Popcorn With The Pastors 9-20-26

We call this popcorn with the pastors or pastors and elders because there's actually popcorn at the end. This is what I'm promising you and I'm counting on the fact that that's true. I don't smell it yet. Or do I? Do you smell it? Okay, it's there. It's in. Okay, Kath smells it, so it's there.

Yeah. Were we going to eat while? Well, I thought, okay, that would be actually fun, but it might be a cleaning hassle too. Might be worth it. I don't know. What's that? Might be worth it. Might be worth it. Well, if anybody's interested in serving popcorn to this crew, I'm sure no one would turn it down. So if anybody wants to go get us popcorn and serve it, you can do that.

We actually invited people to send questions to us, Pastor Andrew and I, and we got questions sent from a long time ago because we were gonna do this some previous date, but because of the changes in schedule, we're doing it tonight. So we have actually some questions that we're gonna begin with. We're not gonna go through all of these, but there's a stack and they're great. They're all excellent questions. So we're gonna start with some of these, but then we're gonna give you all an opportunity to ask questions. So hopefully you have some. Here's a first bunch. And by the way, I'm gonna try to remember to say what the question is when you ask it, because this is all being recorded.

Why Believe?

Quite a while ago, Melanie sent some questions, and her first one is, to the elders, why do you personally believe in God and also Jesus? For example, have you had very specific personal experiences to help solidify your faith? I thought that was a great question. They're all great questions, actually. So how would you guys answer? Grab a mic if there's one near you. Maybe all of us can give a short answer. Why do you personally believe in God and also Jesus? And have you had any specific personal experiences to help solidify your faith? Anybody want to start out?

Sure. Why do I believe in God? A personal experience would be God saved me. So, I mean, that would be the main thing is that I was dead in my sin and God made it absolutely clear that I had no hope of being saved apart from Jesus dying on the cross for me. So that would be the main thing. I just recently had a conversation with a family member who doesn't believe in God or doesn't believe, believes God exists, but different version of God. And, you know, I was asking, so how can you know, you can never really know that, you know, and, and I pointed to the resurrection is that, you know, if you're looking at, you know, this happened, how do you explain all the things, the people that saw Jesus, you've got Josephus, all these other people writing, how do you explain that Jesus was dead and then he's alive and then all these people give their lives from, all these things. So that's where I went. Yeah, that's great.

Kevin, take us next. Yeah, I'd say that it's God's awakening would be the main thing. I heard the gospel presented for two years, and yet I was thinking all sorts of crazy, unbelief thoughts. Good person, obviously, and I think I was going to heaven, had no grounds for that. And then through circumstances, including meeting my wife, not then wife, but a future wife, got to see faith lived out and I encountered Jesus. Now, it wasn't an audible voice. So those that are expecting an audible voice, may be disappointed. God may choose to speak to you audibly, but he has not spoken to me audibly. But consistently through the scripture and through the spirit, I have come to faith and growing in the faith since then. So it was God's awakening power and then just a peace that he's given me ever since. Yeah. Amen. Logan, maybe go next.

Yeah, I mean, I would echo my salvation experience. Undoubtedly, when Christ saved me, that's an unbelievable mark of His activity and work in my life. And I have no doubt that was God and the Spirit of God at work in me. And so that's first and foremost through the Word of God and the Spirit of God and my salvation experience. But I would look, too, to even just general revelation and how do I know God exists. I mean, there's just so many things when you walk out there that cannot be explained any other way. Just, I mean, just even take it to a logical vantage point. And I had the privilege of growing up in northwest Montana and the beauty of that. And here we are in Duluth and just the beauty of all creation that just resounds and echoes a Creator God. and you can't explain it any other way. Yeah.

Yeah. Amen. I guess I would say, I mean, you have your testimony. And so that's kind of the basic thing. I once was one way, now I'm a different way. But the question was, how do I know? Yeah. And, you know, I'm kind of like Logan. To me, it's just self-evident that there is a God. You can't explain that away in my mind. So then the question is, it's kind of along C.S. Lewis's line of, well, if there is a God, would that God communicate with us or would that God be silent? Okay, and if that God would communicate, how would that God communicate? And kind of going down this logical road of, well, there's a God that's going to communicate. I believe that. That makes sense. And we have a written word.

That is from God that would be a way that fits, in my mind at least, of how a God would communicate with us. And so without going, that's the abbreviated version. Yeah, I'd say yes and amen to all these. My testimony is that when I came to Christ at six years old, I remember feeling the experience and knowing the experience of God dwelling within me, my sins forgiven, and that I trusted that I was receiving the gift of salvation from Him and eternal life. And it's been my joy ever since then. In fact, it's increased all the more. So I would say my experience of the Holy Spirit is part of what, is the experiences that solidify my faith. I've had experiences with the Holy Spirit all my life that he's guided me and helped me and applied his word to me in countless ways. Answers to prayer countless ways, the resurrection, everything in God's nature and general revelation. I would also add the self-authenticating power of the Bible. Every time I read the Bible, it seems to say something exactly true better than anything else and anyone else, and it's exactly what I need to hear. Oh my goodness, you know, wow. It's like a miraculous encounter with God every time I read the Bible. Anyone else want to add to that question? I thought it was a great question to start with.

Pets, Heaven, and Resurrection

Here's Melanie's second question. I wonder who's going to jump on this one. Do you think our pets will be in heaven for us after they die? No.

No, and no and why not? Oh, why not? Oh, guys. Uh this is my personal okay so but no pets do not have souls they do not have consciousness as far as people go they do not suffer in a way that is, suffering as an emotional they have pain and things like that but they do not have a soul they do not, live they are not saved you do not witness to them, on and on we i just had well okay okay anybody want to give an I agree with Conrad. They aren't, but nephish in Hebrew is the word soul. It's used of animals. That's right. And so there is an argument out there, but it's not the same because they don't have the intellect, emotion, and will. God gave us dominion over the animals. We are, yeah. Kevin, you got two cents on this one?

Yeah, I would say that we don't see any evidence for heaven, but in the New Earth, there will be the lion and the lamb together. And so they may not be our particular pets, but there will be animals, presumably, and perfected animals that will not harm our, well, anyone. I can't say children, you know, because, well, anyway, that's a different question. That would have been my response because of Isaiah 64 and 65. It talks about the new heavens and the new earth, and there the lion will lay down with the lamb. Yeah, yeah. And the child will play at the adder's hole with no danger. That's distinct from heaven. Pardon me? That's distinct from heaven, though. Like right now, when you're to die, you would go to heaven and you'd be a soul in heaven. So for the question, there wouldn't be any animals in heaven, presumably. Well, that's a question, isn't it? That's a good question. That's a good question. Which heaven is being referred to here? Where the Lord is now and where we go to his side when we die without our bodies. Sometimes that's called heaven. Sometimes that's called paradise. We see it in Luke 16. Can see the other side. Send him to put his finger in the water and touch my tongue. There's a paradise picture there, the Abraham's bosom. And then there's a final judgment where we will have our bodies restored to our souls and be in heaven. I think Isaiah 64 and 65 is referring to that.

So my understanding is that the final new heavens and the new earth that Isaiah 64 and 65 is referring to will have animals in it.

Here's another one. Do you think we go to, this is fitting with our question. Do you think we go to heaven right after we die? Or do you think he calls all of us up at the end, those dead and alive? Or yes. Anybody want to chime in on that? Do you think we go to heaven right after we die? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's right. Hallelujah. Amen. Do you think he calls all of us up at the end, those dead and alive? Well, there's going to be a resurrection, John 5, 28. of the living and the dead. And the bodies will be rejoined, reclothing their persons. So, I think there's a general resurrection to come. That's what I took that question to refer to. So, I would say yes and yes.

Money and Stewardship

Here's another question. Tell me about being wealthy. Some really frown upon it. Is it okay to be extremely wealthy as a Christian? Is it only okay if the person gives 10% or even more. There are Bible verses that seem to support wealth and even smart investing. Job and David were wealthy, for example. But then there are other Bible verses that seem to be against wealth. Is it really about whether you are worshiping money instead of God? Conrad, would you take that one for us as you begin? Well, the short answer would be we are stewards of whatever we have. And we can be stewards of a lot of material possessions or stewards of not much material possessions, but we are stewards nonetheless. The money is a source of all types of evil. And so without a doubt, there is a special gravity. I always think of it as gravity that money possesses, that the more material wealth you have, the more gravity it has and it pulls at you. But in and of itself, it is not harmful. It's a blessing from God. And we should see material wealth as a blessing of God, and we should be a steward accordingly. So... If you're above the poverty line for income in the state of Minnesota, you're among the top 4% richest people in the world.

Yeah. I mean, comparison, we could compare all day and we're all, I mean, we're very wealthy and we're very well off. We have all sorts of material goods. But wealth is always comparative when we think of, I mean, we can compare to, someone in Botswana, but really we're comparing to each other. And there are some of people that we interact with that have lots more material wealth, and there are people that have lots less, and that's not holy or unholy per se. Okay. So, and it sounds like there's an allusion to passages of scripture which sound like the Lord's inclination is toward the poor. For instance, this isn't mentioned in the question, but it comes to my mind, Matthew 25, how the poor are cared for, Jesus says, is how you've cared for me. So we're to see in the poor the distressing disguise of Christ. And that has informed many, many, many global ministries around the world, an initiative to care for the poor as Christ himself commanded us to.

That being true and precious and beautiful doesn't necessarily mean that the wealthy are automatically in disobedience because they're being wealthy, correct? Correct. But their challenge, you said a gravity, their burden to handle the money that they've been given to, much is given, much is required. So there's a sense in which having a great deal of money is a significant spiritual challenge, it seems to me. There's, I mean, there's a lot of things that can be, that people have that don't have. And money or material wealth is one thing, but we all have gifts. We all have things that we are stewards of. And so, yeah. Yeah, good. Logan, do you got something? I was trying to think of the verse that Dan referenced this morning where he said that, you know, Lord, don't give him, I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember, don't give me too much. Was it Proverbs 30? That's where I was at and I couldn't find it. Proverbs 30, verse 8 and 9. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, that's, and he drew the term moderation out of that. Yeah.

Proverbs 30:8

Yeah. give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food that is needful for me lest i be full and deny you, and say who is the lord lest i be poor and steal and profane the name of my god so their contrast of both of those but you know i agree with conrad the overall arching principle of all scripture is stewardship yeah yeah, kevin or andrew anything to add to that,

Borders and Christian Nationalism

Another just, I mean, just loaded with thoughtful questions here. Here's another one. Tell me about Christianity and our closed versus open borders for our country. It seems like we should be able to keep our doors locked and that we make sure we only let in people that intend good, that intend goodwill, and we have the right to limit how many come in. Is it okay to think that way as a Christian?

To be a nation by definition means it has a border. It does indeed. Indeed. And God promotes or God affirms the nations, and we are to go to the nations, and we are a nation. Yeah, there's a meaning change there, though. The borders of our nation of the United States or our state of Minnesota, or say our border with Canada, isn't exactly what ethne means when nations comes up in the Bible. Ethne means people groups, language groups that are defined by culture and custom and language. So for instance, inside the nation of India, there are many, many, many, even thousands of people groups or ethne nations. There's many nations inside the nation of the United States of America. So that observation raises this question or adds weight to the question because, when you put a border around a geopolitical nation like the United States, you're also saying, and I think this is part of the conversation, what does it mean to be welcomed into that nation? What do you have to affirm about the United States to become a citizen of the United States? And I would add, you have to affirm the Judeo-Christian foundation of this nation. And you should not come into this nation trying to overthrow or undermine that. That's my personal conviction.

So I pray like crazy that we would be clearly communicating to those who wish to come into the United States of America what the United States of America was founded upon and how we gained our unity under the preaching of George Whitefield, and how we gathered around the gospel. And that's how the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were formed so quickly as these were men and women who loved the Judeo-Christian picture of God. In fact, that's informative to the very migration away from Europe into the east coast of the U.S. and how the nation was formed. Now, there may not be universal agreement for what I've declared.

There doesn't have to be. It's okay to picture the nation differently. But I would say, along with the question, I think what I can see in the question here, that there is a, honest, legal, true, self-defining, self-identifying wisdom to building borders and asking people who would cross those borders to come with goodwill toward what they find in those borders by its intention. Not necessarily every expression who can say that we're proud of the United States for everything we've done in our history. We're not. We're not at all proud of slavery. We're not at all proud of many of the other ills that this country has and still does experience and demonstrate. But at our best, according to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, we would want folks to come in not secretly desiring to undermine those or to use the freedoms that come from those to try to undermine the well-being and stability of the country, which many have. But rather come into the country with a thanksgiving and a gratitude and a recognition that part of why they may wish to come to this country is because of those values. Anybody want to challenge or take that in a different direction?

I think that it's not right to this point, but a corollary is there's been a resurgence in Christian nationalism. I think we'd want to caution those kind of aims because our first citizenship is in heaven. And so, while we can seek the welfare of our state, much like Jeremiah advocated for the Jews that were in, Babylon, we can try to, as ambassadors, as sojourners here in this country, we can work for the welfare of this state, and ought to, as much as it defers to God's calling on us to magnify His name in wherever we're called. We want to be careful that we don't think that this nation in particular is uniquely... The new Israel. No. I don't think we'd want to advocate for anything like that, or that we would want to become some sort of religion state, necessarily, because we can't legislate belief. Right. Yeah. Well said. Yeah. I appreciate the comment, the clarity of John MacArthur. There's no such thing as Christian nationalism. And I believe that with all my heart. There is no such thing as Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism does not exist in the Bible. It doesn't exist in the mind and plan of God. And it is a harmful misappropriation of Scripture for.

Apparently a kind of religious control over the United States. One of the ways we know Christian nationalism doesn't exist is because Jewish nationalism doesn't exist. The very essence of the Bible is to remove the confusion that to be a national Jew meant you were a part of the chosen and pleasing people of God. When in fact, Paul will say in Romans 9, 6, not all Israel is Israel. He'll say that very clearly. What does he mean by that? He means by that you cannot merely be born into the ethnic, nationalistic Jewish identity and think that thereby, you have a direct line of salvation or favor with God. What he means then is that there are those who are Gentile who've joined themselves to the true Israel by faith. There are those within Israel nationally and ethnically who have fallen away from faith and are not included in true Israel. And there are Gentile nations that Israel is meant to go to and to bear witness to and.

That they will then be joined by faith in Jesus Christ with those who in Israel have received their Messiah, Jesus Christ, so that the olive tree together is joined by men, women, and children from every tribe, tongue, and nation, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jewish nationalism, which was the issue in so much of Romans and so much, of the Old Testament and the New Testament, doesn't exist as the plan of God. Jewish nationalism was never the aim. So also Christian nationalism can't be the aim. Neither one of those have biblical warrant or support, although there are many, many voices talking about that in these recent days, it seems to me. But we should be, I mean, the term Christian nationalism is very vague and used, in a lot of different contexts. Define our terms. Define our terms, and we can be patriotic, not in the...

There's ways to take that bad, too, but we can be proud of our country, we can love our country, all that sort of stuff, without being a Christian nationalist. And the U.S. is, in a political sense, it is exceptional. That's something that's true on the political stage. The way that we were founded 250 years ago was exceptional. It had never happened before. And simply by that Declaration of Independence was a revolutionary thing around the world. In fact, the Declaration of Independence wasn't sent out because there was such a worry that if other countries got this thing and they got to see this, that you could be free, that that would spread across the world. So there is something special politically about the United States.

Without going as far as saying that we are chosen or, you know, going off there. Why don't we, popcorn style, pardon the pun, give some answers or give some suggestions to how we and our people, all of us as a faith family, can positively engage with our nation. I mean, I just thought of five or six, but I'd love to hear what comes to your mind. What are ways biblically and in our lives that we can show our patriotism? As believers so celebrate where they where they celebrate you know independence day and so on so forth we yeah we join in those celebrations uh to show that we're not we're not anti anything here but we are we are uh with it yeah yeah, yeah there's there's a bunch more let's let's shoot out a bunch of them here being thankful if god is providentially causing you to be born in this nation yes then you give thanks to god for the nation that he caused you to be born so we should be very thankful for this nation because god chose that we would be here and be part of it yeah and And praying for the nation. Praying for the nation, yes. Sure. Vote. Yeah. Kevin? Yeah, praying for the nation, but also specifically praying for our leaders, praying for our communities, and being part of God's special grace to our communities. So, investing in those lives, those around us, and speaking the gospel. Yeah. Yeah. Support our military. Mm-hmm.

Pray for folks to be raised up who are believers in Jesus Christ, members of healthy churches who would enter into the political fray and become leaders in the community. Sure. I mean, I'm thankful for Ben Sasse, Senator from Nebraska. Thankful for Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House. Many other examples. Good. Great questions. These are not light questions. These are not thin questions. They're pretty meaty.

Adam, Eve, and Pain

Do we think that Adam and Eve could have been hurt by injury like humans today, or do you think they were protected from all injury prior to their sin? Okay. There we go. That's a good one. Andrew, want to take us into that? What do you think?

Well, yeah. If I was there, so I definitely know. But no, I mean, again, there's some guessing. I would guess no, because at some level, if every tear is going to be wiped from your eye in heaven. Would there have been anything to cause you pain or would you have gotten into pain before the fall? I don't think so. And, but you could argue, somebody could say, but pain is a good thing because you put your hot, you know, hand on a hot oven and it's way. So, you know, you could go that way too and say there was pain, but I think pain is good. Pain will, pain will be there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Yeah. No, but I mean, I would kind of go probably not, but yeah. That's a guess. That's what I think, too. I mean, that's what makes sense. Yeah. Any of you guys, any additions? I disagree. But that's fine. Okay. Speculation. Make a case for the view that they could be injured prior to the fall. Part of working the garden would be there's nothing sinful or bad about getting a scrape or, I mean, working hard and perspiring, getting a sore back or something like that. You know, that's all part of the work and it's not bad. I mean, if there's no pain, that means we can't go for a jog. I mean, in heaven, is that right?

You can run ultra marathons. Then why would you do it? Why would you go running if it doesn't hurt? Glory of God. So it's all speculation. That's why I can. But I always feel that the pain and the burden, the toil, there's a godly there is a godly toil there's a godly burden there's godly struggles and I in my we kind of talked a little bit about this thing, I think there will be struggles godly struggles in heaven, that we push through and have that reward of meeting challenges whatever that means and, I would throw in pain I would throw in I mean And to some, you know, I don't know. Okay. That's where I fall. All right. I hadn't thought of heaven. What? And the healing, right? Okay. You're saying that there'll be no healing in heaven? It's all healed. Could be all healed. Already healed, yeah. Anybody else want to chime in on this one here? I stand loosely on this. This is nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm standing pretty loosely. I don't know.

Debt and Church Finances

I think that was an interesting question Okay, here's another good one This comes from you, Jeff, thanks Many in the church do not like debt Do we have any margin or budget To be more aggressive in paying it off Can we use assistant pastor's salary Until we get one? None of us like debt. Temporary use. Yes, amen. Let's use what we can to pay it down. You just as an elder dealt with this a little bit? Paid off. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like last week. Right, right. So we, as a church, we just had the trees and the nice parking lot, and we paid for that. And we decided that we would take that out of our savings, out of our cash, rather than increasing our debt. And so we had this credit line that was available for us that was specifically for that purpose, but we had assets and we used that instead because we wanted to limit the debt.

Howard just told me that because we did not use the money that we could have borrowed and we refrained from borrowing that money, that we lowered the length of our repayment by seven years. I thought that was amazing. You just told me that yesterday. What if we could pray miraculously that, like you're asking in this question, Jeff, we could lower our payment time by 10 more years? I mean, what if we could pay it off? Think of how we could put that money into ministry. Think of how we could show a shining example of not carrying debt to the culture as a church. Think of how we could not hand off a debt-burdened church to future leaders. I mean, there's a hundred great reasons why we would want to get rid of debt. Happy to hear any. There's also a hundred reasons why we'd want to have the debt, too. A hundred? Maybe not a hundred, but. I don't know if there's something. But so the concept here, though, is that organizational debt is different than personal debt. Sure. And so that was when we were going through that. That's one of the reasons we took out debt. Sure. Why we, but while we wouldn't necessarily recommend for a person to go into debt and there's a variety of reasons that we don't. Yeah. And you've written on that. Yeah. You've got some good writing on that. Yeah.

We're happy to talk more about that if any of you care to.

Adult Classes and Fellowship

There's lots of good things to talk about there. Here's another great question. It seems we should be able to have more than one adult Sunday school class. What is preventing us from having them? Nothing. We have had... We just have to build another wing. Yeah.

Dick and I were talking today about another adult Sunday school class. Cole has led a second adult Sunday school class wonderfully. It was so well received. We have a lot of teachers. We have a lot of people who are willing to go to one, teach one. I could see us as a church space allowing. We could have more than one or even two adult Sunday school classes. Have you ever, as for folks who are here, have you ever, and you guys, encountered... A model in a local church called ABF, Adult Bible Fellowships. Logan, how have you experienced that? I've experienced it, but maybe give a summary of that. I bet a lot of these folks here don't know what ABFs are. We used ABFs in Rochester. What were they and what good did they do? Well.

Fundamentally on the Sunday school hour, we had several groups that met together and they taught different topics or they went through their own studies together during the Sunday school. So that's a Bible study. But it became a Bible study there, but it became a fellowship that they would use to have special events or whatever. And we weren't telling people which ABFs to go to. They were open and available. Anybody could go to whatever one they wanted to. But typically they centered around stage of life type, you know, people of certain parents of young kids kind of gravitated together because they had these things in common. So it just kind of gravitated that way and a group would just attend their fellowships that way. And it sounded like that worked well. Yeah, I mean, largely during the summer months, they were encouraged to have their own ABF gatherings or barbecues or whatever events during the summer just to keep fellowship going through the summer months and even during the year as well. Reach out to me or one of us as elders Give suggestions for teachers or classes or suggestions Love to have it Love to have more Let's keep going here Here's another sort of complicated one.

AI and Wisdom

How do we apply our biblical worldview to the topic of AI? More specifically, AGI, artificial general intelligence, and its potential threat to destabilize our society. It's becoming increasingly clear. We're running at neck-breaking speed to produce a head without a body and a mind without a soul. That's from Sasha. Anybody want to jump in on AI? Who does?

Good call. A few things. one would be, just general it's such a good question but it would take books to to answer it and i'm not the one to write those books i would want to read those books but just general things don't fear ai fear the lord i mean we shouldn't be in in fear of it also you know looking at it as a, you know it is a tool but i think, when genesis talks about how god breathed the breath of life into adam i think that's gonna become a lot more precious because ai will never have that right like It will never have a soul. And so there's a sense in which, obviously, we're not asking AI to be that. AI is not creating the image of God. It's people who are creating the image of God's creating something in the image of themselves. And so it's like, how does that all work? But yeah, I think fear the Lord, don't fear AI. But also, there's good news about how I just read an article this week about how AI is being potentially used to translate the Bible into languages that, just would take years and years and years for us to get a language written. And then, so, I mean, if God can use it for his glory and he can, that's a good thing too. We just have to be careful and wise with all technology that we use it. Yeah. Brilliant. That's encouraging. Think about Bible translation.

Yeah. Something to add, guys, on the air? I mean, like nuclear energy and nuclear bombs. I think it's technology and there's lots of dangers, but there is great promise and And it's just, it's just quote unquote technology and it'll move forward. And then that's what it, yeah, yeah.

What are ways we should not think about AI as this, big, scary, massive potential of danger, but what are ways that we can actively guard ourselves against using AI in a dangerous way? How do you, as a leader, think about not letting AI encroach upon you?

I can think of two specifically that come immediately to mind. One, we shouldn't use it to supplant prayer. Prayerful consideration and digging into God's words. Those go together. You can use it to survey, like, what are the reasons somebody might do this? But at the end of the day, God has given you all that you need through his word and by his spirit to make decisions wisely, which may be antithetical to what AI will tell you and may give you compelling reasons AI might. But God may tell you to do something that would be unwise by AI standards. So prayerfully, biblically, and counter-listing. Second one that immediately comes to mind, and this would be a tendency for pastors or teachers, is to create a sermon about this. You could use wisely, ask AI to give you a list of verses, much like a concordance would, about specific issues. And I wouldn't say it's not sinful to use a concordance. That's maybe a wise thing. Right. Or use a commentary. But by the Spirit, preaching is a God-breathed activity. Right. Absolutely. I would add to that, I think—.

I think I hinted on this in the Sunday school class that I did when I was talking about work. God made us to be creative beings and to use our creativity and to express that through the work that he has given us. And so whenever I encounter something that could potentially steal that creativity, from me and do it for me, that's laziness. And that is not the way we were made in the image of God. And so anything that steals my creativity or takes it and could do it for me and would promote laziness is a way I, kind of an initial thought that goes through my mind. Is this something I'm just using to get something done more quickly because I'm being lazy, you know, or because God made us to be creative, I want to continue to pour my effort and energy into that. Yeah, for sure. That's one way in which I've guarded against AI deliberately for a long, long time, not to let it encroach on the creative process for writing, sermon writing and other kinds of writing. That's just so absolutely necessary and wise. But there are other ways in which you can imagine, as you said, Andrew, ways that AI could be useful. Yeah. It can be useful in non-creative tasks. It can be useful in other ways that are work-intensive and can speed them up. I mean, I know of so many missionaries who are yearning and longing for a people group to have the Bible in their language.

If it could help codify the language, put dictionaries together and grammars together, and then translate it into Scripture, translate Scripture into that language. Wonderful.

God’s Mind and Mystery

Anyone else? Questions that you have? We've got time.

Sovereignty, Evil, and Prayer

You guys got any questions? Well, criticism I sometimes have heard about Reformed theology is if God knows all things and can control all things, why they're still evil? Or why would we pray? If God knows all things and controls all things, why is there still evil and why would we pray? Classic, the big daddy of them all. Yes. And that punishment has been born by Christ on the cross for us completely. So we don't endure it. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Howard. That's right. We are all faced with the wonder, the wondering, even to the point of our last breath in death sometimes, am I really forgiven?

Is my punishment really placed on Christ and my life free from His punishment? Is the good news of the gospel really true for me? I just heard of a woman who soon went to be with the Lord who was asking that question before her final hours, yet she'd walked with Christ all her life. It's a normal and natural question every one of us asks. Does anyone want to take up Kevin's simple, easy question? Anybody want to start? If God is sovereign, knows all, and has all power, why does evil exist, and why do we pray? We've got seven minutes.

It's a great question. Andrew starts out. Before the foundation of the world, God planned to display his glory in sending his son to die for sinners. And so it was God's plan to do that. And the fullest display of his glory is sending his son to die for sinners like us and saving us for all eternity. And so God in his wisdom has ordained that there would be evil for the glory of his name. Yeah. That's Ephesians 1. Yeah. There's a lot more to say, obviously. Also in the prayer part, he has said he's not only sovereign over the outcome of things, but he's also sovereign over how every step unfolds to cause that outcome. He has said he will bring about the outcomes that he's planned by prayer. He has promised to answer prayer. He set up the world so that prayer must happen in order for his outcomes to occur. And he says, I will raise up people who will pray.

So there will be prayers and there will be prayer and prayers will be prayed and he will answer them and his outcomes will be secure. So that's a reflection of passages like Isaiah 45, 6 and 7 and Romans 9 through 11 and Revelation 13, 8 and many other passages. Conrad. I was just going to say this is, you know, it's great to think beyond our scope of thinking and to think that God has ordained things to come to pass and he has ordained that the means by which they will come to pass are human beings praying and bringing about that, that we would be part of changing, quote unquote, not as a man, but changing God's will according to God's providence. And we can say with reality that if we did not pray that, that would not have happened. Yet at the same time, God has ordained that that would happen and he's not forcing us to pray. And so it brings the weight and seriousness and the reality of prayer just that much more. We would say, wouldn't we? I think probably all of us here, and certainly all the folks I've ever studied with by personal encounter or reading their materials from times past, that there's a large dose of mystery in this. Yeah.

One of the questions that you have to answer for yourself is, where does the Bible locate the mystery? Does the Bible locate the mystery in the human heart? If it does, you'll end up worshiping the human heart. If the Bible locates the mystery inside the heart of God, which we've already identified with his changing his mind question, then you'll worship at the feet of Almighty God. There's mystery for every view. No view has the advantage of declaring itself without mystery. But the question I think that's worth challenging, the question that I find challenging myself at the end of this question, at the end of the thought of this question is, where does the Bible locate the mystery? And it seems like over and over it locates it at the foot of God.

Closing Prayers

I'm going to ask a few of you to pray as we close. We've got four minutes. I'm going to ask several of you who are led at all by the Lord to pray over the body, maybe over these questions, over these sweet ones who've come out on a Sunday night and over the wider faith family that we represent, and over needs and burdens around the world, whether they relate to world leaders or wars or AI or border questions or anything that we've talked about or anything that's on your heart. And after four or five minutes of prayer, I will close us. So someone lead us out.

It's good for us to just gather together and ask questions and to think you have designed us and made us to be.

In your image and to understand to learn to develop and to grow and we need each other we need this body so we just even reflect on the message this morning how much we need one another how much we need this body of people, to grow to develop in our spiritual well-being and to understand your word. And so as we sift through some of these questions, maybe we don't have all the answers to all these things, but, we are so grateful for your word and pray that as we leave here, that we are challenged with even greater studies and greater endeavors, to teach the next generation to come the ways of God, your ways, to help them to understand that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. And all of these questions and fears that come, even as a result of all the AI talk, and just fear is becoming a predominant theme in our culture. God, we do not have to be afraid.

You, sovereign over all things, have control over all of these things. And we pray that you would help us to steward well all of the matters that are in front of us, our finances and the relationships that we have. And as we day by day steward those things, Lord, I pray that you would help us to just trust you more and more and that fear would just dissolve and dissipate and leave, so that we would have our freedom in you, enjoy our freedom in you, love one another more and more in this body as we grow in fellowship together, Lord.

Lord, we thank you that you have revealed yourself to us, that you have not left us with no direction or without any answers, but you have given us every answer that is necessary for salvation. So we thank you that you give us your word. We thank you that you give us teachers and leaders and pastors. We thank you that you give us the Holy Spirit, that we can read your word and we can gather the information that you deem necessary for us. And we rest in that. We are not skeptical because we don't know all the answers. We are not disheartened because we can't.

Answer all questions. But we rest firmly on a faith in you and a faith in Jesus Christ. And we have no doubts and we do not waver and we do not fall back. But we rest steady on a sure foundation.

I'm so thankful that your ways are not our ways, for we despair, but you are utterly glorious. Your name is magnificent, and we want to glorify you with all that we are. Lord, we are entirely dependent upon you, and we're thankful that you, like the brothers here have already said, that you have given yourself to us. For if you've given your son, what good thing would you withhold as our Heavenly Father. You've chosen to adopt us as your children. And so even in those hard situations where there may be pain, even those confusing situations where there may be lack of wisdom, Lord, we turn to you, we turn to your word, and we submit. We ask that you would give us spirits that would not be stiff-necked like generations in the past or even our former lives before your spirit was at work, but that we would be ready to look to you. So in the midst of hardship, in the midst of the unknown, so we would find ourselves in fresh wonder, just saying, Lord, here I am. I'm ready. I defer to you. And you would instill in this faith family, me and each of my brothers here and our entire faith family, a glorious dependence upon you. There would be a witness to the community around us as we are ambassadors for Christ. May this community be confronted by it winsomely, powerfully, for your glory.

God, we do thank you as was prayed that you know all things and that nothing is mysterious to you. God, we know that we don't know the answers to all these questions. And so we're so thankful that you do. Would you help us never to trust in our ability to answer anything, but to trust in you? Some trust in chariots, some in horses, some in their brains, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God. So would you lead us and guide us? Would you give us wisdom? Would you give us wisdom to know how to face and think through well the challenges that are ahead of us? Would you keep us humble? Would you help us to be reliant on you? Would you keep us in step with your Holy Spirit? And thank you for the giftings and wisdom you've given to this faith family here at The Landing. We just ask that you would be with us, be near to us, cause your face to shine upon us, comfort us, keep us this week, keep us this evening, trusting in you, hoping in you. And would you help us to do the same tomorrow We lean and depend entirely on you. So would you give us grace? Would you thank you again for this morning and being able to gather with believers and have your word preached and prayed and read and sung. We pray that you would cause your word to continue to do the work in our hearts for your glory and our joy.

So from you and through you and to you are all things. To you be the glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray these things for that great cause and in the outpouring of your glory, the showering down and the filling up of our lives with your joy. We pray this through Christ and everyone said together, amen.