SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, Spring Lake Church.
unknown: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Bill.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here on staff at Spring Lake Church.
SPEAKER_00: It is so great to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: This is only my second time that I've gotten to preach at Lawrence, but I'm so happy to be back.
SPEAKER_00: We are actually continuing on our series called Uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And today we are gonna talk about artificial intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: Someone earlier looked at the slide and they're like, why are we talking about Al?
SPEAKER_00: Because I thought it looked like Al.
SPEAKER_00: So, no, we're not talking about L.
SPEAKER_00: But we are talking about artificial intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: And can we just like pause for a moment and recognize the weird moment that we are in in human history?
SPEAKER_00: Like, there are days where I feel like I'm living in a science fiction novel.
SPEAKER_00: Like I wrote, I read science fiction growing up a lot, and I felt like, wow, we're like actually living this moment right now.
SPEAKER_00: We have artificial intelligence that can talk like a human being.
SPEAKER_00: We have deep fake videos and images that are hard to distinguish from reality.
SPEAKER_00: I read one story where um someone used AI to clone a man's voice and then called his grandmother and per and impersonated the grandson and said that he needed$2,000 and she sent it to him.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't know that it was AI because how would she know it's her grandson's voice?
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps more alarming is that AI has gone far beyond chatbots and answering questions to now it can actually act like a human being on the computer.
SPEAKER_00: In the next five years, AI is predicted not only to do that, to do things what can be done on a computer, but to be combined with robots, super intelligence in a body.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of scary.
SPEAKER_00: And I keep on thinking this as we've gone through this age, is I've seen this movie before.
SPEAKER_00: Also, it doesn't end well, does it?
SPEAKER_00: The movie doesn't end well.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's why this subject is uncomfortable for people.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is moving so fast, and our kids and our grandkids are gonna grow up into adulthood, into a world that is kind of indistinguishable from the one we grew up in.
SPEAKER_00: And to make matters worse, people are worried that AI is gonna steal their jobs, that it's gonna destroy their privacy, that AI will make a few companies rich, and all the rest of us will be destitute.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever the future is uncertain, fear arises.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I would suspect that there's probably certain expectations you have from hearing that we are going to talk about AI.
SPEAKER_00: There's just things that you expect that we would talk about.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you would probably love for me to get up here and share about how evil AI is.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of people who hate AI.
SPEAKER_00: And so you would love for me to say how Christians should stay away from it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might want me to even say that it's like summoning a demon, or that it's actually uh the Antichrist or the mark of the beast, or link it to Revelation in some way.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's probably others who are just curious.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've played with it, you've seen how powerful it could be, and you're just hoping for some biblical insight.
SPEAKER_00: But the big question is this how should we think about AI as a Christ follower?
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to get a few things off the bat, I just want to get a few things out of the way off the bat right away.
SPEAKER_00: First, I need to tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: No, I did not use AI to write this sermon, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I know you were all thinking it.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I wonder, he probably, Chat GBT, write me a sermon on AI, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, I did not do that.
SPEAKER_00: Second, if you haven't heard this, this is the way that AI works, because I found a lot of people don't know how it works.
SPEAKER_00: At its base level, here's how it works.
SPEAKER_00: Researchers took vast amounts of human data, think like the entire internet, and they trained these models, these computer models on it, to predict what would come next.
SPEAKER_00: So when you ask it a question, it's actually predicting the next word.
SPEAKER_00: AI is like a giant autocomplete feature.
SPEAKER_00: You ever seen that on your phone where it's like, here's what you could say next, here's the next word you could say, or in your email.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's doing.
SPEAKER_00: It's just doing it on a really grand scale.
SPEAKER_00: It's guessing what's next based on millions and billions of pieces of data that was fed into it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because you need to understand, you need to get it in your mind that actually this is human technology made from human intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it does not have a soul.
SPEAKER_00: It does not have a soul, it is not alive and it is not a person.
SPEAKER_00: It is not and it will not and it can never be created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not.
SPEAKER_00: But also, it's not a demon.
SPEAKER_00: And I think um, I suspect that the forces of evil can use it to deceive us just like any other media we have.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is this that AI is artificial intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: We've shortened it all to these two letters, A and I, and we forget the artificial part.
SPEAKER_00: It is artificial intelligence, it is simulating human intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: And that probably seems really obvious to you when you think about it, but honestly, because the technology is so good, it's so convincing, people are being fooled.
SPEAKER_00: They think that there's something behind this box.
SPEAKER_00: People have AI girlfriends and AI boyfriends.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who become attached to their AI chatbot as a coach, a counselor, or a friend.
SPEAKER_00: When something feels so real to us and it you're getting from it what you're missing in your human relationships, it can be easy to get sucked in and forget that this is artificial.
SPEAKER_00: This is artificial intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: There is no man or woman behind the curtain, it's a machine.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I could say a whole ton of things about AI.
SPEAKER_00: I'm very interested in this subject, but we only have one sermon for this series on it.
SPEAKER_00: And so as I was praying and asking the Lord what He would want me to teach on AI, um I was praying about what would be helpful for our congregation, and I realized what we really need is a framework.
SPEAKER_00: We need a framework.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, what we really need is some guardrails.
SPEAKER_00: Because whether we like it or not, we live in an age of AI.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of you are like, well, I've never, I never use AI.
SPEAKER_00: That's not even part of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing: all of us use AI because it's actually being built into every human system that we have right now.
SPEAKER_00: The packages that get routed to your house are using AI.
SPEAKER_00: It is part of our system.
SPEAKER_00: So whether you use it directly or indirectly, it is part of our life.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of being fearful or unsure or getting sucked into it without thinking, I want to give you some biblical guidance about following Jesus in the age of AI.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible, you can open it to Romans chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be on the screens as well.
SPEAKER_00: But as we're turning there, let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we come to you and we recognize that you are King of kings.
SPEAKER_00: You are Lord of Lords, you are sovereign over all things, and you are sovereign over human technology.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we pray that you would instruct us and guide us by the truth of your word this morning and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would we listen and would we listen well?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to be discerning and wise when it comes to technology?
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12, 1 and 2, it says this.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is your true and proper worship.
SPEAKER_00: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
SPEAKER_00: Now, within this passage, there's three helpful guardrails that's gonna help us follow Jesus in the age of AI.
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is this in the age of AI, surrender everything to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the passage again.
SPEAKER_00: I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is your spiritual or this is your true and proper worship.
SPEAKER_00: I've always really loved this idea of living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: A living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the Old Testament, when they sacrificed an animal, it meant that it had to be killed.
SPEAKER_00: There was a death involved in it.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 9 22 says this: without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so the animal had to be killed as part of the process.
SPEAKER_00: The animal was sacrificed in the place of the people.
SPEAKER_00: It's called an atonement.
SPEAKER_00: But fast forward to the New Testament, believers already have the ultimate sacrifice already paid for us.
SPEAKER_00: They have Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We have Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: His blood has covered us once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: Death has already been conquered.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul means by in view of God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: As you think about God's mercy in Jesus, in him sacrificing his son, our response to that should be to offer ourselves, our whole selves, to be living sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: When we do that, we're worshiping God with our whole selves.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might be asking already, okay, Pastor Bill, thank you for the theology lesson.
SPEAKER_00: What does that have to do with AI?
SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of you were probably thinking when I was reading that passage, you're like, okay, how does Romans 12 apply to AI?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the picture here in Romans 12, 1 is that the entirety of our being needs to be under the Lordship of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To be honest, I don't think we always understand the depth of that or what that means exactly.
SPEAKER_00: We think this, yeah, my Sunday self goes and worships Jesus, my whole Sunday self.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm there on Sunday, I belong to Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or when I'm doing a spiritual activity, he is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When I pray, when I sing worship songs, when I meet with my life group, when I serve the church, that's when I'm a complete living sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: But we have a hard time realizing that Christ actually has to be Lord over all of my life.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus has to be Lord over my job, over my time, over my choices, over my desires, over what I watch, how I use my phone, my food, my possessions, over all of it.
SPEAKER_00: In order to be a living sacrifice, Christ must be Lord even over my tools and my technology and how I use them.
SPEAKER_00: The reformers put it this way: all of Christ for all of life.
SPEAKER_00: Or Philippians 1.21 says this, to live is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point.
SPEAKER_00: The first and foremost guardrail to follow Jesus in the age of AI is to intentionally bring the use and interaction of AI under the Lordship of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Before we can ask this, can I use this?
SPEAKER_00: Is it efficient?
SPEAKER_00: Will it save me time?
SPEAKER_00: Before we can say, is everyone else using it?
SPEAKER_00: We have to ask, can this technology be brought under the authority of Jesus in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Can this be used in a way that honors Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Can this be received with gratitude?
SPEAKER_00: Can it be tested with God's wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Can it be used in love?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what we're supposed to be about.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's pause for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you were hearing that.
SPEAKER_00: And because you don't like AI, you were hoping that I would say no to those questions.
SPEAKER_00: Can this be brought under the authority of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's all bad.
SPEAKER_00: Can we use it in a way that honors Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's all bad.
SPEAKER_00: And I've seen a lot of this in Christian circles lately, is that AI equals bad or immoral and wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And now, to be fair, I actually do think that there are some solid arguments for why AI could be problematic.
SPEAKER_00: A big one is this, and I hear this one a lot from people, is intellectual property.
SPEAKER_00: See, the systems, the data that was used to train all these AI models often came from real people, like artists and musicians and writers and researchers and creators.
SPEAKER_00: And Christians should care about that because everyone's doing it is actually not a really good ethic for Christians.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, I believe that companies building these tools should be honest and they should be accountable and they should be fair to the people whose work that they use to make this possible, but here's where I want to be really careful.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that there are real ethical concerns does not automatically mean that every use of a tool is sinful.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is that we already live in really morally complicated systems in our modern age.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about all the morally complicated things we do all of the time.
SPEAKER_00: The phones we carry.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you trace it back, we've heard reports over the years that they use slave labor to make our phones, or at least indentured servitude in some way, right?
SPEAKER_00: But it also goes to the clothes we wear, the food we buy, the companies that we shop from.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in the morality of all the companies you shop from?
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: And so almost none of our society is morally untouched.
SPEAKER_00: And when we discover something that's complicated, our response should not be naive approval, but it also should not be automatic rejection either.
SPEAKER_00: Our response should be discernment and wisdom from God.
SPEAKER_00: There is a difference between saying that this tool exists inside a broken system and saying every use of this tool is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And there's also a difference between saying, I can use this, and saying, I can use this however I want.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, this isn't the first time that Christians had have had to think this way.
SPEAKER_00: This is there's precedent for this because Paul actually deals with something similar in 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: The issue was that meat had been sacrificed to idols.
SPEAKER_00: And for some Christians, eating that meat felt unthinkable.
SPEAKER_00: It was connected to idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: How could you eat that meat?
SPEAKER_00: And their conscience could not separate the food from the worship of a false God.
SPEAKER_00: Still, there was other believers during Paul's day who said, an idol is nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even really exist.
SPEAKER_00: And so even though it was sacrificed to an idol, there's only one true God, and so I can eat this food with a clean conscience.
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting is that Paul, his response to the Corinthians is not to flatten the issue.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, um, okay, well, here's what I'm gonna say.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone must eat the meat because there are real, there's really no idols.
SPEAKER_00: He also doesn't say, no one must eat it.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't give a yes or no.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he gives them a deeper way to think.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this to them: he says, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is permissible, but not everything builds up.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Christian freedom is real, but Christian freedom is not the same thing as Christian wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Just because I can do something does not mean I should do something.
SPEAKER_00: Just because my conscience is clear does not mean my motives are necessarily pure.
SPEAKER_00: Just because something is useful does not mean it's it's forming me in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's leading me towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes to AI, I actually think that AI belongs in this category.
SPEAKER_00: For some Christians, their conscience may say, I cannot use this in good faith.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like there are ways that I can't use this.
SPEAKER_00: And it would violate what I believe about how I'm supposed to interact with the world based on being a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And to you, I'd say, don't violate your conscience.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul would say.
SPEAKER_00: For others, their conscience may say, I can use this, but as a Christ follower, I have to use it with limits and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I can only use it with honesty, with a way that serves people, with a ways that doesn't replace prayer or wisdom in my life or creativity or love, who God created me to be.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually think when it comes to AI, that that's the right frame.
SPEAKER_00: AI use is not a matter of trendiness or efficiency, it's not a matter of fear, it's a matter of Christian conscience and discernment under the Lordship of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is not simply, am I allowed to use it?
SPEAKER_00: The better question is, is this beneficial?
SPEAKER_00: Does this build up?
SPEAKER_00: Does this help me love God?
SPEAKER_00: Does it help me love people?
SPEAKER_00: Does this make me more truthful?
SPEAKER_00: Does it make me more faithful?
SPEAKER_00: Does it make me more wise?
SPEAKER_00: Or is this slowly training me to outsource the very things Jesus wants to form in me?
SPEAKER_00: And actually that's where we're gonna go next because the next guardrail is this.
SPEAKER_00: In the age of AI, resist what is shaping you.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to the passage, verse two, it says this do not be conformed to the pattern of this world.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine two basketball players in a gym.
SPEAKER_00: They show up to the gym, their coach is there, the coach says, I want you to make a hundred shots.
SPEAKER_00: Not take a hundred shots, I want you to make a hundred shots.
SPEAKER_00: And you can use the scoreboard to track each other.
SPEAKER_00: And then he walks away.
SPEAKER_00: And at first, they do what they're told.
SPEAKER_00: They start taking the shots.
SPEAKER_00: One shoots and the other operates, and they only press the button when the other player actually makes a shot.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's make, miss, make, miss, and they're they're keeping track, and the number slowly comes.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what happens?
SPEAKER_00: They get tired.
SPEAKER_00: And tired people are more often creative than honest.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of them notices something.
SPEAKER_00: He notices the coach isn't here.
SPEAKER_00: And what the coach wants to see at the end of this whole thing is that that scoreboard says 100.
SPEAKER_00: And so now the temptation appears.
SPEAKER_00: Why keep shooting?
SPEAKER_00: When you can make the scoreboard move, why sweat?
SPEAKER_00: Why correct your form?
SPEAKER_00: Why bend your knees while follow through?
SPEAKER_00: Why miss, reset, and shoot again when one little button can announce the same result?
SPEAKER_00: And so what do they keep doing?
SPEAKER_00: They keep pressing the button, and then at the end the scoreboard says 100, even though they haven't made a hundred shots.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Neither one of them had become a better shooter.
SPEAKER_00: Now the scoreboard didn't lie exactly, it counted what it was told to count.
SPEAKER_00: But it's it also couldn't tell the truth on what mattered most.
SPEAKER_00: It could not tell whether practice had happened.
SPEAKER_00: It could not tell whether the player had been trained by the exercise.
SPEAKER_00: The point was never merely to make one or to for the the point was never merely to have the board say a hundred.
SPEAKER_00: The point was to become the kind of player who could make 100 shots.
SPEAKER_00: The repetition wasn't the obstacle to the goal.
SPEAKER_00: The repetition was part of the goal.
SPEAKER_00: The missed shots weren't interruptions, they were teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it, the sweat, the frustration, the correction, the boredom, the focus, the learning to breathe and begin again, those are not unfortunate costs on the way to formation.
SPEAKER_00: They are the road through which formation is supposed to come.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be conformed to the pattern of this word.
SPEAKER_00: World.
SPEAKER_00: The word conform carries with it this idea of being put into a mold.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I was in college, in order to make money to go to college, during the summers, I worked in a rotational mold factory.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and you might not know what that is, but you basically make rubber products.
SPEAKER_00: And I was making rubber boat bumpers.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I would take this gooey liquidy petroleum product and I would dump it into this mold and I'd put it on a machine and then I would cook it and then I'd wait for it to cool, and out would come the exact shape of what was in that mold.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the idea that you're getting here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is acknowledging in this passage the world we live in is constantly shaping us into its mold.
SPEAKER_00: It's forming us into its shape.
SPEAKER_00: And specifically in our context, the world in which we live in is constantly trying to shape us into efficiency as the highest good.
SPEAKER_00: In the West, in America especially, we really worship as a culture efficiency.
SPEAKER_00: That's the best thing you can do.
SPEAKER_00: How to get the most work done in the least amount of time.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want you to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: If that's what the world is trying to shape you into, now imagine this.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a long day.
SPEAKER_00: And you're really tired.
SPEAKER_00: You're exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: You've had an emotional day yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And your friend texts you and they say they're going through a really hard time.
SPEAKER_00: And because you're so tired and you don't know what to say back, you pull up Chat GPT and you get a brilliant, empathetic, sounding result to send to them.
SPEAKER_00: And you go ahead and you send it back.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that was so much more efficient.
SPEAKER_00: That was so much easier.
SPEAKER_00: It was so much.
SPEAKER_00: Less friction than thinking through it and maybe not responding as well.
SPEAKER_00: Well, great.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You were efficient, but my question is, what did you lose in the process?
SPEAKER_00: What did you lose in the process?
SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest dangers for using AI as Christ followers is using it without realizing that it's actually forming you.
SPEAKER_00: It is shaping you every time you use it.
SPEAKER_00: It can give us answers without wrestling with the question.
SPEAKER_00: It can give us a paragraph without thinking.
SPEAKER_00: It can give an apology without humility.
SPEAKER_00: It can give prayer without the ache that's supposed to go with your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That does not mean AI is automatically evil, that's not what I'm saying, but it does mean that the question is serious.
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: What happens to us as Christ followers?
SPEAKER_00: What happens to us as a society when we keep getting the result while skipping the formation that is supposed to produce something in us?
SPEAKER_00: What happens when we can sound wise without actually becoming wise?
SPEAKER_00: What happens when we can create and we can answer and we can summarize and we can plan and we can respond and we can decide faster than ever?
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Patience, discernment, prayer, honesty, love, they begin shrinking inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: In order to follow Jesus in the age of AI, we have to be careful how we use it and how much we use it.
SPEAKER_00: We have to be sober minded that the technology is actually forming us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need some actual guardrails.
SPEAKER_00: And again, this isn't exhaustive.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't every possible situation.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't me saying there's no faithful way to use AI, but what I'm saying is that we need to pay attention to the places where AI doesn't just help us do something faster, but it helps us avoid becoming someone deeper.
SPEAKER_00: Someone's God is trying to make us into, to be more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For example, I'm gonna give you some examples and I think you should put these into practice.
SPEAKER_00: AI should not replace your voice in relationships.
SPEAKER_00: It should not replace your voice in relationships.
SPEAKER_00: If a friend texts you and says, Man, I'm really struggling.
SPEAKER_00: I'm struggling today, be careful about outsourcing your compassion to a machine.
SPEAKER_00: You can use a tool to help you think, but don't let it love your friend for you.
SPEAKER_00: They don't need a perfect paragraph.
SPEAKER_00: What they need is you.
SPEAKER_00: They need the Spirit of God working in you to minister to them.
SPEAKER_00: AI shouldn't also replace your repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you need to apologize to your spouse, your child, your friend, your coworker, don't ask AI to generate the right words so that you can escape the discomfort of having to write it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The discomfort is actually part of what God is using to shape you, inform you.
SPEAKER_00: The wrestling is part of the repentance.
SPEAKER_00: AI should not replace your spiritual wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you are carrying a deep wound, a hidden sin, a marriage crisis, a parenting fear, a major decision, don't let a chat bot become your pastor, your counselor, your community, or your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't replace me or any of the other pastors with AI.
SPEAKER_00: Please.
SPEAKER_00: I like my job.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, talk to a mature believer, talk to a pastor, talk to a counselor.
SPEAKER_00: Do not confuse information from a box as shepherding from a real live person.
SPEAKER_00: AI shouldn't replace the work that is supposed to train you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you have an assignment that is meant to teach you how to think, don't use AI to avoid thinking.
SPEAKER_00: The assignment's supposed to teach you how to think.
SPEAKER_00: If the conversation is meant to teach you how to love, don't use AI to avoid presence.
SPEAKER_00: If the prayer is meant to teach you dependence, don't use AI to avoid silence before God.
SPEAKER_00: Because with AI, the danger is not only that it might give us the wrong answer, which by the way it does sometimes, the danger is that AI might give us the right sounding answers while we actually become less patient, we become less prayerful, less honest, less present, and less wise.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe one of the best questions we can ask is not only, did this help me get the result that I wanted, but what kind of person is this helping me become?
SPEAKER_00: And so the guardrail is to resist what is shaping you, but there's a third one as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's this in the age of AI, renew your mind to discern God's will.
SPEAKER_00: So verse two goes on like this: it says, Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good and pleasing and perfect will.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's been this really interesting development in the age of AI.
SPEAKER_00: Uh researchers thought, wow, this is so efficient.
SPEAKER_00: Like people are gonna be able to get so much more work done.
SPEAKER_00: People are gonna outsource things to AI that they don't like doing, and they're gonna have so much more time on their hands.
SPEAKER_00: And what they've actually found recently is actually that AI has caused workers to spend more time working, not less.
SPEAKER_00: It turns out that getting things done, especially getting things done without a lot of friction, can become addicting, and so instead of stopping the task, when you are done with that task, you figure out what to do next.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, work begets work, or work, frictionless work begets work.
SPEAKER_00: And so the world of what's possible to write and create and analyze and research and organize has just been greatly expanded for every person.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get more sucked into the technology more than ever before.
SPEAKER_00: And let's be honest, if you are working right now and you are in the world that way, um, between work and phones and streaming devices, our minds are fatigued.
SPEAKER_00: Our minds are full, more full than ever before.
SPEAKER_00: In this passage, Paul identifies that in order to know the path that God wants us on, his good and perfect will, we have to focus on renewing our minds.
SPEAKER_00: And as I thought about this over this last week, I kept coming back to one idea.
SPEAKER_00: In order to renew our minds, we have to do the opposite of artificial.
SPEAKER_00: We have to do the opposite of artificial.
SPEAKER_00: Let me share some ways this looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, being quiet before God.
SPEAKER_00: Being quiet before God in prayer, setting time without distractions, without a screen or media to be with God, listening and worshiping and praying.
SPEAKER_00: The world is so loud, we need to get to be with God without it.
SPEAKER_00: And I know, like, if you're like me, I do this because I'm really into technology.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm gonna be quiet with God.
SPEAKER_00: And I go and I sit down and my phone's in my pocket, and I'm I'm doing great for the first 10 minutes, and then I'm like, oh, I'm gonna look this thing up.
SPEAKER_00: I need to think about this thing.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden I'm sucked into the world of technology.
SPEAKER_00: You know how you defeat that?
SPEAKER_00: Leave your devices out of the room.
SPEAKER_00: Spend time with God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the most important in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Carve out time to be with him.
SPEAKER_00: Another one is this God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We need time soaking in the truth.
SPEAKER_00: We need to wrestle with God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We need to discover the wisdom and the grace that we can only find in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm I'm guilty of this.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I kind of wrote this whole sermon for myself, so I hope you enjoy it too.
SPEAKER_00: But um, but listen, there are times, listen, I'm a super curious person.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know the answer to everything all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like the four-year-old who's like, Dad, why, why, why, what's this?
SPEAKER_00: Da-da-da.
SPEAKER_00: That's me, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I've just learned to tamp it down, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so when I read the Bible sometimes, I'm like, oh man, I wonder what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I'm gonna go look it up, Chat GPT, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: Or Google, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, no.
SPEAKER_00: Part of you not knowing is you wrestling with God's word, you letting the Holy Spirit speak into that moment, you letting yourself soak in it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what I found when I don't get the answer from technology in some way?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what has been crazy over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be talking with a friend like two days later, and then guess what?
SPEAKER_00: God brings this up, and I'm like, hey, I was reading this passage and I was wondering about this thing.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, I just read about this.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, God reveals the answer in a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And so God works that way.
SPEAKER_00: We need to disconnect from those things and spend time in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Family and friendships, we need face-to-face, undistracted time with those closest to us.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationships are good gifts from God and they renew us.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Your chatbot is not your friend.
SPEAKER_00: Your friend is your friend.
SPEAKER_00: I mean sometimes I'm like, 2026, why do I have to say these things?
SPEAKER_00: These are obvious things, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your chatbot is not your friend.
SPEAKER_00: And you you laugh, a lot of you laugh at it or you smile at it, but listen, I talked to someone last week when I preached this sermon in downtown, and they said they were talking about their chatbot in like first-person pronouns.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, she this, and she that, and I ask them things all the time, and they give me advice on all of these things, and she's so smart, and da-da-da-da.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it's not a she, it's an it.
SPEAKER_00: Your chatbot is not your friend.
SPEAKER_00: Your friend is your friend.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, nature.
SPEAKER_00: We need to spend time in God's creation.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's more adventurous or just sitting on your porch or balcony, time away from screens in God's creation can help heal and renew your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you who are indoor people are like, that sounds woo-woo to me, Bill.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why do I have to be outside?
SPEAKER_00: Like, get in touch with nature.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the heavens declare the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: When we are outside and we are spending time in God's creation, it speaks to us about who God is.
SPEAKER_00: It renews our mind.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you're you're listening, you're like, okay, prayer, scripture, friendship, creation.
SPEAKER_00: Those sound stupid, simple.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds like so basic.
SPEAKER_00: It is so basic.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe part of the problem is that we've started to assume that simple things are weak things.
SPEAKER_00: And they're actually not weak things.
SPEAKER_00: They are the primary ways in which God renews us.
SPEAKER_00: They slow us down, they reorient us, they remind us that we are not machines, we are not content engines, we are not made to be endlessly optimized.
SPEAKER_00: We are people made in the image of God, meant to be in relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so in an artificial age, do not underestimate ordinary faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet before God.
SPEAKER_00: Open your Bible, spend some time face to face without technology, with your friends and your family.
SPEAKER_00: Go outside, touch grass, people.
SPEAKER_00: Touch grass.
SPEAKER_00: It's then when you'll start to be able to see God's path and his plan in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so obviously you're like, wow, Bill is just like very energetic this morning about AI.
SPEAKER_00: You can tell he's thought about this a lot, and you think that, you know, I could just keep on going, and I really could, but we have to close this thing.
SPEAKER_00: So there are so many angles and thoughts that I would love to share, but here's what I want to leave you with.
SPEAKER_00: Church, everything in your life belongs under the lordship of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you were a Christ follower, everything in your life belongs under the lordship of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever people in the Bible they meet like an angelic being, they have a tendency to want to worship.
SPEAKER_00: They want to bow down.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's happening with AI today is people are wanting to worship it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the only true Lord and God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, realize that you are being shaped every time you use this technology.
SPEAKER_00: It's not whether it's good or bad, it's about how is this forming you?
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, your mind and psyche are under assault.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to renew your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Your assignment for today is to go outside.
SPEAKER_00: Put your feet, your bare feet, in your grass, in your yard, and remember that you are a human being created in the image of God to love him and to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Touch grass today.
SPEAKER_00: We can trust that God is actually the one in control of this world.
SPEAKER_00: In the age of AI, there can be so much fear and uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: Trust that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you so much for uncomfortable topics.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for challenging us.
SPEAKER_00: And whether we use AI or not, Lord, we know that you must be Lord of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray you would give us the wisdom to live in this age and follow Jesus with everything we are.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.