Play it!

 

Today we start a new series called, “Mass Intake”. It’s about developing a media filter. Filtering our music, tv, movies, internet, etc thought God’s word.

Here are some questions I want you think about before continuing.

  • How do you decide what’s worth you time?
  • What standards you use to decide what you like and don’t like?
  • How do you decide what’s “good” media and what’s “bad” media?

When I talk about media, I’m talking about the following: music, TV, movies, video games, internet, magazines, etc.

Why spend time on this topic? Because it completely surrounds us! You can’t get away from media. Even as I type this up in a coffee shop there is music that fills the room. On average, we use media about 6.5 hours a day. If we are awake for 12 hours that’s over half our day!

I want to share with you 3 core realities about life and media.

  1. Biblical Authority
  2. Worldview
  3. Media Use Habits

This message focuses on #1: Biblical Authority. The bible is #1 in authority. It the THE Truth. The bible is about 99.5% error free. Why is it not 100%? Because they didn’t have copy machines back then. When they made copies there were people sitting at a table in not so well lit room copying the pages by hand. Humans make mistakes. The mistakes, though, are nothing big that changes the meaning of the text. It might be a “the” missing or instead of an “and” they wrote “an”. Simple little mistakes that anyone would or could make. Also, of all the books ever written, the bible is the one held with most skepticism. It also has the most manuscripts of an book ever written with 24,000 of them. The closest is The Iliad with 650.

I share this because when you read this blog or listen to the podcast, everything is straight from God’s word. It is God’s authority and Truth.

Many times, we make decisions on what we should do based on feelings. Feelings are very powerful that way, but feelings change. They are not reliable. God Word, being Truth, is never changing and very reliable.

Take a moment to read Ephesians 5:1-11

Let me recap: Let there be no…sexual immorality (lust, pornography, sex before marriage), impurity, greed (it’s all about me and for me), obscene stories, foolish jokes, coarse jokes (dirty jokes, racial jokes, jokes that hurt people). What happens to those people? They do not inherit the kingdom of God. Why? Because by participating in any of those things listed above, it’s telling God that you are worshiping those things…the things of this world.

Right now, the #1 downloaded song on iTunes is “Imma Be” by the Black Eyed Peas. If you read through the lyrics it has all of the things that Ephesians tells us not to participate in. Interesting, huh?

That Ephesians passage ends with a great message. That we need to ‘carefully determine what pleases the Lord’.

Small Group Discussion Questions

  • How do you decide what’s worth your time?
  • What standards do you use to decide what you like and don’t like?
  • How do you decide what’s “good” media and “bad” media?
  • Read Philippians 4:8