Glorify God; Where Useful, Use Technology

Mentimeter: What are some things you’ve learned?

Teaching

In this series, we’ve been following a certain pattern:

We began by saying that technology is first and foremost a tool that can be used for many good things.

The main bulk of these lessons has been about when our technology stops becoming something we use and instead becomes something that uses us and controls us.

We often end each lesson with some applications, some ways or best practices that help us rely less on our phones, or use them better.

If you’re like me, this was kind of an uncomfortable series to sit through because we use technology almost all the time, and it’s become indispensible today.

And some of us struggle with our phone usage more than others. I know for some of you, your parents have certain limits on how much you can use your devices. Others don’t have any limits. Some of us need those limits because we know we struggle with overusing our devices, and others don’t struggle so much.

As we sum up this whole series today, with all the different backgrounds you come from, I hope that you don’t leave thinking that the only thing you got were some suggestions to control your screen time or which apps are correct to use.

But this series is not about just telling you what to do. If using your smartphone wisely is just about controlling how much time you use it and what apps you have installed, things would be much simpler.

This is going to sound a bit weird. This series is not ultimately about how you should use technology. Okay, it kind of is—let me explain.

There’s a great line from the book that we’ve been using that sums it up:

“Apps can help me stay focused on my Bible reading plans and help me organise my prayer life, but no app can breathe life into my communion with God.”

Our final goal after 12 weeks is not to turn all of you into the best smartphone users in the world, because that doesn’t address the root issue. It’s not about telling you to do certain things with your phone so that you can earn God’s favour. You know, God doesn’t give you more points because you use your phone for only 3 hours instead of 4. God does not like you more or less whether you have 1 Bible app on your phone or 5.

What we’ve been trying to get at, week after week with this series and this book, is the question, “Do I love God more than my technology?” [repeat] This Bible Class series, as with every series we do, is about you loving God more and more. What you do with your technology, with your phone, is just one way that can help you or harm you as you learn to love God.

Our hope as Bible Class teachers is that you will eventually be able to answer “yes”, if you haven’t already. This isn’t just knowing more about God or about the Bible. We hope that you know God as a friend, as a brother, as a mentor, even as a lover. We hope that you will see how amazing he is, how valuable he is, so much so that you just forget your devices for a while and spend time with him. We pray that you realise, deep in your hearts, that when you have God, you don’t need anything else. You don’t want anything else because whatever you want, God already provides.

That’s why each week, we point out ways that can get in the way of you knowing God that closely. When we get distracted, we can’t focus on God’s still small voice that says he loves us. When we use social media too much and get FOMO from seeing what our friends are doing, we can’t focus on the ways that God already gives us everything we need. When we scroll endlessly and mindlessly through post after post, our brains never get to just rest and enjoy God, and we won’t be fulfilled by what God is trying to give us.

See, we’re not trying to guilt trip you because you’re using your smartphones too much. Okay, we kind of are because most of us need to be guilt tripped a bit, including us teachers. But we’re doing it because we want your eyes to be opened to see that God wants to bless you with joy and peace and purpose. But we can’t see that if our eyes are always turned to our screens. We can’t hear God’s loving voice if we’re always plugging in our earphones. Our brains don’t have the space to meditate on God’s Word if we’re always feeding our brains with memes.

Okay, 3 deep breaths. That was a lot to take in. The point is, we want you to experience the power and love of God in your lives, and we want you to be aware of ways that prevent that from happening so that you don’t have to miss out on what God wants to do in your life.

So where do we go from here? Because the answer isn’t just in making a new commitment or downloading a certain miracle app. What do we do with these insanely powerful blocks that we’ve been talking about for so long?

The solution for us is to wisely enjoy the smartphone—imaginatively, transcendentally, as something that would deepen our wonder.

Our greatest need in the digital age is to behold the glory of the unseen Christ in the faint blue glow of our pixelated Bibles, by faith.

“Use your smartphone to enjoy God.” Use your smartphone to see Jesus. Use technology in ways that help you know God for who he is and fall in love with him.

Easy to say, but that doesn’t happen overnight. That’s not just a change in behaviour, like using your phone one hour less or using a certain app. It’s a mindset change.

Does anyone remember that exercise I had you do some weeks ago—the one where I made you take an app like Instagram or WhatsApp and think “How does this remind me about God?” That’s kind of the idea here.

Discussion

Question “I love God more than my smartphone.”

Scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think this statement applies to you?

You cannot choose 5

Remember that number, write it down somewhere.

Now, why wasn’t it a lower number? Or in other words, how did you get that high?

A 6 is better than a 4. A 2 is better than a 1. And even a 1 is better than zero.

Google Form

I’m now going to drop a link in the chat. This is a link to a Google Form with a bunch of scale questions.

We’ve said a lot of stuff during these last 12 weeks, and you probably don’t remember most of it. So these questions are not about what you remember; it’s not a knowledge quiz. This is a survey about what you want. It’s not just for me to know, but I think it’s meaningful for you to ask yourself, what do I really want in my life? Having learned all this content and information, how do I want my life to be transformed? How do I want my life to look different?

We’ve said a lot of stuff during the last 12 weeks, and maybe there were some things that stood out to you more than others.

If you think that you are already doing well in one area; if you feel like you don’t really have to grow in that area, feel free to put a ‘1’. No harm in putting a lower number. Lower number does not mean “bad”.