Your Algorithm is Forming You

and you know, I was talking to our leadership team and to our staff this week, and I was thinking about moments in our lives where it feels like there's an area that feels like a wasteland. Have you been there? It's like my life is lush and green over here, but I have this other area where I'm like, where is God? Where is the fruit? Where is the answer to this prayer? Have you been there? I thought of the chapter in Isaiah 35 that says the desert and the parched land will be glad. Come on, somebody say amen, who's been in a desert or a parched land. It says the wilderness will rejoice and blossom, and I just felt to speak into some of your hearts today. I've carried the burden this week of what the community of Mandan is experiencing. I carried the burden of the hundreds of students who will gather in a gymnasium and grieve today. I actually had that experience similarly when I was in sixth grade. There was a similar kind of thing that happened in my school and I remember gathering in our gymnasium and walking through grief and walking through loss and also filling the support of a community, and I just wanted to speak into the hearts of some people today who feel like there's a wasteland in your life. Who feel like there's an area where there's grief or where there's loss or where there's a burden or where there's a prayer that hasn't been answered or where there's a family that hasn't been built or where there's a job that hasn't come and just give you the hope that the wasteland will bloom again in Jesus' name. That God has this way of going into the desert places in our life and I'm not saying that what you're experiencing in the wasteland is good or that you should stay there. I'm just saying we serve a redemptive God who can bring something beautiful in the midst of unexplainable hardship and difficulty and challenge that we face as people. And so that's been in my heart free this week. I believe it's a word from the Lord for some people in this room that your desert look, your life looks like this wasteland and God is going to bring fruit. He is going to bring a life even in places in your life that feel barren. Amen. Amen. Father, we just thank you for your word. That is true. Lord, we lift up Mandan High School to you today, the entire community that's been grieving this last week. And Lord, we ask that the peace of God that transcends all understanding would guard their hearts and their minds in Christ Jesus. Lord, we ask this in your name. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you have a Bible today, you can open up to Genesis 1. If you don't understand your Bible very well, it's like the first page. And so I'm helping you out today. This is the origin story of humanity. And in Genesis 1, it says, "Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image.'" We know that God says us because he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This

is not just God operating. He says, "Let us make mankind." We know this is all humanity, not just man because of what the Bible says later. "Let us make mankind in our image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish and sea and the birds in the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and every like who likes to hunt and fish and eat meat," said Amen. "And over all the creatures that move along the ground, even the creepy crawly scary ones, God rules over them. So God created mankind in his own image." Everybody say, "own." In his own image, in the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. This is the origin story of mankind. The original design, we call it the Edenic Principle or the Edenic design, the design from the Garden of Eden that God intended for humanity, that we are all made in the image of God. But sin, missing the mark in our lives, has pulled us like it did Adam and Eve away from that original design. The result of sin and being moved away from that image of God is displayed in Romans 1. Here's what happens. "For although they knew God, Adam and Eve knew God, they neither glorified him as God. He didn't have lordship in their lives. They didn't exalt him in their hearts, nor did they give thanks to him or even really think about him. But their thinking instead became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. It's foolish to set the God of all creation, despite how sunrise and sunsets declare his majesty off to the side. It's futility. It's the darkening of our hearts. And although they claim to be wise, they became fools. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. In the Old Testament, in the early writings of the Bible, they would literally carve images out of stone or out of gold or out of wood. And they would fall down and worship these And surely that kind of idolatry does still exist today, but it's a different kind of idolatry in our hearts that I want to get at today. They exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like immortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. When we don't glorify God or give our attention to God or elevate Christ in our hearts, there is a downward spiral that is automatic that takes place. Everything like Jesus requires intentionality. Becoming futile in your thinking and having a darkening of your mind that's in alignment with the world is automatic when we reject or don't do the right thing. See, last week, Pastor Dylan shared a great message on how this digital information,

algorithmic, artificial intelligence age is grabbing our attention. And today I want to build on that. I'm even going to reference some of the same stuff he did and how it's not only grabbing our attention, but ultimately it's shaping our formation. The question isn't whether or not you are being formed into the likeness of something or someone. The question is whose likeness are you being formed into? While good spiritual formation requires intentionality, formation by the world is automatic. I opened up Instagram last week and saw a political post by a Christian influencer that was seeking to represent what God said about a complex political topic. And I was enraged in my kitchen on my phone, surrounded by my kids and my wife. The author was seeking to represent a complex political topic and what God said about that topic. And as I read it and as I read the verses used, I felt strongly that this person was using their political affiliation to exegete or understand Scripture rather than using Scripture to exegete or understand their politics. And I felt like it was leading people astray and I was mad. And so I went through all my options. First option, I'm going to get in the comments because this person has probably a million followers and I have a couple thousand and my voice matters. And I went to the comments and I saw a lot of people had already said what I was thinking and it said comments have been limited by the author. Okay, can't do that. Next I thought I actually know a person who knows this person and I could text all my frustration to them hoping that they pass it along. It sounded like a really good idea for a second. And then the voice of the Holy Spirit said via Janae, my wife, this sound very similar sometimes, most of the time, all the time. Josh, that person is only an acquaintance, it's not somebody you should text about your opinions on this topic.

So thank you, Holy Spirit. So my third option was I can shut off my phone, be present with my family that's around me right now. I can set it down and I can come back later if I need to and address it and do you think I came back? I didn't come back because the emotions subsided. What really matters in the world came into focus and I kept the character in the midst of what I was feeling. See you're not always the disciple of the person you choose. You can say I want to be a disciple of Jesus or I want my pastor to disciple me or my youth pastor to lead me in what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and that can be a good thing and you can meet an hour a week. But if you are filling your attention with other voices and other influences then you are actually a disciple of whatever you give your attention to. And Romans says when you give your attention, your thinking and your heart to other things outside of what glorifies God, what the Bible says is lovely and pure and noble and true. It's actually idolatry that we're exulting something else above the wisdom of God. We exchange beholding the glory of God for glorifying images, glorifying influencers, glorifying lifestyles, glorifying opinions, glorifying comments from other people. It's like when you follow somebody obsessed with their appearance and then as you look at their appearance, you start to desire their appearance and you become less happy with your own appearance. It's like when you follow somebody with a lot of wealth and you look at all the things they have and the trips they take, you can even begin to resent your own children and marriage because of how locked down you are to compare it, how free they are. and you listen to their opinions every day, and suddenly you find yourself angry about things you had better perspective on before, and now all of a sudden you're outraged, and somebody says, "What are you so mad about all the time?"

Are you follow somebody who openly mocks Christianity or the Church of Jesus, and you consume enough cynical content that you begin to view the Church through the lens of its failures, rather than the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Bible actually speaks to these things in 1 John, but here's the title of the message. I don't know where that was in there. Your algorithm is forming you. Here's what 1 John says, "For everything in the world." Remember, we're trying to glorify Jesus, not the world. Everything in the world, the lust of your flesh, the things you desire, the lust of your eyes, the things you want, and the pride of life, come not from the Father, but from the world. This is the root cause of Romans 1. This is the root cause of how we miss out on being image-bearers that Christ Jesus has called us to be. Part of the problem is an issue in our society called doom-scrolling. Any guess, no, I won't ask you. Doom-scrolling, and listen, I'm gonna talk a little bit about your algorithm, the things you see on social media, but this applies to the news you watch, this applies to the friend group you hang out with,

this applies to the content of your text threads with your group of people. It applies to all these areas, the content that we're putting into our hearts every day. Doom-scrolling is the compulsive habit of spending excessive time online continuously reading or scrolling through negative distressing or catastrophic news and social media content. Maybe it's not negative distressing and catastrophic. Maybe it's scrolling through the projection of how somebody else's life is all figured out and their children are perfectly behaved and their marriage has never had a problem and you thinking, I just don't match up. This kind of scrolling that many times happens late at night or first thing in the morning actually has scientific measurable impacts on our health. Research suggests that research suggests, that's a tough one. Research suggests that repeatedly consuming negative or emotionally charged content can reinforce anxiety, disrupt emotional regulation and make it harder to disengage from your phone. What am I trying to say? There's a degree of emotional issues and anxiety and challenges that we face that would actually simply go away if we set down the screen and spent time in the presence of Jesus. Lots of oversimplification, no it's not.

The scientific, the research is there and the presence of God is there. It's available to us. See what's especially interesting is that doom-scrolling doesn't just influence what you think about. It influences how you think. It influences how you feel. And it influences how you perceive the world around you. But the problem ultimately is not even the scrolling. The problem is not even your phone. Carlos Whitaker said it this way, "Your phone is not the drug, your phone is the needle." And so one of the actual symptoms on the Burian social media addiction scale, which I did not even know as a thing, is that when you set down social media, you experience real withdrawals. Because scrolling apparently is releasing something in your brain and so your phone is not the drug. Your phone is the needle. The drug is the validation that you get as you scroll. The drug is the dopamine hit that you get. The drug is the outrage and emotional response that you get. The drug is the novelty of something new. The drug is the control that you get with every swipe. One person said it this way. There's only two industries that call their customers users. Illegal drugs and software. Well, that's not technically true, there are others. It's a powerful parallel.

Because the products are both designed to bring you back, to create addiction to consumption. They benefit from the return of your consumption, right? This is why it's free because there's paid advertisers who are paying them to bring you back for more. They learn your appetite and while they feed you, they don't have to care about your well-being. We need people, we need pastors, we need voices in our life that care about our appetites. Yes, but even more about our well-being. See, the algorithm doesn't care who you're becoming, it just cares that you keep consuming. when the reality of social media is using you. And we are called to be users, we are called to be followers of the Lord Jesus. Anything in our life that has made us into a user needs surrendered at the altar, sacrificed before the Lord, otherwise it becomes an idol. And it elevates itself above Jesus' lordship in our lives. I mean, let me just put it this way, what is the difference between using alcohol in a way that produces drunken behavior versus using social media in a way that produces outrage in your behavior? The problem with being an unaware or out of control user is that your algorithm doesn't just find what you like and it doesn't care whether it's good for you, whether it's true, whether it's factual, whether it's helpful,

it just cares that you keep consuming it. And all of a sudden you are taking in things that you think, yeah, the whole world feels how I feel. Well, no, just a small pool of people that your algorithm, some computer has generated your direction to make you feel validation so you keep coming back for more. You're being used. The problem with being unaware is that it doesn't just find what you like, it reinforces what you like, it validates what you like, whether accurate or healthy or not, because the goal is not your well-being, it's your continued consumption. And so it reinforces, watch this, your desires, it puts your desires in front of you. And what you consume repeatedly is forming you. You are literally becoming what you're beholding and what you're beholding is what you desire. And so we're no longer being formed into the likeness of Christ, we're now being formed into the likeness of our own desires. It's a worship of self. It's an idolatry of me and what I like and what I need and what I feel and what I want validation in and the control that I have, if you're not careful, you find yourself on the throne of your life. Being formed into the likeness of you,

I don't know about you, I don't want to become more like me. I want to become more like Jesus, anybody else? It's like I live with me every day, I want to be formed into the likeness of Christ, not formed into my own likeness, to simply say it, we're missing the mark. We've come back into this elevation of self, we're Adam and Eve in the garden, thinking about doing what we want, what feels good to us rather than what God has instructed. But Jesus calls us to something different and his most famous teaching on the sermon on the mount, he calls us to be blessed. Blessed are you when you are persecuted. Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are you, blessed what blessed? He's called us to a blessed life. What does it mean to be blessed? It's living under the favor of God experiencing the fullness of life that comes from him and from being in right relationship with him. Being blessed doesn't mean you have a life free from difficulty or suffering or disappointment. Being blessed doesn't mean you get everything you want. It's that you get what you need the most, which is a right relationship with Christ. Being blessed means that you live in God's presence

with his approval, with his promises, with his provision, even in the midst of difficulty. Someone tells us, how does that blessing come? It says blessed is the one. And first it tells us what not to do. This is blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers. Now listen, I'm not trying to burn your algorithm down today. That's not my goal, to get you to quit. But my goal is that you would recognize a tool that's been put in your hand could be used for your destruction and could actually take us away from the blessing of God. Another translation says blessings come to the person who does not walk and then stand and then sit. Oh, the happiness of somebody who does not walk in this path and then stand in this path and then sit in this path. It starts by just being influenced by the ungodly, just opening up and beginning to read and beginning to have conversations that don't honor the Lord. And it's followed by you entering to fellowship, you're sitting at the table with this kind of thinking, this kind of understanding. It ends up with you sitting in the seat of mockers and actually parroting the things that people who are glorifying themselves

rather than glorifying the Lord actually say. And I'm telling you, this is distinctly anti-Christian. It is not discipleship that calls you up to being like Christ. It is de-discipleship and it is a downward spiral that we unconsciously settle into when we don't glorify God in our relationships and our words and the things that we look at. And Christians are called to a righteous life when we're not defined by Godless attitudes. but we're called to life and life everlasting, amen? So what does it actually mean, Pastor Josh, what are you talking about? What does it mean to walk the first step? What does it mean to walk in step with the wicked? I've been taking a lot of walks recently. And as I go walking, I'm praying, or as I go walking, I have a friend walking with me, or as I go walking, I'm listening to worship music, or I'm thinking about an issue, or I'm trying to resolve something. And imagine I'm out on my walk, and all of a sudden, somebody out of nowhere just steps right in bistride with me, and now we're walking together. Some of us do this in the person we date. We do this when we open up our social media and the people that we listen to. And all of a sudden we're walking in step with somebody, and the picture of the Bible is painting is when we come into step with the wicked.

When we come into step with people who are not helping us be formed into the likeness of Christ, but are just helping us be formed into the pattern of this world. You get in a relationship with somebody you shouldn't. You begin to listen to worldly wisdom rather than godly wisdom. You get into false teaching. The Bible says don't be conformed to the pattern of this world. Don't get in step with the wicked, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Walk in step with Jesus in such a way that you are not conformed, but you are transformed. Just a couple months ago, I heard there was two moose in North Vismark running across the street. And I opened up my social media, and there they were. So I opened up and I read about these two moose hanging out in Vismark. The next day I came back to my social media, and there was three posts about moose in Vismark. And I went to Google and I said, "Is there an increase of moose in North Dakota?" What's happening? They're filling up my social media. The next day I went back and there was multiple articles, and I was reading all of them, and I thought we are having a moose invasion. (audience laughing)

And upon Googling, it said, "No, moose have not "been increasing in North Dakota. "Their numbers have been steady for many years, "but my algorithm told me that they're everywhere. "Because it saw something I liked and it fed me more, "and all of a sudden something felt true "that wasn't actually true. "This is happening every day. "This is happening every hour. "This is happening in your four hours on your phone. "This is, you're being formed into the likeness "of something, and you've got to be careful "who you're walking with, because what you see "gets reinforced, and it's dangerous "because social media is an echo chamber. "And you can start to get in. "Everybody thinks like I do. "No, a small pool of people that are being generated "your direction think like you do. "We start finding validation through these posts "that think like we do or act like we do, "and just because something validates you "doesn't mean that it's true. "Just because something feels validating "doesn't mean that it's true. "God's word, when I read it, is not always super validating. "It challenges me. "It judges the thoughts and attitudes of my heart "and says what you're doing is not good. "Do something different.

"But yeah, we can hear and feel this validation, "and I'm just warning you watch out "for who you're in step with, "because pretty soon it's not just something "you scroll past or somebody you go on a stroll with. "But pretty soon you've stopped walking, "and now you've stopped." You know like when you get in a serious topic, now you're looking at the person, and you're standing, and you're having a serious conversation about whatever it is that you saw. What does it mean to stand in the way that sinners take when you stop just walking past? When you stop just scrolling through it, all of a sudden something that got your attention, you're now welcoming it. You went from listening to welcoming. The Bible warns about this in Proverbs 4. It says don't even set your foot on the path of the wicked. Don't walk in the way of evil doers. Like if I could give one gift to everybody in this information algorithmic age, it would be the gift of discernment that comes from Holy Spirit to know what is good and what is God because they're different. To know what is from Holy Spirit. To discern what is right and what's not. Don't even set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil doers.

Avoid it, do not travel on it, turn from it. Go on your way four times saying the same thing differently. Like get away from it, don't walk, and then all of a sudden stand. 1 Corinthians 1533, don't be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Those that you walk with and then stand with are forming you. We used to say show me your friends and I'll show you your future. But now most of us spend more time with our feed than we do our friends, so maybe it's show me your feed. Show me your algorithm. There's an old Jewish saying that says, "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi, who instructs you in the Word of God." Right? A Jewish student would follow so closely next to their rabbi as they walked and they would imitate their walk and they would learn from them that hopefully some of the dust from the feet of the rabbi would get on their shins. Walk so close, walk so close with Holy Spirit that the dust of Holy Spirit gets on you. Walk so close with your rabbi, walk so close with Jesus that some of the dust of who he is, don't just memorize facts, don't just read a verse of the day, but pursue total imitation of Christ.

Learn how he lived, learn how he prayed, learn how he treated others day by day because if you're not careful, you will walk in step with the wrong teacher, with the wrong post, with the wrong algorithm and that dust may rub off on you. Sometimes you just gotta, I mean, today this is an imitation, stop and look around and see who's around you. What are the voices of my key friendships look like? Are they life giving or are they cynical? What's the content of the YouTube shorts that I keep scrolling through? What's the tone of the updates that I'm putting on Facebook and getting on Facebook? What Instagram reels are filling my feed? What trends are shaping me on TikTok? Talk what assumptions in my texting or on WhatsApp is going unchallenged? How cynical am I being? Like, stop and look around you. I sometimes just think about social, I can't even do it. I've used the analogy too many times. The blessing means staying in such close, constant proximity to your teacher that his lifestyle character and interpretation of God's word. If you're gonna stop and talk to anybody, walk with Jesus and stop and talk with Jesus.

'Cause once you slow down and you stand, you're a very small step away from sitting in the company of mockers, of actually just sitting down having a meal and participating full on in the cynicism, participating full on in the gossip, participating full on in the conspiracy theories, like full on in whatever it is in the images that you look at that maybe you shouldn't be looking at but you're zooming in on sitting full on. Another translation of the Hebrew word mockers is scoffers. Sounds so similar to people who don't glorify God but instead give into their futile thinking of their own. See what starts as a casual stroll can lead to a place where you never intended and now you look around and your attention is being grabbed by validating your controversial content. Maybe it's conspiracy theories. Maybe it's church criticism and hurt. My goodness, I can't go on social media today without seeing that every pastor is a villain and every church is corrupt. And is there a need for accountability? Sure, but also the church, the body of Christ is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is imperfect but it is beautiful and God will not be mocked. And I know it's trendy right now. But it's not gonna come out of these lips because the church though it's not perfect

is worthy of honor. It's worthy of being upheld. It's worthy of being encouraged. If you wanna kill your witness for Jesus with the people around you, be an angry cynical Christian on social media. Let people know what's on your mind. Because to the world, it makes the church look like bitter, hateful, and unhappy people. Why would anybody wanna be a part of that? People look at their own communities that are far from Christ and say, I'd rather actually be in this community because those Christians, they're always at each other's necks and they cannibalize their own. My community is way safer than the church. So when Christians act this way, the world looks and thinks, my community is more accepting and loving than the church. See, we've exchanged, they will know we are Christians by our love for some deceptive lie that says they will know we are Christians because we're right. Whatever it is, if you're gonna enter a space, if you're gonna sit at somebody's table, if you're gonna be on social media, if you're gonna enter a space, your job as a follower of Jesus is to be salt and light.

To be salt and light, Colossians 4, 5, and 6. Remember the opposite Romans 1, futile thinking, darkness of their minds. Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. The world is watching. When you pick your nose in the car, the world is watching. When you're a keyboard warrior, the world is still watching. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always. Here's a real description of social media, full of grace, seasoned with salt. No, let it be full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. Ask somebody close to you. How do I show up in the room? How do I show up in our friendship circle? How do I show up in the text thread? How do I show up on social media? Because maybe somebody needs to put their hand on your shoulder and go, "That's not who you are." Let somebody else take a peek at your search tab on Instagram and see what you've actually been looking at. Because what you've been entertaining privately will be released eventually publicly. You better crucify your flesh in private before it comes out and crucifies you in public. You better deal with it. You better be honest with it. This summer, I opened my phone. I opened my Instagram. I opened the tab and said, "Here's what I've been looking at." Too much tennis. Too many other pastors that I want to compare myself to. The books you read, the movies you watch, the photos you zoom in on, the reels you allow, these things that we nurture in private become public. Here's the thing. The walking and the standing and the sitting is an unconscious process and it must be replaced with an intentional decision to be a devoted follower of Jesus. To pick up the Word of God and counter the walking and the standing and the sitting, says, "Blessed is the person who does not walk and then stand and then sit with the mockers, but blessed is the person who's delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night." The word delight in the Hebrew means, "Blessed is the one who bends toward the law of the Lord." Not bend toward the influencer, not bend toward what everybody else is thinking, bends toward the law of the Lord. What does God say? My inclination is not, what does the world think about this topic? What does Chad GPT think about this topic? What do all these influencers say? Our inclination is, what does the Word of God say? And you know what the beauty is? All the validation and the comfort and the meaning you've been seeking out on social media is available in a better, healthier way in the presence of Jesus. It's Him who gives meaning.

It's Him who gives validation. It's Him who corrects us when we need correcting. So take on a circle of friends, take on a church body that's going to challenge you to grow. Some of you are missing out on God and misunderstanding God because your faith is being formed on Tiktok or on social media rather than with the people of God. I'll close with this story. Recently, all of our next-gen ministries, kids and youth went screen free. Like check your phone at the door. It's like, man, will the kids even still come? One of the pastors remarked this in the last couple of weeks, who had been speaking at youth, said it was really cool to look into the crowd of students and see their eyes, not the reflection of a cell phone's LED screen. Come on, let that image mean more to you than what I just said. Is your face glorifying? Like Moses, the glory of Jesus that you've been in this presence? Or do your attitudes and your behaviors and your face portray a person who's disgruntled and anxious and frustrated because of what you've been seen in the news or reading on social media? Will you be formed by the automatic spiral of the world? Or will you choose to be intentionally formed by Christ through his living word and his body, his church? So today, maybe there's somebody here and you need to return to the image bearer that you were created to be. Not a Romans one, foolish in your own heart and mind, but somebody redeemed and transformed by the precious blood of Jesus. Worthy is the lamb of all of your attention, a person under God's blessing. The path of Scripture is simple. If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved from that futility from that foolishness. Or maybe you're here today and you realize that your algorithm has been forming you and you need to be formed by Jesus. Let me challenge you to set your phone down, block that app, whatever you have to do to rid yourself of the idolatry and the worship of self that is entered into the hearts of God's people. Father, We submit ourselves to it today. Not to mere human words, but to the voice of the Holy Spirit, speaking into our hearts. We repent of going our own way. Some, there's been a silent decay of their faith that's been happening.

And Lord, we ask that you would give us life and life everlasting, that we would receive freedom. That we would set aside lesser things for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. (light music) Send your name, we pray. Amen. I don't think there's a more appropriate response than to stand on our feet, lift our hands, and glorify Jesus before we leave this place together. Come on, let's sing together. (soft music) (gentle music)