The Truth Behind the Reel

Topic: The Truth Behind the Reel

Anthony Carter

Service: TBD

Date TBD

Type of Sermon: Topical

Introduction

Question: how many of you have ever posted a photo on social media?

Question: how many of you before posting that photo did some kind of editing work to that photo?

TBD

Your Profile Page

What is your Profile Page?

Your profile page is a personal hub and digital billboard, showcasing your username, profile picture, bio, and all your created videos/photos/post. It serves as the primary way for other users to identify you and look at and/or follow your content.

In other words it contains the content you post that describe you.

if God came to examine your Profile Page would he see the Edited you or The Real you?

Would he see the outward appearance or would he see your heart

What you put on your profile page is a surface representation of who you are. It’s Your Profile. Meaning it’s a description of you.

Now I know what your saying, I don’t have anything bad on my profile page. My momma follows me and sees what I post.

Purpose Point: Be Cautious Using Appearances As A Cover for Righteous Presentation

Remember Eliab looked like a king, but his heart was rejected

Remember we walk in rooms appearing to be something that we are not; and yes for some of you your profile page is you appearing to be something you’re not.

Who you appear to be around your mom, is something you’re not.

I’m going to let Jesus describe who you are:

Matthew 23:27–28 ESV

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that basically they are a beautiful walking graveyard. You make death look attractive.

Your Profile page is what you want us to see it’s the outward appearance. It’s a surface level representation of you.

God doesn’t care about your outward appearance because again he is looking at your heart.

And so, God moves on your feed page.

Your ‘Feed Page’

The Feed page is where the app feeds you content based on what you’ve shown interest in through your interaction

Well, how do we interact with the content we are shown. It’s when you stop to watch, like, comment, and/or share something.

And the more you interact with the content the more of it you will be shown.

This is called invitation through engagement

We’ve already established that Your profile page is the edited version of you that you want people to see. That’s the outward appearance

Your feed page is what your heart wants to see.

In other words your feed page is only going to cook up and serve what your heart desires to feed upon

James 1:13–15 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Purpose Point: There is something inside your heart that attracts the content you watch. Change the heart and the content will change!

Do you not understand your choices are reflections of your heart.

Your friends represents your heart. [give more examples]

Your boyfriend/girlfriend represents your heart

Let me Let Jesus tell you about your heart:

Matthew 15:19–20 ESV

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person….

You’re focused on your profile page… God is focused on your heart.

Listen, that sin you struggle with so much is a representation of your heart. This is because you’re editing the outside but not allowing God to change the inside

We will pray to the Lord to remove certain temptations, remove certain people, change our environment like our school, neighborhood, and work… But a change of environment is an outward edit. The environment changed but you still brought an infected heart into the room. And you wonder why you keep attracting the same types of people, the same types of problems, falling into the same type of sin… Ladies and gents you are attracting what your heart desires.

Warning About What We Watch

Have you ever had content pop up on your feed and you ask yourself “Why am I seeing this”. You didn’t like, you didn’t comment, and you didn’t share it. So why am I seeing this?

Again, the Feed Page is designed to show you content based upon some type of interaction you have.

And what the Feed Page will do is slide something in that they “think” you might have an interest in and it’s based upon what you’ve already interacted with. And so what happens is they suggest it, you stop and look at that video or photo or that post because it It just caught your eye! And you didn’t watch it for a minute, you didn’t watch it for 30 seconds. Not even 10 seconds.

Per the algorithm they just need you to stop on something for a minimum of 3 seconds; when that happens it triggers the algorithm to say “ok he is slightly interested, lets give him two more”.

1 Samuel 16:6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.”

All Samuel had was a look at Eliab but it was long enough for him to think it was God’s will to choose the boy as king

Samuel was about to make a spiritual decision with human eyes.

Purpose Point: A Quick Glance can change the posture of the heart.

There is a saying a way to a mans heart is through his belly. So, that 3 second glance was just the appetizer to the main course which is your heart.

They just need three seconds of your eyes so that they can get 6-8 hours of your

heart.

The devil plays by the same rules: He just needs three seconds of your eyes so he can spend eternity with your heart.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Sin doesn’t come capture our hearts like a massive army coming over the hill. Sin conquers through small glances that turn into small unnoticeable actions.

And this is why we are so double minded with God. Because we’ve editing our Profile page for what we want people to see why not paying attention to the feed page that is killing us at a glance.

It’s feeding us a slow death and you don’t even know it.

So how do we deal with this. Because your Feed Page is your environment. It’s your home life, school life, friend group, church life. It’s all of those things and their not changing no time soon.

James 4:6–8 ESV

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Your environment will only change when you start letting God edit your heart. A submitted heart to God gives the belly a different appetite.

The edit vs the real: man looks on the outward but it is the Lord that looks at the heart.

So if God called your Feed page in for examination, he is going to find the desires of your heart. And will those desires cause God to say “for I have rejected him”

And so God looked at your Profile Page and noticed you were appearing to be something you were not

And He looked at your Feed page and saw what your heart wanted to see

Now God wants to actually see your heart and he will find that in your For You Page

Your ‘For You Page’

The For You Page is specifically designed and set up based on content creators that you have decided to follow.

The For You Page is where your heart goes from wanting to see at a glance to wanting to follow up close.

Our passage for tonight says: man looks on the outward, but the Lord looks on the heart.

So, If God opens up the For You Page of your life will it reveal a heart that is following him.

The Edited verses the Real [we want to post our best self, but God sees our real self]

Out of all the edit work you’ve done on yourself there is one editing feature that you have not used. And it’s the Deny yourself edit button.

Jesus makes it plain:

Matthew 16:24 ESV

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Pathway to Purpose: We are going to stop posing for the camera And Posture our Hearts in Christ

We are going to stop posing for the camera and start living for Christ

We are going to deny that profile we created and let God see all of us; sinful flaws and all!

We are going to stop following content with no Godly context and let our daily devotion in God’s Word and a submitted prayer life feed us and fill us up.

Invitation

I want you to think about one area in your life that you want the Lord to edit.