There are really two options: there's the lazy option and the better option. And the lazy option is really to condone poor behaviors basically by ignoring them and then you have the better option which is condemning poor behaviors by addressing them not just with yourself but also around you. If somebody is overstepping you've got to maintain your boundaries and your moral beliefs man, you know when you feel something that goes against what you stand for that's a problem and when you allow someone to cross that line that's the lazy option, you're condoning that behavior.
When you understand what God has put you on this earth for, you answer that call, you establish yourself in that call, then you become lethal for the kingdom. But then you go and pass that down to the next lineage and leave a legacy.
[00:12:46]
It's not about our plans. I think people don't understand that narrative until really you fall flat on your face and either you surrender or God forces you into a place of submission. And each one is humbling, but some of them are you lose your eyesight because you fell flat on your face. You were knocked off a horse out of pride or you fell flat on your face and it was more humility and it was more the opportunity presented itself and you accepted.
[00:20:14]
There's a surrender or a force of submission that God brings us into. They both have surrender in it, but it's how we choose. That's good. Is kind of based on us. You know, we could choose this again and I'm not saying neither way is easy. We can choose though how hard or the difficulty of it is.
[00:21:10]
Now, God can bring you out of the hole. I'm not saying that, but it's a lot more that he's got to work you through and more changes you've got to make to your life because, hey, we live in this world now where everything is in front of a cell phone, in front of a glass bowl. Like literally our lives are in glass bowls now and anything we say or do could be used against you, recorded, documented, et cetera.
[00:22:08]
And so the point of it is, is in that surrender or in that place where you're trying to figure out your life, it's very wise to make sure that you don't dig the hole so deep that now there's doo -doo out there. There about you. I mean, I'm just being real.
[00:23:23]
We can choose to make this journey harder or easier and look how hard it was for Jonah because he just wouldn't go to Nineveh and so he had to be in the belly of a whale until he finally, oh light bulb goes off, now I understand, now what you're saying, all right God, you win. And I would just encourage those people that maybe you're in that place right now where you're in a tug of war, a tussle with God, don't wind up in a belly of a whale or having yourself lose your sight because you're not choosing to surrender.
[00:24:46]
It's better that we just surrender when you start feeling that thing that's, that's, you know, pricking your heart and it's, and it just, you can't get rid of it, you can't leave it alone, that is the voice of God speaking to you, that is that ever so voice that is trying to grab a hold of your heart and I would just encourage you to surrender your will in that moment.
[00:25:43]
We have got to be so careful in our choices because they don't just affect us, that's right, they affect those around us and you don't know who's watching or what could come out about it in a day from now, a week from now, a month from now, a year or years from now. Stuff can re -arise up that we have to be very careful in our choices.
[00:27:26]
We have to protect our inheritance and our blessing in our choices and that doesn't just mean us, our inheritance and our blessing, those are people around us, those are kids, those are what we bestow upon the next legacy in the next generation.
[00:27:57]
What social media and instant gratification has done is it's caused people to project their hurts and insecurities onto social media. And so when they feel like they're doing something, they want the whole world to see it. And so they want to put out every detail of their life. They want to take their gym selfies or a selfie with every moment of their life. They want to document every moment of their life and have everybody in the world see what they're up to.
[00:37:08]
If you found your identity, why do you have to share every single detail with everybody? And so this is what we feel is the number one pose image issue in America today. And just really in the world in general, this self instant gratification selfies.
[00:37:55]
We are seeing 30 and 40 year olds living like 15 year olds, high schoolers. Um, I feel like it's really weird. But like the immaturity of our generations has a lot of the same like habits and it's because of social media. I feel like every generation is doing a new status quo update, like status update. Uh, I've got to keep up with the trends, keep up with the time. So guess what? I got to take another selfie today. It's like, what are we doing? We're wasting time. Um, we are wasting time.
[00:40:17]
A lot of men and women are making their spouse, their phone and their Instagram or status update. And then their kids are becoming the more profiles they make. Here's my standard regular profile. Here's my business one. Here's my, um, selfie one. Here's my vacations account. Um, here's my hobbies account. And it's like, what are we doing?
[00:41:03]
All social media is doing is creating a world that doesn't know how to sit and have real conversations anymore. We sit and argue, we sit and take selfies. To me, social media just looks like a bunch of people that are full of themselves truthfully and, but insecure about themselves. So then they hold onto pride of constantly having to update something, you know, they want the world to see it.
[00:41:31]
People that don't see the wrong in their actions are probably people that surround themselves with people who normalize it. So ignored behavior becomes condoned behavior. And truthfully, when you start to ignore, not just your own feelings, but the things that you're seeing, when it starts to reach the level of iniquity where it's like, you know better, you know this is wrong, and you're still doing it, it's probably because you're so much around people that just normalize it, that it literally becomes engraved in your brain as a habit, as a normalization of my life, or an identity of my life.
[00:49:50]
So many people treat life as a constant status update, it's as if they're more concerned with how their lives look than how their lives actually feel. Social media can have a powerful negative effect on how we see ourselves. We compare ourselves to others and we feel like we're always falling short. The more time we spend online, the more of a failure we can feel because people don't feel like they measure up.
[00:55:08]
Does it ever occur to some of you guys that, this is big, because we were talking about the word surrender and accountability. Do you think some people want to live in brokenness or not be fixed? Because here's why. We, you know, we talk about victimization and stuff as well, but I think there are some people who don't want to be fixed because being broken and in brokenness gives them attention.
[00:57:33]
There's an element about a fine line and not caring what people think and caring what the right people that are meant for your life think. You know, this whole like I'm doing me, I don't care what others think. Okay. Hold on a second. There is an element. We don't want to care what other people think. All right. Like if you're the disciples. In the book of Acts. Yeah. You don't want to care what the Pharisees are trying to silence you on. Okay. Here in America. You know, that's the problem. The churches cared too much about what liberals and the media and the government was saying. And they all went silent. Look what happened. But it was the pastors that didn't care what they did, said, et cetera, that took a stance, went somewhere.
[00:58:45]
We need to learn to be accountable to the right people instead of being accountable to acquaintances or to people that aren't even meant for our life.
[01:02:09]
I just wonder how many people would truly be more happy in life if they didn't feel the constant need to try to prove themselves every day on social media or as a status update.
[01:07:41]
We get so caught up in status updates that we forget. The biggest pieces of our heart that are memories. Something could come back to our memory that quick if we would just turn the phone off and enjoy the moment or enjoy the person sitting across from you.
[01:15:41]
I think if we would just learn to live our lives in first accountability and surrender to God. And secondly, as a, not in a status update, but in a, I'm willing to just enjoy the moment at hand, you know, the Bible talks about, don't worry about tomorrow. Today's got its own problems. And I think if we're always trying to think about the next day or, Oh, I've got to post today. I've got to do this today. Like, what are we doing? We're giving God no time to work. If we're always constantly trying to jump ahead of him by our status updates.
[01:18:48]
