Digital Thorns | Joey Odom | Menlo Church Live Stream

The the way we use our phones in public around others, this is an outward representation of what we value most or what we value least. So as Jesus followers, it is so critical that we look different. You may have heard that phrase, preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. You may have heard that phrase. I'll say something that that sounds a little bit shocking. In 2026, the greatest way to preach the gospel without words in public is simply to be off your phone looking up. It doesn't stop there, but it does start there. See, Jesus, he walked, talked, lived, and looked different. This is our way to look different. [00:50:41] (49 seconds)  #LookUpLiveDifferent

And all of a sudden, next to Tahiti, Tampa's not all that great anymore, is it? If you could just have that Tahiti money, everything would be okay. The digital thorns strike again, choking out our contentment. You see, the constant comparison of our social media feeds is a reminder of what we don't have, which opens up our hearts to the lie that we are incomplete without that wealth. See, the worries of the deceitfulness of wealth, this is the thorn that chokes out truth. [00:39:53] (32 seconds)  #ComparisonChokesContentment

How about this? When was the last time you woke up and the very first thing you did was check your email? In in all of those instances, did you feel the worries of life begin to flood your heart? See, if you wanted to to build a warehouse for all the things you could possibly worry about, you just build an iPhone or an Android and let them hold all those things for you. And and the interesting thing about the worries of life that we consume on our phones is that most of them are completely inactionable by us. I can do very little about what I read on my news feed, but here's what it does. It gets in there, floods my heart, and it paralyzes me. [00:36:08] (35 seconds)  #QuitWorryScrolling

See, the thorns have one goal, and that is to choke and kill. And you can see it in how they grow. Thorns grow a couple different ways. One one way they grow, they grow by entirely taking over an area. And here's why they do that. They wanna take the sunlight from above. They wanna take the nutrients from the below in the soil, making life only sustainable for themselves and nothing else. The other way they grow is they grow by wrapping themselves around a healthy plant. So just by looking at it, you can tell what its goal is. It's to choke. And that may be the most important thing about this entire message is how they kill. It's choking. [00:42:14] (40 seconds)  #ThornsChokeLife

See, this message I told you at the very beginning, this message is not anti technology. This is not a message on how to reduce your screen time. No. No. This is about something so much greater than that. Second Peter says, the ultimate crescendo to our faith is love. So this is about the incredible opportunity that all of us have to set aside the greatest impediment in our lives to walking alongside Jesus in love. So starting today, what about this? What if we what if we prune back the thorns before they attack? What if we cultivated good soil that will produce fruit? So let's let's live differently. Let's look different. All so that we could love the people and the world around us differently. [00:55:09] (49 seconds)  #PruneThornsForLove

You see this knowledge, this was the distinctive of Jesus. Jesus knew in the forefront of his mind at every moment of the day that there was pain in every room he entered. So what did he do as a result? Well, he walked a little bit slower. He made eye contact just a little bit longer. He asked one more question. He listened a little bit more intently. John 14, Jesus says, if you believe in me, you will do the works that I do. So today, Jesus is giving us all an invitation to do the works that he does by putting down our phones and by loving the world around us differently. [00:54:22] (47 seconds)  #LookListenLove

Quick little side note that I think worth noting here. This this parable, I think, above all of them, this shows us that Jesus is the goat. I mean, this is the greatest of all time. Jesus tells a story two thousand years ago to farmers in an agrarian society, and it's the perfect message, application, illustration for their lives. He tells us this same story two thousand years later, Menlo Park, California, the tech hub of the world, and it's the perfect application illustration message for our lives today. So so the bible tells us that the word of God is living and active. This is what it's talking about right here. This this is timeless principles that apply to our lives today. So this is why we should all be reading our bibles every single day because it is living and active. [00:34:14] (45 seconds)  #TimelessWordDaily

So fruit the the seed that is not yet fruit. Fruit the seed is the potential of fruit. Seed represents the potential of something that can be greater later. And in this parable, Jesus tells us the seed represents the word of God. So this seed represents everything about the way God designed us to live. This seed represents everything that God says about us. This this seed represents what it means to live abundantly in Jesus. This this applies to our vocation. This applies to our studies. This applies to our relationships and everything in between. This seed represents the potential of every good thing in our lives, and it is in danger from the thorns. [00:41:31] (43 seconds)  #WordSeedsFruit

If you can relate to that, more good news. You're not alone, and distraction is nothing new. In the nineteen forties, CS Lewis wrote a book called the Screwtape Letters that you may have heard of. Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis talks about the way that Satan tempts us, the the the tools that he uses to tempt us. And he uses a line in there talking about temptation, and he says that says that murder is no better than cards, referring to a deck of playing cards. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. So Satan's goal is to separate us, our mind, our will, our consciousness, our actions, intentions to separate all of us from God. [00:30:31] (40 seconds)  #SmallDistractionsBigDamage

Quick question for the group. When when was the last time you went on Twitter, x, you scrolled for a few minutes, read through the comments, and you sat back and said, I feel very refreshed right now. Yeah. What a great place. Everybody's so nice in the comments. People are helping people out there. That that's a no? Okay. How about this? When was the last time you opened up your news feed? You scrolled for a few minutes and sat back and said, feels pretty good out there. Maybe go ahead and book that beach trip to the Strait Of Hormuz this summer. Things feel pretty good. [00:35:35] (33 seconds)  #ScrollingIsntRefreshing

Okay. We got a few different characters in the story. Let's go through the characters. First thing we have, we have the ground. The ground in this this parable represents us and our lives. Second thing we have, we have seed. Seed represents God's word. Third thing we have, we have fruit. This is the potential outgrowth of the seed. And then the fourth thing we have is the thorns. The thorns are the threat to the seed and they represent three things, the worries of life, the pleasures of life, and the deceitfulness of wealth. [00:33:46] (28 seconds)  #GuardYourGround

Choking can happen slowly. Choking can happen almost indecipherably, overgrowing our gardens, wrapping around our lives, sucking the oxygen out of all the things that are most important to us sometimes without us realizing it's even happening. Y'all, the garden we've been planted in in 2026 is surrounded by digital thorns. We have them with us everywhere. We take them with us to every moment of our lives, and they have the potential to choke out every good thing we want in our lives sometimes without us noticing it's even happening. And let's be honest with each other. It can feel a little hopeless, And hopeless is how I felt standing in the middle of the Atlanta Airport nine years ago. [00:42:58] (53 seconds)  #DontLetThornsWin

And I saw who I was in that moment. I saw myself. I'm a father spent most of his time as a dad just telling his kids to be kind to other people, which is advice I really could have used in that moment. I saw myself, a little boy in a grown man's body who couldn't control his tongue. See, this is a moment as Jesus followers. Like, this is Super Bowl moment. Like, this is a prime time moment for me to show the love of Jesus to someone who is hurting. But because I was lost in the world of my phone, I didn't have the physical eyes. I didn't have the spiritual eyes to see that this man was in pain. [00:27:07] (35 seconds)  #PutPhoneDownSeePeople

But there was a part of that story that bet you could relate to. The the this idea that our phones can be distractions in the way of our great intentions. So we think about our day. We wanna have a great quiet time in the morning, or we wanna we wanna be really focused at work. We wanna be focused in our studies throughout the day. We wanna have quality time at the end of the day with the people we love. But then that little buzz in our pocket gets us, and we find ourselves lost in the world of our phones, completely detached from the great intentions we have for ourselves. [00:30:03] (27 seconds)  #PhonesDerailIntentions

That if today, if you feel a feeling of shame as we talk about this, this this feeling that, I haven't really gotten this right, I have good news. None of us have gotten this right, so you're in great company today. Second thing we often feel, we feel blame. We feel this thing that maybe this is somebody else's problem. If you feel that way today, I have good news for you. This message is not for your spouse. Message is not for your kids. Message is not for your parents or your in laws. This message is for you and for the good of your life, so please internalize this for yourself. [00:28:23] (33 seconds)  #ThisOneIsForYou

Finally, the deceitfulness of wealth. And y'all, I love I love this phrasing. You see, it's not it's not wealth. It's the story that wealth tells us. Wealth tells us that everything would be okay if we just had, what, more. If we just had more. We even use wealth as a barometer of our own value when we use the term net worth. And there's no greater reminder of our value, especially compared to others, than our social media feeds. [00:38:36] (27 seconds)  #WealthIsAStory

It's kinda like that. You you see, when we bring our phones, when we bring our thorns to a potential moment of fruits to a fruit party, it's just like bringing thorns to a fruit party. You know, one glance at a phone, our phones in the middle of a date night can kill that moment. So what if for that hour long date night, what if we just didn't bring our phones there in the first place? So I want you to use this phrase, don't bring thorns to a fruit party. And I wanna encourage you, I think how to say this, playfully weaponize this with each other. Daughters, if your dad takes out his phone in the middle of a family movie, say, dad, you silly goose. [00:48:50] (38 seconds)  #NoThornsAtFruitParty

Let's just see what happens. And here's what will happen. When we live differently and when we look different, we will have the opportunity to love the people and the world around us differently. One of the most piercing quotes I've heard over the last year is to never underestimate the amount of pain in any room you enter. In the Atlanta Airport nine years ago, there was pain in a man who had lost his father. In this room today, there is pain. You may have lost somebody that you love. You may be in a divorce that feels like it's ripping your heart out. You may you may have a financial situation. You may have a medical situation that feels absolutely inescapable. [00:52:26] (49 seconds)  #SeePainLoveBetter