Virtue signaling is sort of like a modern way of telling people I'm a part of your tribe.

I'm a part of your tribe based on who I follow, who I quote, the people that I associate myself with.

It's why, you know, oftentimes, even we have to admit, even as preachers, it's like, well, I know that the tribe will listen more closely if I quote this person and not that person.

Even though both people are godly individuals, we tend to lean towards, you know, the whatever tribe you find yourself a part of.

I know that I will be accepted in this tribe, feel safe in this tribe if I quote these people, follow these people, et cetera, et cetera.

Tribalism, what it does is it makes you again feel safe.

And we tend to gather around us the people that affirm us.

And so when someone is perceived as a compromiser because they're either nuanced in their view or they're trying to be careful and find balance or trying to seek truth in spite of tribe, then they're seen as compromising.

You don't even need to say they're wrong.

You simply simply need to label them as compromising or too soft.

And then they're sort of on the out of the tribe.

I mean, we're very territorial in this as well, right?

I mean, it's okay for you to say that you're watching Fox News, but you can't say that you're watching CNN.

Right?

The moment you say that you're watching MSNBC, it's like we we know in Italy there's something wrong with you.

There is something wrong with you if you did that.

But the first thing I do after I check out one of the news sources, I go to the other news source.

Yeah, not realizing that both news sources are owned by the same, right?

But it, I mean, it really it's the way it is.

But uh, how dare you watch anything other than what I watch, right?

Ray, Ray's speaking at an event, you know, up in Washington, and uh they they created a poster of it.

I go, yeah, this is great that Ray's speaking, Ray's reaching different people.

And people are coming unglued that certain people are speaking there, and it's not like there's people that are innately horrible speaking, but they don't belong to our tribe.

Right, there you go.

And because they don't belong to our tribe, maybe you don't belong to our tribe.

It's that element of wanting to appear a certain way because of what we fear are the consequences if we don't, you know, and and trying to detach from that, trying to be in a place where we're really concerned about what the Lord thinks.

I mean, if we can get there, I care about what God thinks.

You know, remember it was, I think Paul Tripp that says nothing, there's nothing that can be uncovered about you that hasn't already been covered by the blood of Christ.

Oh, that's good.

I think here's a good way of summarizing it, which is that we need to value virtue over vibes.

The the value of living a verse versus posting a verse.

It's it's so easy for us to quote our favorite theologian without actually reading the book, without actually allowing the truths that that theologian or the or God's word, especially God's word has in our lives and our hearts.

And I think it actually starts with like those air quote social media influencers, because so often we, you know, the the social media influencer is chasing the algorithm.

I need to post this amount of times and this amount of days, and they're posting, they're posting stuff that they've not even read.

They're posting stuff that hasn't actually dug into their own hearts and created the kind of character and virtue, actual virtue, not just vibes, actual virtue that Christians need to live out.

I think it's fair to say that this coincides with the cleansing of the outside of the cup rather than cleaning the inside first.

I mean, individually as believers, like, you know, let me really take a look within.

Ray, how do how do we do that?

Like, how do we really explore our inner being uh and and make sure that we're really walking up properly?

Oh, yeah, the the what comes to mind is when you say that is uh certain portions of scripture just thrill my heart.

I get heartburn.

One of them is uh Rotomaeus.

That's one.

And I I am.

For Abraham was, I am.

It's a whole stack.

Another one that thrills me, and there's about four or five hundred portions of scripture that thrill me like this, is where that woman had an issue of blood and she went to touch Jesus, and Jesus said, Who touch me?

And you think, and the the disciples is what is this comfort paraphrase, what are you talking about?

The whole crowd is reaching in to touch you.

And Jesus says, No, no.

He says, I perceive, and this is the King James Version, virtue has gone out of me.

So good.

You know, that's not an ordinary man that perceives virtue.

Um modern translations use the word power, that's anonymous, power and virtue.

But God's virtue is power, his goodness is power.

You stand in the goodness of God, it will kill you.

That's what God said to Moses.

I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock.

And he said, I'll let my goodness pass you by.

That thrills me, that virtue flowed out of him.

And that's the character of God: virtue, righteousness, holiness, justice, truth, and that power that comes with it.

Because justice always demands satisfaction.

And that's what that's why his wrath abides upon this whole world because of sin.

It pulls the justice out of God to make sure that uh equity is satisfied.

There is a bit of a a danger that social media has brought to the picture here where we pretend to be one way when in reality we're not, right?

We we only post the best pictures.

We go on vacation, we take a thousand pictures, we post four.

And those are the four best photos of me.

And I'll throw in the scripture, the token, the token scripture in there, and I'll have the picture with my feet in the sand.

We lose sight of the whole point and purpose of just sitting with the Lord and reading and meditating and studying, and then being able to move forward, right?

We if you don't, as Christians need a virtue signal because we don't need to pretend.

You know, we we don't need to pretend to be something that we're not.

If we can, and I've shared this with my kids, I go, you guys realize that I'm gonna let you down, right?

So I'm not surprised and cut off guard when you let me down.

You're gonna let me down, I'm gonna let you down.

You realize that?

Okay, great.

We we're gonna get along great because we're fallen people, living in a fallen world, who make fallen decisions, and because that's the way it is, I've already purposed my heart that I want to walk through this life with you.

David Jeremiah, I'll close with this.

The difference between virtue signaling and true virtue is that one seeks applause on earth, the other treasures approval in heaven.

I think that's really the summation of it, right?

God's approval versus man.

And if we're truly clued into God's approval, it's just gonna alter the way we act.

It's gonna change a lot of things that are just typical of us as people.

Probably could be covered by walking in the fear of the Lord.

Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast.

Friends, we value your time.

So we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped without the jokes and fellowship.

Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday where we dive deeper into the topic.

Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaters.tv.