Daily Vitamins and Minerals
What are you putting in your heart?
Sugar High and Junk Food
As it turns out, I had more to say than what I could fit in Sunday. So, if you want the full context then I recommend listening to the sermon as well as reading this material.
You know things are bad when the secular world starts to agree with the Christian that there’s a problem. I remember over the last several years there was a documentary on Netflix about the design and results of social media on our lives. The ways that they’re built to capture your attention, keep it through elaborate dopamine sequences, and feed you whatever base substances that keep you coming back for more.
If you’ve spent any amount of time with me you have probably heard me harangue this point. It’s something first and foremost I see in myself. The siren’s song of scrolling calls for me as much as any man. So I got to battle.
One of the reasons this is so effective is because it appeals to our design by God. How effective you say? Well it plunged mankind into sin which separated us from God and incurred His just wrath. Genesis 3:6, we saw, we desired, we took. This act was in a sense a violation of all ten commandments that God wrote and has placed in our hearts. However, it seems that it touches especially on the last commandment in our day: though shall not covet.
What we feed our hearts is a conveyor belt of spiritual junk food at best, but most often spiritual poison. Social media most often sells us a bill of goods that never leaves us content and satisfied but rather contentious and covetous. We feed our eyes but they’re never satisfied.
As we grow more and more covetous we become less and less spiritually useful. We become full-blooded consumers and consumers are disinclined to be benefactors and beneficiaries of the church or God’s purposes. To put it simply:
If we feed ourselves poison, we’re going to live our Christian lives sick.
We cough and hack whatever has fixated our minds, not only wearing ourselves our and smothering the flames of zeal in our hearts, but also spread it to others. As one Puritan put it:
“Some people are so weak that they cannot restrain the unrest of their spirits, but in words and behaviour they reveal what woeful disturbances there are within. Their spirits are like the raging sea, casting forth nothing but mire and dirt, and are troublesome not only to themselves but also to all with whom they live.”
- Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
When you consume and meditate on whatever your phone shows you are you more content with the present outcome of your life? The perceived success or struggle you’re experiencing right now? Are you more content and satisfied with your station in life? Are you more aligned with God’s goals for your life and strive towards them?
As you meditate day and night on feeds and sensationalism are you more or less useful to God and His people? Are you consumed with the fully-orbed purpose of His glory and the good of the church? Does your heart burn inside you to share the Gospel with the lost? Are you more patient or less with your children? More inclined to sacrifice or preserve?
The unregenerate heart will indulge in all sorts of sins, but one of the foremost of our culture is covetousness. We are convinced we deserve equity, I deserve what he’s got. If she’s successful it must be a fluke or because of some deception whereas I was cheated. Ultimately, however, according to John the Baptizer we call God a liar. In his words, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” (Jn. 3:27)
We must fight hard to fix our soul, mind, and strength on the things of God. We must fight to be pleasers of God and not man. If you are doing nothing, you are already caught in the current. This is a discipline that requires us to do more than tread water. God is true, He has placed us where we are, doing what we’re doing, for His purposes. Fix your minds on this.
SUNDAY SERMON
Sunday we considered how to find contentment in our success, station, and striving. Considering the leviathan that is the attention and affection seeking culture we live in, every Christian ought to consider how to do battle with discontent and covetousness.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Pray for our evangelism on U of O campus this Thursday.
Pray for Linda as she recovers from her back surgery. It seems to have gone well. We’ll learn more as she continues recovery.
Pray for Patrick as he has been admitted to the hospital for the last week due to fluids on his heart and lungs. He is supposed to be discharged today but post-care is still up in the air.
Pray for Rachel’s sister as she prepares for a possible premature birth of her first child.
Pray for our upcoming local association (WVBA) meeting. It’s our annual meeting.
