#struggles #rest *
Sycamore Creek Church
February 22/23, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today we wrap up our series #struggles with what may be the most important message of the five weeks.  Throughout this series we’ve been learning how to follow Jesus in a selfie-centered world, and today we’re looking at how we #rest.  Rest is so important in a world where we are tethered to our devices.  How do we find rest for our soul in the midst of our tech tethers?

I have a love-hate relationship with technology.  I love sharing bits of life with others.  I love the creativity of social media.  But I also hate social media and tech.  Sometimes I feel like I’m a slave to it.  I feel like I don’t own the tech.  I feel like it owns me.  Carey Nieuwhof, a Canadian pastor, says, “Like money, social media is a great servant but a horrible master.”

Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books of the Bible, says:

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 6:12 NLT)

Some of us are slaves to food.  Some of us are slaves to images.  Some of us are slaves to tech and social media.  Some of us don’t have a problem with this.  We’re still back in the “dumb phone” era.  So you can just sit back and relax, and smirk at the person fidgeting with their phone.  But you may really need this message if you’re addicted to social media.  Here’s how to know:

Top 7 Ways to Know You Might be Addicted to Social Media
7. You plan your #tbt’s weeks in advance.
6. Your cat has its own Instagram page.
5. You look forward to going to the bathroom so you can get to level 7 of your favorite game.
4. You change your Facebook profile more than your twelve-year-old daughter.
3. You sleep with your phone like a teddy bear.
2. You say “sorrynotsorry” in real life.
1. You come onto your spouse by texting #areyouinthemood.

I’m not sure I’m totally that bad, but I realized just how dependent I had become on my phone last February when we took a long weekend vacation to Chicago.  Sarah dropped Micah, my three-year-old at the time, and I off at the train station in the suburbs.  A couple of minutes after she drove off, I went to look at what time it was.  I don’t wear a watch, so I reached for my cell phone.  I didn’t feel it in my normal pocket.  So I checked my other pockets.  Slowly it dawned on me that I had left my cell phone in the car.  The train was about to arrive at any moment.  To make matters worse, Sarah had just gotten a new cell phone and I didn’t have her phone number memorized.  In that moment I felt the anxiety begin to build.  I was about to take a three-year-old into one of the biggest cities in the world with no cell phone.  We were planning on going to the zoo.  I had planned to use Google Maps to navigate the public transportation system to get us to the zoo.   How would I find the zoo?  How would we find anything?  As I stood there feeling my blood pressure rise, I pushed my fear down and told myself, “You went to college in the suburbs of Chicago.  You’ve ridden this train without a cell phone dozens of times.  You don’t need your phone.”  And so as the train pulled up and the doors opened, Micah and I walked hand in hand into a technology free day.  It turned out to be one of the best and most memorable days of my life.  I’m not exaggerating.  But that’s a longer story for another day.  The point for now is that in that moment I realized just how close to being a slave to my phone I had become.  Lord have mercy!

Here’s how dependent we’ve become as a culture:

58% of people don’t go one waking hour without checking their phone.
59% of people check email as it comes in and 89% check it daily on vacation.
80% of teenagers sleep with their phones.
84% of people believe they couldn’t go one day without their phones.

So are you one of those people who checks your phone first thing in the morning and last thing at night?  If so, this message is for you.  I’ve been paying attention to my own habits as I’ve been preparing for this message.  I’ve noticed something about myself.  My default is to check my phone when I have some down time.  I’m standing in line and instead of starting a conversation with the person next to me, I check my phone.  I’m waiting for someone and instead of waiting quietly, I check my phone.  I’ve got a couple of free minutes before we have to get in the car and leave, I check my phone.  I don’t think I’m alone.  Our minds are not shutting down.  We don’t work with long stretches with great productivity.

There are costs to our addiction with our phones.  National Public Radio recently explored the effect of social media and our phones on our creativity.  Here’s what they found:

“If you’ve ever felt like your smartphone was getting in the way of a breakthrough thought, you may not be off base. Research suggests that our brains need downtime and that people have some of their most creative ideas when they’re bored. The constant distraction of our phones can get in the way of that.”
~National Public Radio

Our RPMs are always running.  You feel overwhelmed and you don’t know why.  You’re short with kids and don’t know why.  You’re spiritually dead and don’t know why.  Maybe it’s because your brain is always on.  Our bodies need rest, and our souls need to rest.  Our souls need to be disconnected from bing bing bing bing bing…

Let’s go back and remember what Paul said:

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 6:12 NLT)

I refuse to be mastered by anything.  Christ in me and you is bigger than any addiction we’ve got.  And we’re missing out on so much.  God has a special rest for you in Christ.

So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest.~Hebrews 4:9-11 NLT

God didn’t plan for you to run run run run run run.  God planned for you to rest, to rest in  God.  St. Augustine, a 4^th and 5^th century church leader, said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our soul is restless until it finds rest in you.”  And Jesus said:

 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
~Jesus (Matthew 11:28-29 NLT)

So now you’ve got a choice.  You apply this and do what God wants you to do, or you go on living as you always have.  Here are two ways to apply it, or two hashtags for #rest.

1.     #bestill
We’ve got to learn how to slow down and be still.  The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible.  We read in several places about being still:

Be still, and know that I am God.
~Psalm 46:10 NLT

Sometimes you tell a little kid to SIT DOWN!  Some times you’ve got to talk to your soul like a little kid and say SIT DOWN!  Sit down and be quiet.

Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
~Psalm 131:2 NLT

I’ve had to learn to be still for my own mental health.  I’ve shared with you before that I struggle at times with anxiety.  When it’s at its worst my brain starts repeating unpleasant things like it’s a skipping broken record and there’s no off switch.  I’ve gone to several different counselors over the years to help me with strategies for dealing with this anxiety.  The best suggestion and most effective tip I’ve ever been given was to practice breathing exercises each morning.  I know, it sounds hokey.  Basically you sit for five or ten minutes and quietly breathe.  There’s a website that I use called Pray as You Go that has a breathing exercise MP3.  I spend five minutes simply doing nothing but breathing.  I just sit in the presence of God.

“But what about the kids?” you ask.  Good question.  Finding time to sit still for five minutes requires much more creativity if you’ve got kids, especially little ones.  I have three suggestions:

1. Get up before they do (that means you have to go to bed earlier).
2. Find a little time after they go to bed.
3. Set up a babysitting swap with a friend.  We’ve got so many people with little kids in our church.  They will understand.  You watch my kids today and I’ll watch your kids tomorrow.

If we’re going to receive the #rest that God wants for us, we’re going to have learn to be still.

2.     #makeaplan
Beyond learning to be still, if we’re really addicted to social media and technology, we need to #makeaplan to break the addiction.  The wisdom of the Proverbs says

Wise people think before they act;
fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness.
~Proverbs 13:16 NLT

So how are you thinking about how you’ll act?  Your plan should have two parts: defense and offense.  Let’s start with the defensive plan.  Make your struggle public.  Let your spouse, friends, family, and small group know that you’re seeking to really free yourself from the slavery of social media and your phone.  Then set some basic boundaries: no phone during dinner and no phone during small group.  Set a time limit: no phone after a certain time of night.  Let’s say that after 10PM, your phone is in some other room off and charging.  You are going to still use your phone but you’re not going to be mastered by it.  Let’s not forget about notifications.  Turn them off.  All of them!  I know it’s hard.  Gretchen Williams, our youth coordinator, got a new phone and posted this about it:

Those notifications are fun.  They play with your brain chemistry.  They train you to respond like Pavlov’s Dog.  I had this notification pop up the other day:

Guess what I clicked.  NOT NOW.  If there was a “Not Never” button, I’d click that.  Turn off your notifications.  If you really need to be available for an emergency of some sort, then leave your phone with someone trusted (an assistant, a secretary, a spouse, etc.).  Consider going off the grid totally from time to time.  Take a once-a-week break on a day of rest, or sabbath.  I don’t look at social media on Fridays, my sabbath day off.  When you’re on vacation, give up email.  I’ve downloaded an autoresponder app I can use on vacation for text messages.  If you text me on vacation, I won’t look at it.  You’ll get an auto response text telling you to call the church office.  Consider fasting from social media during Lent, the forty days that lead up to Easter that begins this Wednesday, February 18.  That’s your defensive plan.

Let’s talk about your offensive plan.   Download an app that monitors your usage like Break Free (Android) or Moment (ios).  Use tech as the primary tool for relating to God.  Check out Pray As You Go or use your phone regularly to share about Sycamore Creek Church.  Use your phone for the Bible.  The best app is probably You Version.  But then make sure you’ve also got daily consistent prayer time.  Go outside and don’t take a picture (or post it online).  You don’t need likes for something God wanted you to love.  Consider really getting away on a spiritual retreat.  The women of our church have a retreat coming up May 1-3 at Miracle Camp.  I’m leading a one-day spiritual retreat on Thursday, March 26^th at St. Francis Center in Dewitt.  When you go on this retreat, turn your phone off.  Give your family the retreat phone number for emergencies.  Then you can rest knowing that if a real emergency happens, your family can still contact you through the camp or retreat center.

So now you’re at that point of decision.  Are you going to continue as it is, or are you going to change your life?  Let’s remember where we’ve been in this series

#relationships – Nurture my friends face to face not thumbs to thumbs because God did not shout from heaven.
#contentment – The more we compare, the more discontent we become so be satisfied in Christ alone.
#authenticity – The more filtered we are the more difficult it is to be authentic so be authentic in Christ.
#compassion – The more suffering you see the less you care so let the world know we are Christians by our love for others.
#rest – Our RPMs are going and won’t shut down so don’t be mastered by social media and tech.

The prophet Jeremiah had wise words for us from God:

Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
~Jeremiah 6:16 NRSV

It’s not the newest tech that is going to bring rest, it’s the ancient paths well traveled that lead us to God.  Take the ancient path and find rest.

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Craig Groeschel.