Social Media Flavor

This morning I read in Acts 16 about how Paul and Silas experienced extreme injustice in Philippi. Despite being Roman citizens, they're condemned, beaten, and jailed without trial - their rights were completely trampled. For many of us, once thrown in jail, we'd likely be complaining about the injustice and likely scheming about how to get the corrupt officials who had done this removed permanently.

Imagine what Paul and Silas could have tweeted in that moment:

"HELP! Falsely accused and jailed! Hate this town and its officials!" #miscarriageofjustice #firethephilippianjailer

Or they could have gone on a Facebook rant to decry the unreasonable and completely unjustified treatment they received. They had rights and should be granted the protections afforded by those precious rights. Nobody would have blamed them for truthfully posting their frustration with the situation and the people responsible.

Obviously they had no smartphones, but note how they responded in verse 25. It recounts that Paul and Silas are found praying and singing praises to God. This is powerful, but it was the final phrase of the verse that arrested my thoughts this morning.

"and the prisoners were listening to them...."

Do we feel the implication of that today? Yes, we have all been and will be trampled on in a myriad of ways (e.g. politically, emotionally, vocationally, spiritually, relationally, physically, mentally), but have we forgotten that our responses are being heard by listening ears of the "prisoners" all around us?

Does my presence on social media (which I recently heard aptly described as "that swamp of indiscretion") reflect a heart of prayer and worship? Am I, in any way, using facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat or whatever my preferred platform to talk past others? I may be convinced I am speaking the truth, but I can be right and be wrong at the top of my voice or with my pejorative and condescending tone.

Jesus was so wonderful because he perfectly blended grace and truth (John 1:14). Would people say that describes my public reaction when things irritate me, when others trample on me, when my world is being threatened unfairly? What's the flavor of my social media presence - especially in this political season?

The story continues with an earthquake that destroys the jail and releases Paul and Silas with all the other prisoners. The jailer arrives on the scene ready to kill himself because he fears the prisoners have escaped and nothing short of his own death will suffice as payment for the escape of even one prisoner. Before he can harm himself, however, Paul cries out that ALL of the prisoners are there.

Now I get why Paul and Silas stuck around, but why would all the other prisoners forego personal freedom in this situation? I can only imagine because they had listened to Paul and Silas and knew they were the real deal who served a real and living God. The things they heard from Paul and Silas (both words and our tone) impacted them greatly. And it holds true today.

When you go to tweet or post today, please remember this: plenty of prisoners are listening.

What will they hear?

At NPBC, we're moving through a four week series called Money Lies. The title is designed to be a double meaning with the dual force of:

1) In our American culture, we have some deeply held beliefs about money that are patently false.

2) Money can be personified in the sense that it actually speaks seductively deceptive words to us.

In the first three weeks, we've explored the following lies:

• Accumulating treasure is wrong
• If you win, I lose
• Money is the root of all evil
• Godliness brings material blessing
• I could be satisfied if I only had enough money
• If I had enough money I'd be secure
• Generosity flows from surplus
• I earned my wealth
• Giving will impoverish me

If you're interested to listen to any of these, check out our Sermon page:

http://npberean.org/sermons-2/

For just a few moments, I'd like to highlight that second-to-last lie, "I earned my wealth."  In the previous post I referenced 2 Corinthians 8:9 that states, " For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich."

The spiritual and material worlds often mirror one another and Paul's point is this - it was by the kindness of Jesus and his willingness to impoverish himself that we could receive any spiritual riches. What did we do to earn that spiritual wealth? 

Absolutely nothing.

Jesus did not save me on the basis of my righteousness (Titus 3:5). His grace is simply a free gift that I could not do anything to earn (Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus bestows (isn't that a great word) his riches on all who simply call on him in humility (Romans 10:11-13)

And just like the spiritual world, we don't actually earn our material wealth. Yes, I'm sure you work as hard, if not harder, than I do. But who gives us the ability to work hard? Who gave us the opportunity to be born into the country where we could have our job? Who gives us the health to continue in our job? Who gave us the mind or body to face the challenges of our job?

The answer to each of these is God. And God anticipated we might think we're the ones creating our wealth. Check out Deuteronomy 8:17-18 for God's perspective on how income is generated.

And when we realize how much we've been given, we understand that every iota of wealth we currently possess is simply a gift. Without God's kindness, we would have nothing. 

And that's why we can be generous with any wealth we do have - it's all a gift from him to us. Now we have the opportunity to use that gift for Kingdom purposes. But we'll be ever-tempted to veer toward stinginess when we think we earned it with our efforts. 

Let's reject that lie.