Sober-minded Social Media

Forever ago–in January of 2020–i stumbled across the following picture on Facebook in a collection of “too accurate photos.”

As soon as i found it, i thought, “This is perfect. This is exactly why my Facebook page exists. This is exactly why i advertise my books and music on Facebook. This is why i share all of my blog posts on Facebook.”

You might be tempted to say, “It’s ironic that you’re going to criticize Facebook while at the same time benefiting from it.”

And it’s true. Odds are, i wouldn’t be getting married in three months if not for Facebook. She initiated contact in-person, but i started a conversation through Facebook Messenger the next day.

Besides, you can check out this post if you want to see me hold the–“this is a problem, but a blessing at the same time”–dichotomy together.

My chief complaint with Facebook (social media in general) is that it seems to be a toxic well of people complaining and venting. Or–on the other side of the spectrum–people use it to ignore the world’s problems by posting “cat videos” and the like.

I’m not saying that everything needs to be serious, Jesus stuff all the time, but our world is literally dying. So many people call themselves Christians on social media, but many are too ashamed of Jesus to openly discuss Him on their social media platforms.

It should not be this way.

The term Christian was not a term the followers of Jesus invented. Christian was a term that the world used to describe the followers of Christ because they lived and breathed and slept and died–Christ!

For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

Acts 11:26 (HCSB)

If your social media followers don’t know you’re a Christian without looking at your “About” info, you should check yourself before you wreck yourself.

The famous preacher, Charles Spurgeon, found Jesus because some unknown-to-history preacher stood up to fill in for the regular preacher who couldn’t make it that morning. This preacher simply repeated:

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:22 (HCSB)

That was enough to save Spurgeon. God used Spurgeon to save countless souls throughout his ministry.

You don’t need to be knowledgable in Scripture to help someone find salvation in Jesus. All you need to do is be faithful enough to let God speak through the verbal proclamation of His Word. Or–on social media–by using your “voice” to proclaim the Word of God.

I’d be okay with my life never becoming as popular as Spurgeon’s. All i want is to be faithful in the situations in which i find myself so that others can come to Jesus.

As such, i had to preach this message to myself first–over the past five years.

Let’s stop bickering on social media. Let’s stop playing possum on social media. Let’s be vocal enough that people actually start calling us Christians.

This is a world i want to see.

This is why the picture above hit me so hard. Everyone is running to the (Insert social media preference here) fountain. Next to no one is running to the source of authentic life–Jesus Christ.

Listen to these verses:

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (HCSB)

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.  But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.”

John 4:13-14 (HCSB)

“The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”

John 7:38 (HCSB)

And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water as a gift to the thirsty from the spring of life.

Revelation 21:6 (HCSB)

Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Anyone who hears should say, “Come!” And the one who is thirsty should come. Whoever desires should take the living water as a gift.

Revelation 22:17 (HCSB)

If you hear God calling you through these verses, don’t resist Him. Come to the living water and find refreshment for your soul. Discard the filth that exists on social media, too often perfectly described by the Apostle Peter:

These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.  For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.  For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.  It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”

2 Peter 2:17-22 (HCSB), emphasis added.

Come to Jesus for the first time!
Come to Jesus for the millionth time!

And when you do, commit to striving to draw others to Him as well. When you drink deeply of the fountain of life, you will recognize that all other fountains are filled with polluted water. So take that fresh, living water to your social media platform, and share it with your friends and loved ones. Use whatever platform God has given you–as big or as small as it might be–to call others to Jesus.

And if they call you a Christian, rejoice in that name! Take it as a badge of honor that you are reflecting your Savior faithfully!

He died for you. As such, why would you not give Him every aspect of your life?

In this with you.

Soli Deo Gloria
Solus Christus
Sola Fide

Thanks for reading.