How is the believer to glorify God and enjoy Him in their use of technology? Is that even possible? While technology has greatly changed since the days of the Apostle Paul, our chief end remains the same. Paul teaches us in I Corinthians 10:31 that, “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Therefore, technology, like all things under the sun, can be used for either good or evil. In this message, Trent Moody will explain how all of our latest technology—be it podcasts or social media, modern medicine or AI—must be bought into captivity to the obedience of Christ for the glory of God. Only then can we truly enjoy the goodness of God’s gift of technology. 

Our Father, we thank you, Lord, for your good gifts to men. Lord, your word tells us that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Lord, there is no darkness in you at all. Lord, you give us light, and today I pray that you would give us light. Lord, as we see the things going on in our world, as we consider, Lord, the works of men's hands help us to have great wisdom as we discern how you would have us to live.

And we thank you, Lord, for giving us your spirit to teach us. And we ask it in Christ's name, amen. All right, well it's good to see everybody. First thing I'd like for you to do is take out your Bible because that's where we're going. I hope you're not here to hear the opinions of me because it's kind of funny when Scott first asked me to do this talk on technology and glorifying and enjoying God in it, I laughed.

I thought he was joking because I'm probably one of the most technologically ignorant people that is a part of this group today, and most of you here today could give a better talk on understanding how to use technology and just understanding technology in itself. But sometimes when a person stands outside of a crowded room you can see things differently and I hope to give you a little bit different perspective on technology and how we glorify God in that. Some of the limits of my technology and my knowledge of that is I do know how to use my phone I can make phone calls I can text I have learned how to do that and I can send emails so other than that I'm gonna leave all the techno stuff to a lot of you other guys and gals and but I want you to know how to glorify God in it. That's really our chief end. Not how great we are at technology, but what is our chief end in using that technology.

So turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and I just want this to be kind of a launching pad for us this morning as we consider what God wants us to do, how he wants us to think in our use not only of technology but really in everything in life. 2 Corinthians 10, I'm gonna read verses three through five. These are very familiar verses, and I believe that you will see why I picked this. Paul writes this regarding our spiritual warfare. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And that's really what I desire for each of you today. I've been praying for everyone who would come into this room that every thought that you have for the rest of your life will be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's our great goal. And everything that we lay our hands to do.

So as I studied this topic, it quickly came to my realization that this topic is so much larger and so much bigger than anything that I could give to you in 45 minutes. And my hope though is that I whet your appetite to study it further. There's some good men writing on this subject with really helpful ideas on how to protect ourselves and how to use technology in a God-glorifying way. But this technology issue is so big, you could almost do a conference just on the use of technology and glorifying God. It's tremendous, all the facets of it.

So full disclosure here is I'm not a techno guy. I don't want to lead you to believe that I am. But I do love God and I want to glorify Him and I want you to as well. As the body of Christ, we should look differently. You know, in the sense that the Word of God tells us, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.

It's not hiding in a hole in the ground, but it does mean that the way we live in this world, the way we use this world, will be for the purpose of glorifying God. So as we walk through this topic this morning, I want us to ask...I want to ask and hopefully answer three main questions. And all truth be known, it will stir up a lot more questions is what it will do and hopefully it'll cause you to continue to dig in God's Word and seek wisdom from other men as well. Number one I just want to basically define technology it's broader than you think it then it then you may think it is technology is a is a huge subject. The next question is, is technology moral?

Is it good or evil? Is it religious in nature? And then lastly, honing in on the title of the message is how do we glorify God in our use of technology. So that's the three areas in which I want to take us today. So first and foremost turn with me to Genesis chapter 4 and verse 19 And we're going to jump all over the Bible because this is definitely a topical message and we will jump all over the place.

Genesis 4 and verses 19 through 22. And as you're turning there, I just want to have a few comments before I read it. So technology basically is this it's the applied science. Technology is a discourse or treaties on art or craft. Some of the definitions of this are it's a branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as individual arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science.

Another definition is the application of knowledge for practical ends. And then lastly, the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization. So it's broader than just this. It's broader than our computer, it's broader than the internet because just a few years ago, believe it or not, young people, I had never seen a phone before. It wasn't that long ago when there were no cell phones.

The first cell phones we saw were in this big bag that we stuck into a car and you had to pay $2 a minute to use it. And so you picked it up and you talked as fast as you could to get your communication crossing, you hung up. Because if you didn't, you were going to go broke really quick. And so technology in that sense has grown tremendously, but technology is as old as creation. It goes all the way back to the book of Genesis.

And so I want us to see it's not accurate just to think of technology as only dealing with our computers and all of the things that are at the forefront of what we see today, but rather it's the collective learning of mankind from the very beginning. A shovel is a form of technology. A screw is a form of technology. And so God created us in such a way that he gave us this ability to subcreate, and that's my term, I'll use that term throughout, to subcreate. We can only take materials and make something, but God is much greater and much bigger than that.

So technology can be broken down basically into two word forms, the first of which is ology, which we understand is at the end of a lot of words, which basically means the study of, or it's the knowledge of something, or the science of something. So theology is the study or science of God. Biology is the study and science of life or living matter. And technology though, which is our focus today, technology has a particular meaning and it revolves around the area of our work, our craft, our art, what we do with our hands, but not only with our hands, but it begins in our mind. And that's why it is so important and that's why I started with 2 Corinthians 10, that we would take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

So we might have all kinds of imaginations, all kinds of dreams in a, not a spiritual sense, but dreams in the sense of things that we would like to create, things that we want to accomplish. But as we think those thoughts, let us always bring them under the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. So technology is using our new techniques or even combining older techniques to accomplish old tasks in a more efficient way. That's a good thing. So technology, and we'll get into this the moral aspect of technology, but I'll hint at it here, those are good things.

A vehicle, anybody against vehicles here? That was pretty nice that we all were able to come here in a vehicle, heading down the road at, I'm not gonna tell you how fast, but somewhere under 70 miles an hour, we came here and it was a wonderful blessing to be able to do that, that way we get together together and see each other and encourage each other. So that is a form of technology. But look with me now in this passage in Genesis chapter 4 verse 19 through 22 and this is what the Word of the Lord says beginning with verse 19. And Lamech took for himself two wives.

The name of one was Ada and the name of the second was Zillah. And Ada bore Jabel. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who played the harp and flute.

And as for Zilla, she also bore Tubal Cain, an instructor of every craftsman of bronze and iron, and the sister of Tubal Cain was Nama." So this is the beginning thoughts, this is the beginnings of technology that we see that God had put in man, even fallen men. Remember, this is the line of Cain. Within the fallen man, God put this great ability to create, to subcreate, if you will, and to make things that are useful for society, to make tools that were useful. And so we see within this, in this verse, we're presented with a handful of primitive technologies, but really amazing things when you think about it because they're beginning these things. It was the first time these things had been done and so it's one of the blessings of God's creation of man that he gave us the ability to do these things.

He gave us, Every one of you in here has different ideas about how to do things, it's always amazing. I have 10 children, and especially with my boys, I see so much creative juices flowing in there, and they come up with all these great ideas, but they're all different, it's really fascinating. Even to see them sit down with a paper and draw something out. Every one of them will draw something a little differently and different ways to do that. And in their mind, this is that creative aspect that God put into every person, every man, woman, child, little boy, little girl.

He's put this creativeness in us. And what that does is that's a reflection of the glory of God. God created the heavens and the earth from nothing. He didn't take material and shape it and form it, he spoke and it was. That is our God.

You see, God, He created in what is called, and you know this term, ex nihilo, which means out of nothing, He created. God, in His omnipotence and in His omniscience, created all things out of nothing. We read this in Genesis 1, 1. We also see this in John chapter 1. He says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God in all things. Listen, all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. Nothing was made that was made that did not come through the Lord Jesus Christ. So everything that we see came from God. We also read this in the book of Hebrews, and for sake of time, I'm just going to get down to the main point in chapter 1.

It says that Jesus Christ, he is upholding all things by the word of his power. The only reason that we are able to do things like this or like this or even like this is because Jesus Christ upholds all things. If he let go, all things would cease to exist. They would fall apart. Every atom that holds your body together is held together by the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is sovereign in his working in every aspect of creation and it's a glorious thing to behold. Man is not however given this ability. Man only creates from those materials which God has given. And so we're limited in that sense, and I'll talk more about that in a little while, but man cannot create anything outside of what God has put into his creation. And here's the thing, God is so wise and so powerful and so wonderful, He knows not only everything that we have created, He knows everything that is possible to create.

Man's not going to come up with something and God goes, wow look at that, never thought of that. Now there are some theologians who think that. That's called open theism. We'll talk about that as well. But to man's mind, the possibilities are limitless.

We can't even fathom of all the things that we're able to do because almost every day we see something new coming out, something new coming out, and it's just fascinating. But that should not cause us to praise and worship the creation. It should cause us to praise and worship the creator who put all of this here, he knows every bit of it, he knows even the possibilities of the things that we do not even understand. So as one man writes, Tony Reichi, he wrote a great book that I would recommend, don't agree with everything in the book, but it's entitled God, Technology, and the Christian Life. It's a good source and a good help.

And I read that in preparations for this. And one of the statements he makes in there, he says, human innovators are really all just discoverers, separators, mergers, replicators, copyists, and refiners. More generally, technology is like playing in a sandbox that someone else made. The Bible tells us who built that sandbox. The Lord Jesus Christ did that.

And so here we are in our sandbox and the possibilities seem limitless but God knows the limit. So that should call something within us to to raise up our adoration to a God who can do such things. You know it's also like, I'm sure if you have children, you've bought them Legos before, maybe linking logs. It's like buying this huge box of linking logs and maybe four or five boxes of these things and you dump them out in the floor and for that child, the possibilities are limitless. They can build houses, they can build cars, they can build airplanes, they can build people, they can build all sorts of stuff.

But there is a limit to what they can create with those Lincoln Logs or with those Legos. God knows the limits of that, and we should not forget that. You see, God created out of nothing by a spoken word and man only creates what God has created. We play with these things, we're playing in God's sandbox, and we need to keep that always in the forefront of our mind, especially as we see where technology is going. We hear about AI and all of these very marvelous and mysterious things that are taking place, but we need to remember we're in God's sandbox.

He is sovereign over all things. I'm going to show you some fascinating passages of scripture that will show you that. So back to Lamech and his children real quick, don't want to spend too much time here but I want you to think about all the different technologies that were going on. Jubal dwelled in tents, Who made the tent? What was it made out of?

Most likely not canvas. He was working with animal skins. Where did he get the animal skins? Well, he had to kill an animal. How did he skin the animal?

He had to use a knife or something. All of these things are technologies that were being used. How did he tan the skin? Well he had to understand how to do that. So all of these things are technologies and learning what they are doing.

You have these other things of this tent. This is really early residential construction. I'm in construction so that kind of hit with me. This early residential construction there were tent builders And so he made these tents and then he goes on and, you know, there are a lot of questions here I'm going to skip over. God gave these people great inquisitive and creative minds.

Jabel also had livestock. He began to understand the technology of animals and animal husbandry. He understood what was the best breeding practices, where was the best place for them to eat, what kind of grasses did they, this is all technology. What would kill the animal if they ate it? I learned that firsthand when I allowed one of our cows to eat wilted wild cherry leaves, killed that cow.

That's part of technology. We're learning what God has created and for the purposes in which he created it. And so we need to understand in our minds that God has given us these things that they would be beneficial to mankind. So as we're creating, we need to be thinking about that. Number one, Am I bringing this thought under the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Every thought captive to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then my secondary thought, because the two greatest commandments is what? That we love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that we love our neighbor as ourself. And so we consider these technologies as we think about them and as we are creative people that we make these things that are beneficial to society, beneficial to our neighbors. And so that is a good thing that God has given us in technology.

And so we learn from these things. Jubal was the father of those who played harp and flute, any instrument players in here, anybody plays music. That is a form of technology that God gave man. How did he learn how to do that? Did he hear the wind blowing through the trees and it making a whistling sound and he thought, hey, here we go, I can make music by blowing air through a reed.

I don't know how this came about, but these are all forms of technology and then even stringed instruments. I don't know, was he, not to be too graphic or gross here, but was he skinning one of those animals and pulling some of that out and it made a sound. I don't know, how did this come about? These are technologies that they used. Because a lot of times early technologies in music were like that.

They used animal parts. Fascinating little thing I saw the other day on YouTube in this technology, but was this group of Indians, and I can't remember where they were, these native people in South America, I believe it was, or South, yeah, South America, and they made these different shaped bowls that held water, And when they poured water out, they made it in such a way that whatever that they had like five or six different animal shapes, when they poured that water out, that animal shape made that animal sound by the water they poured out of it. It was fascinating. Every one of them made a different sound and they made it in accordance with what sound that animal actually made. It was really neat.

That's a form of technology that God had given man, even early man, to think through these things. So I want to move on from this and not spend too much time, but think, go back and read through this passage and you'll see there's all sorts of technologies taking place and it's really exciting when we see this. And so one of the challenges I had when I was thinking about this and technology and glorifying God in it was, you know, he's given me a subject here that there's not really scripture for. We don't find the word technology in the Bible. What do we do when we don't find that?

Well, guess what? The word Trinity is not in the Bible either, but yet we have a doctrine of the Trinity. So I believe that we can form a doctrine of technology. But the interesting thing was, as I begin to study, I found that there were actually root words of technology found in the Bible, at least three places. I want to show you those three places.

Acts 17, 22, you can turn there if you like. This is Paul on Mars Hill when he's going there to the Areopagus and he's preaching the word of God and he comes to these men of Athens and he says this, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, Acts 17, sorry, I get fast sometimes, you have to forgive me. So he was considering the objects of their worship. I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

Therefore the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord and hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us." Verse 28, for in him we live and move and have our being. Remember that. We live and move and have our being in God, not outside of him. And as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring, verse 29, here it is, therefore since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone or something shaped by art, there is the word, and man's devising is the word technē in the Greek and that word art there is the description of that word.

We are not to think that God is like something that we have made by our own art or man's devisings. Now there are people today who believe that they are creating a technology that will become their God. Guess what? God is not made by man's devisings. Very clearly, God is God.

He created us and the things that we create as we'll see, God looks down on. There's nothing above him. There's nothing beside him. Everything is under him. And so even in this, Paul was going to the very part of that, the ingenuity, the intellect, the imaginations of man's devisiveness, and he says, you can't make God.

God made you. And he should be worshiped. That's what Paul was wanting them to understand. And Paul goes on, he says, truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. You see, that's the great lack in man's belief that they can create a God, is that they're creating a God in their own likeness.

They're creating a God who likes what they like and He hates what they hate. But what they don't understand is they're trying to create a God that's going to solve all of their problems, but they do not recognize and they will not acknowledge that sin is their problem. They need the Lord Jesus Christ to save them from their sins, not just from the worldly woes that we face because of the fall of creation. And so we should worship and glorify God for who He is because He created us. He's not an imagination of man's hands.

And so this word art there in verse 29 is that word or the root word of technology is technae. The second place is in the next chapter in chapter 18 verses 1 through 3 and he says this, After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius, who had recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And he came to them, and then this point, so because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked for by occupation. There's that word.

They were tent makers. So this technay, this technology that they had, this working that they had, they were tent makers. Where does that come from? All the way back to Genesis chapter 4, they dwelt in tents. Same type technology, but I guarantee you the technology that they used in Paul's day was quite a bit different than what they used in Tubal Cain's day and Jubal's day and Jabel's day.

But today is different. It's still called a tent. Guess what? Here in a few weeks my sons and I are we're gonna be going on a tent camping trip and we're gonna be hiking in the woods. That tent that we have and the hammocks that we have, they're not made from animal skins.

Gracious, can you imagine how much that would weigh? They're made out of this wonderful synthetic material that's come about by technology and you know the whole thing's gonna weigh less than like seven pounds, it's just fascinating. That's technology that's beneficial to man and that's a good thing. So the last place this word is found is in the book of Revelation, Fascinating passage of scripture. Scott just preached through the book of Revelation, just finished it up last week at our church, and so this is one of the passages that he talked about, although he did not mention this one specifically, or this word specifically.

But he says this in Revelation 18, 21 and 22, then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea. Now, this is the destruction of Babylon. This is when God is gonna be bringing his judgment upon that city Babylon. He says, thus with violence, the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore. The sound of the harpist, the musicians, flutist, trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore.

No craftsman of any craft, there's the word, no craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore, in a sense God is saying, it's come to the point where I say no further, this far and no more and God will throw down all music, he will stop all technology because he is bringing judgment upon the world for their sin. That is what is gonna happen. No technology, AI is not gonna say, no God you can't do that because I'm smarter than you. God will stop it all. There will be no craftsman of any craft or any technology anymore.

It will end and we will see what God is going to do. It is going to be a marvelous display of his power and all the world will see it. So we see in these verses both, we see a negative thing where they were trying to create a God by their own art and imagination. We see Paul making a tent which is good and Then we see here God stopping all craft and all technology and the judgment upon the city of Babylon. So we see good and we see bad or evil here in the use of technology.

So to my second question, is technology moral? Is it good, Is it evil? Is it religious in nature? Is technology religious? Is this religious?

I believe that if we boil down all things, and we go down to the purpose and the use of things, that we can and we will see that all things are religious in nature. That may be hard to believe, but it is. I was going through a check-in aisle years ago and the lady in front of me and the cashier were talking about some country music song that was talking about immoral things. They were talking about how much they loved that song. And as I came up and my outgoing self, I could not resist, I said, do you know the music you listen to is actually what you believe?

She said, no it's not. I said, yes it actually is. I said, why do you listen to it? Well, because I like it. Why do you like it?

I said, you like it because it meets with your worldview. It appeals to what you believe in your heart And that's why you like it. So let me ask you a question, what are the things that you like? What are the things that you are drawn to? What are the things that you have affections for?

My desire this morning is that every one of you would have affections that are drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, that every thought that you have would be brought into obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ so that your affections would be God glorifying, even the music that we listen to. And so, Is technology moral and religious in nature? Yes, it is. Most people in our world would adamantly deny that this is the case, they would fight against it. However, what a person believes about God will determine not only what that person does but also what they think.

What do you believe about God? That will determine the things that you put your hands to do. You know, we see biological warfare, that's a form of technology. Biological warfare is taking place in our world, and I don't want to get in too deep of the weeds with this, but that biological warfare is based upon a worldview and what they believe about God, and what they believe about man. And so, all of these things are religious in nature when you just, you kind of peel back the issues.

And so, in these subjects, there's always two extremes, but then there's some middle ground in here. So, the same thing is true when it comes to people's view of technology. You have people who are all techno and that's all they can think about and they actually believe that this technology is going to somehow deliver them, but then you also have this idea of technology that it's all evil and all bad and it's going to destroy us. My point in this is that I want you to understand that it matters. It matters what you do.

It matters what you think. It matters what you invent. 1st Corinthians, and you heard this yesterday, 1 Corinthians 10 31 says, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. You mean my eating and drinking is religious in nature? Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. And then he adds this for great clarity, or whatever you do. What's left out? Nothing. Everything you do...

So what he's doing, he's arguing from a lesser to a greater. Eating and drinking is mundane. We do it all the time. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's not so great. It's still religious in nature.

You can glorify God in it. And whatever you do, everything that you put your hands to do, It's this understanding that we do not go about our day haphazardly thinking this doesn't matter. I'm doing a non-religious thing here. You see, the difference between a work being sacred or secular is not what you do, it's why you do it. Why are you doing the things that you do?

And that will show you what your belief about God is and can you glorify God and enjoy Him in it forever? You know, enjoying God forever and something begins now. Are you enjoying God now in what you do and is it bringing God glory? You know, we read this in the book of Romans. Paul gives us some great explanations for this because God created us to worship and serve him, but because of the fall of man, because of the human races plunge into sin, we do not fully understand this and we have marred this.

But in Romans 1, he goes in and he tells us this in verse 18, he says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful. That's important. But became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

They professed to be wise, but they became fools, changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. That's exactly what's happening right now. For those who view the AI as this godlike thing that we're creating, they're viewing that God is like something we create with our own hands. And God is not. But listen to what he says here at the end.

He says that this comes about because of the lust of their hearts and they dishonor their bodies among themselves and they exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, amen. In all that you put your hands to do, you should be able to worship the Creator and bless Him forever. So in thinking about that, can you be thankful to God and can you worship God? Can you give glory to God for everything you're doing on your phone? Can you bless God for the things you've looked at this past week?

And if you can't, you should get rid of it. Either you need to have self-control or you need to cut it off. Jesus used that in Matthew, I believe it was chapter five, he says if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter into life blind or maimed than enter into life or to lose your soul, is what he's saying.

And so, that's an extreme. He didn't literally want you to go around plucking your eyeballs out, but he said that's how important it is you're better to not have it and enter into life Then you are to lose your own soul So consider what you're doing with the technologies that God has given you. Hey, that can go all the way down to the very instruments that we use or that are being used for destroying people. People's lives are being killed. You know, across the pond, they say, They banned guns and things like that because there were mass murders and people were being killed.

Well now, you know what they're doing? They're banning kitchen knives. So wait a minute, is it the gun or is it the knife? What's the problem? No, it's the heart.

They're trying to fix all these outside problems, but the problem is the heart of man. It needs to be redeemed. That is the problem, and that's the problem in our technology, whether it's good or evil. It's not this thing that we hold. In fact, this thing was made from things that they were mining back in with Cain's grandchildren in Genesis chapter 4.

It's the same type minerals and materials and all of these things were put together to make this. Did you know there's gold in here? God talks about gold in the Old Testament and the book of Genesis. It's the same things, we just, we formed it and we've manipulated it and we've moved it around in different places. But we are built to love and worship and glorify God in all that we do.

You see, the reason for the decay in our culture is because we're not considering God and because man has rejected God as God. And we believe that we're going to make a God into our own image. And so because of this, God has given them up to their own lust. You know, this idea of having these two forms and two extremes, if you will, you have this one and it's termed a technological utopianism. This utopia that they can make and that they can...it's this ideology built on an ironclad faith in technology and its ability to solve any kind of problem.

Again, this is Tony Reiche in his words on this. They believe that they can fix anything if we just have the right technology. Maybe if we can then start implanting this technology into everybody's brain, then everything will be perfect. No, the brain is not the problem. The heart is.

It is the heart and the soul of man that is fallen and that needs the Lord Jesus Christ. But here are these proponents. They believe that they're going to make a God into their own image. They deny God, these technological utopians. They deny God and they deny the sinfulness of man.

Man is, they think, just a process of evolution through technology. They believe that he will finally be able to solve all his problems and ultimately be able to defeat death and merge with technology and enter into an eternal life in what is called a technological singularity, that they will be able to live forever. I hate to tell them. The other end of this we will see in just a moment, but Elon Musk noted that the co-founder of Google, Larry Page, once told him his plans was to build a digital God. He wanted to create a digital super intelligence.

Because of technology, they believe that religion is no longer necessary. Elon Musk said, can these two things, can science and technology and religion coexist? His answer was, probably not. I hate to tell him. It not only coexists and is co-mingled, but I want you to understand that traditional religion and especially Christianity is what they're going after.

In their minds, there is no need for God because man has created his own God. But truly, there's nothing new under the sun. Man's been doing this same thing since the fall. In the Tower of Babel, what did they want to do? They all gathered together and they created this temple that they were gonna reach up into the heavens.

And what did it say? It's very interesting, I won't read it all, but you can go back there and look in Genesis chapter 11 at the Tower of Babel, and it says, and God looked down on what they were doing. That's God's view. You see, our problem is, is we're looking at things like this and God's looking at things like this. Doesn't matter what man comes up with, God looks down on it.

There's nothing Above him, there is nothing beside him. All things are beneath him. On the other side, you have these technological dystopians and they believe that we're gonna just obliterate ourselves because of our technology. Both of these views are religious. And here's what I want you to understand.

Both of these views are religious because both of them deny the sovereignty of God. They either think that God does not exist or they believe that if he does, he's powerless to do anything about it and all he can do is look on what man is doing and say, wow, look what he did, wonder what he's going to do next. That's open theism. That's the belief that God doesn't know the future. He's waiting to see what man does and acts in response to what's going on around him and the technology that he comes up with, and then God tries to figure out a way to circumvent what they're doing to accomplish his plan.

Heresy. All of these things are heresy. And they want to use social media, they want to use other things. Now, these are not evil in themselves, but let me tell you something, they are definitely being used for evil. You know, God tells us that we are to redeem the time because the days are evil.

Have you ever looked at your time on these platforms? You know it's nice to keep up with our family and friends but really how much of it is that? How much of it is really just busy bodiness and wondering what they're doing? What could you be doing to glorify God if you turned it off? I didn't bring it with me, but I can get it to you if you'd like.

There's a man who wrote down 41 questions that were very helpful to ask ourselves regarding this if we're wasting our time. I have way more notes here than I could possibly share in 45 minutes, can you imagine that? So I wanna skip a few of the less essentials and I want to go to something that I think is very essential. I want you to understand something about the sovereignty of God. If you come away with anything, I want you to come away with this.

I want to make these statements and I want them to be etched into your mind. Number one, God is not worried about how far man pushes technology. The sub-creation of man are far subservient to God in his creation, ex nihilo. Number two, God's lordship is not in any way threatened by our technology and especially AI. Number three, God is the one who enables and sustains man in his sub-creation and in all of the technologies.

You see, again, human inventions are only men playing in God's sandbox. And so if I can do anything, I want to wipe away any fear that any of you may have regarding technology. We're not gonna destroy humanity by technology. There is going to come a day when God will judge the world, and 2 Peter tells us about that, and it will be judged with fire, and it won't be because of AI. It will be because of the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to judge this world.

And every one of us and every man woman and child on this earth will stand before the Lord and give an account for what they did in this life whether good or evil. Number four, God is omnipotent and sovereign over all inventions and imaginations of man. Listen to this verse, turn to Isaiah 54. Fascinating verse, Isaiah 54, verse 16 and 17. Underline this in your Bible.

This will give you great confidence and great hope in our God. This fascinated me when I read this verse, read it before but didn't think of it in this context. Isaiah 54 16, listen to what he says, God speaking, Behold I have created, ex nihilio, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals of the fire. This is technology. Who brings forth an instrument for his work.

He causes this blacksmith to create this instrument and I have created the spoiler, who's that? The spoiler or destroyer. So what he's saying is I've created the blacksmith to blow on the fire. In other words, I gave him the ingenuity to know how to blow on a fire, to take iron and to bend it and to make it and to shape it into an instrument. This instrument was a sword and not only did I create that, but I created the destroyer who's gonna use the sword.

God did that. And then he goes on and he says this, and I have created the spoiler to destroy. And then he says this, listen carefully, underline it. Verse 17, no weapon formed against you shall prosper and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from me, " says the Lord.

Praise be to God. God can create, God can cause men to create all sorts of things, But he is the one who is ultimately behind all things and not one of them will prosper against the people of God apart from his purpose and his plan. Now do Christians suffer? Absolutely they do, but not apart from the will of God. You cannot suffer apart from the will of God.

And now I want to go to the last point quickly and go through how do we glorify God in our use of technology and list just a few ways. Understand the source of all technology. I just read it. God is the source of all technology. Man can use it for good, a man can use it for evil.

God is the source. James 1.16 and through 18, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. God does that. Next, I want you to understand that we need to understand the dangers of technology. You see, Ecclesiastes 10 says, there's an evil I have seen under the sun, and then I skip down just a little bit, and he's naming some things, and then he names this.

I have seen a servant on horses while princes walk on the ground like servants. What is that about? That sounds kind of not right. What he's saying is, listen, here's my interpretation. Technology is a great servant.

It's a terrible master. It's a great evil to see a servant riding on a horse and a prince. We are God's princes and priests of this world. We are children of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't allow technology to ride the horse while you walk.

You're a prince of God. Lead over your technology. Don't allow it to lead you. It goes on from there. I wanna share with you a few more.

Do not worship technology. This is what happened in the Tower of Babel. I want you to think about just for a moment the Israelites. They called out to Aaron and he said, make us a god. We don't know what happened to this Moses guy.

Make us a god that will lead us. That's what technology is proclaiming to do, making us a God that will lead us. Don't worship technology. Can you see though, that when their temptation to worship idols, and we look back at them, we think, what's wrong with them? It's a piece of gold.

But you know what, when we consider the time that we spend and the value that we put into our technologies today, we're doing the same thing. It's the same thing. We're allowing these things to lead us around. We've lost relationships. Instead of looking each other in the eyes, you see two people sitting at a table together like this, texting each other.

What in the world? Put it down. Have meaningful relationships one with another. This is what God created us for. Next, I want you to understand the limits of technology because the limits of technology...

Listen to what God says in Job 14. He says, since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you. You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass. God's determined the limits. Don't worry about it.

Fear only one thing, God. Do not fear what man can do to you. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Not one. And then understand the purpose of technology.

All technology is ultimately for the purpose of glorifying and enjoying God in everything that we do. And we know we read this because, and I mentioned this earlier regarding the Good Samaritan, and this lawyer answers what's the two greatest commands and what's the greatest command? The love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Use all of your technology. And when I say technology, I don't only mean our phones and computers, use your hammers, use your shovels, use your saws, use everything that we have technologically for one purpose, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

And on this stands all the law and the prophets. It's very simplistic, but it's very difficult to actually do. One more thing, be thankful for what God has given us. Think of the medical technologies that he's given us that has eased pain. Think of the knee replacements.

I have a good friend who's a farmer who has his knee replaced, both knees replaced, and now he's able to do the farming that he loves to do. It's amazing what God has done. Be thankful for these things. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 8, thing, in everything give thanks. Can you give thanks for your use of technology?

If you cannot, you need to change your use of technology. It's that simple. And then lastly, I want you to be aware of a very practical good, and my brother just walked into the room who has a big part in that, Brother Paul Carrington, and they are working on, and it's actually implemented, a Bible app that is reaching into foreign lands, going into Turkey, going into Iran, and going into Russia that is solid biblical writings of men that these people, because a lot of these people are listeners, they're not readers as much, and they're listening to the Word of God and to solid doctrine in solid doctrinal books. And if you have questions about that or want to support that it actually cost money to do these Things it's a wonderful thing It's a Bible app unlike anything that I know of and he's had a huge hand in working on that See this man right over here Paul can raise your hand, please Come on, raise your hand. He is working on that.

He's a humble man. We love him. But he can help you to understand what is happening and it's fascinating. Hundreds and thousands of people are getting on this app. That is a great way to glorify and enjoy God forever.

Praise the Lord for these things. Let us give thanks. Our Father, we thank you and praise you for your goodness. Lord, you have given good gifts to your people. Lord, we delight in what you have done.

Lord, you are the great mover. You move in us and you cause us to do things for your glory. And Lord, because of the sinfulness of our hearts, so often we manipulate these things for our own evil, sinful ends. God, forgive us for that. Forgive us, Lord, when we have made your good gifts our masters.

When we have worshiped your creation and not worship the Creator. When we are so enthralled with the gift, we consider not the giver. Lord, help us. Please, Lord, I pray that everyone in this room, everyone that hears this, Lord, that they will consider their use of technology and that they will bring it into submission every thought to the obedience of Christ. And I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.