Masquerade: Our Digital Masks
2018-10-14
Pastor Jonathan Falwell
Key Verse: Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:5-8 (NLT) 5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
Our Digital Masks
Are living in the Spirit or in the Flesh?
James 4:1-8 (NLT) What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. 4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world
1. Rage and Anger – Hiding behind our digital masks allows us to act as we never would face to face
Vs 1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
Galatians 6:10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
Ephesians 4:15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church
2. Jealousy – Envy leads us to attack, denigrate, and criticize others
Vs 2a You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.
Vs 2b-3 Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
James 3:16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
3. Desire for Acceptance – Our lack of self acceptance leads to a false “us”
Vs 4-5 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.
4. Pride – Digital masks permit us to put pride on parade
Vs 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 11:2 Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 16:5 The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished.
5. Our Response
Vs 7-8 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
– Social media is not evil but can be used for evil
– Think about the words you share BEFORE you post
– Recognize that God created us IN HIS OWN IMAGE, you don’t need to try to be anybody else but YOU!
– Know that every word you speak, share or post can either help you accomplish God’s will for your life or keep you from it
People’s decisions about how they intend to live determines how they think about things. Moral choice precedes and determines intellectual orientation. People do not think themselves into the way they act but act themselves into the way they think.
1 Mounce, R. H. (1995). Romans (Vol. 27, p. 177). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.