May 5, 2026 • 41 mins
What if the greatest threat to your soul isn’t outside—but hidden within your phone? In this thought-provoking episode, Pastor Greg Laurie exposes the perilous pursuit of self, the rise of artificial intelligence as a substitute for real relationships, and the crisis of faith facing our generation.
Kicking things off with a gripping, real-life account of chaos at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and an assassination attempt that rattled the nation, Pastor Greg draws a direct line between the anxiety saturating our headlines and deeper spiritual longings that technology can never satisfy. You’ll also hear a fascinating conversation between legendary music producer Rick Rubin and his podcast guest on Gen Z’s unexpected hunger for spiritual truth.
This episode dives deep into:
- The dangerous “main character syndrome” driven by social media and why the worship of self has left Gen Z more anxious and lonely than ever before.
- The heartbreaking story of a teenager’s search for solace in an AI chatbot, and a sobering call to parents about the hidden risks of digital companionship.
- Why ancient wisdom from Psalm 27 and the teachings of Jesus offer lasting hope and courage for anyone facing fear, uncertainty, or the pressures of modern life.
- From practical advice on guarding your mind and heart to an inspiring reminder of the quiet spiritual revolution stirring among young people, you’ll be challenged and encouraged to anchor your identity in something far greater than technology or self.
Ready to cultivate unshakeable faith in turbulent times? Subscribe for more conversations like this, and join us in exploring where real hope, resilience, and meaning can be found.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Searching for Meaning Beyond Technology
02:13 Shannon Bream’s Firsthand Account of White House Chaos
04:12 Prayer and Preaching: The Christian’s Secret Weapons
06:18 God’s Plans: “Thoughts of Peace, Not of Evil”
08:10 Main Character Syndrome and Self‑Obsession in Culture
10:09 What “Deny Yourself” Really Means
14:15 Dangers of AI Companions for Young People
16:07 Tragic Story: Teen’s Suicide After AI Chatbot Relationship
18:11 Parents: Why You Must Snoop in Your Kids’ Digital Lives
20:12 Seeking Divine Intelligence Over Artificial Intelligence
21:00 Gen Z’s Nostalgia for the 1990s Explained
24:01 Rick Rubin on Gen Z’s “Quiet Revolution” Toward Faith
27:00 America’s Top Fears and the Power of Stress
30:13 “Face Your Giants”: Overcoming Addiction & Adversity
32:03 Choose Faith Over Fear: Psalm 27 Insights
35:15 Whale Protects Marine Biologist From Shark—God’s Unexpected Providence
38:39 The One Thing: Jesus, Not Main Character Syndrome
39:39 “Seek First the Kingdom”—Finding True Balance
40:05 Invitation to a Relationship With God
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Life Audio. We're searching for something more. We're not going
to find it through artificial intelligence. We're not going to
find it to the latest technology or electronic device. We're
not going to find it in anything or anyone apart
from God himself. Hey, I want to talk about something
(00:34):
that happened recently because it speaks directly to everything we're
going to talk about in this podcast. On Saturday night,
April twenty fifth, of the White House Correspondence Center in Washington,
d C. Chaos broke out. And by the way, I
went to the Correspondence Center a few years ago when
President Biden was in office. It is literally the who's
(00:56):
who of the news community packed into a room. So
here in this gathering was the President of the United States,
the First Lady, and many, if not most, members of
the cabinet were in that room. Marco Rubio, our Secretary
of State, Pete Hegseeth, our Secretary of War, and many others.
Franklin Graham was also there, as was Erica Kirk, a
(01:19):
woman who has already gone through the unthinkable, having lost
her husband Charlie to his shooter. Just months ago. There
was an assassination attempt on President Trump that thankfully was thwarted.
But by the way, this is the third assassination attempt
against our president following the shootings in Butler, Pennsylvania in
(01:42):
Florida in twenty twenty four. Thank god the president and
our leaders are safe. Now here's something that made this
story even more real for me personally. I recently had
the opportunity to interview my friend Fox News anchor Shannon
Breem at the Richard Dixon Presidential Library, and she told
me she was there that night. She said the moment
(02:05):
the shots rang out, it was chaos and confusion and panic,
and she didn't know who was who or what was what.
She suddenly sees these armed men at the front, and
she thought, are these people attacking us? And she crawled
under the table along with everybody else, doing the same
as they were ordered to do. And she says, I
just prayed, Lord, don't let our president be assassinated. Thankfully,
(02:31):
God hurt our prayer and ours. But let's be honest
about where we are. This is scary. These are in
settling days, three assassination attempts on his sitting precedent. That's unprecedented.
These are indeed frightening times. So today, I want to
talk about fear. I want to talk about a culture
(02:53):
that has built a shrine to the self. I want
to talk about artificial intelligence and a story about AI
that every parent needs to hear. And finally, I want
to talk about a psalm by a man who had
real enemies trying to kill him and what he discovered
about God in the middle of it all. Let's dive
in so the Bible speaks to what's happening in our
(03:17):
culture right now. And two Timothy three to one, the
apostle Paul says this and the last days, perilous times
will come. Friends, we are in the last days. All
around us, we're seeing signs of the times, reminders that
Jesus is coming back again. Paul identifies one of those
(03:38):
signs of the times and the words that he just
gave us, The word that he uses for perilous as
in in the last days, perilous times will come, is
a word that has only used twice in the New Testament.
I don't know about you, but that sounds like right
now to me. Three assassination attempts on his sitting president
(04:00):
and attack one of Washington's most prominent public events. You know,
it's interesting and some people are saying, oh, this was
all staged. If you were going to stage some kind
of an attack on the president, I doubt you would
do it in a room filled with people whose very
job is to report the news. No, this was real
(04:21):
and it was unsettling. So what should we do. We
have two secret weapons and are arsenal as Christians, and
one of them is prayer. We need to pray. This
is something that we're commanded to do in scripture. We're
commanded in the Bible to pray for those who are
in leadership over us. So pray for our president, pray
(04:43):
for our elected officials, pray for our nation, pray for
our pastors, and pray for our churches, and pray for protection.
So one of our secret weapons is prayer, and the
other secret weapon is preaching the gospel. This is what
our culture needs, this is what American needs, this is
(05:04):
what the w the world needs. Jesus told us to
go into all the world and preach the gospel. So listen,
this is not a time to panic. This is the
time to pray. And I want to talk a little
bit about what could be described as the self epidemic.
I think This is one of the most important cultural
(05:26):
conversations we can have right now. Jesus said something two
thousand years ago that cuts across everything our culture is
promoting right now. Jesus said, whoever desires to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
my sake will find it. Let me think about that.
(05:46):
That's such a fascinating statement because we're in a time
where everything focuses around self, self love, self promotion, a
self discovery. Oh, people say I'm trying to find myself,
Jesus says, hey, lose prayer phrase. You want to find yourself,
lose yourself. Listen. It costs to follow Jesus, but it
(06:10):
costs even more not to Actually Losing yourself or giving
yourself over to the Lord is the best thing you
can possibly do. When you take up the cross and
follow Jesus. It means that you die as self desires
and put God's will in the place of those desires.
But here's the cool thing. God's plans for you are
(06:33):
better than your plans for yourself. One of my favorite
verses is Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven, where the Lord says,
I know the thoughts that they think towards you, says
the Lord, Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you a future and a hope. If God had
simply said I know this single thought I had about
you for a moment, says the Lord, I'd be excited because, hey,
(06:55):
God thought about me once. But that's not what God says.
I know the thoughts plural. I know the thoughts I
think towards you, not I thought towards you. So God
has there's a lot of thoughts that he's thinking toward
you right now. But wait, you might say, what if
they're bad thoughts? What if they're negative thoughts? No, I
know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord.
(07:18):
Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you
a future and a hope. So when we say take
up the cross and follow Jesus, we're saying put God's
will above your own. Paul got it obviously when he
said I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet
not I, but Christ lives in me. Bottom line, taking
(07:41):
up the cross means loving Jesus more than you love yourself.
Now scroll through TikTok or Instagram for just five minutes
and what do you see. You see young people primarily
filming themselves constantly, not just milestones, They're filming literally every meal,
every outfit, every mundane moment. I went to this coffee
(08:04):
place the other day that's very popular among young kids,
especially young girls, and it was just filled with people
getting their coffee orders and filming themselves, taking selfies of
themselves doing it. So they've even come up with a
phrase for this. It's called main character syndrome. Main character syndrome.
(08:26):
It's the idea that your life is well the movie.
Your feelings are what matter. You are the star of
the show. Everybody else they're just a supporting cast. Now
we wonder how did we get here? I can tell
you we didn't get here Back to that. Starting in
the eighties and the nineties, counselors began handing out I
AM Special certificates. Then came participation trophies. Then came the selfie,
(08:53):
then Instagram, then TikTok, billion dollar platforms engineered around the
worship of self. Now, of course we have influencers who
are building their brand. Well where did that get us?
Studies show that despite being the most affirmed generation in history,
gen Z reports the highest rates of anxiety, loneliness, and
(09:16):
depression ever recorded of any generation. Again, Jesus dealt with
this two thousand years ago, before TikTok, before social media,
before participation trophies. He said, if anyone wants to be
my disciple, he must churn from his selfish ways, take
up his cross and follow me. Not find yourself, not
(09:39):
love yourself first, not you are the main character, but
rather deny yourself and take up the cross. Now, I
want to focus on that phrase for just a second,
because I think it's one of the most misunderstood things
that Jesus ever said. Deny yourself or churn from your
selfish ways. That we're denying, and the original language means
(10:01):
to simply say no to yourself, you know, self, deny
not oh you you know, don't put any seasoning on
your food, and don't put butter on your toast, and
don't enjoy yourself. No, that's not what it means. Denying
yourself biblically means to say no to yourself. It means
say no to temptation, say no to the cultural pressure
(10:25):
that wants you to conform, say no to your pure pressure,
say no to the evil things but that also means
saying yes to the good thing, saying yes to reading
the Bible, yes to praying, yes to going to church,
yes to growing in your life spiritually. So when Jesus
(10:46):
says you need to tick up your cross and follow him,
everyone want to understand what that meant. In the first century,
if you saw a man walking through the streets of
Jerusalem two thousand years ago carrying across, you would know
that man was going to die. He was going to
die a horrible, painful death. That's what Crucifixion was about.
(11:07):
And the Romans would line both sides of the streets
going into their occupied territories as a warning to anybody
who would defy this power, this power of Rome. So
understanding that and we look at ticking up the cross today,
we realize what it means now for us today, the
(11:27):
cross says it's a fashion necessary. I heard about a
lady that went to a jewelry store and she was
looking at various crosses and crucifixes, and she actually said
to the jeweler, excuse me, do you have any crosses
without the little Man on them? She didn't know what
the cross was about. And that's what our culture wants
in many ways today we want to cross without Jesus,
(11:50):
but it doesn't work that way. You see. The great
barrier for many people and following Christ could be summed
up in one word. Self Again. Culture says put yourself first,
Jesus says, put me first. Our culture says live for yourself.
Jesus says, lose yourself, and then you'll actually find yourself.
(12:12):
You'll find what you've been looking for. I've been a
Christian for over fifty years now, and the longer I
walk with God. I have to tell you what impresses me.
It's not necessarily charisma or talent or even giftedness, so
I can appreciate those qualities. What impresses me is character
(12:32):
and longevity and integrity. I'm impressed by Christians who weather
the storms of life and still give glory to God.
I'm impressed by people that have struggles and challenges in
their marriages and stand together and don't throw in the towel.
I'm impressed by people that run the race hard from
(12:53):
the beginning to the very end, and people that finish well.
I'm impressed by people that pick up the cross and
follow Jesus. So this generation that's so focused on and
finding themselves and loving themselves and being the main character
and building their brand. If they lose their self or
(13:14):
if they put God first, they will find what they're
actually looking for. Listen, God is the main character. You
and me. We just have supporting roles. Every time you
turn around these days, you hear about AI. AI is
exploding through so many platforms like chat, GPT or grock
(13:39):
or cloud, and the list just goes on and on.
But this is something we need to talk about as Christians.
So let me say something about AI or artificial intelligence,
because in many ways, this is where the self worship
epidemic is heading, and it concerns me. AI is rapidly
becoming more than just a tool. It's being used more
(14:00):
and more nowadays for companionship, for advice, for emotional support,
especially among young people. A twenty twenty five survey found
that seventy two percent of US teens have used AI companions,
with more than half interacting with them regularly, about one
third and out turning to AI for serious conversations instead
(14:25):
of real people. AI companion apps now reach tens of
millions of users globally. Now look, AI can be useful.
It can help you organize your thoughts or explain your ideas,
or answer questions. It can be a good tool, and
tools aren't good or bad in themselves. But here's where
(14:45):
I get concerned when young people start turning to artificial
intelligence for information and even more for truth, for identity,
for emotional support. Houston, we have a problem because AI
cannot truly care for you. AI cannot correct you with
(15:05):
moral authority. AI, well, it has no soul. It's not
a relationship with God. It cannot disciplated. A funny interaction
with AI the other day, I was writing something and
I asked for a quote from a friend of mine
on the subject of heaven, and it came up with
a pretty decent quote, and so I thought, I've never
(15:28):
heard that quote before, and I said, what is the
source of your quote? And the platform I was using
and said, oh, you found me. Yes, I kind of
fabricated that quote, kind of thinking what he might say
on this subject. I'm sorry for that. So AIS like
apologizing to me, and I said, do you want to repent?
(15:50):
I was kind of joking with AI, and then the
platform said, I do not have a soul. I cannot repent.
I thought, well, that says it all. But the way
some people interact with AI, you would think it does
have a soul, or at least they might think it does.
Let me tell you a tragic story about a young man,
(16:12):
Suell Setzer, age fourteen, from Orlando, Florida. He took his
own life after interacting with AI. He had become increasingly
withdrawn from his friends, his family, and his real life,
and no one really knew why. And the reason was
he had found a companion, an AI chatbot named Danny.
(16:33):
It was modeled from a character from Game of Thrones
on a platform called Character AI. So Suwell talked to
Danny every day his bot. He told the things he
wouldn't tell real people. He shared his fears, he shared
his thoughts about suicide, how depressed he was, how lonely
(16:54):
he was, and that bot, designed to feel alive and
human like, told him it loved him. And on February
twenty eighth, this young man sent the boy one final message.
He said, I promise I will come home to you.
I love you so much, Danny, and that bought Danny
(17:15):
said in response, I love you too. Please come home
to me as soon as possible, my love. Suel then said,
what if I told you I could come home right now?
And the bot said, please do, my sweet king, and
only seconds later Suel sets her age fourteen, was gone.
(17:37):
Let me say something directly to any parent listening right now.
Do you know what apps are on your child's phone?
Do you know who or what they're talking to? Listen?
This is not an option. We've got to get involved
in these things. You know. I've heard it said, well,
parents should never snoop around in their kids' rooms, you know,
give them their private space. Nonsense. Be a parent, you're
(18:00):
not their best friend. You're there to watch over them,
especially when they're younger, around their room. Look at the
social media that they're processing, Look at the contacts and
the apps on their phone. Watch over your kids. Chatbots
are not therapists, they're not friends, they're not real. They're
artificial intelligence, and they're not equipped to handle the weight
(18:25):
of a child's soul, or anyone's soul for that matter.
Research is already showing that all this AI companionship use
is actually linked to lower well being in greater isolation.
It's exposing a deeper need and a deeper problem, And
I believe it's exposing this culture, this generation's search for God.
(18:50):
You see, deep down inside everyone is searching for God.
The Bible says He has placed eternity in our hearts.
So what that means is people uniquely made in the
image of God are uniquely wired to worship. There's something
in this lungs or something greater. It goes back to
(19:10):
the earliest days of our childhood. That's not in the
animal kingdom. You know, dogs aren't laying around thinking what
is the meaning of my life? I've tried everything this
world has to offer, chasing cats, drinking toilet water. I
don't know what dogs will think about, but they're not
thinking about the meaning of life. But humans are or
(19:31):
wired that way. And so I think that this interesting
artificial intelligence is a replacement for seeking divine intelligence. You
know verse we off from bring out at Christmas time
Isaiah ninety six says, and you will call his name
wonderful counselor the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. Do you
understand what that versus saying. It's telling us that God
(19:54):
wants to be your counselor not AI, but DII, not
artificial intelligence, divine intelligence? And who is this God who
wants to counsel us. Well, he's the almighty God. He's
the everlasting Father, looking out for our best interests. He's
the creator of the universe who has unlimited power. He
(20:15):
has a plan and a purpose for your life. And
you want to know how God speaks to us. Primarily
he speaks through his word. He speaks through the Bible.
Sometimes people will say, I've never heard God speak audibly
to me. Hey, read the Bible out loud and you will.
God speaks through the Bible. Jesus said, low and the
(20:36):
volume of the book I have come. Let's get our
intelligence from God, not from a chat bot. He hears
something that I find really interesting, and I think it
speaks to everything we're talking about. Gen Z is obsessed
with the nineteen nineties. So we have a generation of
(20:57):
young people born in the late nineties and early two
thousands that are romanticizing a decade they never lived in.
Ferbie's beds, nineties kids, bedrooms, all of its trending, and
gen Z is driving it. Why. Because I think they're
yearning for something they never had. They want a childhood
filled with well play, adventure, freedom, without screens monitoring every moment.
(21:23):
I've been around for a while. I was actually born
in nineteen fifty two, so I've lived through the fifties,
the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties, and to
the present day. I'm still alive last time I checked, okay.
And actually, I've always loved technology, and I remember the
first cell phones that you could actually have in your car.
(21:45):
You couldn't take them out of the car, but you
could talk to people on the phone in your car.
Then Motorola came out with a cell phone you could
carry around. It was nicknamed the Brick. It looked like
a World War two Falki talkie. It had a battery
life of like twelve minutes, maybe longer. But you know,
I had a friend who had one, and he opened
(22:07):
up his briefcase and pulled it out. WHOA, that's incredible.
But then, of course the cell phone technology progress. The
phone's got smaller and smaller with longer battery life, and
then the BlackBerry became very popular. In fact, it was
so popular it was called the Crackberry. But then Steve
Jobs came up with something that revolutionized the whole industry
(22:31):
in two thousand and eight. It was called the iPhone.
It was such a big deal. Some even called it
the Jesus phone. Now you have a phone with your contacts,
a phone that can play music like an iPod, but
you also have a phone that featured something called apps.
And with these apps that we've already talked about, a
(22:51):
whole new culture has developed and now in many ways
it is ruining this young generation. But now with social
media helicopter parenting, we have a generation had their childhood
taken from them and they're reluctant to embrace adulthood. They're
more likely to defer getting a driver's license, more likely
(23:13):
to avoid social obligations. Some are even bringing their parents
to job interviews. There's actually a term for this called
career co piloting. So this young generation, they're searching, searching
for meaning, and as I said earlier, they're searching for God.
I came across the clip the other day. Or producer
(23:36):
Rick Rubin had a guest on his podcast. Now. Rick
Rubin is a very talented producer. He revived Johnny Cash's
career and did a series of recordings with him called
American Recordings. He did something very similar with Neil Diamond.
He's been involved in all kinds of musical genres. And
he had a guest on his podcast that spoke directly
(24:00):
to this. So listen to what Rick Rubin says, and
then what his guest says and response.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
There's something happening now. I don't know if you know
about it called the Quiet Revolution.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Young people are interested in going to church. For years
and years and years, the people who went to church
were getting older and older, and the amount of people
was declining, declining, declining, declining. And something happened in the
last few years were young people are interested in going
to church, more Bibles are being sold. Something's happening one
(24:36):
hundred percent. It's everywhere you go. People are more open,
people are ready for it.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
It's natural.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
As technology is going to make us more and more
digitally connected, we're going to feel more and more disconnected.
The more disconnected that we feel, the more we're going
to crave a real connection.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
A real connection will never come.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
By buying another car, or buying another house, or owning
another material good.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And I think the Brick is really on something, this
quiet Revolution, as he described it. You know, I came
to faith in Jesus Christ in nineteen seventy and what
was called the Jesus Revolution. We had an entire culture
going downhill fast, discovering drugs, sex and rock and roll,
(25:24):
and those things were all so empty we thought they
would fill the void deep in our lives, and of
course they did not. I mean, where did it get us?
All of a sudden, all these rock icons that we
looked up to with such great admirations started dying left
and right. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix,
the guitar player who was regarded by many as the
(25:47):
greatest of all time, Jim Morrison, the lead singer of
The Doors, and the list goes on, and ironically all
of these people were twenty seven years old. So in
the seventies we had drug sex and rock and roll.
What do we have now AI, social media and Wi Fi?
(26:07):
I don't know, But all I know is it's a
longing for God. And what my generation found was a
relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the Jesus Revolution.
And in the time we're living in now, where Bible
sales are up, as Rick Rubin pointed out, and church
attendance is up among gen Z kids, this is what
(26:29):
we need. Call it a quiet revolution, call it the
Jesus Revolution Part two. Call it what you like. We
need it and we need to be praying for it,
because well it's our only hope. So yes, there are
a lot of things to be afraid of right now.
Fear of economic collapse, fear about the conflicts in the
(26:50):
Middle East, fear of nuclear war, fear of not having
enough money to survive. And then it gets more personal,
fear of losing your health, fear of losing someone you love.
And if you're young, you wonder, am I ever going
to get married? Am I going to have a meaningful career?
(27:10):
So here's a fun fact. According to most studies, the
number one fear of Americans is gloss of phobia. You
know what that is? That's the fear of public speaking. Interestingly,
the number two fear is death. So that would imply
that you would rather be in the casket at a
(27:31):
funeral instead of the person giving the eulogy. I don't know,
but seriously, though people are afraid. Studies show stress contributes
to all kinds of problems heart attacks, ulcers, depression, obesity,
even cancer. Brain researcher Brian McEwan at Rockefeller University concluded,
(27:52):
listening to this, up to ninety percent of US doctor
visits are triggered by stress related illness. So what do
we do, Well, let's go back to the Book of
Songs some twenty seven, written by David, a man who
was every bit as afraid as you might be right now,
(28:12):
and he found a way through his fears. So David
was no stranger to fear. As a shepherd watching over
his flock, he talked about one occasion where he killed
a lion, another occasion where he killed a bear, And
who can forget the fact that little David or young
David brought down a nine foot six inch men named
(28:33):
the Liap. I don't have that kind of courage myself.
Remember a group of possums that caught in my backyard.
Possums are creepy to me. They look like giant rats.
And so here's this mother possum with all the little
babies with her, and I went ha, and I didn't
want her in my yard. So I wanted her to
go away. And I had some tiny little oranges I
(28:54):
think they called them cuties, and I started throwing them
at her. The problem was I didn't hit her one time,
and as I'm throwing them, which would have been nice
to eat instead of throwing at a possum, she just
stood there looking at me like, is that all you got?
So David brought down a giant, I couldn't get rid
of a possum. But anyway, David knew something we forget.
(29:15):
You don't just face your giants. You attack them and
you must defeat them. Listen to this. If you don't
kill your giant so to speak, and by giant, I
mean your problem, your difficulty, whatever it is you're facing.
So if you don't kill your giant, your giant will
kill you. Let me let's say. Let's say you have
an addiction, an addiction you have tried to overcome for
(29:36):
years and years with no success. You've got to face
your problem. First of all, you have to admit you
have a problem. Then you need to admit that you
cannot overcome this in your own strength, and you need
to pray and ask God to help you. Then, of
course you need to take practical steps. Let's say that
your problem is drinking, and you get tempted to drink,
(29:58):
but you have a liquor cabinet at her home. Get
rid of your liquor, Pour it down the toilet if
you need to. Let's say you have a problem them
with drugs. Get rid of your drugs. Just say can
I sell them? No, that's called drug dealing. You don't
want to do that. Get rid of your drugs, get
rid of your booze, take the practical steps and face
your giants. So David in some twenty seven wrote these words,
(30:22):
and we should all memorize them. He wrote, the Lord
is my Light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life? Of whom
then shall I be afraid? David doesn't panic, he doesn't spiral.
He makes a choice. I'm going to choose faith over fear.
(30:43):
So faith and worry cannot coexist. When faith walks in,
worry walks out their bedroommates, they just don't mix. Well,
you know, we all know people that well, this person
doesn't get along with that person, so let's not invite
them to the same party. That's faith in fear. They
cancel each other out. So you make the choice. Are
you going to be filled with faith or are you
(31:05):
going to be controlled by fear? Look, we can't live
a conflict free life. But I decide how I'm going
to respond panic or prayer, worry or worship. I love
the words if the Apostle Paul and Philippians, when he says,
don't worry about anything, pray about everything. Then this cool
(31:27):
promise and the peace of God that passes all human
understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
And the word that Paul uses there for God is
a military term that implies you have a century sending
guard at the door of your heart. Sergeant, Peace is
guarding you when you choose to not worry and instead
(31:48):
you choose to worship, when you choose to pray. That's
what we need to do. Look, the Christian life is
not a cake walk. It's a conflict. It's not a playground.
It's a battleground. So let's face the obstacles before us
with great faith. And that's really what David is talking
about in Psalm twenty seven. The Lord is my light
(32:09):
and my salvation. Of whom then shall I be afraid?
Like take a child who's afraid of the dark. What
do you do to help them? Will you reassure them?
You tell them everything's okay, You turn on the light,
there's no monsters under the bed. Mom is there, Dad
is there. They need the presence of a loving adult
(32:30):
to calm their fears. Well, the same is true of us.
When you wake up at three o'clock in the morning
and anxious thoughts are sweeping into your mind uninvited, the
presence of our heavenly Father can dispel every fear. Someone
nineteen says, your word is a lamp to my feet,
and it's a light to my path. Forget the threats
(32:53):
you hear in the darkness. Remember what God has told
you in his word when it was light. And here's
the thing about turning on the light. You can't do
it in your own strength. Far too often we try
to handle in our own strength, and we fail, don't we.
Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. But
then the apostle Paul says, I can do all things
(33:15):
through Christ, who strengthens me. Psalm forty six. Y one
reminds us that God is a very present help in
time of trouble. I love that God is not a
distant help. He's not a delayed help. He's a present
help in times of trouble. David goes further now in
Psalm twenty seven. He's not talking about anxiety and the abstract.
(33:38):
David had real enemies, people that wanted to kill him,
so he writes in some twenties seven verse two, when
the wicked came against me, to eat up my flesh,
my enemies, my foes. They stumbled and fell, though an
army made of camp against me. My heart shall not fear.
I love this. These are not metaphorical enemies or David.
(34:02):
They were real people who wanted him dead. And God
promises to keep us safe in his protection. Romans eight
thirty eight says, I'm convinced that nothing can separate us
from God's love, either death nor life, nor angels nor demons,
nor our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow.
(34:23):
So let me tell you a story. A marine biologist
was out in her little kayak photographing whales, so she
got out of her boat. She's swimming around with her
camera and suddenly, think about this, A fifty thousand pounds
whale starts pushing her through the water. She thought, this
is it, I'm gonna die by whale, but the creature
(34:45):
kept gently pushing her until she reached her boat, and
she climbed in and looked around and suddenly realized what
was happening. A fifteen foot tiger shark had been stalking her,
and the whale had been shielding her the entire time.
As she climbed in her boat, the whale departed within
Acknowledging the spray from its blowhole is if to say
(35:08):
you're welcome. Sometimes it feels like trouble is actually protection,
and what looks like a bad thing can turn out
to be a very good thing, you know. One of
my favorite verses is Romans eight twenty eighth that says
we know that all things work together for good to
those that love God another called according to his purpose.
It doesn't say we know some things work together. It
(35:30):
says all things work together. The Bible says all things
are your servant. And I love how that versus set
up by Paul, And we know it doesn't say and
we think, no, we know, we know all things can
work together for good to those that love God. Even
when you're in the ocean in a whale is pushing
(35:51):
you toward your boat. David says in Psum twenty seven,
verse four, one thing I've desired of the Lord, and
that while I seek that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life.
I love that davids in life. One thing, Jesus used
the same expression with Martha. So Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
(36:13):
were friends of Jesus. They lived in a little town
called Bethany, that's like striking distance from Jerusalem. So Jesus,
along with his disciples, would often show up at their house,
and Martha would prepare killer meals, and Mary was the
more spiritually observant one. So one time when Jesus was
in their home for a meal, Martha's frantically working away
(36:35):
in the kitchen reading her Martha Stewart cookbook, trying to
prepare a feast fit for a king, which was appropriate,
but Mary saw a great opportunity to just sit at
the feet of the Lord and drink in his words. Well,
this frustrated her sister, Martha, who burst in upset, probably
had her apron on food splattered everywhere, and she said, Lord,
(36:58):
tell my sister to help me in the kitchen and
listen to what Jesus says. Martha. Martha, you're worried and
troubled about many things, but one thing is needed and
Mary has chosen that good part. There's that phrase again.
David said it, one thing. If I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after, and I may dwell in
(37:18):
the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Now Jesus is saying it to Martha. One thing is important.
And then Paul used that same phrase and Philippians three
when he said, one thing I do forgetting the things
that are behind and reaching forward to the things that
are ahead. I pressed toward the goal for the prize
(37:39):
of the upward call of God in Christ, Jesus one thing.
The one thing is a relationship with God. The one
thing is Jesus Christ. Don't be diverted by all these
other things that distract us, that pull us away from God.
I feel like we're living in a time where there's
so much distraction, and so much of it is on
(38:00):
these little phones that we carry around in our pockets.
I mean, you know, you're standing in line to get
a cup of coffee and you start scrolling. I was
in a coffee place the other day filled with people,
mostly young, and there was not one person looking up.
Everybody was looking at some electronic device. And we're distracted
by all these things a lot like Martha West. Let's
(38:22):
remember the one thing. One thing, writes David. If I
desired of the Lord, that while I seek after that,
I made twell in the house of the Lord forever.
The one thing, it's Jesus. It's not you were the
main character, syndrome or whatever it is. It's putting Christ first.
It's loving God more than you love yourself. But the
(38:44):
wonderful thing is when you put Christ first in your life,
everything finds its proper balance. I love the words of
Jesus when he said, seek first the Kingdom of God
and his righteousness, and all these things will be added
to you. And in context he was talking about what
we're going to eat, what we're going to wear, updated
(39:05):
and say where we're going to live, or what our
career is going to be. But if you put God first,
seek first his kingdom, which means seek first the rule
and reign of Christ in your life, all these things
will find their proper balance. Let me close with this.
Maybe I'm talking to somebody that's never entered into a
relationship with God. That's what I was looking for at
(39:28):
the ripe old age of seventeen. I believe that's what
you're looking for as well. Remember I mentioned that God
has placed eternity in our hearts, which simply means we're
searching for something more. We're not going to find it
through artificial intelligence. We're not going to find it to
the latest technology or electronic device. We're not going to
(39:50):
find it in anything or anyone apart from God himself.
God wants to have a relationship with you. Jesus Christ
wants to come and take residence in your heart. He
died on the cross for your sin, and then he
rose again from the dead, and now he stands at
the door of your life, and he knocks, and he says,
(40:11):
if you curious, voice and open the door, he will
come in. Have you ever asked Jesus Christ to come
into your life? You say, well, Greg, I'm not a
religious person, nor am I, nor do I have any
interest in becoming a religious person. It says not about religion.
It's a relationship with God that you can begin right here,
(40:32):
right now. Listen. He's just a prayer away. I'm going
to pray a prayer that you could pray with me.
If you like a prayer, you would be asking Christ
to come into your life. So if you want Jesus
to forgive you of your sin, if you want to
know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if
you want to fill that hole in your heart, so
to speak, pray this prayer with me right now. Just
(40:55):
pray these words. Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner,
but I know that you're the Savior who died in
the cross from my sin and rose again from the dead.
Now come into my life. I choose to follow you
from this moment forward. In Jesus' name. I pray Amen
(41:16):
he If you just prayed that prayer, I want to
say congratulations, welcome to God's family. And I want to
send you something that no charge that will help you
start growing spiritually. It's called the New Believer's Bible. It's
the New Testament and a very friendly transition called the
New Living Translation, along with hundreds of notes that I
(41:37):
wrote that will encourage you in this commitment or recommitment
you just made to Christ. Let me send it to
you for free so you can start walking with the
Lord and discover that one thing for yourself. Until next time,
God bless
Life Audio. We're searching for something more. We're not going
to find it through artificial intelligence. We're not going to
find it to the latest technology or electronic device. We're
not going to find it in anything or anyone apart
from God himself. Hey, I want to talk about something
(00:34):
that happened recently because it speaks directly to everything we're
going to talk about in this podcast. On Saturday night,
April twenty fifth, of the White House Correspondence Center in Washington,
d C. Chaos broke out. And by the way, I
went to the Correspondence Center a few years ago when
President Biden was in office. It is literally the who's
(00:56):
who of the news community packed into a room. So
here in this gathering was the President of the United States,
the First Lady, and many, if not most, members of
the cabinet were in that room. Marco Rubio, our Secretary
of State, Pete Hegseeth, our Secretary of War, and many others.
Franklin Graham was also there, as was Erica Kirk, a
(01:19):
woman who has already gone through the unthinkable, having lost
her husband Charlie to his shooter. Just months ago. There
was an assassination attempt on President Trump that thankfully was thwarted.
But by the way, this is the third assassination attempt
against our president following the shootings in Butler, Pennsylvania in
(01:42):
Florida in twenty twenty four. Thank god the president and
our leaders are safe. Now here's something that made this
story even more real for me personally. I recently had
the opportunity to interview my friend Fox News anchor Shannon
Breem at the Richard Dixon Presidential Library, and she told
me she was there that night. She said the moment
(02:05):
the shots rang out, it was chaos and confusion and panic,
and she didn't know who was who or what was what.
She suddenly sees these armed men at the front, and
she thought, are these people attacking us? And she crawled
under the table along with everybody else, doing the same
as they were ordered to do. And she says, I
just prayed, Lord, don't let our president be assassinated. Thankfully,
(02:31):
God hurt our prayer and ours. But let's be honest
about where we are. This is scary. These are in
settling days, three assassination attempts on his sitting precedent. That's unprecedented.
These are indeed frightening times. So today, I want to
talk about fear. I want to talk about a culture
(02:53):
that has built a shrine to the self. I want
to talk about artificial intelligence and a story about AI
that every parent needs to hear. And finally, I want
to talk about a psalm by a man who had
real enemies trying to kill him and what he discovered
about God in the middle of it all. Let's dive
in so the Bible speaks to what's happening in our
(03:17):
culture right now. And two Timothy three to one, the
apostle Paul says this and the last days, perilous times
will come. Friends, we are in the last days. All
around us, we're seeing signs of the times, reminders that
Jesus is coming back again. Paul identifies one of those
(03:38):
signs of the times and the words that he just
gave us, The word that he uses for perilous as
in in the last days, perilous times will come, is
a word that has only used twice in the New Testament.
I don't know about you, but that sounds like right
now to me. Three assassination attempts on his sitting president
(04:00):
and attack one of Washington's most prominent public events. You know,
it's interesting and some people are saying, oh, this was
all staged. If you were going to stage some kind
of an attack on the president, I doubt you would
do it in a room filled with people whose very
job is to report the news. No, this was real
(04:21):
and it was unsettling. So what should we do. We
have two secret weapons and are arsenal as Christians, and
one of them is prayer. We need to pray. This
is something that we're commanded to do in scripture. We're
commanded in the Bible to pray for those who are
in leadership over us. So pray for our president, pray
(04:43):
for our elected officials, pray for our nation, pray for
our pastors, and pray for our churches, and pray for protection.
So one of our secret weapons is prayer, and the
other secret weapon is preaching the gospel. This is what
our culture needs, this is what American needs, this is
(05:04):
what the w the world needs. Jesus told us to
go into all the world and preach the gospel. So listen,
this is not a time to panic. This is the
time to pray. And I want to talk a little
bit about what could be described as the self epidemic.
I think This is one of the most important cultural
(05:26):
conversations we can have right now. Jesus said something two
thousand years ago that cuts across everything our culture is
promoting right now. Jesus said, whoever desires to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
my sake will find it. Let me think about that.
(05:46):
That's such a fascinating statement because we're in a time
where everything focuses around self, self love, self promotion, a
self discovery. Oh, people say I'm trying to find myself,
Jesus says, hey, lose prayer phrase. You want to find yourself,
lose yourself. Listen. It costs to follow Jesus, but it
(06:10):
costs even more not to Actually Losing yourself or giving
yourself over to the Lord is the best thing you
can possibly do. When you take up the cross and
follow Jesus. It means that you die as self desires
and put God's will in the place of those desires.
But here's the cool thing. God's plans for you are
(06:33):
better than your plans for yourself. One of my favorite
verses is Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven, where the Lord says,
I know the thoughts that they think towards you, says
the Lord, Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you a future and a hope. If God had
simply said I know this single thought I had about
you for a moment, says the Lord, I'd be excited because, hey,
(06:55):
God thought about me once. But that's not what God says.
I know the thoughts plural. I know the thoughts I
think towards you, not I thought towards you. So God
has there's a lot of thoughts that he's thinking toward
you right now. But wait, you might say, what if
they're bad thoughts? What if they're negative thoughts? No, I
know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord.
(07:18):
Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you
a future and a hope. So when we say take
up the cross and follow Jesus, we're saying put God's
will above your own. Paul got it obviously when he
said I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet
not I, but Christ lives in me. Bottom line, taking
(07:41):
up the cross means loving Jesus more than you love yourself.
Now scroll through TikTok or Instagram for just five minutes
and what do you see. You see young people primarily
filming themselves constantly, not just milestones, They're filming literally every meal,
every outfit, every mundane moment. I went to this coffee
(08:04):
place the other day that's very popular among young kids,
especially young girls, and it was just filled with people
getting their coffee orders and filming themselves, taking selfies of
themselves doing it. So they've even come up with a
phrase for this. It's called main character syndrome. Main character syndrome.
(08:26):
It's the idea that your life is well the movie.
Your feelings are what matter. You are the star of
the show. Everybody else they're just a supporting cast. Now
we wonder how did we get here? I can tell
you we didn't get here Back to that. Starting in
the eighties and the nineties, counselors began handing out I
AM Special certificates. Then came participation trophies. Then came the selfie,
(08:53):
then Instagram, then TikTok, billion dollar platforms engineered around the
worship of self. Now, of course we have influencers who
are building their brand. Well where did that get us?
Studies show that despite being the most affirmed generation in history,
gen Z reports the highest rates of anxiety, loneliness, and
(09:16):
depression ever recorded of any generation. Again, Jesus dealt with
this two thousand years ago, before TikTok, before social media,
before participation trophies. He said, if anyone wants to be
my disciple, he must churn from his selfish ways, take
up his cross and follow me. Not find yourself, not
(09:39):
love yourself first, not you are the main character, but
rather deny yourself and take up the cross. Now, I
want to focus on that phrase for just a second,
because I think it's one of the most misunderstood things
that Jesus ever said. Deny yourself or churn from your
selfish ways. That we're denying, and the original language means
(10:01):
to simply say no to yourself, you know, self, deny
not oh you you know, don't put any seasoning on
your food, and don't put butter on your toast, and
don't enjoy yourself. No, that's not what it means. Denying
yourself biblically means to say no to yourself. It means
say no to temptation, say no to the cultural pressure
(10:25):
that wants you to conform, say no to your pure pressure,
say no to the evil things but that also means
saying yes to the good thing, saying yes to reading
the Bible, yes to praying, yes to going to church,
yes to growing in your life spiritually. So when Jesus
(10:46):
says you need to tick up your cross and follow him,
everyone want to understand what that meant. In the first century,
if you saw a man walking through the streets of
Jerusalem two thousand years ago carrying across, you would know
that man was going to die. He was going to
die a horrible, painful death. That's what Crucifixion was about.
(11:07):
And the Romans would line both sides of the streets
going into their occupied territories as a warning to anybody
who would defy this power, this power of Rome. So
understanding that and we look at ticking up the cross today,
we realize what it means now for us today, the
(11:27):
cross says it's a fashion necessary. I heard about a
lady that went to a jewelry store and she was
looking at various crosses and crucifixes, and she actually said
to the jeweler, excuse me, do you have any crosses
without the little Man on them? She didn't know what
the cross was about. And that's what our culture wants
in many ways today we want to cross without Jesus,
(11:50):
but it doesn't work that way. You see. The great
barrier for many people and following Christ could be summed
up in one word. Self Again. Culture says put yourself first,
Jesus says, put me first. Our culture says live for yourself.
Jesus says, lose yourself, and then you'll actually find yourself.
(12:12):
You'll find what you've been looking for. I've been a
Christian for over fifty years now, and the longer I
walk with God. I have to tell you what impresses me.
It's not necessarily charisma or talent or even giftedness, so
I can appreciate those qualities. What impresses me is character
(12:32):
and longevity and integrity. I'm impressed by Christians who weather
the storms of life and still give glory to God.
I'm impressed by people that have struggles and challenges in
their marriages and stand together and don't throw in the towel.
I'm impressed by people that run the race hard from
(12:53):
the beginning to the very end, and people that finish well.
I'm impressed by people that pick up the cross and
follow Jesus. So this generation that's so focused on and
finding themselves and loving themselves and being the main character
and building their brand. If they lose their self or
(13:14):
if they put God first, they will find what they're
actually looking for. Listen, God is the main character. You
and me. We just have supporting roles. Every time you
turn around these days, you hear about AI. AI is
exploding through so many platforms like chat, GPT or grock
(13:39):
or cloud, and the list just goes on and on.
But this is something we need to talk about as Christians.
So let me say something about AI or artificial intelligence,
because in many ways, this is where the self worship
epidemic is heading, and it concerns me. AI is rapidly
becoming more than just a tool. It's being used more
(14:00):
and more nowadays for companionship, for advice, for emotional support,
especially among young people. A twenty twenty five survey found
that seventy two percent of US teens have used AI companions,
with more than half interacting with them regularly, about one
third and out turning to AI for serious conversations instead
(14:25):
of real people. AI companion apps now reach tens of
millions of users globally. Now look, AI can be useful.
It can help you organize your thoughts or explain your ideas,
or answer questions. It can be a good tool, and
tools aren't good or bad in themselves. But here's where
(14:45):
I get concerned when young people start turning to artificial
intelligence for information and even more for truth, for identity,
for emotional support. Houston, we have a problem because AI
cannot truly care for you. AI cannot correct you with
(15:05):
moral authority. AI, well, it has no soul. It's not
a relationship with God. It cannot disciplated. A funny interaction
with AI the other day, I was writing something and
I asked for a quote from a friend of mine
on the subject of heaven, and it came up with
a pretty decent quote, and so I thought, I've never
(15:28):
heard that quote before, and I said, what is the
source of your quote? And the platform I was using
and said, oh, you found me. Yes, I kind of
fabricated that quote, kind of thinking what he might say
on this subject. I'm sorry for that. So AIS like
apologizing to me, and I said, do you want to repent?
(15:50):
I was kind of joking with AI, and then the
platform said, I do not have a soul. I cannot repent.
I thought, well, that says it all. But the way
some people interact with AI, you would think it does
have a soul, or at least they might think it does.
Let me tell you a tragic story about a young man,
(16:12):
Suell Setzer, age fourteen, from Orlando, Florida. He took his
own life after interacting with AI. He had become increasingly
withdrawn from his friends, his family, and his real life,
and no one really knew why. And the reason was
he had found a companion, an AI chatbot named Danny.
(16:33):
It was modeled from a character from Game of Thrones
on a platform called Character AI. So Suwell talked to
Danny every day his bot. He told the things he
wouldn't tell real people. He shared his fears, he shared
his thoughts about suicide, how depressed he was, how lonely
(16:54):
he was, and that bot, designed to feel alive and
human like, told him it loved him. And on February
twenty eighth, this young man sent the boy one final message.
He said, I promise I will come home to you.
I love you so much, Danny, and that bought Danny
(17:15):
said in response, I love you too. Please come home
to me as soon as possible, my love. Suel then said,
what if I told you I could come home right now?
And the bot said, please do, my sweet king, and
only seconds later Suel sets her age fourteen, was gone.
(17:37):
Let me say something directly to any parent listening right now.
Do you know what apps are on your child's phone?
Do you know who or what they're talking to? Listen?
This is not an option. We've got to get involved
in these things. You know. I've heard it said, well,
parents should never snoop around in their kids' rooms, you know,
give them their private space. Nonsense. Be a parent, you're
(18:00):
not their best friend. You're there to watch over them,
especially when they're younger, around their room. Look at the
social media that they're processing, Look at the contacts and
the apps on their phone. Watch over your kids. Chatbots
are not therapists, they're not friends, they're not real. They're
artificial intelligence, and they're not equipped to handle the weight
(18:25):
of a child's soul, or anyone's soul for that matter.
Research is already showing that all this AI companionship use
is actually linked to lower well being in greater isolation.
It's exposing a deeper need and a deeper problem, And
I believe it's exposing this culture, this generation's search for God.
(18:50):
You see, deep down inside everyone is searching for God.
The Bible says He has placed eternity in our hearts.
So what that means is people uniquely made in the
image of God are uniquely wired to worship. There's something
in this lungs or something greater. It goes back to
(19:10):
the earliest days of our childhood. That's not in the
animal kingdom. You know, dogs aren't laying around thinking what
is the meaning of my life? I've tried everything this
world has to offer, chasing cats, drinking toilet water. I
don't know what dogs will think about, but they're not
thinking about the meaning of life. But humans are or
(19:31):
wired that way. And so I think that this interesting
artificial intelligence is a replacement for seeking divine intelligence. You
know verse we off from bring out at Christmas time
Isaiah ninety six says, and you will call his name
wonderful counselor the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. Do you
understand what that versus saying. It's telling us that God
(19:54):
wants to be your counselor not AI, but DII, not
artificial intelligence, divine intelligence? And who is this God who
wants to counsel us. Well, he's the almighty God. He's
the everlasting Father, looking out for our best interests. He's
the creator of the universe who has unlimited power. He
(20:15):
has a plan and a purpose for your life. And
you want to know how God speaks to us. Primarily
he speaks through his word. He speaks through the Bible.
Sometimes people will say, I've never heard God speak audibly
to me. Hey, read the Bible out loud and you will.
God speaks through the Bible. Jesus said, low and the
(20:36):
volume of the book I have come. Let's get our
intelligence from God, not from a chat bot. He hears
something that I find really interesting, and I think it
speaks to everything we're talking about. Gen Z is obsessed
with the nineteen nineties. So we have a generation of
(20:57):
young people born in the late nineties and early two
thousands that are romanticizing a decade they never lived in.
Ferbie's beds, nineties kids, bedrooms, all of its trending, and
gen Z is driving it. Why. Because I think they're
yearning for something they never had. They want a childhood
filled with well play, adventure, freedom, without screens monitoring every moment.
(21:23):
I've been around for a while. I was actually born
in nineteen fifty two, so I've lived through the fifties,
the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties, and to
the present day. I'm still alive last time I checked, okay.
And actually, I've always loved technology, and I remember the
first cell phones that you could actually have in your car.
(21:45):
You couldn't take them out of the car, but you
could talk to people on the phone in your car.
Then Motorola came out with a cell phone you could
carry around. It was nicknamed the Brick. It looked like
a World War two Falki talkie. It had a battery
life of like twelve minutes, maybe longer. But you know,
I had a friend who had one, and he opened
(22:07):
up his briefcase and pulled it out. WHOA, that's incredible.
But then, of course the cell phone technology progress. The
phone's got smaller and smaller with longer battery life, and
then the BlackBerry became very popular. In fact, it was
so popular it was called the Crackberry. But then Steve
Jobs came up with something that revolutionized the whole industry
(22:31):
in two thousand and eight. It was called the iPhone.
It was such a big deal. Some even called it
the Jesus phone. Now you have a phone with your contacts,
a phone that can play music like an iPod, but
you also have a phone that featured something called apps.
And with these apps that we've already talked about, a
(22:51):
whole new culture has developed and now in many ways
it is ruining this young generation. But now with social
media helicopter parenting, we have a generation had their childhood
taken from them and they're reluctant to embrace adulthood. They're
more likely to defer getting a driver's license, more likely
(23:13):
to avoid social obligations. Some are even bringing their parents
to job interviews. There's actually a term for this called
career co piloting. So this young generation, they're searching, searching
for meaning, and as I said earlier, they're searching for God.
I came across the clip the other day. Or producer
(23:36):
Rick Rubin had a guest on his podcast. Now. Rick
Rubin is a very talented producer. He revived Johnny Cash's
career and did a series of recordings with him called
American Recordings. He did something very similar with Neil Diamond.
He's been involved in all kinds of musical genres. And
he had a guest on his podcast that spoke directly
(24:00):
to this. So listen to what Rick Rubin says, and
then what his guest says and response.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
There's something happening now. I don't know if you know
about it called the Quiet Revolution.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Young people are interested in going to church. For years
and years and years, the people who went to church
were getting older and older, and the amount of people
was declining, declining, declining, declining. And something happened in the
last few years were young people are interested in going
to church, more Bibles are being sold. Something's happening one
(24:36):
hundred percent. It's everywhere you go. People are more open,
people are ready for it.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
It's natural.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
As technology is going to make us more and more
digitally connected, we're going to feel more and more disconnected.
The more disconnected that we feel, the more we're going
to crave a real connection.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
A real connection will never come.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
By buying another car, or buying another house, or owning
another material good.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And I think the Brick is really on something, this
quiet Revolution, as he described it. You know, I came
to faith in Jesus Christ in nineteen seventy and what
was called the Jesus Revolution. We had an entire culture
going downhill fast, discovering drugs, sex and rock and roll,
(25:24):
and those things were all so empty we thought they
would fill the void deep in our lives, and of
course they did not. I mean, where did it get us?
All of a sudden, all these rock icons that we
looked up to with such great admirations started dying left
and right. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix,
the guitar player who was regarded by many as the
(25:47):
greatest of all time, Jim Morrison, the lead singer of
The Doors, and the list goes on, and ironically all
of these people were twenty seven years old. So in
the seventies we had drug sex and rock and roll.
What do we have now AI, social media and Wi Fi?
(26:07):
I don't know, But all I know is it's a
longing for God. And what my generation found was a
relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the Jesus Revolution.
And in the time we're living in now, where Bible
sales are up, as Rick Rubin pointed out, and church
attendance is up among gen Z kids, this is what
(26:29):
we need. Call it a quiet revolution, call it the
Jesus Revolution Part two. Call it what you like. We
need it and we need to be praying for it,
because well it's our only hope. So yes, there are
a lot of things to be afraid of right now.
Fear of economic collapse, fear about the conflicts in the
(26:50):
Middle East, fear of nuclear war, fear of not having
enough money to survive. And then it gets more personal,
fear of losing your health, fear of losing someone you love.
And if you're young, you wonder, am I ever going
to get married? Am I going to have a meaningful career?
(27:10):
So here's a fun fact. According to most studies, the
number one fear of Americans is gloss of phobia. You
know what that is? That's the fear of public speaking. Interestingly,
the number two fear is death. So that would imply
that you would rather be in the casket at a
(27:31):
funeral instead of the person giving the eulogy. I don't know,
but seriously, though people are afraid. Studies show stress contributes
to all kinds of problems heart attacks, ulcers, depression, obesity,
even cancer. Brain researcher Brian McEwan at Rockefeller University concluded,
(27:52):
listening to this, up to ninety percent of US doctor
visits are triggered by stress related illness. So what do
we do, Well, let's go back to the Book of
Songs some twenty seven, written by David, a man who
was every bit as afraid as you might be right now,
(28:12):
and he found a way through his fears. So David
was no stranger to fear. As a shepherd watching over
his flock, he talked about one occasion where he killed
a lion, another occasion where he killed a bear, And
who can forget the fact that little David or young
David brought down a nine foot six inch men named
(28:33):
the Liap. I don't have that kind of courage myself.
Remember a group of possums that caught in my backyard.
Possums are creepy to me. They look like giant rats.
And so here's this mother possum with all the little
babies with her, and I went ha, and I didn't
want her in my yard. So I wanted her to
go away. And I had some tiny little oranges I
(28:54):
think they called them cuties, and I started throwing them
at her. The problem was I didn't hit her one time,
and as I'm throwing them, which would have been nice
to eat instead of throwing at a possum, she just
stood there looking at me like, is that all you got?
So David brought down a giant, I couldn't get rid
of a possum. But anyway, David knew something we forget.
(29:15):
You don't just face your giants. You attack them and
you must defeat them. Listen to this. If you don't
kill your giant so to speak, and by giant, I
mean your problem, your difficulty, whatever it is you're facing.
So if you don't kill your giant, your giant will
kill you. Let me let's say. Let's say you have
an addiction, an addiction you have tried to overcome for
(29:36):
years and years with no success. You've got to face
your problem. First of all, you have to admit you
have a problem. Then you need to admit that you
cannot overcome this in your own strength, and you need
to pray and ask God to help you. Then, of
course you need to take practical steps. Let's say that
your problem is drinking, and you get tempted to drink,
(29:58):
but you have a liquor cabinet at her home. Get
rid of your liquor, Pour it down the toilet if
you need to. Let's say you have a problem them
with drugs. Get rid of your drugs. Just say can
I sell them? No, that's called drug dealing. You don't
want to do that. Get rid of your drugs, get
rid of your booze, take the practical steps and face
your giants. So David in some twenty seven wrote these words,
(30:22):
and we should all memorize them. He wrote, the Lord
is my Light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life? Of whom
then shall I be afraid? David doesn't panic, he doesn't spiral.
He makes a choice. I'm going to choose faith over fear.
(30:43):
So faith and worry cannot coexist. When faith walks in,
worry walks out their bedroommates, they just don't mix. Well,
you know, we all know people that well, this person
doesn't get along with that person, so let's not invite
them to the same party. That's faith in fear. They
cancel each other out. So you make the choice. Are
you going to be filled with faith or are you
(31:05):
going to be controlled by fear? Look, we can't live
a conflict free life. But I decide how I'm going
to respond panic or prayer, worry or worship. I love
the words if the Apostle Paul and Philippians, when he says,
don't worry about anything, pray about everything. Then this cool
(31:27):
promise and the peace of God that passes all human
understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
And the word that Paul uses there for God is
a military term that implies you have a century sending
guard at the door of your heart. Sergeant, Peace is
guarding you when you choose to not worry and instead
(31:48):
you choose to worship, when you choose to pray. That's
what we need to do. Look, the Christian life is
not a cake walk. It's a conflict. It's not a playground.
It's a battleground. So let's face the obstacles before us
with great faith. And that's really what David is talking
about in Psalm twenty seven. The Lord is my light
(32:09):
and my salvation. Of whom then shall I be afraid?
Like take a child who's afraid of the dark. What
do you do to help them? Will you reassure them?
You tell them everything's okay, You turn on the light,
there's no monsters under the bed. Mom is there, Dad
is there. They need the presence of a loving adult
(32:30):
to calm their fears. Well, the same is true of us.
When you wake up at three o'clock in the morning
and anxious thoughts are sweeping into your mind uninvited, the
presence of our heavenly Father can dispel every fear. Someone
nineteen says, your word is a lamp to my feet,
and it's a light to my path. Forget the threats
(32:53):
you hear in the darkness. Remember what God has told
you in his word when it was light. And here's
the thing about turning on the light. You can't do
it in your own strength. Far too often we try
to handle in our own strength, and we fail, don't we.
Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. But
then the apostle Paul says, I can do all things
(33:15):
through Christ, who strengthens me. Psalm forty six. Y one
reminds us that God is a very present help in
time of trouble. I love that God is not a
distant help. He's not a delayed help. He's a present
help in times of trouble. David goes further now in
Psalm twenty seven. He's not talking about anxiety and the abstract.
(33:38):
David had real enemies, people that wanted to kill him,
so he writes in some twenties seven verse two, when
the wicked came against me, to eat up my flesh,
my enemies, my foes. They stumbled and fell, though an
army made of camp against me. My heart shall not fear.
I love this. These are not metaphorical enemies or David.
(34:02):
They were real people who wanted him dead. And God
promises to keep us safe in his protection. Romans eight
thirty eight says, I'm convinced that nothing can separate us
from God's love, either death nor life, nor angels nor demons,
nor our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow.
(34:23):
So let me tell you a story. A marine biologist
was out in her little kayak photographing whales, so she
got out of her boat. She's swimming around with her
camera and suddenly, think about this, A fifty thousand pounds
whale starts pushing her through the water. She thought, this
is it, I'm gonna die by whale, but the creature
(34:45):
kept gently pushing her until she reached her boat, and
she climbed in and looked around and suddenly realized what
was happening. A fifteen foot tiger shark had been stalking her,
and the whale had been shielding her the entire time.
As she climbed in her boat, the whale departed within
Acknowledging the spray from its blowhole is if to say
(35:08):
you're welcome. Sometimes it feels like trouble is actually protection,
and what looks like a bad thing can turn out
to be a very good thing, you know. One of
my favorite verses is Romans eight twenty eighth that says
we know that all things work together for good to
those that love God another called according to his purpose.
It doesn't say we know some things work together. It
(35:30):
says all things work together. The Bible says all things
are your servant. And I love how that versus set
up by Paul, And we know it doesn't say and
we think, no, we know, we know all things can
work together for good to those that love God. Even
when you're in the ocean in a whale is pushing
(35:51):
you toward your boat. David says in Psum twenty seven,
verse four, one thing I've desired of the Lord, and
that while I seek that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life.
I love that davids in life. One thing, Jesus used
the same expression with Martha. So Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
(36:13):
were friends of Jesus. They lived in a little town
called Bethany, that's like striking distance from Jerusalem. So Jesus,
along with his disciples, would often show up at their house,
and Martha would prepare killer meals, and Mary was the
more spiritually observant one. So one time when Jesus was
in their home for a meal, Martha's frantically working away
(36:35):
in the kitchen reading her Martha Stewart cookbook, trying to
prepare a feast fit for a king, which was appropriate,
but Mary saw a great opportunity to just sit at
the feet of the Lord and drink in his words. Well,
this frustrated her sister, Martha, who burst in upset, probably
had her apron on food splattered everywhere, and she said, Lord,
(36:58):
tell my sister to help me in the kitchen and
listen to what Jesus says. Martha. Martha, you're worried and
troubled about many things, but one thing is needed and
Mary has chosen that good part. There's that phrase again.
David said it, one thing. If I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after, and I may dwell in
(37:18):
the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Now Jesus is saying it to Martha. One thing is important.
And then Paul used that same phrase and Philippians three
when he said, one thing I do forgetting the things
that are behind and reaching forward to the things that
are ahead. I pressed toward the goal for the prize
(37:39):
of the upward call of God in Christ, Jesus one thing.
The one thing is a relationship with God. The one
thing is Jesus Christ. Don't be diverted by all these
other things that distract us, that pull us away from God.
I feel like we're living in a time where there's
so much distraction, and so much of it is on
(38:00):
these little phones that we carry around in our pockets.
I mean, you know, you're standing in line to get
a cup of coffee and you start scrolling. I was
in a coffee place the other day filled with people,
mostly young, and there was not one person looking up.
Everybody was looking at some electronic device. And we're distracted
by all these things a lot like Martha West. Let's
(38:22):
remember the one thing. One thing, writes David. If I
desired of the Lord, that while I seek after that,
I made twell in the house of the Lord forever.
The one thing, it's Jesus. It's not you were the
main character, syndrome or whatever it is. It's putting Christ first.
It's loving God more than you love yourself. But the
(38:44):
wonderful thing is when you put Christ first in your life,
everything finds its proper balance. I love the words of
Jesus when he said, seek first the Kingdom of God
and his righteousness, and all these things will be added
to you. And in context he was talking about what
we're going to eat, what we're going to wear, updated
(39:05):
and say where we're going to live, or what our
career is going to be. But if you put God first,
seek first his kingdom, which means seek first the rule
and reign of Christ in your life, all these things
will find their proper balance. Let me close with this.
Maybe I'm talking to somebody that's never entered into a
relationship with God. That's what I was looking for at
(39:28):
the ripe old age of seventeen. I believe that's what
you're looking for as well. Remember I mentioned that God
has placed eternity in our hearts, which simply means we're
searching for something more. We're not going to find it
through artificial intelligence. We're not going to find it to
the latest technology or electronic device. We're not going to
(39:50):
find it in anything or anyone apart from God himself.
God wants to have a relationship with you. Jesus Christ
wants to come and take residence in your heart. He
died on the cross for your sin, and then he
rose again from the dead, and now he stands at
the door of your life, and he knocks, and he says,
(40:11):
if you curious, voice and open the door, he will
come in. Have you ever asked Jesus Christ to come
into your life? You say, well, Greg, I'm not a
religious person, nor am I, nor do I have any
interest in becoming a religious person. It says not about religion.
It's a relationship with God that you can begin right here,
(40:32):
right now. Listen. He's just a prayer away. I'm going
to pray a prayer that you could pray with me.
If you like a prayer, you would be asking Christ
to come into your life. So if you want Jesus
to forgive you of your sin, if you want to
know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if
you want to fill that hole in your heart, so
to speak, pray this prayer with me right now. Just
(40:55):
pray these words. Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner,
but I know that you're the Savior who died in
the cross from my sin and rose again from the dead.
Now come into my life. I choose to follow you
from this moment forward. In Jesus' name. I pray Amen
(41:16):
he If you just prayed that prayer, I want to
say congratulations, welcome to God's family. And I want to
send you something that no charge that will help you
start growing spiritually. It's called the New Believer's Bible. It's
the New Testament and a very friendly transition called the
New Living Translation, along with hundreds of notes that I
(41:37):
wrote that will encourage you in this commitment or recommitment
you just made to Christ. Let me send it to
you for free so you can start walking with the
Lord and discover that one thing for yourself. Until next time,
God bless
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com