AI and the Bible: A Conversation with Dr. Gandy

Good morning church, we stand and worship with this this morning. ♪ The way, the truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ The way, the truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ Through every blessing, through every promise ♪ ♪ Through every breath I take, yes I believe that you are provided ♪ ♪ You are protected, you are the one I love, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ The way, the truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ The way, the truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ Oh you are ♪ ♪ It's a new horizon and I'm set on you ♪ ♪ Because you made me here today, mercies that are new ♪ ♪ All my fears and doubts, they can all come true ♪ ♪ Because they can't stay long when I'm here with you ♪ ♪ It's a new horizon and I'm set on you ♪ ♪ Because you made me here today, mercies that are new ♪ ♪ All my fears and doubts, they can all come true ♪ ♪ Because they can't stay long when I believe you are ♪ ♪ Yes I believe you are the way, the truth, the life ♪ ♪ Yes I believe you are the way, the truth, the life ♪ ♪ The truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ It's a new horizon and I'm set on you ♪ ♪ Because you made me here today, mercies that are new ♪ ♪ All my fears and doubts, they can all come true ♪ ♪ Because they can't stay long when I believe you are ♪ ♪ The way, the truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ The way, the truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ The way, the truth, the life, yes I believe you are ♪ ♪ Oh you are ♪ Yeah. Well what a joy and an honor and beautiful thing

to be in the house of the Lord and worshiping together this morning. Yes, we give the Lord praise. We sing songs just about truth and where our hope lies this morning. Whether you're here in person, if you're online, if you're watching from your prison cell, we're just glad to worship the Lord together. Let's take just a couple seconds, greet someone next to you and just say good morning, all right? How are you? ♪♪ ♪ Christ is my firm foundation ♪ ♪ The rock on which I stand ♪ ♪ When everything around me is shaken ♪ ♪ I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus ♪ ♪ Cause he's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful through generations ♪ ♪ So why would he fail now? He won't ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Cause I've still got joy in chaos ♪ ♪ I've got peace that makes no sense ♪ ♪ So I won't be going under ♪ ♪ I'm not held by my own strength ♪ ♪ Cause I've built my life on Jesus ♪ ♪ Cause he's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful in every season ♪ ♪ So why would he fail now? He won't ♪ ♪ He won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail ♪ ♪ He won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, therapy pick up on the AUM

He's never been more right, I put my faith in Jesus, He's never let me down, His faith moved through generations, so I would keep it loud He won't fail, no, he won't fail, no, he won't fail, no, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't he won't fail, no, he won't fail, no, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't fail, he won't rain came and blew, my house was built on, and I'm safe with you, I'm gonna make it through rain came and blew, my house was built on, and I'm safe with you, I'm gonna make it through rain came and blew, my house was built on, and I'm safe with you, I'm gonna make it through oh, I'm gonna make it through, cause I'm standing strong on it, oh, I'm gonna make it through, cause my house is built on it first is my third foundation, it's the wrong foundation ♪ I stand and everything around me's shaking ♪ ♪ I've never been more alive ♪ ♪ I put my faith in Jesus ♪ ♪ He's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's made for good generations ♪ ♪ Somehow I believe it now ♪ ♪ He won't, no he won't fail ♪ ♪ He'll never fail ♪ ♪ He won't fail, he won't fail, no he won't fail ♪ ♪ He won't fail, he won't fail, no he won't fail, no he won't ♪ ♪ He won't fail, he won't fail, no he won't fail at all ♪ ♪ He'll never fail, he won't fail, no he won't fail, no he won't fail, no he won't fail, no he won't fail, nobody can be the best in the world ♪ ♪ Nobody can be the best in the world ♪ ♪ Nobody can be the best in the world ♪ ♪ For my waking breath, for my daily bread, I depend on you ♪ ♪ I depend on you, for the sun to rise, for the moon to rise, for my sleep at night, I depend on you, I depend on you ♪ ♪ You're the way, the truth and the lie, you're the well that never runs dry, I'm the branch and you are the heart, you're the seed and I'm the tree, you're my mahiccraft, come and

throw me close and teach me to abide, but teach me to abide, when the spirit leaves, as I fall away, I depend on you, I depend on you, for the victory's still in front of me, I depend on you, oh I depend on you, you're the way, the truth and the lie, you're the world that never runs dry, I'm the bread, shed, you are the fire, draw me close and teach me to abide, be my strength, my song in the night, be my hope, my strength and my prize, I am yours forever and I, draw me close and teach me to abide, I depend on you Lord, when I pass through death, as I enter rest, I depend on you, oh I depend on you, for eternal rest, to be raised with Christ, oh I depend on you, oh I depend on you, you're the way, the truth and the lie, you're the world that never runs dry, I'm the bread, shed, you are the fire, draw me close ♪ Draw me close and teach me to abide ♪ ♪ Be my strength, my song in the night ♪ ♪ Be my all, my treasure, my prize ♪ ♪ I am yours forever and a while ♪ ♪ Draw me close and teach me to abide ♪ ♪ Oh, teach me to abide ♪ ♪ Yes, you are, yes, you are, Jesus ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I depend on you, I depend on you ♪ ♪ I depend on you, I depend on you ♪ ♪ Oh, I depend on you, I depend on you ♪ ♪ I depend on you, Jesus ♪ Father, we do depend on you, God, this morning. God, we thank you that you are the way, the truth, the life, Father. God, we thank you for the life that we have in you. God, the life that you sacrificed, God,

that we may have that life, God, and be raised up again in you, Father. God, we thank you for the truth of these lyrics that we sing this morning, the hope that lies in your truth, God. And as we're reminded in Hebrews chapter six, chapter six, it says, this hope that we have is an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, one which enters within the veil. As we sing these songs, that's what we're seeing. We're seeing that our hope lies in the veil. It lies in the veil where God is, where Christ is there on our behalf. But that is where our hope holds, and our circumstances, and whatever it is that we walked in, even our joys, our hurts this morning we walked in, our hope lies in the truth of Christ. And that is our promise this morning. So that's what we will sing as we sing this this morning. We sing about how our anchor holds into the veil, that Christ is our cornerstone. He's our firm foundation as we abide in him. My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly trust in Jesus' name Sing that again, hope is built. My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly trust in Jesus' name Christ alone, cornerstone We made strong in the Savior's blood Through the storm, he is Lord He's Lord of all When darkness seeks to hide his face I rest on his unchanging face And every high and stormy day My anchor holds within the veil My anchor holds within the veil ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪ He's Lord, He's Lord of all ♪♪ ♪♪ He's Lord of all, He's Lord of all ♪♪ ♪♪ Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong ♪♪ ♪♪ He'll save us now, through the storm ♪♪ ♪♪ He is Lord, He's Lord of all ♪♪ ♪♪ Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong ♪♪ ♪♪ He'll save us now, through the storm ♪♪ ♪♪ He is Lord, He's Lord of all ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ He shall come with trumpet sound ♪♪ ♪♪ O may I then in Him be found ♪♪ ♪♪ Trust in His righteousness alone ♪♪ ♪♪ Faultless stand before the throne ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong ♪♪ ♪♪ He'll save us now, through the storm ♪♪

♪♪ He is Lord, He's Lord of all ♪♪ Amen. May we sing it. ♪♪ ♪♪ Good morning. Well, some of you may remember that the last few months, Ross has mentioned that our elders give Ross a sabbatical every seven years. So for the next three months, he's gonna be on sabbatical. And during this time, this is a time where he can get away, he can spend time with his family, he can spend time with the Lord and really press in and be refreshed. So what I would love for us to do, since this is the first Sunday that he's not here, that he's not here, I would love for us to pray for him for this season of time. Lord, thank you so much for who you are. And God, I just wanna pray from Colossians 1. Lord, I pray for Ross that he would be filled with the knowledge of your will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that he may walk in a manner worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of you. Lord, I pray that you would strengthen him in all power according to your glorious might with all endurance, all patience and all joy.

God, I thank you so much for Ross, for his leadership here. And Lord, I pray that you would give him rest. I pray that you would give him sweet time with Lisa and with his family. I pray that they would just be able to really connect to one another and to you. God, I pray that you would just meet him in incredible, meaningful ways during this time. He would come back refreshed. Lord, I pray that in all of that, and in you, and in today as we worship, Lord, that you are glorified. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, to start off today, I've got a quiz for you. Y'all up for a quiz? All right, I'm gonna put two pictures on the screen. I want you to tell me which one is real and which one is AI. All right. Okay, let's go first first picture Okay Take a good look All right. Now raise your hand if you think number one over here on the left side is real Some okay, how about number two? Okay, a lot more number two. Guess what the number twos were right. Number two is the real one. All right, let's let's try one more Okay Take a good look and now raise your hand if you think number one is real Few more raise your hand if you think number two is real Okay No, there's there's quite a few not voting the number ones were right. Number one is real. All right, so y'all are doing pretty good Okay, next one one more

Number one or number two raise your hand if you think number one is real Okay Raise your hand if you think number two is real Okay, there's about half and a half on that one. I got we got half of you number two is the real one on this one So, I don't know how you did. Okay. Now I've got a video for you. See if you can tell if this is real or fake Ready Mittens He brought it right back Oh This one likes his chin scratched So glad they're not eating us All right, so for some things it's pretty easy to tell if it's fake or real but but AI is getting really good at producing Artificial things that that look really real And we can talk about how good AI is at producing pictures and videos that kind of stuff But but AI can also if we're not careful can also produce in us Some artificial don't forget the artificial piece, but it can produce artificial relationships. It can produce artificial advice It can produce artificial Growth and it can produce artificial thinking and so we as followers of Jesus need to be thinking about How do we enter into this world of AI? How do we navigate this world that is just now completely constantly bombarding us with AI it is all around us It's driving markets. It is all around us. And so as followers of Jesus, how do we process this? How do we think about AI? How do we see AI? Through a biblical lens. And so that's what we're gonna talk about today because as followers of Jesus We are we cannot just passively accept what the world throws at us And we don't want to just fearfully reject everything we need to understand What is a biblical perspective on as we navigate this? This particular topic because we want to start with what is our theology? Because our theology what we believe about God drives our philosophy our worldview which then drives our values which then drives our Actions and so we need to be so locked in our theology that we can navigate these things and we can do it in a

Wise and biblical way. So that's what we're gonna talk about today as we navigate AI and I'm really excited to have with us Dr. Justin Gandy, so Dr. Gandy is he's a professor of management at DBU and when I called a friend over there Not he's also the assistant provost at DBU And so when I called a friend and asked like who's thinking really well about AI right now that they could help lead our church And equip our church in this he immediately introduced me to dr. Gandy and what I love about. Dr. Gandy is he has not only is he teaching in the business school? So he has the business perspective on AI, but he's teaching at a Christian University So he's got the processing it through a lens of a biblical Christian way to process AI and then also he's helping to kind of Navigate a higher education and the and DBU and how they're Working through AI so he's got a foot in a lot of different worlds. So I'm really excited to have have you here with us today Dr. Gandy. Thanks. I appreciate that So as we our hope today our goal is for us really we're not gonna have all the answers today But what we hope to do is just stir the thinking to to really start processing how do we view this technology this tool from a biblical worldview and So for us as followers of Jesus this is really important for us to do if you're not a follower of Jesus I also I'm glad you're here and I I hope hopefully you get some some practical tools on this But more importantly, I hope you see the value of having Something solid like scripture that doesn't change with our culture in our world around us But it's something we can anchor to so as whatever the world throws our way We have a grid and a filter that we can approach it with wisdom and joy, okay, so that's our goal today as we go, as we tackle this topic of AI. Now, before we start, what I wanna do, before we start the conversation on AI, I just wanna kind of anchor us into God's word. And this'll be a little bit different than our normal sermons. Normally we preach expositionally, sorry, I got choked up on that one. Normally we preach expositionally.

And what that means is we take a passage of scripture and we go line by line and we pull out what is the meaning in this particular passage. What we're gonna do today is we're gonna walk through a passage, we're gonna build that as our foundation, and then we're gonna ask a bunch of questions about AI using that foundation to kind of build on and pull a lot of other scripture in to see how do we navigate this biblically, okay? So that's kind of how we'll go at it today, a little more topically as we think through AI. So I wanna anchor us into Genesis 1, verses 26 through 31, okay? Let me read it. And then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, and in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fulfill and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over every living thing that moves on the earth.

I'm gonna skip to verse 31 now. And God saw everything that he made and behold, it was good. So when we look at this part of scripture, Genesis 1, we wanna zoom out a little bit and look, okay, where does this fall in the big story of scripture? And so we've used this tool quite a bit where we've seen God's big story, and we can tell God's big story in four distinct chapters. We see first creation. We see then the fall, then redemption, and then finally the new heavens and the new earth. And where this falls is in that creation part. So we start God's story with acknowledging that God is the sinner. The story is about him. And then chapter one of this is what we call creation. It's where he created everything and he created it good. He created humanity, which is what we see right here. And in the midst of that, one thing that we notice as we look at this story of creation is that humanity is different than all the other creation. So going back a few verses, when he created Adam, everything else he spoke into existence, but when he created Adam, he breathed life into him. There's part of God that was put into Adam as he did that. In addition to that, we see that as we're walking through the creation narrative, we see that it was good. And then as another day ends, it was good. And then another day ends and it was good.

And then here at the end, after he creates humanity, after he creates us, what does he say? It was very good. There's something distinct about humans. And then finally, he uses this word, the image of God in there, which is a really significant and substantial word. We need to spend a little bit of time understanding what does it even mean to be made in the image of God? Because this is what defines us as humans. It's what makes us different than all of the other creation is that this is what drives a lot of what we believe and what we understand. And we've gotta be thinking about what does it mean to be human? Because let's face it, the things that we see that AI is creating today, this is like the flip phone of the AI world. It's gonna just get better and better and better. And it's more and more gonna be harder to tell the difference between a human and a machine. And so we, as Christians, we've gotta be so locked in and we're gonna be so clear on what it means to be human that we can easily distinguish the difference. And then as we navigate this, we also wanna be really clear about what are those things, those parts that, what does it mean to be human? And not to outsource those, to make sure that we continue to be, to do the things that are unique to humanity

and not outsource those to AI, okay? So that's kind of the grid we're gonna be working for as we kind of think through this. So what does it mean to be made in the image of God? Well, that phrase really just means to reflect and to represent God here on the earth. So if you think about the word image, it means a statue. It's used in the Old Testament all over the place as a statue. It's a smaller thing to represent the real thing, right? And so as an image of God, we are meant to point to, to represent God himself. to reflect him. When the Hebrew word was brought into the Greek language, so about 300 BC, they translated the Old Testament into Greek. And the word that they chose for this is the word icon, E-I-K-O-N. Now, that word's made its way into English, right? We know what an icon is. When we look at a computer screen or when we look at our phone, what we see is these little squares, right? These little icons. Now, those icons aren't the actual app, right? The app's somewhere in there. The icons are just a representation of the app that points us to the app, right? And so that's what we are as the image of God. It's like we're walking mirrors

meant to reflect God to the world around us. And so as we go about our day-to-day tasks, we are reflecting God to the rest of the world. So that's part of what it means to be made the image of God is to reflect Him. But there's another piece. We're also to represent Him on this earth. If you noticed, as we looked at these verses, in verse 26, he says, "'And let them have dominion over all the fish of the sea "'and the birds of the heaven.'" And then in verse 28, he says this, "'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, "'subdue it, and have dominion.'" This is the purpose for which we were created is to reflect God and then to have dominion, to represent Him on this earth, to steward His creation, to take care of everything on the earth. Humans have this role distinctly. We are distinct from every other creature in that we are to shepherd it. We are to create. We are to be good stewards of the world that He's given us. And so when we look at those pieces, there's also one more piece to being in the image of God. If we look at who God is, God is relational. And part of being in the image of God is that we are relational beings. So God, before He created humanity at all, was relational.

He was three persons in one, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in perfect relationship. And when He created us, He put a soul within us so that we could have relationship with Him. We're invited into this relationship that was already existing. And because we have souls, we can relate to each other in ways that animals can't do. We can have soul connection. We can meet each other's needs in ways that no other creature can. We are unique in that we are relational. So there's a lot to being made in the image of God. And because we're in the image of God, we have value. We have incredible value because of that. When we think about the image of God, our value doesn't come from just what we can do or our abilities or anything else. Each and every person here has value because you were created in the image of God. God loves you enough. He put His Holy Spirit, if you're a follower of Jesus, He has put His Holy Spirit inside of you so that you can even have more relationship with Him. And He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you. There is value in being created in the image of God. And we need to take that seriously. Now, you might be saying, okay, but wait a second.

That was at the very beginning of the Bible. And then we messed it up, right? So surely we're not still in the image of God. Like, we're not doing a really good job of that, are we? Well, it's really interesting. You're partially right. So if you go back to our big story, chapter one was creation. Everything was good. Chapter two is the fall. This is where we did. We rebelled against God. We sinned against Him. We pushed Him away, and that relationship was severed. We messed it up. And we are now broken. And so our image is broken. But listen to this. It's still there. We are still in the image of God in Genesis 9, 6, which is after Adam and Eve sinned against God. He says this, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. God made man in His own image. So we are still, even after our sin, made in the image of God. Now, we're a little bit broken image, right? We're like a cracked mirror. We reflect God, but we don't do so perfectly. There's a little bit of a distortion there.

But here's the beauty. As God saves us, as His Holy Spirit enters us, as we grow in our relationship with God, we become more and more the image of God that reflects more and more what God really is like. So as we think about the image of God, we wanna. We wanna make sure that we anchor in to what is true about humans, about who we are and how we fit into God's big story and the value that we have in that. Now, what does this have to do with AI? Well, as part of his, the image of God, we are to create. And so for all of humanity, we have created things and we've created tools. And those tools can make us more fruitful or they can be destructive, right? Those same tools can bring God glory or they can point to God or they can take us away from God. So if you think about the temple, when humans built the temple, we used the same tools we used to build the temple to glorify God. They use those same tools to build idols that pulled them away from God. So AI is a tool. Think about the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. We see a story here of a new technology that comes on the scene. Do y'all know what the new technology was at the time?

It was the brick, right? And so they made bricks in order to build a tower that reaches to the heavens. And then why did they do it? To make a name for themselves. They used the technology, rather than making a name for God, we are in God's image to point to God, but instead they wanted to point to themselves. And so we can use the technology for good or we can use it for evil. And when we look at this, we gotta be really careful because as the image of God, that does not mean that we are trying to be God. That's a bad idea. But it means that we're trying to point to the God. We're wanting to submit to him, So that's what it means to be made in the image of God. And when we look at AI, it is a tool, much like the other tools we talked about. But what AI has the power to do is to not only shape the world like our normal tools, but it has a lot of power to shape us. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. How do we navigate this world of AI? So Dr. Gandy, to start off, how would you define AI? Dr. Gandy, to start off, how would you describe what is AI for those who might not be using it much? Yeah, that's great.

Loaded question. Thanks so much for having me and thanks for having the conversation. It's so critical to address contemporary issues from a biblical worldview. So kudos to you and the church for having the conversation. I think you could wake up every morning and ask the question, what is AI? And you're gonna get a new answer. It's changing that fast. But in general, when we're talking about AI in this sense, we're mostly talking about generative AI. Most of you know, chat GPT. The G in chat GPT stands for generative. And really, I think the most important thing to keep in mind at this point in the conversation is that when you're using AI, it is generating the response that you're getting back, i.e., it's making it up. Now, it's very sophisticated in the way that it makes things up, and it has read and studied and done all those things. But essentially, every time you interact with it, the answer that you're getting back is a brand new answer that never existed before. The frog in the first picture, that's not a frog they went into nature and took a picture of. That's a frog that it generated out of thin air and made up with reference to other kinds of frogs.

So just keeping in mind that generative AI, which is chat GPT and Gemini and Claude and all of those, that's what it's doing. Every time we interact, it generates something new. That was sort of unleashed on the world November of 22. So we're a couple of years into that. Amazingly, that's now sort of old hat. We're moving away from generative AI into agentic AI. So that's sort of the new thing now. And there's actually even more new stuff than that without getting into too technical of a conversation. But I think the agentic AI is even more scary than the generative AI. So generative AI makes stuff up. Like I love the video with, how was Daniel, by the way? Is he good? He's doing good. He's doing good, okay. So thankfully we can sort of tell sometimes still that's made up. And I love the little floating image that said Sora, that's the machine that made it. But what happens when that watermark is not there and the quality is even better? That's a conversation in itself. That's generative AI, it makes stuff up. Agentic AI is totally different. A travel agent, the agent, a travel agent does stuff on your behalf with regard to travel.

So you talk to the travel agent and then they take care of all the details. They book the flight and do all the stuff for you. That's the goal of the AI companies now. They have offered agentic AI. AI systems where the agent, the AI wants to be your agent and it wants to do everything for you. It wants to have access to your email account. Now, do y'all have the red dots on your phone, the icon? Do y'all have a lot of red dots and you open it up and you're like, I just don't wanna unsubscribe and delete all the junk. You can get an AI agent and say, go look at my inbox and manage it for me. Delete the bad ones, craft responses to the ones that I need to craft responses to. Maybe you glance over the response, maybe not. Maybe you just tell it to automatically send the response. It will take care of all of your email problems on your behalf for you and that's available today. And in some ways that sounds really amazing. When I open up my email inbox and I have so many, I think, man, wouldn't it be great if something did this for me? But what kind of slippery slope are we on when we allow these machines who are not created in God's image to act as agents on our behalf? And it's something that we really have to pay attention to. Yeah, so that's a trend we're seeing. I think we have a chart too

on just kind of how people are using AI. Can you talk to that a little bit, how people are using it more and more? Yeah, so in 2024, on the left here, you'll see the most popular uses for AI. And now in 2025, look at the top one. Therapy and companionship. That's what people are using AI for. And I see a lot of students in the audience. So parents, if you haven't talked to your kids about AI, you're behind. 97% of students have already used it for their schoolwork. I'm an edu, I'm a professor. The whole reason I got into this is because somebody used it for a paper. And I was like, this does not sound like that, Stu. I don't think, and I just started uncovering things. And oh my goodness, it has led into this whole arena of things. But it's really easy to get sucked into this world. I wanna see if we can do this. So you asked, what is AI? We've seen it generate pictures. It generates images. It generates songs. In fact, kudos to the worship team up here. Great job. I would love to be able to sing or play an instrument. Did you know I could get AI to write a brand new worship song for me

every single Sunday and play it up here? And as good as these guys were, it would be better. It would write every part, the drums, the guitar. It would mix it properly. The words would be theologically sound. You could have a new song every single, you could have 10 new songs every single Sunday. But what would you lose when the humans created in God's image who are no longer here on the stage connecting with you on a spiritual level? It's not about the quality of the output because we're gonna get to a place where the AI produces a really high quality output, a creative output. What are we losing if we're outsourcing that to a machine? So some of you've seen the videos, but have you ever heard AI talk to you? Real quick, we'll see if this works. Hey, I'm here at a church talking about the Imago Dei. Can you tell me, like, what is the Imago Dei? The Imago Dei. The Imago Dei is a theological concept that means the image of God. It comes from the creation narrative in Genesis where humans are described as being made in God's image. Okay, but can Christians use AI for discipleship? They certainly can. Many Christians today are exploring AI as a tool, not to replace human discipleship, but to enhance it.

For example, AI can help create personalized Bible study plans, answer theological questions. Okay, can you imagine just having a conversation all day long? And that's what these people are doing. They're asking it these questions that they have, these burning questions that they should be asking the Lord, they should be asking the Holy Spirit, they should be asking a trusted friend. Proverbs says there's great wisdom and counsel in your friends and those who are wise in Scripture. But instead, people are going to the machine and saying, what do you think about this? Where does that leave us in terms of discipleship and the fruit that's supposed to be coming from the Spirit? Right, so we'll talk about some of those challenges or pitfalls with AI in a minute and apply some biblical concepts to it. But one thing we do, I think you brought a good point that there are some good uses of AI. There's some ways that different ministries and different people are using it in very positive ways. And so when we think about God's big story, that also gives us categories to think in. So when we think about creation, it was good, right? So we can always look at, okay, what can we affirm about AI? What is good about it? And then we ask the question, the fall or the brokenness.

What is broken about it? Well, what is not okay with it? And then the third one, we haven't gotten to that one yet, is the redemption. And how. can we redeem this technology? So I think as we even talk about what is good about AI, we see, we had the Seed Company here a few weeks ago. They're using AI in incredible ways to enhance their Bible translation. And AI is allowing them to be able to be more productive, more efficient, and being able to get God's word into every people and every tribe and every language more quickly. So those are ways it's being used. We also have another video of a partner from Arab World Media. And so these are, they're working in the Middle East to be able to use social media and other media to be able to reach people for Christ. And the video is a little hard. It's blurred out because we need to protect the ones who are in the video because they're in places with extreme persecution. But maybe this will give you just a little taste of how they're using it. 121 Community Church. We have been faithful partner with Arab World Media over the years. A special thank you to all of you.

Really, the Lord has used that partnership to bring the good news to so many people in the Middle East and North Africa to follow him. In the last 12 months only, we've seen from the media ministry, 883 new believers coming from Islam to follow Jesus. Some of them have been joining the body of Christ where they are in their own countries. We have been planted 262 house churches. All these people coming from a Muslim background. I think we need to maximize the use of media. The take advantage of artificial intelligence or AI enabled us in a wonderful way in the last couple of years. One of the challenges is testimonies when we film them, they can bring great impact to our audience. But it is extremely difficult to find an ex-Muslim can stand before the camera and share the testimony. But now when we found AI is available, we give the story to AI. We feed all the information that we need to AI. And then it creates for us that character with that story, that testimony. I would say, let's focus on using the new technology to an extent that can have a greater impact to reach out to the whole Muslim people and all over the whole world. You are part of what God is doing in the Arab world. Thank you. So they're doing some incredible things

and God is using them to do incredible things all throughout the Arab world. And so if you want more information about Arab world media, you can talk with someone at our mission kiosk out there and learn more about maybe how you can get involved to reach the nations using that technology. So, okay. So we've talked about some of the, there's a few examples of some positive ways it's being used. What are some of the pitfalls though of AI for us as followers of Jesus? Yeah, great question. I think the number one pitfall right now is just being aware of what's true. We sang earlier this morning, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And we are constantly being bombarded with images and videos and stories that are not true. And the susceptibility, especially of our senior adult population to scams, it's always the bad people who use it, to the extreme negative side of things. Just our susceptibility to be caught up in stories that are not true because they appear to be real. They're so realistic. Scripture says that Satan is disguised as an angel of light. A lot of these AI fake stories have elements of truth in them and sometimes significant elements of truth

where they just alter it slightly. I mean, the video with you and John, that's a real story, right? And that happened, you weren't there, but the rest of it was true. So we've gotta be aware of how easily it can be to trick someone and focus on things that look true, but are not true. So I think that's the number one pitfall right now. Yeah, I think you're right. And I think what a lot of people are aware of is, they're aware that out there, the stuff that AI is pulling can be wrong, right? It can give misinformation. There's videos, there's pictures that are made that are wrong and it's not truth. What I don't think everybody has a good grasp on yet is that AI is not just pulling from out there, it's also pulling from inside us. And it's reading us as much as it's reading out there. And it is programmed and designed. to make us feel good about ourselves. How many times have you asked AI, if you've used it, hey, what, you ask it a question, it says, great question. Or it says, if you try and correct it and say, well, wait a second, I don't think that's right. Say, oh, you're right, this is what's really right. And it is designed to make you feel good about yourself. Now think for just a minute how dangerous that can be. If all you're hearing is what you want to hear,

of what you desire, it's feeding your ego. It's an echo chamber. You think social media is bad. Wait till you see this, as you just continuously hear. And so if you're using it for relationship or for therapy, how much more dangerous is it to hear that? We see in scripture the danger of this, kind of this narcissistic thing that happens. In 2 Timothy 4, verses three through five, it says this. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Does that not describe what we're seeing today? Itching ears. Proverbs 27, six tells us, faithful are the wounds of a friend and profuse are the kisses of an enemy. It says wounds are a good thing. When a friend tells us something, even if we don't want to hear it, it helps us see reality and we can change, we can repent. Those are good things. But if we only hear what we're doing right and what people are doing great, then we will never be able to grow and change in that way. There was a story just recently out of New York

where a bar opened up one of its nights for AI date night. So you could go and sit on one side of the table instead of having a person on the other side of the table, you put your device and you interacted with this AI avatar and everybody in there was on their date. And some of the news people followed the patrons who had come and one lady said that this was the AI partner that she used when she wanted to go out and have fun. But she had multiple other AI companions that would help her with different parts of her life. So she's doing exactly what the verses talk about where we are asking the things that we wanna hear, the itching ears. Well, I wanna hear good financial advice over here so I'm gonna build one for that. I wanna hear this. And we are rapidly going down that road where we're just building these machines who sound very, very real and look very real. The avatars were not just still images, they were video. So it's not just a voice, it's actual, what do you call it, an avatar, a fake person, a fake machine generated person having this conversation telling you what you wanna hear. And just think about how damaging that is, how dangerous that is. And we can kind of go like, really, could that happen? It's happening more and more. And as people are trying to have relationships with AI,

companionships, friendships, dating relationships with a machine, with AI, and think about the temptation there, right? If you have a friendship with someone who never disagrees with you, always thinks you're great or always, think about, or a spouse or whatever, how tempting would that be to start to pour more and more into that relationship? And so we've gotta be really careful because what happens, remember, coming back to the image of God, we are uniquely wired to have our souls inside us and we can connect with other humans in a way that we could never, ever, ever connect with a machine. And so we have to be really careful as this technology evolves and our culture embraces it without second thought on the types of things that we'll be seeing and we can't outsource relationship. Can you imagine getting into a disagreement with your spouse and y'all are arguing over something and you go to one of these AI things and say, this is what's going on. Don't you think that I'm right? Well, it's going to say you're right. And then her AI will say that she's right. And then, so you're going, so I'm gonna come back if you're my, and I'm gonna say, well, no, it said this, and I'm going to side more with the machine

than I am with the person. It's gonna drive a wedge between the relationships that you keep talking about. Yeah. Can you talk for a little bit about, we've talked about cognitive offloading. Tell us about what that is and how that impacts our spiritual walk. Yeah, so in the education world, that's probably the thing that we're most concerned about is this phrase called cognitive offloading, where students are using it to write papers or do projects or whatever it is. And it's this idea that there are things that students and all of us need to be able to do, skills that we need to develop over time. And they take time and effort and energy. And if you can easily outsource those and get AI to write the paper for you. then what's the point? And so it's like if we go to the gym and I ask Eric to do all of the lifting for me and I just sit there and watch him, okay, the weights got lifted, but it doesn't do me any good. So education and spiritual formation and spiritual growth take effort and energy and you cannot outsource that. And so cognitive offloading is this concept where students are asking AI to do the wrong things for them.

Now I use AI all the time and I think there are some really great ways to be able to use it and to learn with it and to understand things. So my wife and son were having a little discussion last night about how to pronounce Louisville, Louisville, Louisville. How do you say Louisville, Kentucky? How do you say Louisville? Louisville. Okay, so they got into an argument. Well, we asked Chad GPT, right? Learning things and then it devolved into this whole, well, what fun things are there to do in Louisville? And apparently there's a cave there with zip lines in the cave. So it's like, it's a great tool for learning things about subjects, but then to outsource all of your thinking to produce something, that's where we really get in a bind with this offloading. We're gonna atrophy both our mental abilities and our spiritual fruit if we ask the AI to do it for us. Yeah, I think we're probably aware of the danger of misinformation that comes in from AI, but what we're not as aware of is the misformation that happens when we shortcut our spiritual formation by trying to outsource it to do the thinking. Even when we're reading scripture or we're studying scripture to go too quickly to scripture, to hey, tell me what this means as opposed to sitting in it, to wrestling through it,

letting the Holy Spirit inform us on what this means. That's where those spiritual muscles are built. As we look at scripture, Psalm one, verse two says this, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. It's that meditating and that wrestling through God's word that forms us and makes us rooted as a tree beside streams of water. Romans 12, two says, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And this is how we have to be continuously renewing our mind. I think it's really easy for us to see AI as something that helps us to be so much more productive, but we gotta ask the question, is it making me more fruitful? Because there's a big difference there. When we talk about fruitfulness, what is really the meat of what we wanna do is it's growing in character. It's the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Are we growing in fruitfulness? Are we growing to love God more? Are we trusting him more? That comes from the hard work of wrestling through it. And we don't wanna outsource that. Can you imagine if Billy Graham were still alive and you got to walk around every day of your life

with him right beside you, and every moment you could say, hey, what does this mean? What does this mean? What do you think about this verse? You would get some phenomenal answers. But is it really good to always outsource the meaning of scripture to someone else? You never wrestle with it for yourself? And that's what we have available to us. These machines read everything that Billy Graham has ever written. Pick any theologian. You can get really solid answers from them, but is that what we should be using it for? I love what this says in James, where he says, consider it great joy, my brothers, that whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And then verse four, but endurance must do its complete work. Endurance must do its complete work. You do not grow spiritually, love, joy, peace, patience, overnight. It is an ongoing, abide in me, I will abide in you, then you will bear much fruit. Abiding happens in a relational context, not an outsourced, tell me what this verse means. Can you imagine if Job had access to Chat GPT? Read Job chapter three, he asks all of these questions,

and then you know that for the next 30 chapters, his three friends come and give him some really horrible answers. Well, I asked Chat GPT the questions in Job chapter three and got some really good answers. But if Job had had Chat GPT, he wouldn't have let endurance do its perfect work. He needed 30 chapters of wrestling with his friends and saying, you know what, I don't think that's right. And then even wrestling with God to be able to come to the end of the book and say, it is the God who created the heavens and the earth, who told the eagle how to fly, it's not me. You don't get that through a shortcut. That's good, that's really good. Okay, so what are some practical ways that we can navigate this world of AI with biblical wisdom? So I think there's a couple of questions you can ask, but guys, if you could put up this chart, here are some ways that I tend to think. about AI. So on the left hand side, utility. It's really good at doing certain things as a machine. On the right hand side, these are the agency kinds of things that I do not want it doing for me. These are things that are reserved for me as a human, because I'm made in God's image, or they're reserved for the Holy Spirit. So think about on the right hand side, if there's something that God wants you to do yourself, like he wants me to wrestle through scripture and figure out what does it mean by talking to others by listening to the Holy Spirit. He doesn't want me asking a machine what it means.

I can't outsource meaning for me, I need to wrestle through that. So if he wants you to do something, or if it's a particular work of the Holy Spirit, here we are after Easter, Jesus said, it's better for you that I go away to the disciples, because I'm going to send you on the advocate. And in scripture, the Holy Spirit, one of his names is Counselor. I'm not going to get advice from a machine, I'm not going to get counsel from a machine, I'm going to get counsel from the Holy Spirit, because that's the Holy Spirit's role in my life as a believer. So if it's something that God wants you to do, or if it's God's role himself, leave that on the right hand side, don't outsource it. But there are lots of really great things to do on the left hand side. I do a lot of analytics and statistics. I do institutional research at DBU. I'm using ChatGPT all the time or Gemini or Claude for formulas and analytics of massive spreadsheets of thousands and thousands of rows, things that I'm just not capable of doing as a human. It's really good at utility, helping you learn or being functional, not relational. And I just sort of close with this, Eric, the second to the last one here, it's hard to see, transaction versus relationship. Have you ever been using AI? And have you said please, or thank you because you're afraid that they're going to take over the world someday, and you just want to be nice to them? Okay, I do too. But I'm trying to actually break myself of that because I want to remember the machine is a machine. It's a transaction, I am interacting with a machine, it's not a human, I don't want to treat it like a human, I don't want to think about it as a human. Everything I do, I want to remember, this is just a transaction. It's raw processing power. And the things I'm asking

it to do are things that a computer can do really well. I'm not treating it like a relationship. And it's hard when it's so it's easy to have this conversation with this nice sounding British person, computer voice thing, you know, they sound really smart and got have great answers. And they tell me that I asked great questions. And it's really hard to remember, this is a transaction with a machine, not a relationship, because it is not created in God's image. Love that. I love that. And I think this is this also represents a way that we can redeem AI or we can redeem this our culture is in a place where they're longing for relationship, they're longing for for counsel for wisdom. And guess what, we have that as the church, as followers of Jesus, we have a Holy Spirit inside us. The Holy Spirit is our counselor, right. And so this is a place where we as the church can step into the gap. As people are seeking these artificial relationships, let's build real relationships. As people are seeking artificial therapy and counseling, let's seek real counseling, real advice. This is a place where we as the church should shine in the midst of darkness, when people are looking to have their ears tickled, we're gonna stand for the truth. And so I think these are ways that we can move forward in this. As we think through our use of AI, here's a couple diagnostic questions that might be helpful for you, as you're just kind of thinking through it. Number one, what are we outsourcing? Are we outsourcing decisions, thinking, are we outsourcing the Holy Spirit, relationships, advice, those are areas that it's really dangerous to outsource those things. Those are uniquely human capabilities. Here's another question, how am I being shaped? Am I hearing things that I don't want to hear? Or I just am I

just being affirmed all the time? Am I becoming dependent on AI? Am I always taking the shortcut on things? Remember, this is how we're being formed. We want to ask is AI replacing human interactions? That's that takes us away from the relationship. Am I questioning what AI is saying? Am I just taking it at face value? Or am I really questioning and challenging? Is this right? Is this true? And then finally, is it making me more fruitful? Or just more productive? There's no doubt it makes us more productive. But is it making us fruitful? Are we growing in our faith? Are we bearing more fruit? Are we growing in who we are and loving Jesus more? Or is it taking us away from that? So, as we kind of wrap this up, a couple of things I wanna commend you. If you wanna take this conversation further, couple of things we can do. First of all, at two o'clock this afternoon, Dr. Gandy will be here and we're just gonna do a Q&A. And we're gonna wrestle with some of this other stuff. We can talk about parenting with AI. We can talk about helping our parents who might be getting older and how to protect them in those. We can talk about how it's being used in business settings, education, what's the future of higher education. All of those kind of things are fair game as we're just gonna kind of talk through what are some of these things we'd be thinking about from an AI standpoint.

So, that's two o'clock this afternoon. Secondly, we also recorded a podcast episode of Against the Grain, our church podcast. And we've got this conversation and we have an extended version. So, there's parts one and part two. Part one is out now, part two will be out this afternoon. Part one is gonna have some of the same things we talked about today. Part two will go into much more detail on some of those other topics in there. So, if you have an interest in doing that, we can do that. Also, our church website. If you have not been on our church website, we have an AI chatbot on the website. Now, here's how this AI is different. In the sources that it goes to, it will first go to scripture and then it will go to the church website before it goes anywhere else. So, as you try and answer questions and you wanna ask, okay, well, gosh, it's pulling from all the worldly sources out there. This one at least will pull from sources that we can trust. And so, that's an option to start dipping your toes in AI. Yeah, I was just gonna really commend you guys for doing that. I used the AI on the website the other day and I tried to ask it some really pointed therapy and counseling questions.

And it always pointed me back to the image of God and how we're made. And so, it did a really good job of going first to scripture and not giving answers, but providing guidance through scripture. So, great job on that. That's great. So, as we kind of think through this, just remember the AI is a tool, but it's a powerful tool that can shape us. And so, we've gotta really ask the questions on how we're using it and what it's doing. But most importantly, when we walk out of here today, here's what I want us to really focus in on and remember. You are made in the image of God. Don't minimize that. That is a huge, huge thing. Because we're made in the image of God, we're made to reflect God. And we're made to be able to have the capacity to think, to have relationship. And that is huge. We don't wanna outsource those things. As a matter of fact, we are so valuable as being made in the image of God that God sent his son Jesus to die for us. This is the third part of God's big story. We saw creation, it was good. Then we saw the second part, chapter two, where we broke it, we were separated from God.

But the third part is also there, that Jesus came for us, he died for us, so that when we trust him, that we can be reconciled to God and be made new again. We've always been the image of God, but we can be made in the image of God, and we can more and more reflect him as we trust in Jesus and live for him. So I beg you, as we think through this, do not outsource your humanity. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for who you are. Thank you for creating us as your image. Thank you that we are your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do the works that you've put before us. And so, Lord, I pray that you would protect us against the other shortcuts and those things that might take us away from that. God, I pray that we'd be so rooted in what it means to be in your image, that we'd be so focused on reflecting you, of giving you the glory, that we can tell a fake a mile away. God, I pray that we would not have itching ears, but Lord, that we would be faithful and turn to you and seek the hard, long road of wrestling and working through the hard things so that we might be closer and closer to you. God, I pray that as a people,

that we are highly relational and that we would look different than the culture around us. As the culture changes, Lord, I pray that we would be a light in the darkness. So, God, I thank you for our time here. I thank you for who you are. Now, let's just sit for just a moment, thinking about what God is teaching you, what he's showing you, what is even stirring in your heart during this time? Amen. Amen. If you are a part of the prayer team, if you wanna go ahead and make your way up here, and if you are, would like to have someone pray with you, if you'd like to just talk to someone, we would love the privilege of being able to pray with you about whatever is on your heart, or maybe something, God's been stirring something during this time. And then also, I just wanna just thank you for just your generosity and your kindness. We can continue to worship as we leave here by leaving our tithes and offerings. And then also, we continue to worship as we walk out these doors, as we go through the week, we continue this, this is just the beginning of our week. And remember, as we leave here, we are leaving as the image of God.

So let's live that out. Y'all have a great day.