Our Greatest Distraction and Temptation

Harris Creek how we doing? Let's go. Hey so my dad had a chair. Anybody else's dad have a chair growing up? Yeah yeah he's got like it's like the chair. I'm not talking about at the kitchen table either. I'm talking about in the in the we called the den. We had the good living room. I don't know what made it good but and the den and in the den my dad had a chair as a lazy boy. It was the one you crank you know it's like you sit and just and uh if he came home and you were in his chair you got out of his chair and uh that was that was his chair. When he was sitting in his chair he would watch tv. TV's about seven feet off his chair. He would sit there and and he would watch tv and so you know if you had a question there were these things back then if you're here and you're younger something called commercials and um if you had a question if I wanted to talk to my dad if I wanted to ask him something I knew I needed to wait for commercial. Even then sometimes it was like oh hold on hold on you know I'm zeroed in. There's like an antacid or something right here I'm interested in hearing more about and so you would you know you learn these things as a kid like oh this is when dad's not interruptible like he's he's focused he's doing something and it wasn't just then like sometimes he would be you know reading the paper he would sit at the kitchen table and you know this this is called the newspaper and uh and he would flip through these pages you could just tell he was zeroed in he was focused and it was kind of like if I was it was kind of like hey when when you're done I've got a question for you you know and it was you you didn't you didn't really interrupt him and he he was a surveyor and so at his office you know I would walk uh from school to his office and he would be in there sometimes just like you know pounding out on this thing and I knew that you know he's he's working that's a time that I don't interrupt I would sit I can remember just being a young man a little boy sitting at the door peering in his office watching him bang out some numbers on that calculator like it would print some you know on the on the paper there and I needed to wait until he was done before I'd interrupt him and and likewise you know he sometimes would be on the phone and when he was on the phone like when I'm on the phone it's like this is invisible to my kids they're like hey dad let me ask you I'm like I'm on the phone but when my dad was on the phone it was like you you didn't interrupt that you didn't go up you know it's like that was a big deal like he's on the phone I'm gonna wait until he's done well what's interesting about these spaces where someone kind of enters in and it's like hey this is the do not disturb me zone all of these things are now consolidated to this thing so it's a phone but it's kind of the least of what it is

it is indeed this thing that we taught we can use it to talk to people but we rarely do it's also our encyclopedia our music library our heart monitor our health stats it's our it's our news source it's a rolodex of all of our contacts that's where they're kept also our calendar our calculator these things these are called maps this used to be how you get places I mean you would print this is literally MapQuest anybody remember MapQuest yeah you guys know and it's like you would sit there in the car and you'd be like all right head southeast go for 525 feet compass voice recorder flashlight even even that whole like selfie camera thing our email is on there our tv youtube is on there the the dictionary is on there our phone is on there text messages if we want to keep up it's not just the news but we just want to read the latest atlantic article or whatever it is uh that's on there our photo album you like you you used you would gather around like hey let's look at peril flip there's the baby book you know no no no now it's pull up the album on your phone not just the album mode the camera's there too that's the camera you by far interact the most with your alarm clock that's why you got to keep it beside your bed you're chained to this thing you know your games the old school games board games chess that's on there but also the new school games those are on there too right and it's not just a place where all of our you know communication all of our life is consolidated to a device it's also as we've covered now a gateway of all kinds of evil right the these you know you used like if you wanted to look at a magazine, right? You would have to brave the 7-Eleven, right? You wouldn't look at porn, you'd go to the 7-Eleven and you'd hope you didn't bump into your parents, friends, or your neighbor, right? And you would go, and if you were brave enough, you would stand at the, and you'd point to these, right? Don't these feel out of place? Doesn't it just feel dirty being in here? It's in your pocket. It's in your pocket right now. Like, this is PG to what's in your pocket right now.

You got it in your purse. You're carrying it around with you everywhere. So it's not just a consolidated source of tools, it's also a consolidated access to all sorts of evil. And in the same way that we could go through those things and it's like, oh, I don't know that I can communicate with my father right now. This is the thing that keeps us from communicating with our father right now. But it's not that he's busy, it's that we are. It's that we're on do not disturb mode. And so it's not that we don't wanna be disturbed by him, it's that we don't want to go to him because we are preoccupied. We're in a series, wrapping it up today. This is the last of the four removed. And it's not called removed so that you will remove your phone, it's called removed because your phone removes us, right? The intro video in and of itself is maybe the highlight of the series because it's so convicting every week as I watch it. And this week we're talking about what keeps us from communion with the father. It's not that he's busy, but we are. And so what hinders our relationship with us, what hinders our relationship with him, it's our phone, but what hinders our relationship with him the most is our sin. And in fact, you cannot be,

and I was thinking about this this morning, I was wrestling with it in my head, is that true? Like, is that true biblically? Is it true experientially? You cannot be in active, unrepentant sin and growing in your relationship with Christ at the same time. Here's what I know about you. If you're hiding something, you're not growing as a follower of Jesus, promise you. Okay, and you're like, I don't know why, I've tried to pray, I'm just so distracted. I read the Bible and it just doesn't make sense. It's the sin, it's the sin, right? It breaks communion with God. That's why, I'm telling you why. Here's the answers to the quiz, right? That's what it is. And so how do we sin the most? It's actually this. Ironically, being in pastoral ministry, I can trace most of people in recovery, most of their addictions, I can trace back to their phone. Their phone is the gateway to said addictions. 97% of pornography is accessed via a mobile device. Comes from Statista, 2023. And a 2021 study reported that 87% of women and 65% of men fed discontentment through comparing themselves to others on social media. The internal research from Metta revealed

that Instagram worsened body image issues for one in three teenage girls, comparing, cutting, eating disorders, body image, trace back to the phone. Excessive smartphone use has been associated with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and stress. These conditions can in turn elevate the risk of substance abuse as individuals may turn to alcohol and or drugs as coping mechanisms. And in fact, the vast majority of drug use in the world starts with a text message. Hey, what are you doing? You wanna hang out? And so it's not just simply a consolidated source for news, sports, entertainment, and communication, it is also our consolidated access to sin and the biggest barrier between us, you and I, and communion with God. Our relationship with God is not thriving more because of our devices. And so the text I'm gonna be in, it's easy to find, right at the beginning of your Bible, okay? We'll start two chapters in. And we'll spend most of the time, three chapters in. We're going to end the series where it all began. We're back in the Garden of Eden. God made Adam and Eve, he placed them in the garden to work it. He tells them to be fruitful and multiply.

We discussed that command last week. God said, fill the earth and subdue it. But the craziest thing I wanna bring your attention to is they're talking to God. They have the relationship with God that you long for. They ask a question, he answers back. He asks a question, they can answer back. They're in communion with God. The deepest relationship that you can possibly imagine is what they have. And that's what the enemy's after. And so as we move through this, you're probably like, what else can be said in the series? There's gonna be a lot of recap today. So as I move through the message, I'm gonna recap weeks past, and we're gonna talk about how communion with God is greater than knowing more, how communion with God is greater than convenience, and how our phones are costing us communion with God. And so God gave them one rule. It's right here in Genesis 2, 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden. All of these are great for food. I've set you up for success. You have everything you need, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.

And man hears this. He didn't read this in the Bible. God spoke it to him. God is present before him, in communion with him, and he speaks it to him, and he hears it just like you hear me right now. And you turn one chapter. And it all comes crashing down. Verse one. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat from fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, like the animal's like, the serpent's like, oh, God won't let you eat from these trees? And she's like, no, no, no. God said we can eat from all of them. Just not that one. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Here's what's crazy about that. He's right. I think we always look at this and we're like, oh, Satan's such a liar. Not here. I mean, even on the certainly die part, like they didn't die right then. You know, God sent them out of the garden, so what Satan is telling them right here is actually true. He's like, no, God knows your eyes are gonna be opened, and you're going to be able to discern with a greater clarity the knowledge of good and evil, so there's a knowledge that is there that God is withholding from them. We have to wrestle that down, because there's a part of us, we wanna be God, and we wanna know everything, but you weren't meant to know everything. Okay? This is why gossip is satanic. Do you hear me? This is why there's aspects of news you shouldn't know. There's evil around you, not just to be naive to it, but if you're not a part of the solution, like if you're not driven to do something about it, then be careful with that dark rabbit trail. That's my first point. Communion with God is greater than knowing more. Communion with God is greater than knowing more. With the crunch of the fruit

was the destruction of the naivety to evil, and with the destruction of the naivety to evil comes shame, and the negative emotions, the negative emotions, the negative feelings attached with sin. What is Satan after? Well, what is he, what's his end game? What does he want? He doesn't want them to fellowship with God. He doesn't want us to fellowship with God. When God feels far, when you're reading and it doesn't make sense, when you pray and you can't pay attention, that's the spiritual war. I spent the last three years studying spiritual warfare and I'm more convinced than I have ever been in my journey with God that that is the spiritual war and that is his endgame. Last week we talked about there there's time limits and there's off-limits. And when you go into the off-limits you are certainly hindering your relationship with God. When you exceed the time limits also. When I have, I've hindered my relationship with God. This week I read an article and I can't remember where it was right now. I think maybe the Atlantic. But it was a mother who was outraged because she found out her third grader at recess, what they had been doing for the whole year, the whole school year, is at recess they would all gather around and they would watch beheading videos. Okay. Oh, of course they did. That's just what third grade boys do. You know? And so by way of a little parent corner that we've done every week, I would just tell you what we've learned from the wisdom of others is you need to consider the oldest sibling of the person in the class. Okay? Does that make sense? And so if they're seven-year-olds but one of those seven-year-olds has a sixteen-year-old, then the topic of conversation happening in the classroom is going to be directed by that sixteen-year-old brother. That's a great way for parents to think about it. The average age of the first viewing of pornography is 11 years old. That's average. Half younger, half older. Eleven

years old. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. It is a gateway to all sorts of explicit images. Facebook. I told Monica last night I'm scrolling through Facebook Marketplace yesterday and right there is a lingerie ad. And it's not like, it's explicit. And I'm scrolling and it's like, you know, slow down on that. And instantly, like just immediately flooded with guilt. Thinking, oh I'm gonna talk to them tomorrow. But it's not even that I go look for it. It's just like, here you go. Where? Facebook Marketplace. And so there it's coming for your kids. And you're like, my kids good. They would never. No, no, no. It's coming for them. It's looking for them. They don't have to look for it. It's ironic that, you know, a young Jewish boy, Hebrew boy, was not allowed to read Song of Solomon until he was 18. That's Bible, if you didn't know. That's a book of the Bible. But we give them phones at what age? Right? And you gotta help. We gotta help protect them. As parents, I think we have to display to our children that our source of greatest wisdom is God's Word. Not our wise uncle, or not Forbes, or not some magazine, or news article, or thing we've learned along the way. Like, I think there's a temptation as parents for us to want to be the expert. Oh yeah, let me tell you how much what I know, you know. But I think we need to drive that as much as we can. Here's a chapter. Here's a verse. Here's what God's Word says. Right? And then model for them us living it. First Corinthians 3 19 says, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sights. I think we are so obsessed with worldly wisdom that we've forsaken kingdom knowledge. We're so obsessed with worldly wisdom that we've forsaken kingdom knowledge. But the Christian life is one of waiting. It's one of patience. Right? This offers instant gratification, immediate gratification. You and I, we are often like Esau, willing to sell our birthright for a cup of stew. Why? Because we're hungry. Philippians 3 says, there are those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach. Their mind is set on earthly things. They eat what they're hungry for. They follow their flesh. They do what they feel like.

The Christian life is one of fasting. The phone is gluttonous. It's the anti-God. The Christian life is one of contentment, fully satisfied in the Lord. They were literally with God. They could talk to God. Satan said, you can talk to God, but that's not enough. He's keeping something from you. And he was, but it was for their good. You hear that? There was something that he was keeping from them, but it was for their good. They weren't ready for it. A scholar friend of mine and I were having this conversation. He was like, I just think it was premature. That's a whole nother sermon. But it raises the question, why was the tree there? And what was the test? And why were we doing this? And I personally believe it was coming to them, just not yet. They weren't ready for it in their maturity. Our phones are constantly telling us that God is not enough. The Bible, it's a fascinating book. It's amazing. It's full of all these incredible historical stories and accounts supported by archeology. People, places, things. It's 80% a history book, honestly. Reliable for historians to research. And it's interesting, but I just want to be really honest with you. From an attention span standpoint, it cannot compete with TikTok. It can't compete with Instagram. It's not feeding the dopamine shot. It's not feeding with Instagram. It's not feeding the dopamine shot. It's not the drug. In the same way that it can't compete, I'm saying in air quotes, with heroin. If you're addicted to heroin and you have to choose between heroin or the Bible, you're going heroin all day long. And that's the test that we are putting in front of others. And it's the test that we're going through ourselves. I've got a chair, my green chair. It's right by the door. I can look out and see the neighborhood. I've got my table right beside it. It's got my Bible on it. It's got a devotional. It's got my prayer cards that I can flip through and pray. It's got my journal that I write five things I'm thankful for every morning. And so I sit down in that chair. I'm wise. I put my phone on the table over here, and then I go over here. And I'm a good, I don't know, 30, 40 feet from my phone. And I sit down and I open the Word. And I don't like to read. I've been very transparent about that, but I do out of discipline. And so I read, and I read slow, and I pray it in. And I'm in, and I'm trying to commune. And I'm honestly, I'm asking God, what do you want me to tell them? And I've got my cup of coffee, and I made it slowly. I mean, I grinded the beans and all the things, and I'm ready. It's going to be me and Jesus right now.

What was that? Me and God. Me and God. Wow, but that might be important, man. Maybe it's my kids. Maybe they're in trouble. Somebody probably needs me. I mean, what if it's urgent? Okay, God, but it's me and you because this is our time. But what is that? And so now that focused time is now fractured because half of my mind is wondering, what are they waiting on? The enemy is after that communion with God. And when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and… I'm not going to eat it because I learned my lesson. I'll get a shot of that. Well, that's at least ironic. Jean-Louis Gasset, Naples executive. The 80s, when the logo came out, said it's the symbol of lust and knowledge bitten into. Many ironically call it the bite of knowledge. Am I saying that Apple executives wanted to mimic what happened in the garden? No, Satan did. It's how he works, that's spiritual warfare. He's so prideful. He leaves Easter eggs everywhere, right? I believe. Take it or leave it, I don't want to distract you with that. I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist. Do with it as you may. Communion with God is greater than convenience, my second point. Communion with God is greater than convenience. When it comes down to it, this is primarily what's so attractive about the advancement of technology.

It's convenience. You can have it now. That's really what Nate covered for us in week two. It's like, buy it now, prime two day, shows up at the house. Anything you want is available to you now. You don't have to go from store to store, mall to mall, shop to shop. Like you can, you know, from the toilet, get whatever you need and have it at your house the next day. Listen to this. Our phone offers convenience at the cost of isolation. Our phone offers a deal at the price of distraction. Our phone offers us, our phone keeps us in the know in exchange for anxiety. Our phone keeps us entertained, but it keeps us from being engaged. Our phone offers instant gratification but then holds us by addiction. This is what 1 John 2, it's the parallel passes to Genesis 3 in the New Testament in verse 16. It says, for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. Okay, now we have to look at this,

the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It feels great, looks great, and offers to make me great, and it's so unbelievably convenient. The lust of the flesh, would you rather hang out with God or indulge your flesh? The lust of the eyes, would you rather hang out with God or shop or stare at really interesting images designed perfectly for your retina with all of the display of color that they can get through a screen? Pride of life, would you rather hang out with God or remind yourself of God? Would you rather hang out with God or remind yourself that her husband is kinder, that his wife is better looking, that their children are better behaved, that she is always in Hawaii, that their dog is better groomed than yours, and she has more fun than you, and a better body than you, and a bigger boyfriend than you, and he has a nicer car than you, and a better job than you, with a bigger house than you? It's like self-mutilation, that we can't stop. Some people cut their arms,

other people cut their souls. Staring through a screen, feeding their hearts poison. And so you, you know what John told us week one, a great verse, Romans 12, verse two, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The battle, the spiritual war is being fought over your mind, the real estate of your mind. Wars are fought over real estate. See also Ukraine, see also the West Bank, wars are fought over real estate. There is a spiritual war being fought over your thoughts, over your mind, over what you feed your heart. And so stop conforming to the world. I know that we're not Amish, like I totally get it. Like you and I, we're not like completely removed from technology. We drive, we probably came here in a car or a truck, with a lift, because you're Texas, right? You have a TV in your home, right? I get it. So do we. I'm not saying you, like so do we. We even have cars. And so we fully embrace this whole like in the world, but not of the world.

But I don't know that we really understand that. Because we have lots of things with no boundaries. Remember last week it was you have to build boundaries. You have to remove distractions. You have to invite accountability. Those are that brick acrostic from last week. Build boundaries, remove distractions, invite accountability. We must. must have that. I think we're so quick to consider anti-anxiety meds, antidepressants, ADHD medication, and it is a gift from the Lord. I believe that. Like, I believe that. Like, that can be the cast that helps us get well or maybe something we take for the rest of our life. But I do think we are too slow to consider, maybe we should just get rid of the phone. Like, maybe we should just pull the phone. What if it's the phone? What if that's the thing why we're seeing these record levels of anxiety and depression and suicide? What if it's the devices? When I went through my own battle with anxiety, it's like I hit a wall at 100 miles an hour, and the first thing to go, I mean, I sat in that therapist's office and even sitting in a therapist's office, you just feel crazy.

You're like, I am losing my mind. And the first thing to go was the Apple Watch. I mean, I couldn't take the haptics, the, hey, you got another email, another message, somebody's waiting on you. Oh, remind you, let me tap your phone. Oh, oh, heart rate, heart rate. Oh, am I dying? What am I doing? You know, you didn't get enough sleep. I didn't get enough sleep. Oh, no. You know, and it just, it wasn't good for me. If you can have one, more power to you. Like, that's not a command. I'm not a legalist by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm just telling you, I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't do it. And so you got to make your phone work for you, not you working for it. Is it a blessing or a curse? Here's what I want you to know. That's what we talked about last week. You're gonna naturally drift toward the curse. You've got to fight for it to be a blessing. You got to work hard to make it a blessing. It says, she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden, but the Lord God called to the man, where are you? Okay, the cool of the day. It's been a long time since we covered this. Where it says cool of the day, scholars argue this phrase, okay? The Hebrew word ruach can be translated like a tsunami, like a gust of wind. I believe, and I'm not alone on this, that this is the Lord coming to them like a thunderstorm or like a tsunami. And so what you see is tension in the character of God is he goes, shh, where are you? You see then a tenderness. He's not casual with sin, he moves towards you and then responds graciously, where are you? And that where are you, it's not disappointment, it's distance. Do you understand? God knows where they're at, he's all knowing. He's omnipotent, that's God. He knows everything. He created their minds. He's got the eternal GPS system on them, right? Air tags, we were born with it when it comes to God.

He's not searching for them, but there's now distance there and you've felt it. You felt it. He answered, I heard you, man, Adam answered, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. And he said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? God is like, you are naked, but who told you that? Who came along and said, you're not enough? Who showed up and said, you're not pretty enough, good enough, dressed well enough, you don't make enough, you don't have enough kids and your kids don't behave well enough. Your house isn't big enough. Who told you that? Our phones are costing us communion with God. That's my third point. I don't think one of us would say, this has made my quiet times richer, longer and deeper. It's costing us all our relationship with God, but not just our relationship with God, but our relationship with God. We're spending our time with God, our relationship with God, but not just our relationship with God. As we talked about last week, God says, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. They said, look, a brick.

We'll just stay right here. Let's build a tower. show everyone how great we are. Like the second we get some aspect of technology, then we break God's commands and we don't go out. And like, look, once upon a time, like you would have to go to the newspaper stand and interact with the guy. How are you, sir? Here's 50 cents. Thank you for the newspaper. To Hastings, anybody? Hastings, remember that? Okay, just me. Once upon a time, these kids are called CDs, compact discs, right, and you would have to go to a store and buy them and interact with somebody, right? You'd get the Encyclopedia Britannica. You'd walk to the mailbox. You'd interact with the postman. You would go to work. Some of us work remotely, right? All of these things that we would use for communication device, we'd gather around and they would help us build relationships. And all of a sudden, now we sit up in our Tower of Babel and we look at every statistic out there. The Christian faith is communal. See, for you to have people over at your table and make them a meal is unbelievably inconvenient.

It's not easy. I get it, you're an introvert. You're like, I don't like people. Then you don't like Christianity. Because I'm hearing that. The people, ooh, a shirt, have you seen it? It's an anti-Christianity shirt. It's a communal togetherness, life together, proximity, faith. I wrestled with sharing this because I know, particularly in parenting, that this message can be, these series, honestly, can be such a pile on the weight. I was talking to a pastor friend of mine. He actually used to, was a pastor. He's not anymore. He took some time away from ministering to others to heal himself. We were sitting on my back porch recently and I just said, hey, what have you uncovered as you begin to peel back the layers? He said, man, the reality is I just have a gaping father wound. I said, when I hear father wound, my mind often goes to the word abuse and I think trauma and I think, okay, was it physical? Was it sexual? Was it verbal? I'm kind of running through those, kind of hardwired to help people at this point. I can go real clinical, real fast.

I'm like, all right, let's start peeling back the layers. Let's kind of see where we're getting. I'm just talking to him and I want to learn everything I can. When somebody has gotten well, I'm like, how did you get well? Because I'm just trying to build the Rolodex, build the quiver of tools. And he says, I found this gaping father wound. I said, so what was your father wound? Like, how did your father wound you? And he goes, he was addicted to his work. And I said, tell me more about that. And he said, well, he was an early adopter of the Palm, the Palm, and then the Blackberry, but it started with the Palm and just was on his phone. He was on his phone all the time. I was like, back then, he was on his phone all the time? Because he was about my age. And I was just like, wow. And then I was thinking, man, that's kind of wild that you're like in therapy, like getting well and had to like step back from work and like the source of it was your dad was on his phone. I was like, so did he like not go to your games? He goes, never missed a game. He was at every game. And I was like, okay, so what was it? He was working all the time. That was his God.

And I'm like, man, we've since talked there. I'm like, okay, how do I make sure I don't make that mistake? I'm just trying to learn everything I can. And listen, here's the antidote to your guilt right now. It's the cross. You're never too far gone. You're never past the point where you can't turn, go back to and say, hey, will you please forgive me? And in fact, that's often the only healing a lot of people need is will you please forgive me? I realized like I was deeply in doubt. In my mind, I justified it for you to provide for you, but it was at the expense of you. And we didn't spend quality time together. We didn't have conversations. And if you're a grandparent, I mean, it's never too late to go and look and realize Jesus Christ paid for your sins so you don't have to pay for your sins. And do everything that he asked you to do. The application today, would you just join me on the no Bible, no phone challenge? a family, you can't unlock or unplug your phone until you've spent time with God. It may mean you need to wake up earlier. It may mean you have to buy an analog alarm clock. It may mean some tiny shifts, but you just, it's simple. This is, everyone can do this. Super simple. It'll change your life, literally change your life. Like this one tiny thing. If you're here and you're 15, you can do this. If you're here and you're 35, if you're here and you're 65, you can't unlock or unplug your phone. Disconnect your phone until you've been in God's Word. You're like, but I read my, I read the Bible on my phone. Okay, well, cool. Go to Walmart

and spend $2.76 on a reading light and put it on your Bible. And I know your phone's probably on top of your Bible. Flip that around, put your Bible on top of your phone, and then when you go to grab your phone, you're gonna grab your Bible. These tiny little habit stacks will change your life, literally. Consider it. In summary, communion with God is greater than knowing more. Communion with God is greater than convenience. And these phones are costing us the greatest thing, which is communion with God. This last Friday, I was, we were in, Weston and I were in Tampa. He went with me, and the church that I spoke at gifted us tickets to Busch Gardens. And so he and I went to Busch Gardens. It's a theme park, like Six Flags, and it's Friday, Friday Q&A. If you don't know, every Friday I answer questions on Instagram. And so I just, I spend my Fridays answering, you know, 50 to 100 questions on Instagram, every Friday, for six years now. And we were in the theme park, and we were waiting in line for the first ride, and it dawned on me, oh, it's Friday, Friday Q&A. I just pull out my phone, and I said, hey, what's up, Instagram? It's your boy JP. I know I usually take questions on Friday, not going to this week, because I'm with my guy here, and we're at an amusement park, and so I'll see you next week. You know, do that, right? Thank you. Is that Weston? No, I'm kidding. And we sat down, we sat down on the ride, and he goes, hey, Dad. I said, yeah. He goes, can I tell you something? I said, yeah, buddy, you can tell me anything, of course, always. He goes, that was really meaningful to me. I was like, oh, the phone thing? He goes, yeah, you just did. He goes, that was really meaningful to me, and I think it's really meaningful to God, you know, for us to say to God, you're more important than this. I know we talked last week, the golden calf and the aspect of worship, and some of you might be like, I don't worship my phone. What if you worshiped God only as much as you did your phone? I bet it would increase. I bet your worship for God would increase, and the angst in my voice, like the prophet nature of finger in your chest, my preaching style, it's not angst at you. It's angst at me. Like, I'm number one offender. Like, this is born out of, oh, man, some things need to change. This isn't sustainable, right? So, I'm in it with you. We're in it together, but let's all

make changes together, okay? It's been a great series. I've enjoyed learning from my brothers and learning with you all. Let me pray. Father, would you just, even as we worship, instruct our hearts around the changes we need to make, what we need to do differently, how we need to grow, and just the reminder that there's so much consolidated on this little device in our pocket or in our purse, and it's not just tools. It's accessibility to all kinds of evil things. I'd love for you just to, right now, just take a second. That no phone, no Bible thing. You're probably like, oh, let me think about that. Why don't you think about it right now, and you can make a commit to God. Hey, I'll either do that or I won't. Maybe you've got some great reason you can't, but just something for you to talk to God about right now. Would you consider no Bible, no phone, taking that challenge? That would shift our church, I think. No prayer, no phone. Putting the Bible on top of the phone. You got to pick up the phone to, you got to pick up the Bible to grab the phone. Would you just make a commitment in your own heart to God? He knows, like, if you can't, like, he knows why you can't. You can tell him that. I just want to give you space. We love you, Lord, more than our phones, in Jesus' name, amen.