This morning, we’re continuing our message series entitled, “Toxic.”

By definition, if something is toxic, it is capable of causing serious debilitation or even death. In reality, we all possess toxic materials inside of our lives. We must appropriately deal with them before it’s too late and we find ourselves weak, ineffective, and dying.

Last week, we learned about toxic thoughts, how they can seep in and set the course of our lives unknowingly. Not only did we learn how to recognize them, but also how to replace them as they arise. This week, we’re learning about toxic influences.

Most all of us are aware of the need to guard the gates of our hearts and minds through our senses, especially our eyes and ears. We know that we need to be cautious of the media which we consume. It used to be radio, newspapers, magazines, and TV that we needed to be cautious of.

Now, it’s social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Now, information and media is immeasurably accessible via sources such as websites and search engines like Google. Countless hours are spent consuming media from outlets such as YouTube.

Well, I shouldn’t say countless. Billions of dollars are made doing nothing but counting and analyzing our video consumption and advertising. Over 400 hours of video are uploaded every minute. Over 1 billion hours of videos are watched daily. The average mobile device viewing session is over 40 minutes. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. Whether an inspiring teaching, video game playthrough, product review, music video, or how-to video, YouTube is where we go.

Our lives are being shaped and molded by complete strangers. We welcome them into our homes and fully trust what they say. They make us laugh, make us cry, stir up resolve within our spirits, teach us how to remove that starter and how to raise our kids. Usually, we welcome some of these YouTubers into our lives for the sole reason that they say things that we agree with. Paul warned Timothy that this day would come.

2 Timothy 4:3

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

In the world in which we currently live, we can sit at the feet of hundreds of teachers any time that we desire. It’s an awesome thing to have such access to the rich sources of knowledge and wisdom out there, but it can also be a dangerous thing if we don’t watch and guard our lives closely.

I’ve spoken to so many parents whose children were exposed to things that they never should have been exposed to in their entire lives all because of an innocent search. As with any good thing, evil is right there to take advantage of and toxically corrupt it as well.

It’s sort of humorous to consider this. People used to be afraid of the government spying on them through their landline phones or television sets. Now, we connect our entire household from our front door deadbolt, light bulbs, thermostat, microwave, refrigerator, laptops, smartphones, TVs, and cars all together and also connect them to the rest of the world.

We now have devices sitting in our homes listening to our every word awaiting our command and learning all about us and we now know full well that the world is intentionally surveilling them as well. We’re OK with paying that price for the benefit of convenience.

The influences in our lives are truly immeasurable! Advertising is no longer merely a sign or banner along a street or in a newspaper. Advertising companies now have our lives profiled to such an incredible degree that they often know us better than we know ourselves. We talk about how cool it would be to have something bizarre like a green, polka-dotted, rabbit shark at the dinner table with our family. Five seconds later, we see an ad for exactly that on Facebook.

Advertising is no longer all about selling a product. More valuable