How Can We Tweet to the Glory of God?
00:00:00.000 | Well, how do we tweet to the glory of God?
00:00:06.360 | Uh, surely we all have a lot to learn in stewarding our media
00:00:10.320 | platforms for eternal purposes.
00:00:12.240 | And here's the question as it arrives from Lisa, a regular listener.
00:00:16.520 | Pastor John, hello, and thank you for this podcast and thank you for
00:00:19.200 | your presence on social media.
00:00:20.640 | I want to reach the people in my online sphere with the gospel.
00:00:24.680 | What are some simple things average Christians like me can keep in mind to
00:00:28.040 | use social media with eternal purpose for evangelism and for edification.
00:00:33.280 | The last 20 years have created a whole new world of possibilities for good and
00:00:39.520 | for ill in broadcasting our thoughts to the world before the internet.
00:00:46.440 | We could distribute tracts.
00:00:48.680 | We could use billboards.
00:00:51.000 | We could rent newspaper ads.
00:00:52.880 | We could write letters to the editor.
00:00:55.440 | Uh, try to publish an article in a magazine or a book, uh, or write a book.
00:01:00.640 | Uh, we could distribute doorknob hangers or hire a skywriter or, uh,
00:01:07.240 | put on a bumper sticker.
00:01:08.920 | But today we can go to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and blogging, et
00:01:15.600 | cetera, and the possibility exists that something you say might reach thousands,
00:01:23.280 | even millions besides the cluster little cluster of friends that you have several
00:01:30.080 | dozen folks or several hundred folks that you have now that's a new situation.
00:01:34.640 | And for Christians, it's another stewardship that God has given us to
00:01:41.560 | manage, to steward, and he will call us to account.
00:01:46.160 | Jesus says for every careless word, we utter Matthew 12 36 careless words on
00:01:51.400 | Twitter or Facebook or in blogs.
00:01:53.440 | So the best way to know how to manage or steward God's gift is as always to go to
00:02:02.320 | God's word and listen to his counsel.
00:02:05.640 | So what I'm going to do for the next few minutes is just prime the pump for Lisa,
00:02:11.960 | who asked this question and for others who are listening, prime the pump so that
00:02:18.760 | you can carry on what I start here.
00:02:21.120 | And my guess is that someone could easily write up like Jonathan Edwards, 70
00:02:27.960 | resolutions for the internet.
00:02:30.080 | Waiting for that to hear it.
00:02:32.320 | Tony, maybe you, you should do that.
00:02:34.080 | 20, 70 resolutions for, for the internet and all of them should be biblically
00:02:40.200 | warranted, biblically grounded.
00:02:43.080 | So here's a start for those of you who want to make this your, your goal.
00:02:48.160 | Lisa specifically asked at the end of her question for guidance about evangelism
00:02:56.000 | and edification.
00:02:57.240 | I was so glad to hear those traditional words.
00:03:01.000 | They're very good words used.
00:03:03.000 | That's a great pair of goals to have when you're on the internet.
00:03:08.760 | Speaking words that evangelism, that is display the good news about Christ and
00:03:17.360 | his way for unbelievers and seek to build up.
00:03:22.880 | That's what edify means.
00:03:23.920 | Build up in, in faith and hope and love, build up believers into wiser, stronger,
00:03:31.280 | into wiser, stronger disciples of Jesus.
00:03:36.360 | So here are a few texts from the Bible that I think give good guidance for, for
00:03:44.680 | not only what we say, but how we say it when we, when we use social media, the
00:03:50.760 | mandate for evangelism locally and globally.
00:03:55.080 | First Peter 2, 9, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
00:04:00.160 | people of God's own possession.
00:04:01.680 | Why?
00:04:02.560 | That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into
00:04:08.760 | his marvelous light.
00:04:09.800 | So there we go.
00:04:10.640 | The mandate proclaim through social media, the excellencies of Jesus.
00:04:18.040 | I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart.
00:04:21.120 | I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.
00:04:24.920 | I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great
00:04:30.240 | congregation.
00:04:31.120 | So Psalm 40 verse 10 saying, I don't keep things to myself that I see in God's word
00:04:37.360 | and that he's done for me.
00:04:38.560 | I broadcast them to the great congregation.
00:04:42.200 | Proverbs 15, 7 puts it like this, the lips of the wise, and I looked up the Hebrew
00:04:48.480 | word here, it's spread in the ESV.
00:04:50.720 | It's the word for scattering seed.
00:04:53.600 | It's almost always used for scattering seed.
00:04:56.160 | The lips of the wise scatter.
00:04:58.240 | Like you take a handful of seed, throw it out there on the ground.
00:05:02.560 | So let me read it without all my comments.
00:05:04.600 | The lips of the wise spread knowledge.
00:05:09.040 | Not so the heart of fools.
00:05:10.520 | So we should just scatter to the winds with Twitter and Facebook scatter seed,
00:05:16.200 | like knowledge to the wind of the internet.
00:05:21.400 | Or Acts 5, 28, where the leaders in Israel charge the disciples like this, we
00:05:30.320 | strictly charge you not to teach in this name, Jesus.
00:05:35.320 | Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.
00:05:39.760 | Oh, I love that phrase.
00:05:41.280 | Fill your city, fill your city, fill your nation, fill your Twitter feed and your
00:05:47.440 | Facebook with the teaching of Christianity.
00:05:52.400 | Laden things down with truth.
00:05:55.000 | Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
00:05:59.520 | I mean, if God wills, you have a chance to touch somebody anywhere in the world with
00:06:07.840 | what you say.
00:06:08.600 | And the Bible says, "Declare his glory among the nations."
00:06:13.320 | Do that.
00:06:14.080 | Psalm 96, verse 3.
00:06:16.280 | What a possibility exists for touching someone 10,000 miles away, supposedly
00:06:22.920 | outside our reach.
00:06:25.560 | So pray over your tweets, pray over your blogging and your Facebook, pray over it
00:06:32.120 | that God would breathe on it and send it by his appointed means to somebody who has
00:06:39.400 | exactly a need for what you have said.
00:06:44.120 | That's the way I do.
00:06:45.080 | I put tweets in my scheduler almost every day, and they come from the Bible, almost
00:06:51.520 | 90% of them, and I'm saying, "God, do something extraordinary with this verse.
00:06:58.080 | Make it be timed perfect for somebody's need."
00:07:02.680 | Both proclamation, as we've been talking about, but also defense of the gospel,
00:07:09.480 | because it says in 1 Peter 3, 15, "Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone
00:07:14.960 | who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness
00:07:19.080 | and respect."
00:07:19.760 | So there's a place online for answering objections and responding to people
00:07:25.720 | gently and respectfully so that you can show error where you see it and defend the
00:07:30.120 | gospel.
00:07:30.800 | And there's a place for exposing sin.
00:07:34.000 | Ephesians 5, 11, "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness or don't join
00:07:39.840 | into the darkness of the web, but instead expose them."
00:07:45.600 | Now, I don't think the dominant tone of your life on the internet should be
00:07:51.520 | exposing darkness.
00:07:53.400 | You're going to get your hands and your heart dirty that way.
00:07:57.200 | But periodically, God's going to burden you that something you saw needs to be set
00:08:02.840 | right, and you're going to expose some sin.
00:08:06.840 | So all of that, having to do mainly with evangelism and outreach, what about
00:08:13.120 | edification?
00:08:14.640 | Romans 14, 19, "So let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding."
00:08:21.000 | Oh, what a great mandate for your internet interaction.
00:08:25.640 | Or Ephesians 4, 29, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only what
00:08:30.320 | is good for upbuilding as fits the occasion, that it may minister grace to
00:08:38.000 | those who hear."
00:08:38.800 | Or John 17, 17, "Sanctify them in the truth.
00:08:42.400 | Your word is truth."
00:08:44.800 | Or John 8, 32, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
00:08:49.560 | So we fill our mouths, our Twitter feed, our Facebook with Scripture accurately
00:08:56.160 | cited, wisely interpreted.
00:08:58.280 | This is the safest way to do good.
00:09:00.840 | Minimize yourself, maximize God and His Word.
00:09:04.440 | I'm going to say that one again, because broadcasting is so much self, and we have
00:09:11.440 | to work at checking our hearts again and again, "Am I just wanting to be seen, just
00:09:17.880 | wanting to be known?"
00:09:18.520 | Like standing on the street corner like the Pharisees, blowing our trumpet, wanting
00:09:22.880 | everybody to see what we say, or are we minimizing ourself by maximizing what does
00:09:29.920 | God say, what is God like?
00:09:34.000 | And then be vigilant over your tongue.
00:09:39.400 | Matthew 12, 34, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
00:09:43.440 | Oh my!
00:09:44.840 | You may not know it, but you are revealing yourself all day long.
00:09:49.560 | What kind of person is this?
00:09:51.520 | Is this a feisty person?
00:09:54.100 | An angry person, a cynical person?
00:09:56.480 | A mean person?
00:09:58.560 | A gentle person?
00:09:59.560 | A kind person?
00:10:00.560 | A loving person?
00:10:01.560 | A whole person?
00:10:02.560 | A broken person?
00:10:03.560 | I mean, what comes out of your mouth shows what's inside.
00:10:07.280 | That's the way the world is going to read it.
00:10:09.600 | The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.
00:10:13.800 | Our aim is life, not self-exaltation, but other people enjoying life in Christ.
00:10:22.720 | So how then, what kind of guidelines for how you talk?
00:10:27.680 | Not just what, but how.
00:10:29.120 | And here's just a few examples.
00:10:31.400 | Ephesians 4, 15, "speaking the truth in love we grow up in every way into Christ."
00:10:38.000 | So truth in love, truth in love.
00:10:41.320 | Proverbs 16, 24, "gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health
00:10:48.080 | to the body."
00:10:49.600 | Colossians 4, 6, "let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt."
00:10:56.240 | Proverbs 16, 21, "the wise heart is called discerning, the sweetness of speech increases
00:11:03.040 | persuasiveness."
00:11:04.640 | Proverbs 15, 4, "a gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness breaks the spirit."
00:11:14.560 | Colossians 3, 16, "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching, admonishing
00:11:21.520 | one another in all wisdom and singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness
00:11:27.120 | in your hearts to God."
00:11:28.120 | And what I would underline there is, do people detect that you are a brimmingly thankful
00:11:35.440 | person?
00:11:37.600 | Thankful for God, thankful for eyes, thankful for ears, thankful for mind, thankful for
00:11:42.320 | heart, thankful for the gospel, thankful for church, thankful for country, thankful for
00:11:47.600 | friends, just brimming.
00:11:50.160 | Or are you a sick heart, always, always giving evidence that you're angry about something?
00:11:58.200 | Proverbs 25, 11, "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver,"
00:12:04.840 | which simply means timing, tone, content are crucial.
00:12:10.920 | And finally, "let everything be done in love," 1 Corinthians 16, 14.
00:12:16.440 | When I think about my Twitter presence, for example, I think not only about the content
00:12:23.600 | and tone of each tweet, which vary a lot, I mean, sometimes they're very severe in
00:12:32.000 | pointing out the judgment of God, sometimes they're very tender in reaching out to the
00:12:36.840 | brokenhearted, but what I do is look not only at each tweet, but at the overall effect of
00:12:43.600 | thousands of tweets over years, I think, what are we at, 17,000 so far, something like that?
00:12:50.920 | Any given word from the Bible can be misused by anyone, anytime, you can't avoid that.
00:12:58.240 | My hope is that the overall impact will be for the magnifying of Christ, the winning
00:13:05.280 | of the lost, the everlasting holy joy of God's people, and the glory of God.
00:13:12.000 | That's the overall impact of my presence that I hope God will do.
00:13:17.840 | Amen.
00:13:18.840 | Taking a long view of what seems so immediately ephemeral, Pastor John, thank you for that
00:13:23.960 | perspective.
00:13:24.960 | Well, this is our 10th episode, talking about Twitter and social media, all of which, those
00:13:28.880 | episodes can be found in our podcast archive at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:13:35.560 | And there you can explore all of our now 1,200 past episodes, you can scan through a list
00:13:40.360 | of our most popular episodes of all time, which is a list that's updated every day,
00:13:44.600 | and you can read full transcripts of most of those episodes, and you can even send us
00:13:48.120 | a question of your own from there.
00:13:49.920 | Again, that's at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:13:54.160 | And of course, to get new episodes delivered to you three times per week, subscribe to
00:13:57.880 | the Ask Pastor John podcast and your favorite podcast player.
00:14:01.080 | Well, isn't a drug user and a Godward joy seeker just two different kinds of junkies
00:14:08.080 | who both seek new highs, new spikes in an immediate experience for which they cannot
00:14:13.280 | sustain beyond a fleeting moment?
00:14:15.680 | Well, now there's an interesting question for John Paver.
00:14:19.000 | I'm your host Tony Reiki, and we'll see you back here on Friday with that one.
00:14:22.240 | [end]
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