The AI Prayer Book

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, January fifteenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently eleven forty nine am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well, I told you that, really twenty twenty five is kind of about, well, a blank notebook, right, It's about a blank notebook, because typically before I arrive at a new year, I kind of start mapping out, Oh, I want to do this, and we're going to do this series, and we're going to cover this, and we're going to focus on this. And this year I decided, even though it's kind of just symbolic, to leave a blank notebook right here under the microphone, right, And so anytime I sit down, it's kind of like, well, I don't have a plan, I don't have anything mapped out.

1:02 Let's just see what today brings us, right what. It's almost like I'm just gonna let each day guide the podcast. It's almost like we got in a car. We started on a road trip called twenty twenty five, but we have no idea where we're going. We have no map, we have no plan, we have no agenda, and we're just gonna let well, whatever we see, we're gonna kind of pull over and stop and look at it. Right, if we're driving down the highway, I'm like, oh, look, look that looks like an interesting exit. Let's take it. So that's kind of what we have. That's kind of been my approach. However, there has been at least one thing that has kind of already dominated the year, and I think it's going. I think it's going to do that throughout the year. Even though the notebook is blank, right, if I'm being honest, at least on the front page, the letters AI should be there. Because artificial intelligence really has been become the major theme for this podcast in twenty twenty five. Some people may love that, some people may hate that, But I believe it's important, right. I believe it's important because I believe artificial intelligence is going to have a massive impact on Christianity, a massive impact on theology, biblical interpretation.

2:21 On so many things. I think it's in some ways, I'm going to continue to see this. It makes the church almost irrelevant in many ways, and we've talked about all of that. So even though it's a blank notebook, AI is kind of there and well this is where well the blank notebook what kind of leads us right back to AI. Let me explain what happened yesterday. I was asked to review a sermon. Does everyone want a reminder of what that sermon sounded like? Someone emailed me and said, hey, tell me if AI can handle this sermon, remember what we experienced. Do you want a little do you want a little reminder? Some of you who listened to it yesterday was like, no, no, no, no no, I don't want to hear it because a number of you did email saying man, I'm just gonna be honest, that was hard to listen to. I know, but we need that reminder, right so, blank notebook. Yesterday in my notebook, someone said, hey, can a I handle this sermon? So I downloaded the sermon and we heard a little bit of this.

3:28 Sunday night rolled around and I talked about how what our faith is tried, it will be worth it. I'm afraid, honey, that we're in a time where we don't want to use the faith that God tells giving us as much as I love Brandon and he give me this aymen, I believe amen out of the bottom of his heart. Hey, man, the Brandon, I love you, brother, But when he give me this knife, he fully expected, I believe for me to he'man to set it up somewhere allan hand to luck headed and look at how Curnie it was. Hey, Amanda, your swalk ben blades head it. From time to time, I let you know what I've done toime. I pulled it out of my pocket a mini out of time.

4:16 Heym an angle that I've done things with it that'll not an angle A knife he made to do. Are you with me? And honey, God did not give us that measure of faith. Got to hang upon myself somewhere and the won't buy when search time comes around. Hey, Now, there's no way to get around around it. From my own personal preference from I'm just gonna be honest with you, I can't listen to that. I can't. I mean, I know that that's wrong because I'm allowing my own personal preference to say, Hey, you may be preaching, you may even be preaching philologically sound biblical message, but the style I can't get past the style. I can't I can't handle and look at I understand that there's people who listen to me and say, I can't handle your voice. I don't like the sound of your voice.

5:10 I don't like how animated you are. I don't like So that that's just the reality, and that's one of the things we just have to admit as human beings and as Christians that sometimes are listening to a sermon are liking it or disliking it. Many cases, is more about stylistic preferences than it. Is about the Bible or theology. Even if that sermon was one hundred percent doctrinally theologically sound, I would not be able to listen to it. I know that's wrong, but it's just the case because as human beings, we are greatly impacted by preaching style, and that sermon also captures that. That sermon it greatly reflects kind of a certain cultural context, right, It's definitely some that's far different than other cultural context. And we talked about all of that and how that impacts well human beings and preaching and teaching and listening to sermons, and we talked a little bit about AI and the difference there.

6:18 So I did that we reviewed the sermon. Ai, I mean, Ai tore that sermon apart. It really did. And what was fascinating to me though, is that sermon was on James two, fourteen through twenty six, and I didn't really know where we were going. I had Ai do a lot of work working on the sermon, and then it kind of turned into if you really think about it, what Ai ended up doing yesterday is Ai refuted and disagreed and stated that basically a lordship salvation understanding is incompatible with a belief in being saved by imputed righteousness, and it's more in line with an infused righteousness concept. Basically, Ai was like, the whole lordship idea is just it's philologically inconsistent, logically inconsistent.

7:16 There's problems with it. But then at the same time, Ai told me, basically. If you don't go along with this more lordship way of thinking, you're you're gonna basically not You're gonna you have no place within Christianity. You're kind of left on the outside for the most part because christ because non Catholic Christians tend to look at salvation and a very lordship kind of you have to do this to prove your salvation type mindset. So that was fascinating and I didn't really know we were going to end up there and maybe we'll return back to that, but that was all. You know, we started with a blank notebook and we ended. Up with all of that. So I was like, Okay, that day is over. Let's move on. Let's just move on.

8:02 We'll see, we'll see what today has in store. Well, I received an email. Now I'm going to be reading just parts of the email. I'm not reading every single word of the email. I'm kind of summarizing some things of it, but reived. I received a. Number of emails from an individual and he first made a comment about that preaching style and he admitted he could not he was having a hard time listening to it. Again, this is personal preferences, right, and no means should I Look, if that's the way that person preaches, and that's who they are, and they're being true to themselves and that's the way they want to preach, then you know what, they should stay true to their. Them I don't think preaching.

8:44 I don't like when preachers are kind of taught that you got to preach in this way or you got to preach in this way. I think you need to be true to yourself so that the preaching comes across as real and organic. And if that's him being real and organic, then by all. Means I support it, even though I can't listen to it. Go for it. I don't want to. I can't stand with people say well, you should do this, or you should say this, or you no, no, no no, don't tell me how to communicate, because what I want to do is communicate in a real way, not communicate as if I'm performing or as if I'm in theater, or I've got to follow some specific rules to present the material in a way that is more, you know.

9:25 To the liking of more people. I don't like that. I want to come across as as being as real as I can be. So if that's their style and that's them, then by all, that's what they should do, and I shouldn't worry about those of us who don't necessarily like it. But so I get the email they say a little bit about that, and then they go and say this on a real note, I'm a long time listener and I love that you're utilizing AI. Oh, I'm just like Okay, good, all right, that's that's that's U. You know, I haven't received a lot of feedback about our discussion about artificial intelligence, so I was very encouraged to get someone saying, Hey, I love that you're utilizing AI.

10:10 That's a great thing. I'm glad right because and I don't know the age of the person. I'm assuming. I'm guessing they're probably younger, right, or probably thirties. Maybe. I think the older people get, the more they're going to be. I don't really like the AI. Why are you focusing so much on AI? I think it's going to be very much based on age. Whether people like what I'm doing or dislike what I'm doing, but whether you like it or dislike it, I'm sorry. AI is here to stay. So we need to utilize it because I need people to understand what it can do, how to better utilize it, and understand how it's going to change and transform Christianity. Right now, listen to what they say, So they love that I'm utilizing AI.

10:56 They go on to say, this is back to the email. AI isn't biased and it's factual. Like, wow, okay, now biased. I do agree that. Now some people may say it has a bias. We could get into a debate about that. What I have found when it comes to theology, though it's not biased towards one philological system, right. It will analyze the system based on biblical consistency, logical consistency. Like it. It doesn't have. A team per se, unless you're using an AI that's coming from a philological team that programs their AI to only approach things from that perspective.

11:41 So I like an AI that's more open and not coming from a particular system. All right. They go on to say, I've been using it for a long. Time now, and I'm like, okay, so here's someone who's probably been utilizing it longer than I have. All Right, that's. Good because you want you want people listening who can say, wait, well, hey, you miss this about AI, or you miss this about AI, or. What about this? Because they've they've been using it a long time, they have far more knowledge. I feel like I've been using it for a while, but I think I'm just now really beginning to grasp. What it can do. Like I stated yesterday, when people perceive AI almost as a fancy Google search, I don't think they get it to me the beauty of Ai. As I tried to indicate yesterday, it's the reasoning I can reason with it.

12:35 Like I got into that huge discussion with AI yesterday that basically led it to completely criticizing and demolishing kind of a lordship mentality. And that was fascinating to me. Right, And it did so not on the basis of it for this team or that team. It did so on the. Basis of, well, if your philological starting point is imputed righteousness and not infused righteousness, well, if you're going to truly believe in a gospel based on an imputed righteousness, well this and this and this is just radically inconsistent with it. And I was like, well, thank you. I've been trying to tell people that and they get mad at me. All right, so, and that's so frustrating. AI can figure it out, but other people want to argue with me, you know, leave the.

13:20 Church over it. And it's like, well, AI seems to acknowledge what I'm saying. And guess what. AI never accused me of being. AI never wants to accuse me of being an Antiinomian. Isn't that fascinating? So that was just crazy yesterday. But it was that reasoning that went on for about an hour. That's what I want people to see. But this is what caught my attention. So this person in the email says, I have been using it for a long time now and even used it to. Help me write my prayer meditation book. Now, immediately I saw something. Woo woah wo woa, whoa this person used AI to write a book. Oh, I've got questions. I've got to see this book.

14:07 They gave me the name of the book, Dwelling in His Presence, a thirty day journey into Christ's centered prayer and Meditation. Now, I want you to write this title down and you can go to Amazon dot com right now and you can find this book and you can purchase a hard copy. You can purchase it in a digital format. Now, the author of this book is allowing me to upload this and connect it as a PDF file to this episode. If you're using the. Sermon's two point oh app, the Sermon Audio website, or the Church one app, you should be able to see the pdfile. I'm gonna definitely try to attach it. I can't do it now because I'm live, but once I upload all of this, I'm going to try to attach the PDF file of the book, and they're allowing us to do that even though they're selling it on Amazon.

15:00 That is awesome for them because they could say no, they people go buy it, but they're willing for me to do this, So I'm very grateful. But if you want to kind of buy the book to support this, you should go to Amazon dot com look for it again. This is the name of the. Book, Dwelling in His Presence, A thirty Day Journey and to Christ Centered Prayer Meditation. Right once again, Dwelling in His Presence, A thirty Day Journey and to Christ Centered Prayer Meditation. It is available on Amazon and hardback, and I know it's on for the Kindle as well. I think if you have kind Kindle unlimited, I think you can get it for free. If it's a Kindle unlimited, I think so. I could be wrong, but you definitely should check it out.

15:52 So I was like, whoa, whoa. As soon as I saw this, I was like, you got to be kidding me. Talk about that blank notebook, all right, this is going to become a page in the notebook. I've got to see this book now. When they first told me about the book. They didn't tell me it was on Amazon. I didn't even think about looking at anywhere. I was just like, well, can you send me a copy of the book. I want to see this. This is a book written by AI. Come on, I've got to see this. So I immediately emailed and said, hey, come on, I tell me about the book. So this is what they sent back. They sent back, I do they do have a copy. And although I did set the prompts for a Christ's Center theology and referenced a couple that I truly love, it was almost entirely done by AI with little editing.

16:45 The book was put together almost entirely by AI. I want you to wrap your mind around it. Now. I know what you're thinking. You're like, oh, well, it's probably just like you know, two or three little pages. Now, are you ready for this? I'm going to open up the book right now in the pdf file. Okay, if I break if I break this down, hang on the way it shows up in a pdf file where you have page two hundred and seventy three pages. Ladies and gentlemen, AI put together a two one hundred and seventy three page book that's absolutely fascinating. And if I remember correctly, he put it all together. I think he said in a little about a week, AI put together a two hundred and seventy three page book, almost entirely done by AI in a week.

17:38 Someone wrapped their mind around that. If you don't believe this is transformed, if you don't believe this is going to change Christianity, you're out of your mind. So I have the book here. Let me just kind of go through some of the things here, all right, So here's the title page, Dwelling in His Presence, A thirty day Journey into Christ Centered Meditation. And here the table of contents. This is page two of two hundred and seventy three Dwelling in His Presence, Table of contents. Introduction Why prayer meditation matters. What to expect in this book. A personal story Finding Peace in the Stillness. Part one.

18:19 Foundations of prayer meditation. When prayer feels difficult, overcoming distractions, feeling spiritually dry, doubts about doing it right? Number two. What is prayer meditation a biblical foundation? How prayer meditation differs from secular mindfulness. Why prayer meditation helps, How to begin? Number one, find a quiet space, set us out of time, choose a scripture or focus, practice stillness, reflect and pray. Number three, A Theology of Communion with Christ. Carl Barth responding to God's revelation, John Wesley prayer as a means of grace, Thomas aquinas union with God and stillness, and t Wright prayer as king and participation. I theology lived out a simple practice for prayer meditation Number four preparing your heart and mind for prayer, and I could break this entire thing down. And then then Part two is a month of guided meditations.

19:15 Number one. Week one embracing God's love and grace. Day one, God's Love surrounds you Romans eight thirty eight through thirty nine. Day two resting in Christ's presence Matthew eleven twenty eight through thirty. Day three, trusting God's guidance Proverbs three five through six, Day four, Strength and Weakness, Psalm. Forty six to ten. Now, whether you agree, whether you disagree, the point is artificial intelligence put together an entire book that takes you through a thirty day you know, guide through you know prayerful meditation. That's insane, and it did it in about a week. Right, So what I'm gonna upload again, I'm gonna unless something doesn't work correctly, I'm going to upload the pdf file to be attached to this episode. For those listening on all the other podcasting apps, you need to get the sermon's two point oh app or go to the sermon audio dot com website. Type in Theology Central look for this episode about Ai writes a book.

20:18 Or you can go to the church one app again search for Theology Central, find this episode and you should see the pdf file attached. Or you can go to Amazon dot com and look for the book Dwelling in His Presence, A thirty Day Journey into Christ's Centered Prayer Meditation. Please do that and then you can look at the thing I want you to see. This is not about oh. You, whether you agree with the book, disagree with the book, it's not about that. It's about someone utilized artificial intelligence to put this together. And if they could do that, anyone can do that.

20:59 Do you understand this? Pastors can be up there going I'm gonna preach on this and preach on that. People while sitting in the pew during a sermon can be putting together their own book about prayer or theology. They you literally can use artificial intelligence. Are you ready for this to write out your entire Sunday school curriculum for the next year. The people in the pew can do this. They don't even need the pastor that you can say the pastor are like, oh, for the next six weeks, we're gonna preach on this. They can say, Okay, well, great, you go do that. AI, I would like a six weeks, six weeks of sermons.

21:48 On this topic. AI will give you the six weeks of sermons and you'll have them before the pastor gets done with his introduction. For that one sermon, they're like, how do how do we even? How does the church even? What does the church even exist? At that point, you've got to go check out the book, all right, So I'm going to go back to the emails to some more of the email. Information. So so so I was blown away when I saw the book, and so then I asked, hey, can can I upload this? And they said, of course.

22:28 I do this to help people and try to teach others to realign their focus on Christ and his teachings. If anyone would like a hard copy, they're sold on Amazon to This whole project took me only one week, and I wanted it to be almost fully done by AI so that I could feel confident in its accuracy. Did you hear that? Hey, I wanted it to be almost all we all done by AI so that I could be confident and its accuracy. Now, I'm not going to rely on me. I'm going to rely on AI because AI will probably be more accurate than I could be. That. I feel the same way. Now, if I'm going to put something together, I'm like, well, let me check with AI, because I trust AI more than I trust myself.

23:13 And all of the years of schooling. Okay, I don't care how many degrees I have in theology. I don't care how many degrees I have in Biblical studies. I don't care. I don't care if it's an associate's a master's. I don't care what I have. I trust AAI can give me far more than I got, and all of those years of combined and all of the education that have now I do I will argue this. The more all of my education does allow me to go, wait, hey, what about this? Or what I can kind of construct my own philological hypotheses? Or I can kind of construct my own hermeneutical hypotheses, and then I can have a back and forth with AI because I do have the knowledge to be able to engage it on the subject. Right, the more you know about a subject, the more you can then go back and forth with AI.

24:04 But I still like AI, and we've already seen. How good AI is is checking the accuracy of many of the sermons we've listened to, and every sermon that we've used AI to analyze, every single time it's pointed out completely inaccurate, factual errors literally factual error, fraudulent information in sermons, where like that's not accurate, that's not true, No, that's remember that what the one sermon I was reviewing, AI was like, No, this is just wrong, and you're like what in the world, Like how is this happening? So they go on to say, this whole project took me only a week, and I wanted it to be almost fully done by AI so I could feel confident in its accuracy.

24:50 To me, to me, this is more about not about accuracy. I'm glad they used AI because it proves what I've been trying to say, what I think this individual should do is they should put together a book about how they utilized AI to write these books. So that and then try to try to offer step by step instruction and helping Christians create whatever systematic theologies, Bible surveys, Bible studies, devotional guys, Sunday school curriculum, sermon series. If this person put together an entire book, they would be they would be much more qualified.

25:37 Then give us kind of a hey, how do you start? What are the things you asked AI to do? What were your prompts? How did you do this? How did you do that? And they do give me a lot of information here because I do ask some of these questions. So they go on to say, I. Also wrote another, a more philological book through AI. It was called So there's another book they have available. This is now this one I'm not going to make available and I didn't ask for a PDF file or anything. It's available on Amazon. It is called Faith Undermined, Conspiracy Politics. And the Crisis in the Christian Church.

26:19 Faith Undermined, Conspiracy Politics and the Crisis in the Christian Church. Now what I would challenge them to do? Now, I haven't read their book yet, but I would challenge them if they if they perceive that there's a crisis in the Christian Church based off conspiracy theories, mindless conspiracy theories, and the political hijacking of the American Church. If that's the direction the book is going, which. I think it does, they're what they should do is they should write to see how a book about how artificial intelligence may be able to do something that's completely the correction of all these things that are undermining the Christian Church. Because AI, I think can combat the conspiracy theories.

27:09 I think AI is not. Going to be politically hijacked unless someone creates an AI that only operates from a particular political point of view. Now, there are going to be people. Now Here's what I'm fearful is what's going to happen is we're going to ultimately have here's the Republican AI, here's the Democrat AI, here's the Baptist AI, here's the Presbyterian AI, here's the Lutheran AI. And I'm going to hate that. I don't want that. I don't want it to have give me one perspective. I want it to deal with it in a far different way. So we will see if that's if I'm right about what that. But that book again is available on Amazon as well. It's called Faith Undermined, Conspiracy, Politics and the Crisis in the Christian Church. Again put together by artificial intelligence.

27:58 Now, if I go to AI about that book, let. Me see here if it gives me, if it gives me information, here, give me one second, I'm gonna I'm gonna. Close that pace. This give me here. This one's only forty three pages. This one's only forty three pages. So, and it would be interesting in it would be interesting to know like how difficult it is to put the book together, you. Know, like how long the book can be. When does it become problematic for AI? Like I got all kinds of questions about it. So this one's much shorter, but again put together by artificial intelligence. And that is fascinating to me. So so back to the email, So I asked, hey, can explain to me how you did this, Explain to me how this works.

28:55 So now this is fascinating. And their response to me about how they used AI to break it down. They utilized AI in order to respond to me. AI helped put together their response. So here is the response. It says, thank you for your inquiry. Regarding the process of creating this book, I'd be happy to provide an outline of how AI contributed to its development. Below was an overview of the tools and stepped steps involved. All right, So Number one AI application used. I utilized open ais chat GPT, a language model designed to assist with content creation, brainstorming, and editing. It was instrumental and generating, refining, and organizing the text.

29:42 Throughout the process. Please note it was. Used in generating, refining, and organizing the text. Number two step by step process a planning and outlining. I began by brainstorming the book core themes spiritual growth, meditation, scripture based reflections. Using AI, I created a chapter outline defining key topics such as trust, peace, faith, and transformation. Prompts use generate chapter ideas for a Christian meditation book based on scripture. So they went to AI and said, hey, generate the chapter ideas for a Christian meditation book based on scripture, and in AI generated all of that. They went on to also this was the prompt provide a detailed outline for each chapter, including key scripture references and reflection questions. Now the reflection questions I've been using those more recently. So like I, let's say I look on Sermon's two point zero app and I see a sermon on Genesis fifteen.

30:56 Then I may go to chat GPT and I. May say, give me some discussion questions and things for further study based on Genesis fifteen. I love that. I love that. I want to use those more in my sermons and even on the podcast. But those discussion questions themselves can turn into an entire episode. But AI is good at doing that. It's really good at doing that, all right. So those were some of the prompts used b writing individual chapters. Each chapter was developed one section at a time to ensure depth and coherence. For example, introduction prompt, write an introduction to a chapter on Trusting God, incorporating Proverbs three five through six. That was the prompt, use, Hey, AI, write an introduction to a chapter on Trusting God, incorporating Proverbs three five through six. Next, Meditation guide prompt, create a reflective meditation guide on living in God's God's Peace using Philippians four to seven. Prayers and reflection prompt write a closing prayer and reflection and reflection questions for a chapter on finding Purpose then this is what he did.

32:10 So he AI is putting it all together. He's just prompting it. He's just saying, AI, put this together. AI put this together. AI is putting it all together. That is absolutely amazing. Then he this is what he said he did. I reviewed and refined each section after AI generated the content, tailoring it to fit the. Tone and focus of the book. I do that all the time when I'm working on If I'm working on Isaiah forty, I kind of give Ai what I'm looking for. AI will put it together. Now, the thing I do different is once AI put something together, I will look at it, and then I will then start reasoning with Ai, well what about this, and well could.

32:51 It not be interpreted this way? I start basically formulating my own interpretive hypotheses, and then me and Ai will spend about an hour going over my hypotheses. And AI will tell me where it's weak or it doesn't work. I mean, we saw. If you're listening to our series on Isaiah forty three, Isaiah chapter forty to Isaiah chapter fifty five, we're still in Isaiah forty you know that me and Ai went back and forth about how some passages could be applied to Cyrus or not. How Ai disagreed with me on some so then I couldn't change AI's mind. But I was able to get Ai to give me an look at the first part of Isaiah forty, compare and contrast it with the decree of Cyrus in Ezra one.

33:37 And then even Ai had to go, oh, there's some there's a lot of similarities here. So but that's the thing. I may ask it to put it together. But then I go back and forth arguing with Ai, not really arguing. But reasoning together with it. Then so okay. Then they went on to say editing and consistency. Ai assisted with grammar, flow and tone adjustments to maintain consistency across chapters. Prompt. This is what he then asked Ai to do. Refine the following text to match a warm and contemplative tone suitable for a devotional book.

34:17 That's insane, Hey, I need this to be a little bit more warmer. I needed to have a contemplative focus. This is going to be a devotional book, so it. Will make and I've had Ai prompt me. I'll be doing something and then Ai will be like, well, would you like me to turn this into a devotional would you like me to turn this into a Bible study? Would you like me to turn this into basically asking me do I want it to go this direction or this direction or this direction? Which again is crazy. So there's the editing and consistency. Next, cover design and visuals. For the cover, I used open AI's image generational tool to create conceptual desig right, So this was the prompt he used design a six by nine book cover for a Christian meditation book with a serene sunrise and spiritual theme.

35:12 All right, And the generational tool that he used, a open AIS image generational tool or generation. Tool, is called dall dot e dally all right. I think that's how you would say it, and I'm probably saying it incorrect, and tech people are going to be like, know what you're talking about? I understand, I'm not AI. Okay, alright. I can do is look at the letters. Okay. So then final review and compilation. I compiled all chapters into a cohesive manuscript and performed a final review to ensure alignment with a book spiritual focus and purpose. Now what I have done with AI is I've had like an hour long discussion with it and then I'm like, Okay, take everything we've said, put it together, and a comper hits of study or this in whatever format, and then AI will take an hour long study and compile it in a nice organized flow.

36:09 Now, I know sometimes I know what some of you are saying. I wish you would do that in your podcast because you just repeat and it's it's so tedious. Well, a lot of the reasons I don't do that sometimes is because I'm trying to take you through the entire process. I asked AI this. Then then I asked AI this. I'm trying to take you through the process because I'm trying to get you to understand it's not a Google search. Okay, reason with it, all right, utilize it for these wonderful things that it can do. Right then, section by section approach, AI worked with me on one chapter or section at a time, allowing for basically to refine it right. This approach ensured each piece aligned with the overall theme while addressing individual topics thoughtfully. Conclusion using AI was a collaborative and literative process that enhanced efficiency and creativity. While AI generated much of the foundational content, I guided the process, reviewed every section and made edits to ensure the book maintain its intended tone, purpose, and depth. The result is a work that blends thoughtful human oversight with the capabilities of modern technology.

37:31 That's that's amazing. What AI can do, it is amazing. So the whole goal of this is to just try I just want you to try to wrap your mind around this is this is what I want you to try to envision. Okay, well, I got a couple of things, so a couple of things I want to accomplish here. First, it's just to tell you about this because it fits with our discussion about AI. Two, I want you I want to make the book available. To you, and the best way to do so is well for me to do a broadcast and just attach the PDF file to it. So that's that's another reason. And three, I really want you to start thinking about how you with chat GPT.

38:14 I'm just gonna go with chat GPT, says, that's the one I use most frequently. Just you and chat GPT. What you can do. In comparison and contrast to what your church can do. All right, now, it's Wednesday. Do you have church tonight? Do you have church tonight? Do you have Bible study tonight. If you do, contact whoever contacts your pastor, Hey, what are you preaching on tonight? Contact your teacher what are you teaching on tonight? And then you just sit down with chat GPT and say, Okay, the pastor's going to preach on this subject. Chat GPT, give me an in depth analysis of the text, give me break it down into a analyze the tech, break it down exegetically, give me cultural context, whatever.

39:05 You just start working with it, and then you compare what you have in your hand on your phone. You can take your phone with you as the pastor preaches, you look at what you have. I will almost one thousand percent guarantee. I think I would put money down if we were betting that what you have in your hand will be better than what your pastor has, unless your pastor is using the same AI app. And then when the sermon is over, you can ask AI specific questions about the sermon, and you may find that things said in the sermon we're completely factually in error, or AI will. Say well, this was a hermeneutical error, or this was wrong, or this was wrong. And at some point you're.

39:47 Gonna be like, there's no point in having a church. That's what I'm trying to get people to understand. Now, people don't like to hear that, and they're gonna push back, go, oh, you can. Say whatever you want. I'm talking from a look, I'm not talking from a scriptural perspective. I'm not trying to argue whether whether I'm not saying the Bible doesn't say we need to be at church. I'm not saying that. I'm saying just looking at it from a practical level, you can do that, yeah, And I challenge you to do it so that you can see for yourself. If you listen to my discussion about. A week ago or two weeks ago, where we were working on Isaiah forty and I said, the next section we're going to cover, I think is verse nine through eleven.

40:35 And what did someone in my congregation do? What did they do? I'm literally saying that they already have chat GPT. Open on their phone, and they already had a breakdown and an analysis of Isaiah forty nine to eleven, and they did it in five seconds. They already had it on their phone. And so there whenever they show up Sunday and we go back to Isaiah forty guess what they probably have already now used Chad GPT. There's nothing I'm going to be able to. Say on Sunday that they don't already have right there on their phone. They don't even need to come to church. There's nothing I can give them. In fact, guess what someone Right now you can sit down and you can start working with Chad GPT.

41:27 If anybody wants to take up the challenge, you just sit down. Start it's Wednesday. From Wednesday, from this Wednesday to next Wednesday, you start working with chat GPT to put together a book, a commentary on Isaiah forty to Isaiah chapter fifty five, an in depth verse by verse, an exegetical commentary dealing with cultural context textual context of Isaiah forty through fifty five. I guarantee you. By next Wednesday you probably will already have an entire commentary that you help put together on your phone, that you help make with the use of AI. You don't need me. So I guess the conclusion of this is this book just is another piece of It's another you know, quoting the famous lyric, it's another brick in the wall.

42:23 Okay, it's it's it's just another knell in the coffin. It's like, Hey, we don't need podcasters, we don't need preachers, we don't need Sunday school teachers, we don't. Need the church. I've got chat GPT. It can give me anything the church can give me. And it's and even and even the just the free. If you're using the free one, it can still do most of it. But if you want to, you could just say. For twenty dollars a month, AI, for twenty dollars a month, AI can do more for me within that month than the church will be able. To do for me in five years. And just ask yourself how much does it take to keep the church operating for one year and how much does it cost to have chat.

43:09 GPT for one year. Chat GPT can give you advice. Chat GPT can offer counsel. Chat GPT can offer scripture, scripture references and help you. I mean, it can give you devotionals. It can give you daily devotionals, evening devotion morning evening. It can help you with Bible study methods. It can do the Bible study methods for you in five seconds. You can ask it to do a chapter summary method, a devotional method, a verse by verse analysis, a biographical, topical thematic any of the Bible study methods I've taught you. It can do the entire method for you in five seconds.

43:55 But just compare just you go to church on Sunday, see what you get, and then just see what you get with chat GPT. There's no way you're gonna be You're gonna be saying, well, chat GPT was far better than the sermon. Do you understand what that means? The pastor could be like you could be sitting in the pew and I could be like, all right, today, we're in Isaiah forty verses nine through eleven. By the time I finished, that's by the by the time I finish, we're in Isaiah forty nine through eleven. I take just a pause to breathe, to swallow whatever that typically those little pauses and speaking. By the time I'm done doing that, you've. Already got an entire breakdown on your phone of Isaiah forty nine through eleven.

44:36 Do you understand that? And you can just be sitting there looking at it, and then every time I speak, you can just shake your head, going. Man, chat GPT is better than you. Hey, chat GPT just says you're wrong. Hey, you're you're misinterpreting that. Chat GPT says your hermeneutical abilities are trapped. Hey, chat GPT just said you should quit and give up because you're pathetic. Okay, well, maybe chat GPT wouldn't say those words, but basically that would be the conclusion. I don't know how to I don't know how to live in this new world. I don't know.

45:18 There was a time when I was going to school, and I was going to seminary and Bible college and Bible institutes, and I was getting this degree and doing this and doing this and doing this and working on this and writing papers and reading this and doing all of this work that I always felt, Okay, I'm going to be so well educated and so well informed that when I stand behind the pulpit, right, I'm going to know more than anyone and everyone, and I'm going to ensure that I give them the best teaching that they can get. They will not be able to find teaching this good no matter where they look. That was my way of thinking, maybe I was not well. I found out I was naive, because then I realized it doesn't matter how many years I went to school doesn't matter.

46:00 Someone would be you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, Okay, so whatever, Okay, they always think they know better. And I don't even have to do that. Didn't even have to go to school, they didn't have to do the work. So immediately you realize that when it comes to preaching it, it doesn't matter how much. When it comes to the. Church, who cares how much you went to school? Who cares how much you learned. There's gonna be someone saying you're wrong, you're an idiot, you're a heretic, you're a knucklehead, you don't know how to read. So you know, I'm leaving, I'm gonna go somewhere else, Okay, just whatever. So then you kind of just realize. Then I kind of reached a point where. I'm like, you know what, why did I go to school? Why did I spend all of those hours and that time? Why did I do all of that? It was a waste of time. No one cares.

46:42 So then I became very disillusioned. Well, now with AI, I realize what was the point. What was the point? And now when I go when I sitting I'm sitting here studying, getting ready for church, why am I studying getting ready for church? The people sitting there in the pew can already have everything I'm gonna give them. And better, and they can put it together. They can pull up in. The parking lot like, hey, hey, we're getting ready to go in. Just give me a second, Give me a second. All right, everyone, I sent it to your phones. Everybody got it? What I What I just sent to you is going to be better than the sermon. I should just text everyone, Hey, here's here's Isaiah. Here's a chat GPT breakdown of Isaiah forty nine to eleven.

47:34 Don't even bother showing up to church. Just read this. Everyone, have a good day. It's I don't get it. I don't even know what the future looks like anymore. If someone can put together a book two hundred and seventy five page book and a week, a church would pay who knows how much money to get a book like that so that they could pass them out to all the people in the congregation. Her churches do this all the time. Their curriculum, all the. Money they spend. Why well, we're gonna have small group.

48:17 We need small group curriculum. Just have AI created all right, there, you go, oh, let me give you the name of the book again. Well for okay, So just so that you know, if you're listening to me on the sermon audio on sermon audio platform that would include the website, the sermon's two point oh app or the Church one app. What you should see is attached to this as a PDF file. It will be the book Dwelling in His Presence, A thirty Day Journey into Christ's Centered Prayer Meditation. All right, that's what it's going to be. I want you to look at the book and just remember it was almost entirely put together by artificial intelligence.

48:57 Okay. I also want you to look up the book. On Amazon Dwelling in His Presence, A thirty Day Journey into Christ Centered Prayer Meditation. Please consider getting a copy there to support someone putting this together because it serves as a great example of how AI is going to be disruptive to the church. Also know that the person put together another book entitled Faith Undermined. Conspiracy, Politics and the Crisis. In the Christian Church. I think, to me, what I believe the crisis in the Christian Church is now my approach is different. I used to argue that conspiracy theories and political hijacking was the crisis the church is facing.

49:38 I believe now the crisis that the church is facing and nobody realizes it yet, Like I don't think anybody understands it yet. The crisis the church is facing is that you're just irrelevant. You're no longer needed. There's nothing you can give me that I cannot get from AI. In five seconds. You are an irrelevant institution. From a practical standpoint. Now, if you're sacramental church, right, then okay, you still can fight for your your being relevant because people need the sacraments and the only way to obtain the sacraments is through the church. Now, if you're not sacramental and people are going to church, you could say, well, you go to the church to sing. Okay, well, I'm pretty sure I can sing at home, right, Well, it's different because you've got people standing next to you.

50:29 I guess you can. People are It's the church's relevancy is now going to be based on oh, well you come here for friends, for quote unquote community, to hold hands, seeing kumbaya. That it's not going to be for the teaching, because I can get the teaching better and quicker and faster, and in many cases, as we've already seen this year, just in the test that we've done, AI has been superior to every sermon that we have reviewed. In fact, AI tore those sermons apart. There's a new crisis. These other crises in the church, I think they've almost become irrelevant.

51:12 This is my own feelings, I think AI. And when I say crisis, I'm not saying oh AI is bad and we just got to stay away from it. There's no staying away from it. So now the church is going to have to realize how do we function? What does the church look like? With AI now becoming what it is? How does the church and AI? What does that look like? All? Right, there we go, So again the name of the book, Dwelling in His Presence, a thirty day journey into Christ's centered prayer meditation. Please look it up.

51:53 And I'm hoping that the pdfile attaches without any problems, because if it doesn't, if it does have a problem and I can't get it attached, then then I'm going to sound really dumb spending fifty two minutes telling you it's going to be there and it's not. But I'm going to find a way to get it there, so I haven't converted to a PDF file. Should should it should should be there soon. So first, the first thing that happens is this, this message will get sent to all the other podcasting apps. It goes to Spreakers, Spotify, Apple, pocketcat, all the podcasting apps get it. First. I won't be attached there because there's no way for me to attach it there. Sorry. But then as soon as that's done, then I upload it to the Sermon Audio platform and the PDF file will be attached there. So for those listening on the other platforms, go go to the Sermon Audio website, look up Theology Central, download the Sermon's two point zero app.

52:52 Look for Theology Central, or download the Church one app, which is the one I always tell everyone to download because when you download the Church one app and then to a search for Theology Central, it becomes the Theology Central app. So then it's easy for you to keep up with all of our content. So it should be there all right. To the person who wrote the book and did all of this, thank you so very much for sharing this with me. Thank you for doing it, because I think this demonstrates a lot of what I've been trying to say, and thank you for making it available. You're trying to sell it, and you made it available for people to access. So I hope people will utilize this and hope it generates more conversation and discussion about the future. And the future, ladies and gentlemen, is artificial intelligence, whether you like it or not.

53:42 God bless