Week 2 – Joshua – Waltzing into a New World Harmony Christian Church

How do we remain human in an artificial world? Join us as Kent delves into this crucial question. Listen in and let's sanctify this moment together. EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill in the fill-in-the-blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.



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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:



We live in a crazy world.  I remember growing up talking to my great-grandma Streeter in the 1980s.  She had traveled to Kansas when she was a kid in a covered wagon…  Isn’t that crazy?  I remember thinking about how we had colored TVs, cars, phones, and planes and she had experienced all those changes in her life.  



She had experienced monumental change…



You may not recognize it right now, but you are one of those people too…



b



We are standing on the precipice of one of the most monumental changes in history.  



The internet (I remember hearing the first time someone said, “www. - it stands for world wide web…”).  Smartphones came out in 2007 and gave the internet a way to live with us all the time and now we stand on the verge of AI to potentially take all that to the next level.  



People who stand at the intersection of monumental times tend to do at least one of three things. They either…




Try to hold onto the past and seek to turn back to what they came from.  



They embrace the future unquestioningly and become passive receivers of both the opportunities and consequences of the times.



They find ways to sanctify the future, remembering the past and moving forward to the future God desires.




Our world is changing at a monumental pace.



We are privy at all times to all information



We live in incredible fear and anxiety because we bear the entire weight of humanity in our minds - you know about a war the instant it breaks out and see the devastation in your ticktock feed



We are INUNDATED with information - did you know one of our biggest challenges at the church is communicating with you - because you are so over-communicated within your world that you can’t hear what we are saying - that’s not a comment on you or me, it’s our world…



And it’s all about to go into overdrive.  



ILLUSTRATION:



When I was a kid I remember going to my grandma’s house, she had this basket of fruit on her table and I grabbed an apple and took a bite.  As I did, my teeth sunk in and I realized it was styrofoam.  The fruit wasn’t real.



You and I are about to have that same experience in ways you can’t even imagine.  



Already you can’t tell if the pictures you are looking at are created by AI or are actual people.  Video is already there and will soon be everywhere - you won’t know if who you are looking at is really the person or not.  You can’t tell if I wrote this sermon or if AI did.  



And here’s what I think is going to happen.



I think there is a potential that we are going to go from a world that is fairly cynical to a world that is unbearably brutal in its inability to trust anything that cannot be experienced firsthand.



b



It will have dramatic effects on the way people perceive truth, faith, God, the scripture, and Jesus Himself.



b



I feel the global church trying to turn back to where we came from.



I see the people in the world who have no faith, unquestioningly, passively receiving it



b



My question is, how do we become the people who sanctify it?



don’t hear me saying what I’m not - I’m not saying we remove truth or the past isn’t vitally important….



I’m asking a different question altogether.



How do we be human now in an artificial world?



b



My answer is always to go back to scripture and the story of God - there is so much to learn there…



SCRIPTURE



We are not the first to stand on the precipice of monumental changes.  



Joshua is one of the most interesting people in scripture.