Can ChatGPT Write Your Sermons?

​ChatGPT seems to be the talk of the town now – so we thought we’d try it out on sermons!

For those unfamiliar with this latest phenomenon here is a little background: 

Open AI is an artificial general intelligence (AGI) research and deployment laboratory that aims to generate AI that benefits humanity. It was founded on December 11, 2015, by Sam Altman (the former president of tech start up Y Combinator) and Elon Musk.
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In 2019 Microsoft invested $1 billion dollars in Open AI as one of its backers. 
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On 5 December 2022, one week after the launch of ChatGPT, the CEO tweeted about the achievement made by the model. Seeing the growth of ChatGPT, it is expected that it will soon cross 1 billion users by the end of the last quarter of the year 2023. (Source Google)

My understanding is its currently at 40 million users in under two months – something which took Twitter a year to achieve. 

We used an online app called smodin.ai to create a few ‘sermons’ one of which is shown below. In the app you give the title and then it generates three talking points to create the talk from.  

Out title was: 

What does it mean to be a new creation in Christ from 2 Corinthians 5:17 where the apostle Paul writes – ‘Therefore is anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old had gone and the new is here!’

The three options it created (you can edit these if you wish to – in this case we didn’t). The self-generated talking points from our questions were:

• The apostle Paul describes the creation in verses 4-6 as an old, worn out useless garment
• The new creation has been brought about through the blood of Christ and is therefore completely free of sin
• Since the new creation has been brought about through Christ, all negative attributes from the old creation have been removed and replaced.

And within a couple of seconds this is what it ‘wrote’ … unedited 

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that they were not only his colleagues and fellow workers in the gospel, but they were his friends. Paul referred to them as beloved in his letter to the Philippians. He also prayed for them that the Lord would grant them faith to remain steadfast in the gospel despite any obstacles that would get in their way. Here is what he wrote to them about being new creations in Christ: When Paul first wrote this, he was reminding people of how their old, worn out creation had been replaced by a new creation in Christ. The old creation was now past its usefulness since it had died on the cross. On the other hand, the new creation was now ready to bear fruit and bring glory to God. 

To illustrate this concept, look at a worn out garment which needs replacing. The old garment is still quite beautiful and functional- except that it is tattered and needs replacing. The same applies to humanity before the cross. We were once glorious creatures whom God had made perfect and sinless. We were also created to have dominion over all earthly creatures and to rule over the earth as kings. However, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they lost their perfect standing as new creations in Christ. They also lost their right to have authority over earthly creatures and the earth itself. 

As a result of Adam and Eve's downfall, they became impotent sinners who could no longer control their sinful desires or have dominion over anything outside of God's will. Instead of being masters, they found themselves subject to being crushed by everything around them- until Jesus came and died on their behalf as their substitute sacrifice. 

Just as Old Testament Israelites needed to be purified by sacrificing animals Molech before entering God's temple, Adam and Eve needed to sacrifice something prior to entering God's temple again. After Jesus' death and resurrection, all sin had been forgiven through His shed blood on the cross; so when believers accept Christ as their Savior, the sin debt is canceled and they are now empowered by God's Holy Spirit. 

As a result, believers are now able to live holy lives pleasing to God instead of being controlled by sinful desires like they once were. Since the new creation has been brought about through Christ, all negative attributes from the old creation have been removed and replaced with positive traits. For example, human beings used to be mere animals with no intelligence or reasoning powers- waiting to be subjected to someone else's will like other earthly creatures. 

Now that believers are new creations in Christ, they are no longer mere animals with no reasoning powers but are made holy through the power of the Holy Spirit living inside them. Because of this change, believers no longer seek gratification from earthly things like food or money but from God alone. They do this because they want to please Him rather than please themselves. Living for Him instead of for self frees people up not only physically but also spiritually since believers can now freely receive spiritual gifts from God that empower them for service in His kingdom. 

When people look at their old useless creation before Christ, it brings tears of sadness since it is no longer useful or glorious like it used to be before the cross. However, when people look at their current new creation in Christ, things are very different since we are now both spiritually powerful and holy individuals who can choose between good and evil without any negative influence clouding our minds anymore! 

Since we are now completely free of sin while also having supernatural power given us directly by God Himself- there is nothing greater than being a new creation in Christ!

END

So there you go – a sermon written by AI  (not edited in any way) – whatever next – my sermon series written by AI and presented by my virtual reality Associate Bible Teacher whilst I’m holidaying in the Bahamas?!

For sure you can see the flaws in it, the lack of nuance etc – but it’s interesting none the less for brand new technology. 

Whether to be terrified or excited – well that’s a different matter completely – but it appears this technology is roaring ahead whatever we might make of it. 

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