July 27, 2025 • 22 mins
Have you ever wondered about the theological messages hidden within your favorite blockbuster films? This eye-opening exploration uses the Jurassic Park franchise as a springboard to examine one of humanity's most persistent temptations: playing God.
The dinosaur-filled adventures of Jurassic Park aren't just thrilling entertainment—they're modern parables warning us about the consequences of unchecked ambition. As Jeff Goldblum's character Dr. Ian Malcolm famously observes, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." This critique of innovation without ethical boundaries connects directly to biblical wisdom found in the Tower of Babel story.
Drawing fascinating parallels between ancient scripture and contemporary concerns, we explore how God's response to humanity's tower-building ambitions wasn't merely punishment but potentially protection. When God scatters the people and confuses their languages after noting that "nothing would be impossible for them," we glimpse divine wisdom about the dangers of progress outpacing moral development. This ancient warning resonates powerfully in our age of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn when considering whether technologies like AI represent modern Towers of Babel or potential Pentecost moments—where barriers between people are broken down rather than erected. Through this tension, we discover a framework for discernment based on the fruits of the Spirit and Micah's call to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God." These timeless principles offer guidance for navigating our complex technological landscape with both wisdom and grace. Join us for this thought-provoking journey through theology, pop culture, and the ethical dilemmas that define our modern age.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're starting a series, a fun series, to write
us through the rest of thesummer.
I am a movie guy, I likewatching movies, I like watching
good TV, and so I thought I'mgoing to talk a little bit about
some of the summer movies thathave been going through just
this year and, in particular,what I like to do.
(00:23):
In fact, when I went toseminary to study to be a pastor
, it wasn't to study to be apastor.
What I was really interested inis when you take mainstream
commercial entertainment, thestories of our culture, and talk
about how there's theologyunderneath all of it.
(00:43):
We don't give it all the wordsall the time, we don't put Jesus
and Christianity in it throughand through, but the themes are
very Christian more often thannot, and I just found that so
compelling, so interesting, andso, in that spirit, you're going
to get me talking about moviesfor a few weeks.
Who saw Jurassic Park Rebirth?
(01:06):
Okay, so a few of us went andsaw it All right.
Now, how many of you have seenevery Jurassic Park movie?
Just looks like three, three ofus, four.
Okay, we've got four of us whohave seen everyone.
How many loved everyone?
(01:27):
They weren't all great, let'sjust say that out loud, but a
few of them were just so good.
The very first one.
I remember going home and theway they had captured the
reality of a dinosaur in modernday and how that kind of might
have played out or might playout.
(01:48):
I was just astounded at howreal those dinosaurs felt, and
so ever since then I've beenkind of a fan.
So I rode the bus and I'veenjoyed it for the most part.
But let me tell you that thegist of the whole series is
about our capacity to regenerate, recreate the dinosaurs from
(02:13):
ages past.
Right, we make them again andnow they exist in the world that
we are living in Now.
20 years ago or however manyyears ago, we thought.
We thought, okay, that's alittle far-fetched, but have you
heard about them?
Like, like, trying to recreatethe dire wolf, right, this
extinct species.
(02:34):
Steven's saying no, we can't doit, but I have.
You have heard of it then it'scontroversial.
Now you know what?
What Wednesday Bible study isabout?
It's me going hey, steve, whatdo you think?
And him saying controversial.
That was pretty much our wholecomedy routine, which I enjoy.
(02:56):
So, yeah, I mean this idea thatwe might figure out a way to
use the DNA that still existsand be able to recreate these
things doesn't seem asfar-fetched as it seemed not too
long ago.
And so, as you can probablyguess, as they recreate these
(03:17):
dinosaurs, it collapses inabsolute failure, mostly because
we realize that our world isnot built for these dinosaurs
anymore.
They can't exist in the worldthat we've evolved to be, and
that's kind of the gist of everybeings in the shoes, in the
(03:38):
place of God, putting ourselvesin a place where we are
controlling how evolution works,where we are creating life.
(03:59):
And it begs the question isthat our place?
Is that where we should be?
And the Jurassic Park filmswould probably say, no, we
shouldn't be in that world.
Some of you may remember thisfamous quote from the first film
and I think I got a picture ofit up here.
Right, this is Jeff Goldblum asDr Ian Malcolm, and he's
(04:25):
sitting here processing in thevery first film, as he's seeing
these dinosaurs, sort of theethical concepts, the ethical
underpinnings of what's going on.
As he's seeing these dinosaursand he's doing math in his head
and he says God createsdinosaurs, god destroys
dinosaurs, god creates dinosaurs, god destroys dinosaurs, god
(04:46):
creates man, man destroys God,meaning we take God's place and
then man makes a stegosaurusActually I think he says
dinosaurs in the movies, butthis picture I like and it said
stegosaurus.
So you know you do what you cando.
So you know you do what you cando.
But hopefully you can see kindof the dilemma that the movie is
(05:08):
playing with this idea of whathappens when we start doing what
God's supposed to be doing,when we start getting into that
realm.
The point really of the films isto show the hubris that we
humans can demonstrate, the ideathat our species might step
(05:32):
into this thinking, thisambition, this creativity, but
not think about the consequences.
I might call it the dark sideof ambition.
We love the innovation,especially medical innovation.
Right, there are things that wecan do now, people that we are
(05:55):
able to keep alive and havethriving lives because of our
medical innovation, and wecelebrate that.
But there's a shadow side aswell.
Isn't there?
This dark side of we're driving, and we celebrate that?
But there's a shadow side aswell, isn't there?
This dark side of we're drivingand we're driving, and when do
we get to this place where weare a little too far over our
skis, right, getting into placeswhere we are not ethically
(06:19):
prepared to deal with therealities that we ourselves have
created.
To me, it's the problem ofplaying God, and there was
another good quote that kind ofsummed it up your scientists
were so preoccupied with whetheror not they could that they
(06:40):
didn't stop to think if theyshould, that they didn't stop to
think if they should, kind ofthat sums up the whole dilemma
of what they are working with.
Well, believe it or not, thereis precedence for this question
in our very scriptures, and itcomes super, super early in
(07:02):
Genesis.
We're in Genesis 11.
And it's this story of theTower of Babel.
Maybe you've heard of the Towerof Babel, or you've heard it
metaphorically, or maybe you'veeven read the story, or you've
heard it metaphorically, ormaybe you've even read the story
right, but it is a story thattalks about this idea of our
(07:23):
playing God, stepping into God'srole as the story develops.
Again, we're very, very early,and part of what our writers in
scripture at this point aretrying to capture is this idea
of how did we go from a singularexistence that the Bible
understands to the broadexistence of multiple languages
(07:46):
and multiple cultures and all ofthat, and this is, in some ways
, their way of describing howthat happened.
And at this stage, as they'rebuilding the tower, they're all
speaking the same language.
They're all understanding eachother right, because this is the
beginning of the society in theway that the ancients
(08:07):
understood it happening.
This is ancient science.
Hey, well done, you got thatpicture up.
See, that's exactly how itlooked like.
Somebody climbed up on amountain, got a photo.
Their camera with their phoneShould have got a selfie.
Make sure everybody knew theywere there, right?
(08:28):
So they people want to buildthis tower.
Now they're all united, theywant to build this tower, they
want to get up to some level ofwhere God is, with two honest
anxieties.
One, they kind of want to makea name for themselves, and we
could call that arrogant, or wecould call that trying to
stabilize themselves, get enoughunderneath them, enough power
(08:52):
that they're not getting overrunall the time.
But the second concern is thatthey are going to be scattered,
they're going to get disunitedand taken apart, where they
won't have the full advantage ofthe full company of who they
are so they can defendthemselves.
And so in this reality, in thisenvironment, god comes down,
(09:21):
and they make sure to say comesdown, like God's still way above
this to see what these humansare doing.
And God gets concerned and hesays this interesting phrase
they all realize that nothing isimpossible.
That's God's voiced concern.
(09:42):
They'll realize nothing isimpossible.
So God makes it so they can'tunderstand each other.
One more picture See, that'sexactly what happened right
there.
I know that one made me giggleso I had to put it in.
Makes it so they can'tunderstand each other.
And then their worst fears cometrue they are scattered by God.
(10:09):
It's an interesting story, isn'tit?
You know, it comes again veryearly on and we're talking about
Genesis especially as being thestory of God and humans and
trying to figure out thisrelationship and how God's going
to help humans be what God'shoping that humans will become.
But it's a lot of trial anderror, from creation to Adam and
(10:34):
Eve, to Cain and Abel and thenNoah, to Adam and Eve, to Cain
and Abel and then Noah.
And these are all stories, thiscycle of God trying new things
to make it work with humans andhumans generally not getting it
done right.
But it lands us at this newstage, this new stage of God and
(10:55):
the human relationship, and itbrings me to mind of that quote,
or what God says to the people,they'll learn nothing is
impossible.
Now, isn't that what we like totell our kids?
Right, it's a positive thing.
(11:16):
Nothing is impossible.
We tell our kids that, eventhough we know it's not true.
Right?
My dad never said to me you canbe an NBA star, right, let's
get real.
Right, some things areimpossible and that's okay, you
(11:39):
know.
But you work hard, you be good,you'll like where you end up.
But yeah, we say that phrasepretty frequently.
We want kids to feel like, oh,the world is their oyster and
you ought to get out there anddo this.
So it's interesting that Godsays this.
What kind of God says this?
(12:00):
God ultimately scatters them,disables their capacity to build
this tower.
If you're like me, that strikesas a little bit odd.
Now I've got this voice in myhead.
You know, my kid was getting alittle bit arrogant, so I
started teaching him math wrongjust to humble him.
(12:22):
Right, we don't hear that.
That's not a story that getstold, right, it just.
It seems odd until we look atthe story from the lens of
Jurassic Park.
There's one more quote, and Ididn't get it in a picture, but
it's from the doctor in thenewest version of these Jurassic
(12:46):
Park stories.
Dr Henry Loomis and he saysit's a little longer quote
dinosaurs are pretty dumb, right, and yet they survived for 167
million years.
And we, almost 8 million stronggeniuses, by comparison, only
(13:07):
have about 200,000 years so far.
But with our huge cranialcavities they're so smart we
already have the capacity toannihilate ourselves.
I doubt if we even make it toone million.
You hear a little bit more ofthat lens helping us to
(13:29):
understand.
Maybe God isn't necessarilytrying to tamp everybody down,
but God is trying to guide.
God is trying to help us, notget in over our heads, right?
Is it possible?
Can it be possible that God isjust doing all of this for our
own good, creating boundaries tohelp ourselves, much as we
(13:54):
would do with parenting or whenwe're mentoring somebody, don't
we try to keep them away fromdanger, make sure that they
succeed and move forward intheir growth?
I wonder if there's some spacefor humility in this story.
(14:14):
Maybe it's good that God slowsus down every now and again for
our own good, but it's a toughnut to chew on, isn't it?
I mixed my metaphors.
Did you enjoy that?
All the English majors justwent, including me.
(14:38):
No, it's a tough pill toswallow.
There I got my metaphor correct.
This idea that maybe weshouldn't necessarily just go
and do whatever we can justbecause we can, you know, it
kind of leaves us in this place.
(14:58):
What do we do in this placewhere maybe we shouldn't be
moving with as muchaggressiveness as we do?
We've got this reality where wehave these great tendencies,
where we have these greattendencies, tendencies and
(15:21):
ambitions to do great, greatthings and to evolve ourselves
and our world.
But we've also got thesenot-so-good tendencies that
sometimes we don't always dowhat's good for the whole.
And here we are in the middleof that world and we need to
discern what is moral andethical growth.
(15:43):
When are we truly seeking agreater good and when is it just
purely hubris, done for powerwe aren't able to wield
effectively or, more importantly, morally?
So in that journey ofdiscernment, trying to figure
(16:03):
out, okay, what are we supposedto be doing, god, I'm going to
bring us back to Scripture.
You know, the Christian responseto the Tower of Babel story
comes in the Pentecost story,pentecost being the day that we
celebrate the birth of the HolySpirit.
And some of you will rememberthe story from the book of Acts,
(16:26):
where the disciples, with Jesushaving been crucified and still
even resurrected, but they'rewondering what they're supposed
to do now.
Maybe this great thing happened, but not everybody got to
experience it.
It's really just them.
What does God want them to do?
When they're huddled up, maybea little afraid that they're
(16:47):
going to start getting hunteddown, and in that anxiety, god
comes to them and inspires somepreaching, inspires a message,
and here's the amazing thingPeople started to understand
what they were saying, despitethe multiple languages.
(17:08):
You see the comparison we gofrom a Tower of Babel where they
couldn't understand each other,and then the Holy Spirit comes
and we are able to understandeach other despite speaking
multiple languages.
You hear how that is aneffective response to a certain
(17:30):
extent.
But here I got to tell you,thinking there and going there,
I had my brain blow up this week.
Are you ready for the shrapnelof that?
Here is my brain blowing upthis week.
We have what might be an exampleof a modern Tower of Babel at
(17:53):
work right now and it comes intwo little letters A and I.
Are we ready for AI?
Here's artificial intelligence.
I could look at this and sayyou know what AI that's looking
(18:13):
like?
Tower of Babel, looking likewe're trying to be bigger than
we are, looking like we're goingto get ourselves over our skis.
We're going to get ourselvesinto trouble.
We're not ready to deal withthe moral and ethical
consequences of what it meansthat these machines are able to
do, with the capacity that theyare able to do, the information
(18:36):
that they're going to bring tous.
That's the feeling most of ushave, right.
Here's another thought, withPentecost in mind or is AI,
because of its ability toovercome language and bring
(18:56):
knowledge, despite differencesin cultures and language, bring
knowledge to people in a waythat we are able to unite in
some really really unique waysand maybe even do some really
really amazing things?
Is AI the Holy Spirit?
No, no, I'm out.
(19:20):
Ai is not the Holy Spirit.
But you hear how my brain blewup a little bit as soon as I was
walking this journey.
I'm like, well, wait a minute.
Is that the Holy Spirit?
Are we in the upper roomsitting there?
And then we come with ways ofuniting the world?
I don't know.
(19:40):
So here I've left you.
I've left you in a paralyzingspace of oh my gosh, what am I
supposed to do?
Crazy pastor thinks AI might bethe Holy Spirit Right.
So here, let it not be said, Ididn't leave you with some hope
(20:07):
and some vision.
Are you ready for this?
I invite you to remember lastweek's message with the title
Look for the Fruits.
Remember that from Galatians 5,look for the fruits.
I'll even read it for you.
By contrast, the fruit of thespirit is love, joy, peace,
(20:31):
patience, kindness, generosity,faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control.
If we are navigating this world,if we are navigating AI and
we're trying to understandexactly where God is calling us,
is this good innovation,ethical innovation, god, or are
(20:54):
we getting in over our skis?
Are we getting into places wecan't deal with it?
I invite you, look for thefruits, look for all of this
fruit being produced by whateverthat journey is.
If you're working with AI, areyou seeing love being built from
(21:15):
what you're learning, by whatyou're sharing?
Is there joy?
Is there patience?
Is there kindness beinggenerated from your journey with
all of this?
I'll invite you to look, too, atthe Micah passage that we
worked with a few weeks back Dojustice, love, kindness, walk
(21:37):
humbly with God.
We are in this really complexspace and the older I get, the
more complex it feels.
Is anybody with me?
It just feels so complex.
It just feels so complex, maybe, where we can put our heart,
(22:00):
where we can put our actions,where we can, exactly what God
is hoping that we're going tocreate, what God is actually
(22:21):
hoping we're going to do.
We look for the fruits, we lookto be kind, we look to do
justice, we look to walk humbly,Amen, amen.
We're starting a series, a fun series, to write
us through the rest of thesummer.
I am a movie guy, I likewatching movies, I like watching
good TV, and so I thought I'mgoing to talk a little bit about
some of the summer movies thathave been going through just
this year and, in particular,what I like to do.
(00:23):
In fact, when I went toseminary to study to be a pastor
, it wasn't to study to be apastor.
What I was really interested inis when you take mainstream
commercial entertainment, thestories of our culture, and talk
about how there's theologyunderneath all of it.
(00:43):
We don't give it all the wordsall the time, we don't put Jesus
and Christianity in it throughand through, but the themes are
very Christian more often thannot, and I just found that so
compelling, so interesting, andso, in that spirit, you're going
to get me talking about moviesfor a few weeks.
Who saw Jurassic Park Rebirth?
(01:06):
Okay, so a few of us went andsaw it All right.
Now, how many of you have seenevery Jurassic Park movie?
Just looks like three, three ofus, four.
Okay, we've got four of us whohave seen everyone.
How many loved everyone?
(01:27):
They weren't all great, let'sjust say that out loud, but a
few of them were just so good.
The very first one.
I remember going home and theway they had captured the
reality of a dinosaur in modernday and how that kind of might
have played out or might playout.
(01:48):
I was just astounded at howreal those dinosaurs felt, and
so ever since then I've beenkind of a fan.
So I rode the bus and I'veenjoyed it for the most part.
But let me tell you that thegist of the whole series is
about our capacity to regenerate, recreate the dinosaurs from
(02:13):
ages past.
Right, we make them again andnow they exist in the world that
we are living in Now.
20 years ago or however manyyears ago, we thought.
We thought, okay, that's alittle far-fetched, but have you
heard about them?
Like, like, trying to recreatethe dire wolf, right, this
extinct species.
(02:34):
Steven's saying no, we can't doit, but I have.
You have heard of it then it'scontroversial.
Now you know what?
What Wednesday Bible study isabout?
It's me going hey, steve, whatdo you think?
And him saying controversial.
That was pretty much our wholecomedy routine, which I enjoy.
(02:56):
So, yeah, I mean this idea thatwe might figure out a way to
use the DNA that still existsand be able to recreate these
things doesn't seem asfar-fetched as it seemed not too
long ago.
And so, as you can probablyguess, as they recreate these
(03:17):
dinosaurs, it collapses inabsolute failure, mostly because
we realize that our world isnot built for these dinosaurs
anymore.
They can't exist in the worldthat we've evolved to be, and
that's kind of the gist of everybeings in the shoes, in the
(03:38):
place of God, putting ourselvesin a place where we are
controlling how evolution works,where we are creating life.
(03:59):
And it begs the question isthat our place?
Is that where we should be?
And the Jurassic Park filmswould probably say, no, we
shouldn't be in that world.
Some of you may remember thisfamous quote from the first film
and I think I got a picture ofit up here.
Right, this is Jeff Goldblum asDr Ian Malcolm, and he's
(04:25):
sitting here processing in thevery first film, as he's seeing
these dinosaurs, sort of theethical concepts, the ethical
underpinnings of what's going on.
As he's seeing these dinosaursand he's doing math in his head
and he says God createsdinosaurs, god destroys
dinosaurs, god creates dinosaurs, god destroys dinosaurs, god
(04:46):
creates man, man destroys God,meaning we take God's place and
then man makes a stegosaurusActually I think he says
dinosaurs in the movies, butthis picture I like and it said
stegosaurus.
So you know you do what you cando.
So you know you do what you cando.
But hopefully you can see kindof the dilemma that the movie is
(05:08):
playing with this idea of whathappens when we start doing what
God's supposed to be doing,when we start getting into that
realm.
The point really of the films isto show the hubris that we
humans can demonstrate, the ideathat our species might step
(05:32):
into this thinking, thisambition, this creativity, but
not think about the consequences.
I might call it the dark sideof ambition.
We love the innovation,especially medical innovation.
Right, there are things that wecan do now, people that we are
(05:55):
able to keep alive and havethriving lives because of our
medical innovation, and wecelebrate that.
But there's a shadow side aswell.
Isn't there?
This dark side of we're driving, and we celebrate that?
But there's a shadow side aswell, isn't there?
This dark side of we're drivingand we're driving, and when do
we get to this place where weare a little too far over our
skis, right, getting into placeswhere we are not ethically
(06:19):
prepared to deal with therealities that we ourselves have
created.
To me, it's the problem ofplaying God, and there was
another good quote that kind ofsummed it up your scientists
were so preoccupied with whetheror not they could that they
(06:40):
didn't stop to think if theyshould, that they didn't stop to
think if they should, kind ofthat sums up the whole dilemma
of what they are working with.
Well, believe it or not, thereis precedence for this question
in our very scriptures, and itcomes super, super early in
(07:02):
Genesis.
We're in Genesis 11.
And it's this story of theTower of Babel.
Maybe you've heard of the Towerof Babel, or you've heard it
metaphorically, or maybe you'veeven read the story, or you've
heard it metaphorically, ormaybe you've even read the story
right, but it is a story thattalks about this idea of our
(07:23):
playing God, stepping into God'srole as the story develops.
Again, we're very, very early,and part of what our writers in
scripture at this point aretrying to capture is this idea
of how did we go from a singularexistence that the Bible
understands to the broadexistence of multiple languages
(07:46):
and multiple cultures and all ofthat, and this is, in some ways
, their way of describing howthat happened.
And at this stage, as they'rebuilding the tower, they're all
speaking the same language.
They're all understanding eachother right, because this is the
beginning of the society in theway that the ancients
(08:07):
understood it happening.
This is ancient science.
Hey, well done, you got thatpicture up.
See, that's exactly how itlooked like.
Somebody climbed up on amountain, got a photo.
Their camera with their phoneShould have got a selfie.
Make sure everybody knew theywere there, right?
(08:28):
So they people want to buildthis tower.
Now they're all united, theywant to build this tower, they
want to get up to some level ofwhere God is, with two honest
anxieties.
One, they kind of want to makea name for themselves, and we
could call that arrogant, or wecould call that trying to
stabilize themselves, get enoughunderneath them, enough power
(08:52):
that they're not getting overrunall the time.
But the second concern is thatthey are going to be scattered,
they're going to get disunitedand taken apart, where they
won't have the full advantage ofthe full company of who they
are so they can defendthemselves.
And so in this reality, in thisenvironment, god comes down,
(09:21):
and they make sure to say comesdown, like God's still way above
this to see what these humansare doing.
And God gets concerned and hesays this interesting phrase
they all realize that nothing isimpossible.
That's God's voiced concern.
(09:42):
They'll realize nothing isimpossible.
So God makes it so they can'tunderstand each other.
One more picture See, that'sexactly what happened right
there.
I know that one made me giggleso I had to put it in.
Makes it so they can'tunderstand each other.
And then their worst fears cometrue they are scattered by God.
(10:09):
It's an interesting story, isn'tit?
You know, it comes again veryearly on and we're talking about
Genesis especially as being thestory of God and humans and
trying to figure out thisrelationship and how God's going
to help humans be what God'shoping that humans will become.
But it's a lot of trial anderror, from creation to Adam and
(10:34):
Eve, to Cain and Abel and thenNoah, to Adam and Eve, to Cain
and Abel and then Noah.
And these are all stories, thiscycle of God trying new things
to make it work with humans andhumans generally not getting it
done right.
But it lands us at this newstage, this new stage of God and
(10:55):
the human relationship, and itbrings me to mind of that quote,
or what God says to the people,they'll learn nothing is
impossible.
Now, isn't that what we like totell our kids?
Right, it's a positive thing.
(11:16):
Nothing is impossible.
We tell our kids that, eventhough we know it's not true.
Right?
My dad never said to me you canbe an NBA star, right, let's
get real.
Right, some things areimpossible and that's okay, you
(11:39):
know.
But you work hard, you be good,you'll like where you end up.
But yeah, we say that phrasepretty frequently.
We want kids to feel like, oh,the world is their oyster and
you ought to get out there anddo this.
So it's interesting that Godsays this.
What kind of God says this?
(12:00):
God ultimately scatters them,disables their capacity to build
this tower.
If you're like me, that strikesas a little bit odd.
Now I've got this voice in myhead.
You know, my kid was getting alittle bit arrogant, so I
started teaching him math wrongjust to humble him.
(12:22):
Right, we don't hear that.
That's not a story that getstold, right, it just.
It seems odd until we look atthe story from the lens of
Jurassic Park.
There's one more quote, and Ididn't get it in a picture, but
it's from the doctor in thenewest version of these Jurassic
(12:46):
Park stories.
Dr Henry Loomis and he saysit's a little longer quote
dinosaurs are pretty dumb, right, and yet they survived for 167
million years.
And we, almost 8 million stronggeniuses, by comparison, only
(13:07):
have about 200,000 years so far.
But with our huge cranialcavities they're so smart we
already have the capacity toannihilate ourselves.
I doubt if we even make it toone million.
You hear a little bit more ofthat lens helping us to
(13:29):
understand.
Maybe God isn't necessarilytrying to tamp everybody down,
but God is trying to guide.
God is trying to help us, notget in over our heads, right?
Is it possible?
Can it be possible that God isjust doing all of this for our
own good, creating boundaries tohelp ourselves, much as we
(13:54):
would do with parenting or whenwe're mentoring somebody, don't
we try to keep them away fromdanger, make sure that they
succeed and move forward intheir growth?
I wonder if there's some spacefor humility in this story.
(14:14):
Maybe it's good that God slowsus down every now and again for
our own good, but it's a toughnut to chew on, isn't it?
I mixed my metaphors.
Did you enjoy that?
All the English majors justwent, including me.
(14:38):
No, it's a tough pill toswallow.
There I got my metaphor correct.
This idea that maybe weshouldn't necessarily just go
and do whatever we can justbecause we can, you know, it
kind of leaves us in this place.
(14:58):
What do we do in this placewhere maybe we shouldn't be
moving with as muchaggressiveness as we do?
We've got this reality where wehave these great tendencies,
where we have these greattendencies, tendencies and
(15:21):
ambitions to do great, greatthings and to evolve ourselves
and our world.
But we've also got thesenot-so-good tendencies that
sometimes we don't always dowhat's good for the whole.
And here we are in the middleof that world and we need to
discern what is moral andethical growth.
(15:43):
When are we truly seeking agreater good and when is it just
purely hubris, done for powerwe aren't able to wield
effectively or, more importantly, morally?
So in that journey ofdiscernment, trying to figure
(16:03):
out, okay, what are we supposedto be doing, god, I'm going to
bring us back to Scripture.
You know, the Christian responseto the Tower of Babel story
comes in the Pentecost story,pentecost being the day that we
celebrate the birth of the HolySpirit.
And some of you will rememberthe story from the book of Acts,
(16:26):
where the disciples, with Jesushaving been crucified and still
even resurrected, but they'rewondering what they're supposed
to do now.
Maybe this great thing happened, but not everybody got to
experience it.
It's really just them.
What does God want them to do?
When they're huddled up, maybea little afraid that they're
(16:47):
going to start getting hunteddown, and in that anxiety, god
comes to them and inspires somepreaching, inspires a message,
and here's the amazing thingPeople started to understand
what they were saying, despitethe multiple languages.
(17:08):
You see the comparison we gofrom a Tower of Babel where they
couldn't understand each other,and then the Holy Spirit comes
and we are able to understandeach other despite speaking
multiple languages.
You hear how that is aneffective response to a certain
(17:30):
extent.
But here I got to tell you,thinking there and going there,
I had my brain blow up this week.
Are you ready for the shrapnelof that?
Here is my brain blowing upthis week.
We have what might be an exampleof a modern Tower of Babel at
(17:53):
work right now and it comes intwo little letters A and I.
Are we ready for AI?
Here's artificial intelligence.
I could look at this and sayyou know what AI that's looking
(18:13):
like?
Tower of Babel, looking likewe're trying to be bigger than
we are, looking like we're goingto get ourselves over our skis.
We're going to get ourselvesinto trouble.
We're not ready to deal withthe moral and ethical
consequences of what it meansthat these machines are able to
do, with the capacity that theyare able to do, the information
(18:36):
that they're going to bring tous.
That's the feeling most of ushave, right.
Here's another thought, withPentecost in mind or is AI,
because of its ability toovercome language and bring
(18:56):
knowledge, despite differencesin cultures and language, bring
knowledge to people in a waythat we are able to unite in
some really really unique waysand maybe even do some really
really amazing things?
Is AI the Holy Spirit?
No, no, I'm out.
(19:20):
Ai is not the Holy Spirit.
But you hear how my brain blewup a little bit as soon as I was
walking this journey.
I'm like, well, wait a minute.
Is that the Holy Spirit?
Are we in the upper roomsitting there?
And then we come with ways ofuniting the world?
I don't know.
(19:40):
So here I've left you.
I've left you in a paralyzingspace of oh my gosh, what am I
supposed to do?
Crazy pastor thinks AI might bethe Holy Spirit Right.
So here, let it not be said, Ididn't leave you with some hope
(20:07):
and some vision.
Are you ready for this?
I invite you to remember lastweek's message with the title
Look for the Fruits.
Remember that from Galatians 5,look for the fruits.
I'll even read it for you.
By contrast, the fruit of thespirit is love, joy, peace,
(20:31):
patience, kindness, generosity,faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control.
If we are navigating this world,if we are navigating AI and
we're trying to understandexactly where God is calling us,
is this good innovation,ethical innovation, god, or are
(20:54):
we getting in over our skis?
Are we getting into places wecan't deal with it?
I invite you, look for thefruits, look for all of this
fruit being produced by whateverthat journey is.
If you're working with AI, areyou seeing love being built from
(21:15):
what you're learning, by whatyou're sharing?
Is there joy?
Is there patience?
Is there kindness beinggenerated from your journey with
all of this?
I'll invite you to look, too, atthe Micah passage that we
worked with a few weeks back Dojustice, love, kindness, walk
(21:37):
humbly with God.
We are in this really complexspace and the older I get, the
more complex it feels.
Is anybody with me?
It just feels so complex.
It just feels so complex, maybe, where we can put our heart,
(22:00):
where we can put our actions,where we can, exactly what God
is hoping that we're going tocreate, what God is actually
(22:21):
hoping we're going to do.
We look for the fruits, we lookto be kind, we look to do
justice, we look to walk humbly,Amen, amen.
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
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
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.