A WOW Moment - August 6th 2020

Whitten Baptist Church

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00:07

Are we on? Hopefully there's no glitches. It says live. Oh did you?

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I'm on my phone and I can't check to see. Yeah. I don't know the internet passcode.

00:35

You're looking at your cute shirt. That's it, my new shirt. Your new cute shirt. Why do you have my necktie on?

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Because it's close to the back and it's small. It's really nice. Where is that?

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It's right before James. I know where it is.

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Part of my problem is I can't see. As I was just looking, I was looking under here and not,

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I wasn't using the glasses, I was doing this. So you're seeing the blurriness of me. And what happens if I use the glasses, right?

01:39

Good evening, everyone! Welcome to our

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Bible study. Tonight, we are in the college and career room.

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So thanks, Chara, thanks, Shane. Thanks, college and career. I really keep it neat in here, too.

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I haven't been in here in a while. I think that's mostly, probably, Chara's doing. It's mostly keeping it clean.

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Whose cup is that? Get it. Come on, clean up after yourselves. Clean up, clean up.

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But tonight, we are in the college and career room because the church is, they have a lot of people going in and out right now because of the election.

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So, yes, everybody's voting, so we wanted to steer clear of all that.

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Rachel, our guest, had a great idea to come into the annex and use the college and career room.

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And it feels good in here, so a double plus for that. But tonight, our guest is

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Rachel Shipley. I'll have to say, she's probably been a witness since she was small.

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Yes. I was... I don't know. Funny story,

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Carol was my nursery teacher when we joined. Really? I work along with her inside nursery, so it's really fun.

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The nursery used to actually be out here. And she was my teacher when

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I was a kid. She and I talk about that all the time. It's a sweet thing.

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She has loved watching me grow up. She's a wonderful lady.

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Do you think I could come up a little bit more? Sure. Hold on just a second.

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We're going to move this. You can push me up to the side more. Let us know if you can't hear us because I'm soft -spoken.

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That ought to work really well. That's actually closer than it is when we're in the lounge. Yeah. They'll be able to hear us better.

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Anyway, our guest tonight is Ms. Rachel Shipley. I'm Vicki.

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I think you remember me. Sorry. That's Mercedes. Our camera woman.

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I think you remember her too. But tonight we have asked

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Rachel to join us. Actually, Rachel volunteered some time ago. We're just not getting her on because of schedules and other things.

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Everybody's busy. I had to wait until you signed up. I was like, I'm going to wait until you get back from your

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Newtown trip. I'm a full mom, baby. Right.

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So, here we are. It couldn't turn out to be a better evening actually.

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It's beautiful outside. And the election's going on. Go vote, people.

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You've got about 25 more minutes. So, Rachel, usually we want to know what people's go -to verses are.

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And I understand after talking with you and also kind of knowing you, you have several.

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But tonight, what is the verse that you would like to study? I don't mind telling that.

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I originally was going to talk about my struggles with anxiety, but I'm not quite ready and I've got a friend that I actually want to team up with to talk about it.

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So, I'm pregnant and I'm not ready to talk about anxiety quite yet because my hormones are all over the place.

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So, I want to talk about something a little more uplifting and I wanted to talk about encouragement and just kind of,

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I picked two verses. Well, two verses out of Hebrews and one out of Ephesians that I wanted to talk about tonight.

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Just my perspective. I wanted to give my perspective on encouragement, especially in light of COVID right now.

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I know a lot of people are living in fear and which

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I know is there's a lot going on, so that's a little hard to balance right now, but then it's also keeping them from attending worship with their church family and just making that a habit,

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I guess, because we weren't meeting for so long. It's now gotten hard for them to get back into the routine, but meeting up for worships and making sure that you're still serving within your church body.

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So, I just wanted to give my perspective, which these two verses are a little bit different from that, but just what

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I thought on that and hopefully it can encourage people to do right. So, it's

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Hebrews 10, 24 through 25. Mercedes, will you read the scripture, please?

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And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings as some habitually do, but encouraging each other and all the more as you see the day draw near.

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That's exactly what she said. So, I took our spiritual gifts test way a long time ago, and one of my highest things was encourager, and so I was like,

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I wouldn't have thought that, but okay. And so I wanted to figure out biblically what encouragement was to me, or from scripture, what it was, and so what

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I, there's so much scripture on encouragement, and it comes in different scenarios,

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I guess, and so, but I think the three things that it shows is that it can be comforting, it can be strengthening, or it can be a warning, like encouraging you to do what's right.

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I feel like Paul, anytime he says, I encourage you, I urge you, it's him warning you, like, no, you need to do what's right.

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A lot of times in the Old Testament, it is more strengthening and then there is comfort and encouragement as well, which

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I think a lot of people turn to when they're dealing with sorrows or sadness or loss or anything like that, they turn to those verses, so I've noticed in the scriptures that I've read throughout encouragement that I think this one in particular is more of a warning, but then also that we warning you that because it says as the day draws near, meaning

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Christ's return, that it's important that we, I think it's vital to our spiritual life that we be together for worship, and which

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I know during quarantine we weren't able to do that, but I think we can all attest that we needed that, needed that big time, and so we missed each other, and so I think that's a big part, but then,

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I mean, people find other things in their life of reasons why they can't go to church, whether that's work or family or I don't know, once you form that habit of not going on Sunday mornings, then it sits, but we need each other, we need to be with each other, we need to be encouraging each other, we need to be together, and I think

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I saw that more during quarantine than anything. Well, you know, once you separate from your church family or your family, you have a tendency of straying, and you can also have a tendency of starting to believe lies, because I know

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I had a problem with believing myself and not believing my fellow sisters in Christ.

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In other words, I would get something in my head on how I felt about my own self that wasn't true, and I had several women at church going, no.

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My mom calls those brain bullies. It's when your brain tells you...

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That's a good one. I think either she or I can't remember, but I told her that I was confiding in her one time that I was struggling with insecurities, and she was like, yeah, brain bullies suck, but when your brain is telling you one thing, just how important it is to combat it with truth, and that's why scripture is so important in each other, because I needed her in that moment to tell me in my insecurities to tell me well, you know, that's not true, that's your brain bully's problem right now.

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Right. Well, I know that it's also not only just within yourself, but it will feed off onto your family at home.

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Right. And it can be very negative for somebody in your house that needs positivity.

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Right. So they don't need you to get into the slump or to the negativity of your own brain, because then it can actually have an effect on your children, or your spouse.

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That's such a good point. I even think about, like, we encourage each other in the church body, but sometimes you're the only witness in someone else's life that maybe doesn't attend church, so then, in a sense, you're also encouraging that person to do what is right, but it's not a regular, that's a good point.

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That's a really good point. So, you know, it's when you, it's kind of like we talked about, and I don't remember where it was we were talking about.

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What was it? I don't know what you're talking about. You have to remember, Mercedes, that time!

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Where were we? Walk the walk, if you're going to walk the walk, you have to talk the talk. Or if you're talking the talk, you have to walk the walk.

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Yeah, if you're talking all this stuff about being a Christian, and being, following the

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Lord, and all that stuff, you have to be, you have to have the walk, also. You can't

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Absolutely. You can't just use, you can't just say the scriptures, and use the words, Exactly.

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You know, push from the daily Bible verse and stuff. Right, oh my gosh. Showing your actions as well.

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You just hit the nail on the head. How many people do you see, this is off a little bit, but forgive me.

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It happens a lot. How many people do you see posting little scriptures and stuff, when you're going?

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Yeah. Who's did you share, I want to ask some of those people.

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Who's did you share that from? Yeah, four of the ones completely take all of the scripture out of context.

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Yes. Honey, that's a whole nother, That's a whole nother ball of water. That's people's ignorance showing, which some of it is just, it needs maturity in there.

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I think the friend one time, that they, they, another friend of theirs would share the daily

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Bible verse all the time, just kind of as an encouragement. And, so that friend encouraged the other friend, what does that mean?

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Why don't you dig a little deeper into it? I see that you're being encouraged by scripture each day, and you're trying to share that with other people, but why don't we dive into that a little bit more?

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Let's actually figure out the bulk of scripture and what that means. So, which then encouraged them to study doctrine a little bit more.

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Hebrews 3, Hebrews 3, 12 and 13, watch out brothers, so that there won't be in any of you, wow, watch out brothers, so that there won't be in any of you an evil, see that was really hard to say, unbelieving heart that departs from the living

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God, but encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin's deception.

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Right. Actually 14 too, so, for we have become companions of the

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Messiah, if we hold firmly until the end, the reality that we have at the start. Okay, and 14.

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That was really hard to read. I see that. I told Josiah at the time that you can tell that scripture was not an edited book, if you will, they're letters, because I told

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Josiah, I was like, Paul just has these long run on sentences, he's just going on and on and on, and we can barely put a note.

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I just wanted to put a period. I need to put commas and stuff, you can just tell that it's a pure letter, like it's somebody's words, it's not somebody came in and fixed it up.

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Well, it's like Rachel, you said in verse 25, 10 -25, but encourage and warn each other, especially now, that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.

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Which, they wrote that then, so you can know.

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They were then, for sure. And he was warning them, you know, and scripture does say you don't know the time or place, so it is important to take that seriously every day.

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Yeah, Scott and I were on the conversation the other day of repenting, we just got on the subject of repentance, and I looked at him,

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I said, I don't know how often you repent, I said, but I find myself doing it quite often. You have to.

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Throughout the day. And I told him, I said, if I have a bad thought, or if I have, I'll be like,

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I am so sorry, Lord. You know, take that from me, don't allow me to go back there.

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You know, what's funny is you notice that stuff now. Yeah. You know, but before salvation, you didn't like my little sister, she just got saved.

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And we were talking that night that she got back from the Easter treat and said,

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I've already caught myself slipping up. But you recognize it now. Yeah. That's what's so cool.

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And it's so important to teach them, because I know when I was like a baby Christian, as soon as I got saved,

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I was like, oh, this is such a good feeling, this is so exciting, but then you do screw up. And so then, it kind of beats you down, like,

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I'm not good at this Christian thing, and stuff like that. So it's so important to teach them what grace actually is.

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And know that they'll be hard. Yes, exactly. Like you said, you notice it more then, so it's even worse than it's like, you realize how totally raped you are and where you need to grow and stuff.

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So it's beautiful to be able to see that. It shows you that there actually is regeneration in your heart.

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That's awesome that she would say that. That's kind of in your mind, you're just like, yes. Conviction is good.

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Yay! Conviction is good. Yeah, and then sometimes it doesn't feel very good.

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And then finally understanding scripture too, is something else. That's a big deal. So she gets it.

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Especially the harder parts of scripture, it's like, okay, this makes sense now, like, I didn't understand that before.

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She pulled one from Matthew about the light on the hill and explained what she thought it meant, and I went, whoa.

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That's a big deal. Well, good. Sorry, super sidebar.

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That's a good sidebar. Are y 'all still there? Do y 'all have more non -Ephesians?

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Yes. My other verse was Ephesians. Some people can't really hear us, wait a minute. Is it me?

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Oh, talk louder! Okay, y 'all let us know if you think it's us.

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It's because we forget that it's there. So we're talking to each other?

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Because we're just sitting here chatting. I'm sorry, guys. Andrew will be able to boost it up.

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Maybe Andrew will be able to boost it up when we put it on YouTube so you will be able to hear the parts that you couldn't hear before.

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Jennifer, don't send a crying face. Tara said,

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I can't really hear y 'all and Jennifer said, me either crying face. It's okay, it's okay.

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Alright, let's move on to Ephesians 429. Ephesians 429.

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What's that? It's like the Verizon commercial.

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Can you hear me now? Jennifer said, she said, I hooked you up to my TV and turned it up to a hundred and still can't hear you.

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Uh oh. Like no sound at all or do we just sound like we're mumbling? I don't know, we'll see. We'll see.

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Oh, there I go. Looking under my glasses again. Why have them on if we're going to do it like that?

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429. We will get

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Drew Bob on it. I'm really sorry because this is actually really fun.

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It's a really good study. Ephesians 429.

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Correct? Yes. No foul language. It's just to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need so that it gives grace to those who hear.

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My translation it says, let no unwholesome talk so foul language, just same thing.

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I like this just because I'll share a personal thing that I've just gone through becoming a minister's wife or a pastor's wife is

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I've had to work on gossip, but not in the sense of gossip of, oh, did you see what she worked on of gossip, but like somebody asked me an opinion about a guy in our church one time and it was like, what do you think about them serving in this ministry for this reason?

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And I immediately, this person had kind of a reputation of not following through on things so I immediately was like, oh, no, don't, you know, don't choose them.

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They don't follow through on stuff like I don't want them flaking on you. Blah, blah, blah. But then

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I was able to name strengths as well and I was like, but they're also a really hard worker and stuff like that.

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Well, the whole time I was talking, this person goes, okay, well, that's not gossiping. And I was like, okay, if you say it's not gossiping, more than likely

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I was gossiping. So I told, I felt convicted by that and so I told

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Josiah that night, I was like, I should have just focused on that person's strength, like that person did not need to know that that person tend to have,

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I don't think that they needed to know that they tend to have kind of a flaky personality, like they don't follow through on things.

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And so I could have just named their strengths and that person could have focused on that alone because, I mean, if we, if somebody asked about any, like the three of us, do you think that they could serve on ministry, if they immediately focused on our flaws and stuff, well then none of us would be qualified for ministry.

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And so I would rather someone find my strengths and say, yes, here's their strength for them, why

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I think they would do well on that, focus on that and run with that. So, just like that kind of stuff,

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I felt like with that verse that when we're speaking to each other or like away from each other, that it should be like it says for edification and stuff, it should be good stuff.

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Or even when we're correcting each other, it should, your words should be gentle, like you don't have to be like, oh, you're so stupid, like don't do that and stuff like that.

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So, well, but when somebody comes to you and asks for your opinion, I do agree that you need to focus more on the strengths, but now if they're like a completely ungodly person, like, or then

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I would be like, I don't really think they're in a place right now, maybe you should talk to them about that, where they could serve in the ministry, but this particular person,

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I could have gone without saying that. There was no reason for me to say that. They, it would have been fine.

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Their strengths would have outweighed their weaknesses, and so they would have been useful in that.

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But know, too, that you're a warm one towards, okay, if it's, if it's, for example, you have a young lady come up to you and say,

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I was thinking about going out with so -and -so Saturday night because he asked me to go to McDonald's or whatever.

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And if you know the history of this young man, I feel like it is your place to be honest.

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Right. Um, because when you know some negatives about somebody,

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I'm not saying you need to thrive on the negative parts of the person. Or let that be what defines them.

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Right. Right, but I think that it is also your responsibility to warn someone if that is the case, also.

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Like, if somebody would have warned me that Mercedes doesn't take good notes at staff meetings. That's not funny.

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I have warned her. The first three months. I didn't take any of them.

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I know. I would be like, Mercedes, what happened at staff meeting today? Um. That's just science.

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But you have to understand staff meetings. Did you write anything down? I've been to them. Lots of them.

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I know, and I can't keep up. I try so hard. He always tells me, because I told him when he got hired on this past year,

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I was like, okay, I'm not going to be able to go to a staff meeting, so you write down any big points that I need to know.

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Like, especially pertaining to you, so we can keep you organized. Okay, I'm going to do it. And he takes a notebook and stuff.

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He doesn't ever do that. He just talks the whole time. And so, then I'll ask him what she finally just told me, and he goes,

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I don't know, ask Char. She's the one that takes the notes and sends them out. I don't know how Char does it. It's so stressful when she says,

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I gotta go to the bathroom. You take notes. And I go, Char, don't worry.

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You just have to pull out the major points. And I hear so many conversations all at once.

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I can't just focus. There are a lot going on. We sat down one night. Gwen said

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Sadie's just forwarded Char's notes. Don't give her any cheats,

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Gwen. But, you know, when we sit down to plan things for WOW, I'm sitting there.

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As a matter of fact, we had a WOW lunch not long ago, me and Mercedes and the coordinators that I have in place.

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And I was like, okay, what about this date? And so, I was writing down stuff.

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Well, then I come back and it's like, well, so -and -so's that weekend. This is that weekend.

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And I'm thinking, why don't I know these things? Why didn't I have these dates written down?

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I just have a problem with Jeremiah. What is going on in the church?

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Because this one doesn't know. So now,

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Pastor gets on and does his thing on Monday nights, which I was so thankful for. And also, the staff notes that we get emailed,

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I pull out my calendar now. In your defense, there is a lot going on here in staff meeting.

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There is a lot going on in staff meeting. They're working hard in there. And there's a lot of people like, because you have

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Rebecca and Carrie over here, and then you have the pastor, and he's trying to talk over here to Andrew and Pastor Ben, and then you got

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Charquita over here, and then you got Mercedes right here, and Mercedes is talking to Josiah, which is right here.

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And you got the babies running around. And what did y 'all think about such and such? And everybody's like, oh yeah, that was great, but what did you think about?

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It's amazing. Charquita can pick it all up, too. She's like, yeah. That's a little quick talk. She's the multitasking queen.

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And then pans go flat across the room. That's the love in our church.

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It's great. It's wonderful, actually. So, how did we get on that? I don't know.

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Rabbit trailing. Right. We really went sideways. We were talking about warning.

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Even if you want to focus on their strengths, sometimes you've got to that if you need to warn against maybe a bad flaw in somebody you've got to be comfortable to say it in front of their face, too.

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It doesn't cause a lot of discomfort. I'm not a confrontational person, so there's very few things to talk about.

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You won't be talking to anybody. You want my opinion about what? Mm -mm. Should we have sweet tea or no sweet tea?

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I don't know. Ask somebody else. But that's, yeah, that's very minute to some things that you can be asked, your opinion about.

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You know, and I had a big, big, big problem. I mean, I'm a woman and I work for the government.

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You want to talk about gossip? I think working in an office with a hundred women.

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Yes. I did that for 17 years.

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So, women just naturally do that to us. We're so opinionated and we're so, we do tend to be more passive aggressive than men.

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Whereas men are like, come on, let's fight about it. Women are like, I'm just going to say what I need to say and be done with it.

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And be done with it. Yes. I did have to give somebody that same piece of advice on a mission trip one time though.

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Because we were, somebody was, it was one of our first Bahamas mission trips.

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So, I'm pretty sure the girl I was talking to doesn't even go to church anymore. But it was the newbie group and we were butting heads and like we had just reached that like end of the week where you just kind of, tension starts getting high and stuff.

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And this girl could not let this go. She was like, I just cannot believe that so and so would say that, then do this.

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And like she could not let it go. Like her face was turning red and she was just like, it completely defined what she thought of that person.

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And so, I told her, I was like, you can find, cause she was like, that person's not safe, they don't need to be on this trip.

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And I was like, you need to stop it right there. I was like, you can find, like there's a reason that person's on this trip.

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You can find one good thing about them that they've done good this week and focus in on that.

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Right. And so, and she did. She was able to once she got out of her feelings. And so, but that, but I mean,

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I use that for myself too. Even when I get, cause we get annoyed with each other. We're a church family. Like that, we do that.

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Just like you would with your, any other family member. Right. And so, but you can always find a strength instead of focusing on their weaknesses that you feel like that you take so personally.

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You feel like they've wronged you. So I think when you focus more on those strengths and there is, that does keep that unity.

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So within the church body. And that encouragement when you do need to talk to them about something that they need to work on.

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That was a bit. It was. That was good. It's funny, I told you, I was like, I'm not going to talk very long.

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She said she's not a chatty Kathy. She's not a chatty Kathy. Before we started this, I think we're about finished anyway.

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But before we started, Rachel was saying, well, you know, I don't talk real loud and I don't talk a lot.

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I guess. I guess now that I'm at home with my kid, I get out and I'm like, let me talk to you about everything.

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Whereas before, I wouldn't have been like that. I guess when I worked in Sonic, I talked to people all day. And so then when

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I would go home, I'd be like, please don't talk to me. You're like, I don't want to. I don't want to be around people. That's how I was as a massage therapist.

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I'm like, just stop talking to her. I just don't want to talk to a toddler. But I guess now that I have a toddler, we're playing charades all day.

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She wants. Now I'm like, hey, we can hold adult conversations. Yes. I'm not guessing what you're trying to say right now.

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No, well, we can play charades if you want. Oh, please. Oh my gosh. Are you thirsty? It looks like you're thirsty.

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Oh, I got it right. My daughter would just be like. That's her means of communication.

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Well, you know what Wesley used to say. Use your words. I tell her that now because she's not using her words completely, but I can get her little baby language.

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But when she gets really tired or she's just frustrated with me, she just starts. Yeah, you can't entertain it.

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If you entertain it, then it's going to continue. It'll be her language for the rest of her life. Right. Well, thanks, you guys.

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I hope you have enjoyed. By the way, a pastor,

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I believe, is popping up as Wynton Baptist. Okay, because you know he does that. He says

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Sadie's is taking notes from Noah. Oh, no, she's not. No, she's not.

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And Miss Boyan's on your side. She said horrible idea. Thank you, Miss Boyan. She knows your strengths anyway.

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And then Jennifer says, I'm the only one using my outside voice. Oh, well, that's true too,

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Gwen. She said Josiah doesn't leave many words for her. He uses them all up. Well, I hope you all enjoyed tonight.

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I have enjoyed tonight. Thank you guys for inviting me. I hope that you will schedule.

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She's already talking about scheduling to do another one, so it'll be fun. I really hope that you got something from the scripture that we used.

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I hope that if you hadn't looked at that verse in the way that we discussed it tonight,

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I hope that it has given you a vision of how to apply it to your life.

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And I hope that in some way or another, it will help you or benefit you in some way in the future.

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So, I want to thank you all for joining us tonight, and I hope everybody has a great evening.

34:51

you again, Rachel. Absolutely. And this has been a wow moment.