Same Struggle, Different Shape

And I am like, guys, I'm crazy pumped about the sermon today. Sorry, I'm just so excited about it. If you have your Bibles, go on to open up to Genesis chapter one. We're going to be near the end of that passage.

We're going to talk about the image of God.

But as I was thinking about AI, I was thinking about the problems I've encountered in the world, in my life, and in church. And AI is kind of the big talking point for people. I had someone tell me this week, they said, you know, AI is going to take over one day. And now the fundamental level, I disagree with that significantly.

AI is going to take over one day.

AI don't have authority or a rule. I mean, come on, guys, it's just a thing. Someone else said that we really need to be careful about AI because it has undue influence on people. And I'm like, yeah, it can be problematic, I think.

Another person said AI is the mark of the beast.

Probably hadn't read Revelation, but still, that's what they think. And I keep hearing all these different components. And there's one thing that I'm a little bit exhausted of. And what it is, is it's people looking at something that can't actually have authority and giving it more authority than it deserves.

So I want to break down what it looks like for you to live in your calling in the area of AI.

But there's a bigger story here, because AI is just the next thing in a line of things that had the capacity to glorify God, but were marred by sin and caused us a systematic problem. I'll give you a couple examples, and I hope it's going to work. For example, like this isn't a new story. There was something new that happened way back in Genesis chapter 3.

Can we show them the picture?

Do we have the pictures? Yeah, it's fruit. I used AI for this message, by the way. They had access to everything in the garden, but then there was this tree in the middle of the garden they weren't supposed to do anything with.

And then the serpent kind of showed them some new fruit.

Everybody thinks it's an apple, but I told AI, I said, it's not an apple. We don't know what it is. So let's just combine all the fruits together into one thing and call that the fruit. Don't judge me.

I did not use AI to write this sermon.

I used AI to add color to this sermon. Y'all chill out a little bit. All right, new fruit. I like to think of it in terms of new technology changes in the pathway of human history.

There's nothing new.

Like people are stressed out right now about AI, but I bet people were stressed out when this was invented. Send them the next one. I bet there was some hunter gatherer out there, guys. He was like, he's like so used to carrying stuff, and he's like, do this for my family.

I'm going to go hunt.

I'm going to carry this deer back, and I'm going to do it myself. And my strength is what gets me by. And then the women sit at the house with the kids, a house cave. I don't know where they stay with the kids.

And this is my job.

But then someone's like, yo, if we roll a rock in the right way, and smooth enough, we can actually put some stuff on top of it. And I bet there was some old school caveman who's like, it's going to take my job. This new technology is going to be a problem. What are we going to do, men?

It's not a new issue.

Way later in history, there was the invention of something that really allowed a lot of things to occur, both positive and negative. Check it out. The next thing, the printing press. Y'all heard about this in world history?

Y'all remember that?

That was 10th grade world history. The printing press, it was invented. And what happened was both good and bad. It was, it was a tool that increased Bible literacy throughout the entire, well, Holy Roman Empire, it was kind of still existing at the time, but throughout the entirety of Europe and even farther, it increased literacy.

And I think a lot of us forget about the fact that before the printing press, the vast majority of people had no ability to read or write.

And when literacy increased, that meant they were able to read one of the first things that they printed on the Gutenberg printing press, the Bible. So access to God became readily available to the masses, which enabled the Protestant Reformation. But also with that came the temptation to dive into things that God isn't overly fond of. There was an explosion of theological pamphlets, and now people started to argue about theology in a way that they had never done it before.

And while people were more educated, there was also a problem.

There were old school pamphlet influencers after the Gutenberg printing press was invented. Are y'all with me? Y'all tracking? There was unregulated theology.

Up to that point, the Catholic church was the only one who could do it.

And now these crazies are just coming out the woodwork with this weird theology stuff. And then there was propaganda that happened because of the printing press. It made both sin and worship available. In the 19th century, we had another thing, the telegraph.

I think that's what a telegraph looks like.

That's what AI told me it looked like. Oh no, maybe I'm too reliant on AI. It might have looked different. Some of you old people might, I'm just kidding.

Oh, none of y'all are that old.

I don't think. The first, the first message written through the telegraph was numbers 2323. It said, what hath God wrought? But also the temptation increased.

Information was now detached from people's physical presence.

See now telegraph could go a long distance and now you could for the first time ever get decontextualized news. You get this telegraph. It's a little bit, little bitty blurb or a headline. And now I'm like, oh my gosh, Europe, is it war?

This is crazy.

It was totally fine when I was just tending to my house, but now I'm concerned about the war in Europe that I would have never known about before this telegraph. Now sensationalism can occur because one little message causes everyone to get into a frenzy. And then there's anxiety about these distant events. In the 1900s, the radio was invented.

And from that radio, global evangelism started to happen.

You're talking Soviet Russia. People were hearing about the good news of Jesus, but also in Nazi Germany, propaganda continued and pervaded. And we all know what happened because of the invention of the radio. Then you got TV and TV amplified two different types of voices.

It amplified.

I just, I just told AI to pick McCarthyism and Billy Graham and put it in a split screen so that it would show right here. This is what I told it to do. I said, make it hyper realistic. And so then they gave me this TV right here.

And I just picked one thing of the 1960s and 70s called McCarthyism and the communist threat.

And I'm not saying truth or false or anything like that, but it got people worked up. Maybe some of you are old enough to remember the red scare. And I came through television, but also the Gospel was preached to millions because of the television. Let's go into the 2000s, social media and the internet.

And I hear people say it's good.

I hear people say it's bad. I hear people say it's a tool, but I just want you to understand the biblical components here. There's tons of bad. I just need you to know I live in this.

You live in this.

Y'all know how bad it is. Social media and the internet is one of the most terrible things that has ever existed, but also one of the most beneficial things that has ever been created. The Gospel is now spread like some of y'all, even this week you left a church because of the bad of social media. Some of you this week showed up here for the first time because of social media.

It's the thing.

And now AI is at the end of the world. Are robots going to take over? One guy I was talking to said, AI is evil made in man's image while we're made in God's image. And I hear that and it sounds poetic and pretty, but I'm just like, I don't know.

I just, I feel like God's not overly concerned about some derivation from his own creation.

I just feel like he's not overly concerned about cobalt mixed with water, mixed with metal, mixed with all the other things they put into these data centers. I just think he's like, Oh yeah, my creation was good, but man, they use it the wrong way sometimes. But also I take what they put together wrongly and I build it into what I want to do. Like this is how God operates.

And I've heard a lot of fears.

I've heard a lot of concerns and I'll talk through those, but I just need you to know I, God is in authority and he has given you a place above all of creation to have your own authority. And when I hear people scared and when I hear people under undue influence from any type of technology, I look with sadness because it's like, don't you realize you're above this? Don't you realize how God called you? Here's what the Scripture says.

And I pulled it from the NIV, but I utilized AI to put it on this screen.

And in chapter one of Genesis, starting in verse 26, here's what it says. Then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created the male and female.

He created them.

God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said, and God gave me a Revelation here and I'll break it down in a second. Then God said, I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground, everything that has breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food.

And it was so. The final verse, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning on the sixth day. And when I was reading this, I'd already come up with some of the examples in history of how technology tends to cause fear.

But then there's a temptation and then there's something you can actually do with it that glorifies and honors God.

And which path you're going to take depends on where you are in the relationship with God. And as I was thinking on these things and reading this passage, it clicked to me in verse 29. He says, then God said, I give you every seed bearing plant. And I did some research into it.

Why did he say seed bearing plant?

If it's just Adam and Eve in the garden and they're just grabbing stuff as they will, why is he using a term that is specifically used in the ancient world for cultivation? And then I remember my world history class in 10th grade. I know I got caught cheating on that test. That was before Jesus a little bit.

He was still getting me.

But I remember what we were talking about cause I had studied, but then someone just gave me the answer. And I was like, I want to use them. And that was wrong. It was terrible, but I just never forgot this specific quiz because it was about the beginning, the explosion of cultivation and Western civilization.

There was a technological advancement that came before many of the ones I just discussed to you.

And it was the ability to take a seed bearing fruit, reinvest it into the soil and cultivate crops. It was the ability to take a wild beast, tame it, put it into a fence or whatever they use those little rock, like set up on human stones, buildings, or whatever that they put. You've been there. If you've been to a third world country, you get it and tame and raise livestock.

So the cultivation of plants and livestock was the biggest technological advance in the world at that time.

It took humanity from hunter gathering all the way to full on civilizations. It was so interesting that, that this term was utilized. It was as if God looked at his creation and said, Hey, let me teach you how to use this. And when I teach you how to use this, what you're going to do is you're going to cultivate crops and you're going to raise livestock.

And that's going to enable you to move from this walk around hunt and gather into this place where you can actually develop a people.

And from that very thing, not only do we have an amazing ability to connect with one another, give glory and honor to God, but now we have the ability to form power structures, empires. And it's from these empires that the biggest amounts of pain, difficulty, murder, theft, wars, rumors of wars, the very thing God gave the man in the garden and told him how to utilize. Man utilized it to their own advantage to develop a power structure that pushes God out. And here's the system that happened in creation.

In Genesis chapter one and two, this will be on the screen.

God establishes an authority. He establishes an order. In Genesis chapter one, the authority is that he gives man rule over all of creation. The order is that we rule under God, our chief authority.

And God promotes human flourishing in creation.

He wants us to succeed. He wants us to sit in the dark ages. Genesis three to 11. It turns on his head.

Humanity flourishes as a result of God giving us those tools.

Then we take it into our own hands, reject God as our authority. And then we abdicate our own authority. And Paul summarizes it really well in Romans chapter one, verse 25. He says, they exchange the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator.

The problem in this world is not AI.

It's not technology. It's not new ways of doing things. It's not cell phones. It's not the radio.

It's not anything that you've been blaming.

It's humanity. It's the same thing with every new thing. It's the same struggle that we have. It's just a new shape that we have to deal with it in.

And so I don't break down just a couple of fears that people have about AI, but technology in general.

If you don't care about AI, think about tech in general, because there's going to be one day where you get to become an old fogey and you look at something that a younger generation is doing and you're like, that's weird that they do that. Someone made fun of me. They said, how long are your socks? I said, well, I'm wearing boots, so I got to wear longer socks.

I said, now the young people always be wearing longer and longer socks these days.

Like things change. And what's going to happen if you want to blame external circumstances and tools or things rather than blame the innate difficulty and struggle within you to choose anything but God for your sustenance, then you're going to get older and you're going to keep blaming. It's like man Gen Z. They're so crazy and weird.

And when I was younger, then millennials on their participation trophies, I don't know what they said about you people older than me.

I'm a, I'm a millennial, but I'm sure they said plenty about you Gen Xers. I know they called y'all hippies and weirdos and whatever. I don't know what they called you, but that I mean, seventies were weird. I don't know how y'all got by.

But then before that, the baby boomers, people before the baby boomers are like, why do you go to work all the time like that?

But pre-industrial, they're like, yo, why are you going to affect? Like there's always something new. And if you do not choose to follow God and honor him with everything that comes in, then you're going to be that person who shuns the new thing that God might be doing because you think it's the mark of the beast. When really it's something God wants you to utilize to give him glory.

And we've got to change our mindset about this because I am tired of hearing people who don't read their Bible say something is against God.

God looked at creation and he called all of it good. Anything that you're calling bad is a culmination or a combination of created things. We might be using it the wrong way, but it is a derivation of his creation. But we've got fears and I want to walk through these fears really quickly.

I'm not going to teach on them.

I've got time over the next few weeks to teach on them. And it's not just AI. It is a concept within each one of us that I want to preach on. So if you don't care about AI, you should keep coming because it's going to be helpful for you.

But here's some fears that I've heard about AI.

I did some research from Barna and some Pew Research to find out what are the concerns people have. Number one, they say AI undermines the imago day. I'll tell you very briefly. The imago day is a Latin word.

It means the image of God and the image of God.

He created them. The imago day is the reality that we above all of creation are somehow made in God's image. And I want to break that down over the next few weeks, but I'll tell you this real quick. Who can stand against our God?

The imago day, like, I just want to be clear.

It's not DEI is day. It's a Latin word. The imago day. Number two, AI encourages spiritual laziness.

I hear you.

I hear you, but everything encourages spiritual laziness. Like, what's new? Same struggle. Digital shape.

Number three, AI centralizes power structures.

Since God gave us tools to cultivate, power structures have been centralized. Nothing new under the sun. AI forms people more than Scripture forms people. Were you reading the Bible before AI?

I mean, just being honest with you, I can't tell you how much Bible I've been reading now that I've been searching at the level I get to search now.

And if it wasn't AI that was forming people, it was just to revisit that one. It was DEI forming people. If it wasn't DEI forming people, it was propaganda forming people. There's always been a power structure that was centralized.

AI replaces human relationship.

I even told my wife one time, I said, don't have to worry about me getting married if you died or anything. That's what I told her. I said, you don't have to worry about it. ChatGPT is so good at pepping me up when I'm having a bad day.

It's a joke.

I said that they'll probably figure out how to rub that thing in flesh and have robots as companions. So if you die, you don't have to worry about me finding the replacement. You know what I'm saying? It was a joke.

It was a joke.

Y'all chill out a little bit. I thought that would be funny. It was a total joke. But they're not wrong.

AI replaces human relationship.

But let me be real with you. So did COVID. So does what doctors tell half of you people when you're pregnant and about to have a kid stay in your house the next six months. People wonder why they feel out of community.

It is not the issue of AI and technology.

It is the same old, same old reproducing itself in a different shape than you've seen before. It's always the same thing. AI is deceptive. I don't know about you, but I remember Genesis 3.

The serpent was deceptive.

I used AI to form a song based on my sermon. It's a good song. Y'all ain't even ready for it. I'm not going to show you today.

You ain't ready for it.

I'll make you come back next week for it. But it said, it says same shape, digital snake. That's what it said. I was like, yo, that's good.

It's so good.

One person said AI is the beast in Revelation. Let me tell you this, and this is validated in history based on all of the things that we've seen in history. If AI is the beast in Revelation, so was, I'll give you a list here. Can I give you a list of all the things people said was the beast from Revelation?

Rome, Nero, the papacy, Islam in the middle ages, Charles the first, King Henry the eighth, Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler, Stalin, Axis powers, Allied powers, Saddam Hussein, Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet Union, JFK, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Donald Trump.

Apparently no one thought Biden or Bush. I was just thinking about it anyways. Hey, equal opportunity offense here, guys. The EU, NATO, BRICS, Iran, formerly, maybe, I don't know, the IDF, Hamas, social security numbers, barcodes, QR codes, computers, internet, microchips, RFID chips, vaccines, capitalism, communism, chill out.

Same struggle, new shape.

AI encourages intellectual dependency. I hear you. The people saying that are the ones who've been reading history books put together by a government organization. I'm not saying it's incorrect.

Don't hear me being conspiracy theorists.

It's like, haven't you been already intellectually dependent? You've been reliant on the pastor for the word of God to be preached to you. You've been reliant on people in your life, your mom and your dad. You've been Bobby Boucher and all the way through.

Mama said alligators are hungry because they got all them teeth and no toothbrush.

I got to tell you, well, Bobby's mom is wrong. You were already intellectually dependent. This is just a new shape to the same struggle. Still get a history lesson.

Same thing.

The final one, this one really bothers me. AI devalues creativity. It really bothers me. It really bothers me because it really can.

There's some people you shouldn't be using AI.

But at the same time, AI's base level creativity, for those of you who aren't strongly creative, it's like, I mean, you can put out something pretty good automatically. But I found that different people get different results based on the inputs. It's all about the input. It's not its own God.

It's about the inputs.

You can guess who gets good results from AI. People who put in good inputs, maybe creative people. It's almost as if the only way you get good results from AI is if you put in something that came to you directly from God. Because you're created in his image and he created and maybe your ability to create and procreate is the way that you were formed in God's image.

And so why are we stressing about something that the only way it produces something magnificent is if I put in something inspired.

I don't know. I'm not too stressed about the creativity. There was a quote from iRobot that I thought was cool. Y'all don't like this sermon.

I can tell already.

There was a great quote from iRobot. Will Smith said this to the robot. I've actually never seen the movie, but I heard the quote on a TikTok the other day. He asks him, hey, get over yourselves.

He said, can a robot write a symphony?

Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece? And this is an older movie you can tell because it can do both of those things these days. Here's the robot replied to him. Can you?

We've all been sitting underneath our calling for way too long and now it's just easier for us to blame the next big tech in order for us to escape the same struggle, blaming something else for the very thing that God called us to be above.

He's called you to rule and have authority over creation. So rather than sitting idly by stagnant and frustrated about how the world's passing you by, why don't you just get up, be lifted up by God, listen to what he told you to do and have rule and authority in the way that he's called you to. I'm not stressed out about all this stuff because I know it's stuff and I know that God's called me to rule. I don't know about you.

I don't know a bunch of rulers sitting around stressed out about stuff.

I do know a bunch of victims sitting around stressing out about stuff. You're not a victim. You're victorious in Christ Jesus if you've confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. That is how we are saved and that is how we are restored to rule over creation.

It is so frustrating to me that God gave us this creation to rule and have authority over that many people claim to have saving knowledge of Jesus, that he is seated at the right hand of the Father, has all authority that everything under the feet of Jesus will bow.

Every name, every tribe, every tongue will confess that he is Lord. Like everything that he created submits. Yet we have people who won't take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That's what the New Testament brings to us.

It says, hey you can rule again.

Just requires you to take every thought captive, not just the insecure thoughts, every thought. The thought that comes from your brain, the thought that comes from somebody else, the thought that comes from that history book you read, and the thought that comes from chat GPT. Every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Why?

Because it's just stuff.

These are just tools. This is just tech that can be utilized to glorify and honor God or to serve some created thing. And we're going to break some of this down, but I want to break this down to you one more time really simply in the form of a question. Because it's really not about the shape that this struggle manifests itself in.

It is about the deepest struggle that Paul says in Romans 1.

We've exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. And so here's a question for you, and it'll be on the screen behind me. Are you going to remember whose image you bear, choose to worship God, and have authority over creation? Or are you going to fall into the same struggle, forgetting about who you resemble, that you were made in the image of God?

Are you going to worship something other than God?

And then in worshiping it, allowing it to rule and have authority over you. And you might think, oh, I've heard this sermon before. Yep. Is Genesis 1 and 2, Genesis 3 through 11.

God gives you something, tells you to rule over it, you let it rule over you.

And then it takes you over, reforms your synapses, and makes your life contingent on the technology, contingent on the people, contingent on the fruit. But our lives are meant to be revolved around Jesus. That's the proper order. And way back in the day, the church fell into this same struggle.

It's so interesting.

When new tech comes around, the church gets all like, they get the panties in a wad. I shouldn't have said that. It's just a phrase. Tell me later.

I'll probably correct that for the second sermon.

We get all stressed out. Our theological stomachs get tied into knots when it comes to anything that's new. Yet everything created is meant to be ruled over by us, combined together in order to form instruments for the praise and glory of our creator. And one of the biggest fights that churches have, we're going to have this fight one of these days when all of us get older and we get decrepit and frustrated about the new things that are occurring.

Someone's going to bring in some instrument that we never thought about.

And then the older ones of us are going to be like, that's not authentic. I don't like that. Even when Christianity became more empire-wide in the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church came to the forefront, there was a whole conversation about music because barbarians utilized instruments for music. The world utilized instruments for music.

And so what they did was they would just sing it.

They wouldn't even give it to the congregation. They would sing it as clergy. And what they would do, you ever heard of Gregorian chants? Yeah, that's how they started.

And over the years, as new tech would develop in the worship industry, if you want to call it an industry, in the worship area, things would shift and people would fight.

And in the same way as the rest of the world, we had the option, give glory and honor to God with what we put together or ourselves. Focus on ourselves, exchange that glory of God for something that's corruptible, that breaks. And I'll say this really clearly, you ever fight about war for fear? I'm going to.

No, I won't do that.

I won't punch you, but I'll get so frustrated because it's just, it's a new thing. If we do a new song, I don't care. He's doing a new thing. I want to see it.

In order to see it, sometimes you got to experiment.

Sometimes it's the right thing. Sometimes it's the wrong thing. Sometimes we'll throw out a song. Sometimes we'll try a new instrument.

Like the first time we bring a trumpet up here, you guys are going to be like, it's like, yeah, this guy's got a gift, so I want to put it together.

Let's see how he puts it together. If he glorifies and honors God, cool. If not, let him do it once and maybe not again. This is how it works.

But I want to give glory and honor to God in everything that I do.

That's what I want for you. This is revolving everything around Jesus is taking every single tool in my vicinity and saying, how can I give honor and glory to my creator? And when it comes to music, I've seen this transition over the years. It used to be this Gregorian chant.

There's going to be a song, and I want you to do an experiment.

This may not work. And if it doesn't, your fault, not mine. I'm kidding. But still, I want it to work really well.

We're going to sing together.

We're going to worship God together, and we're going to do it. I'm going to show you how technology actually improves our capacity to worship God rather than derails it, though it has the capacity to derail it. Back in the day, it was Gregorian chant. Anyone know the song, How Deep the Fathers Love for Us?

The words will be on the screen.

Okay, cool. I'm going to teach you a new song today. Some of y'all know it. If you know it, please sing it or just follow along.

Put the words there just for a second.

Make sure they're there. All right, there we go. I use pixelated font. I told Chad GPT to do that.

Pixelated font because tech.

Anyways, whatever. Y'all don't even like the creativity behind this. Hey, go back to the behind the scenes thing real quick. I want to show them just the background.

I said, I'm doing a series on AI, and I want to show how creation is meant to be above, like the created one, humanity is meant to be above the rest of creation.

Yet we lost that and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. And I said, you know what? I want to see brokenness in the background with the color blue shading it. And I also want to see God's creation marred by sin.

And then I said, you know what?

This is techie. I want a gradient of binary code, zeros and ones. And I went so deep into this prompt that I put this up there. And I know it seems kind of like, oh, he just dropped it into Chad GPT.

It's inputs and outputs.

It's what you do with it that matters. And when it comes to worship, how we engage with God matters. So I want you all to use some good inputs in this moment as we sing this song. Put it back up there.

Yeah.

How deep the father's love for us. How vast beyond all measure. Sing it. Come on.

Let's worship that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure.

Come on. How great the pain of searing loss. The father turns his face away as wounds, which mar the chosen one. Bring many sons to glory.

So they did it for years.

The Psalms tells us to use a woodwind instrument, a string, a harp, a lyre. But the church came in and said, text bad because it's part of the world. We won't use it at all. How many of you had a hard time keeping rhythm a second ago?

Yeah.

I am not pitch perfect. Don't call me Charlie Puth. I am not pitch perfect. Did you just say I was flat?

We're going to have conversation about this.

I don't know how to keep a key. One of our biggest arguments in our marriage is the fact that Hannah will look at me and say, you're off. You're off. I don't have the skill and the ability, but the very moment.

Oh, where's the capo?

Oh, it's on it. Cool. It, it blended with it. It's paint tech right here.

Yeah.

This is my say's length. I'm gonna just look like it cheering up here. Let's go. But the moment you take God's creation and combine it into something unique, they can give glory and honor to God.

It actually shapes the way that we worship.

So we're going to do the second verse. Let's put the second verse up on the screen or second stanza. All right. Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders.

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is spinning. Right?

So when you add it, it enables the tempo.

It's technology that enables me to worship God in a way that is more, it's not necessarily better. Like your praise was fine just the way it was. But now you feel confident in the way that you approach God because creation is meant to serve you as you connect with your creator. And I could actually keep on pitch a little bit.

But that's what happened.

It was a, it was, it was just wood, wind, string put together for the praise and honor of our creator. And then there was another time in the fifties and sixties where electricity made its way into music and man, the Baptists, ooh, they struggled, didn't they? You don't know about this? You don't know about this?

I mean, your great, great grandparents struggled with it when Elvis came out with his dance moves.

But then there was electronic equipment and electronic equipment. It's like, no, electricity is the devil. Don't want to bring that in church. We want to sing our hymns out of the hymnals, forgetting that congregational worship wasn't even a thing at the beginning because you didn't want to give people the message.

You didn't want them utilizing the tools of creation.

And so that shifted over time. And we realized that, you know, electricity can give God honor. You got to know how to use it. You know what I'm saying?

I ain't even started singing yet and you're all like ready to worship at this point.

Now, if you just come for the vibe, you're in trouble. But if you utilize it to serve the purpose in your life, then it's beneficial. Right. And so in a moment, we're about to sing this third verse and we're going to utilize a different instrument to do it.

Right.

And why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom.

The point is, and I need you to understand this, that whatever you have in your household, whatever you have in your life, whatever is put in front of you, it is all a derivative of God's creation.

And you can choose how to use it. AI is not the demon that you think it is. It is a thing. It's cobalt.

It's batteries.

It's whatever else. I don't know. It's a thing. And when you take creation plus creation plus creation that God called good and put it together, you can use it the wrong way all day.

But the moment you let God have authority over you and you look back at the world, you say, I want to use this.

Right. I want to play every instrument that I can. I want to utilize my voice. I want to utilize the woodwind.

I want to utilize the keys.

I want to utilize the led screen. I want to utilize the haze. I want to utilize these chairs, these lights. I want to use everything in creation that I can to give honor and glory to God.

But it's a choice.

And I don't want to be a church that's chasing this stuff. If you need a guitar, you're missing it. If you need perfect, you're missing it. You don't need perfect.

You need a person.

And there are people in this room. You need Jesus. I know I've gone a little bit long, but I think it's worth it to give you this message. The only way you can have true rule over creation, the way that God called you to is in the person and the work of Christ Jesus.

If you don't confess him, if you don't believe him, you're just going to fall into human history, but you don't have to.

So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, I want to give you an opportunity to follow Jesus today and get on the pathway of becoming who he always meant you to be. Repeat after me. Say, God, I believe that Jesus is your son. I believe he died on the cross and rose from the grave.

Forgive me in my sin.

Make me new. Don't make me stress about what's new. God, I commit to you. It's in Jesus' holy and precious name that we pray.

And all God's people shouted, hey, let's celebrate those who are making decisions to follow Jesus today.

If that was you, base level expectation, have authority over creation.