1000 Likes but No Love : Finding love and acceptance
Do you know what the most liked photo on Instagram is?
Type in the chat if you know the answer.
If you never knew what it was, it’s an egg. Not a dinosaur egg, not an ostrich egg, not a crocodile egg. A regular chicken egg.
This egg was not wearing makeup, this egg was not vacationing in Santorini Greece or Bali Indonesia, and this egg did not get a Brazilian Butt Lift or pectoral implants. This was an egg, the same egg that you probably ate scrambled this morning. This egg had a single photo with 55,304,358 likes at the time this message was written.
This is a prime example that shows that likes on social media is not a sign that people love you or that they what you are doing. Social media likes is an inaccurate measurement of value that many persons use to judge themselves and others. Many assume that people who get thousands of likes must have everything going well for them or that everyone must really love them. This is not always the case.
Sixteen year-old Davia Emilia, committed suicide after she jumped off of a three story building, hours after she posted a poll to her Instagram account with the question: “Really important, help me choose: Death or Life”. This poll saw 69% vote for death.
The same followers who liked her photos, told her to kill herself.
What then is the real measure of our value. How can you know if you are important, loved and appreciated. Tonight we will seek to answer these very important questions and hopefully you will leave here feeling better than if you got 1000 likes.
Let’s Pray
From our previous examples, one thing that we can conclude, is that social media is mostly fake. Tik Tok, Fakebook, even Instagram Reels are… Fake!
Social media is a short snapshot of the best 1 second or 1 minute in a person’s entire day. Looks can also be very deceiving. A couple could be on a “bae-cation” in the Bahamas and the only time they speak to each other is to say, “come let’s take this picture”. Meanwhile, you are at home, comparing yourself to them and crying about your lonely single, broke life.
Most of it is a lie.
Studies have also shown that an increased use of social media is corelated to an increase in depression in teens and young adults. Any normal female scrolling through Instagram will think that her body is somehow in adequate. It’s not surprising since the many popular women of these social media platforms have perfect sized hips, breast and thighs. Not even in a box of KFC do you always find perfect sizes. The fact is, a majority of these models were not born with this. Many of these models have a few plastic surgeons in their contact list. It then just a false reality that can make any young girl dissatisfied with her God-given features. Even men are inserting fake abs and pectoral muscles, no exercise required.
There is a chemical in our brain called dopamine, it’s also called the feel good hormone. Whenever we get likes on social media, or brains send out a lot of dopamine. Dopamine is also released when people take drugs like cocaine. If we depend on negative sources like drugs or social media to provide our dopamine, it becomes a destructive addiction. Addictions can cause people to do irrational things for another shot of dopamine. And if you fail to get your next serving of drugs, or you didn’t get enough likes on your social media post, you can fall into a period of depression. Depression can lead many to go to extraordinary measures to find personal fulfilment. You will do things to impress people u don’t like with money u don’t have.
There is a drive to get thousands of followers on social media when research has shown that the average number of close friends a person has is between 3 and 5, and the average number of active relationships a person can have is 290.
This means the majority of your social media followers are not your real friends. People will share your post but will they share their time? People will comment on your pics, but never speak to you in real life. You can have 1000 likes but no love.
This may seem depressing. However, I’m not saying you need to go unfriend all the people in your social media account. I am just bringing to your attention that what people say or do on social media should not affect your mental health or your self-esteem. Not all the images are real and likes do not mean love.
However, there is someone who loves you. He was an influencer too, but he started out with just 12 followers. That’s until he was cancelled, but three days later his account was restored and now he has more followers than Christiano Ronaldo, Ariana Grande, the Rock and Kylie Jenner combined. This influencer is Jesus. Many people follow him for his blessings, for his healing, for his words of encouragement but it’s the Cross for me. The cross is a symbol of his love. He not only loves you but he likes you.
Jesus likes you regardless of what was in your “timeline”. It doesn’t matter what you did in the past, he is ready to give you a makeover. His love is worth a billion likes.
His comments on your profile are:
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9”
"In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33"
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 "
He’s sliding into your DMs all day, sending you bible text messages, have you read his love letters? For us he wants to be the most, but we keep ghosting the Holy Ghost, he’s knocking at the door of your heart, will you respond?
When you truly understand the magnitude of love that God has for us, you cannot help but love him.
You will sing, oh, how I love Jesus, because he first loved me. (Let the band and choristers play along and sing)
(Have a praise and worship with songs about love)
When you learn to love God, he will teach you to love yourself. He says I love you because ”You are fearfully and wonderfully made”, “I knew you and loved you before you were formed in your mother’s womb.” It is hard to hate yourself when you understand how much God loves you. Loving God is the real self-love. Self-love without God’s love is self-hate. Self-love without God is selfish, and selfishness is self-destructive. We cannot know love unless we know God.
Know God, Know Love, No God , No Love.
Godly Self-love will teach love for others, the first and great commandment says love your neighbours as yourself. So we will not truly know how to love our neighbours if we don’t learn to love ourselves, and we cannot love ourselves if we don’t know how to love God.
When we love others, we will develop selfless compassion. We will not love without expecting anything in return. Matthew 5: 46-47 says “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”
When we love others, will love them because they too are children of God and there they are family members who deserve our love. We love not to be seen but because love is our way of being. “We do it fi di love we nuh do it for the likes.”
It is when we learn to love God, who teaches us of our value in him, that we can love ourselves. When we love ourselves, we become aware that God loves everyone else just as much as he loves us. This good news should encourage us to seek to show everyone else how much God loves us so they can love him too.
Maybe you came here tonight feeling unloved. Maybe you have been looking for love in all the wrong places. Maybe you have 1000 followers, 10,000 likes, but you still have not found love. You may feel like no one loves you and you are finding it hard to love yourself. I have great news for you tonight, tonight you can find love. Not the boom bang, thank you ma’am, one night stand kind of love. The love you will find tonight is eternal love. A love that loved you before you could love. A love that sacrificed his life for you. A love that would trade everything , just to save you.
Any other love will offer broken and unfulfilled promises, disappointments, and make you fell less of a person. But the love that is being offered tonight is the love that Christ has for you. His love is free, but it is not cheap. That is because he paid the price to redeem you from slavery to sin. He bought you with the price of His life, so you can experience the freedom he offers and a peace that will surpass your understanding. Will you accept this love today?
You may have tried man’s love, woman’s love, even both, but how has that worked out? No other love is greater, richer, purer or sweeter than God’s love. His love has no consequences, just blessings. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to find true love, it may be your last.
If you wish to make Jesus Christ your first love, if you want to fall in love with Jesus tonight say this prayer with me, because falling in love with Jesus is the best thing you will ever do.
Let us pray.
