Distracted to Death | Hebrews 12:1–2

We Are a Distracted Generation

The average person touches their phone 2,617 times a day (source: Dscout Research).

The average screen time for adults in the U.S. is 7 hours per day, more than 100 days per year.

1 in 4 car accidents in the U.S. involves a distracted driver (NHTSA).

Studies show that it now takes 23 minutes to regain focus after a single distraction (University of California Irvine).

Teenagers check their phones over 150 times a day, often without knowing why.

Distraction is Costing Us Spiritually

According to Barna Group, less than 32% of practicing Christians read their Bible daily.

Only 20% of churchgoers say they feel “close to God” on a regular basis.

Over 50% of Christians say they are too busy to pray or spend time with God regularly.

Distraction is Deadly

Distraction isn’t just annoying—it’s destructive. It costs lives on the road, relationships in the home, and souls in the church.

Satan doesn’t need to destroy you if he can just distract you.

We are surrounded by noise, consumed by busyness, and caught in a race we weren’t meant to run. But Hebrews 12 tells us how to win the race that matters. If the enemy can keep our eyes off Christ, we’ll drift off course—and maybe never even know it. Many of us aren’t just losing to sin—we’re dying from distraction.

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

“Distraction isn’t just pulling us away—it’s pulling us apart.” We’re not just losing time, We’re losing truth, trust, togetherness, and our spiritual focus.

Distraction is not just a nuisance— It’s a strategy.

John 10:10 says

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

And the reality is: We not just losing time, we’re being distracted to death.

Distractions Harm our Children

Families Are Present… But Not Connected

71% of parents say they are often distracted by their phone while spending time with their children with Parents spending over 7 hours/day on screens, often multitasking during family time (Common Sense Media, 2023).

Children report feeling “unimportant” and “sad” when their parents are distracted by screens (Boston Medical Center study).

The average family spends only 37 minutes per day in meaningful conversation (A.C. Nielsen Company).

Hebrews 12:1 says to “throw off everything that hinders.” Though our distractions may not be necessarily sinful—they are weighty enough to keep us from running the race with our children.

This is true of parenting too:

Parenting Is Being Outsourced to Screens

Kids under 8 now spend over 2.5 hours per day on screens (Common Sense Media, 2023).

Only 15% of Christian parents say they have regular conversations with their kids about faith (Barna).

A Lifeway study showed that parents who engage in regular spiritual conversations are more than twice as likely to raise children who stay in the faith.

When everyday distractions replace intentional time, parents lose moments to disciple, guide, and model godliness. We are outsourcing character formation to TikTok, YouTube, and gaming apps.

Many of us would never hand our kids over to a stranger—but we’re handing them to a screen without blinking. We’re not just distracted from our children—we’re discipling them by our distraction.

But this is not how God intended it to be.

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 ESV

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

We are called to model holiness, and a love for God’s Word to our kids, and I’m as guilty as anyone!!!

Tell them about the conversation with Brianna and Ethan

Church, we are being distracted and our kids are dying!

Hebrews says to “Fix your eyes on Jesus…” We must model this. Your children will look where you’re looking. If your gaze is on Christ, they’ll follow. If it’s on your phone, they might follow that too.

Distractions Harm Our Marriage

1 in 3 people admit that their partner is more engaged with their phone than with them (Pew Research).

62% of spouses say technology has a negative impact on intimacy and communication (American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers).

“Technoference”—interference of technology in relationships—is now a common cause of conflict in marriages and is linked to higher dissatisfaction and divorce risk (Brigham Young University).

In fact One in three divorces cite social media and digital device use as a contributing factor (UK’s Divorce Online study).

A 2018 study published in the Journal of Psychology of Popular Media Culture found that higher smartphone use predicts lower relationship satisfaction, more fights, and a greater likelihood of divorce.

Technoference (interruption of relationships by digital devices) leads to:

Increased conflict

Decreased intimacy

Emotional disconnect

Less time in shared activities (BYU Family Life Study)

“When a spouse is more connected to a screen than to their partner, it creates isolation in the middle of togetherness.”

According to Hebrews 12:1, we are to “Let us throw off everything that hinders…” And while distraction may not be a sin—but it may be the weight that’s sinking your marriage. God calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus—but we also need to refocus our eyes on the one beside us.

Some marriages aren’t dying from adultery, abuse, or addiction. They’re dying from distraction—slowly and silently.

Song of Solomon 2:15 ESV

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”

This is a beautiful verse reminding us it’s not only the big dangers that we are called to protect our families, and our spouses from but also the little things.

The Song says, “Catch the foxes…the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in bloom. In other words, watch out for the little things, the slights, the ignoring, the apathy that spoils the garden.

Your spouse’s heart is a garden—and you’re either planting life with your presence or letting weeds grow through your neglect, and the problem with distractions, whether it be our phones, our video games, our entertainment or anything else we use to fill our time is that if we’re not careful it can replace the time we are called to spend on our marriages and our families.

Distractions Harm Our Hearts

The writer of Hebrews notes that we are to cast off every weight that hinders, but hinders what? Well, with his instruction to look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, it’s clear, we are to cast off those weights that hinder our spiritual maturity and relationship with God.

Digital Distraction Replaces Devotion

The average Christian spends over 2 hours/day on social media but less than 10 minutes/day in Scripture (Barna, Faith and Technology, 2022).

58% of Christians say they are “too busy” to read the Bible regularly—even though 80% say it’s important (Lifeway Research).

According to Pew Research, the most common reason believers don’t read the Bible is:

“I get distracted by other things.”

In 2023, the American Bible Society reported that only 39% of U.S. Christians read the Bible weekly—down from 50% just a few years ago.

26 million Americans stopped engaging with Scripture between 2021 and 2023 (State of the Bible, ABS, 2023).

Gen Z and Millennials are the most digitally connected—but the least Biblically engaged generations ever recorded.

This clearly shows us this truth:

As screen time rises, Scripture time falls.

You can’t fix your eyes on Jesus if your eyes are glued to everything else and we know this is true! Most Christians know they should be spending more time in the word, but we’re so distracted.

Have you ever heard you stomach audibly growl, or the stomach of someone else. I remember one time someone I was with’s stomach growled so loudly that it turned heads. Our stomach growl when we’re hungry. And this generation is spiritually hungry.

We know something is wrong.

82% of practicing Christians say they wish they read the Bible more (Barna). And 70% of those say distractions are the #1 obstacle to spiritual growth—more than doubt, suffering, or temptation.

Like the person sitting next to me, we know we’re desperately hungry, but the problem is we have a Spiritual Hunger, but the noise is louder.

We don’t hate the Word—we’re just too distracted to hear it.

And the truth is the enemy doesn’t need to steal your Bible… he just needs to keep your phone in your hand.

We need to remember not only this verse, but the verses throughout scripture that call us to focus on God:

Isaiah 26:3 ESV

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Or

Philippians 3:13–14 ESV

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Or 2 Cor 4:18

2 Corinthians 4:18 ESV

as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

So how do we do this:

Well, remember that verse at the first of our sermon. I only read part of it.

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I want to suggest 3 ways:

#1: PUT DOWN

Put down your phone, your distractions, your endless entertainment. Make space for what matters most: your family, your marriage, and your walk with God.

“Let us throw off everything that hinders…” (Hebrews 12:1)

#2: LOOK UP

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Shift your focus from what’s urgent to what’s eternal. From what’s loud to what’s lasting.

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:2)

Remember If your eyes are always on your screen, they can’t be on your Savior.

#3: STEP IN

Step into the calling God has placed on your life. Be intentional with your time: lead your home, love your spouse, disciple your kids, grow in the Word.

“Run with perseverance the race marked out for us…” (Hebrews 12:1)

Don’t just avoid distraction—replace it with devotion.