Participants:
Series Code: SCM
Program Code: SCM250008S
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00:01 The hour is urgent, as darkness is dispelled by the light of
00:07 God's Word, a new day begins. 00:10 Jesus, the light of the world is shining. 00:14 Prepare your hearts to proclaim the final cry. 00:17 This is 3ABN Summer Camp Meeting. 00:24 So glad you're here joining us at 3ABN Summer Camp Meeting 00:28 2025. 00:32 announcement, was preparing to proclaim the final cry. 00:35 I actually said the loud cry. 00:36 I guess it's the same thing, isn't it? 00:38 The final cry. 00:39 And tonight we have two messages, and the first message 00:42 is going to come to us from David Shin. 00:45 David Shin is a Weimar University professor, but even 00:48 more important than that, he's a husband and the father of 00:54 two. 01:00 He teaches righteousness by faith, and he is dedicated to 01:05 God. 01:08 for the Ladder Rain? 01:10 Are we ready for the ladder rain? 01:12 Now before David comes up, Dr. David Shin comes up, we're 01:15 going to have special music with Reggie and Lady Love 01:19 Smith, who have been blessing us here with praise music in 01:22 these last few minutes. 01:25 And Tim Parton is going to be joining them, accompanying 01:27 them. 01:30 And the special music they're going to be sharing with us is, 01:34 It Won't Rain Always. 01:36 That's quite appropriate, isn't it? 01:38 So the next voice you'll hear after the special music will be 01:40 Dr. David Shin. 01:41 Ready? 01:52 Someone said that in this life Some rain is bound to fall And 02:10 each one shares His share of tears And trouble troubles us 02:24 all But the hurt won't hurt forever And those tears are 02:40 bound to dry 02:50 always, The clouds will soon be gone. 03:04 The sun that they've been hiding has been there always. 03:33 God's promises are true. 03:41 The sun's gonna shine in his own good time, And he will see 03:55 you through. 04:08 The sun's gonna shine in God's own good time, And he will see 04:21 you through. 04:44 Amen. 04:45 Thank you so much for that beautiful song. 04:48 My goal is when I get to heaven, I'll be able to play 04:51 the piano like that and sing like that. 04:54 Until then, I can just enjoy. 04:56 Amen. 05:00 So good to be at 3ABN Camp Meeting. 05:02 Praise God. 05:05 And invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray. 05:10 Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this camp meeting and 05:14 for this theme. 05:16 We pray tonight that your Holy Spirit be poured out, that you 05:22 would use this weak and feeble vessel for your glory. 05:29 We pray that the Holy Spirit that inspires would also be the 05:34 Spirit that instructs. 05:36 For we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ. 05:42 Amen. 05:42 Amen. 05:44 Our passage of reflection this evening is taken from the book 05:49 of Joel, Joel chapter 2 and verse 23 and verse 28. 05:59 Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord 06:06 your God, for he has given you the former rain faithfully, and 06:14 he will cause the rain to come down on you, the former rain, 06:20 and the latter rain in the first month. 06:24 Let's go to verse 28. 06:26 And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out 06:33 my Spirit on all flesh. 06:39 Before we get into the heart of tonight's study, I want to lay 06:44 the foundation with a little bit of an introduction by 06:48 making a few observations about this passage that we've just 06:52 read. 06:54 And the first one is that the Holy Spirit is like rain. 07:01 That's what the Bible is indicating, that this is a 07:03 metaphor, it's an analogy that the Bible uses. 07:07 There's another passage found in Isaiah chapter 44 verse 3. 07:11 It says, for I will pour water on him who is thirsty and 07:16 floods on the dry ground, I will pour my Spirit on your 07:20 descendants and my blessings on your offspring. 07:27 In Joel chapter 2, God promises both the early and the latter 07:32 rain, then he says, I will pour out my Spirit. 07:36 Rain is the metaphor, the Spirit is the miracle, and when 07:42 heaven rains, the Spirit rains. 07:45 Amen. 07:47 Observation number 2. 07:49 The Christian experience is like the growth of a plant. 07:54 We find this metaphor in other places in Christ's teachings. 07:58 In Mark chapter 4 verse 28, Jesus said, for the earth 08:02 yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after 08:08 that the full grain. 08:10 Jesus brings out that the Christian life is analogous to 08:15 the growth of a plant. 08:17 First you have the germination of the seed, you have the 08:20 growth of the seed, and finally you have the harvest that takes 08:24 place afterwards. 08:25 And when Jesus comes in the book of Revelation, Revelation 08:29 chapter 14 verse 14, he comes with something that he's 08:34 holding in his hand. 08:35 He's coming with a sickle, and he says the harvest was a reap. 08:40 So this is a metaphor that is throughout scripture that the 08:44 Christian experience is similar to the growth of a plant, and 08:49 just like there's no plant growth without rain, there's no 08:54 soul growth without the Spirit. 08:58 We come to observation number 3. 09:02 If we don't receive the daily rain, we won't receive the 09:08 latter rain. 09:11 The book of Joel brings out the former rain by implication is 09:15 preparing us for the latter rain. 09:18 So the early rain is the daily rain. 09:22 It softens the soil, it feeds the roots, it sustains the 09:27 growth, and the latter rain is the final rain. 09:31 It's the rain that comes right before the harvest that gives 09:34 it that little bit of boost that ripens the grain, prepares 09:39 it for harvest, and finishes the work. 09:43 So follow me, no daily rain, no final rain. 09:48 If there's no root, there's no fruit. 09:53 So daily surrender is what prepares us for the final 09:59 saturation. 10:01 We come to observation number 4. 10:07 In gardening, it requires cooperation between God and 10:14 humans. 10:16 You can see that for those of you that have garden. 10:19 Now I grew up in the city, but I have grown to love gardening 10:24 and appreciate that there is this cooperation that takes 10:28 place. 10:29 Now think about it. 10:30 God provides the seed. 10:32 What do you do with the seed? 10:34 You plant the seed. 10:36 God provides the rain, and the seed germinates. 10:41 We weed. 10:43 We protect the garden. 10:45 God provides the harvest, and at the end, we must pick the 10:50 fruit of the harvest. 10:53 Now there's a theologian by the name of John Peckham, who's at 10:58 Andrews University, and he wrote a book on the love of 11:01 God. 11:03 And he brings out that God's love is bilateral. 11:10 This is in contrast to this notion of unilateral. 11:19 Now you do not want to be in a marriage that is unilateral. 11:25 Am I correct? 11:27 You do not want to be in a country that is unilateral. 11:32 That's North Korea. 11:34 I can say that because I'm Korean. 11:35 All right. 11:36 Kim Jong-un, there is no democracy there. 11:39 It is unilateral. 11:41 You do not agree. 11:42 Tough. 11:48 It's really a concentration camp. 11:50 There is no dialogue. 11:51 It is a unilateral decision that is made from the top. 11:55 But the way that God relates to us is not a unilateral type of 12:00 love that is not love by because love involves free will 12:05 and choice. 12:07 But it is bilateral. 12:11 In other words, it takes two. 12:14 It requires cooperation. 12:19 Now here's the thing. 12:21 According to John Peckham, God has favorites. 12:27 Now when I read that, I was like, what? 12:31 And he develops it some more by indicating that there are 12:34 certain people in the Bible like John the Beloved. 12:38 By the way, he wrote that about himself. 12:41 And I'm like, didn't God love all of the disciples? 12:44 When you process it a little more, you will recognize that 12:47 Jesus had the 70, he had the 12, he had the 3, and then it 12:55 seems like he had the 1. 12:58 Now if you're like me, I don't like favoritism. 13:03 When I was in elementary school, there was the teacher's 13:06 pet. 13:07 You know what I'm talking about. 13:09 Always got coddled and pampered and all of the favorites that 13:13 went to that individual. 13:16 But here you can see that there were certain individuals that 13:20 were given special privileges and allowed into a certain 13:23 inner sanctum with God. 13:27 When the angel Gabriel comes to Daniel, he says, Daniel, you 13:31 are dearly beloved. 13:35 Angel Gabriel, don't come to me and tell me that. 13:39 But it seems to indicate and imply this idea that God gives 13:46 everyone universal opportunity. 13:51 In other words, everyone can be a favorite, but not everyone 13:58 chooses to respond to become a favorite. 14:04 That's the implication. 14:06 In other words, God's relationship with us is 14:09 bilateral. 14:10 He's always initiating. 14:11 He's always stepping out. 14:13 I want you to be in my inner sanctum. 14:15 I want to walk with you like Enoch walked with me. 14:19 He takes a step, and he's waiting for us to take the 14:23 step. 14:25 And when we take a step, he takes another step. 14:29 Just like in gardening, if you don't take the step to plant 14:34 the seed, you're not going to get fruit. 14:38 And you can sit around all day and say, oh, I'm not a 14:41 favorite. 14:42 What you didn't initiate. 14:44 I should say you didn't respond. 14:47 And this is the way the dynamic works. 14:49 And that is the implication that you can find in the book 14:53 of Joel in relationship to the early rain and the latter rain. 15:00 When you see in Genesis, one of the shortest verses is that 15:06 Enoch walked with God for 300 years. 15:12 And when you look at the Hebrew, the implication is 15:15 this. 15:17 It's in the Hebrew syntax. 15:19 God took a step. 15:22 Enoch took a step. 15:23 God took a step. 15:26 Enoch took a step. 15:28 And this happened for 300 years. 15:31 And he got so close to glory that God said, just take one 15:35 more. 15:36 And Enoch is in heaven today. 15:40 That is the bilateral relationship. 15:44 And that's implied in the early rain and the latter rain and 15:49 preparation for the Holy Spirit. 15:51 God is always initiating. 15:53 The question is, are we responding? 15:59 Why do we need the daily rain? 16:04 When we look at scripture, we can see that there is a daily 16:10 struggle that we all experience. 16:15 This struggle is described in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16:20 17. 16:22 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the 16:28 spirit what is contrary to the flesh. 16:32 They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do 16:36 whatever you want. 16:39 We have this dichotomy that exists in all of us. 16:45 The Bible says it's the spirit on one side and the flesh on 16:51 the other side. 16:55 kind of pinpoints what this dichotomy is like. 17:01 And it points out that on one side, that you have the spirit. 17:06 This is also described in Romans chapter 7. 17:10 And we're told that the spirit is the reason and the 17:13 conscience. 17:15 And then you have the flesh which are the appetites and 17:19 passions. 17:20 And we've all experienced this before. 17:23 Thanksgiving dinner. 17:26 You've eaten a little bit too much. 17:29 And you forgot to make room for dessert. 17:33 And dessert comes out. 17:36 And your reason, your frontal lobe, your prefrontal cortex, 17:40 tells you, you shouldn't eat it. 17:43 But then your appetite tells you, I need this. 17:48 And there is this conflict that takes place. 17:51 Should I eat it? 17:51 Should I not eat it? 17:52 Should I eat it? 17:53 Should I not eat it? 17:55 And you could project this struggle onto all types of 18:00 realities. 18:04 But you can point this out in reference to any addiction, 18:08 whether it be pornography or lust or drugs or anything like 18:12 that. 18:13 This temptation presents itself. 18:14 And there is this inner struggle between what we ought 18:17 to do and what we feel like doing. 18:21 And it's a very real internal struggle. 18:26 So what do we do? 18:28 Typically, if you look at the next slide, we go to January 18:34 1st, our New Year's resolution. 18:38 And we say, this year, I'm going to conquer my appetite. 18:44 This year, this addiction, I'm never going to do it anymore. 18:48 And statistically, they say that New Year's resolutions 18:51 don't even last more than 30 days on average. 18:57 And so we try this thing about willpower. 18:59 And there's a theology that's been disseminated all over 19:02 social media the last few years. 19:05 And I sympathize with this because there's individuals 19:08 that have just gotten tired of being tired. 19:11 They've gotten tired of the struggle, tired of battling 19:15 their passions and their appetites. 19:17 And these people came out and said, I've been addicted to 19:19 pornography for years and I can't overcome this thing 19:22 anymore. 19:23 So I just need to live in a new reality. 19:28 I need to live in a new reality. 19:30 Even though I'm in an active state of sin, I just need to 19:33 accept that I am sinless even though I'm actively 19:37 participating in this addiction. 19:41 I sympathize with the struggle, but I disagree with the idea 19:45 because people have just gotten tired of struggling with 19:50 something and never getting victory over it. 19:53 So they just say, hey, I'm just going to be sinning until Jesus 19:58 comes. 20:01 And this addiction is more powerful than God. 20:09 So what do we do? 20:11 Steps to Christ says this. 20:14 Many are inquiring, how am I to make the surrender of myself to 20:20 God? 20:21 You desire to give yourself to him, but you are weak in moral 20:26 power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of 20:32 your life of sin. 20:34 Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. 20:39 You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, and 20:44 your affections. 20:45 How many of you have felt like this before? 20:48 Make a promise, it's like a rope of sand. 20:54 And yet we can see that the Bible brings out that there are 21:01 four distinct phases to receiving the daily rain, and 21:07 they are cooperative. 21:10 They are bilateral. 21:13 God takes a step, we take a step. 21:17 And the first phase is found in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 21:22 20. 21:23 You know it very well. 21:24 It says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. 21:30 God has taken the first step. 21:32 He comes to your door. 21:34 He comes to your heart and he knocks. 21:36 He's the initiator. 21:38 Now notice that Jesus doesn't come down like the FBI or the 21:41 SWAT team with a big old BOOM! 21:46 That's unilateral. 21:48 But the implication of this passage is that this is a 21:51 bilateral relationship, but God is always the initiator. 21:56 He's the one that's going out on a limb. 21:58 He's knocking on the door. 22:03 Now for a number of years, I canvassed, which is going door 22:09 to door. 22:10 I started in an academy in the 1990s. 22:15 I was at a school that was doing work education, which 22:18 meant you went to school in the morning and worked in the 22:22 afternoon, and my vocational training was canvassing. 22:27 So I've been all over the country. 22:29 I would work 20 hours a week when I was in an academy going 22:32 door to door, and I did this for two straight years through 22:36 academy. 22:37 I loved it so much that during the summer I did it too. 22:42 Matter of fact, I got known for canvassing. 22:45 People thought David Shin canvasser. 22:47 That's what they thought. 22:49 And there's something that you learn when you go to these 22:52 doors. 22:53 Ding dong! 22:55 Or you knock on the door. 22:57 They open the door and you stand there on the threshold. 23:04 And it doesn't matter how nice they are to me, they can give 23:08 me a thousand dollars. 23:10 They can pay me all types of compliments until I heard those 23:16 wonderful words, come on in. 23:21 Once they did that, I was like, all right, I would cross the 23:26 sacred threshold of that door. 23:30 And that is the metaphor that Jesus uses for how this thing 23:35 works. 23:36 Every day he comes. 23:39 It's bilateral. 23:41 He initiates and he's waiting for me to take the next step. 23:47 You can see it there on the screen. 23:49 God takes the first step. 23:52 He gives us the power of choice. 23:56 He knocks on the door. 23:57 He's the initiator. 23:59 He says, hey, I'm here. 24:01 What are you going to do? 24:02 Are you going to respond in this bilateral relationship? 24:07 Then what do we do? 24:09 Our second step after that is we say, come on in. 24:16 And consent is the most powerful thing that you can do 24:21 in your relationship with God. 24:24 I was at a camp meeting a number of years ago, and in the 24:30 early teen ten, a young boy walked in, demon possessed. 24:39 Pastors gathered around, prayed. 24:43 The demon went out of him, but he went into a Bible worker, a 24:51 Bible worker, and the Bible worker was on the ground under 24:56 demonic oppression. 24:58 Finally, the pastors gathered around. 25:00 The demon went out of him, and they went to that Bible worker 25:04 and was like, hey, did some counseling. 25:08 Whatever reason, the devil felt like he had an entry. 25:13 And he said, I know exactly what it was. 25:17 He had given the devil implicit consent. 25:25 There are rules in the great controversy. 25:28 God will go to a certain line, and he will not cross it until 25:36 you say, come on in. 25:40 And the most powerful thing that you can do daily in your 25:45 relationship with God is to say, Lord, come in. 25:52 Come in. 25:55 And when you do that, all of the power of heaven is at your 26:02 disposal. 26:03 Amen. 26:05 That's ground zero. 26:07 God initiates, he takes that step, and he's waiting for you 26:10 to open the door. 26:12 You don't want to open the door to the other agency because 26:15 he's a squatter. 26:17 Very hard to get him out. 26:20 You open the door to Jesus every single day in that 26:23 bilateral relationship. 26:24 He knocks, you open. 26:27 And here's the thing. 26:30 When you look at the Bible, the Bible brings out very clearly 26:37 in 1 John 3 verse 24 that when the way that Jesus comes into 26:44 our hearts, the Bible says, and we know that he abides in us, 26:48 and he is Jesus by the spirit whom he has given us. 26:52 In other words, when the Holy Spirit comes in, he brings with 26:58 him the presence of Jesus. 27:01 You ever thought about it before? 27:03 How does Jesus abide in our hearts? 27:05 Christ in you, the hope of glory, when he is taken on 27:08 human form and is in the most holy place in the heavenly 27:11 sanctuary, he does this through the agency of the Holy Spirit, 27:16 the daily rain. 27:18 So when the Holy Spirit comes in, Jesus comes in. 27:22 Amen. 27:23 And what he brings with him, according to Romans chapter 8, 27:28 is resurrection power. 27:32 The same power that raised Jesus from the dead comes in. 27:38 Amen. 27:40 And that changes everything. 27:44 Amen. 27:46 So here's how it works. 27:49 God initiates, knocks on the door. 27:53 I respond, come on in. 27:56 Jesus comes in. 27:57 And with that, he brings resurrection power. 28:07 And that's the daily baptism of the Holy Spirit. 28:18 Friends, if we're daily receiving the rain, the latter 28:24 rain will take care of itself. 28:34 God initiates, we respond. 28:38 God responds, then we respond. 28:41 We come to our next slide. 28:43 Amen. 28:44 God gives us power. 28:49 We give our will to God. 28:51 God empowers our will. 28:54 And in Steps to Christ, page 47, it goes on. 29:00 What you need to understand is the true force of the will. 29:05 This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of 29:09 decision or of choice. 29:11 Everything depends on the right action of the will. 29:15 The power of choice, God has given to men. 29:18 It is theirs to exercise. 29:20 You cannot change your heart. 29:22 You cannot of yourself give to God its affections, but you can 29:26 choose to serve him. 29:28 You can give him your will. 29:32 Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of 29:36 the Spirit of Christ. 29:38 You can go to God and say, Lord, I can't even give my 29:43 heart. 29:43 Take it. 29:45 Help me to be willing to be made willing. 29:48 That's the prayer of surrender. 29:49 Lord, I love this thing. 29:52 Help me to hate it. 29:53 I can't do this by myself. 29:55 I don't have the willpower, but you have the power. 29:58 That's the invitation. 30:00 You're saying, Lord, come in. 30:02 And then God says, I've got the authorization. 30:04 I'm coming. 30:06 I'm coming. 30:07 And then with that, the Bible indicates according to Romans 30:11 chapter 8, that he gives us resurrection power to now walk 30:16 in the Spirit and not in the flesh. 30:23 That's the beauty of the gospel. 30:26 God initiates. 30:27 I respond by letting him in. 30:29 He comes in and with him comes resurrection power to now walk 30:34 in the Spirit and not in the flesh. 30:39 And I'm so glad that the Bible says that this is a walk. 30:45 It's not a leap. 30:47 It's not a sprint. 30:49 I can do a walk. 30:52 And it's one step at a time. 30:58 Following God is like walking with a flashlight. 31:03 It only goes 10 feet. 31:08 But here's the beauty. 31:09 You want to see the next 10 feet? 31:12 Take another step. 31:14 Take another step. 31:15 And if you fall, Proverbs 24 verse 16, get back up. 31:21 First John 1 9, ask for forgiveness. 31:23 It's okay. 31:24 It's not about the track record. 31:26 It's about the trajectory. 31:27 So get back up. 31:29 When my baby fell when he was learning how to walk, I didn't 31:31 go, what's wrong with you? 31:34 No way. 31:35 Me being a sinful human being, I was like, that's all right. 31:38 Get up. 31:40 Get up. 31:41 And sometimes we think that God is worse than us. 31:44 Just keep on walking. 31:47 That's the beauty of the Christian experience. 31:52 When Jesus comes in, he helps you to walk in the spirit and 31:56 not in the flesh. 31:58 But he also helps us to do something else. 32:01 In 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 27, Paul, who is walking 32:05 with God, says, I keep under my body and bring it into 32:12 subjection. 32:16 The implication is that in the Christian experience, every day 32:22 we invite Jesus in, he gives us resurrection power to walk in 32:26 the spirit and not in the flesh, but he also gives us 32:28 resurrection power to manage our sinful nature, to hold it 32:35 in check. 32:37 Now, notice this is the last phase of this bilateral 32:39 relationship with God. 32:41 First, you got to let him in. 32:43 It gives you resurrection power, but we have this thing 32:46 called the appetite and passions that I'm so thankful 32:50 that at the second coming, at translation, that sinful nature 32:56 will be gone. 32:57 Praise the Lord and hallelujah. 32:59 But the implication of what Paul's saying here is that 33:02 until the resurrection, we're going to have to manage this 33:06 thing called the carnal nature. 33:10 You ever have your carnal nature rise up within you? 33:18 I was at a camp meeting one time and I don't know why this 33:23 always happens to me. 33:26 I spoke, preached my heart out, and some dear lady walked up to 33:32 me in a crowd. 33:34 I didn't know her from anybody. 33:36 She tapped me on the shoulder and she said, David, you look 33:41 like you're 12. 33:45 And then she just walked off and I was like, what was that? 33:50 I didn't say that. 33:51 I said, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. 33:53 But it's one of those things that just sits in you and 34:01 you're more bothered that you're bothered. 34:05 And I gave my heart to God that day, bilateral relationship 34:08 with God, but there was this thing that was rising up within 34:11 me. 34:14 I wanted to give her a piece of my, you look like you're 34:23 90. 34:28 So you comment on my age, does that give me a right to comment 34:31 on? 34:37 carnal nature and we need to, by the grace of God, be able to 34:41 manage that thing. 34:42 And that's why Paul says, I keep under my body the flesh 34:47 and bring it into subjection, lest after having preached to 34:52 others, I myself am a castaway. 34:55 In other words, if we don't, by the grace of God, use 34:59 resurrection power to manage this carnal nature and it gets 35:03 out of control, we can be lost. 35:09 You feed the line enough, it will take over. 35:13 So he says, I need to hold it in check by the grace of God, 35:16 not in my power, not in willpower, but in God's power 35:19 in this bilateral relationship with him. 35:27 Back in 2015, when I was still pastoring, I got the call to 35:36 pastor in Alaska and I thought, Lord, what have I done wrong? 35:50 You're putting me in the wilderness, 35:57 on ice, out of commission, and I prayed hard about it. 36:04 And I said, Lord, I'll go wherever you want me to go. 36:07 I was in Michigan, the economy was awful, houses weren't 36:10 selling. 36:13 want to go all the way up there and not be your will. 36:16 So you just need to reveal a sign to me. 36:18 Now here's the thing about signs. 36:20 When the Bible says something very clearly, you don't need to 36:23 ask for a sign. 36:24 When the Bible says, thou shall not kill, you don't need to 36:26 say, Lord, please show me a sign. 36:27 You just need to... 36:29 But I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says, go to 36:32 Alaska. 36:34 And I said, Lord, if my home sells this week, I'll go to 36:40 Alaska. 36:46 The home sold that week. 36:50 Next thing I knew, packing up everything on the Alaska 36:55 Highway, going up there. 36:56 And I said, Oh, this is crazy. 36:58 I can't believe it. 36:59 So I decided that in order to make my time there as enjoyable 37:05 as possible to get into photography. 37:10 And you don't have to be a good photographer in Alaska. 37:14 You just have to point and click. 37:16 It was just like incredible. 37:20 So I took pictures all the way up there and we started this 37:23 blog called Shins in Alaska. 37:34 And it was basically highlighting our trip. 37:38 We'd have photos up there and then I started posting these 37:42 photos on social media, Instagram and Facebook. 37:48 And my engagement for what I had been doing before went off 37:56 the charts. 37:57 It's like I post these photos, do a little bit of editing, 38:02 color matching and so forth and just make sure it was just 38:06 right. 38:07 And people were just like, like, like, like, like, like, 38:09 like, like, like. 38:11 And with every like, it was a dopamine hit. 38:18 It was like, Oh, every comment just gave me just a a little 38:24 bit of buzz. 38:25 And then I started getting into photography even more. 38:32 I started buying lenses and, and cameras. 38:35 And my wife is a saint because I'd go to her every single time 38:42 and I say, honey, I promise you, if I buy this camera, I 38:48 will never buy another one until Jesus comes. 38:54 And my wife would believe me and we buy the camera. 38:57 A few months later, I'd be like, there's another camera 38:59 that came out and we did this over and over again. 39:01 And I'm ashamed to say this, but over the course of time, I 39:05 had 30 lenses and 10 cameras. 39:16 Not all at once. 39:17 I would buy and sell them on eBay. 39:19 I got a very good rating, by the way, 100% quite proud of 39:22 that. 39:25 And I began to realize that I had developed a dopamine 39:33 addiction. 39:36 Now, just to be clear, I believe that social media can 39:41 be used for the gospel. 39:44 What a wonderful thing to keep in touch with family and 39:47 friends, but it's a double -edged sword. 39:53 And this is from a former Facebook exec. 39:56 He said in one article that he feels tremendous guilt for what 40:00 he helped make. 40:04 emergency meeting because their user base had plateaued at a 40:11 mere 90 million users. 40:14 And it was this crisis. 40:16 And so they decided to exploit these dopamine feedback loops. 40:22 And he says this, and I quote, the short-term dopamine driven 40:27 feedback loops that we have created are destroying how 40:33 society works. 40:36 From his own mouth, I believe that the greatest threat to 40:44 daily rain today is the glowing screen in your pocket. 40:53 Digital noise drowns out the gentle rain of the spirit, and 40:59 your phone might be why your soul's running dry. 41:10 And after a time, the Holy Spirit began to convict me 41:15 because when I got up in the morning, I was no longer 41:19 reaching for my Bible. 41:22 I was reaching for my dopamine hit for that morning to see how 41:27 many likes had come on Instagram. 41:34 And what they have found, and they spent millions of dollars 41:39 on this, is that the way they tried to do it was this 41:45 unexpected reward learning circuit. 41:49 It's the slot machine effect. 41:51 And so it's the unexpected reward. 41:54 And so what they have found is that there is this article that 41:59 was published, and I quote, Instagram's notification 42:03 algorithms will sometimes withhold likes on your photos 42:07 to deliver them in larger bursts. 42:11 So when you make your post, you may be disappointed to find 42:15 less responses than you expected, only to receive them 42:19 in a larger bunch later. 42:21 Your dopamine centers have been primed by those initial 42:25 negative outcomes to respond robustly to the sudden influx 42:31 of social appraisal. 42:34 So here's the thing, and this is unregulated. 42:41 I post a photo of my two dogs in Alaska. 42:48 I climb up to this beautiful view. 42:53 The lighting is perfect. 42:54 I take my photo with my 23 millimeter 1.4 aperture. 43:00 Just click. 43:02 Beautiful. 43:04 Perfect. 43:08 gets engagement. 43:10 It's dogs and babies. 43:12 Works every time. 43:13 And I post it up there, and I'm checking, and I'm checking, and 43:17 I'm checking, and I'm checking, and Instagram's algorithms 43:20 wants to get me addicted, so they'll hold it back. 43:22 And suddenly at 1 a.m., because I'm still on there and they 43:25 know it, they will 150 likes and comments, 20 comments, and 43:30 I'm like, and 43:39 I'm hooked. 43:45 Another article says if you've ever misplaced your phone, you 43:48 may have experienced a mild state of panic until it's been 43:55 found. 43:56 About 73% of people claim to have experienced this flavor of 44:01 anxiety, which makes sense when you consider that adults in the 44:05 U.S. 44:09 typing and swiping their devices. 44:11 That adds up to over 2,600 daily touches per day. 44:18 And they have found that our phones are more dirty in terms 44:24 of germs than the toilet, 44:31 because people are like, I need to go to the bathroom. 44:35 Where's my phone? 44:39 And the thing is, you wash your hands after you go to the 44:42 bathroom, but do you wash your phone? 44:46 Another Facebook executive says this, what it's leading to is a 44:50 product that is just fundamentally addictive for 44:53 people, and it's causing all kinds of mental health issues. 45:03 I work at Weimar University, and every month we have a 45:07 depression and anxiety program that's conducted by Dr. Nedley, 45:11 and people come from all over the country to do this program 45:16 because they're suffering from extreme depression and anxiety. 45:20 I'm one of the chaplains, and in the interviews of people 45:25 that come in, these people, masochistic, suicidal, on the 45:30 end of the rope, all types of anxiety, and they pay $1,000 a 45:36 day for 10 days, and this program is almost always 45:42 packed. 45:49 experiment in the history of mankind with these devices, and 45:54 there are people that are going to be eternally lost because 45:58 they are visiting the portals of hell through their phones. 46:04 That's where we're at. 46:07 Day one of this program, where they pay $1,000 a day, they 46:11 voluntarily give up all of their devices, and after that, 46:18 during supper, for about a little window, they're able to 46:21 call their loved ones, but outside of that, no screams. 46:26 When you look at the statistics, when a nation has a 46:31 user base of over 50% of the having smartphones, depression 46:37 and anxiety goes through the roof. 46:43 There are several reasons why. 46:45 One of them has to do with dopamine, but here's the other 46:49 one. 46:50 In 2014, three Nobel laureates received the Nobel Prize in 46:57 Science for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting 47:05 diodes, known as LEDs. 47:07 Now, here's the thing. 47:09 There's this part in your brain called the suprachiasmatic 47:12 nucleus that's connected to your optic nerve, and what it 47:16 does among many things is it regulates your internal 47:19 biological clock, and the blue light that enters your eye sets 47:29 that internal clock, and when you look at the screen before 47:35 you go to bed, it tricks your brain into thinking that it's 47:40 still daylight, and what they found is that reading your iPad 47:46 or being on your phone just before you go to bed suppresses 47:52 melatonin secretion by 50%. 48:02 50%. 48:10 in a crisis of sleep deprivation. 48:16 I've counseled with young people, not at the university 48:19 I'm at, but another college where a young person came in, 48:24 bloodshot eyes, failing in her grades, mental health issues, 48:28 depression, anxiety. 48:32 Counseling her, and I say, hey, what's going on? 48:35 Tell me about your sleeping, and she says, I haven't slept 48:40 well in six months. 48:42 I said, what have you been doing? 48:44 She says, I've been binging on Netflix and YouTube and these 48:50 other things till 4 a.m. 48:52 every single morning for the past six months. 48:59 When we look at the sleep crisis in America, there are 49:07 several things that it impacts. 49:11 One of the things is that there's a part of your brain 49:14 called the amygdala. 49:18 The amygdala is responsible for your emotions, and there is a 49:24 connection between your prefrontal cortex and your 49:28 amygdala. 49:30 When you get a good night of sleep, that connection is very 49:33 strong. 49:37 coming up and you feel like giving someone a piece of your 49:40 mind that's just told you that you look like you're 12 years 49:43 old. 49:46 Your prefrontal cortex is saying, David, David, don't say 49:49 anything, hold your tongue, pray, quote scripture, do not 49:52 be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 49:55 That's the prefrontal cortex telling you, ah, but what 50:00 happens is, according to Matthew Walker out of UC 50:03 Berkeley, a sleep specialist, he's indicated that in all of 50:08 his studies, that when someone is sleep deprived, that the 50:12 connection between the prefrontal cortex and the 50:16 amygdala is severed. 50:21 He's found that people tend to get more angry, upset, and then 50:25 he says something else. 50:28 They are more likely to cave into their hedonic desires, i 50:37 .e. 50:38 appetite and passions. 50:41 You're more likely to eat junk food if you're sleep deprived. 50:49 And here's the thing. 50:51 I went over to Europe for a speaking appointment a few 50:54 years ago. 50:57 I left on Friday, got in Friday night at midnight to England, 51:04 spoke the next day on afternoon, spoke again on 51:10 Sunday, flew back. 51:12 I was back in the classroom on Monday. 51:16 I was so sleep deprived. 51:18 And then I was in administration at the time, I 51:21 had to handle a very sensitive issue. 51:24 And I got with this brother on the phone and I just lit into 51:28 him. 51:31 Later on, a week later, my frontal lobe was connected. 51:38 I had to call that brother back and apologize. 51:43 And now, when I'm sleep deprived, I write in my 51:46 journal, no big decisions today. 51:52 Because whatever it is, it's going to be a bad one. 51:59 Matthew Walker says, with a full night of plentiful sleep, 52:02 we have a balanced mix between our emotional gas pedal, our 52:06 amygdala, and our break, our prefrontal cortex. 52:09 Without sleep, however, the strong coupling between these 52:13 two brain regions is lost. 52:17 So this is about cooperation. 52:20 We invite God into our hearts. 52:22 He comes in with Holy Spirit power, resurrection power, to 52:27 manage this part of our nature, our carnal nature. 52:33 And this device, these devices, which I praise God for, we need 52:41 to manage them by the grace of God. 52:45 And if this thing is keeping us from the gates of heaven, Jesus 52:51 says, take drastic measures. 52:55 Amen. 52:57 And it's so drastic that he uses the analogy of amputation. 53:06 If your arm is causing you to stumble, he says, cut it off. 53:10 If your eye is causing you to stumble, pluck it out. 53:13 And I know individuals that can't manage these devices so 53:17 much that they've gone to dumb phones. 53:22 Remember those flip phones from back in the day? 53:26 They've gone to those drastic measures. 53:32 This is where we are, friends, and this is the epidemic that 53:37 we are facing. 53:43 LeBron James, back in 2011, lost in the NBA finals to 53:50 Dallas Mavericks. 53:53 He said it was one of the most painful losses that he's ever 53:56 experienced. 53:57 As you remember, he had never won the big one. 54:01 And everyone was saying he's just a stat machine. 54:05 So the next year, when he went into the playoffs, he put on 54:08 his Twitter account, zero, dark, 30, 23, activated. 54:18 Which meant that he went on a total media fast for the 54:24 entirety of the playoffs. 54:27 And he said this, and I quote, this is from the Bleacher 54:30 Report, there's too much nonsense out there. 54:34 This is when I lock in right now and I don't need nothing 54:38 creeping into my mind that don't need to be there. 54:44 He says, stay off the TV and stay off social media. 54:47 You win a game and everybody's the greatest player in the 54:50 world. 54:56 LeBron has said he has changed his sleep patterns this season 54:59 and that it's been a boon to his success. 55:02 Once the playoffs roll through, he's not just well rested, he's 55:06 laser focused. 55:09 And since then, he's won four. 55:14 Now, if LeBron James would do this to put a ball in a basket, 55:21 this is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 55:26 through 27 from the New Living Translation. 55:29 All athletes are disciplined in their training. 55:34 They do it to win a prize that fades away, but we do it for an 55:38 eternal prize. 55:40 So I run with purpose in every step. 55:42 I'm not just shadow boxing. 55:45 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what 55:49 it should. 55:55 may be disqualified. 55:59 Paul is making the analogy that if LeBron James is doing this 56:03 for basketball, how much more should we as Christians manage 56:10 this area of our lives to win an eternal prize? 56:21 The daily rain helps us to control our devices before they 56:26 control us. 56:28 Without the Spirit's rain, the screens rain. 56:33 It takes more than willpower to manage your screen time. 56:38 It takes Spirit power. 56:42 I believe that we're living in an unprecedented age, friends. 56:47 Jesus is coming soon. 56:51 The latter rain is about to be poured out, but we need the 56:57 daily rain first. 56:59 So I want to encourage you every day. 57:01 Be in that bilateral relationship with God. 57:05 Allow the Spirit in so that he can give you power to manage 57:11 the carnal nature. 57:13 Is that your desire today by his grace? 57:15 Amen. 57:16 Praise the Lord. |
Revised 2025-06-06