Awesome. Well, good morning. And uh thank you guys so much for being here. If I haven't had the chance to meet you, my name is Nathan. I'm one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove, and I get the unique opportunity of being down at Social Circle, and uh Russ and I switched this morning, so he's down there and I'm back here. And so if you don't like the message this morning, come back next week. Russ will be back with you guys and we can go from there. But uh it's Tuesday morning, and uh I'm running behind. Uh this isn't uh an odd thing. This is actually a pretty normal occurrence in my life, in my household. The kids woke up a little bit late, they were pained to get ready. We threw them in the van, dropped them off at school, ran back, grabbed my bag, ran out the door for an 8 o'clock meeting, drive to Monroe, get to Monroe, go into the meeting, and then I have realized that I have done the unthinkable. I have forgotten my phone. Um I don't know if you've ever been there before, but you've gone someplace and you realize that you don't have your phone, right? Dun dun dun. Like it's this major thing. It feels like there's some piece of you that's maybe missing because you don't have your phone real with you. You feel a little naked, maybe even in public. And if you're older than 40 in the room, you can probably remember a time when um you didn't have a phone with you because you didn't have a phone. Um, you had this thing that was like mounted on the wall of your house. I can remember my grandmom had uh the newest piece of technology, which was a longer phone cord. And uh she could walk all around her kitchen and she had like this incredible skill where she could cook and uh talk on the phone with her you know elbow kind of pulled up right there, and she could do all these types of things. But no one 40 years ago was thinking about leaving their phone at home. But today, leaving our thing phone at home seems unthinkable. I can remember a time when I was growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, and uh I can remember uh starting to date in the late 1900s. Uh, that's fun to say. Um, and uh and I can remember uh talking like calling a girl, and you couldn't call a girl on the phone because they didn't have their own phone, so you actually had to call the house, and like a mom or a dad would pick up, and you would have to have a conversation with her parents before you could get access to talking to her. Our world has drastically changed for sure. Now we don't even know how to get home unless we have our phone in our hands and we can pull up a GPS map, right? Now, technology has brought lots of great things into our life, and there's been a lot of negative things as well. And one thing's for sure technology has drastically shaped us. It's changed the way we behave, it changes the way that we operate. I mean, how many of you guys have ever been at lunch with a friend and you're having a good conversation over a great meal, and then all of a sudden you get a little buzz in your pocket, your phone begins to vibrate, or you get a little ding, or maybe you have a watch, and your watch kind of goes off and you get a notification. And without even thinking about it, the person's in the middle of a conversation with you, you pull out your phone and you check your phone because that's what you have been conditioned to do. Now, I would love to say that that's never happened to me, but sadly that happens far too often. Where I'll stop a conversation because my phone has alerted me that there's a notification. And if, if I have enough restraint to resist pulling out my phone, I'm worried the entire time that I'm having this conversation that there's something that I'm missing. Technology is shaping us. We check our phones more often than we check our hearts. We're more worried about being offline than being unhealthy. We have all the information in the world at our fingertips, but yet we can't remember what we walked into the room to retrieve. There's notification training that has made everything urgent in our life. There's documenting moments where we take pictures of everything, but we fail to actually live them. We say, I'm just checking one thing, and those are famous last words, 30 minutes later. We've mastered multitasking and lost the ability to be present. We never run out of content, just clarity. We fear missing out online, and actually we're missing out on real life. And that's why we decided to do this series, The Digital Fast. And this is week three of this series. And so if you're new with us, you're jumping in in the middle of something that our church family has been on this journey together where we've been deciding that we're going to limit or remove technology from our lives for 28 days. And I don't know how you're doing with that. Um, I've heard some really cool stories over the last uh couple of weeks of just how God's worked in people's lives and how they've come to this great realization of maybe the struggle that they have with technology and how much they're spending on their devices. Last week we talked about um embracing our limits. And this morning I want to kind of continue that idea, but I really want to talk about a not so popular topic. I want to talk about how our phones are idols. And that's not a fancy or sexy word in the world that we live in today, but your phone can either be a tool or it can be an idol, but it can't be both. And that's our big idea this morning. Your phone can either be a tool or an idol, but it can't be both. And so with that said, I would love for us just to pray. I know Monty just prayed for us, but I'd love for us just to pray again and ask the Lord to speak to us this morning. And so, Lord Jesus, we thank you that we are able to gather in a room like this on a cold January morning, and we're able to just be in your presence. Um, Lord, we thank you for the songs that we have already sung, and we thank you for the word that we hold in our laps. Lord, would you just begin to speak to us right now? Lord, we know that you are a God that speaks, you're a God that moves, and you're a God that wants to interact with every single individual in the room today. And so, Lord, would you break down any walls or barriers that maybe we came in here with? Lord, would you give us ears to be able to hear your voice? Lord, would we be able to have the courage and the boldness to not just hear your voice, but also to do whatever it is that you're calling us to do. And so, Holy Spirit, would you come now and meet with us? And it's in your name we pray. Amen. So your phone can either be a tool or an idol, but it can't be both. Here's something you maybe want to jot down that's a good understanding when it comes to idolatry, but it's this it's time leads to idols, which leads to sacrifice. So what you spend your time on will eventually become an idol, and ultimately an idol always requires sacrifice. Matthew 6, 21, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he makes this statement wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Now, oftentimes when we read this verse, we are talking in church world. Um, we're talking often about our financial resources, and that indeed is true. Your financial resources would be included in your treasure. But your treasure is not limited to just your financial resources, but it's also your time. Some would say that time is the most valuable resource that you have. You can always earn more money, but you can't create more time. And that's why if you ever get around Uber rich people that are just incredibly wealthy and they get to the end of their life, they're not wanting more money, but they're always wanting more time. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where you spend your time will determine the idols that you have, and idols always require sacrifice. Now, we're in the midst of the uh college football playoffs. I don't know if anybody broke their fast to watch a college football playoff game. I did, had some people over and watched it, but I felt like it was okay because it was in community, and so God was okay with that. But um I don't know who you're cheering for in this game. I know Georgia's out, and so everybody's sad. Um but uh I've got an admission to make. Social circle people know this about me, but I am a Georgia Tech fan. Now, don't throw anything at me. Um, like I know that that makes me pop uh unpopular in the room, probably, and you're probably tuning out right now. But Georgia Tech, at least the first part of the season, um, had a really strong season. We thought this was going to be the year that kind of the fate of our team changed. And so previous years, we didn't have a whole lot to cheer about. Um, there wasn't a whole lot to celebrate, but this year, at least the first part again, um things were going pretty well. Our team was winning, we were beating some bigger teams, and so as a result, I began to spend more time watching football on TV. I began kind of going online and reading some of the blogs and figuring out some of the classes that were coming in and some of the things that were being done behind the scenes. I bought some new Georgia Tech gear that I could wear. I went kind of a little bit further and it began to play with my emotions. And especially when the Georgia game rolled around in Georgia won, that really played with my emotions. But what I realized was that the more time I gave something, the more of an idol it became. The more of an idol it became, and the more I was willing to sacrifice. I was willing to spend money and to buy things and spend my time because I was emotionally invested. And if you're a football fan in the room or if you're a fan of anything, you probably have fallen into that same category before. Where you've spent tons of time, and as it becomes a little bit of an idol in your life, you're willing to sacrifice and spend money and buy the tickets and go to the games and travel to the bowls and all that kind of stuff to see your team play. Now, I'm not on Georgia football this morning, that's another topic for another day. I want us to talk about technology and the same understanding. The more we spend time on our phones, the more of an idol they become, and the sacrifice we make, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is there. Now, you might argue with me that your phone is not an idol, and I hope that that is true in your life. We have a couple of people down in social circle, and they're still rocking the flip phones, and they just go, Nathan, I don't understand why we're even doing this series. And I'm like, well, it's not really for you. Just pray for the rest of us. But maybe you look at your screen time on your phone, and it maybe gives you a little bit of a different picture of the amount of time that you're spending on your phone. And you might say, sure, I'm spending time on my phone, but I certainly am not making sacrifices to my phone, but yet that's not entirely true either. We will sacrifice our presence where we're more concerned about what's happening on a device than we're fully present with our family and the people that are right in front of us. We'll sacrifice our peace. We we know it's uh there's evidence out there. There's tons of research and data that shows us that when you spend endless hours on social media and news apps that is proven to ramp up anxiety in your life, but yet we will still spend time on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and all the other things. We'll sacrifice our purity by what we watch on our phone. We'll sacrifice our proximity to God because our minds are so distracted that we aren't able to give our full attention to Him. The sacrifices that our phone leads us to make are endless. And here's what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty in the room this morning. I'm just trying to prove to you that we become what we behold. Whatever you look at, whatever you spend your time chasing, wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Whatever you become, what we become is from what we behold. And technology is shaping us. Now, to prove this, I have a little illustration for us this morning. Let's just uh say for a sec exec second that this book right here represents the average amount of time that people spend in God's word. All right? Um the answer to that, the average time that Christians spend in God's Word in one year is about 30 hours. So 30 hours in God's word for a year. So that's what this book, well, there's a little note card there, uh, will represent that. That's that's what it is, okay? Now, we spend a lot more time on our phone. That might be shocking to some of you, but probably not. We spend a lot more time than 30 hours a year on our phone. And so just to kind of represent that, this would be how much we're spending on our phone. However, this is 30 hours a year. This represents one month. So, in other words, we could keep pulling out books here. This is the average amount of time. The average. Now, it's Christian, non-Christian, it doesn't matter, it's all the same. This is the average amount of time that we are spending on our phones. We're keep pulling them out. I mean, I had to put Bibles in here just because I needed to get the page numbers up higher. Um, just more and more time and attention given to our phones. Now I did the math. That's about right. We spend about 30 hours a year in the Word of God and about 2100 hours a year on our phone, which is the equivalent of 87 days. The average person spends 87 days on their phone a year, and there's no difference between Christians and non-Christians. And it's really hard for us to be formed by Jesus and what his word says when we're spending 70 times more of our time and attention on technology and the world that that brings into our life. Now, again, I'm not trying to guilt anyone, I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad this morning. I'm just trying to bring awareness that technology is shaping us. And what you are consuming online is not an accident. Everything that you see is put through an AI-generated algorithm. So every video you see, every post that you look at on social media, the news things that pop up in your feed are all a result of the things you have visited, the items that you've purchased, the comments that you've read, the things that you've scrolled by. Every feed in this room is drastically different. And you are being manipulated into being pulled in, and time is being sucked from you so that you will engage in your device more and more. Instagram used to be a site where you could go and you could just see your friends' pictures and you would see it in order of what they were uploaded, but now that's no longer the case. Now it's all based on your interest and what you've liked and what you've stopped and seen and what you've commented on. Jonathan Haidt, he wrote an incredible book that I would encourage every parent to read called The Anxious Generation. But he said one way that companies get users to spend more time on their apps is by using artificial intelligence to select what to put into a user's feed. Based on the time users spend viewing different kinds of content, AI then serves them more such content. This is why short form videos platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels are said to be so addictive. Their algorithms are able to quickly detect whether it makes it whether whatever it is that makes users pause as they scroll, which means they can pick up on unconscious wishes and interests that the users may not even be aware of, leading a minor to be served inappropriate sexual content, for example. You're being shaped by technology. A Christian leader that I follow, he recently wrote a post, Carrie Newhoff's his name, called The Seven Disruptive Trends of 2026 for the Church. And in that, one of the disruptive trends was that discipleship is now largely being controlled by algorithm. And this is what he says. Each click reinforcing whatever caught their attention. A 30-minute message and a two-hour small group hardly stand a chance. All of this means that by the time the congregation walks into church on Sunday, they've already primed to hear what you say through a filter someone else created for them. It's impossible for us to look like Jesus when we consume, when we are consumed by more and more algorithms rather than the things that God has told us. Jesus has to sit on the throne of our heart if we're going to be the true disciples that Jesus is calling us to do. This is what I believe. There has never been another piece of technology in all of human history that is more effective at conforming people to the world than the smartphone. The smartphone is forming us. We can't expect to have a worldly diet and expect to live a heavenly life. We have to be people that are not like the world. And Paul tells us this. Paul, the great Christian leader, apostle, church planner, wrote most of the New Testament in his letter to the Romans in Romans chapter 12. He's writing to a very pagan culture where idolatry was rampant. Each city of the Roman Empire would worship different religious cults and different gods like Zeus and Ares and Artimaeus. They would worship, was also directed toward the emperor, and they would see him as a true God as he sat on his throne. And Paul writes these words to the Romans in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. He says, And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God, not the other gods of the day, but to God, because of all that he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he finds acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Paul says that believers, the ones that have committed their lives to Jesus, should not live like everyone else, that our lives should be different, that the sacrifices that we're making should be completely and totally devoted to the King of kings. He says, don't copy the behaviors and the customs of this world, but let God transform you by the renewing of your mind, changing the way that you think. And there's a deep problem in our faith if our lives and our actions look just like everyone else's. Christians should stand out in all areas of life. We should live differently from the world around us, and that includes our dependence upon technology and screens. I heard a pastor just recently say that if being weird is your greatest fear, then you have the wrong fears. You should fear being normal in the year 2026. Because here's what normal means. Normal means that you're spending 21 years of your life looking at a screen. Normal is rampant anxiety that's only treated by medication. Normal is being isolated from the world around you, where you're more connected than you've ever been before, but at the same time more lonely than you've ever been. Normal is wasting your life on trivial things. We're not called to be normal. We're called to be set apart. We're called to be holy. We're called to be the people that God has called us to be. We're called to be the city that's set on the hill. We're called to be the salt and the light of the earth. But yet, what's discipling us? It's not Jesus, it's not the church, but it's our device. We gotta be weird. We gotta be strange. We can't and we won't settle for normal. The church has a unique place in this. Because I think it's only within the church and following Jesus that we have this antihetical way of looking at our devices and the way that we need to live. Where the world is full of anxiety, what does Jesus offer? He offers peace because he is the Prince of Peace. In a world that is so isolated and people are struggling with loneliness. Jesus offers community. Following his ways, being connected in a body of believers that are on the same path as you are. This is why community groups are so important. Just a little commercial for community groups, by the way. Kicking off next week. If you're not in a community group, get in a community group. Check it out online or on the app, on website, whatever. Just check out a group, get in a group. Jesus or the world wastes their life, but Jesus gives us purpose and mission. Now, here's the reality, though. We live in this world that is so technologically driven that it's hard for us to kind of seem to go backwards, right? It's kind of like the genie's out of the bottle. How do we go backwards and put the genie back in the bottle and figure out how technology works in our lives? Andy Crouch, who, again, another great book if you want to read this as a parent, is called The Techwise Family, great book. It came out a number of years ago, but it's still incredible. He says, we are continually being nudged by our devices towards a set of choices. The question is whether those choices are leading us to the life we actually want. I want a life of conversation and friendship, not distraction and entertainment. But every day, many times a day, I'm nudged in the wrong direction. One key part of the art of living faithfully with technology is setting up better nudges for ourselves. And I would totally agree with that statement. One of the things that we have to do is we've got to come up with some type of way that we're not going to allow our phones and our other devices to rule over us, but we're going to rule over our devices. And I would just encourage you, come back next week because next week we're talking about very specifics of how you can kind of rule over your devices. We're going to talk about what's called a digital rule of life. And so it's kind of the rhythms and the practices that you and your family can put into place to kind of help provide ownership over your devices. But before we get into just habits, because this is a lot deeper and more significant than just better habits, we have to become people that shift our focus. We have to shift our focus. Colossians 3 Paul says this to the church in Colossee. He says, So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. What he's ultimately getting at here is this idea that we have to replace the idol of our phone or other devices with something that's so much more beautiful. Jesus. We've got to take this glowing rectangle that will shine light on our face and it's glimmering and it's shining and it's so attractive to us for whatever reason. And we've got to be willing to not look down at a phone, but instead look up to the one that's the creator of all things, the ones that have no limits, the one that was in the beginning and will be in the end, the first, the last, the Alpha and the Mega. We have to be the one that changes what we're looking at to look at something far more greater. It's all about Jesus. This series and us doing this fast, and hopefully, again, like I said, you've been journeying along with us. Hopefully it's been enlightening for you. Hopefully it's been a good thing for you and your family. But this has never been just about us doing a cool social experiment. This has never been just about us trying to get better habits in our lives. It's ultimately about us looking to Jesus, to point our eyes not towards a phone or another device, but instead to replace the time that we're spending looking at these devices and look at someone that is far greater. To move from looking down to looking up. And just imagine what your life would look like if you weren't spending on average six, seven, eight hours a day on your phone, eighty-seven days of your life on a phone. Sorry, eighty-seven days of your year on your phone, twenty-one years of your life spent looking at a screen. Imagine how different your family would look. What would that do to the relationships at your house? Imagine how different our church would look. Imagine how different even our community could look if we were more enamored with Jesus than we were with a device. And so Paul says it, and I'll say it to you this morning. I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all that he has done for you. Let your body be a living and holy sacrifice so that your worship of Him is truly good. Don't copy the behaviors and the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, so that you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good, pleasing, and perfect. And so maybe you're here this morning and maybe you recognize that your phone is a problem. Or maybe this morning was just the revelation of your phone being a problem. And this morning there's a point in our lives that we need to come to where we not just recognize the problem, but we bring that problem to Jesus. It's this process of what we call confession and repentance. Confession is where we go to God and we say, God, like I've really blown it here. My phone has become an idol. I'm spending far too much time on this. And Lord, I need you to forgive me. And then, Lord, I need you to help me in this journey moving forward. Repentance isn't just saying I'm sorry. Repentance is actually changing your behavior. It's doing something different, it's changing the way that you think. And I love that this sermon falls on a Sunday where we're celebrating communion together. Because communion is a perfect opportunity for the church body to come together and to remember what Jesus has done for us. Remember that he has died for us, that he's broken his body for us, that he spilled out his blood so that we could have the forgiveness of sins. But as Paul tells us in Corinthians, he tells us that when we come to the table to take in communion and the Lord's Supper together, that before we take of the bread and drink of the wine, that we should examine our hearts, that we should come to a place where we repent, where we confess, and we turn ourselves over fully, more fully to Jesus. And maybe you're here this morning and maybe this is all a little premature for you. Maybe you're not someone that would identify as being a follower of Jesus, and you were just kind of living in the world. And I just want to tell you the way of Jesus is better. The way of Jesus is better than anything that this world has to offer, better than anything that this culture can give you. And the invitation that Jesus gives to us, as Hannah so eloquently talked about earlier in the service, he's it gives us an invitation to come just as we are. And he meets us there. And he takes us to places that we never dreamed of going. And so maybe this morning, the step that you need to take before we talk about devices and screens is just a step towards Jesus. It's a step towards just admitting that you're sinful, that you're in need of a savior, and then asking him to come and to change you and to make you into a new creation. And so, with that, I would love for us just to pray together before we enter into communion, and our band continues to lead us. Lord Jesus, we are so grateful for who you are. And Lord, I I am um I'm convicted of my own use of technology and the way that I spend time on my phone. And I know that if anything, that this fast has shown me that there's an idol there. And Lord, I I don't want to be like the rest of the world. I I don't want to feed and be fueled by the things of this culture and this world that try to sell me a bill of goods, but it ultimately ends up in destruction. And so, Lord, would you forgive me? Would you forgive me for the idols that I have created, Lord? Lord, would you help me to be able to move forward, to rule over the device instead of the device ruling over me? And Lord, I pray that for each and every one of us in the room, I know that there's all different backgrounds, and there's some people that probably struggle with this topic more than others. But Lord, even if it's not a technology device that we hold in our hands that are our struggle, Lord, there's probably some idol that we have in our lives that we've given our time to, that we've made sacrifices to. And it might be normal for the world, but it's not normal for what you've called us to be about. And so, Lord, make us weird, make us strange, make our lives stand out in the most beautiful way. Lord, let our lives be totally enamored with you. Let our eyes be not looking down at a device or any other idol of our life, but instead to you, because you're the giver of all life, and we want that. And so, Lord Jesus, as we just move into a time of communion and just taking and remembering the sacrifice that you made on our behalf, Lord, would you help us before we just jump into that to reflect and to move into our contact with you this morning, confessing, repenting, before we move into taking the Lord's Supper. And so, Lord, be with us now in this moment. It's in your name we pray. Amen.