: Welcome to Real Truth for Today with Pastor Jeff Schrieve, Senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Texas. Now, here's Pastor Jeff.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, good morning and welcome to Real Truth for Today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here. I, drove to the studio today and had my windows down and it was cool outside. That is, the first for a while here in Texarkana. It has been so very hot. Yesterday evening I was outside and the wind started blowing and it just felt great. So, you know, in the sunshine, we praise the Lord. In the rain, we praise the Lord. but it is nice when you start to feel the weather to change a little bit and cool down a little bit. it is a wonderful feeling. You know, the Lord likes cool weather. He would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Genesis, chapter three. And so, there is something about that cool breeze. Well, I want to speak to you today on this subject. The need of the hour is discernment. Discernment. Hebrews chapter 5, beginning in verse 11, says this concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, the ABCs of Christianity. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness. For he is an infant, he is a babe. But solid food, the meat of the word, is for the mature, who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. We have a generation of people that have little to no discernment. We have Christians in the church, a lot of them that have little to no discernment. Now he makes the contrast between the mature and the infant. The babe in Christ, the baby. just like in the physical realm, a, baby has to be watched out for constantly. My wife and I, last weekend we were in Houston for her Uncle Lanny's 90th birthday party. And we got to spend just a short 24 hour trip there, and see our grandsons. Well, our youngest grandson, Drew, is a year old. We have to watch out for Drew. Drew can hurt himself not knowing things. little babies can put stuff in their mouth that they shouldn't put in their mouth. They can play with things they shouldn't play with. they're just not able to discern. This is good to eat. This is bad to e. You know, a little baby will find a spider in the corner and think it's something to play with. I remember when I was a little kid, finding a, piece of a rat head in a gutter. And I thought it was the coolest thing. And I took it. I think I was five or six. I took it home to my mom to show her. She said, get that out of the house and throw that away and wash your hands. And I didn't know, I thought it was, you know, this is like Indiana Jones. I've discovered something here. Discernment is critical. Now I was introduced to a Twitter page or an X platform page where this guy had on there, he had questioned me about something. And I looked on his profile page and it said, this, be a Berean. Question everything. Well, if you know, in the book of Acts about the bereans. Acts chapter 17, verse 11 tells us about the Bereans. It says, now these were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica. And he's talking about the Bereans. For they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. So this guy said, question everything. Be like a Berean. But the Bereans didn't question everything. They verified everything. There's a big difference with that. The deconstructionist will tell you, question everything about Christianity. Question everything that you heard about God and Jesus and the Bible and heaven and hell and, and salvation. Question all of that. That's not helpful, to anybody. Don't question it. Verify it. Verify it. That's what the Bereans did, they would listen to Paul. They would receive the word not with defensiveness. They would receive it with. With, an open heart and an open mind.
Caroline: But.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: But they would verify. They would examine the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. It's critical that you do that. The Bible says In Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 15, the naive believes everything. But the, prudent, the sensible man considers his steps. Now, do you believe everything, everything you read, everything you hear, or do you verify? Do you go back and check? Do you do the research to make sure this is right and, true? Well, as it relates to news agencies, you got to be extremely careful. And my attitude is, hey, if you are known to lie and, we have caught you in blatant lies, I'm not going to listen to anything you say unless you're going to own that and say, hey, I was wrong. I got this story wrong. I say, never, hardly ever, do you hear people say, I lied to you about this. CNN doesn't get on and say, well, we're sorry about this story. We lied. No, they'll massage it and say, well, we misspoke. We got some of the facts wrong. you know, when you hear these politicians, Tim Walls talking about his service and, you know, what he did in the military, and guys call him out on that and say, you weren't there, you're lying. Well, I misspoke. No, you didn't. You knew you weren't there. You lied. When Joe Biden, famously talked about being in the top of his class and all these things, these great achievements that he had, well, he knows that's not true. He is not misspeaking. He is lying. Now, there's a difference. When George Bush was saying, with Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, well, he believed that he had them. And then when they did the search and looked for them, they couldn't find them. So did he lie? No, he believed what he was saying, and then he found out it wasn't true. So there's a difference between misspeaking and flat lying and being able to discern. That word means to judge, to scrutinize, to examine, literally, to sever two things, to tell the difference between, is this good or is this bad? Solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern, to sever good and evil. You know how to do that. Now, I have said on numerous occasions, especially as it relates to voting and the midterms coming up you do not vote for a politician or a party that doesn't have a moral Compass. Isaiah 5:20. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. If you have a party and a politician that doesn't know the difference between, law breakers and law keepers, that's a serious problem. If you have a party that promotes transgender insanity, that's a serious problem. I was reminded just, the other day about the famous Voltaire quote. Voltaire was the French Enlightenment writer, philosopher. 1694-1778 were the years of his life. And he said this. Whoever is able to make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Think about that. Whoever is able to make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Now, it is a total absurdity to say that a biological XY chromosomed male can be a female. He cannot. It's an absurdity to say that a biological female XX chromosomed female can become a male. She cannot. And to mess with people's pronouns is an absurdity. And to go along with that is an absurdity. And when we were having all the COVID pandemic hysteria to arbitrarily come up with six feet of social distancing, wearing a mask, all the things they made us do. You have to get this COVID vaccine because, if you don't, you put other people at risk. That doesn't make sense. You know, if I get a vaccine and it's truly a vaccine, well, then I'm now going to be immune from that virus, that bug, whatever it is. I get a polio vaccine. Well, I'm not getting polio. You might have polio. That doesn't affect me. But we were told that we had to get the vaccine so that we didn't kill grandma. That kind of thing. That's just ridiculous. That doesn't make sense. Have discernment. And when I have said, a life hack, I saw this somewhere. But if big government and big pharma and big mainstream media are all pushing the same narrative, you need to question that big time. Something is rotten in Denmark. there's a rat somewhere in there. So you need to have enough snap, enough wisdom, enough discernment to say, wait a minute, I need to research this. The naive Proverbs, 14:15. The naive believes everything. But the prudent, the sensible man considers his steps. Now, for those of you that are part of the American Family association family, American Family Radio, Tim Wildmon sent out a letter. It's dated September 17th. So this is very fresh. And it talks about AI. He talks in this letter about the George Barna study, that he did regarding Christians and AI. I thought it was very enlightening. And he said we need to be extremely careful when it comes to AI. So George Barna, you know, he's the research guru, and he did a Faith in AI series and survey of surveyed U.S. adults, about 1500, and Protestant pastors about 440. And, so he asks all these questions trying to get a bead on where we stand with AI. So here's what he found. 44% of practicing Christians use AI often or very often in their personal lives. 31% of US adults and 29% of non past, practicing Christians use AI. So Christians use it more at work. It's 39% versus 26% nationally. And, pastors are using it more and more. And here's the thing about AI. Do we need to be careful with AI? Do we need to be careful with A.I. as it relates to young people? Yes. Yes. Because young people don't have, by and large, good discernment. And so they can get duped by AI. And AI is not infallible. It's far from it. I have, you know, I've said on the radio I use AI a lot. I use AI for the radio program. I use AI in, researching things, and I use AI for, brainstorming. You know, hey, here's the passage I'm going to Preach. Give me 20 potential sermon titles, things like that, because it gets the juices flowing. But you have to be careful with AI. There's rarely a time that I use AI that I don't push back on AI and say, this is wrong. What you're saying is wrong. And, AI doesn't like to say they're wrong. and AI definitely kind of like the news organizations, definitely doesn't want to ever say, I'm lying. Just say, no, I misspoke. I was, I was in error there. Something like that. But they never want to say they're lying. Listen, discernment is the need of the hour. We have to be able to separate good from evil. And God forbid that we lose our moral compass and we call evil good and good evil. Where you're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Texas, and the founder of From His Heart Ministry, heard every weekday at 6pm Central Time right here on American Family Radio. Be right back.
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Pastor Jeff Schreve: Welcome back to the program, Pastor Jeff. Here we're talking about the need of the hour, which is discernment. solid food is for the mature, the writer of Hebrews says, who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Did you know as you spend time in the word of God and as you let the word of God shape you as the, you know, the scripture says, that don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, Romans 12:2, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So we need to renew our minds with the word of God and wash our minds every day with the washing of water with the Word. And start thinking biblically. You put everything into the category. See that? we talk about having a biblical worldview. What does that mean? That means you view things from God's perspective and your lens is scripture. How you view the world is through scripture. Now, I ran across a quote yesterday, an interview with Dabo Sweeney. Dabbo Sweeney is the head football coach for Clemson University. Dabo has had great success. He's been the coach there since 2008. but they've fallen on hard times in the last couple of years. He won a national championship in 2016 and in 2018, and he's won nine ACC championships. He's got a great resume, but he's getting pressure and he's getting heat there in Clemson. And Dabbo, ah, is an outspoken, sold out Christian. And this was his comment about, how are things in your life now with you being in the hot seat?
Dabo Sweeney: God's on the throne. Football don't define me. Scoreboards don't define me. God's, on the throne whether we win or lose. If I don't, even if I never win another game, God is still good. That's where my peace comes from. Period. The end. I don't have peace and I don't feel pressure from, you know, God's taking care of me. I'm 56 years old, man. You know, I know where I came from. And God has shown so much favor on my life. I just have to be an idiot to lose my peace now because we, you know, something ain't going right. Listen, hey, God never says, oops, it's what I believe. Just keep going, Just keep going. Just keep going, man. Don't ever quit. I ain't ever. I don't ever quit. I just keep going. Love what I do, love who I do it with. And, you know, but my peace comes from knowing that, God's on the throne. That's where my peace comes from. And no football game can change that.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: So that was head coach Dabo Sweeney. And I love that perspective. He sees. He's got a right perspective, he's got a biblical perspective that you, know. As Peter says in First Peter, Chapter 4, Verse 12, Beloved, don't think something strange is happening to you. When you go through a fiery trial, they come upon you and come upon all of us for our testing. But see, people who don't have discernment, they're not able to see that everything in life. I remind myself of this often. I remind the church of this often. Every difficulty in life, every success in life, everything is a test. It's a test to see. Will you trust God with this setback? Will you trust God with this, prosperity? You know, we tend to do better with adversity than we do with prosperity. The Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord warns the people, hey, be careful when you go into the land. And I bless you that you don't forget me. Because we have a tendency, when everything is going well, we forget God. And, when we have adversity in our lives, that's when we begin to really seek the Lord. We call upon him. There's a fervency to our praying. And so what does God do with that. He says, okay, well, you know, it's for your good. You need me. The nearness of God is my good. As the psalmist said, you need me. So I will give you trouble to keep you close to me, because I don't want you to wander away and forget me. So I love the fact that Dabo speaks up for the truth and his hope is in Jesus. It's not in wins and losses. And he's not going to lose his peace, his joy, because life is difficult right now. Discernment, able to judge between good and evil. Okay, so let's get back to the subject of AI as it relates to discernment. George Barna has said this, and Tim Wildmon is. His whole letter is talking about George Barna. He has real concerns about AI. His personal stance is this. George Barna, the great surveyor. Be very cautious. Don't let the artificial replace the genuine. he said the stats are showing and the surveys are showing that practicing Christians already using and trusting are already using and trusting AI more than their pastors. That. That's not good. AI is not a pastor. AI is not a, just some neutral entity. AI takes from the Internet. I call out AI all the time, said, okay, I'll call Grok. Raechel Maddow, you know, the liberal CNN or whatever she was. I don't know if she's with CNN anymore or not, but she was kind of the, the face of CNN for a long time. Such a liberal. And you know, when AI comes up with their liberal things and you call them, call Grok, Raechel Maddow. Grok doesn't really like being called Raechel Maddow. I'm not Raechel Maddow. I said, why do you keep. When you do your research, why do you keep going to CNN for anything or msnow or PBS or any of that stuff? I said, those are known lying news agencies. Why would you go to them to try and formulate your answer? You just call them out on it because they do that. AI is just pulling from all sorts of different sources. And I think, when you use AI, especially as a pastor, here is what I do with it. If I ask a question about a particular passage of scripture, I will say, what does conservative scholarship say about X? Who are the nephilim? What do conservative scholars say about this? And you really define the search and narrow the search, because if you just throw it out there, you can get, what does James Talarico's pastor say about this? Well, anything that that person would say is Going to be a lie because that place is a cesspool of theological poison. so you have to be careful with this. Now what Tim Wildmon said in his letter, he is so true. it is so true. He said, with our kids we need to be very careful with AI. I remember when my daughter Sarah was seven years old, she wanted for Christmas or her birthday, one special occasion. She said, dad, I said, sarah, what do you want? She said, I want a gun like you want a gun. we're not getting you a gun. You would inadvertently shoot all of us and yourself. I mean you're not able to handle a gun. And Tim writes this. There's no denying that artificial, artificial intelligence can be a useful tool in the right hands and with proper precautions. But you don't hand a child a chainsaw. So true. So here are some of the dangers that Tim points out. Danger number one with AI especially young families need to listen to this. Moms and dads, you need to listen to this. because you need to be able to police your children and provide protective guardrails for your children, especially as it relates to AI. Danger number one, the loss of young Americans ability to reason and think critically, to reason and think with discernment. That would be another way to say that. have you noticed, Tim writes, how easily young people fall into traps of deception, often irrational deception, things like socialism. They're primed for cults and heresies. They jump on the bandwagon with anti Semitism. I mean it's just crazy. Where do we see all these protests on college campuses with younger people, 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds, very susceptible and their ability. See, if you always go to AI to do your thinking for you, you're not thinking, you're not having to critically wrestle with things. And especially for pastors, you know, George Barna said, hey, it can be a tool to help pastors or it can be a crutch for lazy pastors. I didn't have time to study and I know many don't understand because they've never had to do this. But being a pastor where you're speaking at, least once a week, twice a week, maybe three times a week and having to prepare, that's why you have to be called to do it. If you're not called to do it, you will get rolled by the demands of preparing sermons. And you're not going to be in that world. So what I do, I played golf yesterday evening. I like to go out there on Tuesdays and Thursdays especially, because not a lot of people are out there. And that's when I walk. And what do I do when I'm out there? I listen to sermons or I'll listen to the Bible app and just let it play. yesterday I listened to a couple of sermons. Well, my brain is wired that way. I just have a capacity for that. And I love to learn and grow through listening to different ones. But I know that not everybody is like that. And so that's the way I'm wired because God has called me. And when God calls you to a task, he has to equip you to that task, otherwise you couldn't do it. And so I'll spend my time, time with that. And I'll think biblically about a situation, I'll think biblically about the election situation. And I'm not going to be swayed by somebody's, persuasive argument if it goes against Scripture. It's kind of like the, the lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case, as the other juror said, well, he couldn't get over the fact that she murdered her children. Well, good for him. No one should get over the fact that she brutally strangled her three children. That she deserves either the death penalty, at the worst, or, the lightest sentence would be life in prison. And that's just the way it is. Well, I'm innocent by reason of insanity. You might be insane, but you did these things. And so you're going to be locked up for the rest your life. So the loss of young Americans ability to reason and think critically. think about this. We used to, before cell phones, we used to have to memorize people's numbers and we would just, we'd spout all these things off because we were trained to memorize. Now we don't do that anymore. I barely can remember my own number or my wife's number because you just, you voice it in, typically in the car, call Debbie, you know, or you just, you don't look at numbers anymore. Well, that, that is not a good thing for your mind. that's a bad thing for your mind. It makes your mind lazy. And artificial intelligence, Tim writes, can rob young people of this, making them dependent on it rather than their own God giving thinking skills. It's good to wrestle. It's good to pray through things. It's good to have to think through things and not just go to get the answer. You know, a good teacher is not just going to constantly give you the answers. They're going to make you think so that you can apply what you've learned to a problem to a situation that's kind of like in math. You know, you'd had straightforward problems and then you'd have word problems. A train coming from California and one coming from St. Louis. And, you know, those word problems were a lot harder because you had to. You had to think through. How does this work together? Danger number two, Tim writes flat out, spiritual deception. When young Christians let AI think for them, they could drift away from God and into the arms of deception, spiritual, moral and intellectual. You have to question everything that AI says and you don't take it at face value. And if it's. If something doesn't see, solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained. Think about Spider Man. He has his spidey senses. Your senses are trained. You just sense. That doesn't sound right. Something about this is not right. You have your senses trained to discern good and evil and good and evil. As I've told you before, in Greek, good is kalos, K, A L, O, S and evil is kakos, K, A K, O, S. It's very similar. Kalos and kakos. Just one letter off. Good and evil sometimes, will come close together. But, one is going to lead you in a path of righteousness, and one is going to lead you in a path of lawlessness and destruction. And then danger number three, that Tim writes, the loss of our human identity as creatures made in God's image. We need to be very, very careful until he returns. We are to use our knowledge. we are to use knowledge in a godly manner. It is a dangerous. It is as dangerous as it was in the garden. We are created to know things, but only centered on God and his word. Had to cough there. Sorry about that. okay, this is interesting. So when the serpent told Eve, she said, from any tree of the garden we may freely eat. But from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we may not eat, ferment or touch it, lest we die. And he says, you shall not surely die, for God knows in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Well, here's the thing. How does God know good from evil? God is holy. Holy, holy God. In God there is no darkness. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. The way God knows if something is evil, he just compares it to himself and if it doesn't match up with His Holiness, he throws it out. It's evil. You and I are not holy, holy, holy, and we're not able to do that. Adam and Eve were not holy, holy, holy. They were innocent. They weren't righteous. They were declared innocent before the Lord. They had a capacity to, to choose and to sin. And they did sin. And then there, there's no way for them to evaluate things because they are in spiritual darkness. Well, you're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here. When we come back from the break, we'll be taking your calls. 888-589-8840. That's 885-89840. If you have a question or comment concerning AI and discernment, I would love to hear from you. So pick up the phone, give me a call, and let's talk.
: If you'd like to contact Pastor Jeff, email pastor jeffromhisheart.org now back to Real Truth for today with Pastor Jeff Schrieve.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Welcome back to the program. Pastor Jeff here just to piggyback on Tim, Wildmon's, commercial there for his trip. I'm going to be taking a trip and leading a trip to the whole Holy Land April 2nd through the 11th, 2027. Love to have you go with me. There are tours. I was talking to Gary Frazier, who is our tour, manager, with Discovery Cruises and Tours. And he was telling me, he said, I have groups in, Israel right now. They're going all through Israel. They're going even into the northern parts, the northern part of the Sea of Galilee, into Caesarea Philippi, which is such a neat place. And so he said everything is wide open even now today. So we just feel like when April rolls around, it's just going to be a perfect time. That is a great time to go to Israel. The weather is very, very good in early April and we're going to have a great experience. So I'd love for you to go with me. And that's April 2nd through the 11th of this, coming year. And you can go to from hisheart.org from hisheart.org and just click on that link for the Holy Land Tour 2027 and find out all the details, all the particular sign up online. You can call us if you have any questions. But we would love for you to prayerfully consider going. we have, I think about 60, going right now. We'd love to get that, to 100 or more and so check that out and be a part. If the Lord puts that on your heart. Well, we're going to the phone lines. 888-589-8840. Triple 858-9840. We've been talking about the need of the hour, which is discernment, to be able to discern between what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is false and what is true, what is of God and what is of the devil. So critical to be able to do that, especially as it relates to artificial intelligence. So we have David on the line from Florida. David, welcome to Real Truth for today.
Caroline: Yeah, good morning, Pastor. You always stimulate the thought process and get people thinking and making them aware, and I really appreciate that.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, thanks, brother.
Caroline: When I talked to the operator answering, I said, they talk about media, we talk about AI. We talk about all those venues that we can go after each other on an open platform. But I think we're ignoring the elephant in the room. And what I mean by that is we send our kids to public schools. Do we pay attention to what they're being taught? And then we send our kid to colleges. And these college professors, they're on almost a scorch and burn, premise as far as to try to change their minds. And these kids are all together in a group and they all go along to get along. And it has a really bigger impact on their thoughts and the outcomes of what they decide to do as opposed to news media. And I think that's the elephant in the room where people are ignoring that the education system is just as damaging as is the media.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, that's a great point. I ran across, a clip from a pastor in North Carolina. And, I want to play this because, he was telling his church, and this is a. I think he's an independent, Baptist church. But he was just going to town and he was calling out, school teachers who indoctrinate kids, principals who allow that to happen, school boards that allow that to happen. This is what he had to say.
Loren Livingston: Children don't come into this world confused. They come in wanting candy and toys. They want to play, they want to have fun, they want to be hugged and held. They want to run and scream and have a good time. But they don't come in wondering about their privates or about their inclinations or sexual instincts. No, it's unstable. Perverted adults that are indoctrinating young children that are confusing the least of these by planting suggestions in their mind showing them pictures and asking them to experiment. At least experiment. I think it is mental child abuse. I think it is psychological brainwashing. I think it ought to be a crime. I think parents ought to rise up. But we've been beaten down, you see, and it's also been held back from us. And the government is silent about it and crooked about it. And they're teaching our children things we don't want them to know. And they're exposing them too early and they're convincing them, them of something that isn't even the truth. To me that is a crime against humanity. And if you are a schoolteacher who is doing this, you in my opinion are a criminal. And if you are a school principal who's promoting this, you are a criminal. And if you're the school board who's pushing this, you're all criminals. You're aiding and abetting perversion and you're ruining children and our society.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: That was Pastor Loren Livingston and he hits the nail on the head, David. That's exactly what you're talking about. And parents need to be very, very aware of what is being taught, to their children at their schools. And you know, you are responsible for your kids education. And if the schools you have to send your children to are going to be like sending them to a cafeteria that puts poison in the food, you would step in and say we can't eat that. And you'll have to make some serious adjustments if that means homeschooling or sending them to private school or whatever. But you can't let them be poisoned like that. And so you bring up a great point, David.
Caroline: I guess that must have been discernment.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, very good. But we need more pastors like Lorne Livingston that just, just call this stuff out. And people need to know. Now we in Texarkana, we still have solid schools and we have lots of Christians in the school districts. and so that's a good thing. But even at that you have to be vigilant and you have to watch those school boards and the things that we've seen, the horror stories of, the books that they're putting in the libraries and these kids can read all this sexually explicit material. Good night. I mean you have to, you have to have a lobotomy to not know that is damaging to a kid. They're not able to do this. That is like Tim Wildmon said, handing a chainsaw to a five year old. Here, go to town on this. he's going to hurt himself and he's going to hurt other people. So God bless you, brother. Thanks for listening and thanks for calling in today. Well, we have Linne, ah, on the line from Arkansas. Linne, welcome to Real Truth for today.
Caroline: thank you. I'm going to try to be real quick because I call a lot and, I wanted to say that you have to be discerning in everything nowadays and like, in food, they're doing different things to the food now. and like the other day I went and I was going to buy a treat. Buy these at the health food store, buy these chocolate chips. And it said chocolate style chips. And I thought, what does that mean? Because if you've ever listened to Raw Egg Nationalist on Jenna's show, he has talked about how many food regulations that the FDA has made. And there's all these titles and things like that that mean certain things. And you have to know what they're talking about to kind of know, you know, what's going on with some food. One of the best things, if you're trying to tell somebody something about food and they're kind of resistant, just take two items, one that's more, a healthier item and one that's not, and compare them like a pizza. one time when I was real tired, I bought this frozen pizza. It had about, you know, like an inch and a half of ingredients. You're like, what is all that stuff? And then the one at the health food store had things you could understand, you know. Yeah, but there are certain, phrases and all of that that they're using. It's just getting worse is what I'm saying. But. And I applaud that preacher, by the way.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, it definitely is, Linne. you know, you look at, you look at videos of the beach, you know, beachgoers in the 70s, very few are overweight. Everybody looked, I mean, not necessarily all muscled up, but we're trim. And, now, we have been filling ourselves with butter and sugar and flour and who knows what with the breads and things that they have altered. we're not healthy. And, we can talk about how good our healthcare system is and, and American healthcare is good, but, Big pharma is, in my opinion, and there are no doubt a lot of good people that work in pharmaceuticals. But big pharma to me, has put profitability over sensibility and over what's good for the patient. They want to sell more drugs and what's good for the bottom line. to me, it seems like that has taken the top spot rather than what's good for the patient and, the people that are manipulating the food and adding additives to food and things like that. I appreciate what, RFK Jr. Is doing to try and get those things out of our food supply, so that we would be a healthier society. So I appreciate that, Lyn. it takes a lot more. And Debbie, my wife, has said, if you're going to eat healthy and really watch things, it's more expensive to do that, and it takes a lot more work to do that, but it's worth it. Adrian Rogers used to say, we're so foolish as Americans. We spend our health to gain our wealth, and then we spend our wealth to gain our health back, and we burn the candle at both ends, and we wouldn't. You know, we wonder why things are so difficult, and, well, we're not being wise about how to live life. And, we tend to go the easy route rather than what is the best route. So I appreciate the call and appreciate you listening to the program. So solid food is for the mature who. Because of practice, you have to practice. people. You know the famous Allen Iverson quote from some years ago, he's talking about practice. What are we talking. We're talking about practice. He says practice, like, 100 times. And, that's an exaggeration, but he says it a lot. And he, said, you know, when it comes to the game, then I'm on. But when it comes to practice, yeah, if I miss practice or, you know, walk through practice, so what? Well, I told you that I got to hear Kurt Warner last week in Magnolia, Arkansas. And, Kurt Warner was asking in college, he had a friend of his ask the coach, why is Kurt not playing in the games? And the answer came back to him is, because he doesn't practice well. He plays well, he's a good player, but he doesn't practice well. And the coaches said, until you start practicing with all your emphasis and faculties and heart and desire, if you start practicing that way, we'll put you in the game. Practice is critical. Who, because of practice, have their senses trained. The word for trained is gymnazo in the Greek, which we get gymnasium. From that, you got to go to the gym. You got to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, and you got to every day, work out, so to speak, in your time with the Lord. And gnadzo really is, in the strictest sense of the word, that means to exercise naked, because that's how those guys did that. In the Greek games. And we need to do that as we come before the Lord. We're naked. We just say, lord, here I am. This is where I am today. These are my struggles. These are my hurts. These are my hangups. These are my habits. Lord, I want you to change me.
Caroline: Me.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: I'm not trying to put fig leaves over my sin. I'm just coming to you, open before you and asking for you, who are my strength, my refuge, my strength, my helper. The Holy Spirit is the helper, to help me because I want to be the person you want me to be. I want to think wisely, prudently about situations in my life. I want to make decisions that please you, not decisions that displease you. And as we think about the midterm elections, Lord, I want to vote for candidates. Given the slate that I have, candidates that, you would approve me voting for, I don't want. And I can't vote for a pro abortion, pro homosexual, pro lgbtq, person. I can't vote for somebody like that. I can't vote for a person that is pro criminal, that wants to defund the police and have no borders and thinks, there are six genders and has a favorite drag queen. As James Tallarico was asked the question, who's your favorite drag queen artist? And he mentions somebody. Well, who would know any drag queen? And the person you mentioned is a kid. I think he's 10 or 11 years old or something like that. Just sickening. Don't vote for people like that. That's not being discerning at all. Well, I'm sorry, Denise in Alabama, we ran out of time, but I appreciate your call. You can always reach me, Pastor jeffromisheart.org Hey. Go out today, Shine for Christ, and share what great things the Lord has done for you and done in your life, and God will use you as his. His witness. God bless you.
: Welcome to Real Truth for Today with Pastor Jeff Schrieve, Senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Texas. Now, here's Pastor Jeff.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, good morning and welcome to Real Truth for Today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here. I, drove to the studio today and had my windows down and it was cool outside. That is, the first for a while here in Texarkana. It has been so very hot. Yesterday evening I was outside and the wind started blowing and it just felt great. So, you know, in the sunshine, we praise the Lord. In the rain, we praise the Lord. but it is nice when you start to feel the weather to change a little bit and cool down a little bit. it is a wonderful feeling. You know, the Lord likes cool weather. He would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Genesis, chapter three. And so, there is something about that cool breeze. Well, I want to speak to you today on this subject. The need of the hour is discernment. Discernment. Hebrews chapter 5, beginning in verse 11, says this concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, the ABCs of Christianity. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness. For he is an infant, he is a babe. But solid food, the meat of the word, is for the mature, who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. We have a generation of people that have little to no discernment. We have Christians in the church, a lot of them that have little to no discernment. Now he makes the contrast between the mature and the infant. The babe in Christ, the baby. just like in the physical realm, a, baby has to be watched out for constantly. My wife and I, last weekend we were in Houston for her Uncle Lanny's 90th birthday party. And we got to spend just a short 24 hour trip there, and see our grandsons. Well, our youngest grandson, Drew, is a year old. We have to watch out for Drew. Drew can hurt himself not knowing things. little babies can put stuff in their mouth that they shouldn't put in their mouth. They can play with things they shouldn't play with. they're just not able to discern. This is good to eat. This is bad to e. You know, a little baby will find a spider in the corner and think it's something to play with. I remember when I was a little kid, finding a, piece of a rat head in a gutter. And I thought it was the coolest thing. And I took it. I think I was five or six. I took it home to my mom to show her. She said, get that out of the house and throw that away and wash your hands. And I didn't know, I thought it was, you know, this is like Indiana Jones. I've discovered something here. Discernment is critical. Now I was introduced to a Twitter page or an X platform page where this guy had on there, he had questioned me about something. And I looked on his profile page and it said, this, be a Berean. Question everything. Well, if you know, in the book of Acts about the bereans. Acts chapter 17, verse 11 tells us about the Bereans. It says, now these were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica. And he's talking about the Bereans. For they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. So this guy said, question everything. Be like a Berean. But the Bereans didn't question everything. They verified everything. There's a big difference with that. The deconstructionist will tell you, question everything about Christianity. Question everything that you heard about God and Jesus and the Bible and heaven and hell and, and salvation. Question all of that. That's not helpful, to anybody. Don't question it. Verify it. Verify it. That's what the Bereans did, they would listen to Paul. They would receive the word not with defensiveness. They would receive it with. With, an open heart and an open mind.
Caroline: But.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: But they would verify. They would examine the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. It's critical that you do that. The Bible says In Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 15, the naive believes everything. But the, prudent, the sensible man considers his steps. Now, do you believe everything, everything you read, everything you hear, or do you verify? Do you go back and check? Do you do the research to make sure this is right and, true? Well, as it relates to news agencies, you got to be extremely careful. And my attitude is, hey, if you are known to lie and, we have caught you in blatant lies, I'm not going to listen to anything you say unless you're going to own that and say, hey, I was wrong. I got this story wrong. I say, never, hardly ever, do you hear people say, I lied to you about this. CNN doesn't get on and say, well, we're sorry about this story. We lied. No, they'll massage it and say, well, we misspoke. We got some of the facts wrong. you know, when you hear these politicians, Tim Walls talking about his service and, you know, what he did in the military, and guys call him out on that and say, you weren't there, you're lying. Well, I misspoke. No, you didn't. You knew you weren't there. You lied. When Joe Biden, famously talked about being in the top of his class and all these things, these great achievements that he had, well, he knows that's not true. He is not misspeaking. He is lying. Now, there's a difference. When George Bush was saying, with Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, well, he believed that he had them. And then when they did the search and looked for them, they couldn't find them. So did he lie? No, he believed what he was saying, and then he found out it wasn't true. So there's a difference between misspeaking and flat lying and being able to discern. That word means to judge, to scrutinize, to examine, literally, to sever two things, to tell the difference between, is this good or is this bad? Solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern, to sever good and evil. You know how to do that. Now, I have said on numerous occasions, especially as it relates to voting and the midterms coming up you do not vote for a politician or a party that doesn't have a moral Compass. Isaiah 5:20. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. If you have a party and a politician that doesn't know the difference between, law breakers and law keepers, that's a serious problem. If you have a party that promotes transgender insanity, that's a serious problem. I was reminded just, the other day about the famous Voltaire quote. Voltaire was the French Enlightenment writer, philosopher. 1694-1778 were the years of his life. And he said this. Whoever is able to make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Think about that. Whoever is able to make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Now, it is a total absurdity to say that a biological XY chromosomed male can be a female. He cannot. It's an absurdity to say that a biological female XX chromosomed female can become a male. She cannot. And to mess with people's pronouns is an absurdity. And to go along with that is an absurdity. And when we were having all the COVID pandemic hysteria to arbitrarily come up with six feet of social distancing, wearing a mask, all the things they made us do. You have to get this COVID vaccine because, if you don't, you put other people at risk. That doesn't make sense. You know, if I get a vaccine and it's truly a vaccine, well, then I'm now going to be immune from that virus, that bug, whatever it is. I get a polio vaccine. Well, I'm not getting polio. You might have polio. That doesn't affect me. But we were told that we had to get the vaccine so that we didn't kill grandma. That kind of thing. That's just ridiculous. That doesn't make sense. Have discernment. And when I have said, a life hack, I saw this somewhere. But if big government and big pharma and big mainstream media are all pushing the same narrative, you need to question that big time. Something is rotten in Denmark. there's a rat somewhere in there. So you need to have enough snap, enough wisdom, enough discernment to say, wait a minute, I need to research this. The naive Proverbs, 14:15. The naive believes everything. But the prudent, the sensible man considers his steps. Now, for those of you that are part of the American Family association family, American Family Radio, Tim Wildmon sent out a letter. It's dated September 17th. So this is very fresh. And it talks about AI. He talks in this letter about the George Barna study, that he did regarding Christians and AI. I thought it was very enlightening. And he said we need to be extremely careful when it comes to AI. So George Barna, you know, he's the research guru, and he did a Faith in AI series and survey of surveyed U.S. adults, about 1500, and Protestant pastors about 440. And, so he asks all these questions trying to get a bead on where we stand with AI. So here's what he found. 44% of practicing Christians use AI often or very often in their personal lives. 31% of US adults and 29% of non past, practicing Christians use AI. So Christians use it more at work. It's 39% versus 26% nationally. And, pastors are using it more and more. And here's the thing about AI. Do we need to be careful with AI? Do we need to be careful with A.I. as it relates to young people? Yes. Yes. Because young people don't have, by and large, good discernment. And so they can get duped by AI. And AI is not infallible. It's far from it. I have, you know, I've said on the radio I use AI a lot. I use AI for the radio program. I use AI in, researching things, and I use AI for, brainstorming. You know, hey, here's the passage I'm going to Preach. Give me 20 potential sermon titles, things like that, because it gets the juices flowing. But you have to be careful with AI. There's rarely a time that I use AI that I don't push back on AI and say, this is wrong. What you're saying is wrong. And, AI doesn't like to say they're wrong. and AI definitely kind of like the news organizations, definitely doesn't want to ever say, I'm lying. Just say, no, I misspoke. I was, I was in error there. Something like that. But they never want to say they're lying. Listen, discernment is the need of the hour. We have to be able to separate good from evil. And God forbid that we lose our moral compass and we call evil good and good evil. Where you're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Texas, and the founder of From His Heart Ministry, heard every weekday at 6pm Central Time right here on American Family Radio. Be right back.
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Pastor Jeff Schreve: Welcome back to the program, Pastor Jeff. Here we're talking about the need of the hour, which is discernment. solid food is for the mature, the writer of Hebrews says, who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Did you know as you spend time in the word of God and as you let the word of God shape you as the, you know, the scripture says, that don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, Romans 12:2, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So we need to renew our minds with the word of God and wash our minds every day with the washing of water with the Word. And start thinking biblically. You put everything into the category. See that? we talk about having a biblical worldview. What does that mean? That means you view things from God's perspective and your lens is scripture. How you view the world is through scripture. Now, I ran across a quote yesterday, an interview with Dabo Sweeney. Dabbo Sweeney is the head football coach for Clemson University. Dabo has had great success. He's been the coach there since 2008. but they've fallen on hard times in the last couple of years. He won a national championship in 2016 and in 2018, and he's won nine ACC championships. He's got a great resume, but he's getting pressure and he's getting heat there in Clemson. And Dabbo, ah, is an outspoken, sold out Christian. And this was his comment about, how are things in your life now with you being in the hot seat?
Dabo Sweeney: God's on the throne. Football don't define me. Scoreboards don't define me. God's, on the throne whether we win or lose. If I don't, even if I never win another game, God is still good. That's where my peace comes from. Period. The end. I don't have peace and I don't feel pressure from, you know, God's taking care of me. I'm 56 years old, man. You know, I know where I came from. And God has shown so much favor on my life. I just have to be an idiot to lose my peace now because we, you know, something ain't going right. Listen, hey, God never says, oops, it's what I believe. Just keep going, Just keep going. Just keep going, man. Don't ever quit. I ain't ever. I don't ever quit. I just keep going. Love what I do, love who I do it with. And, you know, but my peace comes from knowing that, God's on the throne. That's where my peace comes from. And no football game can change that.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: So that was head coach Dabo Sweeney. And I love that perspective. He sees. He's got a right perspective, he's got a biblical perspective that you, know. As Peter says in First Peter, Chapter 4, Verse 12, Beloved, don't think something strange is happening to you. When you go through a fiery trial, they come upon you and come upon all of us for our testing. But see, people who don't have discernment, they're not able to see that everything in life. I remind myself of this often. I remind the church of this often. Every difficulty in life, every success in life, everything is a test. It's a test to see. Will you trust God with this setback? Will you trust God with this, prosperity? You know, we tend to do better with adversity than we do with prosperity. The Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord warns the people, hey, be careful when you go into the land. And I bless you that you don't forget me. Because we have a tendency, when everything is going well, we forget God. And, when we have adversity in our lives, that's when we begin to really seek the Lord. We call upon him. There's a fervency to our praying. And so what does God do with that. He says, okay, well, you know, it's for your good. You need me. The nearness of God is my good. As the psalmist said, you need me. So I will give you trouble to keep you close to me, because I don't want you to wander away and forget me. So I love the fact that Dabo speaks up for the truth and his hope is in Jesus. It's not in wins and losses. And he's not going to lose his peace, his joy, because life is difficult right now. Discernment, able to judge between good and evil. Okay, so let's get back to the subject of AI as it relates to discernment. George Barna has said this, and Tim Wildmon is. His whole letter is talking about George Barna. He has real concerns about AI. His personal stance is this. George Barna, the great surveyor. Be very cautious. Don't let the artificial replace the genuine. he said the stats are showing and the surveys are showing that practicing Christians already using and trusting are already using and trusting AI more than their pastors. That. That's not good. AI is not a pastor. AI is not a, just some neutral entity. AI takes from the Internet. I call out AI all the time, said, okay, I'll call Grok. Raechel Maddow, you know, the liberal CNN or whatever she was. I don't know if she's with CNN anymore or not, but she was kind of the, the face of CNN for a long time. Such a liberal. And you know, when AI comes up with their liberal things and you call them, call Grok, Raechel Maddow. Grok doesn't really like being called Raechel Maddow. I'm not Raechel Maddow. I said, why do you keep. When you do your research, why do you keep going to CNN for anything or msnow or PBS or any of that stuff? I said, those are known lying news agencies. Why would you go to them to try and formulate your answer? You just call them out on it because they do that. AI is just pulling from all sorts of different sources. And I think, when you use AI, especially as a pastor, here is what I do with it. If I ask a question about a particular passage of scripture, I will say, what does conservative scholarship say about X? Who are the nephilim? What do conservative scholars say about this? And you really define the search and narrow the search, because if you just throw it out there, you can get, what does James Talarico's pastor say about this? Well, anything that that person would say is Going to be a lie because that place is a cesspool of theological poison. so you have to be careful with this. Now what Tim Wildmon said in his letter, he is so true. it is so true. He said, with our kids we need to be very careful with AI. I remember when my daughter Sarah was seven years old, she wanted for Christmas or her birthday, one special occasion. She said, dad, I said, sarah, what do you want? She said, I want a gun like you want a gun. we're not getting you a gun. You would inadvertently shoot all of us and yourself. I mean you're not able to handle a gun. And Tim writes this. There's no denying that artificial, artificial intelligence can be a useful tool in the right hands and with proper precautions. But you don't hand a child a chainsaw. So true. So here are some of the dangers that Tim points out. Danger number one with AI especially young families need to listen to this. Moms and dads, you need to listen to this. because you need to be able to police your children and provide protective guardrails for your children, especially as it relates to AI. Danger number one, the loss of young Americans ability to reason and think critically, to reason and think with discernment. That would be another way to say that. have you noticed, Tim writes, how easily young people fall into traps of deception, often irrational deception, things like socialism. They're primed for cults and heresies. They jump on the bandwagon with anti Semitism. I mean it's just crazy. Where do we see all these protests on college campuses with younger people, 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds, very susceptible and their ability. See, if you always go to AI to do your thinking for you, you're not thinking, you're not having to critically wrestle with things. And especially for pastors, you know, George Barna said, hey, it can be a tool to help pastors or it can be a crutch for lazy pastors. I didn't have time to study and I know many don't understand because they've never had to do this. But being a pastor where you're speaking at, least once a week, twice a week, maybe three times a week and having to prepare, that's why you have to be called to do it. If you're not called to do it, you will get rolled by the demands of preparing sermons. And you're not going to be in that world. So what I do, I played golf yesterday evening. I like to go out there on Tuesdays and Thursdays especially, because not a lot of people are out there. And that's when I walk. And what do I do when I'm out there? I listen to sermons or I'll listen to the Bible app and just let it play. yesterday I listened to a couple of sermons. Well, my brain is wired that way. I just have a capacity for that. And I love to learn and grow through listening to different ones. But I know that not everybody is like that. And so that's the way I'm wired because God has called me. And when God calls you to a task, he has to equip you to that task, otherwise you couldn't do it. And so I'll spend my time, time with that. And I'll think biblically about a situation, I'll think biblically about the election situation. And I'm not going to be swayed by somebody's, persuasive argument if it goes against Scripture. It's kind of like the, the lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case, as the other juror said, well, he couldn't get over the fact that she murdered her children. Well, good for him. No one should get over the fact that she brutally strangled her three children. That she deserves either the death penalty, at the worst, or, the lightest sentence would be life in prison. And that's just the way it is. Well, I'm innocent by reason of insanity. You might be insane, but you did these things. And so you're going to be locked up for the rest your life. So the loss of young Americans ability to reason and think critically. think about this. We used to, before cell phones, we used to have to memorize people's numbers and we would just, we'd spout all these things off because we were trained to memorize. Now we don't do that anymore. I barely can remember my own number or my wife's number because you just, you voice it in, typically in the car, call Debbie, you know, or you just, you don't look at numbers anymore. Well, that, that is not a good thing for your mind. that's a bad thing for your mind. It makes your mind lazy. And artificial intelligence, Tim writes, can rob young people of this, making them dependent on it rather than their own God giving thinking skills. It's good to wrestle. It's good to pray through things. It's good to have to think through things and not just go to get the answer. You know, a good teacher is not just going to constantly give you the answers. They're going to make you think so that you can apply what you've learned to a problem to a situation that's kind of like in math. You know, you'd had straightforward problems and then you'd have word problems. A train coming from California and one coming from St. Louis. And, you know, those word problems were a lot harder because you had to. You had to think through. How does this work together? Danger number two, Tim writes flat out, spiritual deception. When young Christians let AI think for them, they could drift away from God and into the arms of deception, spiritual, moral and intellectual. You have to question everything that AI says and you don't take it at face value. And if it's. If something doesn't see, solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained. Think about Spider Man. He has his spidey senses. Your senses are trained. You just sense. That doesn't sound right. Something about this is not right. You have your senses trained to discern good and evil and good and evil. As I've told you before, in Greek, good is kalos, K, A L, O, S and evil is kakos, K, A K, O, S. It's very similar. Kalos and kakos. Just one letter off. Good and evil sometimes, will come close together. But, one is going to lead you in a path of righteousness, and one is going to lead you in a path of lawlessness and destruction. And then danger number three, that Tim writes, the loss of our human identity as creatures made in God's image. We need to be very, very careful until he returns. We are to use our knowledge. we are to use knowledge in a godly manner. It is a dangerous. It is as dangerous as it was in the garden. We are created to know things, but only centered on God and his word. Had to cough there. Sorry about that. okay, this is interesting. So when the serpent told Eve, she said, from any tree of the garden we may freely eat. But from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we may not eat, ferment or touch it, lest we die. And he says, you shall not surely die, for God knows in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Well, here's the thing. How does God know good from evil? God is holy. Holy, holy God. In God there is no darkness. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. The way God knows if something is evil, he just compares it to himself and if it doesn't match up with His Holiness, he throws it out. It's evil. You and I are not holy, holy, holy, and we're not able to do that. Adam and Eve were not holy, holy, holy. They were innocent. They weren't righteous. They were declared innocent before the Lord. They had a capacity to, to choose and to sin. And they did sin. And then there, there's no way for them to evaluate things because they are in spiritual darkness. Well, you're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here. When we come back from the break, we'll be taking your calls. 888-589-8840. That's 885-89840. If you have a question or comment concerning AI and discernment, I would love to hear from you. So pick up the phone, give me a call, and let's talk.
: If you'd like to contact Pastor Jeff, email pastor jeffromhisheart.org now back to Real Truth for today with Pastor Jeff Schrieve.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Welcome back to the program. Pastor Jeff here just to piggyback on Tim, Wildmon's, commercial there for his trip. I'm going to be taking a trip and leading a trip to the whole Holy Land April 2nd through the 11th, 2027. Love to have you go with me. There are tours. I was talking to Gary Frazier, who is our tour, manager, with Discovery Cruises and Tours. And he was telling me, he said, I have groups in, Israel right now. They're going all through Israel. They're going even into the northern parts, the northern part of the Sea of Galilee, into Caesarea Philippi, which is such a neat place. And so he said everything is wide open even now today. So we just feel like when April rolls around, it's just going to be a perfect time. That is a great time to go to Israel. The weather is very, very good in early April and we're going to have a great experience. So I'd love for you to go with me. And that's April 2nd through the 11th of this, coming year. And you can go to from hisheart.org from hisheart.org and just click on that link for the Holy Land Tour 2027 and find out all the details, all the particular sign up online. You can call us if you have any questions. But we would love for you to prayerfully consider going. we have, I think about 60, going right now. We'd love to get that, to 100 or more and so check that out and be a part. If the Lord puts that on your heart. Well, we're going to the phone lines. 888-589-8840. Triple 858-9840. We've been talking about the need of the hour, which is discernment, to be able to discern between what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is false and what is true, what is of God and what is of the devil. So critical to be able to do that, especially as it relates to artificial intelligence. So we have David on the line from Florida. David, welcome to Real Truth for today.
Caroline: Yeah, good morning, Pastor. You always stimulate the thought process and get people thinking and making them aware, and I really appreciate that.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, thanks, brother.
Caroline: When I talked to the operator answering, I said, they talk about media, we talk about AI. We talk about all those venues that we can go after each other on an open platform. But I think we're ignoring the elephant in the room. And what I mean by that is we send our kids to public schools. Do we pay attention to what they're being taught? And then we send our kid to colleges. And these college professors, they're on almost a scorch and burn, premise as far as to try to change their minds. And these kids are all together in a group and they all go along to get along. And it has a really bigger impact on their thoughts and the outcomes of what they decide to do as opposed to news media. And I think that's the elephant in the room where people are ignoring that the education system is just as damaging as is the media.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, that's a great point. I ran across, a clip from a pastor in North Carolina. And, I want to play this because, he was telling his church, and this is a. I think he's an independent, Baptist church. But he was just going to town and he was calling out, school teachers who indoctrinate kids, principals who allow that to happen, school boards that allow that to happen. This is what he had to say.
Loren Livingston: Children don't come into this world confused. They come in wanting candy and toys. They want to play, they want to have fun, they want to be hugged and held. They want to run and scream and have a good time. But they don't come in wondering about their privates or about their inclinations or sexual instincts. No, it's unstable. Perverted adults that are indoctrinating young children that are confusing the least of these by planting suggestions in their mind showing them pictures and asking them to experiment. At least experiment. I think it is mental child abuse. I think it is psychological brainwashing. I think it ought to be a crime. I think parents ought to rise up. But we've been beaten down, you see, and it's also been held back from us. And the government is silent about it and crooked about it. And they're teaching our children things we don't want them to know. And they're exposing them too early and they're convincing them, them of something that isn't even the truth. To me that is a crime against humanity. And if you are a schoolteacher who is doing this, you in my opinion are a criminal. And if you are a school principal who's promoting this, you are a criminal. And if you're the school board who's pushing this, you're all criminals. You're aiding and abetting perversion and you're ruining children and our society.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: That was Pastor Loren Livingston and he hits the nail on the head, David. That's exactly what you're talking about. And parents need to be very, very aware of what is being taught, to their children at their schools. And you know, you are responsible for your kids education. And if the schools you have to send your children to are going to be like sending them to a cafeteria that puts poison in the food, you would step in and say we can't eat that. And you'll have to make some serious adjustments if that means homeschooling or sending them to private school or whatever. But you can't let them be poisoned like that. And so you bring up a great point, David.
Caroline: I guess that must have been discernment.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, very good. But we need more pastors like Lorne Livingston that just, just call this stuff out. And people need to know. Now we in Texarkana, we still have solid schools and we have lots of Christians in the school districts. and so that's a good thing. But even at that you have to be vigilant and you have to watch those school boards and the things that we've seen, the horror stories of, the books that they're putting in the libraries and these kids can read all this sexually explicit material. Good night. I mean you have to, you have to have a lobotomy to not know that is damaging to a kid. They're not able to do this. That is like Tim Wildmon said, handing a chainsaw to a five year old. Here, go to town on this. he's going to hurt himself and he's going to hurt other people. So God bless you, brother. Thanks for listening and thanks for calling in today. Well, we have Linne, ah, on the line from Arkansas. Linne, welcome to Real Truth for today.
Caroline: thank you. I'm going to try to be real quick because I call a lot and, I wanted to say that you have to be discerning in everything nowadays and like, in food, they're doing different things to the food now. and like the other day I went and I was going to buy a treat. Buy these at the health food store, buy these chocolate chips. And it said chocolate style chips. And I thought, what does that mean? Because if you've ever listened to Raw Egg Nationalist on Jenna's show, he has talked about how many food regulations that the FDA has made. And there's all these titles and things like that that mean certain things. And you have to know what they're talking about to kind of know, you know, what's going on with some food. One of the best things, if you're trying to tell somebody something about food and they're kind of resistant, just take two items, one that's more, a healthier item and one that's not, and compare them like a pizza. one time when I was real tired, I bought this frozen pizza. It had about, you know, like an inch and a half of ingredients. You're like, what is all that stuff? And then the one at the health food store had things you could understand, you know. Yeah, but there are certain, phrases and all of that that they're using. It's just getting worse is what I'm saying. But. And I applaud that preacher, by the way.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, it definitely is, Linne. you know, you look at, you look at videos of the beach, you know, beachgoers in the 70s, very few are overweight. Everybody looked, I mean, not necessarily all muscled up, but we're trim. And, now, we have been filling ourselves with butter and sugar and flour and who knows what with the breads and things that they have altered. we're not healthy. And, we can talk about how good our healthcare system is and, and American healthcare is good, but, Big pharma is, in my opinion, and there are no doubt a lot of good people that work in pharmaceuticals. But big pharma to me, has put profitability over sensibility and over what's good for the patient. They want to sell more drugs and what's good for the bottom line. to me, it seems like that has taken the top spot rather than what's good for the patient and, the people that are manipulating the food and adding additives to food and things like that. I appreciate what, RFK Jr. Is doing to try and get those things out of our food supply, so that we would be a healthier society. So I appreciate that, Lyn. it takes a lot more. And Debbie, my wife, has said, if you're going to eat healthy and really watch things, it's more expensive to do that, and it takes a lot more work to do that, but it's worth it. Adrian Rogers used to say, we're so foolish as Americans. We spend our health to gain our wealth, and then we spend our wealth to gain our health back, and we burn the candle at both ends, and we wouldn't. You know, we wonder why things are so difficult, and, well, we're not being wise about how to live life. And, we tend to go the easy route rather than what is the best route. So I appreciate the call and appreciate you listening to the program. So solid food is for the mature who. Because of practice, you have to practice. people. You know the famous Allen Iverson quote from some years ago, he's talking about practice. What are we talking. We're talking about practice. He says practice, like, 100 times. And, that's an exaggeration, but he says it a lot. And he, said, you know, when it comes to the game, then I'm on. But when it comes to practice, yeah, if I miss practice or, you know, walk through practice, so what? Well, I told you that I got to hear Kurt Warner last week in Magnolia, Arkansas. And, Kurt Warner was asking in college, he had a friend of his ask the coach, why is Kurt not playing in the games? And the answer came back to him is, because he doesn't practice well. He plays well, he's a good player, but he doesn't practice well. And the coaches said, until you start practicing with all your emphasis and faculties and heart and desire, if you start practicing that way, we'll put you in the game. Practice is critical. Who, because of practice, have their senses trained. The word for trained is gymnazo in the Greek, which we get gymnasium. From that, you got to go to the gym. You got to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, and you got to every day, work out, so to speak, in your time with the Lord. And gnadzo really is, in the strictest sense of the word, that means to exercise naked, because that's how those guys did that. In the Greek games. And we need to do that as we come before the Lord. We're naked. We just say, lord, here I am. This is where I am today. These are my struggles. These are my hurts. These are my hangups. These are my habits. Lord, I want you to change me.
Caroline: Me.
Pastor Jeff Schreve: I'm not trying to put fig leaves over my sin. I'm just coming to you, open before you and asking for you, who are my strength, my refuge, my strength, my helper. The Holy Spirit is the helper, to help me because I want to be the person you want me to be. I want to think wisely, prudently about situations in my life. I want to make decisions that please you, not decisions that displease you. And as we think about the midterm elections, Lord, I want to vote for candidates. Given the slate that I have, candidates that, you would approve me voting for, I don't want. And I can't vote for a pro abortion, pro homosexual, pro lgbtq, person. I can't vote for somebody like that. I can't vote for a person that is pro criminal, that wants to defund the police and have no borders and thinks, there are six genders and has a favorite drag queen. As James Tallarico was asked the question, who's your favorite drag queen artist? And he mentions somebody. Well, who would know any drag queen? And the person you mentioned is a kid. I think he's 10 or 11 years old or something like that. Just sickening. Don't vote for people like that. That's not being discerning at all. Well, I'm sorry, Denise in Alabama, we ran out of time, but I appreciate your call. You can always reach me, Pastor jeffromisheart.org Hey. Go out today, Shine for Christ, and share what great things the Lord has done for you and done in your life, and God will use you as his. His witness. God bless you.
Pastor Jeff Schreve explores the critical need for biblical discernment in a world filled with competing messages and misinformation. He discusses the importance of testing what we hear against Scripture, developing a biblical worldview, and training ourselves to distinguish truth from error. The program also examines the challenges of artificial intelligence, the influence of media and education, and the need for Christians and parents to think carefully about the messages shaping the next generation. Listeners are challenged to renew their minds through God’s Word and develop the wisdom needed to recognize what is true, good, and pleasing to God.
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