 Hi, this is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley. I've been using social media, especially Facebook, for several years now, and have found it to be a great way of sharing with many people about the goodness and love of the Lord. What a great tool social media has been for keeping in contact with friends, not to mention the making of new connections and also for the dissemination of the gospel worldwide. What a blessing it is to be able to share right now, live with so many who not only attend our fellowship, but also with those who are listening throughout the United States and even in other parts of the world. I'm truly blessed to be able to share with so many through this media. With that said, something has attracted my attention that I thought would be good to address. It's the growing rudeness that I see in some of the comments that people post. While I understand that people have their opinions and believe themselves to have not only the liberty, but also the responsibility to let everyone know how they feel about things. It seems that some have failed to realize that not everything they think is worth telling other people about. I get it. Social media is an outlet for people, all people. And there will always be those who want to show pictures of their cats on a fence, a dog chasing a ball, or their latest breakfast or dessert. That's fine with me because for many, that's something that matters to them Nobody forces me to look at their pictures or to comment on their dinner. Though I'm not a cat person, I do appreciate the love someone can have for their pet and respect that they want to share this with everybody. Those who aren't interested don't need to look at the pictures. That isn't what concerns me. What concerns me is the lack of civility that some people fail to exercise when they disagree with someone. And the way they feel that their opinions are not only correct, but that it's their duty to express them, but they get rude when they're corrected for any error that they have embraced. As a pastor, I've been in ministry for over 45 years and at this point I've studied and read my Bible, commentaries, books, and articles for many thousands of hours. I've taught classes in Bible college, mentored pastors, I've given over 8,000 Bible studies ranging from home studies, church services, retreats, conferences, and hopefully I've earned a bit of respect for the years that I have spent in ministry. I say this to emphasize that this kind of things mean something in the kingdom of God. Of course, I'm not saying that I am not open to correction. I am saying there are those who seem to think that because they believe something, they have a right to correct any with whom they might disagree with, even if they have no experience to present as credentials. I should say at this point that I'm not speaking on behalf of myself. To be honest, I don't get many rude comments on my Facebook live programs. The overwhelming number of comments are kind and positive. I'm not speaking on my own behalf. What I'm really speaking of is about the comments that reveal such mean-spirited and self-righteous attitudes that I see posted on pages of friends of mine who, like me, are simply sharing a quote from a well-known Christian leader or are encouraging people to live for Christ. One friend in particular gets so many odd comments on his posts that I have taken to writing him and asking him, why he keeps posting seeing that so many know better than he? His answer is simply that he just wants to encourage people in their walks with the Lord and such comments seem to come with the territory. I've told him I admire his patience. It seems that we are in the age of instant experts. After all, if we have a question, we can simply ask Siri or Google an answer immediately. We know much more than the average person on that subject, including our pastor. For many today, spiritual maturity is simply a Google-aware, supplied by Siri and not the spirit in the word reality. Spiritual maturity comes through years of steadily, obediently and consistently following the Lord, studying his word, walking with spiritual leaders, serving in our churches, learning to love people. Spiritual maturity comes through prayer, pain, trials, brokenness. It comes through struggling with the Lord over things that we don't understand, and us ending up like the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, who after his encounter with God ended up walking with a limp for the remainder of his life. It was in his wrestling with God that he was broken and it was then that his name was changed from Jacob, which means supplanted to Israel, which means Prince with God. Spiritual maturity is earmarked by love and love is very often revealed with humility and it is with this attitude of love and humility that any question should be posed to one another and should especially be present when we go about correcting one another. In the book of Galatians, chapter 6, verse 1, Paul gave instructions concerning correcting an erring believer. He wrote, He went on to say in verse 3, Of course, there is a place for correction and yes, there is a time to expose sin or error. We're not to simply accept anything that said in the name of Jesus and wisdom and discernment is at an all-time low in the church. This has been manifested recently in the well-known news story of a so-called evangelist who's asking his donors for $54 million to purchase a new jet for his worldwide travels. He and one of his fellow teachers at Verrer stated openly and publicly that they don't want to go on commercial flights because commercial planes are full of demons that will bog down their busy schedules with people coming to them with prayer requests. This kind of practice is revealed for what it is in both the Old and New Testaments and errors like this are to be openly exposed and completely rejected. Still, how we correct one another and how we go about voicing our beliefs requires humility, accuracy, orthodoxy and love without speaking the truth in love will not be successful in warning and encouraging those in real error. If you have the tendency of correcting others if you desire to correct people on social media that you disagree with then personally speak to them if possible if not perhaps you could privately message them share your concerns ask them to clarify what you seem to be hearing them say no one is above correction but courtesy and love go a long way when approaching error or bringing correction please remember that as Christians we are to be known for our love for God and others this means that we should be kind towards one another when we disagree with one another This is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley