Tech Limitations

Okay, so this is the third of our series as it were on Christ and the digital age and

we've been looking at technology. The first one, Corey looked at God and technology right

from the beginning, the Bible and how it took such things as the building of Babel and also

the building of the ark. Two different examples of using the technology of the day in good

ways and in bad ways. And then last time you looked at TV and film particularly. So today

we're going to look at the limitations of tech and the limitations of technology and

then hopefully for our last one and the last one will be in three weeks because next Wednesday

evening is table talk. So we're having a meal together upstairs in the church and also communion.

And then the following week will be the question time from here and in the week after that

will be our last Sunday. We'll look more at kind of iPhones and Instagram and the more

kind of practical side of it. But today we're going to look for a week while before we move

into our seven days of prayer as we were at technological limitations. And by doing that

I think it's important to recognise who we are as people. When we think about ourselves

and think about life and think about ourselves and technology, it's always important to ground

that in who we are ourselves and recognising that as Christians who we are at the core

level of our responses to everything that we face. And the first I think that it's recognising

that we are first of all image bearers. That's what we are as people. We're image bearers

of God. So you see iPhones, iPhone sources, the plug and the cable, they're uniquely designed

for iPhones. You can't put a kettle cable into an iPhone to charge it up, it doesn't

work. It wouldn't power it in the right way. And if the iPhone is not connected to its

power source, it eventually loses any value whatsoever because it goes dead. I mean it

will work for a while as we know, but then it goes dead and it doesn't really have any

other use if it's dead, possibly as a beer mat or something. But it doesn't really have

any meaningful use if it isn't connected and isn't powered by its own unique cable. And

a foundational level, that's very true of us as well, that we are meant to be and we

need to be and we were created to be connected to God and in relationship with Him. That's

a really basic but an absolutely critical truth about ourselves. We were made by God,

all of you, all of us, and we know this, but we were made by God and made for God so that

when we are separated from Him in any sense, in any way, we're separating ourselves from

the source of all life and the source of all our life and it's the deepest and most costly

tragedy in the cosmos. So whatever else we think about the world in the cosmos and everything

else, the greatest and the deepest tragedy is when humanity and when people are separated

from God, their source, the source of life and love and power in their lives. So with

Image Bearers, we know that and that means a few things. It means that we are creative

and we've seen that in this study and it's quite a significant and important thing. So

that we recognise the place of technology and Corrie has very ably defended that biblically

that there's an important place for technological advance and technological gifting and there's

no point in pretending, there's no point in being troglodytes as Christians and pretending

none of this has happened and I wish we could go back to the days before all these things

because that isn't going to make any difference. It's just simply not right to think like

that. We were made to be imaginative, we were made to solve problems, to steward our resources,

to find solutions. As Image Bearers, we become Image Makers and we also seek to master the

world that is our home, that God has given us, that is the creation mandate that we're

called to master and subdue the universe, the world in which we live. And that's where

that's the source of all engineering and all medical and sporting and artistic and agricultural

developments and many more besides. We've seen before that technology is really about

empowering us, making us more efficient, making us better at who we are, improving our techniques,

whether it be in agriculture or whether it be in industry or in our workplaces or in our

sport or whatever it might be. It's applying that science to life and making improvements

and innovations and moulding our techniques so that things are easier for us. That's really

what works about. It's about being creative and it's about doing something well. You see

that all through the Old Testament and indeed the New Testament, maybe the Old Testament

is better. The different giftings and skills that individuals are given, the design of

the temple, the tabernacle, the different architecture, the machineries that was used,

the tools, the musical instruments, all these things. They all point to technology and technological

development and being creative image bearers of God. That's all very important for us.

As well as being, because we're made in the image of God, we are creative but we are also

created. That is a significant reality for us as well. Ecclesiastes 3, 11 reminds us

that God has put eternity into man's heart. We're not just technological beings. We're

not simply machines, making machines. We are people who are created by God to worship

God, to be in relationship with God, to have a loving relationship with Him, to serve Him

and to serve other peoples. That is right at the beginning of the creation mandate for

us. We are body, yes, we're mind, yes, with all the intelligence and all the imagination

and all that goes with that, but we're also body and soul. We're made for more than just

this material and physical world. We're made with ultimate purposes that include that which

is not technological, love, righteousness, belonging, companionship, meaning, identity,

our place in the universe. All of these things remind us not just that we are to be creators

in the image of our Creator, but we ourselves are created by God to be in a spiritual relationship

with Him and we recognize and see how important that is. Along with being created and being

creators, we know the biblical truth which reminds us that we're also rebels. We're rebels

against that order and that affects how we relate to God, obviously, separates us from

God, but also affects how we relate to technology and how we deal with technology. I'm going

to read Psalm 20. There are Bibles at the back if you want to have it, but you can follow

them. It's just a short Psalm and it's a Psalm of David, probably a Psalm of David when he

was either going into war or had been in war and been successful. To the choir master,

it is a Psalm of David. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble, may the name of

the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support

from Zion. May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices.

May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all of your plans. May we shout for joy over

your salvation and in the name of our God set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all

your petitions. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy

heaven with the saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand

upright. O Lord save the king. May he answer us when we call. So we see and we recognize

in this Psalm a little bit of the tension between the fact that we are gods, we've rebelled

against God and the two different directions that take. That takes because of sin and because

the reality of sin, we use creativity and we use technology to substitute for what only

a relationship with God can give us or we use technology to usurp God's place and God's

Lordship in our lives. So it's the misplaced creation of a godless world which abandons

the Creator himself in their own creativity and that is disastrous because what happens

is we become a world of little gods and it's an ugly world that we've ended up living in,

isn't it? We know and recognize that as the result of sin and harass, but it isn't. It's

this world of little gods of creative beings, of technological monsters is in some ways

an increasingly spiraling downwards ugly world. This world without God get me out of here.

It's far worse than the jungle and that's the tension that's revealed in this Psalm

because there's a reality of war and division and separation and the use of technology in

that and also a recognition of what is the right use of technology and what is the wrong

use because David in this Psalm as the king, as the warrior king of his people is clearly

and rightly looking to God in his distress for victory and for help. You see he's going

to the right place to find what he needs. He's going to the Lord who has already been

his rescuer and he recognizes the Lord's protection and help verse 2 that the one who will bless

him is the Lord blessing his plans and blessing his heart and his desires verse 4. He's the

one who will bring victory verse 5 and who is his saviour verse 6. We see all of these

things in the Psalm so that as David is going to war he's recognizing ultimately where his

hope and his help is coming from and who in whom he must trust. It's not saying he is

not taking any warcraft with him, any technological advances that might help him in that warfare.

We know in the past that he was a skillful sniper and using only stones and a sling against

much more technologically advanced weapons but he went on to become a great warrior king

in battle but he knows that that is not where his reliance must be in the technological abilities

and weaponry of his people and he recognizes where the problem is, where he speaks about

those who trust in chariots and in horses but they are the ones, Jesus God David and

his people are the ones who trust in the name of the Lord our God and these chariots and

horses that he's speaking about of the enemy were absolutely the most powerful war technology

of the ancient Near East. Possibly the chariots kind of modern day equivalent of a tank or

something like that but they were very powerful and these war weaponry gave nations great

power and they rested on and they leaned on that military strength and we saw quite often

the Israelites trying to do the same thing, not relying on God but relying on their own

wisdom, their own creativity, their own strength, their own warfare and their own inventiveness

and technology as it was in these days and we see that that throughout history as nations

and kings and rulers rely on all their own technological advances and their own power

and their own wealth it leads to domination and influence but ultimately to destruction.

So that Old Testament Sam with that old vision of technology and that old picture of the difference

between what we trust in and whom we trust in and how we should think of our lives as

those who are created in God's image brings us right up to the modern day, recognizing

that the modern world in which we live that it was you and I live it really worships technology

now. Technological advances what many people put their hope in and their trust in if not

explicitly at least sometimes implicitly and we're living in age and you young people

are living in an age unlike any other because this exponential growth of technology now

is developing far faster than it has in the last thousand years. Frighteningly so if you

do if you did get the book that we've been using that I've got a basing our thoughts

on it's quite a scary book it's quite a really interesting fascinating book for the chapter

that I read for this chapter three had quite scary revelations about the development of

technology and scientists particularly may be the new priests of this world religion

and many people's hopes when you think of feeding the world or when you think of climate

change or any of these huge issues that we see the hope is in science the hope is in

humanity in ourselves to make the difference in technology and in advances the evolution

of ideas and answers and technology been harnessed to such a degree obviously that God is just

thrown out the window no need for God now that's just for the simple people who needed

someone something to rest on when the technological advances were not in place and we see that

technological focus bearing or feeding into some of our kind of sinful impulses certainly

for control you know the more technology advances the more control it gives us we want to be

the nations want to be in control of their own destiny they want to be not just in control

of destiny makers we live in a world which wants to be sovereign over its own destiny

to control the future to control our health to control aging to increasingly control other

people's behavior and other people's thoughts we see that happening more and more when you

think of how much your own iPhone is listening to you and responding to you and advertising

to you and controlling where you think and what you want to do little gods we want to

be gods in control using technology as the means of doing that we see it in medicine

constantly seeking I will come at the there's positive things of course in all of this but

I'm looking at in a sense where where tech is limited and is valuable for us but medicine

we see that isn't the great search for eternal youth where increasingly medical advances are

not just curative or the relief of suffering but augmentative to make us better stronger

more amazing people to help us to live longer the the technology of genetics is an

astonishing field very interesting I'm sure and very challenging where there's this desire

to resist the aging process turn it back completely eternal youth

in the book we've been looking at there's a quote in chapter four

chapter three I think is man aims to regenerate through genetically fabricated designer babies

and eventually by ectogenetically wombless children purified from all disease defilement

and defect so this this move towards perfection sinlessness and freedom from any kind of disease

designer babies we've seen and hear it and know all about that and disembodied transhumanism

we're moving towards that Gnostic idea of just the mind being able to exist

just apart from the body eternally can you imagine can you imagine the awful hell of that

of in our current situation not being allowed to die but living in an eternal

state of spiritual or mental torture is all I can think of being so control is

is is one of the ways that technology is being manipulated by humanity as is power of course

the desire for power for inventions that create great amount of wealth and a great

amount of power to give us independence see that in the military field increasingly we see it in

the Ukraine at the moment where security and domination is is driven along further by high tech

weaponry which allows conquering nations to happen even conquering space the prestige the

meaning the influence the identity that comes from the new frontiers that we seek to be empowered

over so I think it works in that way of

the misuse of technology for us where we become the creator as it were our desire without God

for control for power and indeed for glory the redemptive power of technology without the need

for a redeemer without the need for a savior self redemption coming from all that we can invent all

that we can do all that we can redefine gender redefinition technology enabling us to find our

own identity and create that self identifying feeling which is the ultimate interestingly I

think technology is what we're finding as we look at it technological advance is driving

individualism and therefore isolation interestingly it's driving people more and more away from one

another towards and complete independence and individuality which of course goes

directly against our created instinct which is that we are social beings made for God and made

for one another so the paradox of so much of this is that humanity trusts in its own technology

to bring meaning now our ability to stem global warming our ability to stop starvation and to

stop wars and to create this evolving and glorious world and it trusts in itself to do that but the

paradox is it also blames itself for it not happening humanity is the one that's being wasteful

and being destructive and so there's this deep paradox even in humanity's own thinking where

they're seeking technology to bring us utopia and yet they blame humanity for that utopic not

happening so just to finish with a just what we're seeking to do I guess and this is to encourage

you to have a thoughtful critique of the world in which we live and the technology that is an

inevitable part of that much of it really positive and good and some of it and our attitude to it

destructive so it's good to think about where technology is leading think about that it will it

be as great as it claims to be moving forward is it bringing us what it claims to be bringing us

or will it be like the great story in Terminator the rise of the machines well that is that is that

the end that's going to happen how will God use technology to usher in the end of time we don't

know but technologies do sell a vision we just remember that they sell satisfaction with many

promises they sell the ability to have whatever we want it's quite interesting I think that the

the more the the logo of apple is an apple with a bite out of it which maybe speaks back to Genesis

chapter three and the desire to have what God that I don't know what the fault does anyone know

what the Genesis of not the Genesis of it as in the Exodus of apple but why that was chosen as a

more interesting a logo rather might be worth I should just try to find out that but it technology

you know it promises to satisfy our our comforts doesn't it it's all about how often have you know

my age of my kind of age or generation of people say you know we've got all these labor saving

devices the washing machines and dishwashers and I don't know all that kind of stuff and oh we're

busier than ever that's what we say because it's not really giving us any more time for one another

or relaxing in many ways or at least sometimes it doesn't allow us so it's important to recognize

that in God's in God's economy technology is a great servant we've got a lot of things to

Lord and to praise God and to give thanks for in technology but it is a terrible master and as

Christians we do need to consider that whether technology masters us or whether we are servants

of the living God one of the challenges is it kind of blinds us to eternity

it blinds us to the reality of how short life is if it make it encourages us just to focus on the

here and now all the time immediate satisfaction immediate pleasure and consumerist thinking

it's worth asking the question and I'm only throwing I'm going to throw out some question before we

finish some of which you might discuss at say group if you're there is society today better

than the world of technology and I think I've said on the questions is the world we live in in 2022

better than the world of 1922 right you can act there's lots of debate in different ways about

that of course it is in many ways much much better but are there ways in which it is not any better

now than it was then it's easy for us I think to be not have nuance on these things to just be black

and white it's also easy for us just to be thoughtless to be mindless to not consider that although

these things are neutral morally technologies they are used in ways that are not neutral

by those who use them what does tech achieve for community in Scotland today probably the

suicide rate certainly among young men has never been higher isolation is a pandemic

there's algorithmic division being brought about all the time as technology pushes us towards our

inclinations and pushes us away from other inclinations all the time and from other people

and does it inspire love or corruption what is important in your life and what's important in

mine about our souls how do we feed and nourish and spend time on our created beauty of being in

relationship with God what is it that we are practically trusting in even though we would

never say spiritually we trust in technology how does it look in our day what does the division

of our days look like in terms of commitment and time we spend in building relationships with others

and with God or God and others and time we spend on our own on technology in different means

where is this technological advance taking us is it to self destruction or to a new utopia

and what is truly good in technology what is what and on what basis do we decide what is good in

technology and there are lots and lots of tremendous things in terms of the advance of health

comfort serving others the advancement of knowledge good outcomes fulfilling our creation mandate

lots of good things I certainly I don't want to be a bad humbug person and I don't think I am but

we do need to I think recognize the limitations of technology and then what you may look at more

and say groups or maybe next time is how do we live in a technological city

and a technological age how do we live and I'm just going to finish by reading

Jeremiah chapter 29 which I think is quite a significant passage in thinking about these things

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

and speaking about the city and the city as a kind of hub of technological advance and technological

focus in most places in the world the next chapter of the book speaks about the city I don't think I

agree with some of the stuff in that chapter but it's very interesting nonetheless what he says

and of course speaks about the technology and the technology and the technology and the technology

and of course speaks about the tower of Babel and then he speaks about Babylon becoming the great

anti-God technological advanced city of its day and then it relates that to Babylon at the end

of time in Revelation and the destruction that Babylon speaks of everything as anti-God so there's

some interesting parallels but in Jeremiah 29 where God speaks to the exiles who have been

taken from the promised land are in exile in Babylon and the false prophets have said dad don't

worry about it don't get don't don't don't be concerned you'll be out here in two years and

you'll be back in the promised land and of course the Jeremiah says that that prophecy of peace and

of freedom is false prophecy and so in verse 4 there's more to it but we'll just read verses 4

or 7 thus says the Lord of hosts this is what God said to the people in exile in very well known

words to us thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel to all the exiles who might have sent

into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses and live in them plant gardens and eat their produce

take wives and have sons and daughters take wise for your sons and give your daughters in marriage

that they may bear sons and daughters multiply there do not decrease but seek the welfare of the

city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for its welfare for you

will find your welfare for thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel do not let your prophets

and your diviners who are among you deceive you and do not listen to the dreams that they dream

for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name I did not send them to clears the Lord

and there's just that interesting provocative challenge from God about living in exile

but praying for that city and seeking its good seeking its prosperity by living

appropriately and following God and being light in a dark place and in the questions there's some

other texts that maybe say something slightly from a different perspective to speak into

so the limitations of technology I hope it's something that you think about it's something

we almost think about the amount of time particularly that we use technology we can't avoid it we can't

run away from it it's very much part of the world we live in but we need to make our servant

and not be mastered by it because God is our King and Lord