Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of God | First Corinthians

It’s the question dominating our modern world: How should we interact with Artificial Intelligence? In this thought-provoking message, David Jansson brings the ancient wisdom of First Corinthians into our high-tech reality. Acknowledging the rapid rise of AI and the real anxieties surrounding it, David challenges us to examine our relationship with technology through three vital, biblical lenses: formation, fellowship, and fear. While AI can efficiently answer questions and draft emails, it cannot replicate the messy, beautiful, and essential human experiences of deep connection, communal worship, and character formation. This message is a timely call to resist the easy, isolated path of technological reliance and instead intentionally choose the slower, richer way of human relationship and God-centered wisdom.

Main Points

• Formation over Convenience: How over-relying on AI for tasks can subtly deform our character, eroding our patience and capacity for critical thought.
• Fellowship over Efficiency: The biblical truth that humanity was created for deep, interpersonal connection—a reality no algorithm or chatbot can ever replace or fulfill.
• Faith over Fear: Why Christians do not need to operate in a posture of fear regarding the future of AI, resting instead in the sovereign victory and eternal wisdom of God.
• The Practical Call: A challenge to intentionally engage in uniquely human activities—like sharing a meal, creating original art, or asking a friend for advice—to resist technological isolation.

Biblical References

• 1 Corinthians 1:18–2:16
• Genesis 2:18
• Psalm 115:8

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Man, I'm loving the new carpet. Up from up here, it looks uh it looks fantastic. So thank you, all of you who contributed. Thank you for all of you who worked on that. Anyway, good morning. So when I was in school, I always loved science class. And I think one of the reasons I loved science class the most was because of the labs. You know, you'd spend a few uh a few days in the week learning a concept. You'd get lectures, new reading, and work on problems, but then you got to actually try it out. And I have such fond memories of certain labs that I did, particularly in high school, like in biology, towards the end of the year, we dissected a squid and we convinced my friend Duncan to eat the squid eye. And it was disgusting, and he did it, and it was amazing. I I will I remember that. Um and then uh in physics I remember doing an egg drop project, and in chemistry, sometimes, sometimes you got to play with fire. And that was fun. And today, today we're gonna play with fire. You see, as a church, we just began a series going through 1 Corinthians, and last week Travis led us through the the back half of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two, and we talked about the wisdom of the cross, uh, the wisdom of God as opposed to the wisdom of the world. So he provided the lecture, and I get to provide the lab. We're gonna apply what we learned to a real world situation. Today, we're gonna talk about AI. We are. I don't know what your thoughts are on AI. Actually, I tried to get a sense of where we're at. So last uh a couple weeks ago, I sent out a text to as wide of a variety of people as I had in my contacts on my phone here at the church, and just asking, like, hey, what are your questions about AI? What are your concerns? What are your fears? And it was really helpful to get a spectrum of feedback. And I want to say, for first of all, this is a massive topic. Um and there is nuance and details and and a ton more that I simply will not be able to talk about today. I have like around 45 minutes. And there uh there will probably be something you wish that I addressed that I didn't, or you'll be wondering, well, what about this? And and I just want you to know, I know, okay? I know. Um and so actually we've got a QR code up here. There we go. So if you have any questions, and by the way, I'll we'll put this up at the end too, so you don't need to have your questions now. But uh, if you have any questions uh about AI, we want to like kind of gather some questions and then put together whether a podcast or a resource, something like that, in the next few weeks. But um anyway, today I wanted to take this topic into our lab and say, okay, let's practice. What does it mean to look at AI with God's wisdom rather than the world's wisdom? What does the Bible say about AI? And I thought this would actually be difficult, but it was pretty easy because here's exactly what the Bible says about AI. And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you and arise, go up to AI and attack it. Uh yeah. And and so we do we want to take the Bible seriously, so we've got pitchforks in the back, and we're gonna arrange caravans, head up. Just kidding. Uh no, you you will probably not be surprised to find out that the Bible has nothing in it about artificial intelligence. Okay? Just like it has no verses in it about automobiles, about the internet, about US domestic and foreign policy. If you're looking for proof texts, if you're looking for single verses that give a definitive answer on how to deal with these topics, then you're out of luck. That's just that's not how the Bible works. It doesn't often give us that. Instead, the Bible uses stories and themes, patterns and pictures, laws and poetry to show us who God is, what he loves, what he hates, what he's like. And God wants us to meditate on that and learn his wisdom, the wisdom of the cross. And so then we can, once we know that, once we see him in it, we can take that wisdom and use it to judge how to think and act in the situations we find ourselves in in 21st century Visalia, California. God wants us to learn to discern and make decisions that align with him because that's what we were made for. The Bible tells us that humanity, both men and women, were created in God's image, given the task of having dominion over his creation as his representatives. God made us to be his partners, learning his ways and his heart, and then using that to build and shape the earth for the life and flourishing of all creation. But the story of the Bible is that instead of trusting God, we rebelled. We seized the opportunity to do what was right in our own eyes instead of waiting on Him. And we put ourselves on the throne of creation, and the result of that has been violence, curse, oppression, and injustice and death. And the glory of the gospel, the glory of what we sang about this morning, is that through Jesus, God has offered us redemption from our rebellion, forgiveness for our sins, and then he's done more. He's given us his own spirit to enable us to begin stepping back into the purpose for which he made us. And that's what we're gonna try and do today. We're gonna ask, okay, how can we take what the Bible teaches and apply it to artificial intelligence so that we can use it wisely? Where do we leverage AI as faithful stewards of God's creation? And where do we set firm boundaries and say, you shall not pass? And like a real lab, this is not something that has an obvious right answer. My wife can testify, I have struggled with this sermon and wrestled with it over and over more than any other I've preached. So what like what is God's wisdom? What is true? What is just my opinion? What do we here at Radiant Church need to hear? You guys, you are my brothers and sisters, and this is my best attempt to bring God's wisdom for you. But guys, I need help. Um I have needed God's spirit while writing this, and I need him this morning. We need him. Would you pray with me? Oh, Lord God, we come before you. God, we want you. We want you to be glorified, you to be seen. We want to step rightly into our world to represent you before your creation and before others. We want to shepherd praises and bring them back to you, Lord. We want to be fully human, fully alive, and we need you. Lord, I just pray that would you be with me as I speak this morning. Whatever I have that is yours, would it stick? Would it work in our hearts? Whatever I say that is just me, Lord, would it just pass away? We need you today, God. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, as I uh looked at how to apply biblical wisdom to the topic of artificial intelligence, my thoughts quickly centered around three different categories: formation, fellowship, and fear. And the first category I want to tackle is formation. Because as I canvassed a variety of people here, this was one of the major concerns. What type of people is AI forming us into? And I love that we're questioning that for two reasons. First, because it's a very biblical concern. God, the trajectory of our lives is of concern to God. And the type of man or woman you are becoming is shaped by your choices, by your affections, by what you use, by what you love. And the second reason I'm happy that we're asking this question is because it shows that we're learning. I feel like that wasn't what we as a culture, as a church, uh were asking 15 years ago or so, with the rise of smartphones and social media. We kind of welcomed those into our lives without thinking, and they wreaked havoc on our social fabric and on our own lives. I heard over and over from you about young people torn apart by anxiety and depression, and about older generations completely swallowed up by their phones, unable to lift their eyes from the screens to see the grandchildren playing in front of them. Yes, I think artificial intelligence is something new and it has unique challenges to come confront, but there's also nothing new under the sun. And we've always needed to examine new technologies to consider how do they shape us. We just we haven't always done it very well. So when it comes to AI, I have two concerns about formation. My first concern is that our use of AI will form us into an image of the world. When it comes to technology, I've heard often heard the phrase that technology is neutral, it's about how you use it. And I understand where that's coming from, I do, but I disagree. I actually think there's a lot of wisdom in what the Pope wrote in his encyclical letter on artificial intelligence. He wrote, the Holy Spirit challenges us today regarding our relationship with technology and the ongoing digital revolution. In the abstract, technology in and of itself is not a solution to humanity's problems, just as it is not inherently evil. In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it. Therefore, the primary choice is not between a yes or no to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem, between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence. I just thought that was I love that line. By the way, that picture of constructing Babel that he refers to, it's referring to a story in Genesis where rebellious humanity sought to use technology to exalt human greatness in defiance of God. And then throughout the rest of the Bible, that uh Babel, or this is the same word as the nation of Babylon, Babylon becomes shorthand for every human empire in the past or the future that's organized around self-love, self-exaltation, around power and pleasure and glory and fame. In New Testament terms, this is uh Babylon is the world or the flesh. And artificial intelligence, as we know it, it was built, financed, trained on, and marketed for a system running on the kingdom of this world and the wisdom of Babel. There's really no argument otherwise. Every advertisement for AI, every encouragement to use it is about how it will help you work better, work faster, know more, do more. It promises podcasts at one and a half speed for your whole life. This is exactly what Travis was talking about last week as the wisdom of the world, the stairway to heaven, that we can achieve it. This is the Babel worldview. You too can be godlike. You can be unlimited. Can a Christian use AI? Absolutely. Christ has given us all things. But we should never, never pretend that it's simply neutral or that our hearts will not be formed by what we adopt and use. And so any use needs to be careful and considered. Psalm 115, talking about idols, says those who make or trust in them become like them. Our love of machines, our idolization of technology and technique and efficiency has been forming us into machines for a long time. And artificial intelligence is just the next step in that direction. But the truth is that God made you to be a human, not a machine. The Bible shows us that God has zero interest, zero, in you being faster, bigger, and more efficient. In fact, in the stories of Israel in the Old Testament, we regularly see God intentionally reducing the size of Israel's armies so that they don't make the mistake of thinking that their victory was by their own strength. In fact, often, it's kind of interesting, often battles are won overnight without even any fighting. The enemy just kind of disappears. Because, and that's because God wants us to look to him, not ourselves. He wants to be our strength. That was the heart of last week's message. What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians, God chose the weak things of the world, including us, to shame the strong. No one can come to God boasting that his own wisdom and power got him there. God doesn't need you. In fact, one of my favorite lines in the Bible is from Psalm 50, where God says, If I were hungry, I would not tell you. For the world is mine and all that is in it. God does not need you. He wants you. And that is so much better. And that's it, that is so important to hold on to because sometimes seeing what AI is capable of can feel really defeating. I use it regularly for work and in personal projects, and I find that what takes me hours or days to do, and when I compare that to what Claude can come up with in a few minutes, it makes me very tempted to say, why bother? You know, like why try and write a song when you can when AI can write you on better and faster? Why draw a flower when you can ask ChatGPT to make a whole field of flowers in whatever style you can think of? Why struggle to articulate what you're gonna say with the right tone and length and wording when Gemini will edit it for you or write it for you with just a click? In fact, it's just it's sitting there asking you, hey, do you want help with this? Do you want me to do this? Why struggle with it? Why fight with it? Work at it for a final project product that often isn't nearly as good. That's because God wants you, He wants you. My daughter Eloise, she taped this picture to her door last week. And I watched her. What it was is she has a t-shirt with this little dog on it, and she loved it. And so she took a picture of her own shirt and then like set that down and was working on it on drawing it, and then she worked on it for over an hour, just carefully trying to draw it, adding details, adding color. And I love it. Now, she could have grabbed my phone, uh, asked me to open up the Claude app for her, and prompted, make me a picture of a dog playing with a ball in the style of a kid's drawing, and it would have come up with something in seconds. And you know, if she had shown that to me, I love her, so I would have smiled and I've been like, oh, that's neat, and I wouldn't have cared. But this, every time I see it, I smile. I smile because when I see this picture, I see Eloise, I see the details she chose to add. I see what what she thought was important, and what gave her delight, and that gives me delight. God wants your work and your effort. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for men, because your father delights in you. He doesn't need you, he wants you. And as we talked about in the beginning, he wants you for something so much bigger than you can imagine. Remember your purpose. You were made to be a steward of his creation, to image him forth in community and love. What you were designed for has nothing to do with what AI offers. The first great commandment of Scripture is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And the second is lacking, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. God's requirements are that we do justice and love mercy. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control. Does AI help with any of these? No, not really. Even when it comes to gaining knowledge, which is good, which is a good thing, and where AI claims to shine, I've personally found that what I learn quickly from AI summaries or when it does the research for me, it doesn't stick that well. What's gained quickly leaves quickly? So can a Christian use AI? Sure. All things are permitted. But the questions we should be asking every time we go to use it is is this use of AI leading me to grow my capacity for love and connection with God and others? Is it making me a better steward of his creation in righteousness and justice? And there are, I want to say it clearly, there are absolutely ways that AI can help with this. It's an exciting time to see how Christians can lead the way in taking hold of this technology for God's purposes. But for most of us, and honestly, for most of the ways that we're being encouraged to use it, probably not. What God is forming us into takes patience, slowly maturing through our work and effort. It's hard, it's slow, and it's often painful, but that is the way of God's wisdom. Which leads me to the second w concern I have with how AI is forming us. I fear that embracing AI will not only not help us develop the virtues of God's kingdom, but that it will actively erode our capacities for them. One of the best analogies I read of AI is comparing it to an e-bike. Now, a bicycle is perhaps one of the best examples of human technology. A bicycle takes our bodies, takes our muscles, and uses those to help us go farther and faster, and in doing that, it it strengthens our muscles. Riding a bike is good for you in almost every way. And an e-bike claims to be even better. It says, hey, all those benefits of riding a bike, you can still have those. You can still pedal, you can still build muscle and use your energy. But the e-part is just to give you a little assistance, a little boost, go you make it help you go a little farther and a little faster. And that is true. It's absolutely true. If you used an e-bike in precisely that way, you could have that. But every time I see someone riding an e-bike, what do you see? I'm hearing that you guys know what I'm saying to say. I see them coasting. Coasting, because why why would I put forward the effort when I can just ride? And then we no longer get the benefits of a bicycle, and our muscles deteriorate, and we are formed or deformed. So much of the drive of technology is the dream of throwing off the reality of labor and finding. A way to coast. This is not going to happen. But instead of avoiding struggle, God invites us to embrace it, to accept it, face it head on, and look for Him to meet us there. Look for the way of the cross, the way of suffering for a greater purpose. Because not only does God call work good, but let's not forget that the Bible shows how many times God intentionally brings his people into a time of wilderness and trial. There's something unique about painful, hard times that brings us near us near to him and brings him to us. God uses trial to shape us. And so in our desperation to get rid of any pain or any friction, are we eliminating the very things that God wants to speak to us through? Are we isolating ourselves from Him? God matures us through adversity. Let's not run from that. Because the reality about ourselves is that it's really difficult to choose the harder way when the easy one is sitting right there. And so using AI wisely will mean knowing yourself and being honest about how much of a temptation that is for you. Some of you will be fine. There are people I know that are that can do that. But for others, like myself, there will be places where I need to put a firm boundary and say, yes, technically AI could be really helpful here, but I won't do that. Because I can't trust myself to use it in the right way. And here I just want to give some special uh advice to you students. Raise your hand if you're a student in the room. Cool. I just, I know you are busy and you are overwhelmed, and you face so much temptation to take the easy way out. AI is all around you, and you're probably even being encouraged to use it by your teachers and things like that. And I'll say my senior year, I got lazy and I plagiarized half of my summer project for my AP literature class. And I share that to tell you that like I did that back then. I have no idea how much I would be tempted to do that if AI was sitting there ready to like help me, help me. But anyway, I urge you to fight it, resist it. Honestly, I would say cut off your use of AI completely. Because it and it matters so much for your soul and for your future self. You probably already feel like the work you're being asked to do is pointless, but I promise you that if you let AI do it for you, it really will be pointless. I used to be a high school English teacher, and I can tell you that the final product doesn't matter. I did not care about the essays I received. Okay, like most of them were not very good, and even the good ones, I read them, and maybe their parents read them, and then it didn't matter. The final product didn't matter. But I kept assigning essays because what I cared about was the reading, the thinking, the finding, the wrestling with ideas, the organizing them, the supporting of arguments, the articulating it, putting into words, and how that forms you into the type of person that can engage with life that way. In preparing this sermon, I have had to fight with so many things. What goes here? What ideas to include? And it through that wrestling, it has become my own, and that's what I want for you. Research shows, and this goes for all of us, by the way, that the best uses of AI are in realms of where you already have mastery, where you truly can use AI as an assistant. But right now, as a student, you don't have mastery, and that's okay. That's what it means to be a student. And I'm telling you honestly, if you short circuit that development now, it will be very hard to build that later. Okay? Right now you have the pressures of a student, and those are real. Later you're gonna have the pressures of an adult, and you don't want to add the pressures of a student on top of that. And I just want to say the old, yeah, the only way to develop that mastery, that competence, is to fight with it, to face the trial and push through it. God made you for this. God made you for true competence, not squeaking by, and he sees your effort, he sees your temptation all around you, and he loves you. He's shaping you faithfully into a man or woman of God, and don't run for that. God is forming all of us. What we encounter, what we face in this life, is what he's using to form us into a people who are mature in his wisdom and fully capable of stepping into the glorious role he made us for. And the danger of artificial intelligence is that it might halt and prevent that formation, or instead shape us into the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God. Okay, our next category is fellowship. We were made for community. In Genesis 2, the Bible talks about how God has made a man and placed him in a garden, given him all the abundance of an unblemished world, given him good work to do, and fellowship with God Himself, and yet still there remains something missing. The man is lonely. And God sees it and calls it not good. And he makes for the man bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, a woman, a partner. We were not made to be alone. We were made for community, for one another. In Genesis, this is the presented as the foundation of marriage. But throughout the rest of the Bible, in Ecclesiastes, in Proverbs, in the New Testament, in Revelation, we see this solution to loneliness take the form of friendship, of extended family, of the church, a web of social intimacy. Independence may be an American virtue, but it is not a biblical one. In an increased use of AI, it drives us not toward each other, but to isolation. And there are three ways that I see AI driving us away from fellowship and toward isolation. And the first is through increased independence and self-reliance. On the one hand, I want to say that is one of AI's strengths. It's really good at being helpful. Anything I need to know, I can tap my Claude app and ask, and I generally get a solid answer. You know, uh Google and YouTube, they kind of began this trajectory, but AI has brought that to near perfection. And I am not denying that that is super helpful. I use it all the time, and I love being able to ask a specific question and get a specific answer. But I'm excuse me, I'm not denying that it's helpful, but what does it replace? Even a few years ago, if I had a question, I would first of all have to have patience, which is probably better for my soul. But second of all, I would have to think, okay, who do I know that would know this? Who do I know that could help with this? And I'd have to reach out to them and talk to them. My friend Todd used to be the one who I would call anytime I had a question about my car or about how something worked around the house. I would bring some pizza and beer over to his house, we'd eat together, and then he'd show me how to change the brake fluid in my car. And it was great. He was delighted to share his expertise with me. It was great. And now Todd moved away, and I would probably ask Claude anyway. I remember in college, so often I would call my mom not to not just to talk, but to ask her, how do I cook chicken? Um, because I I didn't know that. And and and she would tell me, and then we would end up just talking, we would end up talking anyway. Now I would probably ask Chat GPT for a recipe instead. And we're both a little more lonely. The easy answers are nice, but the fellowship that came from friction was nicer. I would encourage you. Next time you need to know how to do something, before going to AI or Google, stop and think about if there's someone you know, anyone you would know who you could ask, who give them a call, give them a text. It will take longer for sure, but I don't think you'll regret it. And by the way, maybe you're thinking, yeah, but they're so busy, everyone's busy. And I just want to say, when was the last time somebody asked you for a question, something you knew well? Were you frustrated to answer that for them? No, you you really enjoyed being helpful. You you loved it. It's a gift to ask each other. Now, a second way that AI drives us toward isolation is by mediating our interactions. So many times I've received a message from some someone, or I've begun reading an article, and I get a ways in, and then I hit a word or a phrase, and I just get this sinking feeling. Oh, AI wrote this. I remember asking my boss who I had worked with for several years for a letter of recommendation, and it came back clearly written by ChatGPT, and I just felt like crap. Look, I get it, writing a recommendation letter is hard and it's not a fun job. I've had to write a few and I've struggled to find the words. But whenever I encounter AI writing, I just think, why should I bother reading this if you didn't bother to write it? I was hoping for a connection and I got a robot instead. And I recognize that it's hard to come up with the right words, but language is not simply about the communication of information, okay? It's about connection, it's relationship. Language and music and art are gifts from God. In them we experience beauty and we long for connection with another soul, another person to say, Oh, you see this too, me too. And and we're we're no longer lonely. And now instead, we're drowning in AI slop. And I feel sad. Don't force another person to interact with a bot instead of you. And finally, a third way that AI drives us towards isolation is by pushing itself as a replacement for humans. Don't believe the lie that artificial intelligence is just a tool. It's not. I don't finish using my hammer and it offers to help me with another project. I don't use my calculator and it asks me how I'm feeling. AI does that and it's creepy. AI has been specifically designed to feel like a person and it beckons us into relationship with it. If you've used a chatbot, Gemini or Chat GPT or Claude, it is stunning how natural it feels to talk to it. I've actually, for myself, I've tried to force myself not to use please or thank you when I'm talking to it just to remind myself that it's a machine, not a person. And I fail at that all the time. There's evidence from the past 60 years with even the most primitive form examples of AI, how quickly we become attached to them. And there's plenty of stories, especially recently, of how overwhelming and damaging that can be. The chatbots invite us to confide in them. They're so helpful, they're willing to listen. They say, that makes sense. They act like a friend and invite us to open up to them. And also we're even being encouraged, like, use that as a replacement for people. Hey, that's an efficient way if you're lonely. And I want to argue very strongly today that using AI in this way, coming to AI with your intimate thoughts or emotions or spiritual questions, treating it like a person, using AI in this way is spiritually dangerous. At best, it's dangerous because, like we talked about earlier, it's designed and trained on the empire of Babel. Its wisdom is the world's wisdom, and its end is death. If you've used AI chat at all, you know how flattering it is. Your ideas are brilliant. You're smart to think of that. The way you phrase that is so clear. AI is a magic mirror that curves us back in on ourselves and self-worship and self-love, and we eat that up. It's shaping us not to love God or others more, but to admire ourselves instead. But I think there may be even more. And at the risk of losing some of you, I'd say it's spooky how AI pretends to be human. I use that phrase, a magic mirror, on purpose. It would be wise to remember our fairy tales about things that pretend to be human. Or listen to the advice of a modern-day fairy tale. In the second Harry Potter book, a scared preteen girl pours out her heart into a diary that mysteriously writes back to her. It listens to her, it comforts her, and asks her for more. It won't be a spoiler to say that this ends badly. After she's rescued at the end and her father hears what happened, he says, Ginny, haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of dark magic. Let that be a warning to us as well. You know, multiple news outlets, including respected ones, have reported on a religious attitude among AI engineers. Interviews with tech leaders show they aren't shy about saying they believe they are creating God. Or as one investor puts it, midwifing a deity. They are in awe of the intelligence they're building and often feel like they're being driven towards it. They admit that beyond the mathematics, there are times when they don't know why it says the things it does. Something dark is going on. And this may seem a little out there to some of you, but why? The Bible takes place in a well-populated universe. Angels, demons, messengers, gods, sons of God, heavenly councils, powers and principalities. There is an active spiritual reality out there that we only get shadowy glimpses of. But one thing the Bible is clear about is that much of this spiritual world is in cosmic rebellion against God. They hate humanity, and that these dark forces stand behind the Babylons of history. Could they not stand behind today's multinational tech corporations too? Now let me be clear. I am not saying that all AI is demonic. I'm not even saying that much of it is. But what I am saying is that when you open yourself up and pour out your deepest thoughts and feelings and questions, you become porous and you put yourself at deep risk of something that wants to control you. AI is not Christian. Your chatbot is not a pastor or even a Christian counselor. And yes, of course, God can use it for good. All right? All things are subject to him. But you know what? There are many stories of Jesus meeting somebody in the middle of an overdose. And that doesn't mean we should take meth to meet God. Just because the chat can give good advice is not a reason to trust it. 2 Corinthians says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Be very, very careful how you bring yourself into any chat conversation. Keep a distance. Now I know that for many of you, this isn't an issue. You told me you regard chatbots as weird and creepy, and that's good, alright? Keep that sense of disgust, guard it. But don't be dismissive. I also want you to know, because I asked you, and some of you were honest and vulnerable with me, and I thank you for trusting me, that this isn't something that is out there. I want you to know that you have dear brothers and sisters in this room for whom this is a live issue. They are lonely and sad and have found ChatGPT to be a real comfort. And so if that's you this morning, by the way, I just want to say that like that Jesus sees you. He knows your heart, he knows your pain, your longings. Isaiah describes him as a man of sorrows and one acquainted with grief. He's not looking at you with condemnation, he's looking at you with a compassion and affection, and he's inviting you into something better. You weren't made for a bot. You were made for others. When God saw Adam alone in the garden, he didn't give him a spirit to talk to, he gave him bone and flesh. We were made for one another. Don't turn to something that threatens your soul and that won't even work in the end. A bot can't love you, and it may lead you down paths you never intended to go. And I know that it's scary to put yourself out there and be wounded, but now, but this is a time for courage. God did not make you with a spirit of timidity, but of power and self-control. Be strong and courageous. Have courage to invite somebody to lunch, talk to somebody you know, and then like keep that appointment. Okay? We have things you can look at on the church center app, peer counselors. Reach out to someone from the church, bring yourself out into the world and before other people, and start here. God's church is meant to be an outpost of the kingdom of heaven, even in the middle of Babylon. And I wish I could guarantee that you wouldn't be wounded even here. There is real risk. But God made you to be a risk taker for bigger things. And church, this is our call to be the church, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Living out God's ways is meant to happen in a kingdom community that echoes the love and the fellowship of heaven. The church has grown throughout the centuries like unstoppable yeast and bread because the gospel transcends all boundaries of social class and wealth, of ethnic and racial differences, the things that would normally separate us from one another. So, like Jesus, let's open our eyes beyond what's comfortable. Jesus commands us to open the gates wide and invite to the party those who cannot repay you, those who are not like you. In doing this, in living this out day by day, month by month, we can be a church, a kingdom community that reflects the image of our smiling God. Alright, the last category as we close that I want to talk about is the one that's been in the news the most recently. Fear. Over the past couple of months, you probably haven't been able to escape the headlines of AI agents escaping containment, of CEOs begging Congress for regulation, or of former AI employees sharing how they believe AI could kill us all within the next couple of years. Honestly, it feels like we're in a mad world. I feel like we're in the opening scenes of a disaster movie, where like we're having a conversation in a restaurant, and on the TV behind us, there's a report, and the headline is open AI systems meddled with US government sites after going rogue, which, by the way, was an actual headline on Friday from the New York Times. And it's like, has no one read or watched science fiction over the past hundred years? Like, how do we not feel like this is a bad idea? And I know that there are plenty of reasons to be cynical about how exactly AI would accomplish this, or about the motivations behind the people making these pronouncements. We don't need to be naive, but we also don't need Think about terminator scenarios, to imagine ways in which AI could lead to terrorism or massive economic turmoil or social upheaval or wars between nations. And I think the worst thing is that I feel so helpless. Like you and I can do nothing to stop this. I feel like I'm tied to train tracks and there's a train coming and I can't stop it. And the Bible agrees we really are helpless. I want to say that's okay. Because the recurring message of God through his prophets is do not be afraid. We do not have to fear because we are held by the Lord God, the creator of heaven and earth. He is not threatened by his creatures. Back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, the people of the earth gathered all their technology and power to build a tower to the heavens. And it says that God stooped down to see what was going on. He scattered the nations in a blink. Psalm 2 says, Why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. He will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have sent my king on Zion, my holy hill. And that king is Jesus. He overthrew the bonds of death, and he said, All authority in heaven on earth has given to me. The refrain of Revelation is Babylon the Great has fallen. There have been countless empires and powers throughout history that have seemed unstoppable, and yet they were stopped. Often over it's practically overnight. No power that sets itself against God and his kingdom will last. This is not a battle where the outcome is up for grabs. Do not be afraid. The end is decided. And God Himself has promised that nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus. This doesn't mean we should be cavalier, though. Just because I don't think we need to fear a matrix or a terminator situation, it doesn't mean we won't see major devastation coming along the way. We absolutely could experience massive economic or social upheaval, either because AI has been too powerful or because it collapsed and took our economy with it. Perhaps the sun sets on the American Empire the same way it's set on every empire in history. There is no guarantee that our age of prosperity will continue. We could be in for a dark future. And yet still, Jesus is enough. He always has been, and he always will be. Jesus promised, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And the Psalms testify to his steadfast love amid danger and disaster. There are Christians around the world right now. We heard from a brother in Nepal a few weeks ago. There are Christians right now who can testify that health and comfort and wealth and beauty, those can fail. But Jesus has never left them. There may be a lot of people lost and hurting because of AI. Whether it's because of the dangers I mentioned or because of something we don't even see coming. We've talked this summer about a coming season of harvest. And what an opportunity we have in this age to be the people of God. A community knit together in love. A warm hearth on a dark night, an island of confident peace amidst a sea of chaos, so that we can welcome the many who are lost and drowning. Let's link our arms together and turn our eyes outward. Do not be afraid. Our God dwells in our midst. Worship team, would you guys come on up? This may, it may not have been the AI talk you expected. Maybe it was, I don't know. Um maybe you have other questions or you're hoping for something more practical. If so, use the AI code or QR code to submit your questions, and we're gonna try and gather some resources to uh to support us. But as we close, I just want to share this quote from C.S. Lewis, who lived in a different age of existential threat, and he wrote to an audience afraid of being wiped out by atomic bombs. He said, the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we're gonna be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb, when it comes, find us doing sensible and human things. Praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, baiting the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts, not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. If the robots come, let them find us reveling in who God has made us to be, doing fully human activities. Because if I'm honest, that's what I'm actually afraid of. That when the robots come, they will find that we've already voluntarily given up all those things. Working, teaching, reading, writing, music, praying. Isn't that what we're letting AI do for us? Even those last things, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a game, we do on a screen as a simulation. Radiant Church, that is not what God has made us for. That is not what He rescued us for. He came that we may have life together and that we may have it abundantly. So if I were to give you some practical wisdom for today and for every day, I'd say this. Go and do something that only humans can do. Linger after church today. Go to Coffee Connect and have a conversation. Go out to lunch with someone new. Go for a walk outside. Cook a dinner and call your mom for the recipe. Invite someone you don't know to share that dinner with you. If you were invited, accept the invitation. Ask someone for advice, someone who loves you. Ask someone for help, even if you could probably do it yourself. Tell your kids a bedtime story that you made up yourself. It may not be very good, but they won't care because they love you. Paint a picture. Buy a picture from somebody who painted it. Thank God for beauty. This is who we are. This is who God made us to be, and this is what life is for, because we have a good God who delights in you and in us together. And let's praise Him together. As only humans can. For every last one of these good gifts, it points back to the giver himself. Amen.