I recently posted some thoughts to our parents about teaching their students to use social media correctly. You can check out the post here. Well, I was encouraged and challenged by the parents to speak to the students about this! So, I did this past Wednesday night, and I figured that I would share my lesson on here with you as a freebie. You can use it anytime, it does not matter. If you have any questions, let me know.
Communicating Correctly
James 3:1-18
I. A brief History of Social Networking
- Six degrees.com was the first recognizable social networking site- created in 1997
- Instant Messenger and classmates began in late 1990s
- Friendster- 2002
- Myspace- 2003- 30 million active users- (I personally started using myspace in 2006)
- Facebook- 2004 (over 800 million active users)- I started using facebook in 2006 when only college students were allowed on it.
- Twitter- 2006- over 200 million users ( I started using twitter in 2010)
- Google+- 2011
It is unreal how quick we communicate these days! You can text, tweet, facebook all of the time. About all students have a cell phone in which they can text, facebook, or tweet in an instance. The first phone that my family had been a bag phone. I received my first phone when I was a junior in high school, and I got one of the newest flip phones when I was heading to college in 2003.
II. Biblical Truths about communication
- James 1:26 says, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”
- There is something connected between our communication and our faith. There is something deeply important if God is saying that your faith is displayed in the way that you use your tongue, and if you are not using your tongue the right way, your faith may be in vain? Yeah, that is Bible, it is what the Word says. Our words are that important.
- Your communication determines the direction in which you are heading- V. 3-4
- If your words consist of critical speech, hypocritical, lying, or mean, you are heading down a wrong direction
- The tongue is a tattletail on the heart
- Matthew 12:34: “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”
- Your communication is a reflection of your heart!
- Who you are is broadcasted in how you communicate!
- An uncontrolled tongue is a sign of the unchristian life
2. Your communication is very powerful- V. 5-8
- Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
- Your words and communication can destroy, hurt, and damage other people.
3. Your communication must glorify Christ- V. 9-13
- James uses two illustrations, and he says a fig tree cannot bear olives, but only figs, because the root of tree is figs.
- What is the root of your life? Where is your heart?
- Salvation is all about an inward change. Your root changes at Salvation, and therefore what is produced will change, because the root has changed.
- We should be using our communication to uplift Christ, and to make His name famous to the nations, not to tear down, to complain, to murmur, and to be mean to others.
- My question to you, are you glorifying Christ with the way that you communicate?
- I Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
III. Principles to post by:
- If you do not want your parent/teacher/friend/pastor to see it, don’t post it
- If you would not say it, don’t post it.
- Do not use facebook/twitter as a means to vent about someone (gossip is still gossip whether it be on facebook or in person)
- Always think before you tweet/post
- Remember your social media page is an extension of who you are
- Use discretion when adding and accepting friends
Conclusion: If you are struggling in an area of communicating, it is the heart. It is not necessarily facebook. It is the heart, it is the root of the problem. Focus on your root. Where is your heart focused on?
Hope this is a helpful resource for you to use.
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This is a great guest post from Austin McCann on an app that parents need to be aware of:
About Austin: Austin is the student ministries director at Christ Community Chapel-Stow Campus in Stow, OH. He has a BA from Piedmont International University in Christian Ministries with a student ministries focus. He is currently working on his Master’s with Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Austin enjoys reading, writing, playing basketball and golf, spending time with his wife Crystal, and sharing the Gospel with students and helping them live a Bible centered life. Austin has written material that has been on various student ministry blogs and websites. Connect with Austin on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
