A sermon on how lockdown drove people toward Facebook, YouTube, and conspiracy theories, calling the internet a "devil's playground" designed to damage relationships with God and each other. The speaker shares his own struggle with pornography and urges listeners to fix their eyes on Jesus instead, using lockdown time to build accountability with family.
Chapters
I don't know if you've noticed, but COVID-19 has had some really interesting and unexpected impacts on people as they've been staying home. It's like people have discovered Facebook and YouTube and fallen in love. Conspiracy theories are booming. Facebook has turned into a halfway house for half-baked brains. People have too much time and they're investing it in weird things. Why is that? I got a letter yesterday from a father who has a 13-year-old son and he said, I'm not sure what to do. My son's home and he has time online with his friends and they're looking into and exploring the occult. They're dabbling, they're discussing, and they're daring each other to do things. What should I do? It's really the same thing that we're encountering with conspiracy theories and, um, random rants on Facebook. The devil's playground is filled with many toys and temptations. He has a lot of practice, so he knows what's likely to work and grab your attention. The devil's playground is diverse. There's really dark stuff, and there's light fluffy stuff. Some people love danger, thrills, and spills. Other people just love cotton candy. The devil's playground has both. Satan doesn't care which he gets you with. He only has one goal: to mess with your relationships. That's what sin is. Sin is anything that destroys healthy relationships. Satan wants your relationship with God to break down, so his playground is built around adrenaline rushes and quick, shallow friendships. There's no depth in the devil's playground, no accountability, no care for others—just me and my wishes. Healthy relationships require hours of focused attention, years of deep discussions and conversations, and the choice to be a lifelong consistent presence in that relationship. It's all about focus. Satan doesn't need you to look at him and believe in him or follow him. He just wants you to look away from God. He wants you to lose interest in your friendship with Jesus. You know, Hebrews 12:2 puts it very succinctly when it says, "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." In other words, Jesus started your faith, he's going to finish your faith, and if you want to stay on that faith journey, just keep your eyes on Jesus. When I was a year 12 student at Rialindo Academy, I had some magazines under my bed that I shouldn't have had. A guy came and did a meeting at our chapel program and told us what an addict was and said pornography was an addiction. And I thought, no, it's not. So to prove it, I'm not going to look at those magazines at all for the next 3 days. The third time that day that I had the magazines out again without even realizing it, I got so mad and I punched the magazines. And I just was so angry because I realized that I had a problem. The devil's playground had had its way with me. And I reached over to my bookcase and I got my Bible and I knelt down in front of my couch and I prayed. And some people say you shouldn't say this prayer, but it worked for me. I said, Lord, I'm going to open my Bible and I'm going to point. I need some help. And when I opened my Bible and I pointed and I opened my eyes and I looked, my finger was right on Psalms 25:15, which says, my eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare. It's all about your focus. And so if we want spiritual well-being, we want to be right with God, we want to have a healthy relationship with him, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. And if we want personal well-being, family well-being, and we want our children to be healthy spiritually and emotionally. We need to use the free time we have, which right now during COVID-19 we're all at home. We have plenty of free time. We need to use that free time to build the relationships that matter. Invest this time not in YouTube and Facebook and the conspiracy theories and the occult and any random things that are out there, but instead focus in on the people around you. That are in your home with you and build relationships with them and spend time with God, fixing your eyes on Jesus, so your spiritual well-being will be fixed for eternity.
