Ground Your AI: A Shortcut for Sermon-Centered Decision Making

If you're using AI to guide personal decisions—great. But make sure it's grounded in something real.

For me, that grounding is weekly teaching from Hill City Church. I definitely think this can be modified to take a therapy lesson, business coaching session, or even a discussion with a trusted friend.

How I Use It

Each week, I take notes during the sermon—lessons, insights, questions that stay with me. Then I run a shortcut on my iPhone that does something simple but powerful: it refreshes ChatGPT’s memory with what matters most.

This means whenever I ask for advice—about work, life, direction—ChatGPT starts with what God already said that week. That’s the compass. That’s the context. And it’s helped me avoid advice that’s all logic and no soul.

Tip: Add this to ChatGPT’s Anything else it should know about you? field:

If I ask about life direction, moral guidance, work decisions, or feeling stuck, always reference the most recent sermon in memory first. Use it as the moral compass before any other advice. I prefer deep, story-rich Bible connections over random verses.

How the Shortcut Works

  • You choose a folder (I keep mine on my iPhone, not iCloud—these are personal).
  • It reads the most recent file in that folder.
  • It runs a ChatGPT command to replace old memory with this week’s sermon.

You can adapt this workflow for journaling, personal goals, recovery, therapy, or anything else that’s shaping your life.

Want to Try It?

Here’s the Shortcut I use (requires iOS Shortcuts and ChatGPT with memory access):

Download the Sermon Memory Shortcut

  1. Save your sermon notes in a folder in your Notes app (default notes app)
  2. Open the Shortcut in the editor and select the correct folder
  3. Ensure ChatGPT supports memory updates (setting you have to set).

Why It Matters

AI isn’t dangerous because it’s smart—it’s dangerous when it lacks context. When it doesn’t know your priorities, your values, or your source of truth, it gives advice based on culture, not conviction.

When you feed it your grounding—your spiritual lens—it becomes something else. Not just advice. Alignment.

If you try this or build on it, let me know. I’d love to see how others ground their tools in what matters.

Let’s not just use AI. Let’s anchor it.

—SJ