Oh uh If you caught me doing one of my favorite things, this is uh This is a circuit. And welcome back this morning. This is a part of my life that nobody really sees. I was trained in electrical engineering and made some money with HP for many years, almost two decades, designing novel circuits like this one that I'm doing for myself.
Now I just can't get it out of my system. It's really pretty fun.
Some of you like gardening, some of you like knitting. I like making circuits. Like I tell Dorothy, it's my uh Form of Sudoku to occupy my mind. Anyway, why are we starting here this morning? We're starting here this morning because I came back to electronics after I left it back in.
2000, oh, 1995 is when I left electronics professionally. And I let it go for about 10 years and didn't do much with it. Partially because the source of all the components that I use in electronics came from HP. They let me use parts that they bought, and they figured that if I used them creatively to do home projects, I would actually grow as an engineer. And so they figured that was a cheap cost, and my education was to provide the parts.
Once I didn't have access to the parts, As in electronics, if you don't have parts, you don't have designs. And so I just stopped doing it. Until the internet changed everything. You knew this would come back to the internet sometime, right? The internet changed everything because when I needed a specific part for a circuit, Now, instead of going to a stockpile of them they had at work at HP, I could go online and actually ask for the specific part that I wanted, really esoteric, and they could deliver it to my front door and I could continue making my circuits.
Like, here, look, here's one of my collections of transistors that I use. Oh, I love these. Anyway, uh, this is one of my favorites. It's uh it's gold-plated and uh Uh the leads are gold, the back of it's gold. Even has stamped into the leads what exactly the lead is, whether it's an emitter, collector, or base.
That's a transistor talk. Anyway, I could have these parts instead of me scrounging them out of old equipment, which is what I used to do as a kid, even before I started to work for HP. But then, losing my HP source, I found out I had a whole world of components at my beck and call by using the internet. I found out that through the internet, I could get anything. anything that I dreamed of.
And that's what we're going to talk about today, is the idea of getting anything you need. By just going on the internet and asking for it, and it's delivered to your front door. Stuff. This is all about stuff.
Now, in this context, and in the context, say, of I don't know, maintenance like you're fixing your dryer or a washing machine, you need specific parts, and you can get them specifically. I think that's one of the greatest things about the internet is when it comes to accessing stuff, if you know exactly what you want. You can find it and have it delivered to your front door.
Sometimes, The very next day, that's just an astonishing access to material goods. It's also one of the dangers of it. And so, what I want to address today is the dangers that come with that. In the same way, this is a very good thing that I can. Find specific components or replacement parts for my car or for my lawnmower or for my circuits.
It it gives me uh A certain temptation to think that I'm maybe a little bigger than I actually am. And what I call it is the. It's the creator complex, is what I call it. You know what? I need to turn around because I'm getting a stiff neck talking here.
Give me a second. Let me spin around here and we'll continue this discussion. That's better.
So, what am I talking about when I'm talking about this creator syndrome? Let me get rid of this for a second. This is leaves a big mark on my forehead. Isn't it nice? We'll cover that up just like this.
There we go.
So what am I talking about with this creator complex?
Well, for me, it's a very good thing. It it When I'm creating something like a schematic, here's one right here that I was using. This is what I was actually designing right now, the schematic. I uh I conceive something that I want to accomplish in my mind. And then I go to where I can describe it in functional ways for myself.
And then I know the components I need to build it. I search for those components. I refine my search for those components, knowing that. They need to be specifically certain ways if they're if they're too If they're too weak, they might blow up when I plug electricity into them. If they're too strong, they might be too insensitive and too expensive.
So, you know, I refine the search. Then, once I refine the search again on the internet, then I order these parts. They come, they arrive at my front door, I plug them in and they work. I mean, that's kind of the creator syndrome for me: to be able to create a world that way. And when it comes to ordering parts or ordering replacement pieces for things that break, or even just ordering normal things for life, there's really nothing wrong with that.
These I classify in the category of needs, not really wants. But the seduction in all of this, as we talk about the pocket Messiah, the seduction in all of this is what happens when I turn from using this extraordinary tool. To meet needs and just regular, normal, everyday things. What happens when that subverts? And my motivation isn't just to fix things or to create things, but the motivation is.
To please myself, ordering things to please myself. And this is what we call materialism, really, in our culture. We are so rich in our Western culture, especially in the United States, that we start to equate being happy with. With stuff, with stuff. And now that I have a tool.
that I can use to get any stuff that I can conceive of. and find on the internet. Suddenly, I have a tool that can be subverted away from just. Normal meeting life's needs to something that I'm hoping will make me happy by the stuff it can bring to my front door. And I think that's the seduction.
That's the problem here. And all through the Bible, God's very clear about the fact that there's only one place that will actually find happiness, and that's in relationship with Him. And secondarily, in relationship with other people whom he creates, in whom he actually inhabits through his spirit. I mean, true life seems to come from relationship and not from things. Things will come and go.
And in fact, many times, even when you have them, when you use them and when you dive into them, you find out that maybe at first there was some. Pleasure involved with these things, and I feel good about having this thing, but in the end, You lose interest in it and it's gone and you throw it away. And then you go for something else and you search for something else and you bring something else to your front door and it just goes over and over and over. Materialism never really satisfies. Materialism is a perennial tease about what will make you happy.
but in terms of things that you could get.
So here's the temptation. The temptation is Is the fact that whatever I think of and I can acquire. It will make me happy.
Now, of course, it's limited by finances and money. If you have infinite money, then you can order infinite things to come to your front door, and you can have infinite opportunities to find out whether these things will make you truly happy once I acquire them. Or you can dream about having them if you don't have enough money. And in the dreaming about them, even almost the anticipation and dreaming of the things makes you happy. And then the thing finally comes and it makes you happy for a split second and then it bores you and you throw it away.
Crazy. God warns us a lot about this.
So let me just read a couple of passages that work against the whole materialism syndrome. that your phone and the internet behind it can so easily Feed. And twist you. Here's some Bible verses. Let me read for you.
When Paul wrote to Timothy, Timothy, by the way, as you recall, was a A young trainee of Paul's to actually take his place.
So was Titus. Titus and Timothy, both younger men in the Lord, and he's training.
So the letters to Titus and Timothy, called the pastoral letters, are letters. essentially to train them for ministry. And here's one of them, or he touches on this one particular issue. In his first letter, 1 Timothy 6. Verse 6, he says this, and this is a really big deal.
Godliness with contentment is great gain. godliness with contentment is great gain. Am I happy with what I have? Or do I constantly Occupy my mind dreaming about things that I don't have? Or am I content with what I do have and just staying right there?
Godliness with contentment. His great gain. And then he goes on, and Paul stretches this out just a little bit and explains this some. He says: Look, we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these, we'll be content, right?
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. And this is a great closing phrase. And it's through this craving, it's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. This craving for things that we don't have.
these things that we think will make us happy. I ask you, and I ask myself, am I content with what I have, or do I constantly dream to acquire things that I don't have, thinking that somehow in their acquisition, they'll make me happy? Another place, another place is in Hebrews. Hebrews thirteen The writer of Hebrews says in verse 5: Keep your life free from the love of money and be content. There's that word again.
And be content with what you have. For he said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. It's God's promise to say, if you need anything, I'm with you, you know, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Verse 6.
So we confidently say, The Lord's my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me.
So again, contentment with what you have. Is the statement of a soul that settled on Possessions And not desiring and dreaming that possessions will change your life to something much better. Contentment. God's with you. He'll provide for what you need.
Another place here in Luke verse twelve. Jesus says really quite clearly He says, Look, for all the nations of the world seek after these things. This is what everyone does. The nations of the world seek after these things, and your father knows that you need them. Chapter twelve verse thirty one.
Instead, Here's the solution. Seek his kingdom. and these things will be added to you. 34 for where your treasure is. There will your heart be also there will your heart be also All the nations seek for these things and think that in seeking them.
It'll solve life's needs, our wants, our desires, our pleasures. Stuff, just stuff. And yet, your father knows you need them.
So instead of pursuing those things, instead of seeking those things, thinking that they'll bring life. You need to seek instead His kingdom and His righteousness, as the Matthew passage says. And all these things will be added to you. All the things that you need in life, God knows you need, seek His kingdom and He'll provide for you. He wants to be a loving Father who has demonstrated His love toward you in His provision for you.
He wants you to come to him, not to your phone. For the things you think will bring life, for the stuff that will be delivered at the doorbell at your front door. He wants you to come to him instead. And he says, in fact, that in seeking the kingdom and in seeking him for the things that you need, in seeking him for those things that you think will bring life, seek them from God. Don't seek them from your phone, from your pocket messiah.
Even in Matthew 7, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says a really. Optimistic thing for us. I mean, a really encouraging thing for us. He says in verse 7 of chapter 7 in Matthew, ask and and it'll be given to you. Seek.
And you'll find Knock and it'll be open to you. But what you need to do is seek, ask, and knock. At God's door, and not the door of your phone, and place your heart's desires in your phone. Put it your heart's desires in the Lord instead. And that's a good way to end this as well.
Instead of this endless search for things to fill the void in your life. Search for the things that God brings to fulfill in your life. And that's something that the nations don't do. And that's something that God is eager. and willing to To fill that void when you come to him.
And he says, the psalmist writes in Psalm 37, verse 4: He says, Look, this is what you need to do. Delight yourself in the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord. And he will give you the desires of your heart.
Now, that doesn't mean if I pay lip service to God, he'll give me all the other things that I want that I think will make me happy. No, what he's saying is that once you realize that your delight is actually in the Lord, He is the place that you seek, ask, and knock. He's the one that's the source of life, not the stuff that comes to your front door. When you delight yourself in the Lord, who does not need to be accessed through your phone. He's near you and right next to you.
Then he says The desires of your heart will be fulfilled. He will give you the desires of your heart. If the desire of your heart is God Himself, God will give himself to you. It's a great promise from there.
So don't be lulled into. The wrong way to use your phone to find stuff. And again, I'm not condemning getting stuff, finding stuff, having it delivered to draw. I think that's a marvelous thing, and I use it every day. And all of us use it for different kinds of things.
The temptation and the snare and the danger that lurks here. Your desires and your wants. Instead of placed on God Himself, placed on your phone and on the internet. And what I've come to start calling this phone my pocket messiah. I look to him to see to my needs in a way that I really need to go to God to see to my needs.
And woe be to you or to me when we start taking our wants and desires. And placing them on our phones to provide to us things that the things that stuff that we think will make us happy.
Okay, so I'll stop railing on that and I get got to get back to my circuit. Be very careful about this. If you are in a generation that's relatively young, say Gen Z or maybe the end of millennials, it seems like a natural thing to have this kind of access. to the world's things so readily so Easily, so quickly, and even so inexpensively. It seems like that's the way that the world ought to be.
But in my generation and the generations that came after me, It's a remarkable access to goods that can, in and of itself, turn from a wonderful service Into a seductive call to remove our dependence on God and place it on the pocket messiah instead. There's a danger there, so just beware. Thanks for coming this morning. We'll come back to another topic related to your phone and the Pocket Messiah next time. Mm-hmm.
