Every Future Needs a Story: AI, Humanity, & the Future (Rev 20-22)

Thank you. Well, yeah, give him a hand.

That was great. Um, [applause]

I have no idea how to put this together

with one hand. Someday I'll get that

down perfectly.

Good morning. Good to see everyone.

Summer is such an interesting, weird,

odd, and wonderful time. It's like uh

we're all out of our rhythms. Our staff

team is finally seeing each other for

the first time this morning. And that's

been weird being kind of like remote all

over the world and people's vacations.

And uh and then some of you it's like

haven't seen it feels like in months and

others um you know it feels like oh I

wish they'd go on vacation. It feels

like I've seen too much of you. Not at

all. It's it's just uh I think for

pastors summer's a weird time. I I get a

lot of like inundated uh algorithmic is

that a word? Algorithmic uh details uh

telling me it's going to be okay. Fall's

almost around the corner. pastor as if

like you feel like everything's

crumbling because it's the summer and

everything feels chaotic and out of

order. But um we've had a really we've

had a really beautiful summer and I want

to though in the midst of kind of

non-normaly I want to give a bit of a

non-normal message and it's my first

message specifically that will address

uh the concept of AI.

AI um I am um not going to speak as an

expert. One thing I've learned is that

if you speak as an expert on things in

Los Angeles that you're not an expert

on. Um that's the best way to get emails

on Monday morning. I've tried not to do

that. Uh so I try to speak from the

posture always of what is scripture

telling us about uh how do we read into

something happening in the culture? But

um to give a little bit of a storyline

with this uh I've been just as a show of

hands I've been wondering how many of

you would say your daily life is now

integrating AI in some kind of way

almost every day.

Now some of you also go when you see

that some of you are going like so cool

so much opportunity optimist. Some of

you are going like, "Holy crap, we're

all going to die." Pessimists,

if you feel more optimistic about AI,

just show of hands. Just curious. You

may be an optimistic person in general,

but I don't know. Uh, optimist. Okay.

Pessimist about AI for being honest. I

noticed that like a lot of you didn't

raise your hands, cowards. So, um,

we're waiting to see what the Bible

says, Christian. Uh

well uh I look one of the most

significant things my wife and I do

together is [snorts] um watch

documentaries.

I really enjoy documentaries. Uh she

does not.

And I was really disappointed on the

flight home. I I I try when we're when

we're on airplanes, I I try to watch

documentaries because she won't watch

most of the ones I want to watch with

me. Uh you're supposed to be like, "Give

me some emotional support from that.

Thank you." Nobody. Too late. Shut up.

Too late. No, but seriously, we we we um

we don't watch very many. I would more

say she's just got a very high standard.

And maybe my standards are lower, but

there was this um document. I have no

idea if it's a great one. I I thoroughly

enjoyed it. It's just called the AI doc.

I have a picture of it. if you want to

check it out. Uh it's also I guess the

subtitle is or how I became an

apocalyptus,

something about apocalypse and optimism.

And it was a fascinating documentary.

Basically, the uh the the creator is is

wrestling first and foremost with the

people that are basically saying

everything is is is going to be really

bad and this is depressing and scary and

horrible and and then the other side of

it is all these optimists that say like

no one's going to work in five years.

we're all going to be rich and

everyone's going to be cured of cancer.

And then they they kind of stepped into

the tension. But I I first kind of want

to want to just acknowledge that when we

talk about AI, most of you are

acknowledging that this is affecting

every one of your your days. Um we're

not just talking about like the concept

of like how chat GPT is nice to look up

like a recipe, which is what I do every

day, but it's also it's it's hitting our

jobs. It's hitting our work. It's

hitting our finances. It's hitting how

we define and look up and observe truth,

education, relationships, creativity.

It's it's getting at identity, purpose,

and future. I want to I want to touch on

how it's hitting some of these areas

just so that we're kind of bringing to

the surface some of the realities that

this is dealing with. This isn't a small

thing. This is a drastic reformation and

what we do with it and how our kingdom

mindset leads us into it. How our faith

in Jesus guides us is going to be

critical. And so obviously many of you

are are asking questions like is AI

going to take my job or 60% of my job or

a part of it and is that going to shift

things? Many of you are probably looking

at like how am I going to make a pivot

or a half a pivot or something else? Uh

lawyers are billing like a quarter of

their hours or less in often different

circles. Uh accountants but designers,

writers, programmers, teachers, even

pastors. How is this affecting us? I've

got a huge concern about how people come

up with their content as pastors. AI can

be a great help, but if it's writing

your messages,

I heard someone recently go like, "Oh,

there was like a new like family member

that had to write a message." And he

goes, he was able to write the message

in like a half an hour with AI. And I'm

like, e like

ah I promise you nothing happens in a

half an hour in my house anyway. So um

let alone this um when even if AI is

utilized in some way, shape or form. But

the the other elements I mean our work

is being do I even will we even need to

work? What a great question. Um my

answer to will we need to work? Um I'm

going to give an overly simplistic but

hopefully very clear answer. You will

100% need to work. Here is why you will

need to work. Because God has made work

holy.

You will need to work. Truth. How will I

know what's real? How is that video

real? Is that person's face real? Is

that pastor real? Is the new Is the news

real real relationships? Will my kids

spend more time talking to AI than to

real people?

How is that going to affect their

education?

How much should I let my kids use it? Is

it helping them actually learn?

Is it preventing them from learning?

What is school even for? What are we

actually trying to teach them? How is it

helping us with knowledge? But but

knowledge is one thing. Wisdom and

character is a totally other thing.

Hopeful questions in medicine. What kind

of cures is it going to bring?

How will it detect diseases years in

advance?

Some of you are like wrestling with the

fact of like, oh, that loved one might

still be around if this would have just

happened a few years before. Maybe

there's hope attached to it. Is it going

to end some unnecessary suffering? I

hope so. that I really I really believe

the enemy hates any amount of ending of

suffering

money. Many of you are just amped about

investment.

[snorts] What AI company should we

invest in? Is this going to be bigger

than the internet or is this going to be

2008 all over again?

If you don't know what 2008 is, you're

not worried about investing. So if if AI

maybe identity wise identity wise is

this going to help me think write create

converse

what actually makes us as human beings

different that's that's a profound thing

I'm I'm realizing that the the things

that make us human are going to be even

more valuable. One of the things that

gets me excited is they're they're

saying across the board, the things that

bring to the surface pinnacles of human

experience are going to flourish and be

at like an all-time high. I think one of

the reasons why the World Cup was so

exciting was because it was like the

polar opposite to COVID in so many ways.

You're cross-pollinating with everybody,

even if you didn't want the loud scots

singing down your city hall, you know,

or invading your Red Sox game or

whatever else the Europeans came in and

did, you know, and then you're bonding

over with with just the stupidest

things, light-hearted, not end of the

world stuff, just like about a stupid

ball that the Americans don't even

understand. We're like, we don't even

understand this game. This is great.

They're so excited and they're so

excited to be here and eat our fast

food. It's amazing. It it's it's then

you you're tempted though to to look at

this as are we about to enter humanity's

greatest age or our greatest collapse

and how can we personally benefit from

it? How can I control it? How can I what

is the selfish elements that we're

honest with our fears and maybe our

how our hearts want to take advantage?

And so this documentary was interesting

because like I mentioned there were the

pessimists. This is dangerous. this is

the end. We're gonna we're going to

regret creating this. And then there's

the optimist that we're all about like

this is going to cure disease, eliminate

poverty, no one's going to have to work.

We're all going to be poets and artists.

It's going to be amazing.

But the reality that came out of it,

which was so interesting to me, was what

they were searching for wasn't am I

supposed to have a pessimistic view or

an optimistic view. It was where is the

hope?

In fact, the the the guy that did the

documentary was so interesting. is like

he he he's kind of giving us his whole

process and it's you know the

documentary makers make like it takes

them forever years and and at the end he

was just like I don't even know how to

land this thing so I'm just going to

give you pictures and like videos of my

baby because he kept asking all these AI

guys like is this a good time to have a

baby and I'm like you're asking whether

it's a good time to have a baby like but

people are really wrestling with this is

this like safe to bring a child into

this world sort of thing obviously Sue

and I never asked that question it's

All I asked is it safe to love this

woman? And that's all I've done since

then. Do I like kids? I don't know. But

I love my wife.

Fruit of my love. Yeah. Uh so here's

here's the thing. We we need to ask an

even bigger question. And it's not the

kind of they're sitting there going,

"What kind of future is AI bringing?"

Valid question. And we're all wrestling

with that in some way, shape, or form.

Here's here's what I want us as

followers of Jesus to always keep in the

forefront. Answer this first. What kind

of future is God bringing? Now, that's

real simple. You don't have to go,

that's good. That's good, pastor. But,

but it is it is maybe something should

be on the screen. What kind of future is

God bringing? Remind us. Remind

yourself. And that's all I'm asking us

to do in the scripture this morning is

remind yourself what kind of future God

is bringing. We were in a series on

Revelation. If you're new to the church

or been gone this summer, we did a

little freedom series the last number of

weeks, but before we left for the

summer, for the few weeks of the summer,

we were in Revelation. I didn't feel

like I got to adequately end Revelation

the last couple chapters, so I kind of

crash landed it a little early. And so

this morning, I'm I'm going to give you

a little taste of culmination of the

series on Revelation. You can go back

and listen if you're curious, but if you

weren't, this will hopefully make sense.

One of the most misunderstood books of

the whole Bible is ultimately trying to

show you who Jesus is and how the alpha

and omega beginning and end. It connects

Genesis to the end of the story of the

Bible to Revelation. And it ends with a

garden city. The garden from Eden ends

in a garden city. The new Jerusalem, new

heavens and new earth coming down is the

vision that John is having. He's having

an apocalyptic vision. But it's it's

it's imagery to show us the culmination

of what Jesus's work is going to bring.

what he has done, is doing, and will do

in the course of time. And that's meant

to give you hope. And so what I'm I'm

just trying to connect with even those

in the secular world that are trying to

figure out what to do with a AI. What

they're actually trying to do is where's

the hope? Where's the hope for my child

and my children's children? I I get the

fact that some of this is optimistic,

some of this is pessimistic, some of

this is good news, some of this is bad

news. What I what I really found that

they were what they were realizing, the

tension that they brought up was this.

The tension was this thing has massive

potential for evil. Why? Because we're

in a race of who's going to control it.

We're in a race, yes, with Russia and

China and all the scary countries.

And if we just stay in that vein, like

we're we're not we're not in any

different moment in history than we were

during the Iron Curtain, than we were

during a world war, than we were during

another revolution. and the world is

going to have revolutions. The the story

still ends with a new heaven and new

earth and a hope in a kingdom that's

bigger than whatever the present reality

is. And if if we align our lives with

that future reality, that will have an

effect on how we live in the present.

And that's the only thing we're trying

to get at. How does the two things that

are at the end of the Bible? Two things

are there. Hope and grace.

Hope and grace are reiterated at the end

of the story. Why? Because at the end of

the day, you need to know two things.

There's a grace being offered to you

that's been paid for in blood.

And because of that, there is a hope

that will meet you in the present

regardless of where you find yourself in

human history.

And

your humanity being made in God's image

is the most important thing about you.

machines.

It's a big deal that you are not a

machine.

You will never be a machine. And

machines will never be able to replace

humanity.

So, what kind of future is God bringing?

What should I hope for?

There's always two trees in the garden.

God started, and I think many of us when

we read Genesis, the beginning of the

Bible, if you're unfamiliar, it starts

with Adam and Eve in the Bible. They're

given this temptation. He's like,

"Here's the tree of life, but then

here's the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil. You're not allowed to eat of

this tree because if you do

what?" Like, there's the tension. It's

like, "Will you be like God? Will you

know good and evil? What is this?" The

the reality is is why does God give us

choice?

The reason why he gives us choice is

because you cannot have the fullness of

the capacity being made in God's image.

the capacity to love, to create, to

partner, to be human doesn't have

doesn't have that potential without the

potential for evil and for danger. You

know, the the the person that you want

to protect you, you know, God forbid

someone ever runs in here with a gun,

you know, or or flailing with a knife or

just looking all dangerous. And uh

you know, as cute as my wife is, I don't

want her to be protecting me. Well,

partially because I love her more than

you. Just a little bit more than you.

But secondly, because like she's not

going to defend me. Like there's a few

in the room that I'd much rather defend

me than her. In fact, I shouldn't be

asking anyone to defend me. I should be

going first, right? So, but this is like

that's my human nature. Who's going to

defend me? And and so when you're

thinking of who do you want defending

you, you think of someone what someone

will make you safe is the person that's

the most dangerous.

I want a dangerous person that knows how

to not be dangerous at the right moment

and dangerous at the at the right moment

for me, you know, or the people that I

care about.

That's what good and evil is. The

capacity that we have for beauty, for

love, for the fullness of creation.

That's the that's the free will. That's

the tension. That's the good and evil

tension. There has to be that capacity

for evil, for that capacity for good.

And so there this is the this is the

crux of the human condition right now.

AI brings that all is it going to be

good or is it going to be bad. The issue

is how are we going to manage its evil?

If we manage the evil there will be a

lot of good. We cannot see the capacity

for the good without the reality and the

potential for the evil. But Christians

shouldn't be surprised about that.

That's our entire story. It's our entire

story.

There's two trees, one garden. There's

freedom, responsibility, and the

possibility of endless and incredible

flourishing, but also from the very

beginning, the possibility of

devastating evil. That's our entire

story. And that's what scripture is all

about. It's not an AI problem. It's a

human problem.

We don't have an AI problem. We have a

human problem. And we shouldn't be

surprised.

And again, we there's going to be a lot

more documentaries, news articles,

conversations, and and all of this

thought about artificial intelligence,

but it's it's really just talking about

Genesis.

They have this there was this one moment

in the in the film where it it had this

promise verse peril.

We lock it down or we let it rip.

And there we don't have a choice. We're

in a race and the only real issue is how

do we build a society that can deal with

the evils and the power.

So here's our wrestle today.

AI has basically made everyone ask a

question that revelation has been

answering for 2,000 years.

And that question is simply, how should

God's future shape our lives today? How

should his future shape our lives today?

That was a massive introduction to bring

you straight into the end of Revelation.

I'm just going to read a couple verses

out of the last three chapters. And what

I want you to see is there's chapter 21

or 20, 21, and 22. These three chapters

do several things. Chapter 20 is really

about justice. Answering the question,

what is God going to do with evil?

Chapter 21 is all about what future is

God creating?

It's all about his presence. And then

chapter 22, the last book in the entire

Bible is who is invited into that

future? How do you and I become part of

that future? It's all about renewal. So

the first part, how does God deal with

evil? Uh will evil win? That's the main

question. Let me read for you. Uh

Revelation 20, just a few verses 11 to

15. Then I saw a great white throne and

him who was seated on it. From his

presence, earth and sky fled away, and

no place was found for them. And I saw

the dead, great and small, standing

before the throne. books were opened.

Another book was opened which is the

book of life. This again is a vision

John is having of of these massive

things that are symbols and signposts.

And the dead were judged by what was

written in the books according to what

they had done. And the sea gave up the

dead who were in it. Death and Hades

gave up the dead who were in them. And

they were judged each one of them

according to what they had done. Then

death and Hades were thrown into the

lake of fire. This is the second death,

the lake of fire. And if anyone's name

was not found written in the book of

life, he was thrown into the lake of

fire.

I've noticed a lot of people online I

I've I've shown like diary of a CEO

Steve Bartlett. He he has asked like

every Christian like so if I don't

believe in Jesus am I going to hell? And

he's really sincere about it. Like I

want to cry every time he asks it.

But here's the thing I want you and I to

be careful about.

Be careful not to answer questions that

the Bible is not answering.

Don't say more. Don't say less. Just say

what the scriptures say. And you don't

have to be super scriptural about it.

Just

Does the Bible say that if you don't say

a 30 second prayer that you're going to

spend an eternity in a sulfur lake of

fire? That's not what it says. It also

doesn't say, "Oh, it's just going to be

cool and chill. If you're a good person,

it's all going to work out great." It

doesn't say either of those things. It

says this.

Okay, so that's the scene. Great white

throne. I'm going to come back to the

judgment thing in a second. Those of you

that have a lot of anxiety, okay, the

books are open. There's a book of life,

death in Hades, a lake of fire. Don't

linger on all the speculation. What I

want you to do is is to see what John is

doing. John is making a a few a few

points here. First, he's saying evil is

not ignored forever. That's a good

thing. There's going to be ultimately we

can rest and not I don't need justice

for those that are injust to me because

I know that God will deal as a just God

in eternity because this isn't the end.

I don't see this as the end of my life

and they cannot take my life from me

because I've already been given a new

life for eternity. History is moving

towards justice. That's the other thing

that John is talking about. He spends a

couple verses here and then he's going

to put everything in the corpus of human

history and justice in history is moving

towards that place of God restoring all

things and being just. He also is

pointing out this every single life

matters. You cannot be a Christian and

not believe that every life matters.

Every life matters. Every story matters.

God is not indifferent to death to life

in any way, shape or form. Death itself

is judged. That's how do you wrap your

mind around the fact that he put death

and Hades in the lake of fire? That

should break our brain for a moment.

Then evil does not get the last word.

That's the main thing he's saying.

So the answer to one of humanity's

deepest questions ultimately is, will

anyone ever make things right? And God

is saying, yes, I will.

Revelation is saying, yes,

God's going to make things right.

Judgment comes before new creation.

That's significant because God doesn't

build heaven pretending, you know, that

that evil never happened.

He defeats it. And then he doesn't stay,

John doesn't in his vision. It's he

doesn't stay at this judgment seat

forever. The whole book of the Bible

doesn't end on judgment. He spends far

more time showing you and I what comes

next. And here's what comes next. Here's

point two. God makes all things new.

This is all in Revelation 21. The

question it's answering is, "What future

should you and I hope for?"

Let me read a couple verses just to give

you a taste. 21 1-5. Then I saw a new

heaven and new earth, for the first

heaven and first earth had passed away.

And the sea was no more. And I saw the

holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down

out of heaven from God, prepared as a

bride adorned for her husband. And I

heard a loud voice from the throne

saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of

God is with man.

He will dwell with them and they will be

his people and God himself will be with

them as their God. He will wipe away

every tear from their eyes and death

shall be no more. Neither shall there be

mourning or crying or pain anymore for

the former things have passed away.

We can look to AI to end our suffering

or we can look to this future promise

and hope.

And and humanity has been doing this

from the very beginning. If you if you

go back and read through Genesis, it

continues the story of humans trying to

do in their own might. What they really

in their hearts cry would be longing for

God to do. The the tower of Babel is

essentially, do we have the ability to

reach to God and be God's oursel?

We're still with AI wrestling with the

same questions back at Babel.

New heavens, new earth, new Jerusalem,

dwelling place of God, no more tears,

all things new.

I want I want to see just a couple

observations to point out from this from

this chapter. The first is is that where

is heaven? Are we escaping this world to

go off to heaven as everything burns

like so many evangelicals have done

forever? And no, heaven's coming here.

This is a huge deal. It's not escapism.

We get to escape the earth. That's why

I've joked about the Left Behind series

and this concept that a few Christians

had a few decades ago about like the

secret rapture and we're all going to

evaporate with Kirk Cameron and go off

into the clouds. Yeah, most of you

haven't seen that movie. The few that

are laughing did see the movie. So,

I don't even encourage you to watch it.

There's just a mode of just like what

the rapture is. There's this second rap.

The rapture is about Jesus coming. It's

not it's not about us escaping. And so

the point of this is that I want you to

know that we are not building a future

where we get to abandon the earth. I

think because of that, Christians have

wrestled with actually caring for

creation because we actually think it's

all going to burn anyway. It's not going

to matter. When we start understanding

that the whole vision is that our role

is going to be renewing creation,

we start caring a whole lot about what

God has entrusted to us. He redeems it.

So that's one. Heaven comes here.

Second, the climax is all about his

presence.

It's not about gold or gates or streets.

They mention some of these things and

mansions, but it's not that's never the

point. That's just part of the vision.

The whole essence of what John is trying

to paint a picture of is God's presence.

It's the dwelling place of God with us,

with humanity.

So, the Bible begins with God walking

with Adam and it ends with him dwelling

with humanity forever.

Plan A.

gets restored.

Everything else supports that. And God

says, "Behold, I am making all things

new."

Not, "I make all things new."

It's all about it is resurrection

language, redemption language, renewal

language. And this is all where the it's

you need to see how this

wrestles with Silicon Valley technology

often kind of imagines replacing things.

God is always concerned about redeeming

things, not replacing. He's not trying

to replace you. He's trying to redeem

you. He's not trying to replace the

earth. He's trying to redeem the earth.

Then then this alpha and omega thing it

just for a moment it might be worth

mentioning that history has a direction.

When you hear these things alpha and

omega what the beginning and end is what

it means in the Greek it has an author.

History isn't random. What it's

basically saying is that that history

and time these are not random things.

It's everything is under his hand that

he's put into order. And then he verse

six he says the invitation to the

thirsty I will give not to the qualified

not to the not to the good moral person

to the thirsty.

The thirsty know that they have a need

that needs to be quenched.

The invitation

is all about grace. the judgment that he

had just talked about in the last

chapter never cancelled the grace.

So here's here's the thing. This chapter

contains one of scriptures greatest

promises and one of its strongest

warnings.

It reminds us that what matters most is

not what you've done with your life

that's going to qualify you for the book

of life and to avoid some lake of fire.

That's not what he's talking about. What

he's talking about is where is your

allegiance?

What's your Lord? Who do you serve? Who

have you entrusted your life to? That's

the issue.

The warning here just reminds us that

your allegiance matters.

Then the final third point, renewal,

life and God's future. The final chapter

of the Bible, it's ultimately asking,

"How do I become part of that future,

you and I?"

Let me read a couple verses. The river

of life, chapter 22, verse one. Then the

angel showed me the river of the water

of life, bright as crystal, flowing from

the throne of God and the lamb through

the middle of the street of the city.

Also on either side of the river, the

tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit,

yielding its fruit each month. The

leaves of the tree were for the healing

of the nations.

No longer will there be any anything

accursed, but the throne of God and the

lamb will be in it, and his servants

will worship him. I know I'm I'm

skimming over a lot, and you probably

have 30 other questions about this and

that, but I hope I'm anchoring what is

the core direction that John is giving

this ancient vision that is meant to

give strength to the church for all of

history. He ends verse four and five,

well, not these aren't the last verses

of the Bible, but almost there. He ends

in verse four and five saying this. They

will see his face and his name will be

on their foreheads and night will be no

more. They will need no no light of lamp

or sun for the Lord God will be their

light and they will rain forever and

ever.

So there's a river, there's a tree of

life, there's healing, no curse. God's

face.

His face,

not a machine. His face

reigning forever.

Again, a couple things I want you to

see. The garden returns.

The beauty of the garden returns.

Genesis begins with that garden.

Revelation ends with a garden city.

There's there's culture. There's

flourishing. creation is fulfilled. You

see the tree of life, not the tree of

knowledge. Notice that

interesting in an AI sermon that there's

no tree of knowledge.

Humanity has spent thousands of years

chasing knowledge and the Bible ends by

celebrating life.

That's worth just sitting with for a

minute. We've been we've been obsessed

with knowledge for our entire existence.

And the Bible doesn't say, "Look, you

figured it out."

It celebrates life.

No more curse. Everything that Genesis 3

introduced with the fall and the curse,

it's undone.

And we'll see his face.

the presence

presence of God,

not information.

Communion.

And every time we take communion, I

meant for us to take it today. I think

we have like 10 for those of you most

thirsty and hungry today.

Communion. Every time you take it, it's

a reminder to your soul and a

proclamation to all eternity.

That this is what matters. He's going to

reign forever. That my humanity is not

going to disappear. And whatever happens

to my life, I don't have to fear. I can

lay it down willingly

because this is what I was created for.

Verse 17 almost at the end of the entire

book says, "The spirit and the bride say

come."

It's the last invitation of all of

scripture.

The spirit

bride,

let's go.

And then of course the promise, surely

I'm coming soon.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

I want to just remind us. Here's our big

idea. Every vision of the future shapes

how you and I are going to live in the

present.

I know I'm still kind of ethereal to

some degree. We're going to try to make

it real practical before you go home.

But is this the vision that consumes and

that confronts all of the noise in your

life? This this is what this Sabbath is

inviting you to do. Here's some meat to

confront all the other offerings on the

table of this world. There's going to be

some massive tempting things that come

at you. There's going to be some things

you don't want at all, and you're not

going to be able to avoid them. How do

you confront them? Confront them with

this promise.

Evil's defeated, creation renewed, God

dwelling with humanity, and the

invitation is still open.

Now, before I close, some of you are

still stuck on the lake of fire. Let me

just address it for a moment. Uh, some

of you are just like, "This is great,

but like the lake of fire thing just

bothers me a lot.

To some degree, it's okay for it to

unsettle you. I don't think John was

sitting there giving you like a like

letting humanity just have like a pat on

the back like it doesn't sound like

floating in the Dead Sea.

Revelation says judgment is real. That

God takes evil really seriously. That

history matters and that justice

matters.

That no one gets to ultimately escape

accountability.

But it also doesn't answer every single

question you and I are asking. And you

just you and I just need to be

comfortable with that reality. We can

ask all the questions we want. We simply

don't have to answer every question as

if it's talking about your specific

question. It doesn't walk us through

hypothetical individuals explaining how

God evaluates every single life on

earth. It doesn't. So you don't have to.

You can relieve yourself of that

responsibility.

You can start online. Instead, it speaks

about your allegiance.

What will you worship? the lamb or as

John reminds you Babylon and everything

that it tempts you to worship.

And the issue is all about the book of

life, not modern hypotheticals.

It's giving you categor categories of

what God is like in God himself.

It ends with an invitation. That's what

you need to obsess about is that God is

basically saying to every single person

waiting come and join the spirit and the

bride say come. John could have ended

with fear. He does not end with fear. If

your message is ending with fear or

starting with fear that's not the gospel

message.

It starts with God's intention. and he

loves and he gave and he suffered and it

ends with grace

inviting you into his future. The point

of revelation of revelation is never

going to be to satisfy you and I's

curiosity. As much as I encourage you to

pursue your curious questions,

it's not to satisfy our curiosity about

the future or everyone else's future.

It's simply to invite you into God's

future with grace and hope.

If you forget the message of grace and

you forget the message of hope, you

don't have a message anyway and you're

not going to be answering anyone

effectively that has the questions about

life and death.

Here's how I want to land and then the

team can come up and we'll we'll uh

we'll land this. I want I want to

encourage you and I to live today as the

future really believing that this future

is true. How can you start taking a step

forward? How would you practically take

this and say, "If this is true, I'm

going to put this to the test in the

most simple practical daily ways

possible. What does that look like?"

If God's future is presence, justice,

and renewal, what does that look like?

Here's what it looks like. If his if the

future is his presence, it means that

you and I need to seek his presence

daily. It means here's the invitation.

Slow down, pray, worship,

develop the value of the community and

relationships that his presence pulls

you towards. If his if his future is

justice, you and I don't have to be

cynical, fearful. We can be forgiving,

working to reconcile, letting things

fall off our back when people speak bad

of us, screw us over, give us the raw

deal. It means that we can forgive in a

way that no one else can forgive because

I don't have the ability to do it in my

own strength. It means that you can tell

the truth. Means you can love your

neighbor, the neighbor that you hate,

not just the neighbors that you like.

It means that you can refuse the other

way. It means that when you don't feel

like there's any other way to do this,

that Jesus always offers a third way of

the gospel.

If the future is renewal, it means that

you and I are meant to create beauty

from the ashes.

It means that we do meaningful work and

that work isn't useless. And we're not

on this planet to do away with work.

We're on this planet to let work redeem

it. to create, to raise children, to

plant gardens, to start businesses, to

write music,

regardless of what your nineto-5 is,

to build, to heal, and to encourage.

Everything done with the presence and

spirit of Jesus anticipates this

beautiful future of grace and of hope.

So here's here's what I invite us to do

today. Three things to step into this.

Live today.

Just live today as a citizen of

tomorrow. Or as we often like to say,

remember that future.

What does it look like to live today as

a citizen of that future?

Presence, justice, and renewal. Just

look at your life and lean into these

three areas in the most simple way

possible. Where do I need to seek his

presence this week?

Maybe you're not beginning and ending

your day just with just with him.

That's a first step.

Maybe you need to just let silence lead

you instead of the noise, the cries of

your heart.

Maybe you need to take a walk with him.

Instead of a prayer at him,

try to replace the worry. Try to worship

your worry away. Not by minimizing it,

but by actively putting in your

fixation, your heart, your soul, your

words, your life, your eyes, your gaze

on him instead of yourself. And see what

that worry does.

Some of us just need to try to eat a

meal without a screen.

Pay attention to his presence. Turn your

commute into a prayer. Whatever it is,

just

step into the presence and seek his

face. What do you need to do to seek it

this week? How do you need to seek

justice? Follow the lamb into it this

week. Where is God calling you? Mercy,

truth, forgiveness, courage. Do you know

that when you forgive someone just an

inch? You're working the [music] act of

justice in the earth because you're not

claiming a justice that the world can't

give you. You're claiming his

and you're throwing that seed out into a

world that's desperate for a justice

that they can't conjure up.

Some of us just need to even ask the

Lord for strength to hold on to

forgiveness instead of bitterness.

To stand up for someone that's being

overlooked. It may cost you. It may cost

you time. It may cost a reputation. Some

of us just need to stop gossiping.

Refuse to take part in the words of

death negativity.

When you do that, you are doing that

because you are remembering a future

reality. What is this bigness of

eternity and this future promise of

revelation mean? It [music] means I

watch my tongue.

It means I have the capacity to not

speak like I used to. It means I have

the ideas and the creativity to see

someone in a way that no one else sees

them.

The future isn't just like simply

defeating evil. someday. It's it's

learning how you and I to live under the

reign of Jesus now. Taking his judgment,

his purpose, and trusting him in the

midst of the pain now.

Now,

and then finally stepping into the joy

of his renewal

is how can I help make one small little

piece of this world

taste that new creation? [music]

that phone call, that relationship that

needs to be reconciled. It's the

creating something beautiful. Some of

you, we have such a creative tribe. Some

of you have put your creative uncctions

on the shelf because it didn't work out

career-wise or whatever else. It

represents some measure of pain. I just

felt this morning that some of you need

to bring some things off the shelf. And

don't do it don't do it for a project.

[music] Don't even do it for a dream.

Don't do it for a promise of a career.

Do it with the presence of God as an act

of renewing creation. Get that

paintbrush out. Get that camera out. Get

that pen out. And if you don't see

yourself as creative, if you don't see

yourself as human quite yet,

if there's one thing, don't compare to

the people around you. And certainly

don't compare to people in LA. Compare

yourself to the standard of what God

says about you. that you are a human

being created in his image

to renew the beauty of Jesus

on every frontier.

Pick up a pen.

Do something with it.

And finally, I love how Entright frames

this.

There's a closing thought. You can stand

for this and then I'm going to pray over

us.

Entright

says this, "What do you do? What you do

in the Lord is not wasted.

Every act of love, every work of

justice, every act of forgiveness,

every beautiful thing you create, every

child you disciple, meal you share,

person you invite toward Jesus becomes a

small signpost pointing to the world

that God is making new." Holy Spirit,

as you invite us to come, would you come

now? Lift every eye, lift every ear to

what you're saying and doing.

Let discouragement be shattered by the

joy of renewal, the [music] promise of

justice

and the comfort of your presence.

Thank you that your word is the final

word and the final say. That your

questions draw us. That they completely

cover every question of mankind.

And they draw us towards a future that

completely transforms the simple daily

acts

of being part of renewing this place

that you've given us to restore with

you. Jesus, thank you for your death.

Thank you for your life. and thank you

for your invitation. Thank you that you

give us identity that we didn't pay for,

grace we didn't pay for, and a hope they

can face

anything. We love you. We honor you in

Jesus name. Amen.