Christian Social Media - Must Watch Video!

Creation, Dominion, and Human Stewardship

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and when he did that, the Bible shows us exactly what he did. He created all of the plants, all of the rocks, all of the animals, and it's very careful to tell us it was not just the animals walking around on the earth, but it's also the birds of the sky.

It's also the fish in the sea and in everything. It doesn't go into exhaustive detail of every species, every type that he created, but it basically tells us, in a poetic, sort of biblical, historical way, that he created all things.

Even my children know that God created all things. And when he does this, he creates man in his own image. He created him in the image of God, male and female, he created them. God blesses the people that he created, and he says to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

Subdue it. And so what he intends for us to subdue is everything, the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the animals on the ground, and also the minerals and the rocks and all of that stuff that he created.

That was what he intended when he said for us to fill the earth and to subdue it. I love how this, it says this in Genesis 2, it talks about the rivers that God had in his garden that he planted. God planted the Garden of Eden, and it says a river went out from Eden to water the garden.

From there it was divided and became the source of four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there's gold. Gold from that land is pure, but delium, onyx, is also there.

He's telling us the minerals and the rocks and the gems that he's put in this earth that he fully intends for us to subdue and to have dominion over. After he plants the garden, he places the man in the garden, and he puts the man in the garden that he created and tells the man to work the garden and to watch over it.

And he fully intends, sorry for that, he fully intends for this to be an all-encompassing mandate. He wants him to work the garden and to improve upon it, and he even gives him responsibility to actually name the creatures that he's made in this garden.

One of the things that we've done since then is we've taken some of those minerals and some of those raw materials that God talks about in Genesis chapter 2, and what we've done is we've created chips and computers and different kinds of technology that we use now to communicate.

You can speak the gospel to hundreds and hundreds of people from your computer screen with a camera and a microphone that are relatively inexpensive and spread the message of Jesus Christ far and wide with relatively low effort, whereas before you had to have a whole expedition party put together to preach the gospel to just a couple.

Social Media as a Tool for Good and Evil

And so that's one of the things that we've done, and one of the things we've also done is with those minerals and with the knowledge that we've gained over the years and essentially taking dominion over God's earth, we've created social media.

And here's the reality. Social media is a tool that can be used for good or for bad, and here's the biblical theology of social media. Social media is not different than real life because it is real life.

It's part of real life. And so there are different ways to sort of manipulate social media to make real life appear differently than it actually is. That is definitely true. There's a lot of manipulation on social media, and it's not all nefarious.

When you post pictures on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or whatever, you're not often posting pictures of your worst moments. You're actually typically posting pictures of your happiest moments, and people might get the impression that you're always happy when we know that that is not the case.

And so a lot of people will often complain about social media where they'll say, well, it's just all fake. I understand what they're saying. A lot of people will also complain about social media where they'll say, well, it's just so discouraging.

You know, everyone is just fighting and there's anger, and it's just very discouraging all the time. And I understand why people say that, but let's just keep in mind that social media is part of this world, and it's a part of this world that we must take dominion over.

Marcus Pittman responded to someone who had said basically, stop sharing independent fundamentalist Baptists and start sharing encouraging good preachers that are unknown and things like that. And Marcus Pittman said, well, you know, why don't we just share whatever we want to share?

You know what I mean? And I sympathize with that viewpoint a lot more. See, I don't go to Twitter to get encouraged. I go to Twitter for completely different reasons. And I'm not saying it's wrong for you to go to Twitter to get encouraged.

If you follow a lot of encouraging people and you go there and you get inspired for whatever it is that you want, there's nothing wrong with that. But that's not how I use Twitter. That's not what I choose to do on Twitter.

And that's totally fine. That's totally fine because there's a time and a place for everything. And Twitter is really no different than the public square is in Bible times, you know, where you go and you interact with people and things like that.

There's a difference. And I'm not saying that it can replace the actual real life flesh and blood public square. But let's just keep in mind that if the Bible says there's a time and place for everything, which it certainly does, that definitely applies to Twitter and Twitter can be a tool for dominion.

Marcus Pittman said that Twitter is a battlefield and it certainly can be that. It certainly can be that. Twitter can also be a place where people get together and have a great time and meet each other and get connections that they normally would not have any chance of making.

And I'll give you a story about that in a second. But when you're thinking about Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube or any of these things, try to resist the urge to think that everyone needs to use it the way you use it.

Not everyone has to do that. This is what Ecclesiastes says about time. It says there is an occasion for everything, a time for every activity under heaven. And this is certainly true of Twitter. At least most of these are true of Twitter.

There's a time to give birth. There's a time to die. There's a time to plant. There's a time to uproot. There's a time to kill. There's a time to heal. There's a time to tear down and a time to build up.

There's a time to weep. There's a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn. There's a time to dance. There's a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones. There's a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing a time to search out and a time to throw away a time to tear.

And a time to sew a time to be silent. And a time to speak. It's a time to love and a time to hate there's a time for war and a time for peace. That's the biblical theology of social media. There's a time on social media to rage tweet.

Ecclesiastes 3 and the Right Use of Social Media

Okay, and I mean rage tweet and that's just the phrase. I don't mean you should be filled with rage but there's a time for anger on social media and I'd be willing to say look if you go through life and you're never angry about anything.

There's probably a problem with you. And if you also if you likewise go through life and you never love anything or anybody That's probably something wrong with you. If you're always speaking. There's probably something wrong with you.

If you're always silent, there's probably something wrong with you. If you're always tearing down There's probably something wrong with you. And if you're always building up and never tearing down There's probably something wrong with you.

You see social media is part of our lives. It's real life. Let's not pretend like it's not and so Ecclesiastes 3 if it applies to anything. It definitely applies to social media. So not everyone uses social media the way you do and that's totally fine.

That's totally fine if I want to share. I Was telling Marcus like those independent fundamentalist Baptist videos don't appeal to me. I have never I've seen them shared. Probably a hundred times at this point in the last couple weeks.

I have not watched one of them. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with him. It's just not my bag. It's not my thing. You know what? I mean? But if someone wants to post an independent fundamentalist Baptist saying something preposterous and laugh about it, that's okay.

That's okay. If someone wants to use Twitter to just joke and and dunk on people and stuff like that. And it's appropriate to dunk that someone says something so stupid that you should dunk on them. That's okay.

Because Twitter is a battleground. It could also be a place of peace. Let me give an example this past weekend I spent some time at a children's museum with a couple that I had no idea who they were my wife met the wife of this guy on Christ Church's Bible reading challenge Facebook page and she she she she reached out to my wife and said hey my husband is.

What I think it'd be cool for us to get together my husband listens to the fight laughs be stuff. He listens to the 80s channel and stuff like that and he likes it. I think it'd be really cool and fun and encouraging for us to meet and so social media.

I met a couple a great couple with two, you know cute kids. And my kids played with their kids and we had a Conversations on the sideline at this museum it would have never happened. This meeting would have never happened had it not been for Facebook social media because there's a time to gather together.

There's a time to build up. There's a time to laugh and dance and gather stones and all of these things. It's not I know that some people like to make it seem like it's all rage. It's all bad. It's just been a negative influence on society and I'm here to tell you that if you fit if you in your opinion if social media is a negative influence on you then You need to deal with that yourself and maybe you get off social media for a while.

Nothing wrong with that, but you got to understand that the rest of us don't necessarily see it that way. I don't go to social media to be encouraged. I go to social media to engage in battle. Okay, that's what I use it for that doesn't mean that I don't get encouraged from time to time because I Certainly do that doesn't mean that good things and happy things don't happen on social media because as I just showed you what happened last Weekend I gathered with a brother and a sister in Christ who I'm happy to know at this point and it would never have happened without social media these things happen, but that's not why I'm primarily there for and and the reality is like Let's not overcomplicate this, you know, let's not overcomplicate this.

Social Media and the Time for Every Activity

There's a time for everything a time for every activity under the Sun even on social media. Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful.