing job setting us up, and we went on a nice jog. Today, we are going on a sprint. So I would tie your laces, grab your electrolyte lollipops, like whatever you need, but we are about to sprint because what I think we have here, I genuinely believe this, is something that will have radical implications, not only on our lives, but on the lives of the people connected to each one of us. And so with that, let's start with the most natural question. What actually is dopamine, right? Maybe you've heard this word before, heard it referenced, maybe you're familiar with it. Let me put a definition up. It'll be behind me, I'm gonna read it here. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger, that helps motivate you to pursue things, work toward goals, and keep going when something matters. Simply put, your brain triggers like this. That might be good, go get it. Now, the common misconception is

that dopamine is a pleasure chemical. And while there's a little bit of pleasure in there, if you really dig deep, the idea of dopamine is not about pleasure, it's about anticipation. It's about pursuit. That dopamine strikes up to make us pursue things that are meaningful, relationships, work. This is the reason that it's there. Now, where did it come from? Well, we can trace this all the way back to Genesis 2.15. You notice in Genesis 2.15, where Adam was in the garden, notice Genesis chapter two, not three, before sin, Adam is in the garden, and one of the first things we notice about humanity is that he had a job. Genesis 2.15 says this. The Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden, to what? To work it and keep it. So before sin, this is not a ramification of sin, before sin, part of that good life in the garden was that man had a job. Now, for us, it doesn't necessarily mean only vocation, but the idea was that Adam was there to protect, to take care, to care for, to guide creation. God could have created the garden to be automatic. Nothing needed by Adam, it all just happened. No work, no effort, but God didn't do that. God set up a system where effort leads to fruit,

and Adam was invited into that process. Dopamine is the chemical messenger inside of our brains that moves us, like Adam, toward meaningful things, to put in work when it gets hard. Imagine an athlete that trains for that big game. Typically, he or she has been training for years, at least months, getting ready for their moment to perform. You think about a musician that practices for years and years for that ultimate recital where they would get to perform that masterful piece. In a fun, simple way, I think about my son, Cason. My son is eight years old, and right now he loves, can you imagine, soccer. And so he's out with his Nana, they're hanging out for the day, they go to a bookstore. They do still exist, by the way, I learned that. He goes to a bookstore, and on the shelf is the FIFA sticker book. Has anybody seen these? These are all the rage right now with kids. And so he naturally goes, I want that. I absolutely want that. So Nana, being a good Nana, looks at him and goes, well, you can have that, but I'm not buying it for you. You're gonna have to buy that with your own money. Well, he looks at her and goes, I don't got any money. She said, well, we're gonna have to come up with a plan. So what do they do? They go home, he gathers up all his Nitos, that's the other rage of the kids,

gathers up all his Nitos, puts them in a box, they put a price on them, and they start walking from door to door down the street to raise money. Now, I'm not sure I like this plan, but she didn't ask permission, so there they go. He comes back having made $31 selling those Nitos. By the way, that was my money. I just want to point that out there, but it's not the point of the story. He gets that $31, they go back to the bookstore, he buys the FIFA book, and what does he experience? He experiences a real reward. What happened? The dopamine fired up. Hey, if you want to get to this. meaningful thing, there's gonna be some work and you're gonna have to put in some effort. And I'm grateful to his Nana for putting him through the effort so that he could realize that hard work pays off. God gave us dopamine to operate like that, to chase after meaningful work and meaningful relationships. So this is great, right? We're good, good news. Everybody's got it, right? There's a few exceptions, but we all got it. Don't look at your neighbor. We all got it, so everything's good. So let's pray and we'll go and celebrate this good thing. Here's the problem.

Every time God has a good gift, Satan has a counterfeit. Like this is how he operates. He can't create, so he's gonna take the good things he can and he's gonna turn them around. He's gonna make cheap imitations that draw us in. Instead of us chasing after meaningful work and meaningful relationships and working hard even when it gets difficult, we're gonna settle for cheap imitations. We'll sit on our phones and we'll scroll endlessly for hours. We'll impulse shop, we'll gamble, we'll game for endless hours. Well, I'm not knocking all this stuff. I'm just saying these are the challenges. Pornography, the list goes on and on. We settle for cheap imitations because the enemy is good at distracting us. But here's the thing we have to understand. The problem with our brains, as great as dopamine is, is that our brains can't tell the difference between a real reward and a fake one. Our brain just looks at how much effort it took to get there and by default, it's strategic and says this took less effort, let's lean this way. So instead of pursuing, example, a spouse, I'm gonna pursue a meaningful relationship, which means if I do this right, I'm gonna have to date her. I'm gonna have to get to know her. I'm gonna have to invest in her.

She's gonna invest in me and eventually we're gonna get to a place where we're gonna get married and we're gonna enjoy this perfect marriage and everything's gonna be perfect and nothing ever goes wrong, right? Yeah, man, let's go. Instead, we'll settle for something simple. Or maybe we'll give up on relationships all along, all together and we'll pursue something else, maybe pornography. This is how the enemy works. He wants to mess with us and he wants us chasing cheap imitations and our brain, unfortunately, can't always tell the difference. Romans 12, two says this, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world. What would that look like? Let's go back to the phone for a minute. If you're bored, what do you do? Naturally, we grab our phones. Without even trying, we just, I need to be entertained. If we're lonely, we consume content, typically. Just consume, consume, consume. If we're feeling anxious, we try to escape. Might not even be the phone. That could be alcohol, drugs, pornography, the list goes on. And if it's hard, the world tells us just quit and do something easier.

Pursue that. This is what the world teaches us, among many other things. And the problem with the pattern of the world is that it's not neutral. It's not that it just causes us some problems that doesn't have a long effect. It actually affects us going forward. It starts to mess with our brain. And so what I wanna do is I'm gonna put a chart up on the screen. This is a picture of what happens in our brain when dopamine spikes and crashes. I'm gonna walk you through it because it'll help us to understand at least a little bit more of the scientific observation. Now notice the blue line. The blue line is our baseline. That is what we call homeostasis. This is the goal for our brain is to keep us there or to get us back to there as fast as possible. This is your normal baseline. So what happens when you have a dopamine spike? Let's use an example. I was trying to think of a good one. I think I have one. Let's say that today you believe Argentina's gonna win the soccer game. Do I have any fans in the house? I'm glad you cheered there.

Do not cheer for the next one. So then what you decide to do is today, right before the game, you're gonna place a bet on Argentina. Don't cheer, you'll get in trouble. You're gonna place a bet on Argentina because you are so confident that they are gonna kick the crud out of Spain that you see no way you could possibly fail. So you place a bet, maybe a big bet. What happens? The moment you place the bet, your dopamine begins to climb. The beginning of the game starts to come around and you hear the Shakira song, if you know, you know, and as it's coming out for the last time, by the way, it starts and then they count down from 10 down to zero and that ball kicks. All of a sudden your dopamine spikes. Why? Because something good could happen. You're at the peak, look at that. You're at the peak of a dopamine spike. Now, what do you feel? You feel alive, hopeful, in control. Some might argue, but that's what you feel. This is it. I might be rich depending on how much bet you placed. But what happens, here's the problem. The peak isn't sustainable.

So here comes the crash. And what happens is the game ends and let's just say by some weird thing, I don't think it's gonna happen, Spain wins, somehow they win. Okay, that's great, awesome. Apologize if I crushed you. They win. What happens is your dopamine crashes, but notice. It doesn't go back to baseline. It has an equal and opposite reaction. It goes below baseline. And at below baseline, you begin to experience that horizontal line, the dopamine deficit. Now you begin to feel empty, depressed. You feel worse than before you gambled. And while eventually you will level out, during that time, you start to feel feelings where nothing feels good. The craving for whatever you were just a part of starts to grow again, maybe in a radical way, and your decision-making can collapse. And then here comes the lie. You ready? The lie is this. I need to win that money back. Go to the next chart. So over time, if you continue this pattern, and it typically does, something scary happens. Your baseline drops, and it settles lower. Now you don't gamble to feel high anymore. You gamble just to feel normal. Your brain's dopamine receptors have been damaged, and you need the spike just to feel okay.

This is addiction. It's amazing how quickly it can happen. Now what happens in addiction? Let me run through this quickly. It'll be behind me. Week one might look like casual gambling. We'll use our gambling as an example. You place bets occasionally, peak, crash, but you go back to baseline. Then week two to three, increased frequency. You gamble more often. Remember, we can interchange this with anything you desire. Week four through eight, tolerance developing. You need bigger bets to achieve the same peak, right? I want to get to that same feeling, so you've got to do a little more and a little more. Months two to three, deficit becomes obvious. Your baseline is significantly lower. You can't enjoy real life. Everything feels great. You need the gambling spike just to feel normal. Without it, you feel depressed and anxious. Then finally, month three plus, somewhere in that window, addiction kicks in. The dopamine system is severely dysregulated. You're dependent on a gambling spike. You can't stop, even though it's destroying your life and your finances. What's crazy is it's not just gambling. This could happen for any drug of choice, from social media to pornography to drugs and alcohol. Gambling is fair game when the enemy can get inside your mind. This is dangerous because the brain can't tell the difference between a real reward and a fake one.

What feels good is what the brain will chase. Let me paint this in a picture for you using your phone. I want to show you three ways that I think the enemy, this is proven scientifically, is hijacking your dopamine right now. If you own a smartphone, I'm going to argue that this is you. You may be on the verge of this not being accurate, but be prepared. This might hurt. Here's the first one. Unpredictability. You post something on Instagram and you naturally think, I wonder who's going to like my post. I wonder who might comment. I hope they say something nice, not mean. The unpredictability is intriguing. You start scrolling through reels like I did the other day. One video is okay. One video is great. The next one might be great. I don't really know, but the unpredictability keeps me going. That's why my feed never ends. Or maybe you get a text message and you think, ooh, this could be important. Maybe this is the one that tells me I won a million dollars and I didn't do anything to deserve it. That'd be awesome, right? Whatever it is, the unpredictability keeps drawing and drawing and drawing and drawing. And so here's the thing. Remember, the brain releases dopamine not after we get the reward, but before. And so it's about the chase. So this unpredictability kicks in. Let's use a notification for an example. Your phone pings.

It's a text message. And you naturally think your dopamine spikes because you go, man, this could be good. So you open it up and it's nothing. It's like an ad for something. You ever get a lot of text message ads? So annoying. Like whatever it is, you did it just to get a discount. You don't really care about it anymore. So you feel unfulfilled. What happens? The dopamine spike becomes a dopamine crash. You put your phone down and go like, this is stupid, I don't care. But then your brain, because your brain remembers, goes, but sometimes when that thing pings, it's good. And so naturally you spike again. Because the intrigue of what could be on that phone is drawing you in. Do you see how this works? This is why on average, we pick up our phones, want to get it right, 50 to 80 times a day. That's every 10 minutes. And listen, the battle we're in, listen, the battle, we're fighting a system. Because all these companies, all these social media companies and everything in between, they're using psychology, addiction psychology to study us so that they could get us. Like the goal is to get your attention. Their profit is your attention. to my attention, and so we're at war with a system, not just our phone, a system that's working against us to pull us in, the unpredictability. It's one of the ways our dopamine's being hijacked. Here's number two, ease of access. Ease of access, right?

Real life requires effort, you ever thought about that? Like to have a really good thing happen between work or a really good thing with a meaningful relationship, it takes effort, it takes time, it takes investment, but when you have ease of access, all of the sudden, that ease of access kills that effort, because I don't need effort if I can just get it here. And so ease of access, think about this, let me put some compare and contrast next to each other. Compare the two, think about which one's easier, studying for a test versus watching reels. Which one's easier? Yeah, studying a test, right? Yeah, of course, right? Mom, do you hear me? No, watching a reel, way less effort, way easier to access than all I would need to study properly for that test. Let me give you another one, pursuing your spouse versus watching pornography. What's easier? Yeah. How about praying for 15 minutes versus opening an app for 15 seconds? Dare I say that in church, but can we be honest? Which one's easier and which one's more appealing? Which one takes less effort? See, the ease of access has got us linked in. One takes effort and gives a real reward, the other gives fast stimulation

but leaves us feeling hollow. This is what the enemy's doing. Here's the third one, infinite novelty. What is this? Everything's new, everything's new. See, in real life, real life repeats. You have the same spouse, the same routine, the same job, you have the same fill in the blank. It's not always new. Part of having that is long-term meaningful things take time, you work with those over time, but man, when everything's new, right? When you can open up your phone and every video, every reel, every swipe leads to something new. You notice how the reel of the feed never ends? It just keeps, I don't know how they do it, it just keeps coming, just keeps coming and it's always something new. This is how the enemy is getting his things in us, man. And he's reeling us in. And now what's happened? Our brain's been trained because our brain remembers. So now our brain is trained to chase after new over things that are real and meaningful. And we have a battle and sometimes we can't even see it. These are some of the ways that the enemy is hijacking our dopamine. And by the way, just thinking about novelty, this is why pornography is killing marriages. Listen carefully.

Because your spouse doesn't change. Your spouse is the same person, your intimate moments, they're ultimately the same. But man, when you get on that phone and you pull up those videos or those images, they're always new. It's amazing how that always works. And so now our brain's been trained for new over real and meaningful. And now because we've been trained for new, real and meaningful doesn't mean anything. This is why pornography is so dangerous. Now, let's look at what happens. We know how he's getting in. What are some of the results? Here's the first one. It's really simple. You cannot enjoy real life. When this stuff starts to happen, when our brain starts to be rewired, all of a sudden we cannot enjoy real life the same. They call it, there's an official word, it's called anhedonia. And it's when you just, you don't see life the same. What happens in our brain when we get easy dopamine hits is our brain's reward threshold gets higher. What does that mean? Well, what that means is now real work, relationships, time with God, they start to feel boring because they're low stimulation

compared to the instant gratification we can get online. Let me give you a real world example. And I'm gonna tell you, I hate to say this because it's gonna make me look bad, but I think that it's gonna help you because I think there's many of us that are in a similar boat. The other day I was sitting with my daughter. We went to dinner. She had just finished serve camp. She had just finished her last day of serve camp. She had an amazing time. And she was dying to tell me about it. So we decide, hey, we're gonna go to dinner. We're gonna sit down and we're gonna enjoy a meal together. So we're walking into the restaurant. We're entering into the doors. And what do I have in my hand? My phone. My wife had just texted me. She wanted to make sure we were there. All was good. I had two notifications that I had to clear out because if you're like me, you can't have notifications on your phone. It drives you crazy. If you are that one that has a thousand notifications, I understand where you're coming from and I would encourage you to get help.

So it's really a good thing. But anyways, so I'm walking in and I'm clearing the notifications. So I got a clean phone. I'm responding to my wife. And so while I'm doing this, like I'm engaged with my phone and I'm just walking with my daughter. We get to the table. We sit down. I put my phone down right out of kindness because I'm not about to be doing this, right? And she starts to talk. And listen, as she's talking, I want to be engaged with her, but I am not engaged with her in the way I would like to be. I feel a pull, not to hear from her heart, but to grab my phone. Why? Here's why. Because when we are engaged in real meaningful things, like a real life conversation, it is typically at a level three of a dopamine spike. But when we grab our phones and engage in these things that are designed to pull our attention, it levels at a level nine dopamine spike. This is why when I sat down at that table and I put down my level nine to lean into my level three, level three did not satisfy. Level three wasn't enough.

It didn't compare to level nine. See, what I find myself doing is that I cannot be happy at level three because my brain's been trained to appreciate level nine. This is why we can sit at a table across from the people that we love most and not be fulfilled, not be satisfied, or not be present, because our brain is being drawn to the fast stimulation. We can't enjoy real life. This is one of the results when our dopamine's hijacked. Number two, I'll go through these quickly. You lose motivation. You lose motivation. When your brain is trained on easy, hard things feel harder. That's why, sorry kids in advance, that's why if your kid games for four hours and then you come in and you're like, hey, do you mind just taking a quick break? Just, love you babe, quick break and clean your room. They're like, ah! Why? Because cleaning their room is like level zero, if we're honest. And they've been at level 10 for four hours straight. And to their credit, not excuse, to their credit, the idea of cleaning their room does feel like it would be torture because it won't stimulate like level nine. We lose motivation. Things become harder and harder to do.

Our, number three, our spiritual life feels flat. We open our Bible and we're bored. Can't believe I said that in church. We enter into a worship space like today and maybe we're singing, we're noticing things, but the truth is it just feels dry because it doesn't satisfy the same. Or we sit to pray and man, we just can't seem to give God our attention. We had a night of prayer and worship on all of our campuses, but at Missouri City, we did something a little different up top. We did 12 minutes of contemplative prayer. And if I'm honest, I'll confess now in front of everyone, it was a test for this sermon. And I wanted to see how people responded to 12 minutes of just being still and praying. It was fascinating. And I'll knock on them a little bit because I think we're all in the same boat. It was super hard for all of us to sit still. Many of us grabbed our phone. Many of us were fidgeting. Some were talking to their kids and a kid didn't want to talk to them, but you were just so, like didn't know what to do for 12 minutes. I got to find someone to engage with. Like we are so wired to be engaged that the idea of sitting alone with the Father feels crazy.

So if we're not careful, our spiritual life starts to feel flat. And then finally we chase harder for less. Because of what's happening in our brains, because of these increases, what we pursue first isn't enough. And so we have to pursue harder and harder for more and more. And what we end up getting is less and less. And here's the thing, guys, listen, this is scary. This isn't new. This isn't new. The devices are new, but this problem isn't new. This has been going on all the way back to the beginnings of scripture. The prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 2.13, he said some terrifying words, words that should shake us to the core. He was prophesying on behalf of God. He was speaking for God to the people of Judah. This is what he said. He said, for my people, this is God speaking through him, my people have committed two evils. They are forsaken, which means abandoned or rejected. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves. Broken cisterns that can hold no water. He says, you've replaced me with something else. What did they replace him with? Watch this.

There were two gods that they were worshiping. They were worshiping the God of Baal and they were worshiping the God of Asherah. Now, here's the thing, to their defense, they were wrong, but they didn't realize what they were doing was wrong. They weren't in open rebellion. They thought what they were doing was just normal. It was just part of their culture. But here's the thing, how you worship these gods and what these gods offered aren't much different from today. See, the God of Asherah was a god, we'll put it behind, it was the mother goddess. She provided nurturing and protection and comfort. And how you would worship her is there was a pole or a shrine, this was for the God of Asherah. And so you would enter in and to worship, you would touch, grab, hold the pole, and you would ask the God of Asherah to meet you there with nutrient comfort and protection. The problem is, what would happen, I'll give you an illustration, would be a mom back then, she's working hard, she feels lonely, she feels isolated, she feels unappreciated, and so she's feeling overwhelmed and she's looking for some kind of relief, and so she would go to Asherah, she'd grab the pole, and when she grabbed the pole, what happens is oxytocin. would exchange, we'll talk about this more next week,

but oxytocin is the bonding chemical. So for a moment, she would bond with this pole. She's not bonding with the real God, she's bonding with the pole. But because of all the things that it said that God would offer, she would for a moment begin to feel some relief. She would feel like she's seen now, she would feel comforted, she'd feel protected. But then she'd finish, she'd go home, and all the same things were waiting for her. Why do I tell you that? Because it's not much different than what happens today through social media. Let's say a mom's working hard, she's raising her kids, it's overwhelming, she's exhausted, she feels unappreciated, unloved, and she needs some kind of comfort. So late at night when the kids go to bed, she grabs her phone. She starts scrolling Instagram, nothing wrong with that, but as she's scrolling, she starts to see other stories and other people, and then all of a sudden she comes across maybe one of you, maybe someone from the church. And you got out there and you said some nice things, but you also opened up and said, you know what? I feel overwhelmed, I feel lonely, I feel unappreciated. And they start bonding, just time not through the pole, but through the phone.

And in that moment, she, that mom, begins to feel some comfort. She feels like she could connect. She feels like, oh, I'm not alone in this fight. And there is some transition there that happens with her where she feels a temporary relief, but then what happens when she puts down her phone and she wakes back up from the trance of social media, what does she realize? She's still exhausted, her husband's still in the other room, and the kids still don't appreciate her. And so what happens the next night when those feelings begin to come again, she goes right back to where she found that temporary relief, because even though it didn't last, the brain doesn't worry about real and fake rewards. It remembers there was some kind of relief there. Now let's talk about the God of Baal. The God of Baal was way worse. The God of Baal, how you worshiped him, and this was the God that brought fertility. The God of Baal brought sexual power and immediate results. So let's say there's a man and he's working his fields, he's got his crops, and his crops just aren't growing. He feels inadequate, he feels out of control, powerless. So he would go to worship Baal, but how you worship Baal was through sex acts. There would be certain people there at the temple, you would engage in those acts with those people, and that's how you would worship.

So for a moment, when that man entered into the temple, for a moment, he would feel in control. For a moment, he would feel powerful. For a moment, he would feel some immediate results. When he was finished, though, he would go home, and what was waiting for him? The crops still aren't growing, he still feels inadequate, and all the things of powerlessness are still there. What's not different from today? What happens when a man's exhausted or tired, overwhelmed from work, feeling inadequate, feeling out of control, can't get his business to grow? Oftentimes, they pull out their phone and they turn to pornography. Because at least for a moment, while they scroll through those images or those videos, they feel in control, they feel powerful, even feel desired. And so they experience that, but when they're done, they put down their phone, and the business is still struggling, they're still inadequate in their mind, and they feel out of control again. But the brain remembers, hey, there was temporary relief there. So the next night, when he feels overwhelmed again, if he's not careful, he'll go right back to the same thing. Isn't it fascinating that the broken vessels are still there, the names just change? These broken cisterns that can't hold water. But you remember what happened in our brains over time?

We want what? More and more. There's an escalation that happens. Here's what's crazy, and it's a little sick, and I apologize, but I want you to understand this, because this is how the enemy's working. Archeologists have found that at the Temple of Baal, child sacrifice was part of how they would worship. And all of us would go, good, because that's not us. Don't do that, can't think of last time? Took a kid out. One or two, maybe a few of mine, but I can't think of the last time I did that. We're good. Let me show you something. Let's go back to the God of Asherah. See, the phones today are dangerous. The phones aren't evil, they're just a good thing that the enemy counterfeits. And many of us will put our phones, a phone in the hands of our children, without, and this is the key word, without guardianship, without protection, without guidelines. And those phones in the hands of a child is like a loaded gun telling them good luck. Most child suicides, most teen suicides are related to the phone. Most anxiety and depression for young people is because of the phone.

The struggles that they're experiencing, not all, but many, are started or escalated through the phone. I'm not saying the phone is bad or your kid shouldn't have the phone, but what I am saying is that if our kids have phones without protection, without guidelines, without control, they are having a loaded gun in their hand. And we might not be sacrificing children, but we're positioning them for a place of danger. But then it gets worse. The Baal. See, what happens with pornography, so often times, is it starts with mild engagement, mild content. That mild content will quickly, but. often move to extreme. From extreme, it'll move to violent. And finally, it'll capsize at, and you know this from the news, with involving minors. See, it's crazy. We would never sacrifice our children. And yet, if we trace back what's happening today, it doesn't seem to be much different. We're pursuing broken cisterns that are cracked. What does that mean? The water goes in, but it just seeps out. And what did God say? God told them, hey, I am the fountain of living water. Come to me.

What does that mean, living water? It means I am water that never disappears. I never grow stagnant. I bring life. I fulfill. I sustain. But if you put that water in a broken cistern, it will leak out. There will be nothing left, and you'll be left feeling hollow, and vulnerable, and empty. So God says, I need you to come back. And so what I'm saying to us is, if we're gonna fight this, if we're gonna fight back, there's two things we gotta do. Number one, we have to go to war with our mind. You have the power to retrain your brain. You have the power. So look, and this is what it's gotta be. We have to resist our drug of choice. Whatever it is, extreme things like drugs, or gambling, or whatever, to minimal things like how we use our phone. If we can push those things aside into their appropriate places, we can move away from whatever might be described in your life as addiction or borderline addiction. It may take 60 days. It could take three months.

We don't know, but there is a path to move out of that. And there is story after story of people that have chosen to turn from that and find relief. But there's many of us that we're not at addiction, and so because we're not at addiction, we don't think there's a challenge, but there may very well be. And so I wanna tell you today, we can retrain our brain. We can take this back. But look what 2 Corinthians 10 five says. It says, we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. To take every thought captive, that is not passive, that's an act of war. It's a decision that you and I will make that the next time we feel the urge to grab, or to look, or to pursue, we say no, that's not gonna do it. The moment thoughts come, like if you just look one more time, if you just click here, if you just go get that, it's gonna fulfill, you'll be fine, it's gonna make you feel better. We tell our mind, even though our mind is saying something different, we tell our mind, no, it is not going to fulfill. What we do is we start to distrust our own thoughts, and we trust God's word above that.

We've gotta be willing to say, what my mind says is not real. See, too many of us respond to our mind, to our emotions, because we think that's what we need, we think that's what's real. No, we've got to rewire our brains, and it starts with God. Romans 12, two, the second part, be transformed by the what? Renewal of your mind. It is fascinating to note that science has proven that to sit in stillness, in contemplative prayer, to be with God, is what starts the renewal of your brain. It is what resets your mind. To sit with God, to contemplatively pray, these are the things that over time begin to work. What happens, scientifically speaking, it calms the amygdala, and it strengthens the prefrontal cortex. What happens in God's economy is you get to lean in with the Father that created you, and have his best plans for you. And he begins to reset the way you look at the world. He begins to reset in your mind the things you think you need, and you realize he is all you need. He is the living water. So, how do we do it practically? Well, awareness is the first step to healing. I'll start with your phone.

Let me just talk about your phone. I want you to think from now on, you're gonna hate me for this, and I apologize. The next time you grab your phone, without a ping, without a notification, just the next time you reach for your phone, I want you to just pause and go, why did I do that? Why did I grab that? Was I bored? Was I feeling anxious? Was I worried? Was I stressed? Why did I grab that? Why did I pick it up? Notice what stirred you. Notice what you feel. Start to become aware of what's going on between you and your phone. By the way, your phone, I hate to say this, but I'm just gonna say it, because it doesn't matter. Your phone is like your pacifier. We gotta stop that. It can be a good tool. It's a terrible pacifier. All right, we gotta be adults. We gotta put the pacifier away. Okay, that was free, I didn't know. Number two, last one. You are not alone in this fight.

You are not alone in this fight. Okay, we're saying you gotta sit with God. I'm telling you, if you're a believer in Christ, God, the Holy Spirit, lives within you. The power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that lives within you. Now, we still gotta choose him and chase away our minds and our thoughts and chase after him, but he is inside. He will give you power, but you're not alone in that as well, because there's people around you. you have family, there's counselors, there are all these people that you can engage with. You do not have to be alone in this fight. And thirdly, you have a great church. All of our campuses, we have great church. We have small groups. We have addiction groups, recovery groups. Like there are people out there going through similar things. And I know not all of us are at addiction level, but all of us probably have some kind of thing. Some of us felt something today. You are not alone in this fight. So we can do this. We can take back what has taken over our lives. At least listen, these phones are not evil. The computer's not evil. But every time God has a good gift,

Satan has a counterfeit. Dag nab it. And so we gotta be aware. We gotta be aware that he is on mission. He is on the prowl. He wants to fight against us. He wants to rage against us. And so start with awareness. Pay attention. Remember, you and I, we have been biologically wired to chase not instant gratification, delayed gratification. We have been wired to experience resistance that leads to strength. So the next time you feel an urge, take two extra minutes. It might be the hardest two minutes of your life. Just take two extra minutes and just sit there. Because oftentimes, while we're feeling the most tension, God's doing the most work in our minds. This is how we get to recovery, but it's how we get to the next step where we are not controlled by these things. You understand that? And I'm telling you, while dopamine level three doesn't feel as exciting in the moment, what it leads to is far greater than the instant gratification of level nine. Listen, sitting with my daughter at that dinner she began to open up, not just about surf camp.

Because I fought through it and was present. You know what she opened up about? Some challenges with her friends. Some things that she needed guided on. Stuff she's, listen guys, don't tell her. She's never asked me about these things before. And she was asking Dad how to navigate it. And I got to be present and give her my best advice. And little girls, I don't understand, but I did my best with this 11-year-old to guide her. And I'm telling you, when we finished that dinner, I was on cloud nine. Why? Because I got to have something meaningful. And it took work and it took effort, but it was worth it. So the next time something's taken over you, push it aside for a few minutes and ask yourself, notice the room. Who's around you? Who's around? But I'm telling you, for the sake of our kids, our grandkids, our friends, our peers, our spouses, let's just be present. Let's not be controlled by this thing. Let's be controlled by the Almighty Father, the living water that will never run out and always flow through. Thank you. Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me just for a moment?

When we leave today, we'll have some prayer team members down front at all of our campuses. And I just encourage you, if you feel something, you need something, you feel God working, then you come up and get some prayer. Let Him pray for you. Remind yourself you're not alone. So God, right now, we just, Lord, it's simple. We surrender. That I get passionate up here, and it may sound like I'm yelling, but I'm not. I'm passionate because I know what you're doing in my life with this. I know how you are challenging me. I know the fruit I've already begun to discover. And God, I'm praying that that same thing could happen in each person that's under the sound of my voice. And God, we know it starts with surrender followed by awareness. Lord, some of us, we are battling some big stuff, and while willpower is great, it is not enough. Lord, we need you. We need to understand some of this, that there's some rewiring that needs to be done, but the good news, science has proven it can be done, that we can rewire our brains. We can get them back to that healthy baseline. We can move out of even the craziest of addictions and find freedom with your hand guiding us.

God, we're thankful for our phones, our computers. These are good gifts, but Lord, when the enemy gets a hold of them, we know how dangerous they are. So Father, help us, protect us. And God, we thank you for dopamine, for this internal drive to chase after things that are meaningful, meaningful work, meaningful relationships. God, may we be inspired today to chase those things, even when they only satisfy at a level three, trusting that what's waiting on the other side is a good thing. God, thank you for taking care of us. Thank you for not leaving us, for those of us that are hurting, hold us close, Lord. We love you and we believe you're doing something in our lives today. Help us to follow out and help us to live it out the way you called us to. God, we love you, we thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.