GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Cross and Society

Jeffrey Harper

1. The Hyperlinked Life

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

All right, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

It's 9.02, my computer is telling me, and so we want to begin, because I believe that this seminar concludes at 9.50.

And there'll be a second seminar called Unplugged here, also regarding technology at 10 o'clock.

And we wanted to let you know that the 2 seminars happening this afternoon in this room were going to be on science, but those won't be happening.

So those were canceled, but it'll resume with Justin Kim tomorrow.

And our entire series of seminars is called Cross and Society, and we're trying to think of different values that the world has that are in opposition to or don't mesh with the values of the cross.

And we came up with 3 of them, technology, we came up with science and competition, and again, the science topic will not be addressed because the presenter could not make it, but we'll spend the next couple of hours talking about technology.

And I'm assuming that you're here because we know and appreciate technology.

It's a part of our everyday life, and we daily interact with it.

And so we want to have a conversation, a discussion about technology, and we want to go ahead and ask God to be with us and guide us during our discussion.

Father, I thank you so much for being an awesome, almighty, powerful God.

Lord, you established this planet and we are eternally grateful for the opportunity to live, the opportunity to know you.

And God I believe that we're not going to be here much longer but Lord we're here, we're stuck, we can't go anywhere and there are certain aspects God of this world that that are just a part of life.

And we want to know how to use them for your honor and glory, how to use them wisely.

And forgive us, Father, for not always doing that.

And we pray that your Holy Spirit would just guide this time.

God, I pray that the words that are shared be your words, and that our hearts would be open and prepared to listen to you.

So, as I mentioned on stage, I think we all can agree that we live in a world, 2015, happy new year everyone.

At the age, I'm young, I'm only 27, but by now, the appeal of staying up until midnight has kind of waned.

We're living in a really, an unprecedented time of life.

And what I mean by that is we've really, in a lot of different ways, never been at the spot that we've been in, in culture and society.

Technology is a huge part of everything we do.

I'm amazed when I get in cars that every single new car there is, you can plug into Bluetooth.

There is so much wires going in and out of the car.

Smart houses are becoming not just a fantasy, becoming a reality in many people's homes and lives and becoming less expensive.

Everywhere there is technology computers.

I'm a youth pastor in Southern California and I tell my youth all the time that 1 of the best, and I shouldn't say best, but a promising career if you're a young person and you want to use your talents for God's honor and glory is computer, software engineering, computer work, because that's just a huge part of everything we do.

And I, at first, when I, you know, as technology became greater and you're looking at it, you think, man, it's, you know, do we want it?

You know, there's so many good things about, you know, I grew up on 11 acres in Tennessee and, you know, going out by the creek and catching crawdads and playing in the mud.

It seems like that doesn't happen anymore.

You see these kids playing on their phones.

I have a little two-and-a-half-year-old nephew.

His name is Rowan, and Rowan already, he can barely talk.

He's learning words, but he can easily open up the, you know, his mom's smartphone and access pictures and there's 1 educational game she lets him play and that's where, you know, our young people are at.

And at first I asked myself, man, is it a good thing?

And it seems like, you know, we're kind of caught in the middle.

Like we know, okay, we're not going anywhere with it.

I mean, we're living in a hyperlinked life.

And so we know we can't go anywhere with it and we see the good things about it but we also see some negative aspects.

I mean how many of us have been with a group of friends and you look around and everyone is on their smart phone and it's like wait a second you're supposed to come together to talk to each other, right?

I, just in the last couple times that I've flown, it's fascinating watching people.

And if you ever want to just look at society and culture, man, when you're flying, going to the lobby, I would say 90% of everyone sitting in their seats is on a smartphone or a tablet or some piece of technology.

And so our faces are glued into the screen.

But then at the same time, there's all these powerful, amazing aspects of technology.

So we want to be talking about some of those.

And I want to start out just with a little survey.

How many of you own a cell phone, just a plain cell phone, alright?

Alright, okay I think probably 99% here, okay?

Well, I was amazed by this statistic, but there are almost as many cell phone subscriptions as there are people on earth.

6.8 billion people own and have a cell phone.

When you think about the geography of our world and where some people live out in the middle of the jungle, I saw an article in National Geographic about these nomads in Mongolia who live a very nomad lifestyle, who are on their horses, no electricity, they're out in the middle of nowhere, and each of them have a cell phone.

They're able to, each night they have a little solar power panel that they pull out and it's attached to batteries and somehow they have a cell phone.

And there's also 1.75 billion smartphone users, 1 in every 7 people in the entire world.

I was telling this brother here that I did a survey among my youth and it was a Sabbath.

We had a number of youth, usually we have about 10 to 15 that are there each Sabbath, but I think we had 25 young people in my room that Sabbath, and out of those 25, 24 of them, these are all high school age kids, owned a smartphone.

I was like, man, you know, again, I'm young, 27, but I didn't have a smartphone or a phone, I should say, until I was in college, you know.

And so we're just, it's a different world that we're living in.

We're connected like never before, and yet at the same time, we're alone.

We have friends on Facebook, you know, we have followers on Twitter.

We, I'm amazed at, especially I work with junior high young people and Instagram, you know, is a popular, popular thing and how many followers can you get?

I was talking to 1 young person, his name is Ryan, he's in middle school and popular kid and everyone, there's a little group and they're talking about how he had a thousand followers on Instagram, you know, pretty cool, you know, and what does that even mean, you know?

These people you don't even know, you've never met them in your entire life and yet they're your followers.

And the moment that little ding notification comes up, you look at it, ooh, you know, they liked my picture.

This device combines, and this is just a small, small, small picture of what really this device has.

You guys remember the Rand McNally Rode Atlases?

All right, I'm going to pick on my brother right here.

2. Unplugged

And so I want to give a quick synopsis of what we talked about quickly and then we'll have another word of prayer and we'll get into it.

So in short, our seminar just a bit ago was called the Hyperlinked Life.

And we looked at how we're living in a world that we are connected, it seems like, at every waking moment with technology in our smartphones.

We interact all the time with social media, with apps, with the internet, we're googling everything and technology definitely is not going anywhere.

We looked at a lot of statistics where young people, millennials, you know, use these phones almost constantly.

And in fact, you remember the term that we talked about, nomophobia, nomophobia, which is basically the fear of being away from your cell phone.

And this is what college students, you know, are facing.

We looked at a statistic that said that two-thirds of college students would rather choose an internet connection than a car.

And would rather have Wi-Fi than actually drive somewhere.

And the problem with technology is not that We use it for good things, obviously, because there are so many positive things that we use technology for.

It's amazing that, you know, on this 1 device we talked about last time, how I have my bank, I have, you know, my calendar, I have a map, I have a video camera, I have a camera, I have a dictionary, I have a bible, I have a flash, and it keeps on going.

It's amazing what's packed into this thing.

There's so many powerful things that technology can do that can't do elsewhere.

I'm going to call out, because I see Danny and Sondra Houghton here, they work for a company called 1 Degree Organics.

And it's an awesome company where every single ingredient has a story with a little video attached to it.

You guys would not be able to use and do what you guys do today without technology.

Living in 2015, there's things that we could not do before with this, with the internet, that now we can do.

And yet at the same time, we're caught in the middle, we know that there's these good things but we see some unhealthy things.

We see that we can't go anywhere without our smart phones.

I was sharing last time that recently I was driving in my car, I had left my phone somewhere, it was not charged, I couldn't charge it, and I felt anxious, I felt worried, I didn't know what to do.

I mean I'm constantly talking to someone on the phone, I'm listening to a sermon, I'm always doing, doing, doing, especially with this, And when it's not there, there's an anxiety and a worry.

And also, we talked about how it can affect relationships.

We've all been in a restaurant before, or we've been in a group of people, and all of the family is what?

Looking at their screen, or on their phone.

And so it's causing this disconnect where man are we really connecting heart to heart with people.

I've noticed in my, just in my circle and among different people that often young people are having a harder time just dealing with conflict.

If there's a conflict with a person, they don't want to actually go and talk to them 1 on 1 so it's easier to text them or it's easier just to be distracted.

And these things that are happening because of technology.

We also talked about how another negative side effect is our time and productivity.

This is supposed to help us become more productive, but in all reality it might be causing us to become less productive.

And we looked at a statistic that said, you know, that it's almost, you know, half on half that some people feel like it's helping them become more productive, About 50%, 50% helping them not become productive.

So we're caught in this middle ground, where we're like, yes, I use all these tools for it, but at the same time, you know, it's like I'm constantly checking it, and I get distracted, and we end up looking at articles online or social media for hours.

And so what we're going to be talking about in this seminar is the more practical aspect called unplugged, looking at how do we become good stewards of technology?

How as Seventh-day Adventists do we not get caught up into just the everyday life, hyperlinked life of being constantly connected to our smartphones and technology?

And so, we're going to be looking at in the next 50 minutes, and so why don't we bow our heads for a word of prayer.

God, I want to thank you so much for this time that we have together as a group, as your people, to talk, to discuss, to think about something that we live with, something that is a part of our life.

And God, we desire everything that we do and say to be for your honor and glory.

And we want to pray that your Holy Spirit would just be with us as we talk.

And thank you for guiding this time and we pray these things in your name.

You know, I think at the heart of what we all want is we, when it comes to technologies, we want to be able to manage and be in control of what we do and not have those things that we use be in control of us.

We want to be able to manage technology, we don't want technology to manage us.

And it seems like sometimes we're so busy, so much is going on, that this actually does control us.

You know, we mentioned this last time, but in Christianity we talk a lot about the 3 T's.

Stewardship is a popular common theme in Christianity and Seventh-day Adventism an important theme.

You know, we think of Psalm 24, 1, we'll be looking at that verse, it says, the earth is the Lord, the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

Everything belongs to God, so God has asked us to manage it.

As we talk about stewardship, managing, we talk about talent, Matthew 25, We all have spiritual gifts and talents, and God wants us to use that for his honor and glory.

God wants us to use, I use talent there twice, that should say time, forgive me.

Talent, treasure and talent, 3 things, that doesn't make sense.

Alright, talent, treasure and time, that last 1 should be time.

Another thing that we need to be good stewards of, our time.

God has given us 24 hours in a day, and we need to use it wisely.

And as we look at that list, as we look at 2015, something that I think needs to be added to that list, a fourth T that I think as Christians and as Seventh-day Adventists that we need to be talking about is technology.

We need to have that be a part of our conversations on stewardship and management because in 2015, we live in a world where technology is everywhere.

We mentioned that last seminar, that our cars and our homes and everything has a computer chip.

I have a friend who has a refrigerator that can play Pandora, all right?

On the screen door, it can connect to the Wi-Fi, and you can listen to Pandora as you're making your souffle.

And so what we're gonna look at is 7, biblical number, all right, 7 different ways that I believe that we can become good stewards of technology, that we can use wisely technology, that we can use it with effectiveness and with purpose.

And goes hand in hand with what we talked about last time and let's go ahead and start with this first 1.

The first thing I think that is important, if you struggle with or you see people around you struggling with, maybe you're a young person at home, maybe just yourself in college, but you see, you know what?

The first thing that I would recommend is creating intentional space for conversation.

And what I mean by that is this, I was listening to a TED Talk, praise the Lord for TED Talks, anyone?

And the presenter's name was Sherry Turkle.

And she specifically looks at the relationship between society and technology, between people and technology, and how those are interacting with each other.

And it's funny because 15 years ago, she wrote a book about how technology's gonna be the best thing in the world and she's so excited about it.

And then this TED talk, 15 years later, she's looking back at what she wrote and she's realizing that the implications of technology, what's happening are causing some concerns that she hadn't thought about and processed before.

And she gave the example of, and she had a picture of, I think 3 daughters, or maybe, no, I take it back.

So a daughter invited 2 of her friends to hang out at their house.

Hey, come on over to the house, we'll spend time together.

And so, her mom's making them supper or something, and they're in the living room, and these friends are hanging out, and guess what they're doing?

On the couch, and they're on Facebook, they're on Twitter, They're on Instagram, on social media.

And that caused her to take a step back and say, wait a second, why is this doing this?

Justin Kim

3. Competition- Part 1

This seminar and seminar afterwards will be on competition.

So if you are in the correct seminar, you are welcome to stay.

If you are not in the right seminar, you cannot go.

The nature of the GYC seminars is competitive in itself.

You have all these seminars you got to choose and it's very, very easy if ego gets in the way that you look at the seminar across the room and there's no space and you look at your own seminar and there's only 4 people there with 171 seats open, it's easy for your ego to get bruised.

And so we're going to look at this topic of competition.

Today we'll be on competition and cooperation.

Tomorrow we'll be on sports and the latter rain.

I'm not in the business of blasting people if they want to play basketball.

So if that's what you think the seminar is about, then I'm sorry you're going to be disappointed.

We're trying for us to reassess our Christianity, especially when it comes to the cross.

I think we in North America, and I think the majority of you are North American, by culture or by upbringing, we have certain presuppositions that we automatically assume is part of Christianity.

And so the cross is not only a salvational component, it's not just a spiritual experience, but it is 1 where our lives should be realigned to the cross.

And that natural reaction should be uncomfortable.

It's day 2 and a half for GYC and I realize the endurance.

My previous seminar was a lot more energetic than...

Let's have a word of prayer, maybe that will help.

Gracious Father, we thank you for this Friday.

We thank you for the first Friday of this new year.

We pray that on this day help us to prepare for the Sabbath to come, not for the day in itself but for what the day points to is Your presence, Lord.

So Father, this morning we ask as You have awakened us with new life and granted us the opportunity to come to GYC with all the finances and logistics.

Lord help us while we sit in this cold, sterile convention center room and Lord, we go through another PowerPoint to transcend all these things, to transcend even the bumblingness of the speaker, Whatever we may personally be going through, and help us to understand what you would have us to do, to be, and to become.

The seminar track crossing society had 3 components.

The first component was on technology with Pastor Jeff Harper for the first 2 seminars.

Unfortunately, Pastor Jeff Marshall could not be with us.

When it comes to competition, there are 2 professions that take the cake when it comes to competing with amongst its peers.

Anyone want to take a guess what those 2 professions may be?

Let's, sports obviously, but let's take sports out for the time being.

How many of you are professional sports people here?

Okay, so I don't know why you're offended.

This is only like .01 of the population who earn more than $5 billion, whatever, whatever.

So, okay, we say doctors, how many of you are doctors in this room or plan to be in the medical profession?

Okay, all the Asian people raise their hands, very good.

Second profession, anyone want to take a guess what the second profession may be?

I've never heard of that profession before.

Okay, because people need to compete to eat food, okay.

All competitive industries and professions.

The second most competitive profession is ministry.

Meyer, maybe some of you who are in theological circles have read some of his books.

He was pastoring a church and he was having all these plans for evangelism and to reach out to the community.

And all of a sudden, he had all these evangelist campaigns ready to go and people were not coming.

And as he was interviewing his laity, his church members, they were saying, hey, there's another church down the street and everyone's going down to that church.

What can we do to have them not go to that church and come to this church?

That second church was another guy, a pastor named Charles Spurgeon.

And so, you know, I'm a pastor, and I would have to say it does irk your ego when your church is 4 members and your church down the street has 5, 000 members.

Amongst pastors, it is often the case, and some of you may be thinking, you pastors are evil people, but you also do it yourselves.

And if you have 5, 000 members, you say, oh, it's a 5, 000-member church.

Or if you come from a little dinky little church in the middle of Nebraska, we have 2 members in our church.

And you don't wanna say that, so you feel ashamed.

You say, oh, it's just a, it's a small little church plant and you mumble yourself out of it.

We also do it when we talk about the Seventh-day Adventist church.

And so even with our religion, with our spirituality, we get into a competitive kind of mindset.

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Series

Cross and Society

4. Competition, Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

1. The Hyperlinked Life

51m

2. Unplugged

51m

3. Competition- Part 1

54m

4. Competition, Part 2

46m

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