Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Pastor Tim Shelton.
I'm going to share this text with you. It's John 17:17, and it's Jesus actually praying to the Father and he's praying for the disciples and he says, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.
Now, if you happen to have a Bible with you, please turn just briefly. We'll have a look at John 17 and I'm just going to read the verse before John 17:17. And that is actually a few verses back.
I'll go to verse 15 and this is what it says, John 17:15. It says, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is trut. What do you think of when you think of the word sanctify? What comes to mind? Make holy.
Yeah, nice. Yeah, set apart, make holy. Because God is holy, isn't he? And this is a really awesome thought that His Word as well.
So sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Just going to share another thought with you here.
And it's in Philippians, and it's about shining like the stars. So come to Philippians if you have a Bible, if you want to share a Bible, if someone next to you wants to have a look, please share. I'm just going to go to Philippians chapter two and I'm just going to read a little bit here that Paul wrote.
I thought it was quite nice. It starts out in verse 12, Philippians chapter 2. Starting in verse 12.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure children of God, without fault, in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.
Isn't it awesome, the idea of having the Word of God, when we put it into our life, we read it, we follow it, we start to shine like stars in the universe because it changes us doesn't it? The word of God actually changes us. When we have an encounter with God and his Word, we become changed. We actually become set apart.
We don't look like the rest of the world. We start behaving differently. We have the fruits of the Spirit, we start loving other people more.
We start having a joy and patience and all these beautiful attributes of the Holy Spirit. Before I continue, I'm just going to say a prayer as well. Please join dear God, as we explore today this idea of truth health.
I just pray that you may just take us all on a journey through the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit may guide us and that we may have an understanding of your word which can sanctify us. It's truth. And we thank you for that.
And we thank you for your amazing love God and bringing us all here today together to worship, to praise you, to encourage each other, and to be in your presence in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Just want to share another thought. So sanctify them, set them apart, make them holy. And I just want to share this idea too.
In First Peter 2, 9, it says, but you are a chosen people. So when we have an encounter with God, he wants us to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. So we meet Jesus and we have a transformation.
Isn't it awesome? Because when you think of the Old Testament, you think of like sanctuary, tabernacle. You think of the priests that used to go into the holy place, the high priest once a year, into the most holy place, on the day of atonement. Wow.
And then in the New Testament, when we have an encounter with Jesus Christ, God is telling us that we are joining a priesthood, that we are joining holy ones, that we are different. We are representing God in a real beautiful way. I reckon that's really amazing that we are included in this role.
A question, the question being raised, as it was in 31 AD, was this, what is truth? Have you ever wondered that? What is truth? My truth might be different to your truth. Like, what is truth? What is truth? So come to your Bibles, go and have a look in John 18. Come to John 18 and we're going to have a look at the story starting in 28.
So Jesus has been doing his ministry on earth. He's been loving people. How are some ways that Jesus loves people? What did he do? He healed.
What else? He fed them. What else? He prayed them what else? He taught them. He raised them from the dead.
Amazing, isn't it? This is our Jesus. He stilled the storm. Jesus, the Son of God.
Here he is now in this story in John 18, verse 28. And he's standing before Pilate like a criminal. He's been doing all these beautiful things for humanity, loving upon them, healing them, feeding them, as we just said.
Let's have a look at this in verse 28. Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the place of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanliness, the Jews did not enter the palace.
They wanted to be able to eat the Passover. Just think about that for a moment. They're wanting to stay, in a sense, sort of holy, aren't they? So Pilate came out to them and asked, what charges are you bringing against this man? If he were not a criminal, they replied, we would not have handed him over to you.
And Pilate said back, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. But we have no right. Listen to this.
We have no right to execute anyone. The Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken, indicating the kind of death he was going to die, would be fulfilled.
Jesus himself many times mentioned to his own disciples that, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to die. And on the third day, I'm going to rise to life. Wow.
Verse 33. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, are you the King of the Jews? Is that your own idea? Jesus asked, or did others talk to you about me? Am I a Jew? Pilate replied, it was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done? And Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.
If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place. You are a Jew.
You are a king. Then Pilate said. And Jesus answered, you are right in saying I am a king.
In fact, for this reason I was born. And for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.
What is truth? Pilate asked. With this, he went out again to the Jews and said, I find no basis for a charge against him. In other words, he was innocent.
But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of Passover. Do you want me to release the King of the Jews? They shouted back, no, not him. Give Us, Barabbas.
Now, Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion. Interesting, isn't it? As Jesus is standing there, Pilate is talking about, what is truth? And Jesus says, everyone on the side of truth listens to me. If only Pilate had taken a little bit more time to listen to an answer from Jesus.
Jesus himself says, in John 14:6, Jesus answered, I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I am truth.
Isn't that incredible? Pilate was asking the question, what is truth? And Jesus is like, I am truth. I'm fully man. I'm fully God.
The word of God is inspired. Amazing. Let's have a look.
In John 8, the teachers, the laws are getting around Jesus, the teachers of the law. John 8. 42.
So Jesus is having this dialogue. In verse 42, it reads, Jesus said to them, if God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God. And now I'm here.
I have not come on my own, but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you're unable to hear what I say. You belong to your Father, Who? The devil.
And you want to carry out your Father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth. For there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the Father of lies. Yet because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe me? Have any of you experienced that, where you've told the truth and someone hasn't believed you? Have you ever had that experience growing up? Might have been with family or friends or at school or work.
You've told the truth, but no one has believed you. Now, this is like on another scale, when it's. Jesus is the one who's speaking and talking to these people and saying, you're not understanding.
You're not listening to me. You're not accepting me as the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. And yet, remember, they said to Pilate, we don't have permission to execute anyone.
We don't have permission to execute anyone. So they hand Jesus over to Rome because they have the authority. Jesus says, can anyone prove me guilty of sin? Could anyone prove Jesus guilty of sin? That's an incredible and incredible thought when you think about it.
Because all of us here, if we're serious about looking at our own life, thinking about the thoughts that go through our Minds, we understand that we are sinners. We are sinners. 47.
He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is, is that you do not belong to God. That must have cut.
These are the teachers, the Jewish teachers that know the scriptures inside out. And yet they weren't willing to listen to God. Are we willing to listen to God? Are we willing to listen to the truth? In Numbers 23, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil? This is in the story of Balaam. Balaam gets told by King Balak to curse Israel and then all these oracles, these prophecies, if you like, as well, come out of Balaam's mouth. And this is one of them.
To King Balak, who's asking to curse the Israelites. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil? And the answer which God who does not lie, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie.
Remember Jesus, make the distinction. The devil is the liar. He's the father of lies and always has been from the beginning.
A murderer, a God. He does not lie. God, as Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life.
Have a look at these images. What do they say to you? What's the one on the right say to you? What's the photo on the right say to you? Change the mobile. Okay, okay.
Is there any difference to the one on the left? What's the left one say? Melted. Yep. Yep.
Amalgamation. Yep. Yep.
There's a. Yeah, there is a difference, isn't there, between those two photos? Even though they look a bit similar, may not be able to see all this properly. I'll just read a little bit to you.
Three times people consume three times as much information daily as they did in 1960. Bit hard to read. I'll read it for you.
I'll just jump to the next one. 50% of people check their work email outside of work hours, including weekends and vacations. 61% of people have felt jealous, depressed, sad or annoyed after checking updates on their social media account.
Ollie, what did you say? I am guilty of this. 81% of people admit to interrupting conversations, mealtime or playtime with family or friends to check their social media, text messages or emails, or even maybe your animals at home. We have a little toy poodle at home.
Often he comes near my office and he's just staring there and like I know what you want. You want to play or you want to eat or you want to do something. And I'm just there typing away or consumed with whatever I'm doing on my computer.
It's incredible, isn't it? Like even the animal world wants our attention and our love. How much more so those of our family and friends. 3 out of 5 people spend more free time of their computer sorry, 3 out of 5 people spend more free time on their computer than they do with their significant other.
73% of people believe their use of electronic devices has contributed to stress in their life. Now, of course not everything about our technology is negative, but today I'm just exploring this idea of more the negative picture and maybe what we can be aware of looking into this space Australian Teens by Social Media Apps Not a very nice picture, is it? Let me just read a little bit to you. This is the Australian Psychology Society and it's very straight off the press if you like.
20th of May 2024 and it has this title but it has a little bit more. It says Australian teens trapped by social media apps as the like button triggers mental health disorders. Now when you talk to the inventor of the like button, it was actually there for a positive reason, to encourage people to bring more appreciation love into the world, the creator was saying.
But something has happened in the social media world and likes don't always mean love or the lack of. Maybe I should say a generation of children is being lost. Meta's Facebook and Instagram as well as TikTok with the social media platforms like like buttons being blamed for fuelling a spike in mental health disorders and soaring rates of suicide and self harm.
Seems rather strange, doesn't it? Psychologists report teens are basing their self worth on the number of likes they receive and were obsessively checking their metrics on apps, often left feeling rejected if they did not receive instant approval for their posts. And maybe us older ones too have felt the same way when we've posted something. But there's an even darker side with the apps being used to rate the sexual attractiveness of girls for cyberbullying and gender based abuse.
And in some instances they are being used to share nude photos of teenage girls without their permission. Now mental health experts say that addiction and abuse has led to the arrival of a new mental health condition called problem Internet use. Interesting to note it is most severe form of PIU could be considered an addictive condition showing features such as dependence, mood alterations, tolerance, withdrawal and harm to psychosocial functioning.
People experiencing problematic use at the level may require input from mental health or addiction services. More than four in 10 Australian teens now suffer mental health distress, with experts drawing a link in a rise in cases with the use of social media. The rate of hospitalisation for intentional self harm has also surged by 70% in young women aged 15 to 19 between 2008 and 2009.
What do you think happened then? 2008, 2009. So it's actually the, like Facebook and all these social medias are kicking off and getting ground and getting bigger and, you know. Yeah, more youth.
Yeah. And the other date is 2021, 22, so we know that's locked down. So.
Social psychologist Jonathan argues digital platforms were not toxic in their original formation, but everything changed beginning of 2009, when Facebook ads like the like button and later the share button seems kind of sort of trivial. But Instagram followed in 2010 and likes and shares are now. It's a key feature as well of other social platforms.
You have so much engagement data that you can use algorithms to feed stuff to people based on what will engage them, which means emotions. Emotions, I won't read all of this, but which means emotions, especially anger. So everything changes between 2009 and 2012.
Okay. Technology engineer Azza Ruskin, who helped design the infinite scroll, who likes to scroll on your phone, he invented the infinite scroll feature of social media apps. He told the BBC in 2018, social media companies were deliberately, notice this, were deliberately addicting users to their products for financial gain.
It's as if, is what he says. He says it's as if they're taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface. And that's the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back.
Mr. Askin, a former employee of technology companies, said, and behind every screen on your phone there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting. He said, did you know, it was interesting looking at a couple of documentaries, one of the inventors of like social and worked with Facebook and stuff like that.
He was saying he was helping to build these platforms. He would go home and instead of interacting with his wife and his children, do you know what he did? He's invented this and he goes to his kitchen cupboard and he shuts the door and he's on his phone. He's addicted to the thing that he created.
And so when they were asking, what would you allow your children to use, like, social media and stuff? And the guy who invented it said, no. Me and my wife, we keep this stuff away from our children until they're more developed. Amazing thought.
Just a little bit of a story here. A mum shares and a dad shares about Jessica. Jessica Cleland was 19 years old and her life ahead of her before she took on her took her own life.
She was excited about starting a new job working with horses during her gap year. Friends said she was an outgoing woman who didn't struggle with her mental health. But her demeanour changed drastically when two former friends started bullying her on social media sites like Facebook and Snapchat, which means especially.
Oops, sorry, I skipped that part. On Easter Sunday, Jessica told her mum to Jane Cleland that she was going for a run. But later, Amy called her parents, concerned about an Instagram photo from her sister that read, I love this place and I never am going to leave.
Hours later, Jessica's father, Michael Cleveland, discovered his daughter's body where the photo was taken. In a report. In a report, the coroner said social media played a role in Jessica's death.
The circumstances of Jessica's death highlight the important role the social media and other communication technologies can play in young people's lives. She said. I am satisfied that Facebook and text messagings were problematic for Jessica because easy access to the Internet on her phone meant that she was exposed to potentially upsetting communications 24 hours a day.
It's true, isn't it, when you think of before smartphones how you might just go to school, you might encounter a bully, but then you get a break, you get to go home and talk about it with your parents or your siblings. But these days you can just go home, you'll be in your room after school, you can pull out your phone and people can still keep on bullying you and that can just go on all the time. It's like hard to escape from it if you're not leaving that format.
And some kids are just finding it so hard as well to talk to their parents or loved ones about the issues that they're having online. Changed world. Absolutely.
Just another little snippet too. Just more recently New South Wales government to hold parliamentary inquiry into impacts of pornography on young people. So the Attorney General requested a parliamentary committee look into and reports on the impacts of violence and misogynistic pornography material on mental, emotional and physical health report last year from an esafety Commissioner found that 75% of Survive surveyed sorry, 16 to 18 year olds had seen online pornography.
Nearly one third of the group had seen it before the age of 13. A generation of young men are growing up with unprecedented access to the online world. And this includes early and easy access to pornography with harmful depictions of the treatment of women.
And so obviously all young people have this incredibly early access to everything that's online. Albert Einstein said, I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. And you know, we're at the, we're pivoting and moving beyond into this space where it's happening.
The Social Dilemma is a documentary. And I just said, never before have a handful of tech designers had such control over the way billions of us think, act and live out our lives. So once again, there's many good things we can use social media for.
People can find loved ones, we can share Jesus online, we can do amazing things online as well. But there's some really negative things that can happen. Just an interesting thought, isn't it just a few people behind all these apps.
The technology that connects us also controls us, divides us, manipulates us, distracts us, polarises us. Just think of politics and monetizes us. Interesting to note, a 5,000 person study found that higher social media use correlated with self reported declines in mental and physical health and a life satisfaction.
64% of the people who joined extremist groups on Facebook did so because the algorithms steered them there. 64%. That's incredible, isn't it? People wouldn't have been there if the algorithms hadn't taken them on that journey.
There are only two industries that call their consumers users, illegal drugs and software. Fascinating thought, isn't it? Human futures. Some of you here, I'm not very good with this sort of stuff, but some of you might have an understanding.
In the financial realm of futures, it's interesting that social media is playing in the realm of human futures. If you are not paying for the product, then you are actually the product. I'll say that again, if you are not paying for the product, then you are the product.
Everything you watch is being tracked. When you stop to look at an image and for how long. They know when people are lonely, they know when people are depressed, they know when you do late at night what you do late at night.
They know your personality type. It's just by all the things we do online they can have these algorithms that make, I suppose, a picture of who we are online. Social media is an amplifier for the worst part of us.
As I said, it can also be used for good, but it also can be Amplify our sin, can't it? Our sinful nature. There's some parents that turn up to an EC in America and the doctors think the child has appendicitis. What do you think they actually had? I'll give you a clue.
It's connected to social media. The kid actually had anxiety that extreme that it gave this kind of impression to the doctors for a diagnosis. They were being bullied online.
Just a young boy. And also, as we've been reading, the idea of self harm and suicide by bullying and just wanting to maybe look as well or do things that people want you to do. So the algorithms on Twitter, fake news spreads six times faster than true news.
Interesting, isn't it? Six times faster. Where do you think the algorithm is going to go? Remember what's behind it? They're wanting to make money. False information makes more money than the truth.
Truth is boring. Truth is boring. So remember, Jesus stood in front of Pilate.
I am the way, the truth and the life. Was Jesus boring? No. He actually gave up his life for every single one of us.
There's actually a real seriousness here when we think about sin and we think of what it really does and what Jesus did for us to set us free from that first Timothy 5, 6. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The love of mammon, love of things is the root of all kind of evil.
And this essentially, this mega, mega, mega, multi million trillion dollar business, it's gone, it's left the station. There's no way it's going to be pushed back into the box. And so it's kind of like, what can we do for ourselves and for our children? Thinking about this space.
People talk about AI as if it will know truth. AI is not going to solve these problems. AI cannot solve the problem of fake news.
Once again, this has just been made. I don't believe it's like a Christian documentary, the social dilemma, but just really interesting points that are coming out from this documentary and one is about here, about AI. AI cannot solve the problem of fake news because AI with the algorithms, it's all loaded to follow where all the flow is, all the activity.
And that is with all the fake, mostly the fake stuff that happens online. It gets all your traction. All the ads get put into there and all the money gets checked, generated.
Amazing thought. If we don't agree on what is truth, or there is such thing, such a thing as truth, we are toast. You ever heard that saying before? We are toast.
Okay, sunshine, it might be a little Bit of an older saying, but if you think of toast and it gets burnt, not a good thing. So once again, just in this documentary, if we don't agree on what is true or there is such a thing as truth, we are toast. And once again, this is coming from, I believe, outside of a Bible worldview, if you like.
And I just think it's interesting because as Christians, when we read the Bible, we understand how important God is and his truth is. Because remember, it's what changes us, sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth.
And so we have a foundation in the Bible, God's word. And yet there are those out there that can see that something is wrong and it's like, what is truth? We have to define this before we get burnt. A couple of the guys who are interviewed who are in these, work in these environments, in social media, one of them said, I'm afraid, like in America we're going to have civil war because of what's happening with social media.
He's actually worried that we're going to have civil war in America. And then another one said, give it maybe 20 years and we'll destroy ourselves. Incredible, isn't it? But it makes sense.
It is awesome to know, though, what God says in the Word when it comes to the end, but just to think about how important the truth is. Philippians 4, 8, 9. Paul is writing to the Philippians and notice where he puts their minds.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practise and the God of peace will be with you. That's a nice reminder, isn't it? When we're watching, reading, listening, whatever it might be.
Yeah, I suppose none of us like getting told off. Is that true? But most of us would agree that we don't like if someone tells us that we're being manipulated. And unfortunately, that's what's happening, because there are those behind the screen that want to make money.
It's not to say that it can't be used for good, but when we find ourselves being consumed, when it's actually affecting our own relationships in our homes, there's a problem, isn't there? There's a problem our foundation for self worth should be found in God, in His Word, and not what others say. Just thinking of all those young people that are actually being affected by what Other people are saying about their looks and who they are, and they've just been bad bullying for 24 hours and it's just too much. And some of them are just so consumed in this world that they don't really know how to talk to their parents anymore.
They don't know how to respond. It's crazy, isn't it? So your mind right to your mid-20s is developing, and it's not until your mid-20s that your brain is fully developed. So just imagine, like all this time when your brain is consumed in this social media world, how it's affecting the little brains and minds of young people.
And so, I. E. That little kid that turned up to emergency, he had anxiety from this, but they thought he had appendicitis.
Social media is terraforming the world into their image. It's a fascinating statement, isn't it? Kind of reminds me of Revelation 13. This idea of social media is terraforming.
Terraforming is planet Earth. We're going to go to Mars and we're going to create a human environment that we can live in. That's terraforming.
So social media is terraforming the world into their image. So they don't really care about us in the sense that how much time we spend on it, they want us to spend more time because that way they can put more ads in front of us, they can study us more, they can see where we're heading and thinking for the future. Amazing thought.
How many of you catch yourself out, honestly, that you're like, I've spent too much time on my phone or on TV or. Yeah, it's real, isn't it? Like, as I'm reading about this and I'm thinking about it, I'm like, this is real. Like, there's times where Amy Lynn shares something with me and I'm like, what? What, honey? And it happens.
And it's like, that felt really bad. I should have listened to her properly. The other part, just before in Philippians 4, it reads, do not be anxious about anything.
But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So it's beautiful to think that God wants the best for us.
So I'm not standing here today saying, don't use social media, or maybe you'll be better off, but use it for good things. But just remember that there is a real life to live with real people and real animals to interact with that we Love. And it can consume us.
That can consume us. But just remember, God wants to give us peace and he wants to guard our hearts and our minds because he loves us so much. And that's where, when we spend time with him, it's a really beautiful thing.
It's a transforming thing. And remember, when we're transformed by God and His word, his love, we will shine like the stars because we're different, because we love, because we care. How can we apply this knowledge today? What do you think? How can we apply this knowledge? I was just going to quickly go back to this article, quickly because it actually just mentioned to parents with young children who have obviously smartphones, etc.
The experts are saying they're warning the parents who want to manage their children access to social media have to take an open approach, not a negative one. Because you think about it, all the kids have these devices because the parents have given it to them. So think about this.
And you also use them. So don't approach your children with a negative mindset, but be humble and curious and ask questions. If you just say negative about it, they're not going to talk to you.
And it's a bit like you hear about parents. They're wanting just to say, don't have sex, don't have drugs. It's like, let's have a conversation with young people.
Let's have a conversation. Let's talk about the actual challenges, the dangers and be real with young people. You know, when I visit some of my family, I was just thinking of my cousin.
They have a special space in the open area where they all spend, like lounge room, dining area. They have a special area for computers and the kids sit up there on their computers in the open space. I thought that's really cool.
So they don't have computers going to the bedrooms or smartphones. What are some other ways, do you think, not only for kids but also for us? Do you think we could manage ourselves in this space? Any thoughts? Time limits? Yeah. Amy Lynn, if you don't mind me sharing, she actually went into her phone and you can actually limit like social media and like Facebook, you can actually, it cuts out like it tells you that's it for the day.
And yeah, it can be a really positive thing. So when you catch yourself out, you're just like, yeah, I've been spending way too much time. And it's a bit like going down the rabbit hole.
You go to one clip or one thing here and you want to go to another one. And you can spend hours before you know it. And it's like God is like, hey, I love you.
I made you for a real purpose, to interact with real people. And I know I myself catch myself out and it's like I have people that want my attention and even our little dog. And it's really awesome, you know when I'm just sitting at the desk at work and I'm like, you know, no more.
I'm going to go and play and we go and play and it's really fun and I could see what it meant to the little dog will be and how much more so to our loved ones and friends. So I hope this has been a blessing just thinking about this space. Truth, health, truth health and how we are blessed when we know what the truth really is.
And just going to ask if you'd like to, we'll stand and have a closing prayer together. As the creators in some of these social media apps, one of the things they copied was the pokies and the scroll to be addictive. My prayer for us today is that we won't be addictive.
So let's pray today. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you so much for taking us on this journey in your word, especially as we see that you are truth, you, word is truth and you truly want us to be different, you want us to represent you on this earth and I thank you for every single person here.
Bless every single one of us. And God, I just pray that if we're wanting today to make a decision to say no to bullying, if we've ever had a part of that in the past that we say in our hearts and minds, just sorry God for the part I played in bullying other people. It may not have been online, it might have been in person, but nonetheless we want to commit to being positive and in whole of our life, whether it's in person or on social media, that we can be a representative of you, that we can show your love and I just pray that we can make that commitment in our hearts and minds today to say yes, we want to follow Jesus and if we're here today and we just want to just say sorry and also recommit to Jesus and say jesus, I want to say yes to you, that you are the truth, you are the life and the way, and I'm not wanting to turn you away today, I want to say yes to you.
I want you to take away the sin in my life and I want to be reconnected with you and I want to have life to the full and God bless you. No matter where you are in your journey. And we thank you, God, for hearing our prayers in our minds and hearts today.
And we just pray that we can be healthier because not only do we know the truth, but we live it out with you and God. I pray too, that you may help us to spend more time with you in your word, in prayer, in the things that uplift us to you, that we can commit to that as well today. We love you, God.
And once again, just blessings on every single one of us here today. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen. This message was made available by Fountain in the City.
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