Father, we honor you. It is our privilege to
be here, our privilege to do this. It sounds
cliché, but it's not. We do get to do this and
we're thankful for it. Lord, today as we talk,
as we share, as we deconstruct, whatever it is
you have us do and whatever you lead us into,
Lord, we want to be on point. We want to be in
alignment with your heart, in alignment with
your word. And Father, above all things, we want
to honor you, glorify you, and help people. That's
our heart. So Father, for those that will be
listening, To this podcast, whenever they pick
it up, Lord, we trust that you will get it where
it needs to go and to whom it needs to go to.
We do it in Jesus' name. Amen. No, it's not a
cliche. We actually get to do this. I mean it.
I've never said it as a cliche. I think I started
saying it probably about a year ago -ish. Oh,
really? I thought this was a jimmyism for decades.
This is not an old school. This is a newer version.
And when I said it the first couple of times,
I was like, I really like that. And I just started
saying it over and over. And now it's funny around
the church. I'll hear people say it. Oh, yeah.
It's just like, okay, all right, whatever. Whatever
helps. I was listening to the last episode in
the car and it was where you were reading your
daily grind and at the end we both said, this
is Pastor Jim, you have an amazing day on purpose.
That was great. But that's milieu or milieu or
however you want to pronounce. These are really
important things. in any type of organism or
organization. And it can be good and it can be
bad. Right. You know, it's, it's really, um,
well, gosh, I'm jumping around. This actually
brought me right into a topic I was going to
say for later. Um, you know, this is the same
in, you know, in any organization, but especially
media organizations. So if you think about Jimmy
Kimmel and, you know, what he was saying about
Charlie Kirk and, you know, all of that, fracas
that led to stations taking them off for a week
or two. It really is because the people in that
organization, he has a hundred people, he's got
writers, ABC, which is owned by Disney. They
probably have never actually looked into Charlie
Kirk and they just all believe like, oh yeah,
no, that guy's a racist. We all know it. I mean,
Bob said it, Pete over here, he knows about it.
And it's not even that these people are bad people.
They just have never looked into it. I mean,
nobody can look into everything that's claimed
in the world. There's no way. So these kind of
group think is very, very typical. Group think.
Mob mentality. It's another way to say it. Remember
what the mob said around Jesus? Crucify him.
Crucify him. Most of the people in that crowd
didn't even know what they were talking about.
Precisely. It's the same thing. So this can be
good and it can be bad. Um, and of course that
all depends on your opinion if you're in the
group or if you're not in the group. And something
happened this past week that, uh, and this, uh,
I may even, I know, I'm pretty sure I'm going
to reuse this on no agenda. It's that good. And
it was about the BBC. Now the BBC is, is really
considered to be one of the premier organizations
in highbrow news, information, entertainment,
etc. The way the BBC works in the United Kingdom,
it's not funded by tax money. Everybody, if you
have a television, I think now they probably
extended it to if you have a computer screen
and a cable modem, you have to pay what they
call the license fee. And I think it's about
$300 a year. and it's mandatory, and they come
and check. They have vans driving around like,
hey, can we check in your house? If you have
a TV screen, you're not paying your license fee,
then you get fined. And this was done specifically
so that there could never be political influence
over the BBC as an organization. Of course, you
know. How's that working for you? Well, and this
is kind of the point, because if you look at
their board of directors, they have a board of
governors, they have a content board, a news,
I mean, they have all kinds of boards and it's
all Lord so -and -so, sir, dippity dip, you know,
so it's very, very elitist. But still, and they
have BBC World, BBC America, they have BBC Arabic,
they've got, it is a huge, huge, huge organization.
And something came out and the timing of which
is interesting, the timing of it coming out now
with the timing of what this first report is
about is interesting. But it really shows, I
should probably mention that there's circular
reporting in the world. So in the 70s, they had
a commission in Congress and it turns out that
the CIA had all kinds of people writing stories
for CBS News, you know, for the nightly news.
And this was a huge scandal. I forget the name
of the committee. But so, you know, it kind of
shifted. So you would have someone writing, I
think we've discussed this before, for the Uganda
Times. And that would be a CIA propagandist.
That's really what the CIA does most of is, believe
me, intelligence agencies, they're more about
propaganda in the news and social media, of course,
only made it that much easier for them where
you don't know who's who and if who is even real.
And the whole point of that is so that the New
York Times or the Wall Street Journal or the
Financial Times could say, according to the Uganda
Times, this is happening. So then it's kind of
like that distance. Well, we heard it from this
credible organization. So the BBC even from my
mind has always been highly credible because
you know this is and the British are very very
proud they call the BBC auntie auntie auntie
so auntie we all trust auntie don't we well that
kind of broke down right and it broke down this
week and you probably heard about the first story
but the second and third stories have not gotten
much traction at all so this is about the program
panorama which is a very influential, kind of
like a 60 minutes to highly produce. And it turns
out that the BBC intentionally, really intentionally
edited the January 6 speech of President Trump
to make it sound like he incited the January
6, quote unquote, insurrection. And I'll play
this this this is so the the telegraph the newspaper
the telegraph they got a whistleblower report
and so they Uncovered this and they released
this just about a week ago. I said wow look at
what the BBC has been doing the important thing
of this first story is that this Program panorama
aired on November 2nd just days before the election
And it aired in the United States, on BBC America,
aired multiple times. These things make a difference.
They really do. But what it starts to uncover
for us is the milieu of the BBC who just believe
a whole bunch of things and how we always need
to just go back to the Bible for the truth. I
think you said facts change. But the truth is
the truth. Yes. And this is a clear cut example
of the facts changing right before your very
eyes. Well, it's the biggest story in town. It
turns out American President Donald Trump was
onto something. Where are you from? BBC. Here's
another beauty. It's a good line. Impartial,
free and fair. Yeah, sure. Well, that criticism
of the BBC and John Sople he was talking to there
apparently was well -founded because the so -called
impartial and accurate public service broadcaster
is nothing but. Because tonight the BBC is facing
serious questions over its credibility after
the Daily Telegraph exposed a panorama segment
that heavily doctored a speech by the American
president in 2021, hours before the infamous
January the 6th Capitol riot. As you're about
to hear, the corporation spliced together two
quotes, one hour apart, to make it seem like
he encouraged an insurrection. They played the
following clip. We're going to walk down to the
Capitol and I'll be there with you and we fight.
We fight like hell. But Trump didn't in fact
say this at all. The BBC spliced together two
clips that took place 54 minutes apart. So let's
go through it again. to the Capitol. By the way,
they don't mention that in this report, but the
music, that's the music that they put underneath
the president's speech at that point. Very, very
subversive. Get your nervous, get your nervous
system all. Something epic is about to happen.
That's important too. Wow. We're going to walk
down to the Capitol and I'll be there with you.
Now, see there between Capitol and, and That's
a cut. Here's what Trump actually said. It's
different. It wasn't until nearly an hour later
that he then said the second part of the BBC's
version. And we fight. We fight like hell. That
is damning. Yeah. No kidding. Wow. And, you know,
this is the first time I've heard this, by the
way. Oh, really? I know this is popular right
now. I just literally have not been on the news.
This is why I'm here, brother. I'm here to give
you what's important. I was happier before I
knew this. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.
Ignorance is bliss. Yeah, this is true. So now
in television editing, It's okay if you want
to put those two pieces together. What you do
is like a flash wipe is what we call it. You
see a little white bit. Even though that is also
deceptive, but that's now kind of generally accepted
as, all right, so you cut those two pieces together.
It's like an ellipsis, like a dot, dot, dot.
In a way. Yeah, exactly. But this, they literally...
Did a good job on the audio edit and then just
put a quick crowd shot over it So it was wow
total. That's what so much option deception Yeah,
and the music like you said the power of music
life does not have a soundtrack No, but yet they've
got this epic build like it sounded like something
out of a movie is what it sounded like precisely
so so This by itself. Okay politics, you know,
we know that the UK actually sent over, I think
it was like 50 or 75 of their top government
people to campaign for Kamala Harris. You might
recall that. If you want to look for an enemy
in our own politics, I would say, look at what's
going on over there. Remember, this milieu is
lords and sirs and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So you just keep that in your back pocket. But
now, what else has the BBC been doing? And this
is really, really critical. This is also from
The Telegraph. And why they're releasing all
this now, you know, I've got to dive into that
and I have my suspicions as to why. But when
it comes to propaganda about Israel, Listen to
what they were doing. In April and June 2024,
the BBC published two stories about the discovery
of mass graves at Al Nasser and Al Shifa hospitals
in Gaza. According to the internal BBC dossier,
the article strongly implied that Israeli forces
had buried bodies at both sites prior to withdrawing
from the area. The articles also mentioned alleged
evidence of war crimes, including bodies found
with their hands tied and gunshot wounds their
heads. But the BBC's own editorial standards
committee was told that this narrative was wrong.
The memo says that the most likely explanation
is that the mass graves were dug by Palestinians
themselves and the people buried there had died
or been killed prior to the arrival of the Israeli
ground forces. So the BBC made a mistake, well
perhaps. But the committee argues that the broadcaster
knew that Palestinians were burying their dead
at these sites before the Israeli raids. Whatever
your personal views may be on the actions of
Israel in Gaza, implying a country committed
war crimes when there is evidence to the contrary
has serious ramifications, not least because
it could erode the credibility of genuine war
crime claims at a later date. Complete sick groupthink
is what that is. Wow. And you can say it's anti
-Semitic. It certainly is anti -Israel. There
you go. The very state, the modern state of Israel
that Britain created. So we don't need to go
into all of that, but just to show you that the
most, we know that we, I don't think anyone really
trusts US news that much, but man, the BBC, the
BBC had, has a standard that everybody, including
the Brit, or specifically the British really
thought was quite high. The third one, well,
it won't surprise you, but it still blew me away
that this is how the BBC, the premier news organization
in the world maybe operates. This internal BBC
memo accuses the broadcaster of censoring its
stories about the trans debate. In it, one of
the BBC's own independent advisors repeatedly
warns that the broadcaster is exhibiting serious
and systemic problems. But in the case of the
trans issue, It's not just how the content is
reported or edited or framed. Instead, it's what
audiences don't see that reveals the one -sided
nature of their coverage. Now, this dossier describes
in damning terms allegations that the BBC's specialist
LGBTQ desk had been, quote, captured by a small
group of people promoting the stonewall view
of the debate and keeping other perspectives
off air. The way the BBC works is that different
news programmes have to share a pool of reporters
rather than having their own dedicated reporters,
which means that for stories about LGBTQ issues,
they have to use reporters from the LGBTQ desk.
Crucially though, the report claims that those
reporters refuse to cover any stories that raise
what are called difficult questions about the
trans debate. The dossier goes as far as to allege
that the BBC shares a constant drip feed of one
-sided stories that celebrate the trans experience
without adequate balance or objectivity. Surprise.
Shock and awe. Not at this point. Right. Is anybody
surprised at this point? Well, probably not,
but we still need to think about what does this
really mean for anything that we look at. Right.
And you know, if anyone's taught me to be more...
to look at things more critically, not critically
in a negative sense, it's critically in terms
of let's really look and dig down. It's you and
John Deeb, you know, John Dvorak as well. curmudgeon
and all, which I absolutely love the guy. But
you guys, you've opened my eyes. I was living
ignorantly in bliss for many decades. Oh, trust
the government. My dad was a firefighter. He
worked for the city, the county. I was part of
that system. And so you trust them. They're right
in your paychecks. And now at this season of
life, level six, I'm now Every time I hear something,
I'm saying, I don't believe it. It's kind of
sad that we have to think that way. It's tragic.
But I'd rather live with my eyes wide open than
just be a lemming walking off a cliff and following
somebody else. Which is pretty much what I see
every single day. Friends of mine, family members,
everyone's just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe
this. Can you believe this? Oh, this is it. It's
like the game of telephone. I mean, there is
some something that happened. There's a fact.
And by the time it gets to your timeline or wherever
you're picking it up, it could be it could be
the complete opposite of the truth. I did a thing.
Oh, so for two weeks I stayed off of news feeds.
OK, I didn't look at Newsmax, Epic Times. I didn't
do anything. I just. I did peek into CBN news
just to see if there was any revival stuff happening.
And there is. Great news there. Good stuff. And
so two nights ago, Annette's watching one of
her favorite shows, which is not one of mine.
So I pulled out my iPad and I just thought, I've
not looked at... a news feed. I can have that
chocolate bar. That's kind of how that was. I
can have it. That Hershey's bar. So I looked
it up. I started going through it. You know what?
There was a lot of new stuff, but it wasn't really
new. It's the same song, 50th of the Verse. And
I just literally laughed out loud. She goes,
what are you laughing at? And I said, the news.
Oh, you're reading it. I said, I'm just sort
of scamming, skimming it. And I'm like, it's
the same stuff. Same rhetoric, same. It may be
a different theme to the story, but at the end
of the day, it's the same story. Over and over.
Alert, alert. Can't we find that in Scripture
as well, is that it's always the same, it's always
cyclical, it's always the same basic tenets of
what people consider to be news, like, oh, you
know, look at these wonders this guy has done.
He must be doing that by the power of the devil.
I forget what, isn't that Luke or something?
Well, I mean, it depends. It could be any of
the Gospels. It could be any of the Gospels,
of course. Yeah. But Beelzebub or whatever. Oh,
he's doing this by the power of the devil, which
is, of course, the news is, look what he did.
He cured this person, you know, drove the demon
out of him. And then the timeline is, well, clearly
the devil, he has the power of the devil to do
this. It's kind of the same thing. It doesn't
change, does it? It does. It really doesn't.
It's like human nature. does not change. We get
more technologically advanced, but it doesn't
change our nature. It may look a little different.
It'll be framed differently. It'll have bells
and whistles that it didn't have, but it's still
the same issue. And the issue is sin. The issue
is self. Me before anything. I'm the king. Which
is the crux of social media. In Isaiah, the devil
said, I will rise and I will exalt myself above
him. above God. And then the Tower of Babel,
right from the beginning, they're like, if we
can build, do this together, we can actually
reach heaven. Bro, this is, I said bro. It's
still happening. I said bro. It's all right,
we're brothers. Bro is fine. But this is exactly
what's happening right now. You're seeing these
groups like MAGA and America First, or the DSA.
I mean, people are really And that most of what
I see on social media is people speaking the
way they really want to hear their representative
speaking. Have you ever noticed that? Yes. No,
I can't believe that they are doing, they are
doing that. This, they need to do this. And like,
y 'all, you're not going to hear this on mainstream.
You know, it's that's what these people and these
people are our friends and family too. And at
certain points myself, I mean, I do it. That's
really what we want to hear from our representatives
who of course have a whole have a whole bunch
of other stuff on their plate But it is all about
me myself and I and but if we all get together
and build this tower But we'll be more powerful
than anybody and that the only tower I know in
really the only country is America with government,
you know for by and of the people But it's not
gonna work. If you just yelling on social media
trust me it goes nowhere Right now, everybody's
mad at Candice Owen. It's like beating this drum
and showing clips. She's getting more promotional
PR than anybody I've ever seen. People are going
to flock to her. It's working for her. Everybody's
mad at her and they're showing clips. Again,
I spent probably 10 minutes last night before
I went to sleep. I've still keyed up because
we had friends over and I was still trying to
come down from four hours of conversation, literally.
And so it was like, I couldn't just turn the
light off. So I sat there and I thumbed through
and it's like, there it is. Oh, there's Candace
Owen being shown by this podcaster pointing out
her fallacies. Here's another one pointing, and
it was the same thing over and over and over.
It's like they're all saying the same things,
but trying to get your attention. I'm not quite
sure where I fall on what this is. I've seen
this before, but never to this level. And it
all centers around America first, MAGA, throw
in Israel, throw in Charlie Kirk, throw in Epstein.
And it's like this big soup of slop. That's just
being stirred and served and to me it's it personally
to me is disappointing I've always enjoyed Megyn
Kelly. I haven't really watched her for a long
time, but now she's in the slop You know, she's
jumped in feet -first and swirling around and
I'm seeing big -name pastors on their podcast
Waiting into this like brother. Don't don't you
see that? I'm watching it too with pastors that
I like that really value. Yeah, and they're just
treading into it. This morning, I saw one of
my friends who's a podcaster treading into that
water and I'm like, ah, too soon, too soon. And
there's, it feels like to me this, I could be,
you could tell me this from a podcaster's perspective,
but it's like every time something happens in
the world, everybody who considers themselves
an influencer feels like they have to have an
opinion on it. So they jump online, and they
say things and they show a clip or they commentary
on something. And then a few days pass and it
may not have been the truth. It may not have
been the actual narrative, but they don't go
back and go, I was wrong. I really missed that.
Swing and a miss. Well, and by the way, you're
a podcaster, whether you believe it or not, you're
a professional podcaster. Well, I am quick to
say I was wrong. I'll own it, man, if I miss
it. Swing and a miss. This is human nature. people,
and I know that, because like no agenda is only
twice a week, Thursdays and Sundays, but it's
already happening with our podcast. People are
saying, I wonder what the boys are going to say
about this. I wonder what Pastor Jimmy and Adam
are going to say, because they're desperately
looking for either, in some cases validation,
but just help me, help me, help me, help me.
And a lot of this stems from... Man, we are we
went through a season of reveal into the Great
Awakening, which I think I think you need those
two steps to get to revival. COVID did a lot
for people to just want to say. I want someone
to tell me what's going on. I know who I don't
trust anymore. Right. And I trust these people
because of A, B and C. The hardest thing. is
when, because it is media, and I deconstruct
media for a living. So when I deconstruct podcasts,
people get very, very mad at me. And most get
just mad and are outraged. You're shooting inside
the tent, man. What are you doing? Because a
lot of people... have latched onto different
podcasters, different podcasts, could be Rogan,
could be Dave Smith, could be Tom Woods, et cetera,
et cetera. And the minute you say, well, I don't
think he's saying the right thing or he's often
some tangent. You've touched something. Yes,
it's like the third rail. Touching a podcaster?
I can say anything I want about MSNBC, CNN, BBC,
but the minute I say, I think this podcaster
is off base, people get hurt because these have
become their friends who they trust. And by the
same token, this idea of audience capture, which
is the same in a church. you know, in this world
or no longer of that world for a couple years.
But I'm sure that many pastors and preachers
and church leaders will approach certain topics
in a certain way because they don't want to offend
their quote -unquote audience. It's true. Something
I've noticed is this idea that people are very
proud of being considered an influencer. I've
got X amount of followers. I have X amount of
pride. Then you've got people that are very,
they've moved from being an influencer, which
is legitimate title. You know, we do, we influence
people, but into expert, expert status. So now
all these influencers are suddenly trusted experts.
And actually at the end of the day, we're all
just have opinions. Yeah. Oh, we don't know the
whole truth on anything. Nobody does. This is
why I'm a podcaster saying, turn off your screen,
put down your screens and pick up your Bibles.
Because what's been good for me in the last few
weeks is doing that very thing and staying in
the Word. And I'm telling you, truth begins to
become evident. You know, it's like when they
teach a tell her how to handle money. They don't
let them play with counterfeit money. They only
get to know a real dollar bill. Then when a counterfeit
comes through, you're like, oh, there it is.
But you don't have to learn everything about
a counterfeit to recognize one. It's the same
principle here. You pick up the Bible and go,
oh, that's like drinking a cool drink of water
on a hot August day in the hill country. Wow,
that's real. That's refreshing. That's satiating.
Whereas when you're on line, you're just one
dopamine hit after another, after another, after
another. I love doggy videos. I'm just going
to say it. Now, do you still watch those during
your break from news? I do. Okay. If you look
at my algo on Instagram, it's hilarious. It's
dog videos. I mean, like one after another, like
I pull up my little explore, whatever it's called,
discover. I can't remember what they call it.
I don't pay much attention to it, but It's like
all doggy stuff. And then it's like, you're so
weird. No, but it's so innocent. That's the one
thing I can entertain myself with. Laugh, smile,
and feel some love, you know, without getting
all caught up in all the work, the cesspool,
the slurry, everything else. While you're doing
that, does the algo sometimes pop something else?
That's the evil part. I get a lot of airplane
stuff. I get weird stuff. The stuff that interests
me is when I'm just letting my mind go idle is
watching jet fighters, dog fight, or people fly
a glider. The weird things of hover are hilarious
because I like that stuff. I like flying. I like
all that. Pilot but I'm not just to want to be
you use more aviation references than any non
aviator though Yeah flaps down land in the plane
a plane landing gears down your altitude determines
your your attitude determines your altitude That's
I love that one. That's it. I don't know. Maybe
it was a wannabe pilot or something. But anyway,
I just This idea of that everyone's an expert
it's one thing that if everyone's honest and
says this is just my opinion Wow. Okay. I might
listen to you, but people that have become, just
because they have a lot of followers, they now
are self -declared experts. And I'm sorry. I
mean, I don't mean to be negative about specific
people. I won't even name names, but some of
those popular podcasts out there, I'm like, why
does their opinion mean more than anybody else's
just because they have more followers? How many
times you heard someone say this? Well, he has
2 million followers. That's an automatic validation
of that person must know what they're talking
about. Or he's got a heck of a producer who knows
like a Matt Munt. If we could hire Matt Munt
to carry, we get to do this, man, we'd have a
million followers. We'd have millions of followers.
Well, I get offers every day online. Don't you
get emails of people wanting to... take your
thing to the next level? Hi, first name. Whenever
I get one of those with like the first name,
I always hit reply. I say, you really need to
fix your system because, you know, it's still
too automated. I got one the other day. How was
it? Like if, you know, if, if you hire me, then
I'll fix this for you because that will really
enhance your engagement. with podcast enthusiasts.
So that's you listener. You're a podcast enthusiast.
I'm so happy to have you listening to us here.
I get that stuff. It's complicated. So we took
a road trip last Saturday. Are you going to tell
about nearly killing us three times or is this
part just something a different part of this?
Okay, so you really brought it up. See, when
we came home, I right away went to Tina and said,
before you hear about it, Jimmy saved our lives
three times. Did you know I didn't even think
about it again until Tina brought it up or Ned
or somebody. One of y 'all brought it up. I said,
oh yeah, I forgot about that. We're driving along
and quite honest, we're yapping. We should have
hit record. Well, this is this is the point I
was going to make. You know, we're connecting
your phone to Bluetooth. Meanwhile, I got my
phone here for the while we're driving while
we're driving. And then Jimmy's like. Oh, okay.
But not once, not twice, three times. That was
only on the way over there. Well, to your defense,
they do keep adding lights on the way to dripping
springs. I'm in the middle of a highway. Speed
limit is 65, and there's a red light. What? Who
does that? But it could have been noisy, so I'm
appreciative of that. But correct. And we even
said, well, we really should be recording this,
because we got into some really good stuff. And
the main one I enjoyed Was about AI because we
were both talking about You know And of course,
it'll be impossible to recreate the conversation,
but you made an analogy to AI and the Gutenberg
press mmm, you think you can rekindle that one?
Yeah, I mentioned that to Annette so You brought
up an interesting thought that I hadn't really
thought about this angle about could something
that is created by AI, but of course we put the
prompts in, right? We prompt, and then AI creates
based on our prompts. Creates the right thing,
constructs, whatever you want to call it. Maybe
it's not real creation, maybe it is. Hallucinates.
So you made a comment, could that be the Holy
Spirit? Could the Holy Spirit take our prompts,
things we've dropped into ChatGBT, whichever
one, there's a bunch of them, Grok, and actually
create something that's of the Lord, of the Spirit.
So we were talking about that because there's
a lot of apps out right now that from a Christian
perspective, the AI sermons, the AI Bible, the
AI chat Bible. I mean, you look it up and it
just populates. There's a bunch of them. So there's
a lot of early adopters on this from the Christian
world. A bit slower to adopt. I kind of want
to wait and see kind of thing. And so we were
talking about it and I said, well, When they
came out with the Gutenberg press, they started
printing Bibles for the first time. The Gutenberg
was the most well -known. Could there have been
people saying, well, wait a minute, that's artificial?
Because for the technology of their day, that
was a big deal. No one had ever mass -produced
or printed the Bible. We can't even imagine what
that was like when printing came along. No, we
can't. We can't put ourselves there. push yourself
as hard as you can with your sanctified imagination
that that had to be shocking, that suddenly it
was available to everyone. It was only available
before to priests, pastors, people that kings,
clergy, ruling class. All of a sudden, the Bible
is available to the entire public. Well, that
can't be of God because it's artificial. So there's
the thing. So you and I have friends on both
ends of the spectrum that were like early adopters,
and they'll come and say things to us like, oh
man, we're doing this thing and we're using AI
like it's a badge of honor. And you and I are
cringing like, ooh, really? That is our immediate
natural response. I know, it's cringe. Yeah,
and I don't know why I react like that. I think
because I've not become an early adopter on everything,
you've taught me that, honestly. to just kind
of wait and see, you know, like, like I was joking
the other day about having to update my roadcaster.
It forced me to, and I was upset about it. It's
like, wait, I don't even get an option. Cause
I always tell you, I said, don't never update
right away. Let it sit for a week. I just recorded
all my DG's and then I plug it in to drop it
onto my computer. It forces me into an upgrade
cycle. I was upset about it. Anyway, I'm not
an early adopter like I used to be on things.
I'll kind of like, Let's just wait and see. Let's
give it a little bit. It could be because I'm
getting older too. I'm not as quick to jump on
things, but we've had a lot of friends that are
proud. Oh, man. Oh my gosh. I got this AI program.
It's writing my sermons. I got this AI program.
It's doing this and that. I got this AI program.
It's writing all my emails for me now. I'm like,
okay. All right. I'm not sure about that. That's
one end of the spectrum. The other end of the
spectrum is like, oh, it's of the devil. This
is the Antichrist. Oh, six six, might as well
get six six six tattooed on your forehead if
you're going to use AI. So we got the other end
of the spectrum, right? Somewhere in the middle,
there's probably some health. There's probably
something good. So to me, the way I look at AI
is it is a tool. It's not going to use me. I'm
going to use it. The day I start to think it's
using me, I'm going to stop or tap the brakes.
This is the tricky part because a car is a tool.
You can easily kill 30 people with a car. A shovel
is a tool. It's obvious what you can do with
all these things. A gun, you can hunt game and
eat. Right. Actually, this does bring me to a
clip because you brought it up. I'm curious to
see what you think, but I'm pretty sure I already
know what you're going to say. This is, do you
know Pastor Austin Hamrick? That name is familiar,
yes. So, he seems to have a reasonable -sized
church. I have no idea where he is. And this
was, in my mind, I was looking at something completely
different. I actually accidentally hit a button,
and this video popped up. And whenever this happens,
I'm like, okay, I got you, Holy Spirit. You're
throwing this in my face for a reason. So I watched
this whole video, the rise of AI in the future
of the church. A young guy, young pastor, you
know who he is? And I just pulled about a minute
and a half because the whole thing was about
comparing AI to Revelation, I think it's 13 verse
11. So I'll just play this and then we can discuss.
Now does the Bible actually address the potential
use of artificial intelligence in the end times.
I think it absolutely does. Would you look at
Revelation chapter 13 with me? We're gonna read
from Revelation 13 verses 11 through 18, but
the verses just prior to this in Revelation 13
verses one through 10, it talks about this beast
coming up out of the sea, and that is the Antichrist.
And then here in verses 11 through 18, it talks
about another beast that arises out of the earth
that is the false prophet. We know it's the false
prophet because he's subsequently referred to
as such in chapters 16, 19, and 20. And what
is happening is this second monster, the second
monster out of the earth, is promoting the first
monster. The second monster or the false prophet,
John basically is going to say he's a human who
functions as a minister of propaganda. And what
he's going to tell everyone is to make an image.
to the antichrist, telling those who dwell on
the earth to make an image to the beast who was
wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted
power to give breath. Everybody say breath. He
was granted this power to give breath to the
image of the beast that the image of the beast
should both speak and cause as many as would
not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
He causes all, both small and great, rich and
poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their
right hand or on their foreheads and that no
one may buy or sell except one who has the mark
or the name of the beast or the number of his
name. I was blown away that in a minute and a
half he took it straight to the mark of the beast.
I'm like... I don't think he's on the right track
here. This doesn't feel right. He's a young guy
and I'm just like, I don't think, you know, this
is a good message either. So in preaching world,
especially guys that are broadcasting, that are
online, you know, and known, the same temptation
is there to get clicks, likes, follows. Yeah.
Yeah. I got to come up with something. It almost
becomes a one -upping yourself. I have to fight
this tendency. Like last Sunday, I intentionally
did a wrap -up to a long series that we had just
finished. I could have easily moved on, pulled
something, a sugar stick that I just love to
preach on because now I get a chance for a one
-off. And I said, no, no, no, no, we need to
tie this up. Well, I knew it wasn't going to
be like a rah -rah, go -go, because I'm basically
doing a summary of what we just did over the
last, what, nine weeks, 10 weeks. And so I had
to resist the temptation. Okay, I got a free
shot here. I can preach on anything I want to.
What would really? So I fight that. I can imagine
if I fight it at the level I'm at, what some
of these guys who have much larger churches,
much larger followings, that must be a constant
temptation to one up yourself, to flash alert,
alert, breaking news, breaking news. The temptation
I think is the same there in a church, especially
a large church with just these expectations are
so high. You create this this thing. And I know
that because I caught myself in that loop before.
And you just got to step out of it, which I intentionally
did last Sunday. Because then it was like, what
are you going to preach on? You got to free me.
Where are you going to go with this? And she
said, you could do this and this. And she had
some great ideas, by the way. And I'm like, yeah,
I'm tempted to do that. But I feel like if we
just walk away from the sermon series with Pastor
Rick Scarborough, who just crushed it, beautiful.
But we just say, okay, now what's next? I'll
feel like we didn't do that justice. I need to
put a bow on that. I need to end it well. I need
to have a demarcation point. All that to say
I'm getting in the weeds of it. But it's a mentality
where I'm resisting the need to preach something
edgy, controversial, something that'll get claps
and attention. I intentionally didn't do that
because I'm resisting the flesh that wants that
validation. Does that make sense? Of course it
does. This is exactly what you said. When I hear
him going, taking AI to the Mark of the Beast,
I'm like, okay, well that'll get a lot of replays.
That's probably why it popped up for me. It'll
be on a reel. Pastor says it's the Mark of the
Beast. I'm not knocking this guy. What I know
about him and what I've seen, I like him. But
we can all make these... There's a step to a
conclusion, then there's a jump or a leap. And
sometimes we leap to conclusions. If he would
have postulated, this is possibly that, I try
to use terms that are not so definitive. Like,
this could be, this is possibly, this might be,
I may be hearing God, and could I share that
word with you? Then you need to pray. But you
know what I mean? It's not just giving trap doors,
but it's being honest. I'm a human and I could
miss, and so I'm just going to say it up front.
So we're around people who are pastors and they're
growing churches. They're so confident, so sure,
so convicted. We know that God is not impressed
by size. This is something we discovered a couple
episodes ago. I discovered it. Not at all. God
does not care about scale, about size, about
any of that stuff. Which, of course, the broken
world version is, it's the most important thing.
Exactly. That means you've arrived. So I hear
I hear Paul Hamrick. Hey more power to the guy,
but I wish he would have caveated that or given
some context of This is a possibility. I don't
think it would have lessened his impact No, I
think if anything would endear the listener to
him. Yeah. Yeah, he's being honest. He's being
real I would rather be transparent that way and
If that meant I don't have a more following a
bigger following or bigger. I'm okay with that.
Yeah I can sleep at night and not feel like I
just ran somebody off a cliff, you know? A thought
came to mind. I want to bring you back to our
conversation in the car. When Google first was
kind of growing big, because, you know, Google
wasn't the first search engine, it was actually
Alta Vista, Yahoo, there are all these, Ask Jeeves,
there are many different search engines. There
was a time, and so we're going back at least
15 years, and I was convinced, and I had my own
studies to kind of prove that it worked, that
everything is, even technology is made of natural
materials. So now I would say of God, of the
Holy Spirit, of His creation. Silicon is sand,
it's processed, but no two chips are exactly
alike. I think we probably could find it on no
agenda in the archives I would say I would give
people this experiment before you go and search
for something on Google close your eyes and focus
on it and focus on that this is all natural material
and connect to it Wow, and you may get better
search results and People would say yeah, I got
better search results because now now I'm thinking
When we prompt when we do things It is not at
all inconceivable that you can have the helper,
the Holy Spirit doing things inside the machine.
Now, what comes out can be either or. I mean,
it can be all kinds of stuff that can come back
at you. But since our car trip, my views on AI
are softening a little bit. I'm not quite the...
Hater that the hater that I was I'm view now.
There's some very real risks when you start talking
to it Like it's a an entity and I just called
out one of my business partners on that. Yes
I say when you're prompting don't say I Didn't
like what you did there or thank you No, just
give it commands once you transform it into an
entity that you're talking to I think you're
already on dangerous thin ice One way I fixed
that is I chose a voice I hated. See, I don't
even recommend talking to it. I don't all the
time, but sometimes driving down the road, a
thought will hit me about context, historical
context around an event as I'm studying scripture
and stuff. And I'll go, hey, in the first century
in Israel, surrounding the event where Jesus
healed a man at Bethsaida at the well, what was
the cultural context at that time? Now, I like
getting that kind of stuff back, because that's
like, I'm just listening to it. I had that question
just the other day. Those are good questions,
man. I know, right? I'm weird. I'm a preacher.
Not at all. I love it. You're always thinking
in terms of media, clips. You can't listen to
anything like, oh, I need to clip that. Well,
I'm the same way with preaching and stuff. So
I have found that to be helpful. Because it broadens
my thinking. So there's, again, that's using
a tool, not a tool using me. Now, I remember
seeing the documentary on the internet years
ago and they said, well, if it's free, they're
already using you. You know, I mean, there's
that. You're already the experiment, right? You're
already the mouse in the cage or whatever. So
I get that. But what I'm saying is, is that I'm
just really careful about keeping this as a tool.
as something that can subsidize but not replace
what I do. But I love what you're saying. Okay,
let's go back to that because that's really important.
I'm sorry, a total interruption. I liked what
you were saying because it already got me thinking
about when I look up something in Scripture and
I'm needing cultural context or what were the
Pharisees, what was the mood of the Pharisees
in that moment where Jesus… What was going on
in politics? 37 AD after Christ was crucified.
Again, I'm asking weird questions. I think it
was, make Rome great again? Probably. Or how
are we going to tamp this thing down? These guys
are going crazy. They're changing the world.
But to be able to pause and say, before I even
throw that prompt in, I need to ask the Holy
Spirit for wisdom and guidance and discernment.
That takes three seconds. The Holy Spirit is
a prompt this. Give me a better prompt, Lord.
Again, we're not talking about swimming in this
water. We're just talking about if you're using
it for something specific. I think I'm with you.
I mean, when we first were talking about this
two weeks ago, three weeks ago, we were like,
oh, run away, force gump, go, go, go. But I'm
shifting too because I've had some good experiences.
What I've noticed is that both perplexity and
chat GPT They remember everything I do, obviously.
To a degree, yeah. Not remember, but you know
what I'm saying. It's stored. It's data. It's
just data. And so it'll actually come back and
say something like, do you want an illustration
for that? Do you want a story for that? Do you
want a scripture that fits that narrative? I
mean, it's asking me questions like that. And
I'll go... No, I got it. I know where I'm going
with it. Or I'll go, yeah, throw me some scriptures.
List some scriptures in the New King James Version
that are relevant to that situation or appropriate
to, and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I get 17
scriptures and I'm going, wow. There's some helpful
things. Here's what I would say is the danger.
Ask the exact same question that you want to
ask. by typing in that question and then ask
it through voice, the exact same question, what
comes back if you type it in, and by the way,
you can just hit the little microphone button
and it'll recognize your voice and it'll come
back. It'll give you a straight answer. If you
use the voice version of it, it will throw personality
at you. I've already noticed that. That's what
I think. I have noticed that. If there's any
danger, and danger with, you know, big air quotes
around it. It's that, because that is totally
the hook. That's what it's like. Now I'm talking
to a person. That's exactly what happened to
me as I was driving. I had been studying and
then Annette needed me to run an errand in comfort.
So it's like seven minutes, five, seven minutes.
So I just jumped in the car, but my mind's still
going, right? So I just picked up what I've been
prompting. And it wanted to have a conversation.
And if you need anything else, feel free to ask
me. I'm here for you. And I'm just going, whoa,
whoa, whoa, no, no. Just give me a direct answer.
But it won't when you do voice. That's true.
I've noticed that. There's the difference. Yeah,
that's true. Because it wants to engage in a
reciprocating conversation. That's the part of
it. Whereas when I'm typing it, it's just data.
Straight up. So just the final thing on this.
Oh, no, I've really gone deep on this. And so
I'm looking at like, what would it cost for me
to have the same type of performance at home
in something that I could control? I can train
it myself. You know, it's not going to be added
to while I'm not looking. That's going to be
between 10 and 15 thousand dollars to get the
same performance. So if you're wondering why
over a trillion dollars has been invested so
far and many say It'll be another two trillion
before we finally get to it working Wow It's
such an inverse to all technology, you know,
we bought another TV a new TV our previous almost
13 years old and The the increase in performance
in technology and the decrease in price is amazing
We are in the inverse of this. I truly believe
something will come out of this, multiple companies.
I mean, your phone may not even be a phone anymore,
maybe just a thing that does stuff for you. I
mean, it's mind boggling how much money this
costs because when I'm getting these results,
there's an equivalent of $10 ,000 working for
me. Now, the minute I'm done, it can do for something
else, for someone else. But this is kind of insane
on the money scale. I would love it if I could
do it for $400 at home, and maybe we'll get to
that point at some point. But I really like this
new thinking of, okay, it's the prompting that
I put in. If I focus, you know, trying to live
intentionally in general, just, you know, what
would Jesus do? How would Jesus ask this? What
would Jesus expect? These types of things. and
being discerning on what comes back and not falling
into the trap of the voice conversation. Because
I'm going to be asked to speak about this. The
Lord has actually drawn me into this and made
me do stuff in order to understand how it works.
So I feel like I'm going to have to explain it
to people. That's the one thing. If you can keep
people away from getting into a dialogue with
this thing, then it's a tool. to just make a
little switch, and it's a nuanced thing where
you're suddenly thinking of it as a personality.
A him or a her, or a British dude or an Australian
girl. You can't even help yourself. The minute
you hear a voice, it triggers all these neurons
to think person. Innocently. You're innocently
doing it, but because it's affirming, this is
what I've noticed, it's super affirming. Continuously.
Super kind. It's like, oh, this is the kind of
person I'd want to hang out with, right? Sycophant.
Scary. Yeah, what's that mean sycophant is that
it's it's oh we let's ask AI No sycophant is
like it's always it's You look it up while I'm
struggling to give you the definition like it's
always gonna be nice and it's gonna be it's gonna
be it's it's affirming and kind and Building
you up and being positive Give me the definition,
what does it say? A person who uses insincere
flattery or excessive praise towards someone
in power to gain personal advantage or favor.
Wow, I've got a new word. I came close. My faces
are coming in front of me right now. I'm going,
I know people. I know these people. Being a pastor,
I know people like this, you know, like, oh,
he's flattering, you know, he's that. Yeah, yeah.
Fawning. Fawning, yes. It carries a negative
connotation of being a self -seeking flatterer.
Yeah, there it is. Or a fawning parasite. That's
intense. Fawning parasite. Fawning parasite.
That's descriptive. Oof. So I thought we'd leave
this week with some very positive news. I mean,
not that this has been negative. I actually feel
really good. This is important. I feel good about
our... our journey together in AI, brother, I
feel good about it. I'm approaching it in a very
different way. So season of Reveal, we all started
to understand and see what had happened to us,
what had been done. during COVID, I don't think
there's a person in the world that doesn't see
that there was some shenanigans at minimum and
a total scam on the other side of the scale to
a great awakening. And, you know, because we're
talking about revival, everyone's talking about
revival. And forgive me if, or correct me if
I'm wrong, we had the first great awakening,
the second great awakening, which was How many
hundred years ago? During the Civil War. So over
a hundred years ago, more, more. We're due. And
from that, I think from that comes revival. You
know, we say we're in it already. I think we're
kind of, it feels like we're in between somewhere,
like the Great Awakening. I keep calling it awakening.
Awakening, yeah. It's like another level. So
I came across this, I think it was France 24.
There was a lot of French in it, so I cut those
bits out. You'll hear. Thank you. It was actually
young people speaking in French with subtitles.
But when I heard this, particularly France, I
was so encouraged and I was also blown away.
Have a listen. All across France, today, right
now, hundreds of thousands of evangelical believers
are doing exactly the same thing. Something is
happening in this country. Evangelical churches
are popping up everywhere. Leaders say there's
a new church opening every 10 days, and they're
attracting more and more young people. I wanted
to understand why. How did the small Christian
minority become one of the fastest growing faith
groups in France? So, I spent weeks speaking
to pastors, converts, experts, to try and understand
what is really driving this quiet revival. I'm
leaving Paris to meet Noémie. Ten years ago,
she saw something that changed her life completely.
She begins to search, reading, praying, trying
to understand who God could be. At first, she
turns to the Catholic Church, but something's
missing. Until one day, she walks into an evangelical
one. So I left that in there to remind me what
she said when she walked into an evangelical
church. She said she felt the energy, she loved
the gospel, she loved the music, and that really
drew her in. A new church every 10 days in France?
This is amazing to hear. And because all I've
heard out of France in a negative sense is, is
taking over. And when we were there in 2019,
I mean, when we were down on the Louvre, we were
having to walk around people on their mats. There
was a bunch. That was in 19 before, you know,
the great invasion, the gap year called COVID.
So it was already happening then. I had a friend
go there after COVID and he said, it's 10 times
worse. So, but where sin abounds, grace abounds
all the more. So when it gets dark, Civil War,
First Great Awakening, what do we have there?
We had the American Revolution. I mean, interesting.
We're in a season now of tremendous global upheaval.
And guess what's happening? Church is coming
alive. And people are seeking for something real,
not just another new age, hey, the secret, you
know, I mean, the newest thing, the newest whatever,
coming down. Now people are looking for truth.
And here we go. There's a whole generation out
there just looking for God, man. Come on, Lonnie
Trissby. It's true. It's so true. I love that
this, because we hear it in America and, you
know, like you have CBN and how many young people
are coming to Christ. That's why I love CBN news.
They report those things. But to hear this from
France blows me away. I've seen nothing but churches
go away, turn into WeWork and Airbnbs and offices
throughout all of Europe. And this change is
just very, very, very encouraging. It's happening
everywhere. It is. It's global. It's not just
America. It's global. Global awakening. Come
on, God. Come with it. It's here. That's the
line from Twister. It's coming. It's coming.
It's already here. I mean, I can record the whole
movie to you, but I love that moment because
it's like, oh, no, no, no. It's already here.
It's already here. Of course, it was scary in
the movie, but it's cool in life. I want to thank
everybody who's been listening and sending us
emails. I want to say hi to Parker. He just texted
me and said, hey, man, I'm on episode four. This
is really good. I said, uh -huh. OK. Welcome
aboard, Parker. And if you're listening to this
on the Godcaster app or on Bridge Church, please
use the share button. Send it to somebody else,
post it somewhere. You never know where that
can get picked up. I think we're contemporary
enough for you to share with your friends. It
won't scare them too much. Podfather and the
pastor, we're okay. So just tell them we're 30.
Right. We're young. We'll come back next week.
We're looking forward to it already. Thank you
for listening. We get to do this.