Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello, folks. It is Saturday and so hopefully you're enjoying the weekend. What do we have? We've got Women's Bible Study this Saturday. That's right. Don't miss it. And Julia Kogan is teaching for the first time. First time. That's right. Yep. So I know our registration looked pretty good, and so hopefully our leaders are there and they're enjoying that. Should be a great time. Great use of your time, for sure. Yeah. Please go. Yeah. Yeah. Hey Logas came up. With an update that has a pretty cool new tool that I thought might be helpful for our people. You're smirking, pastor Rod. Oh yeah. Talk about it, man. Yeah, I just, it uses Go off King. It uses ai. Yeah, that's cool. But it's in the Factbook. So if you're familiar with logos, Factbook is a tool that you can type anything into. You can type a Bible passage. You can type a name. You can type a date. And it will pull from your library, everything basically that you have on that. And it will give you a breakdown of different articles, different books, things like that within your library. Well, they added something that's a section called Questions to Ask. And this is super helpful because you can type in something like, you can type in what our passage is today, which is Matthew 25, and if you hit. Enter a return on that, it will come up and it will give you a lot of questions for you to ask the text, which is one of the best study tools that you can do when you come to a passage. We talked about it on Sunday. The then always now when you're looking for the, then super helpful for you to and really all of your interpretation to ask the text questions, so. AI just did this. It kicked back some questions for us, like how does Matthew 25 relate to Christian eschatology? How can Christians prepare for Christ's return today? How should believers use their gifts according to Matthew 25? Mm-hmm. So it's gonna ask a lot of questions that would be helpful for you to read through if you've got a little bit more time. I know sometimes we talked about there's a difference between reading and studying. This is probably a little bit more on the studying side of things. It's true, but. If you're gonna take a passage and do a little bit more in depth, this is a great resource for you to have and use towards that end. Sounds like you're coming around to ai, huh? Well, I think this is a good use of it. Okay. I'd still put it back in the box and throw it into the depths of the ocean. No, you wouldn't. The Mariana Trench, I would put it down there. I'm sure your car runs on only ai. I, but I would turn it in. No, you wouldn't. I would go back. No, you would. I would. No, for sure. Go back. Okay. I would. Alright. If somebody was like, pastor P pj, here's the key. And you can turn AI off for everybody for the rest of the life. Oh, okay. And yet you have to give up your car for it. I'd do it. You're so funny. I think you used technology more than at least as much as me, if not more. And it's funny because much of the things that you use benefit from AI's utility. And yet I don't know if you're calculating it. I think you would be really sad to lose all these things. Okay. But there's passive AI and there's the LLMs, the large language models. Well, I think this is kind of an LI don't know what, I don't know what backend ai. I, that's actually probably a good question. I wonder what backend AI they're using. I don't know. But they're using one of the big guys, I'm sure. And they're just saying, use our database to, to draw up the answers. So I'm saying the background processing AI that has been in, in existence for a long time. I'm fine with that. All right. It's the more of the LLMs and the development of artificial intelligence with authority that are taking on even personas, personalities. Yeah. That's where I'm like. Lock that up, throw it into the Mariana Trench and let's be done with it. I welcome our AI overlords. Hey, you know I did have a question. There was this theory going around, in fact, I think it's still pretty relevant. It's called the Dead Internet Theory. Have you heard about this? No. Okay. It's related to ai. Okay. The idea is that the internet is actually dead, and the reason why is because most of the content being written now. Is by ai. And what's interesting is that AI trains on that same data. So it looks at Wikipedia. Yeah. Looks at some of the big players of. Producing information, and so if AI's producing all that data, eventually, it's like when you see those images where they say, take it and remake the image. And remake the image. Have you ever seen this on X or one of those platforms? They'll take someone's image and they'll put an AI and say, okay. Give me an exact replica of this, and it gets degraded until it becomes basically a blob and it's only colors. And that's what they're saying will happen with our data is that eventually, because AI is gonna be so reliant upon itself, that it eventually just leads into nothing. That the data becomes corrupted and unhelpful, and it's all hallucinations. That's what's the dead internet theory is that AI's producing everything and eventually it's gonna produce nothing. That'll be helpful. And then the Internet's gone. So it's like the snake devouring its own tail. Yeah, exactly. That'd be a good way to put it. That, yeah. Yes. Dead internet theory. Look it up. Okay. Well I know that would be devastating on a lot of fronts, and yet at the same time, there's something comforting about that. Not gonna lie, comforting. I mean, you don't wanna get rid of the internet too. No, not the internet, but ai. Yeah. Well. I don't know. I don't know that we would let it happen, but I don't know if we can stop it at this point. The snake is out of the bag. No, the cat's outta the bag. The cat is out of the bag. Yeah. I don't know that we can stop whatever is happening. And that's why there are preponderance, like, oh, what's his name? He's that ex Google executive who writes the books about Dan Mayer futurism. Dan Mayer. Yeah. Danny Mayer, who wrote about the fact that once we get to the singularity. Basically humanity's doomed. Forget his name. Is it Dan? It's not De May. What guy name? It's De Mayor. Anyway, lots of fear mongering about ai, but I believe God is in control and that he's in control even of AI because he has a plan for the world. He does. And Jesus is coming back soon. Well, according to Fors, Frank, at least. What do you think about Forrest Frank not doing his own award show? Yeah, I saw that. I think it. Okay. Let's fill in the listeners. Yeah. Some of them. Okay. Forrest Frank is a very popular young Christian artist. Yep. Seems like he's got his head on straight. Yeah. Has his heart in the right place. He produces really good, catchy, modern Christian music. People love it and they're They love. They love it. Yeah. And he's a really likable guy. Yeah. Like you listen to him, you listen to him talk you, you watch his TikTok. He's just a really likable guy. You'd want him at your church for sure. Yeah, he went under a lot of heat lately because he said, I'm not gonna show up to, I think it was the Dove Awards. Do you recall? Yeah. So he said, I'm not gonna go to this because I write this music for Jesus. I'm not writing it for the accolades. So I don't feel good about accepting an award, and I don't even feel good about showing up. So he decides not to be part of it. And lots of others, including other Christian artists, are like, dude, what are you doing? Right? Like, you're putting the music out there, can't you receive honor for the music that you're doing? It's a good thing. And so he responds like, I just didn't feel comfortable doing that. What do you think about that? I guess he has to put it out there because otherwise he's just not gonna show up. But on the other hand, if that's his conviction. Okay. That's your conviction. Don't go, I don't have any problem with him not showing up. But then it becomes its own thing. Like it becomes like he's drawing attention to himself even more because he's not going, yeah. Yeah. That's where we have to be careful not to judge his motives or his heart. But yeah, I think that's probably where other people felt offended. It's like, oh you're oh, high and holy. You don't wanna go to this thing. But those of us who do go and receive an award for our music, are we less than, are we less Christian? Are we less godly because we received an award for this music that we labored over? But I agree. I think it is a matter of the heart, and I respect it After hearing him talk it through and give some rationale for it, I'm like, okay, I understand I may not make the same decision, but I do appreciate and respect his decision. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's get into our text today. The parable of the 10 virgins kicks it off, and then we've got more parables, parable of the Talents as well. And these first two are stressing what we talked about at the end of yesterday's episode, which is Living Ready for the Return of Christ. And so this opening parable is all about a group of these virgins who are waiting for the return of the bridegroom, and five of them are ready and five of them are not. There are those that don't have enough oil for their lamps and those that came prepared. And so the ones that didn't have enough oil as the time grew near, they had to go and they had to refill the oil in their lamps. And while they were doing that, they missed the return. And then they wanna be let in and they are met with depart from me. I never knew you. I don't know who you are. And so this is just a reminder that we need to make sure that we've got our ducks in order, that we're ready for the return of Christ. And we're anticipating that return. I think this is a parable where we have to hold onto the singular idea being taught, which is to be ready for the return at any moment, rather than trying to press it too far to say, well, what is the oil and what do we need to have with us beyond just ourselves? I think that's where we can get into too much trouble on this as a, as an interpretive point. Yeah. You're probably in danger of overinterpreting if you start assigning. Symbolic meaning to the fact that they were virgins or the fact that they had certain oil, right? Some blacked oil. Some were saying, oh, the oil represents the Holy Spirit, right? Five of them had the spirit. Five. And then maybe I will grant that maybe that is a point that Jesus intended to give. I would be less comfortable making that. Assertively and saying for sure that's what Jesus is saying here, but you are right. Verse six says, at midnight there was a cry. Here is the bridegroom and the point is for us in verse 13, watch therefore for, you know, neither the day nor the hour. That's the bullet point summary that Jesus is intending for them to understand. And I think what that means for us is if we don't know when Jesus is coming, that means we have to always be prepared. That's the point. Yeah. We never know when he's arriving and so we should always be ready for his arrival, which means even now as you listen to this podcast. Are you ready if Jesus were to come back in the next 30 seconds? It's an exciting prospect if you ask me, but we need to challenge ourselves constantly and reflect upon our lives and our work and say, what am I doing and am I doing it the right way? Is I ladder leaning against the wrong? Wall, so to speak. And be sure that you're constantly reflecting on the fact that Jesus could come back and, am I ready for that? Yeah. And that's where in the next parable he goes to say, and while we wait, we don't wait passively. That's right. We don't wait. Just sitting around going, well, he's gonna come back at some point. I guess I'll just wait until he shows up. He's entrusted us with gifts. He's entrusted us with, the gospel and a mission as the church to be busy doing those things until his return. And so that's where we find the parable of the talents and that there's different amounts given to each of these servants. And that's indicative of the fact that we have different things entrusted to us. The one who is entrusted much is gonna be, have much required of him. And then the one that is entrusted little is gonna have a different standard, but still be expected to do something with it. And that's what we see here. So the first two servants, they take what's been entrusted to them and they bring an ROI back to the master and the master's pleased with that and says, well done. Good and faithful servants enter into the joy of your master. But then you have the final one who comes forward and says, I, I was afraid of you because I knew you were a harsh man, and so I took your. Your talent and I buried it. Here you have back what you originally gave to me, and this one is is confronted by the master. He is condemned by the master and he's judged, he's cast into the place of darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. So this, at least it, it seems that the very minimum is everybody has something given to them. And maybe that's the general call of the gospel. And that is something that goes out to all people everywhere. What you do with that is really gonna be what you're held accountable for in the end. And this one didn't do what he should have done with it. He didn't respond to that. And so even what was given to all, which is that is taken from him and given to the one who has more. So this one, in other words, is not a believer who is gonna suffer loss of reward, but still make it to heaven. I think this is one who has rejected Christ and is gonna be on the outside looking in. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think what's being conveyed here is that for every person who calls himself a disciple, there is an expectation that Jesus will receive a return on the investment that he's made in you. All of us have a different level of resources and availability to do things times talent, treasures. In fact, I think the idea of stewarding your talent comes from this parable that the word originally. Did not mean what we use it today. To me, a talent back then was a monetary unit. Mm-hmm. But now it means like, oh your talents. Like, what are you good at? What resources do you have? And I think that's a fine application, but it's not what Jesus is saying here. He gave them a stewardship, an entrustment of a resource money, and he's saying I wanna return on that investment. And so the expectation for every Christian man, woman, and child is that. When God gives us his spirit, he's not expecting us to just show up and say, Hey, I made it Jesus. Aren't you happy? He wants us to use our lives to render obedience to him by doing good to others, out of love for Christ for the glory of Christ. And so that's the expectation. That's what normative Christianity looks like. These guys are not the rocket surgeons. These guys are not the A class only. This is. The normal class for every Christian man, woman, and child. Yeah. Well, after this, he then tells a, not a parable per se, but he does depict what the final judgment is gonna be like. And he does this by comparing the final judgment to a shepherd that is shepherd, separating out the sheep from the goats. And the sheep are the ones that are going to enter into. Into paradise, enter into the joy and the goats are the ones that are gonna enter into destruction and eternal condemnation. And there's questions that are asked there by those that are welcomed into the kingdom. Lord, when did, why are we here basically? And he's gonna say, because of how you treated me. And they're gonna say, when did we treat you this way? And he's gonna say, when you treated the least of these in a way that showed them mercy in compassion, you treated me that way. And then he's gonna. Give the opposite to those that are condemned. When they say, well, wait a minute, why are we gonna be condemned? And this is interesting because we could interpret this incorrectly to say that this is somehow a works-based salvation. That if this is social justice, that if we do these things to those that are needy and helpless, then we will be welcomed into the kingdom. And if we don't, if we close our heart, then we won't be. But I think what's what's really being brought out here is that there is a, when we understand how much. God has done for us, it will impact what we do and how we treat other people. That this is the fruit that's born from a life that's truly been transformed. Who are the people that you think he has in mind here when he says the least of these my brothers. Meaning whether they're believers or unbelievers or Jewish people. Some have suggested that he's referring to Jewish believers during the time of the tribulation, that he's talking about showing compassion to the ethnically Jewish. Others are suggesting that he's referring to the sheep the people, his body, the church. He calls 'em here, his brothers. Do you have a, an opinion about that? Strong way. I think I've leaned more towards the church than anything else. In fact, I think it's the writer of Hebrews who says, when he is talking about joyfully accepting the pluming of your property, he says you visited the, those in prison. You, you, it was as though you were imprisoned with them. Your heart went out to them. When we look at you. Philippians and Paul talking about Aphrodites caring for him and just those relationships there. I think it's the body life of the church living that out together. Amen. I would be inclined to agree. There's a few other passages that refer to the church as the brothers of Christ. So there's a few that we could point to that say that that's a good understanding of this text. Mm-hmm. And I would agree, and I think one of the things that you need to see in this is not just that you have compassion for people in general, that's a good thing. And I think the. Parable of the Good Samaritan is also one of those passages that give us a sense of love for neighbor, but this one is about love for the church, love for believers. This is one John chapter three, where if you say you have love for someone and yet you overlook the needs of your brothers in the church or sisters, then your love is suspicious. It's called into question because if you did have love. For Christ, you would've love for his body, the bride. And so here, your first level of generosity and thoughtfulness should be for those who you would call family. And I think that includes not only your physical family, your physical progeny, but also the spiritual family that God has entrusted you to. And so here it is compassion for his people. And this is how you show love for Christ. You care for his people in the church and that's evident if this doesn't happen. You either A, need to repent, or B, you don't have that walk with Christ that you thought you did. It's so important that he says here for those who are not part of his, those who are not part of his church, the goats, they're prepared for eternal fire where the devil and his angels are presently residing. And verse 46 tells us that they'll go away into eternal punishment and the righteous into eternal life which we've talked about in the past. But let's just rehearse that a few moments here. Talk about the nature of the next life. Yeah. Eternity here or eternity there. Yeah. And I think this is one of the verses that helps with our understanding of eternal conscious torment, which is what our view of hell is, that it is not a place of annihilation. It's not a place where the person is destroyed after a period of time of suffering. But it is a, biblically we believe a place where the soul is in an eternal state of torment that there is never gonna be any relief to that. And that's the contrast here of eternal life with eternal torment. And so, as much as we look forward to heaven and the new earth and the eternal state there being with Christ, there should be an equal fear of eternal condemnation and judgment that we understand that is, is awaiting those that are lost. Yeah. Verse 46 is really helpful in clarifying that because Jesus compares eternal life, which for us as we understand it is on and on and on. It doesn't end without end with eternal punishment. Yeah, and because he parallels those two things, we have reason to believe rightly so that they are equally ative. That they both last for the same amount of time, right? Because he compares them and holds them in parallel. So it's a hard doctrine to wrap your mind around. It's hard for us, and it's hard for us. We have a tender heart for people. We think about our family members and people that we care about, our friends and beyond. But this is what our text says, and this is why our mission is so important. It's important that we don't use the time that we have right now to. Squander it or fritter it away. Our job is to be on mission for the sake of Christ and for the sake of his kingdom. And one of the ways that we do that is we spread his gospel far and wide. Amen. Amen. Well, let's pray towards that end. God, we want to be those that are on mission. We want to get the gospel out as, as far and wide as we possibly can. And for some of us that looks like starting in our neighborhoods, on our sports teams and our communities and our workplaces. And so I pray that we would Lord, look for those opportunities and take those opportunities when they arise, that we would be sensitive to look for those occasions to point other people to Christ and that you would give us. The fruit that would come from that, that we would see people saved and people bow the knee to Jesus on this side of eternity, Lord, so that they would be part of your church, part of the sheep and not part of the goats. And so we pray that we would have fruit towards that end. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep bring your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast Deal. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said