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- Everything you believe about life, truth, meaning, and eternity rises or falls on whether Jesus rose from the dead.
- And if He did… that means hope is not dead, your past is not final, your future is glorious
- Today we gather to celebrate and commemorate the resurrection of Jesus who is the Christ
- Billions of Christians around the world are celebrating the same event today with us
- Without realizing it, they also celebrate an event that created western culture and thought.
- A group of disciples, convinced they had seen the risen Christ, went out and changed the world.
- because of the resurrection, the world began to change
- A foundation that brought human dignity, education, hospitals, justice, healthcare and hope.
- Their Central msg: Death is not the end. Suffering is not meaningless. Redemption is possible.
- But today, we are living in a moment that is trying to pull all of that apart. Quickly.
- this world wants eternity without dying.// utopia w no suffering.// Redemption w/o God.//
- the question we have to ask today is this: Can something artificial ever replace what is eternal?
- And I don’t say that to people out there… I say that to us in here. We must stay on mission.
- The Garden
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- Genesis 2. God planted two trees.
- the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. Right next to it was the tree of life.
- This dichotomy posed a question- will we rule ourselves… or submit to God?
- God told Adam- you can have everything but this tree. If you do, you will die.
- I’ll jump to the crux of the story. Adam ate of this tree, and spiritual death entered the world
- This set in motion everything we’re living in today. Everything evil that bothers you bc of this
- This tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasnt just a ‘don’t do that tree’.
- This tree was a line in the ground. A boundary. God says- I define what is good and evil///
- It was a temptation the serpent spoke to man- “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.
- Watch this- they reached for intelligence and power and found shame instead///
- Haven’t we all been there? We reach for an easy fix from the flesh and gain shame instead
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- The tree offered God like knowledge, immediate answers, more power, more control.
- A heart that says “I don’t need God, I can know all, fix all, and control all”
- //The ultimate question from the tree- will we live by revelation or self determination?//
- this is what Jesus came for– we either submit to God Or become our own source of truth
- humanity has been making that same choice ever since //And now we’re doing it again//
- for a guy who doesn’t like study- AI is a shortcut. Fruit without the Father. Fix me GPT
- The World Today
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- We are living in the fastest technological shift in human history.
- This Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing everything. I’m sure you’re talking it or using it.
- AI is moving us fast toward a world where it can think, plan, and act on its own.
- It can design medicine, build machines, translate language, even begin to read thoughts
- It’s even attempting to reverse aging… possibly death (maybe a day where you don’t die?)
- What used to take years of effort and discovery is now available in seconds ///
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- And sure, to the educated thinker, you’d say “well preacher man, how is this different than the printing press, TV, Radio, Universities and the internet”
- It is a great tool just not a great savior. All of those helped us learn- AI replaces learning. AI offers the harvest without the planting; the crown without the cross.
- we’re moving toward a world where we don’t need to think, work, or wonder. all done for us.
- //We’re creating a new tree of knowledge of Good and evil, where we are our own Gods.//
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- AI promises a world where you are the source of your own transformation not the Lord
- You’re supposed to connect, process, grow, create. Life is handed to a bot who does it for you.
- Guidance without God. Growth without surrender. Knowledge without dependence///
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- AI promises simply as the Serpent did- “You will be like God” A creature without a creator.
- Not bound by tradition, have judgment apart from a conscience, answers without prayer, and a measure of control above what our humility should allow. You yourself can be like God.
- Ju 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
- AI has the potential to replace the need for God when it whispers a modern version of the serpent’s line: (whisper) you do not need obedience, patience, revelation, or moral formation; you can have enhanced knowledge now. Use the intelligence of the model and you don’t need God.
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- But Christian formation requires repentance. Discipline. Study. Suffering. community and time.
- Our dependence on God is not informational, its transformational. We are shaped by God and we receive HIS truth. And it’s a long arduous process by which the HS refines your character
- AI turns truth into an on demand commodity. It requires nothing of you. ‘truth’ w/o wisdom
- AI is not just a tool… it’s a temptation. It offers a shortcut away from the ancient ways of God.//
- And its appealing! Who doesn’t want answers, clarity and control? I want the easy route!
- Proverbs 2:6 For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
- Gen 3: 4 the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
- AI offers a Fruit that promises wisdom without the moral preparation for bearing it.
- AI Mimics moral discernment: it makes determinations and decisions yet it has no creed and attempts to control the territory of morality. It says- Trust AI. Don’t trust God or the HS
- It removes accountability- You don’t own your decisions- AI Does. “the model says”
- You don’t need a compelling story to live. You only need power and computing for meaning
- It offers a substitute from the fall. A new path of redemption- to AI-intelligence is our answer.
- AI culture says eliminate error, optimize, remove uncertainty, conquer, adapt, engineer.
- But here’s the problem tho- You don’t have an intelligence problem. You have a sin problem///
- The Human condition
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- The Bible says Man’s problem is brokenness and sin not knowledge and intelligence
- Sounds heavy, but the Good news is if that’s the problem, God already provided the solution
- That “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God” Romans 3:23
- Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
- God’s view of Man, is that we’re made in his image, but failed in our independence.
- Jesus said apart from me you can do nothing John 15:5
- Jeremiah said-It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps Jer 10:23
- The Bible declares and history proves it, when we rule ourselves apart from God… it destroys
- We enslave , we kill , we abort, we live in sexual immorality. We redefine truth.
- The world says we’re getting better. We can fix ourselves.
- 1882 Friedrich Nietzsche said: God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
- And the world has been living like that ever since (do you hear the news? See the people?)
- first reason replaced authority Then self replaced authority Now… there is no authority
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- In a world where There is no authority- God merely becomes a barrier to sensual indulgence
- We believe that we can think up our own future. We can build our way out of our destruction
- AI replaces the mystery of God with a false idea of our own ability to create our own destiny
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- But-Isaiah 55:8–9 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways…
- Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God…
- We were never intended to know all things. We weren’t created to process all this information
- Now we feel it- anxiety, frustration and anger. Its on all of us. We are inundated w too much
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- The Bible says we can’t save ourselves. The tower of Babel was destroyed. False idols crumbled. The earth was flooded. Walls were destroyed and civilizations wiped from the earth.
- We need someone to save us from ourselves. To mend the brokenness we have with God and within ourselves. We need a real savior who really knows us to really save us from ourselves
- Our knowledge of Good and Evil didn’t produce freedom it produced pain
- And that’s the world Jesus stepped into- a broken hurting sin filled world of pain and sin
- By the tree We realized that the world is wicked. Broken. Filled with pain and sorrow.
- Paul Said it this way- For I know that in me… nothing good dwells…Romans 7:18
- And within this pain, humanity has longed and grasped for an eternal rest apart from this world
- Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has put eternity in their hearts… We have a desire to live apart from here.
- The challenge
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- So even now, in 2026 the human heart hasn’t changed- it’s the same
- And AI is strategically placed to replace and attempt to fill a human heart that longs for God
- we are not God, we have limits, we can’t save ourselves. Knowledge cannot save us
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- The temptation of AI is that faith is weakness, intelligence has the answers
- We can build a garden on our own where we know everything and we live forever on this earth
- This is a new kind of religion One that promises to break the limits of the human body
- The ancient gnostics wanted escape through knowledge- now we want it by technology
- Technocrats don’t believe in Sin. The believe in insufficient intelligence, biological limitations.
- AI is now trying to “solve” death (longevity research). Where does this leave us w a Savior who promises eternal life. A resurrection if AI can eventually promise eternal life?
- To them- Knowledge saves and technology is the means of redemption. ///
- We must decide. Will you follow the ChatGPT Messiah or the Resurrected Christ?
- I’m not trying to manipulate you here- I’m asking you because your life depends on it.
- How then shall we live
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- Today is Easter. Probably all of you have heard the story. Most glorious day in history!
- Jesus was Crucified, died was buried and on the 3rd day he rose again.
- Not an algorithm. He stepped into our world Took on our sin Carried our shame
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- And walked out of the grave with victory over it all He overcame death. Proved he was God
- belief in him eliminates your sins and guarantees that you’ll go to Heaven and live forever.
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- This isn’t Artificial Intelligence it’s a two thousand year old story that started in that Garden
- after the resurrection-John 20:25-27 READ
- Thomas didn’t believe Jesus rose from the dead. he wanted proof. The story wasn’t enough
- Not unlike many people today- “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
- And you’re not Thomas, and I’m not Thomas and we’re never going to be able to do that.
- And you know what? AI offers the different path. One that requires no belief. No faith.///
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- A tool you control, that gives you answers and produces a way to avoid the Holy.
- We sit in this world, longing for meaning, wondering about death, looking for answers and we have to decide. Will I believe without seeing? Or will I have Faith to believe the story is true.
- And listen… God is not trying to hide from you He’s inviting you into this story
- 1 Cor 15:20 But now Christ is risen from the dead
- And there is evidences. But people still say- I need to see to believe. I want knowledge
- And The tree is there once again. The fruit beckons to our hearts and asks- Fruit or faith?///
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- Will you grab the GPT messiah with the hope of endless knowledge or will you live by faith
- Jesus says: Blessed are those who believe without seeing
- Thomas says: I need evidence. I need to see. I need to touch or I refuse to believe. //
- Thomas wasn’t just looking for data; he was looking for a physical reality to heal his grief.
- AI offers a simulated reality. The contrast is: Thomas touched real scars; AI offers a digital mask
- And our Savior doesn’t reject evidence or leave none behind, he just doesn’t make it a foundation for our faith. We must believe without Seeing.///
- Because here’s the collision- the world that says you should only believe what you can see.
- But Jesus says that eternal life belongs to those who believe what they cannot see.
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- The same serpent in the Garden is the same serpent today saying- you can know all things
- Jesus whispers- (whisper)You can’t know all things. Trust me. Believe in me.
- You’re looking for answers and the answer has been Given:
- Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
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- The response? Ac 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- The issue is not that AI exists, its that it can’t replace a risen savior that conquered death
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- You can’t put your faith and trust in something that never conquered death.
- So today, I invite you, to believe without seeing. Trust without knowing. Follow the real Jesus
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- This is the same choice from the Garden-Two trees-Two paths-Two ways to live
- One says take it- know everything- control everything The other says trust Me… walk with Me… receive life from Me. Take the time to build a real flesh and blood relationship with me
- Submit to the one who rose from the Grave and trust that your sins are and will be forgiven
- Don’t place your faith in anything or anyone that can’t forgive you and save you///
- The serpent said “eat this tree” Jesus says- Revelation 2:7 To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God
- For those of us who trust in Christ as Lord the promise is that we will go to heaven, we will eat from a tree- but it wont be the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. It will be the tree of life
- And we will eat of it for eternity, in heaven, in the Prescence of our savior.
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