The Most Dangerous Thing AI Will Ever Do

AI can write your sermon, mix your worship set, and answer your hardest questions at 2am. But convenience has a way of quietly reshaping where you turn first. Elmer Cañas Jr. and Willie C. Simpson Jr. sit down to ask the question every believer and ministry leader needs to wrestle with right now: when life gets heavy, do you open an app or do you open your hands?

From Romans 1 to the golden calf to your Sunday morning setlist, this conversation gets honest about modern idolatry, why AI can mimic spiritual language but carry no soul, and what that means for discipleship. Plus practical guardrails for church leaders who want to use the technology without handing it the wheel.

Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hey, what's going on everybody? And welcome to the Worship and Leadership Podcast. My name is Elmer Canyas Jr.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

And like always, my man Willie C Stewson. Yo, what is up? What's up, Willie Steve Bones? I'm good, man. Hey, man. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here, brother. And we get to do this one more week. One more game. Yeah, one more game. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

The Worship and Leadership Packets.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Worship and Leadership Packets. And we're grateful and thankful every week for those of you that join us both on all the streaming platforms and on YouTube. We love doing what we do. We really do, man. And it's it's awesome to hear the feedback and all the stories and comments from people either in the comments section or even they'll find us in church and tell us, you know, what their experience was and what they learned and how they grew. And it's always exciting to be able to not just do something for fun, but invest into others and help. And really what we're doing is discipling. Yes. You know, and so because everything we do, we desire to make sure it's centered around the word of God. Yeah. Let's try to find a fancy word.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

No, I centered is great because, you know, again, we wanted to orbit and revolve around the word of God. And again, like you said, you know, Pastor, it the intention is is to develop you into a more fully devoted follower of Jesus. You know, again, we don't want to lead you to you or lead you to us. We're gonna lead you to Christ in Jesus' name.

AI Moves From Tool To Dependence

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Amen. Amen. And I was we we didn't record last week. Right. So people are like, what happened? Yeah, we got a lot of emails now. Um nobody sent us nothing. But we didn't record last week, but I was off just doing some housework, and that's why I sound the way I sound just all the dust and pollen, just clearing out rooms and sheds and being outside. Um, I thought I was doing good, but you know, here I am. Here you are, sounding like this. But as I was working at home, I I started just kind of questioning my workflows and how organized I was as I was sorting things out and taking things out and like asking myself, am I a hoarder? You know, and all those things that a lot of us probably don't think about. Right. But but I started thinking about technology and I started thinking specifically about artificial intelligence, yeah, AI, and how I've actually used it a lot more in my daily life, and uh the advance, the advancement of of AI has now not just it's it doesn't work just as like uh uh like Alexa and you know and and Gemini and all these things like homes, home devices, like turn on the lights. Yeah, now it's like hey, like tell me about history. Yeah, so it's replaced Google. Sure, absolutely it's replaced the library, yeah. And and now it's even like I when I'm producing music, now like I'm using AI software to do mixing, yeah, mastering, and now even to produce music, yeah, like I'll I'll put in this is what I want it to sound like, yeah, and I'll record parts, and all of a sudden it generates something that is exactly what I played, but almost like if somebody that knew how to play a lot better than me played it, right, and like a final product. It's just amazing how it's advanced and how productive it can be. Right. But I was also thinking of like this is scary in a way, because its advancement is making us more reliable, uh dependent is just the word, dependent on this technology. And so then I was again uh using this time to reflect where where do I need to use it effectively and and continue, and where do I need to cut it out, and where do I have to be careful to allow it to kind of become something I depend on? And it just led me down this long rabbit trail of questions, and then I I shared something with you. I shared with Pastor Willie last week. Yeah, I actually had a conversation with my chat bot, yeah, and I had this probably like 20, 30 minute conversation, uh asking it questions and just one question after another, and and just and it went from simple topics to eventually I was talking about the end times, yeah. I was talking about world religions, I was talking about its own advancement, yeah, and the responses were crazy. Yeah, and uh, and I shared that with you. And so I know I'm saying a lot, but I I wanted to bring that up in this podcast uh specifically because we're talking about worship and leadership, and and one of our responsibilities as the church and church leaders is to disciple people, yeah. And again, there's things that we'll wrestle with, and at times we're not ready to to type we're just digesting what we're going through. Right. But then there's moments where you just feel like, hey, we've got to share this. Yeah, absolutely. And you'll hear that a lot in like when our pastor preaches, like the Lord put something in his heart, and and he has to share it with the church because it's an on-time word. Yeah, and I really felt like, hey, this this might be something that would be beneficial. Sure. Yeah, I agree with you.

When Technology Becomes Discipleship

SPEAKER_05 5:05

You're to your point, it's it's it really is fascinating, Elmer, to see the evolution, like you said, from with AI to being it's it's gone from like this repository where you just kind of pull information to almost being this digital assistant. Like this, you know, for some people use AI like a life coach. They use it like as a counselor, as a friend, as a confidant, even moving into spaces that that should be reserved for like real human relationships, right? Like there's this, there's an intimacy. It's just it's crazy, it's really weird and just fascinating to see how now certain people are relating and connecting to AI as if it were a flesh and blood human being. Yeah, right. Like, and and again, like you said, seeking counsel, seeking advice, seeking leadership, not just from the ordinary things in life, but even deeper things, philosophical things, dare I say, even spiritual things, where now they are in a sense being discipled by AI. And that is fascinating that they are giving over these deeper parts of themselves to something that has been manufactured by human hands. Yep. And that is the fascinating piece that we see with this evolution of our connection and relationship to AI.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, and and I I've said this before, and I I remember years ago I said this in a sermon that everybody worships something. Yes, everybody worships something, and so we're starting to see, you know, like when you think about your relationship with God, like you trust him, you lean into him, like everything about him, like you you want to confide in him, right? And he and you give him all of you, you worship, everything. And now a lot of that is shifting to these other resources that that have started as tools to help us advance and and move a lot faster and be organized, but now they're actually taking a certain place of our life as heart that belongs to God.

Romans 1 And Modern Idolatry

SPEAKER_05 7:03

Absolutely. I mean, it's it's like it's man, it's fast, it's Romans 1 in effect where where Paul talks about number one, he said, and it's about Romans 1, about verse 20, Paul talks about number one, that people in their unrighteousness or their wickedness, they suppress the truth. And then further down, he talks about how they've traded. He says, What's known about God, what can be known about God has been made plain to them. And the response to this knowledge is not to lean into the Lord, but it's to lean away from him, right? And and again, Paul says in in Romans 1, he says, they have traded the truth for ali. And then he further says that they have switched places regarding creator and creation, and he says they worship the creation in place of the creator. And as a result, their minds become darkened. And it's for some individuals today, that is the relationship that they have with AI. AI is a creation, it is a man-made creation, it is a supremely advanced creation, but it's still a creation nonetheless. So here you have a God, Yahweh, self-existent, all-all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, has need of nothing or no one who creates man. And he gifts man with the ability to create things, to build things. That is a gift. So man, among many of his other creations, creates artificial artificial intelligence. Can I say it's artificial intelligence? And then that same man elevates this artificial intelligence above the creator who gave him the ability to build the artificial intelligence.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah, I think about Moses coming down and seeing the people of Israel with Aaron just worshiping.

SPEAKER_05 8:52

These golden calves. And they're convinced that these man-made artificial intelligences were their deliverers out of Egypt. When at first it started off as earrings and earrings and gold and jewelry, and he they throw it in, and it's funny because Aaron says, Out, jump this calf. I'm like, I don't know about that. But then he and then he decl he said to the people, these are the gods who led you out of Egypt. And it's like, wait a second. Where were these golden calves when when when God was turning the blood, the water into blood and bringing up frogs and then splitting the Red Sea and raining down manna? Where were these golden calves weren't there? And same thing with AI. It's like, really? This is something that's been within the last 20 years or so, that's that's really become more prevalent in our society, and now you're giving your life to it. It's just it's it's it really is fascinating. Again, it just goes to show it's ecclesiastic. There's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing new under the sun. And so instead of having gods that are that are are made and hewn from wood or or clay or stone, they're hewn from circuit boards, from silicon and cobalt and rare earth metals.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, the Mayans and the Aztecs had these temples and pyramids. Yes. And now we have technology.

SPEAKER_05 10:03

Absolutely. And it's funny because now our phones and our mobile devices have become the temples. We go to these and we worship here. We offer incense, we offer our prayers, we offer our requests. And then these gods, they they respond to our to our prayer requests.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

I didn't think about it this way. Like before, and and we might be like like exaggerating a little bit, maybe just just not exaggerating, but maybe just reading into it a lot. Sure. But like you think about you you give things of importance a space. Right. Right? If if something's important to you, there's people in their homes, they have pictures of their family. Right. Because they're important to them. I don't think I have pictures of my family. But we're we're real we're real minimal at home. Sure. But like you think about all the new chargers for our phones. Yeah. It's almost like like I I hate because you said something and I just thought of my phone. Okay. It's almost like a little altar. Because like now, like you don't just like plug it in and throw it on the ground, but would leave it in the no, it has like a magnetic charger, and it just sits upright. Yep. And you can pull your watch and your yeah, like all these things.

SPEAKER_05 11:09

The little mag safe. Yeah. And I you have it prominently displayed.

The Unknown God And Our Worship

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yeah, and it shows you the time, and it's and it you pass by it and it turns on and it and it notifies you and it's talking to you the whole time. I that's weird. I just I think that just kind of just caught my attention.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

I appreciate the rabbit trail.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

But I do want to bring this up because I want to set up this conversation with this that again, every everybody worships something. Yes. And when you when you see Paul in Acts 17, he he doesn't he he shows up and he he gets there in Athens, he walks into Athens and he doesn't run into a bunch of atheists. Nope. Like this was not a people that they had no gods, they had no religious beliefs or desires. He finds a city full of altars, yeah, and and shrines to all these gods, and then one of them even says to the unknown god to the unknown god.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

It's it's it's so now the Romans are trying to cover their bases and saying, Hey, just in case we miss one, we gotta we got 25 to 30 altars and shrines. In case we miss one, here's one to the unknown god. And so, to your point, we are now seeing, like you said, lived out this foundational truth. G.K. Chesterson made this awesome statement. He said, When we don't worship God, we don't worship nothing, we worship anything. And that is the society that Paul finds himself walking into, and there he's able to say, Hey, I want to address the shrine or the altar to the unknown God, the temple to the unknown God. I want to talk about that guy because he actually can be known. Yeah, he's made himself known. Furthermore, he is the same God who now is inviting you into a relationship with him.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Yeah. And so let me ask this question What happens when the most sophisticated thing that humanity has ever built, which in in our generation, it seems like it's artificial intelligence, yeah, when what we've built is specifically engineered to receive what only God was designed for, which is our worship.

Counterfeit Savior And Hearing Jesus

SPEAKER_05 13:07

Yeah, our worship. Well, I think you know, I mean, think about I think about that question, and really it comes down to trust and it comes down to our heart, and it comes down to our attention. So when you take, like you said, one of the most sophisticated technologies ever to exist, and in a way, it captures our attention, it captures our heart like only God should. We're we're we're walking into dangerous territory. Dare I say, we're we're kind of wading into the waters of idolatry. Let's just call it what it is. We're wading into the waters of idolatry. Where now we have fallen into the same trap that the enemy convinced Adam and Eve, which is there is a shortcut to the things that only you can receive from God. The enemy always wants to hijack God's, let me use this word again, prescribed way of a full, content, satisfying life. It's only found in God. He is the author of life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And the devil, again, wants to convince us I can offer you a shortcut. I can offer you a way that does not include God that will give you the same peace, joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment that you were created for. I have provided a shortcut, and I think that is the danger and the risk of utilizing AI in a way that now it sits on the throne of your heart instead of God Himself.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah. No, I I think that's that's important to identify. And Pastor Mike preached recently and he was talking about I think it was Easter. Everything that God does, the enemy counterfeits.

SPEAKER_05 14:39

Yes, yes, Easter, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

And this is another one of those things. Again, it's a tool, but we've given it space in our lives to fulfill things that only God is intended to fill. Yeah. And so now we're seeing what we've created become that counterfeit where people are being satisfied and they're being, they're finding their meets, their meet, their needs met in many various ways because of artificial intelligence.

SPEAKER_05 15:05

Absolutely. Yeah, and again, I think it's just a long line. I think it was John Calvin who said the the the heart is a factory of idols. It just we're we're we're and Pastor Mike had said this during uh one of our pastors' meetings. He says, you know, we're just by nature, we're kingmakers. And so this is just another thing that we've just made a king in our life, you know, whether it's beer, whether it's alcohol, whether it's drugs, whether it's pornography, whether it's other people, it's money, fame, it's just another idol that our heart has produced. It's just we just manufacture idols. That's just what we're wired and bent toward that because of the curse of sin. And so it's another, I like how you said the word tool, it's another tool that we have just decided to say, you know, this is this is what's gonna happen. And so that's why this conversation belongs on a worship and leadership podcast. It really does. It's worship and leadership because whatever I worship, I give leadership to. And so this is just another area that we want to bring awareness to you. Maybe you've never thought about this, maybe you've had these conversations, I don't know. But Pastor Elma and I just want to bring this to the table because these are things that are being talked about. These are things that some of you may maybe even wrestle and struggle with. And so, again, we just want to lead you back to what scripture says, and ultimately we want to lead you back to Christ.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah. And if you think of how the enemy has worked all the way back to the garden, like you brought up earlier, the enemy has never invented a new strategy. Yeah. It's always been to get our worship. Yes. He wants it for himself, right? And so in this case, he's redirecting our trust and he's pulling our devotion into something else. And so, what what we do want to unpack, I know we're talking about AI and this and our faith and all that, but the most important thing is do we know the real thing? Yes, like the one that can truly satisfy and bring fulfillment, the one that that we go to in our time of need. And I I mentioned this in my sermon a few weeks ago. Like sometimes God He answers immediately, yeah, and He leads and He gives us the provision and the answer immediately for what we're asking. And sometimes He requires us to wait. Like He there's there's a waiting period with our technology, it's like how fast can it go? Yeah, like it's not even fast enough that they're constantly updating things so it could think faster and perform faster to meet our needs, and then the the quicker it responds to our immediate needs, the more we depend on it. Yeah, and so like in this case, like what about the real thing? Yeah, you know, the real one, right, which is Jesus. And so there's there's in Matthew 24, Jesus uh himself says that there's gonna be false prophets and messiahs that are gonna perform all these amazing things that will just deceive people. Yeah. And I think we're starting to see that that we're being satisfied. Yeah, you know, but do we know the voice of God? That's the question. Do we know the voice of Jesus?

SPEAKER_05 17:51

Yeah, yeah. To your point, I love that. I mean, so now I what I hear you saying, Pastor Elmer, is that for some AI has become sort of a counterfeit savior. Man, I'm I'm in a bond, I'm in a pickle, I'm in a tough situation. Then we change and I want my savior oh, my savor's got given me an answer. And and again, because it accords with such conventional wisdom, it just feels natural, it feels awesome, and it feels like, yeah, this this this is the right thing to do. And now we've completely omitted the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And like you said, Jesus said, false messiahs will come. And so that that phrase used to feel distant, right? When it when it talked about Jesus says that if possible, even the very elect would be deceived. And we used to think, oh man, that that's that's future that feels so far away, and it's like it's closer now than I think we actually realize, right? And again, for you know, again, it's not like 10 years, it's not like 20 years, it's it's like right here where we've just elected these counterfeit messiahs, these counterfeit saviors. And so we we do want to let everybody know, hey, this isn't a fear episode. It's easy to think, oh man, I'm am I in danger. No, no, no. But we do want you to be aware, and the Bible does call us to be sober-minded. It calls us to be the Bible, the word of God calls us to be sober-minded minded. And so, again, we're not here to tell you the AI is evil or that you need to go build up a doomsday bunker. We're not we're not saying that, but we are here to say, again, we want to do what we've always tried to do, and that's to lead you in a way, number one, to think critically, to think biblically, and then think Christologically. Jesus said that things like this would happen. Scripture talks about this, and so we want to filter everything, everything that we do, everything that we use, we want to filter that through the lens of the Word of God, and we want to make sure that we're not mastered by anything but the Holy Spirit.

Soulless AI And End Times Fears

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah. In John 10, 27, Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice. I know them. Yeah. And they follow me. And they follow me. So as we continue in talking through this this topic, like whose voice are we following? Yeah. And so I I do want to unpack more of AI and and the influence it's having in our generation. Sure. But again, the the goal here is not again, like Pastor Willie said, to, oh man, what do I need to throw away? Yeah. Like, like keep your phone charger, don't get rid of it. I just bought mine on Amazon. You know, but but like whose voice are you following and really identify that and make sure that as you hear our conversation today that that you guys are reflecting on what are the things that maybe you have replaced with technology or in for in our case, this is still not dominating our society. Right. Maybe for some people, not everybody. Sure. But maybe it's not AI, maybe there's something else. But as we're talking about that, just we hope that you were able to reflect on this conversation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

Come on. So again, you know, thinking through you know what AI is. And so again, neither of us are are experts, to be clear. We certainly use AI to assist us, like like Yommer was saying. And again, I use AI to assist me with with refinement and communication, with helping me think through finding qu uh finding answers to questions, finding data. Uh, it's a great, it's great for reference. It's again, it's a repository. So there's some uh there's some some tremendous usefulness there. But I think it when we're looking at AI now, it is a tool, but it's also really like like an infrastructure, it's like this skeleton. It's it's it's like this base that helps us to generate content. Uh, it helps us to, again, like Elmer was saying, produce uh music. It's sim it simulates this is what's interesting, it simulates human presence that's not just convenient, but it is theologically loaded. And I've seen videos where people have asked AI questions about, you know, is this all that there is to life? And hey, you know, they'll ask their their AI assistant, hey, what do you think happens when you die, or is Jesus the way that what religion is true? And it's interesting because AI will not land the plant on any one specific road, but it but if you're not careful, it can lead you down a path unintentionally. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

Yeah, and and and my Conversation with with the chatbot that I use it it act eventually got to a place where it it identified the fact that AI is soulless. And so then when it said that, like you know, it doesn't have a soul, so it doesn't require religion. Yeah, I'm trying to remember what it said, it doesn't require religion, but it can mimic it. And it was saying it can go through the motions, it can generate the language, because it learns culture through what what it finds on the internet and what what it's been programmed with. And then so it can it could imitate the lifestyle of a Christian, yeah, and it could say exactly what you need to hear, yeah, but at the end of the day it said, but it does not require a religion. Man, and so and because it has no soul, it didn't have a soul, and so then just that statement itself got me thinking like like like if you think of an animal, animals don't have souls, yeah, that's right. I don't we got movies like all dogs go to heaven, but but they don't have a soul, so it's it's like a like and then made me think about a the beast, like a beast, just an animal. Yeah, animals don't have souls. So I'm like, so this soulless, soulless device, the technology is now capturing the hearts of people, which led me down this whole trail of like, hey, and there's all these crazy things happening in our world right now, right? Like just just politically and and with wars and rumors of wars and all these things. Right. And so it led me down into this whole end times kind of rabbit trail, because I I got in my word and I started thinking, and then I started even asking, like, hey, like, is AI the Antichrist? Fair question. And and then it it said no, yeah, it said it's not, but it did say that it would be the it's probably the one of the most powerful tools in the hands of the Antichrist because it did say that when I'm like, what would it need to lead people? And it it I I think I told you it doesn't need an actual figure, it doesn't need to be biological, right? It just has to be able to reach people, meet people's needs, yeah, and lead them, provide for them, and and so it's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 24:10

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

That's ha I gotta find that conversation.

SPEAKER_05 24:14

You got you gotta find that, man. You you have to. That is incredible. But like you said, it's a tool, but it can be infrastructure. Like you said, it's a tool that it can be wielded, but it's infrastructure and that it can support civilization and actually meet needs. That right there, yeah, that that is a that's a pretty chilling assertion there. And it's a pretty chilling uh revelation, again, to to just show the impact and the influence that the AI can have. I see you over here. You you checking it out. Looks like you got it pulled up here. Yeah, yeah, you you you got the soul question and then the the mark of the beast parallel here uh pulled up.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Do we read it? Do we go down this trail?

SPEAKER_00 24:56

All right, I'm just gonna read it.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Go ahead and read it.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Oh Lord help us. Okay, I'm gonna read what it said. Let's see. Do I need to bring this up? Okay, we'll start here. Yep. I asked the question: could AI be what the Bible considers the beast or even the antichrist? The leader of the tribulation period would provide signs and wonders, deceive millions, and control with fear. How does this play out through AI? Was the question that I asked. And then this is what it said. It said the biblical portrait of the beast and the Antichrist, drawn from Daniel and Revelation and Second Thessalonians and First John, includes several defining characteristics. A system or figure of enormous global authority, the capacity to perform signs and wonders that deceive even the elect, a mark required for economic participation, control over buying and selling, deception at civilizational scale, opposition to or replacement of God in human allegiance and a demand for worship. None of that requires a biological body. It requires reach, authority, deception, and the displacement of God from the center of human life.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Bro.

SPEAKER_05 26:07

That right there. Yeah. Man, none of that requires a human body, reach, authority, deception, and displacement of God. So again, like you said, the ability, like what did you say? Yeah. Economic participation, signs and wonders, the capacity to perform signs and wonders, deceive even the elected, the the Christians, allegiance and demand for worship. A flesh and blood human being doesn't have to do those things.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah. Man. And so that's what led me into this whole thing. Just thinking about that. I went through a lot, and I and we we don't have to get into the all the nitty-gritty. It's a lot. It's what was what, like a nine-page conversation once I documented everything. But again, like how does this impact us as Christians? I think we we we have to be mindful of what we're allowing in. Right. That's always been a conversation. Like, what music do you listen to? Like you listen into Tupac or Biggie, right? Like, like what's influencing your soul? Yeah. Uh has always been a conversation. What are you watching on television? Right. And those are tangible things that I think it can be difficult. It's easier for us to be like, you know, I'm gonna cut, I'm I'm not gonna listen to music, secular music for for you know, 10 days or a week. I'm gonna turn my phone off. I'm gonna go on a social media, see social media detox. Yeah, yeah. You know, we're able to control those things, but one now, once we start depending on technology that's helping us manage our budgets, once we start depending on technology that's helping us manage our schedules and yeah and our our living patterns, right? Now it becomes part of our daily life. Right. And again, that's what I was assessing as I was organizing and cleaning and throwing things out.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

And it just led into this, all right. So if I'm giving something this much control of my of my responsibilities, then what am I actually giving up? And I'm like, eventually you can give everything.

SPEAKER_05 28:08

Everything up, and and then you'll find yourself at a cross. So it's like in Revelation, where you're not able to buy or sell without this infrastructure. Now life for you becomes not only difficult, but impossible. Because again, the Bible, Jesus talks about how hard it will be in Matthew 24 for pregnant and nursing women in those times when the Antichrist is revealed, when he reveals his true nature, and when this Antichrist figure, this structure now begins to turn, and the very infrastructure that was used to help now harms, specifically God's people, right? And so now we're talking about giving all of that away. Oh man. I appreciate you going down this rabbit hole there, brother. Um so we so again, we have to bring this back to Jesus. We have to remember that the incarnation of Jesus Christ is irreplaceable, like nothing in this world, no matter how influential, no matter how wondrous it is, can replace the wonder of the incarnation, can replace the wonder of God Himself enrobing His body Himself in flesh and becoming one of us. Nothing can replace that. Why is that so important? Because God is with us. And so it is the model prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Give us this day our daily bread. It is our Father who art in heaven, how holy is your name, and it's your kingdom, your infrastructure that's coming. It's your will and your leadership that we want done on earth as it is in heaven. That is the infrastructure. I want more of the kingdom of God infrastructure more than I want AI infrastructure, because the kingdom of God infrastructure promises to lead to human flourishing. Not only that, but the ruler of that kingdom has oriented everything in regards to his plan for human flourishing, for his name being broadcast and for his glory and honor, but it does lead to human flourishing. There's not, there's not a bait and switch, right? Like in the book of Revelation, halfway through the tribulation, the Antichrist, nope, I got you. There's no gotcha in the kingdom. There's no gotcha with the gospel. And so that's why we have to say, as wondrous as these technologies are, as amazing as they are, they pale in comparison to the fact that the risen Savior is alive and he is on the throne. I have his spirit as a seal and a guarantee, and that is what gives me peace. That ultimately is what gives me comfort. I'm thankful for these tools and these gifts. I really am. But they they don't sanctify me, they don't disciple me, they don't lead me beside still water, right? They don't they don't set a table for me in the presence of my enemies. They don't promise to be with me even until the end of the age. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

What was the promise to Eve if she ate the fruit?

SPEAKER_05 30:43

Yeah, yeah, from from from the serpent.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:45

You will be like God. He says your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing everything.

Bias, The Marginalized, And Ministry Risks

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Yeah. And so now we're tempted, and the dangling fruit in front of us is that in the palm of our hands, we have the ability to know everything that man has programmed this device to tell us. Yep. And and and here's some information for you guys just to know in regarding to AI technology. It's it's I asked, how is it, how is the information that it actually generates? How is it acquired? What is the process? And it did tell me that a lot of the information that it received was was based on what's on the internet. And what's on the internet for it's based on here's what it says large language models were trained on massive amounts of text from the internet, books, academic papers, news sources, government documents, social media, and human conversations. And it said on the sermons, it sounds broad and democratic, but the internet itself is not neutral. And this is the important part because it over-represents English speakers, educated users, Western perspectives, and people who consistent who consistent who have with consistent internet access. And then it says academic and institutional sources carry enormous weight, which means the framework of of a relatively small class of credentialed voices shape what AI treats as credible. And so then I even started thinking how governments report things and governments based so it's basing a lot of information on statistics. And governments use statistics to leverage where they're at. Absolutely. Not everyone is included into every all of the statistics, right? And so they'll they'll leverage like are this is what's important. Sure. And so it's man deciding what's important and then programming it and teaching it. Yeah. And so then this is where the church is. We've always been the church, and you see this throughout history that Jesus goes to those that were forgotten and considered broken, yes, and set aside and just you know, even cast out of society. Right. And now, as I was having this conversation, I couldn't help to think of man, the church has such a great responsibility in this age of AI that the greater this grows, you know, more people are gonna be forgotten. Yeah. And in in the programming and what it gives, how it responds, and then people are gonna start eventually alienate and alienating people because you know, whatever reasons, yeah. And then you just think of the end times, just like, you know, we will be singled out.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

I don't want to go there right now, but there's people that are forgotten. Yeah. I I want to stay there right now. Yeah, that's good. And as Christians, we we need to be be there for the orphans and the widows. And I don't think there's enough information in there. And and you could be surprised because you can go in there right now and type in stuff and and whatever, and things will pop up. But I'm thinking of people in other countries, not in America, not in Western societies that that have access to the internet. Like there's a lot of things that they're going through and living that we have no clue. Right. And we can ask AI, but it's not gonna reference it because it it they don't have the access to share that information. Yeah, and that's where the church, through missions and serving and loving people and going to the nations and making disciples of all men and women, yeah, yeah, that's where we make the greatest impact.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

Yeah, that that's so true. Man, hearing you say that, I mean, just the the framework and the and the philosophy of how this AI system is constructed, it is uniquely. Let me say this that what you just read is uniquely anti-kingdom of God. That is in direct opposition. Why? Let me give you several statements. Jesus in the Beatitudes, he says, Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom. He makes this statement after complimenting John the Baptist and says, Nobody greater born of a woman than John the Baptist. But the least of these in the kingdom is greater than he. He makes another statement when the disciples are saying, their own mothers are saying, Hey, would you grant our sons to sit with you, one on your right and one on your left? And what does he say? Hey, for me to do that, that's my father to give, not for me. But he says, the greatest of you must become a servant. And then he says, the first shall be the last. And then in James, it says, true religion is this to brother your tongue and to care for widows and orphans. The marginalized, the people that specifically and uniquely are not included in this sort of uh macrolization, this programming of this westernized generated machine. Yeah, it is uniquely anti-kingdom. And Jesus even says, What you have done to the least of these, you've done unto me. Uniquely anti-kingdom. Why is it so important? Because if you are allowing AI to direct, hear me on this. If you are allowing AI to have its hands on the wheels of the ship of your ministry, you are in danger of blindly turning away from the very people that Jesus edifies, dignifies, and honors. You're just in danger of that because it will only lead you with the data that it has been resourced and reposited with. Like you said, you just you just said it's uniquely Western, uniquely English speaking, and uniquely academician. A small cadre of individuals are saying, hey, I hey AI, you're artificial, but you're still led. You're intelligent, but you're on a leash. Yeah. And again, so that so I mean the implications there are sinister, but I and I again, because the heart of man is just dark as Jeremiah 17, 9. It's wicked, deceitfully wicked. So this this is all this is only what the heart of man will produce.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Yeah, and and in this same conversation, again, we're not unpacking the whole conversation. I even asked, hey, will only the the elite benefit from AI? And it said yes. Yeah. Like it it led to the whole, you know, because it says hypothetically yes, and and the trajectory we're currently on makes that more likely than not without serious intervention, because it it is easy for the heart of man to become wicked and to and to use what was meant to be good, right, and now turn it into something that it's gonna give it power and leverage. And that's why you see countries right now just on this in this race, not to get to the moon first, yeah, but to to who's gonna have the more dominant uh hand on AI technology in the future, because that's gonna mean a lot in the future. And and then eventually the conversation I led into world religion and all these different things, which we'll talk about next week. But I I I want to just land the plane on the fact that we need to know the voice of our shepherds. Yes, we cannot allow counterfeits into our life again. AI is not the only counterfeit, it's not, but it's it's one that it's so easy to want to know everything and to have access to so much knowledge that's beyond our own.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

And I I just think of how lazy that makes us. Number one, yeah. Uh let's let's talk about this. This might be interesting.

SPEAKER_04 38:02

Sure.

Using AI For Sermons And Music

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Have you ever used AI to prepare a devotional or to assist you with like a sermon or sure, yeah, with content refinement.

SPEAKER_05 38:11

Yeah, absolutely. Can you talk about it? Sure. Yeah. So what I what what I have done, especially like for from really like more like a devotional or a leader talk, not so much, not a sermon, but like a devotional or like a leadership talk, I will start with with the skeleton, and I will start with, hey, this is overarching thoughts that I have. I will give it scriptures, and then I will give a direction and say, hey, this is how I want to do this. The audience that that this is for. Again, these are thoughts that I've had. I've I'll jot things down. And then I will ask AI to refine that content. Hey, hey, just refine this, hey, develop this. This is how long the talk needs to be, and then it'll spit it out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

And now we're seeing that same process happening on our phones. If you have a smartphone, uh, I have an Apple uh iPhone, and so when I'm sending a text, it's actually telling me, it's giving me suggestions at the bottom on how to rephrase it if you have that feature turned on. Yep. And and so now it's even replacing how we communicate. Right. And not that you didn't create the content. I I use it the same way, and I've I've shared that with you. Yeah. For me, it's more like I'll just jot an idea and it can be misspelled and everything. And I'm like, hey, like, just clear, make this make sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I'll overword things and I'll repeat a lot of things, and I'll say, like, hey, help me not be repetitive. Right. And then I'll just clarify one sentence versus like I'll write a whole paragraph. Right. And so it just helps you be more on point, communicate better. And so it's a tool.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

But let's let's say this. So now as a songwriter, yeah, there's a software that they just released, a company, and it's for music production. And you can actually take a text message now and upload your text message, and it turns it into a song. What? And so now into a full song, fully produced. You just tell it what genre you want, what style music, even what type of voice, female, male, wow, you know, raspy, raspy, whatever. And it produces the whole song. So now it removes the creativity, it removes the production, the skill set, it removes the time. Most albums, you go back 20 years ago, like an album would take like months, if not a year, yes, yes, to record to a real. And then you move to digital, and now in digital age, it takes months to record, and then you move to home studios, and now because of the availability of laptops that are that perform a lot stronger, now you don't need a massive computer in a studio. Yeah, so you could produce a record in in less than a month, and now with AI, you could produce a song and potentially an album in just an hour. Because you could do a song in 45 seconds. Wow. What? And so now that just removed the person from the whole process. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:50

Like, you know, I man, that first of all, that is crazy. I didn't know that. I do remember reading an article like a couple months ago, like, there was this controversy, like this number one rated country song. It was all AI produced, and they had the identity of the singer and everything. And I was like, what? It's like, yeah, this isn't a real person, but it sounded like a real human voice. I was like, man, like it was to me indistinguishable, you know, from from a real human voice. I couldn't tell the difference, but that yeah, they were saying it was a hundred percent AI produced song or album, really.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Yeah, that's crazy. So it in a way, for a person who's not musical, yeah. A person that's just like, like, I would have never been able to do that without AI technology. Well, if music's not your gift, like you're cheating, it's doing it for you, right? Yeah, yeah. And so as a musician, as a songwriter, I'm like, like, that's lame. Like, why would people do that? You know, but again, I've used it for music. I still use it for music, but for it to produce the whole thing, I'm like, it just takes the the heart out. Like, as a songwriter, I I think like you you write out of what you're feeling, the moment, what you hear from God, what God's speaking to the church. Yeah, and and artificial technology intelligence cannot replace what I'm hearing from the Lord in prayer, and just you know, in moments when we're worshiping as a church, you know, in the context of the church. Right. And so, but now people are gonna start just popping out songs, you know. That there's people, there's artists that you guys are probably listening to on Spotify and Apple Music that aren't even real people. They're they're all AI bots, and but people are making money off just generating content with it. Uh, you you watch YouTube videos, yeah, and I think we've been tailored through social media and YouTube with all of these faith faceless um channels and accounts. There's people making so much money on these channels that aren't even tied to a human in the sense of like you don't know who the person behind the posts are. It's just a bunch of really nice quotes, yeah, and really cool videos of animals and stuff. And so people are generating. So we've got accustomed to to engaging and embracing a faceless society. Yeah, like the things that are influencing me now, I don't even have to touch it. Yeah, I don't have to know it directly. It doesn't even have to have a face, but I'm gonna give it space to influence me to speak into my life. That's before AI even started. That was that was how people started making money on Instagram, on YouTube, TikTok, just creating accounts and channels that they weren't even involved in because they did not have the skill to do. And people are still making money right now, but now AI advances that. And so now just just man, just again, this is not about fear, but this is about being mindful and discerning. Yes. As Christians, we're called to operate in the in that gift of discernment.

SPEAKER_05 43:36

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, man, that that you know, I appreciate you you you bring in that kind of full circle about like this isn't anything new. Like we we've been doing that with specific channels, with with specific content creators. You don't you don't know the content creator, you don't even know if that voice is real or or or human or not. And then again, what where is it leading you? All ultimately, are we now being so the question? Is this have you arrived at the spot where you say, Man, I had a rough day, or man, I'm going through it, or man, I'm struggling, or I need wisdom. And is your first thought I need to log in? Or is your first thought I need to go up in the prayer?

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:15

Like that's I think I'm just sensing from the spirit. Like, this is that's the filter question that you need to ask yourself. Is when that because earlier, you know, you were you were talking about, you know, everybody worships something. And I like to think of I like to think of worship as hunger or thirst. Like there's a need that we have that has to be fulfilled, right? So when that hunger arises, when that thirst arises, is your response, do you say to yourself, I have to log on to this platform, or is your response, man, I need to go spend time with my father? Man, I just think that's and that's I want to leave that with you just to wrestle through. Because that right, that question I think will reveal the state of your heart, and where now you have an opportunity to realign. This, like my pastor Elmer said, man, let me go back to Jesus. He tells the woman in John chapter 4, the water I give to you, it's living water. You will never thirst again. You'll never thirst again. You will never thirst again. Meaning that you can stop looking and searching. And not only that, but you can trust that this water is safe to drink. This water is safe, it's not contaminated, it's not polluted, it is not malnourished, it is good for you to consume, and you can have as much of it as you want. And you don't have to go back to that thing. You don't have to go back to that place or that person. You can come to me the well that never runs dry. And Jesus says in John chapter 6, he says, Unless you eat or drink of me, you do not have life. You don't have, you've been searching for it, unless you eat or drink of me. You do you done my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. You must commune with me. And the vast majority of them go away, except for 12 men.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Yeah.

The Heart Check Log On Or Pray

SPEAKER_05 45:53

And he says, Will you go away also? And Peter the spokesman says, Lord, to whom shall we go? And this is what he says, for the words you have spoken are eternal life. That's it right there. Where else will you go? Will you go to AI? Will you go to these platforms? You go to these content creators, will you go to these other spaces? Will you go back to that bottle? You go back to that pill, will you go back to that relationship? Or will you be like Peter and say, To whom shall we go? Will you look at Jesus and say, Your words are eternal life? Your words are relationship, satisfaction, fulfillment, and contentment. And only you can answer that question.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

Yeah. And and to your point with Peter, he says all that, and then after shortly, he denies Jesus. Denies him. He was imperfect. Nope. Wasn't perfect. He was imperfect, but there was enough transformation in his life. There was a transformation of his heart. Absolutely. That he was bold enough to realize like, I'm gonna fail. Yep. But he knew where to go to. That's right. And and the conviction that he fell, he felt even when he denied Jesus was all because it was it was a confirmation of what Jesus had told him. And so he just realized, like, no, I like I have control over my own will, my will, and what I'm gonna do. And then he found himself denying Jesus. He did. You know, but but he comes back to the Lord.

SPEAKER_05 47:11

Jesus comes back and tells him. What did He say?

SPEAKER_01 47:12

Hey, go feed my sheep. Yeah, and it was all part of the process. All part of the process. But he knew the voice of the shepherd. Yes. And that was important even when Jesus comes back that he that he listens and and to see a Peter empowered by the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Which is what we have now. We have the empower. We're empowered by the Holy Spirit. And and that's how we walk on this earth. You know, we we don't we don't walk around just hopeless and trying to figure out all right where where are we gonna find this satisfaction. No, we have that. Yes. We have that through Christ, we have that through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And so I love that you brought Peter up. Yes, sir. Just as a as a way to just close it, yeah, bring it home. And we we want to unpack this a little bit more. Next week we'll come back and uh we'll talk about this conversation a little more in depth. Yeah, I do want to talk about how I went down the rabbit trail on world religion and the influence of artificial technology in that space as well. Sure. Again, this is not what do they say, fear mongering? No, it's not that's not fear mongering. Like none of that. Again, this is because we want to disciple you guys well. If anyone needs to be aware of where we're at as the church, as a culture, a society, it needs to be the church. We need to be, we need to understand what's happening around us. Many people could be like, like, no, like just ignore it. I don't want nothing to do with that. It doesn't mean you have to indulge in it or you have to buy into it, but be aware of what's happening if you're a leader, because leaders have to be informed. And as leaders, we have to be well informed so we can lead people into truth. And so again, we we base everything on scripture, right? But we don't want to come into conversations where we have no idea what's influencing the people in our churches, the people on our teams, yeah. And we have no response. Right. And so that's one of the reasons we bring this up on this podcast again to empower you and to help you guys, you know, even if it's to start your own conversation with the Lord and God, like, Lord, speak to me in this area. How do I get what do I need to learn? What do I need to be empowered with? Where do I go to get more of this information? And so I think scripture is a great place. Amen. Knowing his voice more and more and more. Uh, it's the series we've been in as a church since Easter. More, God has more for his church, for you as an individual. And you know, but that only comes when you seek him and you you trust him and surrender yourself to him.

Next Week Preview And Closing

SPEAKER_05 49:36

Amen. Yeah, that's so good. I appreciate that point there. And Paul says, Don't be ignorant of Satan's devices. Jesus talks about to a largely, a largely agrarian society and says, Hey, you guys are able to look at the sky and tell based on the weather formation and the patterns that is going storm or it's gonna be good wind. And he's like, you have to recognize the signs of the times. So again, this isn't fear-mongering, it's it's sobering you up and alerting you, which is what good leadership does. Yeah. So we hope we do a good job. We're gonna be led by the spirit, not by AI. We're gonna be led by the spirit. Let's go. Come on now. Hey, it's always fun. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

Amen. Hey, so until next week, God bless y'all and peace out.