OPEN: A few yrs ago, a computer specialist by the name of Didier Stevens came up with a humorous ad campaign he placed on Google (a popular internet site). The Ad read in this way:
"Is your PC (Personal Computer) virus-free? Get it infected here!"
Now for those of you not familiar with computers… a virus is NOT your friend. Computer viruses hurt your computers, and you don’t want to be “infected” by them.
Steven’s ad wasn’t serious. It was something of a joke. And clicking the ad did not result in a virus infecting your computer.
But some people actually clicked on the ad!
Over 400 people signed up to have a virus infect/ damage Computer.
(Patrick D. Odum, Heartlight.org 07/26/07)
Now – why would anybody do that???
Why would anybody “INFECT’ their PC’s (our Personal Computers) with a virus?
It makes no sense.
A virus would HURT their computer.
Now the Bible tells us that there’s a different kind of virus.
A virus that doesn’t infect our PC’s (our personal computers).
This kind of virus infects our PL’s (our Personal Lives).
The Bible calls this kind of virus - sin
Ephesians 5:3-5 tells us
“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person— such a man is an idolater— has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
Ephesians 5 talks about several viruses (SINS) in this text… but what I want to focus on this morning are three of them:
1. Obscenity
2. Foolish talk
3. And Course Joking
Earlier in Ephesians God tells us “Do not let any UNWHOLESOME TALK come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29
Colossians 3:8 says it this way: “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and FILTHY LANGUAGE from your lips.”
And Jesus condemned the Pharisees with these words:
Mt 12:34-36 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
On Facebook… there’s a lot of this “overflowing of the heart” going on.
Folks there may not be “speaking”… but they are writing what is in their hearts.
And a lot of that writing is filled with obscenity, foolish talk and course joking, and there’s a whole lot of “unwholesome” stuff going on there.
ILLUS: One preacher told me of a friend he’d had on Facebook (she wasn’t part of his church).
She had posted something that was filled with several curse words. When this got back to the Elders of her church… they called her in for a little meeting.
She was not pleased with that meeting.
So when she got home, she reposted her statement (the one filled with obscenities) and rattled on about how hypocritical it was for her Elders to call her on carpet. Many of her “Facebook Friends” rallied to her cause… filling their postings with obscenities. And then these “Friends” went on to tell how much they HATED the church and how hypocritical and worthless Christians were.
My preacher friend then sent her a “private” message pointing out:
1. She was wrong. If she’d been at his church, he’d have called her on the carpet too.
2. BUT WORSE – her reposting and attacking her Elders encouraged people who hated Christ to pile on… and spew their hatred on Facebook page
Fortunately, she backpedaled and apologized - on Facebook – for what she had done.
Some Christians don’t understand how damaging cursing can be to Jesus.
ILLUS: I had the opportunity to talk to a local politician recently. He didn’t realize I was a preacher… and he jokingly cursed in my presence. And I remembered thinking: well the guy’s probably not a Christian BUT doesn’t he realize that he could offend someone by that cursing. He could lose a vote - for himself and maybe for his party - by that single curse.
THEN I found out, he was a regular church goer in a very Biblical church, and suddenly I was very sad. I wondered if he realized that in his one curse he damaged his witness and he had insulted his savior.
So it’s a terrible thing for a Christian to curse or tell off color jokes.
But it can get even worse than that.
ILLUS: In a preachers’ group I’m part of, there was a great deal of discussion about how much damage Facebook had in their churches.
One preacher shared this story:
ILLUS: “We had a situation where a child in the youth group had his ear flicked by one of our sponsors leading the Christmas play practice. Needless to say, (things) hit the Facebook wall, and a firestorm broke out.”
They confronted the sponsor and made sure he knew this wasn’t to be done again… but matters got increasingly worse. It seems in the aftermath, their youth minister left and then really got ugly. He writes:
“I received a great deal of hatred as the story was a bunch of growing lies, and their numerous family members, already mad because our youth minister (their favorite) had just left...and I was the target of their anger already. This just made it worse. It took a year for this to quiet down, but Facebook postings only made a bad situation worse...
The chairman of the elders didn't do what he should have done and the posts were getting uglier by the day. Our elders came to understand that Facebook is not just a nice thing that sits on certain shelves, but is now an important medium of communication that's not going away. It's a new form of gossip, but fortunately (and I use that loosely) at least we can SEE it instead of guess or get it secondhand.
Facebook can be a great place to talk with your friends… but it can also be a terrible place filled with evil and bitterness and darkness. A place where Jesus and His church can be attacked and cursed.
Christians need to be as careful there… because the world is watching.
SO, how do we deal with this problem? How do we stop ourselves from being involved in this? First off – we need to realize this isn’t an “internet” problem.
This problem existed long before Facebook, or even computers were ever thought of.
James writes:
“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” James 3:6-8
You don’t need the computer to say mean and hateful things.
You don’t need the internet to undermine the cause of Jesus by what you say with that tongue.
So, how do we deal with this problem?
1st – the church needs to realize its part in dealing with it.
In that one story I told earlier, the preacher noted:
“The chairman of the elders didn't do what he should have done and the posts were getting uglier by the day.”
What was that preacher saying?
He was saying the leadership in that church refused to confront people about what they were posting on the internet. And because they refused to step up… a bad situation got worse.
ILLUS: I spoke to one youth minister that found a novel way to confront immoral Facebook postings… he said: “I've read some of my youth group members’ posts in front of my Youth Group. That put a stop to it.”
Why would that put a stop to it?
Because when the church does its part in confronting sin… sin backs off.
Ephesians 5:11-14 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, BUT RATHER EXPOSE THEM. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But EVERYTHING EXPOSED BY THE LIGHT BECOMES VISIBLE, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
A good Godly leadership and good Godly friends will lovingly confront fellow Christians who don’t do what they should be doing.
ILLUS: Several years ago I regularly visited a church oriented website where people from several denominations would discuss Bible verses and what they met to them. Some of the discussions got rather involved and heated.
Now, I can argue with the best of them.
And I did.
But over time, a few of postings got personal. I would attack – not just the opinions – but even the intelligence of those who disagreed with me.
It wasn’t a good thing I was doing. I was wrong.
But then, someone on that site pointed it out to me and I did some soul searching. I eventually left the site because (at the time) I wasn’t controlling how I conducted myself there.
My point is this: even your preacher needs to be reminded once in a while when I step over the line. And that’s what a good Christian friend should do for us. Confront us if we speak or write things that aren’t nice things for Christians to speak or write. If necessary, the church leadership should do this, as the Bible commands.
Now ideally, it should never get that far.
The church and our fellow Christians may have to remind us once in a while if we’ve stepped over the line. But as Christians we really should police themselves.
We should be so in love with Jesus, that we realize how badly we can hurt our Savior when we say or write things that are obscene or hurtful.
So… how do we do that?
Jesus said: The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. Matthew 12:35
So, it’s very simple. The evil things that come out of us are from the evil things stored up inside of us. Computer experts have a very scientific phrase to describe this process:
“Garbage in… garbage out.”
If you don’t want bad words coming out of your mouth don’t surround yourself with that kind of language. Don’t spend your time with influences that will fill your hearts and minds with mean spirited and nasty language and attitudes.
For example, there are certain TV shows and movies I won’t watch. There are numerous songs I won’t listen to. There are many magazines and books I won’t allow in my home. I just don’t want anything to do with the words they use and the attitudes they share.
I try very hard to protect myself from these influences.
But, this is harder than it seems.
We’re surrounded with foul language and ideas in many parts of our lives. We find them in:
· Popular movies and songs
· TV shows
· Books and magazines
· I’ve even begun to see cursing show up in Reader’s Digest (I’ve stopped taking it).
· And of late many politicians have taken to using curse words to drive home their points, and the admirers will defend them and even emulate them.
Then – of course – if you work in certain work settings you can count on being regularly exposed to foul language, and the constant drama of people who gossip and verbally attack others.
What that means is you’re surrounded by lots people who curse and say lots of nasty things. In fact Paul told the Church at Corinth that they had to realize that they lived in a pagan world.
“I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.” I Corinthians 5:9-10
If you live IN this world, you’ll come into contact with people who live LIKE the world, because… well… they ARE the world.
So the only way to avoid contact with these people and their influences would be to LEAVE the world. But that’s not real practical.
Now, like I said – it is important to be careful what you allow to be stored up in your heart.
Jesus said “the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Matthew 12:35b) so we don’t want to go there.
But too often - that’s all people think a holy life is like.
They live by the “empty bucket” theology.
They think that if they can empty out all the nasty influences of life they’ll become pure and holy and thus all the words they say and write will be nice and kind.
But if that’s all they do… (if all they do is “EMPTY” the bucket) they really miss out. All they end up with is an empty bucket. And – as we all know – an empty bucket eventually gets filled us with something. Sometimes it gets filled up with things that are even worse than what we emptied of before.
Notice what Jesus said: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him.” (Matthew 12:35a)
In other words – it’s not enough to empty the bucket of bad stuff.
You’ve got to FILL the bucket with good stuff.
Jesus said: a good man STORES UP good things in his heart.
But you might ask: what kind of “good things” should I store in my hearts?
I’m glad you asked.
In our text this morning, Ephesians says: Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather (what?) THANKSGIVING” Ephesians 5:4
1Thessalonians 5:18 echoes this when it says “…GIVE THANKS in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
And Colossians 3:17 says “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, GIVING THANKS to God the Father through him.”
We need to fill our bucket with such an attitude of gratitude to God… that’s there’s no room for anything else. We may not be able to leave this world and all it’s influences upon us, but we can become so filled with our relationship with God that the world just can’t force its way in.
ILLUS: In the computer world it’s hard to go on the internet without encountering viruses. All across the globe there are mean spirited and hateful people that have nothing better to do with their lives than to try to hurt people they’ve never meant by damaging someone else’s computer. And because of these virus makers you can’t get on the internet without exposing your computer to those forces.
However, there are companies out there who make it their business to shield you from those viruses: AVG, Norton, McAfee and Barracudanetworks are just a few of them. Depending on how much protection you buy from these companies, they can protect you from most if not all of the viruses on the internet.
What God is telling us is - a heart filled with thanks is the virus protector we need to shield us from storing up evil thoughts and words in our hearts. The more filled our hearts are with thoughts of God and His kindness to us, the less prone we are to spout off foul words and nasty things.
Someone else said it this way: “…in our English language there is no such thing as being half full of thanks or gratitude: we are either thankFUL or grateFUL. (David Steindl-Rast)
CLOSE: The way to cut down on cursing and mean-spiritedness is to be so focused on Christ and His kindness, that there isn’t room left for the thoughts of this world. And when we do that people see something different in our lives - something that is so satisfying and exciting that this is what they want too.
A Hindu trader in India once asked a missionary, "What do you put on your face to make it shine?" With surprise the man of God answered, "I don't put anything on it!" His questioner began to lose patience and said emphatically, "Yes, you do! All of you who believe in Jesus seem to have it. I've seen it in the towns of Agra and Surat, and even in the city of Bombay."
Suddenly the Christian understood, "Now I know what you mean, and I will tell you the secret. It's not something we put on from the outside but something that comes from within. It's the reflection of the light of God in our hearts.”
