AI and the Christian Life

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Tuesday, September seventeenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently one forty two pm Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. And I apologize. I said that it's one forty two pm, but if we want to be correct, if we want to be exact, it is actually one forty three pm Central time. I was a little distracted because when I got ready to officially come in live, I was sitting here clicking, and well, the microphone wouldn't turn on. I just kept hitting the button and hitting the I'm like, why will the microphone not turn on? And that's referring to the spreaker software for the recording, not for you listening live. I came in immediately at the right time, or I think I came in at the right time, not the exact right time, but I think it came in pretty good. So yeah, so I was a little distracted, and so I was trying to do my intro by not looking at the screen, and well then I give you the time that was not exactly right. But do you really care and do you care to know whether the microphone came on or didn't come on. You don't really care at all. You just want me to get to the point and provide you something, hopefully that is beneficial. But I point all of that out because, well, everything that I'm using here will refer to it as technology. Right. I'm using a microphone,

1:35 I'm using a MacBook Pro. I'm connected to the Internet. I've got different apps open, different software that I'm utilizing so that I can push a button, go live and speak to people who can listen to me around the world on a tablet or their phone or a web browser. And there's all these different ways that I can get my message out to people. Once I'm done, I will upload it to all of these different podcasting apps, or it will be on the cermonadio platform. All these different ways people can hear and access the information, and they can listen to it either live where they can listen to it whenever they want, by downloading it or by streaming it. All these different things. All of that relates to technology, and that's exactly what I want to talk about. Today, and I want you to really really think about this.

2:28 How has We'll use the term technology, I'll have to explain it, but I'll use it in the initial question, and then I'll try to explain how has technology impacted your Christian life? And I really want you to think about this. How has technology impacted your Christian life? And would you say it was for the better or for the worse? Would you say that it has helped you tremendously or it has hindered you? When it comes to your spiritual life, when it comes to your spiritual growth, how has technology different developments and technology, how has it made things better? Or how has it actually made things worse for your Christian life your spiritual growth. Now, in a sense, we've talked about something kind of related to this because I've asked the question before that I wanted everyone who listened to the podcast to contact me and to tell me, Hey, when it comes to your Christian life, what has helped you the most? Where? What would be the source of your the thing that's helped you the most with your spiritual growth, with your learning, with your understanding, with your knowledge? Would it be church or would it be something other than? And every I think maybe one person, but I think it was it was it was absolutely the majority.

3:46 I mean it was almost it was almost. It was almost, you know. I feel like in some ways I'm still trying to think about maybe there was just one person, but I think it was unanimous. I think I think that it was almost unanimous that everything person said, no, it wasn't my church, it was this, and it was this, and those things that they point to, will we'll we'll will classify them as technological advances that has impacted their Christian life, and they would say for the better. So let's let let's take a trip back for my Christian life, right, all right, So this will date me a little bit, but you'll kind of get an idea of how things have developed over time. Right, Okay, So if I look back over my Christian life when I first became a Christian, here was the big technological things that I had access to to somewhat help or you know, add to my Christian life, for to assist me in my Christian life. Obviously, we have church, so church has been the standard. Right, you get and some means of transportation or you walk, you go to a building, you walk into a building, and there you hear the word of God read, you hear it preached, you hear it taught. There's prayer, there may be singing, there may be the ordinances, whatever the case may be. That's obviously that's been the norm. So that's kind of like the baseline, right, go to church,

5:16 hear the word of God preached. But what has been developed since then that has had a profound impact on the life of individual Christians. And we'll call these technological advances. So when I became a Christian, obviously we had church. But the big thing that we had at that time, and because it was easy to access anyone, almost everyone had access to it, which would be Christian radio. Right, you had Christian radio, you had you had a radio in your car, you had a radio at home of some sort, right, everyone did, and you would turn on Christian radio station. And what would you get on that Christian radio station. Well, you would get some teaching, right, teaching programs. So at a specific time three A, three thirty, seven PM, seven thirty, you would have certain teachers. Right, we could go back to that time and name some of those teachers. You would probably know many of the programs, but they were on the air. They also was music, but there was scripture reading, there was devotional programs, there was maybe thoughts added to, hey, we're going to be playing this song and say something about a thought or something related to it. So you would have twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. You would have Christian radio stations. Now some depending on if they were an AM versus FM, that wouldn't be twenty four hours.

6:31 They'd go off the air. But you had sometimes Christian radio stations on AM which would be broadcast most of the day. Sometimes you had FM stations that were twenty four to seven, but you had Christian radio and you could turn and if you figured out their schedule, you would be like, Okay, at this time, this will be this individual preaching. At this time, there'll be this individual preaching. And so for me, I've told the story multiple times that had a profound impact on me. In fact, Christian radio, if I'm going to be just brutally honest, Christian radio discipled me. Not the local church. The local church did not disciple me. All of my theological growth, all of my theological understanding, was primarily via Christian radio. And then we'll get to the other technological advance, right that advance meant at the time. But Christian radio was was probably the most profound thing. It was simple, it was easy.

7:29 I just grabbed a notebook, opened a Bible, you know, turned on the hit the power button, turned on the radio, maybe move the tuner down to the right station, and then boom, there we go, and then I'm listening to this program. Remember I had notebooks. I had one for swind All, one for MacArthur, one for Chuck Smith. And I would just take those notes and I would hear the preaching of the Word of God. I would hear different preaching styles, you name it, you go on and on on, I would hear. Sometimes it was more like a kind of informative program, news programs talking about current events. Whatever the case may be. Christian radio had probably I don't think there's even any way to get around it.

8:09 It had the biggest impact on me, not the church. I don't know if my Christian life would have looked much much different if I would have just removed church from the if I would have just removed church. To be honest, if I know this is gonna sound very negative, but I'm just gonna be brutally honest, if I would have removed the local church from the equation, just thrown it out. Other than the short time I was a Lutheran. A Lutheran had some pro profound impact on me theologically, because I would I think they did a pretty good job teaching me. I mean, I was handed Luther's Catechism, and so I think there was a little a little part of that. But even that, even with the Lutheran Church, we basically only had church Sunday morning. So I was already supplementing the Lutheran Church with the Lutheran Radio hour.

8:54 So I was already so I was already again Christian radio came into play. But I think, and I think this is fair to say, if I would have removed the church for my Christian life, boom and all I had was Christian radio. Just just that. I think, I don't think my Christian life would have been much different, except for I would not have had all of the very negative things that played out in local churches, the politics, the fighting, the arguing, the backstabbing, all of the just messed up stuff you see go on. I wouldn't have had any of that. So Christian radio had a profound impact, at least in the early stages. So that was the first technological advance advancement that had a profound impact on me.

9:39 The second, obviously was the Christian book store, which was very profound in my Christian life, right. I mean I talk about going there the very first week. So you have the writing of Christian books. The writing of Christian books. Now that's been around for a very long time, so it wasn't like a new advancement, but it was rather profound. Now you had to have money, so you know. So what I did to supplement that is then I would go to the local library and that could get theology books that way, or the university libraries. So I started utilizing that. That had a profound impact on me. So Christian radio and Christian bookstores. If I would remove the church, it would literally my Christian life. My knowledge would not be impacted at all. If you remove the church. When I say the local church, now obviously the things I was listening to were being produced by churches, but I'm just saying a local church. I could remove my entire experience in that and all of my knowledge and almost everything that I gained came from Christian bookstores and Christian radio.

10:47 Christian radio and Christian bookstores. Even when I left Texas and I arrived in Nebraska. The very first thing I encountered when I got off the Greyhound bus and I got in the car with my spouse. I was in the United States Military and they provided a sponsor when you arrive at your first duty station. I got in the car with sponsor and what did he have? On Family Radio? And then that was when I was introduced to Harold Camping. Right, Well, we know that all went horribly bad, But guess what through that I was a student at the Family Radio School of the Bible. I mean I went I saw all of that craziness developed with him making prediction that the world was going to come to end in nineteen ninety four. But all, I mean all hours and hours of the teaching that was provided by that radio network again had a much more profound impact on me than any church that I attended while in Nebraska. So the bookstores and Christian radio. The bookstores and Christian radio, those were the major developments at the time. Now some other things that were now this would go more towards the Christian bookstore was there was the Bible on cassette or just that's why I could listen and listen and listen and listen and listen. So that, I mean, that's really the two worlds that had the profound, the biggest impact. And then we know what happened. Come on, you know what, what's the next big technological advancement that

12:20 changed the world. The Internet became available to everybody around and we could start looking up anything and everything. And then what I started discovering was, wait a minute, I can listen to sermons online. I can listen to some of these programs that I used to listen to on radio and I had to wait as specific time, and I never forgot. We got this device known as web TV, Right, So it was like an internet. It was like a keyboard. Right, It was like a keyboard, and basically it turns your television into an Internet connection, right and so and so you could sit there, you know, on the couch with your keyboard and you could search anywhere on the Internet.

13:06 But what it was done, because my television was connected to my sound system, then I could play whatever, you know, whatever program it was that I was listening to, James Montgomery, Boyce, whatever it was I could hit play, it would play the audio on web TV and guess what, Because it was connected to my stereo equipment, I could record the audio. So then I would have all these like all these cassettes I didn't have to purchase. I was recording the messages the programs on cassette, so then I could listen to them wherever I went. Right, Because you know, even though you have Internet, you didn't have these mobile devices. You could just you know, pull up the Internet anywhere. So that was like, oh, this is awesome. So then you had all of the preaching, all of the teaching.

13:49 And then as the Internet developed and became faster and quicker, and you had more, and you had more, and you had more, and you had more and you had more. Well then we know the next big developments, right, the next thing you know, now we have tablets, now we have phones, and the Internet became much more full of content. Right, so now think about what you can do on your phone and all of the spiritual content available to you. Like it's hard, it's hard for me to even remember what it was like before I had all of this. Now I have all of it. It's so easy just to take it for granted, right now, I can remember the days using a Strong's concordance trying to look up the Greek and you had very limited Greek and Hebrew tools.

14:38 Now with just say the blue letter Bible app I mean cross referencing Greek Hebrew, everything is so, everything is just at your fingertips. It is instantaneous, it is quick, it is there. So all of these things outside of the local church to me, has I can say dogmatically for my Christian life, That's what discipled me. That's what I mean. And then of course you add then obviously for me, you know, Bible colleges, Bible institutes, seminary, all the schools that I went to obviously had a profound impact on me. And once again though most of those were outside well, the Bible institutes were part of local churches, but many of those other things where again outside of the local church. Bible college or a seminary was outside of the local church church. So once again it was not the local church doing what I would say the local church is supposed to do. So if I think I can say this, I think I can be fair to say that I really I wouldn't be any I would know as much as I know, and my theological understanding would be the same whether the local church existed or didn't exist. Other than from this perspective, a lot of the content that I benefited from came from local churches.

16:01 So I'm saying my local church could have not existed and it would not have impacted me negatively. Those churches not existing it would have impacted me negatively. That's really kind of difficult in how we I've got to state that the correct way. I've got to try to be very careful in how I state that, But it's kind of depressing. I didn't I didn't really need the church. Now if I say that, I know people will get mad, but I think it's very true. So where are we today, How has technolo how of those technological advancements, How of those things impacted your Christian life. You've got your own story and what you're impacted by, and I think a lot of it just raises the question what is the church doing? Like what? And I don't even know if the church can compete at that. And at the same time, the church is somewhat responsible for it, because it was the church who said, hey, look these technological let's put all of our content out there. Well, once you put it out there, you're kind of then destroying the whole concept of the need for the local church in the first place, right, I mean, aren't you really kind of I think that in some ways the church has done it to itself. At the same time, I don't blame the church for using that technology. So those all those are I could probably go through some other developments at the time, it would just you know, get boring going through every little development. But you can kind of see now we are reaching We're at a threash. We've reached

17:33 another major development point in church history when it comes to technology, because we are now standing at the door of artificial intelligence and AI, I think now going to begin to become the technology that's going to shape, influence, and impact the next generation of Christians. Just as Christian radio, Christian books, the Internet impacted me. AI is the next big thing, and I think AI is going to take this in a direction that is that we have never I don't know if we've quite wrapped our minds around it yet. I don't know if we really know where this is going to go. Now. The reason I'm mentioning all of this as I was thinking, so, you know, haven't been able to get a lot of broadcasts done recently, really bothering me, really irritating. And I always hate where there's kind of a gap, right, because it's like, how do you get back into where do we begin? Once we get into the flow of things, the program kind of takes its own twists and turns and it just kind of carries us wherever it goes. And I like that, but sometimes when there's kind of a break, it just seems like, you know, okay, where do I go nowhere?

18:55 Where do I get started? Now? So I was sitting here and I'm like, well what do I do? And I had some ideas and then I looked over and I saw, well, you heard me tapping it on the table here, Feature a Daily Bible Study Guide, one of the devotional booklets I get. I receive this every quarter and this was the April through June twenty twenty four edition of Feature a Daily Bible Study Guide. So it was just laying here and I picked it up, and I'm like, you know, thank Goodness for some of these kinds of materials. I was just kind of thinking about, you know, how many how long I've been using devotional materials, and I started thinking about it, and then I was like, hmm, I wonder because you know, I've talked about my love hate relationship with devotional materials.

19:46 I've offered lots of criticism from how devotions have greatly impacted Christians negatively when it comes to exegeting scripture and hermoneuticts. We talked about all of that. I'm not going to rehash all of that. We talked about it a million times. So I was just sitting here looking at it, and then I thought, hmm, I wonder if artificial intelligence. I wonder if AI could provide me daily devotionals. I wonder if it could, And I wonder what would the quality be of an AI generated devotional versus a devotional written by people? Right, because I can take this feature a daily Bible study guide.

20:31 I can you see? I think, is it at the beginning or is it at the beginning? Maybe at the end? We see here. If it's at the end, let me see here right at the beginning. Yes, it gives me the name of the contributors. All of the contributing writers are pastors who are dedicated to the proclamation proclaiming the inerrant word of God without compromise. All scripture texts are taking from the King James. Then it gives the names of all the individuals who contributed to this quarter's devotions or the devotional for April through June. And we've got MH. Reynolds, Dennis W. Costella, Matt D. Costella, John E. Dody, Gary D. Fril, George W. Zeller. Right, so these are the individuals who put these devotionals together. They're human beings. So I've been you and I have been, you know, looking at using reading human generated devotionals for most of our Christian lives.

21:32 But we've reached a point now I don't need a human being. I don't need I can get a AI generated daily devotional every single day. So I'm like, well, let me grab you know, chat GPT, and let's have a discussion and let's talk about well it providing me daily devotionals. So I've got a long back and forth and the devotionals that IT generated for me, so we will we will look at them in a minute. But before I got there, I basically asked AI some questions, right, well, mainly one major question, and I said, can you summarize and outline how technology has impacted Christianity and the individual spiritual growth of Christians. Now, I've kind of outlined some of the technological developments and advancements in my life and how has impacted me. And my conclusion is, if the church didn't exist a local church for me, in other words, I never even walked into a church, my spiritual development, my understanding of doctrine and theology would be identical to what it is today because the local church gets literally no credit for basically anything other than when I say the local church a church I would attend. Now, obviously all of the content being put out were being put out by local churches, so they would get the credit.

23:01 But my local church no. And that is a very you may say, negative thing. But I'm just being very, very brutally honest with everyone. So I wanted to see how AI would handle this. So this is what AI said. It gave me this first summary the impact of technology on Christianity and individual spiritual growth. All right, here's what it says. Technology has profound has profoundly affected Christianity and individual spiritual growth in both positive and negative ways. I'm like, okay, so AI is going to give me the positive and the negative. On one hand, it has enabled widespread access to religious content, online sermons, and Bible study tools, thus expanding opportunities for learning and growth. Social media platforms, Christian apps streaming services have allowed Christians to stay can conected to their faith communities, especially during times of physical separation like the COVID nineteen pandemic. All right, So on one hand, I'll focus on the part that we have the most profound impact on me making all of that available, all of that content, Bible study tools, devotionals, Bible studies, hermeneutical principles.

24:23 I mean, just all this content, sermons, just on and on and on, and all the content that is just easily accessible and available. Now, however, AI here provides me the flip side. However, the pervasive presence of technology also has introduced challenges. Distractions from digital content can detract from personal reflection and time spent in prayer. All right, So the first thing is that this basically becomes a distraction and it basically removes you from per reflection. Right. You just have so much content, You just have so much this this that you don't really have time to take that one thing and just really reflect on that one thing. Like you know, I can go from one sermon to another sermon, to another sermon, to another simon to another simmon, on and on and on. It just never stops. Even back when I had access to a lot with say Christian radio, you would get one program and you may not get the next teaching program for two hours, three hours, four hours, and depending if you're a busy you may not get it for the rest of the day. So you would have that one thing. Well, when it came to devotional materials, it's whatever you could afford.

25:41 Right now, if you were rich, you had access to more, But if you weren't, you may have one devotional, one devotional book. That's all you have. So you do that one devotional that day, all right, then you may spend all day reflecting on it. Now I can go from devotion to devotional to devotional to sermon, sermon, sermon, Christian podcast. I could, like I literally I could not listen to everything available and and ten lifetimes. So it's it's harder to just take that one thing and reflect on it, all right, And we know this to be true. This is the this is the problem, and the culture in which we live. You can say it's a it's a curse and a blessing. Right. The blessing is we have so much available. The curse is when you have so much available, then nothing really becomes worth very much. It all seems very disposable. Right again, If you, I don't know, I don't know which, I don't know if this will relate to any of you. But if you, if you, if you were a big music fan, like if music played a major part in your life, like for me, you would buy that one album and then you would live with that album until you had the money to buy another one, which maybe maybe you've got it in another a week or two, maybe you had to wait a month, depending And because you spent money on that individual album, you spent a lot of time with it, and you listen to it and listen to it until almost it became a part of your DNA. It became a part of you. You touched it, you felt it, and now you just you can go from one album to another. You may start listening to three songs like a We'll skip that, go to it because you're just paying for access to everything. And when you pay access

27:13 to everything, no individual thing really means much. Well, the same thing can happen in Christianity. I've got I got the feature a daily Bible study guide. Now, if I would have received this every quarter when I was younger, this would have been I would have I would have kept this thing with me. It never would have left me. It would be marked up, written in highlighted. I would have fed on this like a starving man needing food. Now it's kind of like, well, it's here. Yeah, maybe I'll look at it. Oh, maybe I want to look at this. We'll see I also got this. And well, I've got this, and I got this, and I'm just looking around the room. I've got so much here I wouldn't even know where to even begin. So it does become a distraction where you're not really reflecting, and you really may not be spending any time in prayer. It says the raw of consumerist and celebrity driven faith practices online may also undermine deeper spiritual development. While technology offers valuable tools, its overuse or misuse can weaken the contemplative aspects of the Christian faith, leading to superficial engagement instead of meaningful spiritual growth. So do you think we have reached a point in Christianity where there is more superficial engagement and very little meaningful spiritual growth. Have we reached?

28:28 Have we reached the era of superficial engagement, but the era of meaningful spiritual growth died? Do we need to have a funeral service, Ladies and gentlemen. Here lies meaningful spiritual growth. It was a product of the past. But because of what we have available today, we have given birth to superficial engagement. This is what Christianity is today. So then AI provided me an outline of technologies impact on Christianity and individual spiritual growth? All right, So it says positive impacts. So it says accessibility to resources online sermons, podcasts and Christian websites providing sermons and teachings, Bible apps, commentaries, and study tools easily available for free or at very low cost. So the difference between now and then is not only how much we have available, but how much we have available for free or basically very low cost, where back then it may have been much more difficult to access it because it actually costs more money. Yet you go to an actual Bible bookstore and a Christian bookstore and pay money. Now I can access things for very cheap or free. So now I'm just gonna I'm not going to go through everything AI provides here because it's an extensive amount of information here, but which again,

30:00 just please not I used AI to do this. Just keep that in mind here, all right. So, but it talks about online sermons and all of that. It also says innovative tools for personal growth. What we have available today because of technological advancement is meditation and devotional apps helping Christians incorporate daily spiritual practices, online theology courses, and Christian education for deeper learning. Now, I remember early on once we started getting the I guess we'll kind of say the emergence of we'll call it podcasts. I don't think the term podcast was being used yet, but we had iTunes, and we had iPods and MP three players, right, and then I begin to realize, wait a minute, there's now these universities are putting all their lectures online and I can download them to my iPod or I can download them to my MP three player. And I was like, this is the greatest development in the history of mankind, because now I can take this with me so I would have let from Notre Dame Creighton, I mean from any Dallas Theological Seminary southwest, and I mean any school that put their stuff on. I was listening to historic lectures on history, they called it at Concordia Theological Seminary.

31:16 I believe in Saint Louis they had a thing was it called lectionary at lunch and they would take the reading for that particular day, and then they're at lunch. You could hear the people like eating. The person would kind of give a lecture about the text for that day, going into the original language, the Greek or the Hebrew, breaking it down exegetically hermoneutically. And I used to have that downloaded every day to my MP three player or iPod at the time, because these were the things that this was the new development. Well those I mean when you're listening to lectures from massive major universities, right just on a daily basis, right you're taking you're listening to entire courses on hermoneutical develop throughout the ages or this particular whatever the case may be. Listening to how Augustine approached scripture or how Calvin like all these deep academic lectures and you're not even having to go to school.

32:13 I don't know how the local church was ever going to compete with that. I mean, that's what I was just listening to on my way to work or coming home or on my lunch hour. I was getting, like, you know this in depth, exegetical breakdown of scripture in the original languages. And then you're going to church and get a Sunday school teacher who I mean not trying to be mean in any way, shape or form, but in many cases some churches you get a Sunday school teacher who's probably never even been to seminary and they're just using the churches quarterly. Now that may be that works great in some cases, but when you become an adult, like what do you do with the adults? And I've talked about my frustration as I became a teenager going the Sunday school teacher here, I don't think is really that prepared. Now, I became an arrogant jerk, and I you know, I was not very nice about it, But that's that's because I was utilizing all of these things available, and I was contrasting what I was getting in Sunday for Sunday for what I was listening to, and so I became in many cases very critical. I'm like, I came to church for that. I heard better on the way here. Now I know that's not the way you see.

33:25 That kind of creates a consumer mindset. You could see I'm a product of some of it, my a lot of my a lot of my negative spiritual development. I'll call it negative. I'm developing spiritual, but there was a negative aspect to it. I became arrogant, condescending, and judgmental. Was because I was looking at it more from a consumer based mindset. Right, Like I could sit at home listen to a sermon better than what I'm getting by getting in my car driving all the way here for this or for this Sunday school what is this? Now, I'm not seeing a Sunday school teacher has to go to seminary, go to Bible college. You're missing You're misinterpreting my perspective. What I'm saying is that those Sunday school teachers when they're teaching adults, when they're teaching adults, is they have to consider, well, wait a minute, what am I going to bring to these adults that's not already available and they should have been thinking about that, going all the way back to when I first became a Christian, but they weren't. They felt like, and I think many pastors kind of felt like, this is what the people get.

34:27 I'm like, well, I don't need this. I can I can be reading a systematic theology, you know, all my sitting in the backseat if someone else is driving on the way here. So it talks about all of these things. Now it goes on to say this some challenges posed by technology, constant digital stimulation, competing with time for personal prayer and reflection, risk of a quick fix or shallow approach to faith via bite sized content and so social media. So it says it can again they go after all of this being available, can get rid of deep reflection.

35:08 It becomes very surface level, and I think maybe there is a problem there. Now the commercialization of faith. Now this is interesting, the rise of Christian influencers, prosperity, gospel messaging, and consumer driven faith. The danger of placing emphasis on external performance likes followers over internal transformation. Well, I think there is a commercialization that happens, right, I can think of consumerism. I think you almost look at it as I'm the customer, I'm going to go to where I get the most and not because in some ways, even before the rise of technology, Christians were already thinking that way. Let's be honest with that, right, As more and more we think of this technological advance advancement, right, I know we may not classified this way, but just for the sake of argument, follow me. There was a time time you may have one church in your little town, one church and kind of your neighborhood, and you really didn't have the means or the ability to just go look for another church. That was the church that was provided.

36:17 But then as more and more churches became available, and as transportation became more available and cost effective, you could go, well, I can drive all, I can drive all the way to the other side of town. And then how did you base which church you went to the one you got the most out of? Right? Almost very as a consumer, you're a consumer. You go to church, You're not giving me what I want, but they will. Just like you go to one store that don't give you what you want, You're going to go to another store. Well, church became viewed the same way. It's one of the negative aspects of the advancement of well transportation that makes it easier. So hey, I can just go here, I can go here, And so guess what happens? You go to church and when you don't feel like you're getting as much out of it, you go to another church. You already do that with churches. So was it such a big step that people would be like, well, then why even go to church? I can get better sitting right here. I see.

37:18 I don't think the church ever realized the how this was going to play itself out. Then now listen, they say isolation. Here we go the risk of virtual communities replacing in person congregations and church fellowship. Now churches should have realized this is kind of the weird thing churches did. On one hand, I understand new technology. Let's use the technology so we can get the message everywhere, all right, you got to applaud that, But there was an inevitable negative, negative consequence. I don't think anyone foresaw when everyone's putting their content out there, and you already have a consumer minded church goer, which they're already consumer minded, You give me what I want, or I'll go to another church that's already built in. Well, now you're putting all the content online. I can understand why you're doing it. But now people can be like, well, I'm just shop around online.

38:24 Why go to a local church where you have politics and personalities and conflict and different agendas and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I could just stay right here and avoid all of that. So there is a risk of virtual communities replacing in person congregations. I believe we're there. I think it's been developing over years. A lot of people keep saying, well, look at the church. Attendants continues to decrease, church attendance continues to decrease. There's not a decrease in the availability of spiritual content online. People are not going to be going to church, but they're still listening to Christian podcasts, they're still listening to online sermons, they're still by looking at online Christian material.

39:12 So maybe churches being replaced. I know nobody ever wants to discuss that, and it's being replaced by the material put there by the church. So it's kind of a catch twenty two in that sense. All Right, digital engagement possibly undermines the need for physical local churches. Even AI acknowledges that digital engagement undermines the need for physical local churches. You can be all worried about local churches, but when you have a website like Sermon Audio, where there's what a couple of million sermons, now those are being produced by local churches, but they're producing sermons that really undermine the need for the local church other than for you to continue providing the content. Now you could say, well, this is not meant to replace your local church. You can get I know, some ministries will kind of give that little, you know, little statement. I don't know what it actually means. You can say that the point is the content is replacing the local church to some level, even if the even if that person is still going to church, they may actually be learning growing through your content, not the local church. So in some ways you've replaced it even though the person's going to church. And that's exactly what happened in my Christian life. It was the online not online stuff, Christian radio then the online stuff that really, I mean I just looked at it like I mean, I used to complain about that, probably in the car and the way to church. Why am I even going, I could have listened to something better before

40:43 I even got in the car. Now, they well, let's see here, Well they just they they name some things here, technical technologies, role in spiritual disciplines, prayer and meditation, apps that provide guided prayer and help with regular devotional habits. Potential for these tools to compliment or hinder personal offline spiritual disciplines, right, so they so they say, hey, these tools are great, but then there's the potential for these tools to either compliment or hinder personal offline spiritual disciplines.

41:29 In other words, all of your spirituality becomes based off online things, and offline thing kind of kind of takes a back seat, which would make sense, all right. They talk about the availability of biblical and philological education through online courses. You've got all of these things available online, all of the all of this education you can get the you can get I've said before, if you if you're really willing to work at it and take a Bible in some notebooks, you can get basically a seminary level education by just listening to everything hosted on sermon audio. You can break it down into certain courses and everything else. So they say the challenge of discerning the reliability and depth of online content. That there is a challenge when everything's available online. Well, then how do you know what's right and what's wrong? What we could get into some of some deeper unintended consequences from all of this. All right, So they go on add some more. The point is technology has had a profound impact, and that's really what I want to get to. But well, I really wanted to get to the devotional. We still will get there, but all of that stuff I think is very, very important.

42:45 So after having that back kind of that conversation with A, I was really me asking a question. It provided a lot of this. I didn't even get a chance to read half of it because there was so much there. But then I decided to ask Ai this question. I'll go all the way back to the top of her. This is long. We could spend a couple of weeks on this, or here's what I said. Throughout church history, devotionals have played a major part in the lives of many Christians. There are famous devotionals, for example, Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon. Do you have the ability? This is what I asked AI to produce a daily devotional for me, So AI responded, Yes, I can certainly help create daily devotionals for you. Here's a format for a sample devotional. So it gives me day one trusting God, trusting in God's timing. Trusting in God's timing, it gives me the scripture of Psalm twenty seven fourteen. Psalm twenty seven fourteen. Psalm twenty seven to fourteen. It gives me the scripture, but it's from the ESV. I'm gonna read it the King James, Psalm twenty seven fourteen. And we read these words, Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord, Psalm twenty seven fourteen. So it gives that scripture.

44:19 Then it gives me the reflection. And a fast paced world, waiting can feel like a burden. Yet God often works in the moments of waiting to strengthen our faith and deepen our trust in Him. Like David, in this Psalm, we are encouraged to wait for the Lord with courage, knowing that his timing is perfect. Whether you're waiting for an answer to prayer or for a change in circumstance, Remember that God is faithful and his plans for you are good. Then it gives me the prayer, Heavenly Father, help me to trust in your timing. When I grow wearier inpatient, remind me that you are working all things together for my good. Strengthen my heart to wait with faith and courage. Amen. Then Ai asked me, would you like this devotional style or would you prefer something more in depth or on a specific theme. Let me know your preferences now, just please. No, I don't know how any local church is going to be able to compete with this, right so not not only that, I don't even know how devotional publishing publishing houses are going to be able to compete with this. I can get a devotional and I may like the style, dislike the style.

45:32 I can keep looking for devotionals. But with Ai, I don't even need I can just tell it I don't like your style. Give me a new style. This is you think consumerism and Christianity is already bad enough, you know, give it to me my way right away. This burger king mentality that's been talked about within Christianity for a very long time, that it's a problem. It's now going. To just explode, because now you can get Christianity exactly the way you want it. So I was like, okay, twenty seven four fourteen, Okay, that's I mean, that gives me something to think about. Okay, what is going on in this verse? Weight on the Lord who's being told to wait? Why are they being told the way? Or do we have the historical I could, in fact, I could start talking to AI about Psalm twenty seven to fourteen and really build it out.

46:16 With a discussion back and forth with AI over Psalm twenty seven fourteen, I could probably within fifteen to twenty minutes develop a very in depth study of it. So I was like, Okay. It asked me what I wanted, and I said, well, I want more in depth. You know that's the way I was going to go, right, you know that's what I was going to ask for. So I says, great, here is more in depth devotional. Here is a more in depth devotional for you, expanding on scripture, reflection and prayer while adding some additional application and philological insight. So AI tells me exactly what it's going to add. It gave me a very simplistic devotional.

46:56 Now AI's coming along. Oh, you want something more, here's what I'm going to do. What I'm going to add. So here's day one, all right, trusting in God's sovereign timing. Now, remember the first one it gave me was trusting in God's timing. Now it's going to expand it's going to make it a little deeper, trusting in God's sovereign timing. So now it's going to be like, okay, waiting on God his timing, but now we're going to do so based off the concept that God is sovereign. So it's already adding a philological element to this that was kind of missing from the first one. Now it gives me a different scripture. And I remember the first one gave me twenty seven fourteen a Psalm twenty seven fourteen. Weait on the Lord be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart weight on the Lord. Well, if you know that verse, you know that sounds very similar to a verse in Isaiah. So when I asked for I'm more in depth. It's left Psalm twenty seven and it went to Isaiah. They went to Isaiah. I just went right past Isaiah. Here we go Isaiah, chapter forty Isaiah chapter forty, verse thirty one Isaiah chapter forty, verse thirty one.

48:17 And it gives me this or I think you know it right. But they that weighed upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. So the devotion the Ai decided, Okay, I'm going to give you the same kind of I'm going to give you a devotional on the same theme of waiting, but now I'm going to make it more in depth and add some theological element to it. So this is how Ai starts this one reflection. Waiting on God is a theme woven throughout scripture. Now I could stop right there. See this is the beauty about Ai that no devotional can can compete with. I got this paper devotional, I'll just throw it over to the I don't even need that because I could stop right here and go Waiting on God is a theme woven throughout scripture.

49:06 So then I could ask Ai please summarize and outline the theme of waiting on God as it is found in both the Old and New Testament, and Ai would provide me in a summary and an outline of everything about waiting on And I could turn it into an end depth Bible studies, sermon or anything I want podcast episode. But it says in Isaiah forty, the prophet speaks to a people weary from exile, reminding them of God's sustaining power and the promise of renewed strength for those who wait on him. Now, a couple of things it provides me, now, some context. Now it doesn't get name, but it tells me profit people who are weary from exile. Now I could ask some clarifying I can ask Ai for clarifying questions or information here, and I could ask Ai that whenever it provides me a devotional could you add these kinds of content, this kind of information and not leave it out. But all right, so I know enough about Isaiah.

50:01 I already have a good idea. Okay, we know Israel, we know or Judah exile, which is it the Northern Kingdom of Southern Kingdom exile, Babylonian captivity. Yeah, we could ask some basic questions here, but we already have a pretty good working idea of what's going on. Right, So reminding them of God's sustaining power and the promise of renewed strength for those who wait on him. But this waiting is not passive. It is an active trust in God's sovereignty, a trust that he is in control even when circumstances suggest otherwise. Oh no, that's really good. That's really good. Right. When the Bible speaks of waiting, it's not passive. It is an active trust in God's sovereignty, a trust that he is in control even when circumstances suggest otherwise. All we talked about this in our study, I think it was Psalm eighty three. Right, we believe even a God and whom we cannot see while surrounded by circumstances which we see and feel, and those circumstances that we see and feel scream that there is no God. Waiting means trusting in God's sovereignty even and that he is in control even when the circumstances would say otherwise. The Hebrew word for weight in this passage carries with it the sense of binding together or collecting one's strength. It's not just about the passage of time, but about intertwining, intertwining

51:32 our hope with the promises of God. All right, So they say that the Hebrew word here for wait is not just about the passage of time. We're just waiting for the passage of time. But in reality, it's about intertwining our hope with God's promises. So I'm waiting for God to fulfill a promise, and so I'm placing my hope in his promise. Well, in this particular case, Isaiah forty thirty one would be for people waiting for a specific promise, what promise could they be waiting for? Or in Isaiah forty thirty one, see, I could already start developing this big time right But to see the difference is with a paper one I would just have to with Ai. I could literally engage AI with this devotional right here. I could start asking them questions or asking it questions. All right. It goes on to say, while we wait, we are being spiritually strengthened, our faith is being refined, and our dependence on God is deepened. In times of waiting, we often wrestle with doubt. We might wonder if God has forgotten us, or if he's working behind the scenes. Yet Scripture assures us that God's timing is perfect, his delay is never his delay is never neglect but rather a preparation for something greater. But in our lives and in our relationship with Him, waiting therefore becomes an exercise and trust and surrender. Then it gives me application. In our lives, we face seasons where God seems silent. Perhaps you are waiting for healing, guidance, or a breakthrough. In these moments the challenges yeah in these moments.

53:01 The challenge is not to allow in patience or discouragement to dictate your actions. Instead, embrace the process of waiting as a divine appointment. It is an opportunity to lean into the promises of God, to remind yourself of God's faithfulness in the past, and to develop perseverance. Isaiah's vision of mounting up with wings like eagles paints a picture of strength and resilient resilience. The eagle, in its majestic flight, rises above the storms, carried not by the frantic effort but by the wind, and the same way we are carried by the spirit, not by our own strength, but by the grace and power of God. In the midst of waiting, to seek to live in this reality, knowing that the same God who sustains creation will sustain you.

53:42 Now again, I could get into a discussion here with AI going, well, wait a minute, how much of Isaiah forty thirty one can I pull for me? Because as an Isaiah thirty one spoken to people who have very specific promises that are not promises given to me. I could engage AI on this if I wanted to, and we could have a discussion. I can't do that with a paper devotional. Right then it gives me a prayer, then it says for further reading. It gives me a lamentations three twenty five through twenty six, and so I'm thirty seven to seven, so it gives me a lot there to work with. I mean that one devotional could keep me busy for a week, and that was produced by AI in literally five seconds. That's like, I don't know if you understand the significance of that. That Basically, that gave me enough that I could spend two hours just dissecting that going back and forth with AI. In fact, I may go back and have a conversation with AI about this very devotional. So then AI explains how it produced the devotional or why it did it this way.

54:57 It says this format. Remember I asked for a more in depth format. This format allows for a richer exploration of the themes, inviting deeper reflection and practical application. Let me know if you would like more devotionals like this, or if you have a specific focus you would like to dive into. So I could ask it for a specific focus. But then I said, would it be possible for you to provide me a daily devotional every day at a set time or is that beyond your capabilities? AI responded, well, I can't send devotionals at a specific time every day automatically. I can certainly provide you one for you daily when you request it. You can come back at the time you would like your devotional and I will be ready to provide it for you if you would prefer. I can also prepare a week's worth of devotionals in advance for you to use on your own schedule. So I literally can have AI provide me a week's worth of devotional every single week. Like do you not understand where technology is taking us? So then it asked me, would either of these approaches work for you?

56:11 If you prefer the week ahead option. Let me know any specific theme or scripture you would like to explore so I said, well, prepare a week's worth. Not sure how you will choose without me offering theme or scripture, but I would like to see how you produce them on your own. Hey, don't ask me for a scripture, because I could come up with ideas. But I like the randomness of it, so hey, go ahead. So I says, here's a week's worth of devotionals I'd prepared for you, without any specific themes or scriptures provided. Each devotional is designed to explore different aspects of Christian life and theology, rooted in scripture and reflection. And then it gives me an entire weeks, an entire week's worth of devotional content.

57:03 And then what it did. It gave me the first It gave me the first week's worth, and I was like, well, this is more. This is more in line with the simplistic approach. I want the more in depth approach. Then it immediately gave me a week's worth in an in depth way. This is like and just remember the great thing about AI at least open AI. Does it have a thiological acts to grind? Does it have ahilological team? Does it have a theilological side? And I can engage it, So I'm gonna go back here. So it said, so let's go through here.

57:48 I'm gonna I'm gonna engage it really quick. I'm going to engage it. I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, going back to your devotional. On Isaiah forty thirty one, can you provide who the verse was originally? Four? What were there circumstances? All right, so here we go. So I'm just asking it a basic question, Okay, So all right, here we go. Isaiah forty thirty one was originally directed to the people of Israel, specifically to those living during a time of great difficulty and uncertainty. The context of Isaiah forty is a message of comfort to the Israelites were either already in exile or would soon be facing the Babylonian exile, which occurred around five eighty six BC. This period was one of the darkest moments in Israel's history. Isaiah prophesied to the people of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel. The people of Judah had strayed from God's covenant, and as a result, they face God's judgment through Babylonian invasion and subsequent exile.

59:18 Many of Isaiah's prophecies in the early chapters of this book of one through thirty nine contain warnings about impending judgment because of the nation's sin idolatry and failure to trust God. The exile would be consequences of their rebellion. However, starting in Isaiah forty, the tone shifts dramatically. It's as though God is now speaking to a future generation of Israelites would be living in exile or soon returning from it. These chapters contain words of comfort and hope, as God reassures his people of his ongoing care even in the midst of their suffering and judgment. Now, please, now, just with one question, Now I get an immediate expansion of the entire concept, so that now I have a better understand No devotional can compete with this, nothing can come peat with this. Right their circumstances, the Israelites during this time were experiencing despair, exhaustion, and hopelessness and exile. Removed from their homeland and taken to Babylon, they were living in a foreign land under foreign rule, cut off from the Temple, the center of their worship and identity, as God's people feeling abandoned by God. Many likely felt that God had forgotten them or abandoned them due to their circumstances.

1:00:22 They had been uprooted from Jerusalem, the city that symbolized God's covenant promises. Weary and weak physically, emotionally, and spiritually, the exiled people were exhausted. They were not only suffering the trauma of defeat and displacement, but also questioning their future. Many wondered whether they had any hope of returning home or seeing God's promises fulfilled. God's response in Isaiah forty thirty one, in response to their discouragement and weariness, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah to offer comfort and reassurance as a part of a larger section that emphasizes God's power and greatness compared to the frailty of humans. Verse twenty eight through twenty nine reminds the people that the Lord is everlasting. God does not grow weary. Though they may feel exhausted, God's strength is never diminished. Versus thirty to thirty one specifically contrasts human weakness with divine strength.

1:01:07 Even the young and strong will grow tired, but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. The message here is that although the people of Israel physically and spiracually weary, those who wait on the Lord, trusting in God's promises and timing, would find their strength renewed. The renewal is depicted poetically as mounting up with wings as eagles, a vivid image of rising above trials and difficulties with divine assistance. Then it says the application to their circumstances renewed strength, hope for return, trust in God's sovereignty. Then it gives me a summary of it all. Now, remember all of that was put together in literally five seconds. That's an entire Bible study right there. That's an entire sermon put together by Ai literally in five seconds. This is the new technological advancement that's going to, I think, is going to change the future of Christianity. And I don't know if anyone, well, we're really willing to acknowledge this.

1:02:02 We the church doesn't want to acknowledge it because the Church wants to hold on to it requires the building and the people and the money. But I'm saying that even going all the way back to my time, technology was already making the church obsolete in many ways. Well, I don't know how any church can even compete with this. So I'm gonna now, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask Ai another question. In your original devotional devotion on as Ay of forty thirty one, you you spoke of waiting, not being passive, but that it's interwove, it's interwoven and trusting in God's God's promises in Isaiah, the original, the original

1:03:33 recipients of these words of the words Words of Isaiah forty thirty one had specific promises and covenant promises. That would give that that makes.

1:04:18 Sense in light of the promise of Isaiah forty thirty one. Would wouldn't that wouldn't that make it difficult, difficult to specifically to specifically apply this to us? All right, hopefully I we're trying to do that while talking is difficult. Okay, So this is what AI says. All right, here we go, All right, okay, here we go. All right, hang on, give me one second. Here, it's typing out. It's gonna be, it's gonna be. It's typing out a lot. So once again, just notice my engagement for a devotional AI is the perfect devotional companion, because not only do I get the devotional it right, I can I can literally talk to it and go back and forth. Oh, it's written, it's writing a book. It's writing a book, I asked, I asked a question. I mean literally, this is so long.

1:05:34 This is literally this would probably be a couple of pages. Okay, just finished typing. Okay, I'm gonna go all the way back to the top. Here. Wow, here we go. So I said, in your original devotion on Isaiah forty thirty one, you spoke of waiting, not being passive, but that it's interwoven and trusting in God's promises. The original recipients of the word of Isaiah forty thirty one has specific promises and covenants and promises that make sense and light of the promise of Isaiah forty thirty one kind of written very weird. Wouldn't that make it difficult to specifically apply this to us? Now, this is what Ai says. You bring up a crucial point. The promises in Isaiah forty thirty one were given to a specific people, Israel, with a particular historical context. With their unique covenanial relationship with God.

1:06:18 The Israelites had clear covenantial promises that shape in their understanding of God's deliverance and restoration, such as the promise of returning from exile and the eventual coming of the Messiah. These were tangible historical realities grounded in specific context of the Old Testament Covenant covenant contexts in Israel's promises. The promises to Israel included number one land and nation. God did promise Israel the land of Canaan and the continuation of their nation Genesis twelve fifteen, which was threatened during the exile. Number two the Dividic Covenant, there was a promise that a descendant of David would reign on the throne Second Samuel, which the people look forward to. And number three restoration from exile. Prophets like Amah and Isaiah spoke of God's plan to restore the people to their land after the exile. The people of Israel therefore should wait on the Lord with a specific expectation that their exile would end and that God would restore them. As these promises were clearly outlined and the covenant made to them, so AI acknowledges what I'm saying is, wait a minute, we can't we just go to Isaiah forty thirty one, and we all just grab on to that, which is what typically devotions will do, and which is a little bit what Ai itself did. So I had to challenge it a little bit right, so it says you're right and saying that. Applying this passage directly to us can be challenging because we do not share the same covenantal promises as the original audience. However, the broader principle about God's character in his ways are timeless, and here's how we might bridge the gap to apply Isaiah forty thirty

1:07:50 one faithfully to our lives. God's unchanging character. While the specific of the promises differ between Israel and Christians today, the underlying truth about God's nature remains the same. Isaiah forty emphasizes God's sovereignty, strength, and faithfulness. These attributes are still true for Christians today. Just as God renewed the strength of his people when they trusted in him, he does the same for us. In the context of the New Covenant through Christ, the principle of trust and dependence upon God New Covenant promises for believers and a broader view of waiting and then the universal struggle with weariness, waiting for redemption and during in trials, trusting in God. I could go on. I mean, it goes on forever, finding different ways to bridge the gap between the original historical context and us. But it acknowledges well, there is some difficulty here. That's all. That's what you witness that unfold literally within minutes. And I could like to read all of that. To go through all of that would turn into an hour long program in and of itself. It could turn into multiple sermons. Now, you may not utilize AI.

1:09:01 You may not be utilizing it, but let me tell you, the next generation is going to AI is going to be integrated into everything. AI is going to be integrated into everything. It's happening. Apple's trying to get it all. I mean, with the iOS eighteen, they're going to be doing the Apple Intelligence that they're going to be rolling that out in October to the end of the year, and then the every Apple device is going to have Apple Intelligence built in and it's it's just going to be integrated in everything. You're not even going to even realize it. AI is going to be integrated into everything. And once it's integrated into everything, now here comes the challenge.

1:09:42 It's always been the challenge to the individual Christian. What are you going to do? You have We've all you've always had these things available. Some Christians use the things that are available. They make use of it. They're using radio, they're using books, they're using the internet, they're using podcasts. They use it, right. And then you have others who'd just be like, well, I'm going to church on Sunday and that's it. That's all I care to do. So it's going to be available. Well, christians use it. I don't know. I've been talking about AI for a long time and just like right here, you just I mean, I could have my devotional time with A every day. I could just sit down with AI. I'm like, okay, I'm ready for my morning devotional, what do you have for me today? And then immediately look at it, read it, read the text, start doing my own work, then come back to AI with all of my follow up questions, my challenges, my concerns are asking for and for more information, asking it to break it down into greater detail, and my fifteen minute devotional could turn into probably two hours and I wouldn't even have to try. I could probably, I hate to say it, you could probably get more from a sitting down with your cup of coffee, a Bible notebook, and chat GPT than you could by getting in your car and driving to church and listening to a sermon. Now here's what I would challenge you to do.

1:11:12 If you're using chat GPT, what did your pastor preach on Sunday? You got your sermon notes, go ask AI to generate a sermon, or to generate a Bible study, or to generate a devotional based on what the passage was at church and compare the two. Compare the two, and if it's not in depth enough, ask AI to make it more in depth that you need more information or you need more and just give it within fifteen minutes. Just see what AI has produced contrasted to what your pastor produced. Now, this is not a condemnation or a indictment against your pastor or any other pastor, because this would apply to me as well. What I'm trying to say is I think, ultimately AI can produce better, more in depth content than your church can or any person can. Now, what does that mean for the future. I don't have any good ideas I'll let you tell me all right, that went seventy two minutes. It was not supposed to go that long. We went through a lot of different things.

1:12:36 I do apologize at the beginning, I don't know what it was. I got stumbled on and I kept trying to say it. I think I was trying to say. I don't remember what word I was trying to say. I don't remember I was getting I got a little distracted from the beginning when my microphone wouldn't turn on. I'm not going to make any excuse, but see, if it was AI, it wouldn't have made any of those mistakes, right anything I tried to explain if I was struggling for the right word A, I wouldn't struggle with that. It would just it would move right along. It would provide the right word at the right time. Now, it would remove the human element absolutely, and the human element I think sometimes is a good thing. But what I'm trying to say is we've reached a point in our spiritual lives. We're there. Well, it's not the future, it's here, it's right now where literally just me and AI could spend the day just talking, spending all day like A I's giving me the concept weight on God. Okay, now I could just really work and work and work and work with Ai, back and forth, back and forth, just going back and forth, and we could we could spend the day and deep theological discussion and hermoneutical discussion. We are and it even acknowledged my hermeneutical challenge to Isaiah forty thirty one. I could even expand a little bit on that. I could ask you some follow up questions.

1:13:52 I literally I could spend two three four hours just on this subject with Ai, and then I could take all of my work then go to the sermon's two point Oh app find me a sermon on Isaiah forty thirty one, and guess what I may find myself by the end of that sermon. You know what I may find. I may find myself frustrated, irritated, and just utterly confused and how it had the person handled the text of scripture and in many cases obliterated historical context, textual context. And just remember we've done that countless times where I'm like, well, let's go listen to sermons on this, and You're like, why is no one dealing with the issue? And in many times you will hear me in real time. I'll tell you I'm searching for something and I'm asking AI boom boom, boom boom, and a I will be like, here's the problem with that, here's the problem with that, and it's like in real time. Now. I know nobody wants to acknowledge No, I don't think anybody wants to address this, but we already have now AI programs that are that that will write sermons for pastors. So it's not going to be long before your pastor's sermons. The younger the pastor is, the younger the pastor is, there's going to be more likely that their sermons are more generated by AI than it was hours and hours in the study. I guarantee you. I mean, we've already had those issues, remember the big plagiarism controversy that was going on.

1:15:26 It's going to be AI generated sermons now. But see do you see where that goes? If your pastor is getting his sermon from AI, you can get the same sermon on your AI app, making not only the church obsolete. And I really have been struggling with this, why do you even need this podcast? I've really been asking that question deeply lately, if I'm putting together something and I look something up, and I'm doing a lot of work with AI, why do you need me. You can look it up yourself, you can do it yourself. You don't need me. Will the first thing that becomes obsolete because of AI? Will the first casualty of AI be Christian podcasters, pastors, Bible study leaders, Sunday school teachers, the church. Thanks for listening, everyone,

1:17:06 Have a great day. God bless