More than ever before in history, people are retreating into virtual realities. Advances in technology enable us to pretend that death is not real and that suffering does not exist. We can create our own little worlds and believe whatever we want to. Our virtual worlds are filled with self-created delusions, but we prefer the lies to the truth. As Paul said in the fourth chapter of his second letter to Timothy:
Preach the message. Be ready when the time is right and when the time is not right. Warn, rebuke and encourage, with great patience in your teaching. The time will come when people will not tolerate good teaching. Following their own desires, they will bring together for themselves teachers who will say what they want to hear. They will stop listening to truth, and start listening to fiction. You must remain sensible in everything, enduring hardships, doing the work of an evangelist, and completing your ministry.
Humans tend to focus on the daily details of life without considering the bigger picture. We play games and perform tasks which fill our days, without ever stopping to consider what our lives are achieving as a whole, and how our lives contribute to the meaning of the world. One of the tasks of a preacher is to alert people to this problem, to encourage them to stop following their own petty desires and start fulfilling their role in God’s ultimate plan for the world.