How many of you are on social media?
Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Substack, whatever your preferred platform to be. Yeah, I made sure I put YouTube in there just for you, Dee. So think about it for a moment. What changes have you noticed in these platforms over the past several years? Because social media wasn't originally designed to be what it is today.
In some instances, like Snapchat, this is a good thing. Because for those who don't know, it was originally created in 2011 by 3 Stanford University students, and it was to enable spontaneous transient photo sharing without the stress or permanence of traditional social media. The founders wanted a communication tool where pictures pictures and messages would disappear after being viewed. So the original intent was to allow for spontaneity by allowing users to share funny or candid moments in real time while also eliminating the fear of digital footprints and embarrassing photos resurfacing later. While all that may sound harmless enough, I was in youth ministry when Snapchat took off, and let's just say many of the teens I worked with took the whole idea of no digital footprints print and no embarrassing pictures resurfacing later and ran with it, and not in a direction that any of us would want for them.
So as an organisation, the CBAC banned Snapchat. Facebook, on the other hand, began as a way for college students to connect with their peers, share personal information, and navigate their campus social networks. The idea was all about connection. And as it grew, its attraction was still largely that it was a way of keeping up with people. Seeing what your friends were doing, sharing pictures, staying connected with family and friends who lived too far away for regular face-to-face interaction.
But something's changed. As these platforms have grown and as more and more platforms have appeared, they have shifted from being primarily social networks to becoming content networks. We've gone from scrolling to see what our friends and family are doing to being inundated with short-form videos, AI-generated content, advertisements, shopping links, influencers, news, opinions, arguments, an endless stream of information, or quite often misinformation. Our phones have become entertainment hubs, search engines, marketplaces, and increasingly places where we form opinions about the world. And then there's the politics.
These platforms have moved far beyond casual civic and civil conversation. And they have become highly polarised environments that constantly present us with arguments about what is happening in our country and around the world and what we supposedly need to think about it. But social media doesn't operate in its own little bubble. We can't blame everything on social media because it's fed by us, by our desire to connect, by our desire to be heard, by our desire to know what's happening. But also by our desire to escape from our own realities, if only for the time it takes to scroll.
And that can be a problem, because we can become so focused on what we're seeing on our screens that we stop paying attention to what's happening right in front of us. But this isn't only a problem for those of us who use phones or social media, because we can do the same thing through television, newspapers, radio, or even conversations about what's happening in the world. We can spend so much time following events elsewhere, somewhere else, and keeping up with the latest crisis, political debate, or controversy that we become less attentive to the people and responsibilities that God has actually placed right in front of us. We can know exactly what's happening on the other side of the world and still miss what is happening in our own home, our own neighbourhood, or even our own church. We can be informed about everything happening out there while becoming increasingly disconnected from what God is doing right here.
Now, I want to be careful here, because in no way am I suggesting that this means we stop caring about the wider world or stop being involved in God's global mission, because we are part of something bigger than our own congregation. And through prayer and giving and supporting missionaries and participating in global missions, we can be part of what God is doing around the world. We are part of the wider body of Christ. But there is a difference between caring about what is happening in the wider world and finding intentional and effective ways in which we can help. This is generally through partnerships and financially supporting the work of others in those areas of the world.
Caring like this is one thing, but becoming so consumed by world affairs in ways which do not actually help but instead just take our focus away from what God is calling us to right here is another thing altogether. So our passage today is Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 to 4. And as we dive into it, we're gonna see what Paul has to say about where our focus should be. So I'm gonna start with verses 1 to 2 where Paul says, "Since then you have been raised with Christ." Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
So as I said, when it comes to knowing what's going on in the world, we see war, we see the suffering, we see the political division, we see the injustice, we see the devastation, and because we care, we want to do something. But what? We don't always know, but we feel the weight of it. But we don't know where to put that weight, and eventually we can become overwhelmed, discouraged, or even numb. And I also wonder if sometimes there isn't a bit of escapism that occurs when we become too absorbed on situations and issues that we really don't have an impact on.
We can take sides, form opinions, make judgments, all without personal investment. Now, my mom was a stay-at-home mom, and she planned her days the same way she would if she had had a job outside of the home, which meant that she took a lunch break every day. I will say I don't remember her taking any other breaks during the day, but I do remember the lunch break, 'cause she took an hour for lunch. That gave her time to make herself her lunch and then to sit down with a book to eat. Now, I mentioned in a previous week that my mom was quite a history buff.
However, her choice of reading material on her lunch breaks was not something that would feed that interest, or at least she didn't spend her time reading educational books about history. No, her chosen reading material for her downtime was Regency romances. So for 1 hour a day, she would escape into what she believed was a better world, a better time, She could block out the realities of her life, her responsibilities, her worries, and just dive into a fantasy world. And I was taught when I was little I was not allowed to bother Mom with anything during that hour. No asking her to play, don't try to talk to her, just leave her alone for that hour.
But when that hour was up, she would put down her book, bring her focus back onto what was right in front of her, like me, the rest of the family, the house, the responsibilities of the day. The escape had a purpose. It gave her a break, but it didn't become her life. Now, I don't know if any of you have a secret obsession with Regency romances, and I'm certainly not going to ask you to out yourselves today if you do, but I think that there's something important for us to recognise in that. There are all kinds of ways we can escape today.
We can disappear into our phones, we can spend hours scrolling through the news, we can lose ourselves in social media, in television, books, podcasts, or whatever else captures our attention. And sometimes we genuinely need a break. There is nothing wrong with resting and laughing and enjoying a storey or stepping away for a while. The danger becomes when the escape never ends, when we spend so much time absorbed in everything happening out there that we lose sight of what is happening right here. Because while we may not be able to change everything happening in the world, God has placed people within our reach.
There are families, there are friends, there are neighbours, there are people sitting beside us in this church, there are responsibilities that God has entrusted to us. And if we, uh, never shift our focus away from everything competing for our attention, the people that God has actually placed within our reach can become very easy to overlook. The neighbour, the family member, the person sitting beside us in church, the ministry opportunity that's right in front of us. So refocusing isn't about caring less about what is happening in the world. It's about remembering that we are called to be faithful with what God has called us to right here.
And it can be challenging to not get distracted by all that is going on. We have more access to the needs of the world than any generation before us. But access to everything doesn't mean we're called to respond to everything. Sometimes, because we know about something, we can begin to feel that we're somehow responsible for it. It's hard not to when you see the terrible and even horrifying things that are going on around the world.
So we start asking, "How do we fix this?" What should I say about this? Where do I stand on this? And those are good questions, but here's the truth that we don't always like to admit because it makes us feel helpless. But most of that is outside of our assignment. And this is where Paul's words become important: Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Paul isn't telling us to stop paying attention, and he's not telling us to ignore the world. He's telling us what should determine our attention. Don't let everything happening around you determine what occupies your mind. Let Christ determine what occupies your mind. When the world says, look here, react to this, worry about that, have an opinion about this, do something about that, Paul says look up.
Not because the world doesn't matter, but because Christ is our reference point for understanding the world and what our role is in it. So let me ask you something. How many have— of you have ever felt emotionally drained by something that you had no ability to change? Maybe you spent an hour reading the news or scrolling through social media or watching people argue, and by the end of it, you're angry or anxious or discouraged or just exhausted. And you haven't actually done anything.
You've simply absorbed it. And that matters because what we fix our attention on begins to direct our lives. So here's the first question for us: What has been getting more of my attention than it deserves? It doesn't have to be something sinful. It's not necessarily something bad.
Just something that may be taking up more space in our mind and heart than God intended. Because sometimes the first step towards moving forward is simply recognising my attention has drifted. So Paul says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. And this means not only do we need to pay attention to where our focus is and to redirect it onto Christ, it also means allowing our pursuits and priorities to be measured by their value in Christ's kingdom, their purpose in accomplishing his mission and their contribution to building his church, not the value given to them by the world. And when we begin to see our priorities through that lens, we may discover that what deserves our attention is not always what is demanding it most loudly.
What is something that God has placed right in front of us as a congregation that deserves our attention? But perhaps we've been distracted by everything happening around us. Maybe it's a person in our community who needs to be welcomed. Maybe it's a ministry opportunity that God has placed within our reach. Maybe it's a relationship that needs to be strengthened.
Maybe it's serving one another more intentionally. Maybe it's creating space for people who aren't here yet. Maybe it's simply being more present and engaged with the people that God has already entrusted to us.
But not only do we need to see what God has actually placed right in front of us as a congregation that deserves our attention, we also need to ask ourselves, "What have we been giving our attention to that God has never asked us to take on?" Because if we can begin to discern the difference between what concerns us and what God has actually assigned to us, then we can stop being pulled in too many different directions. And then we can begin to move forward together.
So as we begin to wrap up here, I want to bring the sermon even more directly into our life together as a church, because we're beginning this new season and it's vital that we work towards moving forward together. And if we're going to do so, we can't all be looking off in different directions. We all need to be looking in one direction, towards Christ. So let me give you 3 questions to think on. I think there's only 3.
Number 1: Are we passionate about what God is doing in and through this church? Now, as you're thinking about the answer in your heads, I encourage you to think about what that entails, because it means being engaged with the people that God has placed around us. Do we know how the person sitting beside us is doing? Do we celebrate with them in good times, commiserate with them in the hard times, and pray for them at all times? Are we excited to see where God is taking this church in the next season, or are we fearful that we may face changes that we don't really feel prepared for?
And I think this question really becomes important for us right now as a church, because over these past months, some of us have been intentionally seeking God together through the two prayer retreats and the prayer walk. Listening, praying, reflecting, and discerning where God may be leading us next. And soon we will have an opportunity to hear what came out of that journey. But here's the thing: discernment is not the destination. Listening to God is only the beginning.
At some point, we have to move from what is God saying to what are we going to do about it? Because it's one thing to talk about where we believe God is leading us, It's another thing to walk there together. So perhaps the question for us as a congregation is no longer, "Where is God leading us?" because we've already been asking that question, and we'll need to ask it again later, but at the moment, the question now becomes, "Are we willing to follow?" Are we willing to move from discernment to action, from ideas to commitment, from talking about what could be to actually doing what God is calling us to do. Because whatever has come from the discernment process, it won't become reality just because a few people are passionate about it. It will require all of us to move forward together.
It will require people to pray, people to serve, people to encourage, people to make room, people to step outside what is comfortable, people to say, "If this is where God is leading us, then I wanna be a part of it." So here's the question I want us to sit with: Are we as a church committed not only to listening for God's direction, but to obeying when we believe we've heard it? Because we don't want to become a church that is really good at discerning what God might be saying, but slow to do anything about it. And we've been listening. Now we need to be ready to move forward together. So what would it look like for you personally to fully engage in the next steps of this church?
This is the question I want each of us to take home today. What is God asking me to do?
Maybe it's joining a ministry. Maybe it's serving in an area where there is need. Maybe it's getting involved in the community. Maybe it's praying faithfully for this church. Maybe it's encouraging someone who's struggling.
Maybe it's simply being more present.
Because God's will is not usually waiting for us somewhere far away. Much of the time God's will is waiting for us in the people and the places that he has already put in front of us. So to finish off, I wanna come back to the words of Paul in Colossians 3, this time verses 3 and 4. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. And because of who you are in Christ, your pursuits can change, your perspectives can change, your priorities can change, your purpose can change. Our union with Christ redirects our pursuits, reshapes our perspectives, and redefines our purpose. So perhaps the movement of this sermon is really actually quite simple. The world pulls our attention outward.
Everything says, look here, react to this, worry about that, do something about this. But Christ redirects our attention upward. Set your minds on things above, because— not because the world doesn't matter, but because Christ determines how we see the world. And then Christ sends our attention back into the life that he's given us, back to our church, back to our community, back to our relationships, back to the people right in front of us. That's where faithfulness happens.
So let me leave off with this: we don't have to ignore the world, we shouldn't ignore the world, but we also don't have to carry all of it. We don't have to fix the world in order to be faithful to God. We don't have to respond to everything that gets our attention, but we do have to be faithful where God has placed us. And if we're going to move forward together, that is where we need to begin. So let's pray.
Gracious and loving God, you have called us to seek the things that are above, to set our minds on Christ, and to remember that our lives belong to you. God, forgive us for the times of when our attention has been pulled in so many directions that we have lost sight of what you have placed right in front of us. Help us to care about the world without being overwhelmed by it. Help us to stay informed without becoming consumed. Help us to know the difference between what concerns us and what you have actually called us to carry.
And Lord, as a church, we have been listening, we have prayed, we have gathered, we have walked, and we have sought your direction. Now give us the courage to follow where you lead. When the way forward becomes clear, give us willing hearts. When the work is difficult, give us perseverance. When we disagree, give us humility.
When we become discouraged, remind us that we do not walk alone. Help us move beyond simply talking about what could be and give us the faith to become the people who do it. May we be a church that doesn't simply ask, "What is God saying?" but is willing to say, "Yes, Lord, we will follow." Turn our hearts towards Christ, unite us in purpose, and lead us forward, not as individuals going in different directions, but together as your people. In the name of Jesus, our life, our hope, and our guide. Amen.
