Bobby Bosler: Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Thank you for joining us here in this workshop session. The title of this session is Which Reality?

Choosing God in a Digital World. Now, I'm just curious, do we have any people that follow Tech News at all? Anybody?

Okay, maybe some. I think unless you've been hiding under a rock, you're probably aware that within the last month or so, there was a big release. Any of you have an iPhone?

How many of you have an iPhone? Okay, there was a big release. The new iOS version, iOS 11, was released.

And regarding the topic of what we're talking about, one of the big things about this release is that it was a huge leap forward in something called augmented reality. You all know what I'm talking about by augmented reality? Why?

It has no idea. Augmented reality is pretty much you take your phone, right? And you got your camera so you can see the world through your phone and what it does is it senses edges and distance and it superimposes a 3D model on the world and so it looks like, in fact it's really cool, they've got stuff where you can make a dinosaur appear and eat somebody.

Okay, that's pretty cool. They have stuff where you can actually scan around the room with your camera and it'll figure out where the floor is and where the walls are and kind of measure your room and you can go through the IKEA catalog, and you can actually plop pieces of furniture straight out of their catalog right into the room, and you can take a look and see, "Hey, do I want to buy that couch?

That looks really good right there." Move it to the right just a little bit. And you can do that without actually buying it.

It's really amazing. In fact, one of the things that made augmented reality, if I could say almost a household word, was a game that came out two summers ago. You probably heard of it, if not played it, Pokemon Go.

Okay, have you heard of that game? How many of you played it, be honest? Nobody.

Okay, well the basic idea of this is you go around, gotta catch 'em all, they appear in different places, you throw the little whatever and catch them. But you know, before augmented reality became a thing, there was another kind of reality that's still popular in some segments. It's called virtual reality.

And virtual reality was a little different. You didn't superimpose things on the real world. What you did is you actually put on a pair of goggles, right?

And maybe had a couple sticks in your hands and there was a completely digital world that you saw. And you can kind of move your head around and the screen moves around and you can do things in that world. It's been popular for a long time, definitely is getting to the point where it's quite advanced at this point, but not necessarily super accessible.

Well, you know, before the advent of virtual reality, there was another kind of reality which doesn't have reality in its title. And instead of you having goggles on your face viewing a digital world, the screen was sitting across from you, and you had a little input device to be able to control the things that are going on on that screen. That's just the realm of video games.

That is another reality. And, you know, I just want you to understand here today, what I'm talking about is this. There are all kinds of realities out there vying for your attention.

You know, everybody here is going to choose to live for a reality. Some of you are going to choose for a reality of your own making. You're going to create your own little world, and you're going to create your own impression of how things really are and what you think about these things, regardless of whether they're real.

Some of you are going to choose to live for a reality of somebody else's making. You're going to live your life for what's on the screen of your game or on your phone. But you know, I think the reason why you're here today is because you want to live for a reality that's so much greater than any of those.

You want to live for God's reality, that which is really real. The reason why I titled this session, Which Reality? Choosing God in a digital world is because of this thought.

Every one of you will choose a reality to live for. and it's imperative on us that we choose wisely. Here's why.

Because there is no reset button. There is no reset button on real reality. When I was 12 years old, it was 1997, and 1997, my mom had been sick through most of my growing up years.

My mom, one day, went in for a transplant. It was supposed to transplant her pancreas, and it was supposed to solve half of her physical maladies, And she went in for that transplant. Before a week and a half rolled by, she was dead.

It was a crisis, the likes of which I had never faced in my life. And as a young person, the tender age of 12, I remember my dad broke the news to me that mom had passed away. And I remember just weeping bitterly.

An emphasis on bitterly. And I remember I had at that time a Sega Genesis, which again dates me. My friend had the newest thing on the block.

He had a Nintendo 64, 3D stuff. It was amazing. And I remember going over his house, and I remember making a decision.

I didn't like real reality. I'd rather live for a digital one. I remember I made the choice that in order to escape the hurt, in order to escape all of this, I told my dad, why did God have to ruin my life like this?

Why couldn't we have a normal family like everybody else? And because of the things that were happening all around me in this world, I didn't really want to do much in it. I wasn't interested in real reality, because to be frank with you, I thought it stunk.

you know in the video game i could be a sports star i could be an incredible snowboarder i could be a double agent with a gun who could shoot people and win for the cause of right and justice i don't know whatever i could be something in the digital world but in this reality i just thought life stunk and so i wasn't interested in it so i made the choice for four dark years to give everything I could to live for a reality of somebody

else's making.

It consumed me. It absolutely consumed me. I was homeschooled at the time with my mom passing away within a year.

My grandparents, who also lived with us, passed away, so I was literally at home by myself all day long. Many days I had my school playing in the other room. We did a video kind of school, and I was over the other room playing a video game.

If I did get my homework done, I'd get it done well before noon, and I would turn on my game system, and many times I wouldn't turn it off until three in the morning. Started with the Genesis, not too long after that, I got a Nintendo 64, not too long after that, I got a Sega Dreamcast. Later, I traded the N64 and the Dreamcast in for a PlayStation 2.

I lived for Metal Gear Solid 2. I lived for Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX. I lived for these games.

They dominated me. They consumed me. Every waking hour, I was thinking about how I was gonna get past this spot in the game.

Every waking hour, my mind was so trained on that alternate reality that I really wasn't checked into this one at all. I had a hard time knowing how to talk to other people. Now, you may not be as much of a weirdo as I was, but you know, do consider how much are you consumed?

How much do you give your life, maybe not to video games, but to your digital image? How much of your day is consumed with just getting through that latest level on your game, on your phone? How much of your life is consumed with getting just the right selfie with the dog snout and ears?

okay how much of your day is consumed which that with that which is not real is everything okay with this okay um i want you to turn in your bible to uh ephesians chapter 5 here and i want to take a look at a passage of scripture that is in the context of something that i trust will be a help to you in this matter of choosing god in a digital world now there wasn't really a digital world in the day of Paul.

But the book of Ephesians was written to a group of people that the apostle Paul had led to Jesus Christ. He had planted their church. And one of the burdens of this letter was that they would understand what was real about themselves, what was real about their church, what was real about the choices that they made every single day.

And Paul's burden in this battle is not only would they understand the facts as they stood, but his burden was that they would make the right decisions in light of those facts and ultimately to win the battle that's real and raging right before them. That being said, in Ephesians chapter 5, we're going to be looking at verses 15 and down here. Verse 15, he says, See then all these things being said, okay?

The fact of the matter is, you're not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. It's a shame to talk of those things. All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.

In verse 14, he says, Wherefore, this is why he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. Here's what he's saying. Snap out of it!

Snap out of it. You're in a drunken stupor. wake up.

And you know, for me in my teenage years, I had to wake up. I had to snap out of it because ultimately what I was living for wasn't real. He gives then some observations that I find helpful in how to live for the realities that God has set before us.

Just a few points of instruction. In verse 15, he says, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. That word circumspectly there just has the idea of as you're walking along, you're surveying your footpath.

In other words, if I'm walking on a field or on a trail, and in fact, I've gone hiking. In fact, Josh and I, we went hiking. Remember that tumble down mountain up in Maine?

Went hiking there. And as we're hiking up one, you know, as much as I would have loved to look at the scenery the whole time. I had to keep my eye on the trail in front of me because there were all kinds of rocks all over the trail and I didn't want to roll my ankle and not be able to go a whole lot further.

Right, Josh? And again, I just had to survey the territory. And what he's saying here is this.

If you want to live your life for the reality that's real, you've got to walk carefully. The book of Proverbs, Proverbs 27, 12 says, A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Friends, don't just plow through life in your digital choices like a fool, but step carefully and with intentionality as a man full of wisdom.

Do you realize that when it comes to your digital choices, whether it be entertainment and media, whether it be a game, whether it be your social media choices, it is very important for you to walk with intentionality, for you to survey the ground ahead of you and ask yourself the question, is there danger here? So many times a new game comes out, you buy it. A new movie comes out, you watch it.

But friends, it is so important for us to survey the territory and ask ourselves the question, is there danger here? and if there is, to avoid it. Don't just think about the step itself, but think about the consequences as well.

Think about the direction and the consequences. See, it's not just about an individual step. You've got to look ahead on the path, so to speak, and ask yourself, where are these steps going to take me?

You know, it's funny. Sometimes games come out that are in a series, right? And sometimes it's real easy, or maybe movies in a set of movies or a TV show where the plot continues throughout multiple ones, and maybe you know the first one's fine.

But you know there's something wrong with the second or the third one. And it's so easy just to say, well, you know the first one's fine. It's okay for me to watch that or play that or do that.

But listen, how many times do you sit in the first one thinking, oh, there's nothing wrong with this one, only to find yourself watching all of them? You know what I'm talking about? Don't just think about the step.

Think about where it's going to take you. Walk carefully. Verse 16 says, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

See, he tells us, do you realize that every single day God has given you a limited amount of minutes to spend for him, a limited amount of seconds. And the commodity that we have of time is limited. And he's telling us here, spend your seconds wisely.

We are to walk. this is my second point, walk urgently. Every single second of your day, God has a will for that second.

Every minute, every hour of your day, God has something he wants you to do with it. Don't, what you're to do is snatch up every possible opportunity. Fully invest yourself in God's plan because the evil of the day is not getting any weaker.

You realize that fools squander the opportunities? that God has given them? Fools don't just waste their money, they waste their time.

I want you to consider this. How much do your digital choices actually impact eternity? The stuff you spend your time on every day, how much does that actually impact eternity?

There might not be anything wrong with a said game on your phone. There might not be objectionable content, danger, if you will, as far as your conscience is concerned, but the question is, is participating in that, wisely spending the finite resource of time that God has entrusted you with? Is there something better you could be doing for the Lord?

I think there's almost always something better you could be doing for the Lord. And sometimes we think, oh man, if I always thought like that, I'd be talking about Jesus or praying all day long. Not too bad of an idea.

Now, okay, I understand our brains need a break. And I'm not saying recreation is wrong. But does it dominate you?

How many times do we sit down just to play a couple minutes and it turns into an hour? You know what I'm talking about? It's what they do.

And listen, I'm not just talking about games. I'm talking about social media. How many times do we get on there just to see what's going on?

And we scroll and we scroll and we scroll and we scroll. And we laugh at this meme and watch that video and kind of dig into so-and-so's timeline. Check out so-and-so's latest story posts.

And by the time we look at our watch, we've just wasted 45 minutes to an hour. How many times has that happened? How many times are our evening hours completely squandered, just browsing and lurking on social media?

How many times do we just waste the resources that God has given us? See, he says we are to redeem the time because the days are evil. Listen, the fact of the matter is God has a plan for every moment of your day, and we need to cash in every moment of our day.

So firstly, we need to walk carefully. Take a look and see, is there danger? Secondly, we need to walk urgently.

Thirdly, here in verse 17, it says, Wherefore, be ye not unwise. So don't be unwise, don't be foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. This follows right from the last one.

If God has a purpose for every second and minute and hour of our day, don't you think we ought to figure out what it is? You realize what he's saying here? is if you don't even try to figure out what God's will is for your moments and your hours, you are unwise.

You know another way you could state that? You're a fool. See, I'm not saying we're going to have a crystal clear understanding of every moment of every hour, but that ought to be our desire.

God, how do you want me to spend the next 20 minutes? I've got a gap in my time. What do you want me to do?

Do you want me to take a nap? Maybe he does. You know what?

He can tell you. you know what maybe it's okay to take a few moments of recreation but maybe he wants you 20 minutes later to start something else for him don't let yourself get dominated understand what god's will is don't be a fool see that means you've got to be willing to do whatever god wants you to do you know some of the root problem here is we don't want to do what god wants us to do. We're not surrendered to his will.

And so, of course, you're going to foolishly not understand his will if you aren't willing to do what he wants you to do. No wonder you float through your days and hours wasting time because you're not willing. You know, if we're going to walk wisely, which is the third point, we've got to be surrendered to the Lord.

Don't foolishly live in ignorance of God's purposes, but rather know and live according to God's stated purposes. He who in willing ignorance to God's plans and purposes is a fool. Fifthly and finally here, verse 18, it says, and be not drunk with wine.

How does this fit with digital reality? Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Fifthly and finally here, you're to walk spiritually.

Let me put it to you like this. don't let an alternative substance fill and control you, but rather let God's spirit fill and control you. What dictates what you do moment by moment throughout your day?

Okay, seriously, and again, this may be foreign to some of you here, maybe it's not. Some people live to get just the right picture with their friends so they can post it on social media so everybody can think that their life is just great, they've got lots of friends, they have lots of fun, and everything's cool, even though reality says otherwise. People sometimes live for the alternate reality of either their own making or somebody else's making.

And friends, just simply, I think what this verse is saying, at least the valid application of it, is don't let anything other than God's Spirit control you. Don't be controlled by your digital reputation or image. Don't be controlled by a video game.

Don't be controlled by media. Don't let those things control you. Don't let them fill your time.

Don't let them consume your thinking. You need to be consumed and filled and controlled by God's Spirit, which means you need to yield to Him. See, I think this whole other reality mindset that we have is just a fruit of the root in our hearts of unsurrending.

We don't like things how they are. We don't want what God wants, and so I'm just going to let myself drift in a reality of my own choosing. I want to read just one verse here before I close.

Colossians chapter 3 and verse 1 says this, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. That's what's really real. the will of heaven is what's really real the cause of souls of worldwide evangelism of seeing your friends, neighbors, classmates reached with the gospel to see your life make an impact for his kingdom that is what is really real not the latest game not the latest social media craze not augmented virtual or otherwise reality the reality of heaven.

That's what we ought to be choosing on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis. So the question is, what reality have you been choosing? I trust if it's not the right one, you'll let God work in your heart and you will yield to him to choose God in this digital age.