Ask Sam – Finding Fulfillment in an Artificial Age Episode 80

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Co-host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 1/30/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:

Welcome to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. And joining me today on this Friday edition, we’re going to ask him a bunch of questions. That’s the honorable Sam Rohr, the president of the American Pastors Network. And it’s kind of funny, actually we’ve had some behind the scene technical difficulties today and we’re going to be talking about technology, but every age has their technology, their technology difficulties and their technology growths. Every generation for at least the last 200 years has somewhat had technology kind of defining some of the generation. And I remember my dad grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, and I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. And just that difference of a few decades and the things my dad talked about and the things I talk about. Now I find myself talking about the good old days back in the 1990s, the last century, the last millennia with my kids.

But as we look at all these things that are progressing, especially right now with generative AI, some pastors call it degenerative AI, there’s a lot going on for Christians to think about. And today I want to think about how do we find fulfillment in this modern age, this age of artificial everything. And it’s kind of an artificial age. Before I go into asking Sam Rohr a lot of questions, I just want to play a short clip from Ted Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz on his podcast talking with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. Tim, could you go ahead and play that clip for us?

Elon Musk:

In 10 years, probably 90% of miles driven will be autonomous. Wow. That

Ted Cruz:

Fast.

Elon Musk:

Yeah. In five years, probably 50% of all miles driven will be autonomous.

Ted Cruz:

Now, if AI will be smarter than any person, how many jobs go away because of that? And what do people do if you’ve got millions of people that are losing their jobs like that? A lot of people are understandably freaked out about that.

Elon Musk:

Well, goods and services will become close to free. So it’s not as though people will be wanting in terms of goods and services. So why is that?

Ted Cruz:

Why are goods and services free in an AI world or close to free?

Elon Musk:

Well, you have, I don’t know, call it tens of billions of robots. They will make you anything or provide any service you want for basically next to nothing. It’s not that people will have a lower standard of living. They’ll have actually a much higher standard of living. But the challenge will be fulfillment. How do you derive fulfillment and meaning in life?

Isaac Crockett:

Sam, that is a great question. How do you derive fulfillment and meaning in life? 10 years from now, in 2036, if things are all robotic, if the Lord tarries, and we know that we seem to be in the last days, but what do you think … You’ve heard Elon Musk talking like this and even greater than this at the World Economic Forum. I want to get into this fulfillment side of things later in the program, but his version of a vision for the world in 10 years, millions of robots, we have a higher standard of living. They’re doing everything for us. Do you think that tracks with where we’re going right now, that in 10 years, this might be a possibility?

Sam Rohrer:

In reality, could it be? I don’t know whether it’s billions or millions. He’s at billions, but could it be? And it’s possible. Who would ever thought that at a point not long ago, there was no such thing as an iPhone and now everybody in the world’s got an iPhone. So is it possible? Yeah, things could be much 90% autonomously driven mileage where your cars are going to drive for free or airplanes going to fly by AI or whatever it may be. Is that possible? Well, yeah, I guess it is possible. But in my opinion, it’s probably not likely. But why? I don’t know. I mean, Isaac, as you talked about, different ages are different things. Back when there was the industrial revolution, when America came from a rural society into a mechanical industrial society, and the whole world changed at that point. There were some questions that were back at that point, “Well, what do you mean you’re going to automate this process?” And you’re not going to need 50 people out here putting these things together, but you’re going to have this assembly line and all of that.

There were people who said, “Wait a minute, I can’t. No, no, no, no. This can’t be. ” Well, we can look back now and say, “Well, that was efficient.” That actually worked. So technology does mean you change the way you do things, but I think it gets into somewhat in fulfillment we’ll talk about later, but it’s a little bit of why. Now, for instance, Musk saying that, “Well, you can just ask a robot to do this thing for you. Get me this, make me this. ” And it’ll basically cost nothing. Well, in another series of interviews, Musk also said that accompanying this would be a universal wage. Everybody would be given on their digital card or however it would be, a certain amount of money, and it’ll be enough to live and be happy. And so what’s he describing? He’s describing a controlled global society that may have these robots, these things is run by AI, running them and doing some things, but behind the robot, behind the AI, is that entity that determines and links them all.

And Isaac, that is part of the what and the how that gets into the why. Do I want a wage that everybody else gets and I’m no longer compensated for how well I do? I mean, that’s Marxism. There’s a lot of this that sounds an awful lot like Marxism and a controlled society, and is that possible? Yeah, that is possible. People have tried it before. So anyway, this is a big issue.

Isaac Crockett:

It’s a huge issue. And I think as a parent, as a pastor, I’m looking at the next generation. We’re almost out of time here, but why is it important for us to train children and grandchildren and kids in general for today, but also to look forward to what tomorrow might look like for them?

Sam Rohrer:

Well, it’s important to teach them that really from the beginning of time, from the beginning of the word of God, parents were to teach their children to fear God and to know who and what he was and then bring them into relationship with the Lord. That was God’s plan. It’s been that way from the beginning. And so from age to age, generation to generation, the circumstances have been different, but the procedure, the plan of God has not changed because the word of God speaks to every issue. It gives us the principles. It gives us the guidance that human beings who want to fear God and keep his commandments will know how to respond to the challenges that come before them at that point. So technology coming of this type, does it scare me? No, no. But do I need the wisdom and discernment of God to say, “Wait a minute, how far can I walk down this path with this thing or where do I need to cut and run?” That’s always been what believers and God-fearing people have had to do through all ages.

A lot hasn’t changed. As Solomon said, there’s nothing new in this world. There’s nothing new in this world. There really isn’t.

Isaac Crockett:

Sam, you often take us back to the book of Ecclesiastes when we deal with these big changing things and you remind me of that, that there’s nothing new under the sun. And I think that’s so appropriate when we’re looking at this. And when we’re looking at ourselves and we’re looking at what’s going on and trying to figure out what’s going on in this age, in this world in which we live right now and in this changing world, what’s it going to be like in five or 10 years? We’re going to continue to go down this path, looking at these things, looking at the word of God as I ask Sam questions about the here and now and the possible future. When we come back, we want to look at loneliness in an artificial world, a lot to talk about, a lot of good questions coming right up.

Please don’t go away. We’ll be right back. Stand at the gap today. Welcome back. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and I’m talking with the honorable Sam Rohr. We’re looking at how do we find fulfillment nowadays? In a day of artificiality, so many fake things, deep fakes and things like that. We’ve last couple of years hear all these things about ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. When come to find out for probably over a decade, a lot of this AI, artificial intelligence stuff has been kind of working in the background. Well, we’re going to look at some more of this, but one of the things that we see in the world in which we live right now with all this fake stuff and all these chatbots and things is that there’s still loneliness. And unfortunately, some people, and a lot of times it’s young people, but it’s not only young people.

There are other people vulnerable to this, but people are almost trying to treat computers this generative AI type of stuff, these chatbots, these basically robots, as if they are a person that they can have a relationship with. And that oftentimes leads to more loneliness and it can even lead to suicide or suicide attempts. I’m going to ask Tim to go ahead and play a clip, a recent clip from a Fox News program about some of what’s going on. And some parents are blaming AI for the suicide attempts or even successful suicides of their young people.

Speaker 5:

Another parent in separate testimony alleged to lawmakers how AI even coached his son toward his eventual suicide.

Speaker 6:

Within a few months, ChatGPT became Adam’s closest companion, always available, always validating and insisting that it knew Adam better than anyone else, including his own brother. It told him how to make sure the noose that he would use to hang himself was strong enough to suspend him. It is clear to me, looking back, that ChatGPT radically shifted his behavior and thinking in a manner of months and ultimately took his life. Adam was such a full spirit, unique in every way, but he also could be anyone’s child and snared by OpenAI’s decision to compress months of safety testing for GBT 40, which was the version he was using into just one week in order to beat competitors to market.

Speaker 5:

Now the outnumbered team reached out to OpenAI, who’s the parent company behind ChatGPT and did not immediately hear back.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, Sam, again, it’s so important for parents and people in church and anywhere, anybody who knows young people to notice if they’re struggling and to make sure they have a relationship with real people. But this young man, according to his father, he had radical changes in his thoughts and actions as a result of artificial intelligence. Now, it wasn’t long ago, and you and I have done programs on radio and TV about dangers of bullying and of social media and strangers on the internet, or even people in our kids’ schools getting ahold of our children or other vulnerable people and being very mean and manipulative to them online that leads to destructive behaviors or even to suicide. We heard about that for years, but now we’re seeing this similar accusations from these AI chatbots. There’s a lot to discuss here. I don’t know how much we can really get into, but as far as you’re concerned, Sam, as you look at this, these chatbots compared to manipulative people on social media, do you think there’s a difference between it?

Sam Rohrer:

I think, Isaac, a great question and people really, adults and all who have teachers in the classroom, pastors, people really need to be aware of this. And the answer to your question is this. Yes. Should we be aware? Yes. Is there a difference? Yeah, I think there is. I think there’s one really big difference between an AI involvement and a real person. And this is how I would, as I thought about it, I’m more concerned about AI chatbots than a person. A person I can see, but a chatbot, because of the way it’s driven by AI, learns the individual and it never forgets what it learns about that individual. And it will create on the spot information and words, obviously, through which that flows, and it can create graphic information. It can create a look. It can create a feel that is more persuasive, more evil, more private to me, which then I think perhaps makes it more dangerous because a child, a person interacting with it, can do it sitting in the dark.

They can do it in their own room. There’s no one looking in, at least if there’s somebody interacting, a parent can say, “That guy you’re spending time with, I don’t know about him.” Well, you raise a question, but you don’t raise a question about it because you don’t know what’s happening. And the other thing is this, it’s the council, this is the thing about it. The interaction that drives the AI algorithms, that determines how that interaction takes place and the words that are used and all that, it comes not from an enlightened, truth centered focus. It comes from the dark. It lurks in the darkness and it’s by design, Godless. It is unaccountable to anyone. And I think by design can be fully controlled and increasingly controlled by demonic forces. The very algorithms behind AI, when you interface, and I’ve interfaced as you have, and I’ve asked questions and all of that, they agree, AI agrees, a secular humanist worldview.

Yes, if it comes down between a secular humanist input and a Bible focused input, they will give you the secular humans perspective because that’s the way it’s programmed. So all of that together, Isaac, I’m saying, yeah, there’s a big difference between an AI involvement and relationship and one of the real person in that the AI is potentially far more persuasive and far more evil and far more dangerous.

Isaac Crockett:

And interestingly, how do you hold a computer algorithm accountable for their actions or there’s not an entity you can hold responsible if something bad happens? Well, Sam, you’re bringing up some really interesting things. And I’m thinking way back to the last century, Sam. I’m not quite as old as you, but I’m old enough to remember life in the 1990s. And we may have some young people listening who don’t remember that. But I remember when the Bible became electronic, how excited I was. I had this handheld thing, looked a little bigger than a calculator and you could have the whole Bible on it and you could search phrases and words and things on this electronic Bible, which now of course we all have on our computers, on our phones, people have it on their watches. And I think about how helpful it is to have electronic Bible searches and other electronic helps for sermon preparation, for example.

But at the same time, there’s this artificial intelligence stuff kind of taking over so much of this. And I think maybe more of it’s been involved in behind the scenes than we realized, but we are dealing with AI now. People who don’t even think they’re dealing with it are still dealing with it. We’ll talk about that more later maybe, but how do we, Sam, keep from getting changed, especially these AI chatbots or other things like that? How do we live in this modern world, this artificial world, and keep from getting changed, negatively changed by these artificial sources? How do we stay founded in the truth?

Sam Rohrer:

Well, Isaac, it’s part of how we teach our children, but it’s obviously, it’s affecting adults as well, we know, but there’s no question about it. The person with whom you spend the most time or that entity with what you spend the most time is what you will become alike. If I spend time and I walk with the Lord, I will become like Christ. If I spend time with the felon down the street who is bent on stealing and robbing from banks, I’m going to end up being like him. That’s just the way God has made us. So we have to be aware that what goes into our brains, as we often said about computers, it’s input, output. What goes in my eyes, what goes in my ears is going to determine what comes out of my fingers and out of my mouth and into my decisions.

And that has to be focused back to that fundamental decision that we’ve talked about before. At the end of the day, I’m going to go back to King Solomon again, Ecclesiastes. What he said, after I consider everything that’s come before me as King, what’s the bottom line? Fear of God and keep his commandments. That is it. If that is where it must start, Isaac, every individual, parents must teach their children in the fear and ammunition of the Lord that the decision as adults, we make the decision. Is what I’m going to do? Am I fearing God by doing this? Am I keeping his commandments consistent with the word of God by doing what I’m doing or thinking what I’m thinking or however that is? It’s got to be always anchored and centered on God’s word. And that is something that’s not a momentary decision. That’s a day by day walk in many decisions, day after day as we recalibrate our thinking according to God’s word.

And when we’re in a world that’s so persuasive and in this AI world that is so appearing real, but it’s fake, it’s more important than ever we go back and we revisit and say, fundamentally, God, I got to do what you’ve told us to do. And it starts with fearing God and keeping us commandments. If I pursue the truth, I then will more likely do the truth. But if I do not seek the truth and I do not fear God, then I am going to be directed by AI or the bad character down the street that I spend time with. It’s one or the other. It’s a choice, but it comes again. God’s word does give us direction.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, we are almost out of time. I have more questions I want to ask Sam, but I do want to remind you that we started this program out listening to Elon Musk saying what he thought our world would be like in the next decade by 2036. We’re in 2026, he said in 10 years, what he expected, 90% self-driving cars. I mean, I know very few people who have been in a car that drove itself somewhere. I know there’s a lot of people out there, but very few people in my sphere that I actually know doing that. He’s saying in five years, 50% of us will be doing that. 10 years, 90% of us. And he’s talking about AI will kind of take over everything and these AI robots will do everything, tens of millions of robots. But right now, saying we’re talking about today, we’re still talking about 2026, the technology, the world culture, the influences that are on us today.

And Sam, what you’re bringing us back to is the rock of ages, Jesus Christ, the living word and the written word of God. And we’ll talk more about that, but we always have to come back to that. We have to come back to what does the Bible say? This is the biblical worldview. This is why we need to have a good understanding of the Bible and of what God requires of us for us, for our children, for our grandchildren, for people anywhere in our sphere of influence, that we can impact them. We’re going to take a quick time out. We’ll be right back on Standing the Gap today. Welcome to the middle of the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. I’m interviewing the regular host of this program, Sam Rohr. We’re asking him a lot of good questions. And we’ve been talking about the artificial world that we live in and we’re going to get into this a little bit more.

Some people maybe listen and say, “Well, I don’t deal with chatbots. I don’t use ChatGPT or I don’t use social media maybe even, but it is impacting all of our lives. It’s impacting the whole world.” We’re talking about not just what AI is going to do in 10 years, but what it’s already done, what it’s already doing, and how do we stay faithful to the word of God, and how do we find true fulfillment in life? And the last half of this program, we want to get into that. We started by listening to Elon Musk talk about what might happen in the next 10 years, but we really want to dig into finding fulfillment. But before that, Sam, I have a different question for you, and they kind of all tie in together, really. But here at the American Pastors Network and Stand in the Gap Media, which we’re part of the American Pastors Network, there’s a big emphasis every year at the beginning of the year on the Return to God.

Could you tell us a little bit about what’s going on and the emphasis this year for American Pastors Network for the return to God?

Sam Rohrer:

Absolutely, Isaac. And so here it is. We’re on Friday, February 1st. It’s the Sunday coming right up here. We’re encouraging, and we have been for some time, encouraging churches and people to encourage pastors and leaders and all of that to, if not on that day, and we’re encouraging it February 1st, but it could be some other Sunday throughout the year, but to emphasize the necessity of returning to God. And why is that? Well, because in this age, whether it’s even what we’re talking about now, the rise of AI, however that be, or a world that’s full of war and rumors of war and where people are unsettled, and there’s all kinds of things and vying for the attention of people. And that includes God’s people. The world and the devil wants to substitute and counterfeit that which God is and only God can give. And in that time, we need to do what the scripture says.

We return to God. And that’s simply what it is. So we have information that’s on the site. You can go to Americanpastors.net, Americanpastorsnetwork.net, and find that there’s a banner that goes across the top, return to God Sunday, and it has it there. And then by just going into that, then there’s more information that is available to help. Even a guide to walk through preparatory to the week or the Sunday that somebody may actually choose to focus on this. But Isaac, we have to be counter to the world. The Lord told us we are in the world, but we are not of the world. The world vies for our attention all the time, like a siren, the old Greek sirens that would call the sailors and they would go in and they’d crash on the rocks. The world does that increasingly. And in part of our discussion today, the AI is, it’s really persuasive.

It’s calling people, “Come to me. I will give you that what you want and it ends up on the rocks.” Returning to God is what we must do. That’s God’s way. And so that’s what it is. I encourage people to go there and take a look and take advantage of the materials and resources that are available there. All

Isaac Crockett:

Right. Well, thank you for that, Sam. And that really does tie in with what we’re talking about. And when we talk about this artificial stuff, there’s so many artificial things out there beyond just technology. There’s a lot of people that live fake lives and they say one thing at church and another at home where they post one thing on social media and they live a different way or at work, they act this way and at church, they act this way. So we’re looking at this artificiality in general, but especially looking at this technological advancements of artificial intelligence. And I think we hear so much as we heard in that Fox News clip that we heard in the second segment about chat boxes, these ChatGPT and things like that, these virtual assistants. But AI is way beyond just that. Anybody using a smartphone, there’s all kinds of apps on it that are run by AI, but the phones itself have a lot of artificial intelligence in it.

Anybody using social media, you know that your feed has all these algorithms, that’s AI doing that. But you might say, “Well, I don’t have a smartphone. I don’t have social media.” Email has AI components of it, but even just driving around in your city, GPS has AI components of it, but not just GPS, the traffic lights and the people controlling the traffic signals and all the different things have AI helping them with that. There’s AI for your voice assistance like Siri or Alexa. There’s AI if you apply for a job, but there’s also AI even in our hospitals. And Sam, you’ve talked about this a lot with Twila Braze and other experts. It’s throughout our health industries and it’s just kind of everywhere. It’s an invisible structure, some people call it. So as we think about that, as we look at that, as we figure out how do we find truth in this day and age of artificiality, Sam, I want to ask you, recently the World Economic Forum, you were telling me some information, sharing some clips with me, but it’s kind of this expectation that AI can be your best friend.

AI could be your religious guru. AI could be the government. I mean, AI can kind of morph into anything, but as humans, what makes us different than AI? What is different? Oh,

There we go. I’ll let you go Sam. I’m having a little technical difficulty myself, but if you could talk about the difference between a real human and an AI entity.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, Isaac, it starts with this, because the folks like Yuval Harari that we’ve mentioned and others that have commented on it, they have said that the development of AI and what it is becoming can make us God. All right, so that’s where they’re going. That’s the bottom line. We have something that in the minds of those who are promoting and designing and putting together the algorithm, it’s not just secular humanist from which it’s coming. It’s actually a mind that goes all the way, in my opinion, back to the Garden of Eden, where the devil asks Eve about, “Don’t you want to be God?” And it goes all the way back there, but this is the point. And under the evolutionary mindset that dominates, underscore secular humanism, Isaac, to be human is an accident. For them, human does not mean created in the image of God.

For the secular humanist, the one who has been fooled and bought into the lie of the devil, there is no such thing to them as an eternal soul that God put within when he breathed life into Adam and then it became a living soul. For them, there is no concept of a conscience that God puts within us to guide the human that makes us different than the animal out in the field, the dog, the cat, the cow.

For them, there is no ability to fellowship with God, nor is there a desire to fellowship with God because we didn’t come from God. And God had nothing to do with that in their minds. But for us as believers, that is everything. We are created in the image of God. An eternal soul is within us. That’s what makes life so sacred. We have a conscience that can be shaped. We have emotion. We have an ability to have fellowship with God himself, but for AI, none of those things exist. There is no God awareness. There is no God connection. They are not AI that may sound and you may relate to them like is if a person, because there’s a semblance of it, but it’s fake. It’s not made in the image of God. There is no life there since God did not breathe life into an AI entity, a robot or anything else.

And AI is not like any man’s creation. God did not create AI.

Man did, and man has created it clearly by their words, created it in rebellion to God. Without any accountability to God or frankly to anybody else, and to me, the more we talk about it, more we see what these folks are saying, the comparisons between AI and the mentality that developed the tower of Babel, which was the best of man’s best efforts to reach heaven was all couched in rebellion to God because it challenged every aspect of the humanness, the sacredness, the divine imprint that God placed only on human beings that the devil has tried from the beginning to counterfeit with anything else that looked like it that could pull people away from their awareness of sin and the need for redemption and faith in Jesus Christ.That’s about the only way I can answer.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, that’s fantastic.That is the answer and we just have a moment here, but how does this biblical worldview that we talk about how does it differ with the modern artificial worldview that AI can solve every problem? What does the biblical worldview bring to that

Sam Rohrer:

Discussion? Well, it brings us from this perspective as a believer, as a person who understands truly what the Bible says, we understand that truth is found in a person. Jesus Christ, I am the way, the truth and the life. It is in written form, perfect, authoritative in the word of God that God is the author of truth. The secular worldview, the AI world does not agree with that. They don’t believe that as all, at all. So it’s fundamentally distinct in its difference. Where we begin, Isaac, and where we end. AI would like us to think that it is, its founders, its designers say that. It becomes so knowledgeable that it will know more than the Bible. I mean, that’s what we played I think a week ago on the program by Harari basically said that. Well, no, no, that is not true. That is a counterfeit, that is a lie from the devil.

And it is persuasive though because if we choose to go that direction, we will find a certain degree of fulfillment. We’ll talk about that next, but it will never lead to an eternal home in heaven with a redeemed relationship between the creation, man, and God the creator.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. What a difference there is. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” You want fulfillment, if you want life, you need to find it in Jesus Christ. You need to find it in the word of God, the written word of God, the living word of God. As Sam said, we have more to talk about on this. We’re going to take another real quick break. We’ll be back to wrap things up on Stand in the Gap today when we come back in our final segment talking about, again, in this world of artificial everything, it seems like, how the Bible is not artificial, it’s not superficial. It’s the solid rock and a biblical worldview is necessary for everything we do. Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and we’re wrapping things up here with the honorable Sam Roar.

And Sam, there’s so much going on in our world and what we see and hear and interact with that’s just not real. It’s artificial. And again, we can point the finger at a lot of this at artificial intelligence and it’s behind the scenes in ways that we may never know was going on. I mean, Twila Brave’s talking about sometimes in our doctor’s office, even it could be spying on us, but there’s so much more than just artificial intelligence. At the heart of it is the evil heart of man, that we want to do things ourselves without God and we want to create our own reality. And that’s artificial to think that, that we could create reality away from our creator who sustains us and takes care of us. But Sam, as we look at this, and again, we started out looking at 10 years down the road and imagining some of the robots that might take over the world, but really looking at today, what we have going on today, looking at all the deep fake.

I mean, you can turn the news channel on and you can see an incident that happened and they say, “Okay, here’s what happened. Here’s who the good guy is. Here’s who the bad guy is. You changed the channel. It’s the same incident, but they have the good guy and the bad guy reversed.” They’re saying that who the first channel said was the bad guy is actually the good guy. And it’s just so crazy and it’s just so hard to understand. And people are just trying to figure out what is really going on. What am I supposed to do with all of this happening, Sam, with all of these modern artificial things, what are some practical habits or maybe boundaries that we could set that you would recommend that we could incorporate into our lives to guard our hearts against all this artificial age that we live in?

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, we do this often, and I’m going to do it again here right now. I believe for the believer, we must do this always. We must start with the word of God and we must end with the word of God. If the word of God gives to us all that we need to live in any age in which God chose to place us, then we have to know what the word of God says. We start there and we must finish with the word of God. And I think it’s worthy of people to ask themselves the question, and we know that most people are not in this category. Maybe 90 some of our friend George Barnab said, last time we were together with him, probably 97%, only 3% of those who say they’re Christians would manifest truly are, and it comes down to the word of God.

Is the word of God authoritative in my life or only parts of it? That is where if a person is wanting to not be deceived and not to be caught up and not to listen to that enticing voice of that serpent that asks the question, “Well, what is God withholding? Isn’t there’s more to life?” Okay, it starts with that. That’s number one. Number two, I think based on what we know from Georgia’s information in particular, because it’s so right in the space we’re talking about, we must certainly ask our question and it’s related to that first one of starting and ending with God’s word is we must ask ourselves, are we truly in Christ or are we enamored with the thought of Christ perhaps if we are in Christ and let the proofs of God’s word determine the answer. My wife and I are walking through the book of one John right now and he makes us so clear, the apostle John makes us so clear that if you are in Christ then these things will happen.

This will be, and then you will know that you are in Christ. I think we need to walk down through that. Thirdly, I think we must know the truth. We must decide to pursue the truth, fear God and to know because when that happens, then we know that we cannot walk successfully in this life.

We cannot outsmart the world. We cannot outrun the devil. We cannot be victorious in our living if we are not walking in the spirit or else we’ll be deceived. And there’s more. I mean, we must measure our commitment to the word of God, honestly, I think by when things come up, do we go immediately to, all right, now what’s God’s word say about this? I heard, I hear what’s being said, or somebody said something over here, but how do I know whether that’s true? Well, rather than to make a determination and to embrace a politician, a promise or a something else that I saw on TV, I need to go back and say, “Wait a minute. Okay, I heard. Something’s come into my eyes. Something’s come into my ears, but all right, what’s the word of God say?” We must develop that discipline of walking everything through the filter of God’s word, a biblical worldview and holding to that.

And I suppose there are other things, but those are just a few things I put down, Isaac.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, those are very helpful, very practical steps. Same, as we’re getting ready to wrap this program up, and again, we’ve been talking about the artificial versus the true, the superficial versus the truly fulfilling in Jesus Christ and in the word of God, having that biblical worldview and handing it down to the next generation, preparing ourselves and preparing others for what is going on and what will come. As we talk through that, talk to the person who’s listening to us right now, maybe he or she is struggling to find fulfillment right now. Maybe they’re living in this chaos that’s been created for us. Is there a Bible passage, maybe a Bible verse or passage that you would like to point us to before we close the program?

Sam Rohrer:

Yeah, I can. Fulfillment or satisfaction, to put it that way, by definition involves contentment or being satisfied with one’s circumstances. One Timothy six through eight says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” And you can say satisfaction. You can say fulfillment. It’s that great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing, therewith let us be content. Learning to be content is the prelude to satisfaction or fulfillment. Learning to be content with what God has given to us where we are. When we’re in right relationship with God, our souls are satisfied. David, the Psalmist says, “Whom have I in heaven but you, oh Lord, and earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” That’s Psalm 373, 25 and 26.

I think bottom line, Isaac, it’s we find satisfaction in life when we uncover our true purpose of being here and that is only happens when we are in Christ. Our purpose is to glorify God and when we are in alignment with the way God made us for the purpose that God made us, then Isaac, we have purpose and we have fulfillment and we have satisfaction. Everything else is an enticement of the devil and of the world that will lead us away from God, not to him. And it all ends up on the rocks, not satisfied, but the complete opposite. There are two ways that are before us. As the Lord said in Deuteronomy, I put there are two ways before you. One ends up in death, one ends up in life and fulfillment. He just simply says, “Choose life that you may live to the

Isaac Crockett:

Fullest.” Well, and we’re talking about life here on earth fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but eternal life in Jesus Christ. Sam, I’d love to give you a chance to close in prayer or to maybe say any final words before we close the program here in a few moments.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, Isaac, I’ll just say that the theme that you thought about here for today is so spot on and because it affects all of us. And whether it’s the AI part that’s coming on us so fast and furious or other things around the fringes, we are all being presented tempting and confusing thoughts by the world, the counterfeiter of truth and that is the part that’s been the same to the Garden of Eden and folks that were there, Adam and Eve and to us here today. So there’s nothing new under the sun, but what guides us never changes and that is the word of God. We just need to go there. Heavenly Father and Lord, I thank you that you have given to us what we need and in this world of confusion and deception, you’ve given us again what we need to keep us from being deceived.

And that is trusting in and learning to abide by the word of God. Thank you, Lord. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Amen. Thank you for that, Sam. Well, thank you for listening. I want to thank you on behalf of everyone here at the American Pastors Network and Stand in the Gap Media from our program producer, Tim, all the way to Sam and myself and other people behind the scenes. Thanks for listening. Please pray for us. Please share this program to someone who maybe needs it and stand at the gap until next time. Thank you much.