The CONNECTED Life: Truly Connected - Video

"I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete." 2 John v. 12 This verse is an easy on to skim over, but its implications are important. The Apostle John emphasizes the importance of having an in person interaction as opposed to just writing his audience a letter. This verse cuts to the theme of today's sermon: We are being deeply changed by our digital age, as is the church. We have the consider how our life of constant connection to devices is changing us. A major emphasis about Jesus in scripture was his bodily presence--John emphasizes this when calls Jesus the Word made flesh. After Jesus's ascension, some naysayers were claiming that Jesus was never really on earth in bodily form, but all the gospels put enormous emphasis on Jesus's physical, human presence. One major way this is done is by how often the text mentions Jesus having a meal with others. This was such a major part of Jesus's ministry that the religious elite speculated that he was a glutton and a drunkard. Obviously this wasn't the case--there is also the story of his forty day fast in the wilderness--but it reveals just how often physical presence and fellowship over a meal meant to Jesus. In today's little passage, John ends his letter saying he'd rather not spend his time writing, but that he would rather speak in person and be present with the church to whom he was writing. John realized he shouldn't let the technology of his day--letter writing--replace physical presence. For many of us, screens and tech have taken over and our relationship with worship in community has been replaced by voyuerism. When we are so changed and conditioned that we are unable to be present or connect, it affects our relationships with others as well as our relationship with God. OUr attention to God has been reduced and has shifted. We often focus on supernatural signs and wonders in the early church, which we see at the beginning of the book of Acts, but the end of the book of Acts puts emphasis on what the early church looked like--believers attending temple and services TOGETHER, connected, and in community. A product of the Holy Spirit being with us is connectedness. God moves amongst us as a body, so we have to embrace the means by which he has given us to receive him and each other. Here are five applications of today's message for your day-to-day life: Application 1: Be more suspicious of our digital connectedness. What is it doing to us? To our connection with others? Application 2: Treat the absence of screen time like a discipline to be practiced, rather than an inconvenience to get through. Schedule time away from our screens. Application 3: Practice running to Christ instead of running to our phones. Application 4: Leave room in our lives for presence with others. Christ spent so much time eating with others, the elite insulted Him about it! Application 5: Resist the urge to trade physical connection for digital connection. Jesus showed up in a body, and He left with a body!